Disclaimers and warnings in chapter one, though this chapter does have violence.
Dedicated to Chaser, cause she deserves it more than anyone. ^___^
**
"What used to be hope is now one more reason to fear."
-Ashengrace, from "Murrain"
**
Ron nervously fiddled with the chain linking his wallet to his belt loop. He played his fingers over every link, listening to the gentle clink of metal on metal. He still wasn't sure that this plan would work; it was based largely on assumption. Of course, the few times he'd ever dealt with Death Eaters they had proven themselves remarkably stupid, but he didn't want to take any chances.
A warm hand on his brought him from his thoughts, and his stomach lurched a bit at the contact. Draco eased the chain from Ron's fingers, and shook his head. "You worry too much, Weasley."
Ron arched an eyebrow. "Is that a bad thing? I thought I was here to keep you on your toes, Malfoy." Draco gave a half-smile but said nothing. He let go of Ron's chain, and it fell against his leg with a dull jingle. Ron had to resist the urge to take it into his hands again. The cool metal helped to sooth his nerves.
"Hey, let me see your wand," Draco said suddenly.
Ron raised an eyebrow. "Why should I let you do that?"
"Oh, honestly. First, you have to work with me, so you may as well trust me. And all I want to do is temporarily link our wands so that we'll be able to find each other if we get separated in there." He held out his hand expectantly.
Ron sighed and handed over his wand. "I don't trust you yet, Malfoy," he said as he pulled his jacket closer around him. The wind had picked up.
"Good!" Draco said happily, with a small smirk. He whispered a spell that Ron couldn't quite make out, then handed the wand back to its owner. "Just say my first name, and it will lead you right to me." Ron took it gingerly, half afraid that it would blow up as soon as he touched it. Draco just rolled his eyes. "If I was going to kill you, I'd at least wait until you had outrun your usefulness, Weasley," he drawled.
Ron pocketed his wand and pointedly ignored the last remark. "Where on Earth has that kid gone off to?" he asked, impatiently scanning the street for Colin. Draco shrugged, looking bored. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and kicked at a crumpled up bit of paper with the toe of his shoe. Ron watched him from the corner of his eye, trying not to seem obvious. He was about to ask Draco if they should go searching for Colin when the boy showed up.
He still looked very oddly beautiful. Somehow, none of his masculinity showed in his fair features. Ron figured it was just his age, though he knew he'd never be able to pull of an outfit like that, and he was only a year older. He heard Draco muffle a snicker. "What?" he asked, turning to the blonde.
"Nothing. It just looks for all the world like you are giving Colin here the up and down. If you take my meaning." Ron felt his cheeks flush. He couldn't think up a good comeback, however, so he remained silent.
Colin rolled his eyes at Draco and grabbed Ron's arm. "Hush! And, come on, we'd better hurry! We don't want anything to go wrong, do we?"
Ron shook his head and started leading Colin towards Barty's. The man at the door looked the two of them over severely.
"'Ow old are ye?" he asked, jutting his chin out at them.
Ron tried to smile disarmingly. "We're both 19, just out for a bit of harmless fun." Next to him Colin giggled. The man narrowed his eyes at them, but finally waved them through the plain oak door. A scantily clad woman stood behind a tall counter. She winked at Ron, who blushed lightly.
"Just tha two o' ya, then luv?" She asked silkily, and Ron just nodded and handed her some Muggle bills that Draco had given him. She laughed when she took the money. "To scared te even count et out fer me, eh?" She handed most of it back to him, and waved him towards the hallway. "Take aneh room yeh'd like, luvs. Weh've got lot's of space tonight, and all tha rooms are open!"
Ron muttered a thank you and grabbed Colin's arm, pointing him down the hallway. Colin was shaking with quiet laughter, and Ron just shook his head. "What's so funny?"
"You were blushing at her!" Colin kept on laughing. Ron just rolled his eyes. He paused to pull his wand out of his pocket, and whispered Draco's name softly. "What is that for?" Colin asked, looking with astonishment at the glowing end of Ron's wand.
"It's so that we can find Malfoy," Ron replied, letting his arm go mostly slack so that he wouldn't interfere with the spell. "He was going to try to apparate in, but I'm not sure if he did or not."
"Wow!" Colin said excitedly. "I didn't know you could do that with wands, that's so cool and stuff! Gosh!"
Ron laughed gently. "Me neither. I guess you learn strange spells when you're the son of a Death Eater, though." He shrugged and led them down another hallway.
"Hey, speaking of which," Colin said, "Do you know why he's doing this? I've talked to Neville about him before, so I trust him, but I want to know what happened between him and his father, because something horrible must have happened for him to be so against the Death Eaters now, especially when they're getting as powerful as-" He broke off when he bumped into Ron. "Why did you stop?" he asked.
Ron was thinking about what Colin had just said. ~Those are definitely questions worth asking.~ He glanced at Colin. "Sorry, I was just thinking." He bit his lip and started walking again. About halfway down the hall he came to a stop outside a doorway. "Here's hoping it's not occupied," he said with a small chuckle. He rapped heavily on the door, and after hearing nothing, he opened the door and poked his head in. When he saw for sure that it was empty, he followed his wand towards the window at the far side of the room. Pushing aside the curtain, he found a rather flustered looking Draco.
"What's got your knickers in a twist, Malfoy?" he whispered after pushing the window open. Draco looked over at him, and blinked, his face almost instantly resolving itself to the normal unperturbed look.
"There's an anti-apparating spell around the building." He gave a tiny sigh, and climbed through the window. On the way in, his pants leg caught on a nail, and he fell into an unceremonious heap on the floor.
"This is hardly appropriate behavior for the self-proclaimed savior of everything, you know," Ron said, and then helped Draco to his feet.
Draco brushed himself off and nodded at Ron. "Yes, well. I don't believe this was actually in the original job description." He picked his way towards the door, glancing disdainfully at a gaudy painting on the wall. It was a profile of sorts, but the colors where bright turquoise and violent pinks. "Who decorated this place, anyway? I feel like I'm in a really cheap hotel."
"You basically are." Ron laughed softly. "It's not like the people who come here do it for the décor, after all."
Draco snickered and walked out the door, nearly running face first into Colin. "Creevey! Watch out." He shook his head and glanced down the hallway, muttering something about always going up.
Ron and Colin shrugged at each other, and then followed Draco as he slowly walked toward the end of the hallway. They found themselves at a very dark and dingy old stairway that didn't look like it had been stepped into in years. Ron raised an uncertain eyebrow at Draco, who merely shrugged and started upwards.
The stairs creaked a little beneath their feet and the air suddenly smelled stale, as if they had just entered an ancient cellar and not just an unused stairwell. The three of them measured their steps carefully, and not even Colin made a sound. When they reached the second floor landing, Draco motioned them to stop and pressed his ear against the door. Ron thought he looked rather silly like that, but kept the amusement off of his face, watching intently. After a moment, the blonde nodded and they moved silently into a hallway identical to the one they had just left.
"Let's spread out and try the doors," Draco said softly, and he began to walk along one row of doors, checking each one. Ron took the opposite side of the hall, and Colin trailed along behind him. Every door they tried was locked. As they neared the end of the hallway, Ron began to feel a slight tension in the air, as if the temperature had changed a few degrees and the oxygen had become electrically charged. He looked at Draco curiously, wondering if he was the only one who could feel it. Draco was staring back at him, his head slightly cocked as if he were listening for something.
"What is it?" Ron whispered, walking up to Draco.
"It's dark magic, Weasley," was the soft reply. Together they peeked around the corner and down another hallway. "Be careful," Draco mouthed, and they started down it slowly.
Three doors down, Ron tried a handle and it gave under his hand, the heavy door swinging inwards. He motioned for Draco and Colin to join him, pulled out his wand, and quietly entered. The room was brightly lit, with a crackling fire in the hearth. Ron had never seen a hotel room with a fireplace before, but, after glancing around quickly, he realized that they had entered the front room of a large suite. A desk sat against the far wall, with a high backed chair behind it. It was otherwise quite sparsely decorated, with only a couch before the hearth.
Ron hurried over to the desk and glanced down at the papers. It was littered with scrawled-upon scraps and maps of what looked like Greece. He recognized some of the handwriting as that of Lucius Malfoy, based on the note he'd found earlier in the day. With a suppressed shudder, he motioned Colin to take pictures of the papers on the desk. He sat down in the large chair and picked one up, deciphering the barely legible scrawl.
"Pandora's Box," he read aloud softly. He was about to continue when voices began to echo down the hallway, quickly growing louder. Draco was at Ron's side instantly, and had hold of Colin's arm.
"We have to hide *now!*" he said, pulling at Ron's shirt. They ran towards the closet, hoping to jump inside, but before they made it, two Death Eaters walked into the room. They registered the intruders' presence and had their wands out instantly, pointing them directly at Ron. Before he could react, he felt Draco shove him aside and run past dragging Colin and yelling curses. Both men fell, one merely stunned. Draco bounded past them towards the fire.
"Come on!" he shouted at Ron, who jumped to his feet and ran towards the other two. He watched Draco throw floo powder into the fire and say "Afirtum," pulling a very confused Colin after him. He threw the powder down for Ron, who was nearly there when he was tackled from behind. The force of the assault knocked both Ron and his attacker down, and Ron noticed that something flew past him from the Death Eater and landed above his head.
The man's arms were wrapped around Ron's legs tightly, and with a yell, he pulled one leg free and kicked his attacker in the head hard. He yanked his other leg free and hurried towards the fire on his hands and knees. The Death Eater grabbed at Ron's feet and started to pull him backwards. Ron grasped desperately at the carpet and his hand suddenly encountered what the man had dropped: his gun. With a strangled cry, he turned, aimed the gun towards the other man, and pulled the trigger.
The recoil almost knocked him onto his back. The Death Eater's chest was wet with blood, and he sputtered a moment before falling onto his side, his lifeless eyes trained onto Ron's. His blood had spattered all over Ron's clothes and he could feel it, cold, against his skin. With a gasp he shook himself free of the dead man's grasp, picked up the floo powder, and with a final glance backwards at the three bodies, he followed Draco.
(A/N I feel it is necessary to assure you all that I will be updating this story with much more regularity from here on out. That's a promise. ^^)
Dedicated to Chaser, cause she deserves it more than anyone. ^___^
**
"What used to be hope is now one more reason to fear."
-Ashengrace, from "Murrain"
**
Ron nervously fiddled with the chain linking his wallet to his belt loop. He played his fingers over every link, listening to the gentle clink of metal on metal. He still wasn't sure that this plan would work; it was based largely on assumption. Of course, the few times he'd ever dealt with Death Eaters they had proven themselves remarkably stupid, but he didn't want to take any chances.
A warm hand on his brought him from his thoughts, and his stomach lurched a bit at the contact. Draco eased the chain from Ron's fingers, and shook his head. "You worry too much, Weasley."
Ron arched an eyebrow. "Is that a bad thing? I thought I was here to keep you on your toes, Malfoy." Draco gave a half-smile but said nothing. He let go of Ron's chain, and it fell against his leg with a dull jingle. Ron had to resist the urge to take it into his hands again. The cool metal helped to sooth his nerves.
"Hey, let me see your wand," Draco said suddenly.
Ron raised an eyebrow. "Why should I let you do that?"
"Oh, honestly. First, you have to work with me, so you may as well trust me. And all I want to do is temporarily link our wands so that we'll be able to find each other if we get separated in there." He held out his hand expectantly.
Ron sighed and handed over his wand. "I don't trust you yet, Malfoy," he said as he pulled his jacket closer around him. The wind had picked up.
"Good!" Draco said happily, with a small smirk. He whispered a spell that Ron couldn't quite make out, then handed the wand back to its owner. "Just say my first name, and it will lead you right to me." Ron took it gingerly, half afraid that it would blow up as soon as he touched it. Draco just rolled his eyes. "If I was going to kill you, I'd at least wait until you had outrun your usefulness, Weasley," he drawled.
Ron pocketed his wand and pointedly ignored the last remark. "Where on Earth has that kid gone off to?" he asked, impatiently scanning the street for Colin. Draco shrugged, looking bored. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and kicked at a crumpled up bit of paper with the toe of his shoe. Ron watched him from the corner of his eye, trying not to seem obvious. He was about to ask Draco if they should go searching for Colin when the boy showed up.
He still looked very oddly beautiful. Somehow, none of his masculinity showed in his fair features. Ron figured it was just his age, though he knew he'd never be able to pull of an outfit like that, and he was only a year older. He heard Draco muffle a snicker. "What?" he asked, turning to the blonde.
"Nothing. It just looks for all the world like you are giving Colin here the up and down. If you take my meaning." Ron felt his cheeks flush. He couldn't think up a good comeback, however, so he remained silent.
Colin rolled his eyes at Draco and grabbed Ron's arm. "Hush! And, come on, we'd better hurry! We don't want anything to go wrong, do we?"
Ron shook his head and started leading Colin towards Barty's. The man at the door looked the two of them over severely.
"'Ow old are ye?" he asked, jutting his chin out at them.
Ron tried to smile disarmingly. "We're both 19, just out for a bit of harmless fun." Next to him Colin giggled. The man narrowed his eyes at them, but finally waved them through the plain oak door. A scantily clad woman stood behind a tall counter. She winked at Ron, who blushed lightly.
"Just tha two o' ya, then luv?" She asked silkily, and Ron just nodded and handed her some Muggle bills that Draco had given him. She laughed when she took the money. "To scared te even count et out fer me, eh?" She handed most of it back to him, and waved him towards the hallway. "Take aneh room yeh'd like, luvs. Weh've got lot's of space tonight, and all tha rooms are open!"
Ron muttered a thank you and grabbed Colin's arm, pointing him down the hallway. Colin was shaking with quiet laughter, and Ron just shook his head. "What's so funny?"
"You were blushing at her!" Colin kept on laughing. Ron just rolled his eyes. He paused to pull his wand out of his pocket, and whispered Draco's name softly. "What is that for?" Colin asked, looking with astonishment at the glowing end of Ron's wand.
"It's so that we can find Malfoy," Ron replied, letting his arm go mostly slack so that he wouldn't interfere with the spell. "He was going to try to apparate in, but I'm not sure if he did or not."
"Wow!" Colin said excitedly. "I didn't know you could do that with wands, that's so cool and stuff! Gosh!"
Ron laughed gently. "Me neither. I guess you learn strange spells when you're the son of a Death Eater, though." He shrugged and led them down another hallway.
"Hey, speaking of which," Colin said, "Do you know why he's doing this? I've talked to Neville about him before, so I trust him, but I want to know what happened between him and his father, because something horrible must have happened for him to be so against the Death Eaters now, especially when they're getting as powerful as-" He broke off when he bumped into Ron. "Why did you stop?" he asked.
Ron was thinking about what Colin had just said. ~Those are definitely questions worth asking.~ He glanced at Colin. "Sorry, I was just thinking." He bit his lip and started walking again. About halfway down the hall he came to a stop outside a doorway. "Here's hoping it's not occupied," he said with a small chuckle. He rapped heavily on the door, and after hearing nothing, he opened the door and poked his head in. When he saw for sure that it was empty, he followed his wand towards the window at the far side of the room. Pushing aside the curtain, he found a rather flustered looking Draco.
"What's got your knickers in a twist, Malfoy?" he whispered after pushing the window open. Draco looked over at him, and blinked, his face almost instantly resolving itself to the normal unperturbed look.
"There's an anti-apparating spell around the building." He gave a tiny sigh, and climbed through the window. On the way in, his pants leg caught on a nail, and he fell into an unceremonious heap on the floor.
"This is hardly appropriate behavior for the self-proclaimed savior of everything, you know," Ron said, and then helped Draco to his feet.
Draco brushed himself off and nodded at Ron. "Yes, well. I don't believe this was actually in the original job description." He picked his way towards the door, glancing disdainfully at a gaudy painting on the wall. It was a profile of sorts, but the colors where bright turquoise and violent pinks. "Who decorated this place, anyway? I feel like I'm in a really cheap hotel."
"You basically are." Ron laughed softly. "It's not like the people who come here do it for the décor, after all."
Draco snickered and walked out the door, nearly running face first into Colin. "Creevey! Watch out." He shook his head and glanced down the hallway, muttering something about always going up.
Ron and Colin shrugged at each other, and then followed Draco as he slowly walked toward the end of the hallway. They found themselves at a very dark and dingy old stairway that didn't look like it had been stepped into in years. Ron raised an uncertain eyebrow at Draco, who merely shrugged and started upwards.
The stairs creaked a little beneath their feet and the air suddenly smelled stale, as if they had just entered an ancient cellar and not just an unused stairwell. The three of them measured their steps carefully, and not even Colin made a sound. When they reached the second floor landing, Draco motioned them to stop and pressed his ear against the door. Ron thought he looked rather silly like that, but kept the amusement off of his face, watching intently. After a moment, the blonde nodded and they moved silently into a hallway identical to the one they had just left.
"Let's spread out and try the doors," Draco said softly, and he began to walk along one row of doors, checking each one. Ron took the opposite side of the hall, and Colin trailed along behind him. Every door they tried was locked. As they neared the end of the hallway, Ron began to feel a slight tension in the air, as if the temperature had changed a few degrees and the oxygen had become electrically charged. He looked at Draco curiously, wondering if he was the only one who could feel it. Draco was staring back at him, his head slightly cocked as if he were listening for something.
"What is it?" Ron whispered, walking up to Draco.
"It's dark magic, Weasley," was the soft reply. Together they peeked around the corner and down another hallway. "Be careful," Draco mouthed, and they started down it slowly.
Three doors down, Ron tried a handle and it gave under his hand, the heavy door swinging inwards. He motioned for Draco and Colin to join him, pulled out his wand, and quietly entered. The room was brightly lit, with a crackling fire in the hearth. Ron had never seen a hotel room with a fireplace before, but, after glancing around quickly, he realized that they had entered the front room of a large suite. A desk sat against the far wall, with a high backed chair behind it. It was otherwise quite sparsely decorated, with only a couch before the hearth.
Ron hurried over to the desk and glanced down at the papers. It was littered with scrawled-upon scraps and maps of what looked like Greece. He recognized some of the handwriting as that of Lucius Malfoy, based on the note he'd found earlier in the day. With a suppressed shudder, he motioned Colin to take pictures of the papers on the desk. He sat down in the large chair and picked one up, deciphering the barely legible scrawl.
"Pandora's Box," he read aloud softly. He was about to continue when voices began to echo down the hallway, quickly growing louder. Draco was at Ron's side instantly, and had hold of Colin's arm.
"We have to hide *now!*" he said, pulling at Ron's shirt. They ran towards the closet, hoping to jump inside, but before they made it, two Death Eaters walked into the room. They registered the intruders' presence and had their wands out instantly, pointing them directly at Ron. Before he could react, he felt Draco shove him aside and run past dragging Colin and yelling curses. Both men fell, one merely stunned. Draco bounded past them towards the fire.
"Come on!" he shouted at Ron, who jumped to his feet and ran towards the other two. He watched Draco throw floo powder into the fire and say "Afirtum," pulling a very confused Colin after him. He threw the powder down for Ron, who was nearly there when he was tackled from behind. The force of the assault knocked both Ron and his attacker down, and Ron noticed that something flew past him from the Death Eater and landed above his head.
The man's arms were wrapped around Ron's legs tightly, and with a yell, he pulled one leg free and kicked his attacker in the head hard. He yanked his other leg free and hurried towards the fire on his hands and knees. The Death Eater grabbed at Ron's feet and started to pull him backwards. Ron grasped desperately at the carpet and his hand suddenly encountered what the man had dropped: his gun. With a strangled cry, he turned, aimed the gun towards the other man, and pulled the trigger.
The recoil almost knocked him onto his back. The Death Eater's chest was wet with blood, and he sputtered a moment before falling onto his side, his lifeless eyes trained onto Ron's. His blood had spattered all over Ron's clothes and he could feel it, cold, against his skin. With a gasp he shook himself free of the dead man's grasp, picked up the floo powder, and with a final glance backwards at the three bodies, he followed Draco.
(A/N I feel it is necessary to assure you all that I will be updating this story with much more regularity from here on out. That's a promise. ^^)