It took them just under twenty agonising minutes to gather what forces they could. Bill Weasley, Fleur Delacour, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Aberforth Dumbledore, Minerva McGonagall, one of the Weasley twins, another red head who greeted the Weasleys with such warmth Draco assumed he was a brother, Luna, Granger, Ginny Weasley, and Draco. There weren't nearly enough people. Draco felt sick.
Professor McGonagall studied him with narrowed eyes but said nothing and Draco felt shame tinge his face in hot patches. He felt like a sore thumb, he sidled closer to the wall in an attempt to be less seen but everyone was huddling, greeting each other, and quickly being debriefed.
Draco was following Granger's directions with his eyes planted firmly on his feet, physically outside of the group of people so her voice was kind of muffled by the bodies that formed that barrier.
"Malfoy-" Draco looked up at the sound of his name, "gave up some insight into how the grounds works. This is the layout, we're going to find Voldy over here, if we don't, we spread out and find him." Granger was pointing her wand onto a map on the table. No one had turned to look at him, but he felt a pair of eyes on him and he looked, finding Luna's mirror eyes unblinking in the dark. Her eyes flicked away so quickly, Draco thought he imagined her stare.
"We stick in groups to have each other's backs," Granger continued, Draco held his breath, "Luna, Ginny, and I will form Team A, we've fought together the most. Any arguments?" No one said anything, Draco felt relief wash through him knowing Luna had them as her shields and disappointment crept up because he was left without her. "Bill, Fleur, Aberforth, Team B, you'll work this way through the Manor." The named persons all nodded, their eyes trained on Granger's wand tip that lit a path on the paper like a golden road. "Kingsley, Professor, Charlie, George, Team C will go this way-"
"What about me?" Draco blurted. Granger's eyes whipped up quickly and slowly, bodies shifted to look for him in the darkened corner. His skin felt itchy and like it didn't fit him, he immediately regretted saying anything.
"He'll be with me, of course." Luna said in her 'wasn't it obvious?' sing songy timbre. Draco almost sank back into the wall from relief, his knees wobbled. Granger looked at Luna and narrowed her eyes, looked about to say something but didn't, instead she cleared her throat and continued.
"Team C will go this way, and when we've all cleared our respective sectors, we meet back here." A brighter golden bead hovered above the surface and from it laced the planned out routes from the starting point. It was a complicated web that was pinched at one end but tangled in the middle.
"How are we getting to the Manor?" Professor McGonagall asked in her pinched tone that sounded perpetually ready to scold.
"I've created a portkey for the field nearby, we need to wear disillusionment charms so we aren't seen. Malfoy gets us through the gates, there will be patrol but from what we understand, they're comfortable, and they should be even more so after their rather successful ambush tonight."
Draco was nodding along, ten more minutes had passed since everyone had arrived and his stomach had turned into a solid knot, he couldn't think past it very clearly because their inertia was building inside him. They should have acted by now, but debriefing was important, so he held his stomach and resumed staring at his feet, ignoring this time the eyes on him that he was sure was Luna.
"Potion rations, use sparingly and only as you need." Gentle clinking sounds of bottles in pouches made Draco glance up to see bags being passed out. Luna pressed one into his hand and she disappeared before he could say thank you. "They include a revamped Wiggenweld, blood infusion, and pain relievers…I'm sorry there isn't more but their ambush ruined most of our stock."
Draco felt guilty for holding one, but he tied it to his belt and cast a binding spell to ensure its security. His feet had begun to tingle from restlessness. Thirty five minutes passed, they needed to go.
"Wear these. It was the best we could do on short notice. The anti-curse clothing was unable to be retrieved from Safehouse C." Granger patted a tall stack of folded sheets. They were passed between everyone, a train of rustling cloth that everyone unfolded, draped, then fastened with an old school pin onto their shoulders. Draco did the same, he felt silly, swishing it around to get the full coverage of it and found he would have to hold it closed to cover his front. The fabric itself made no noise as he moved and Draco praised Granger in his mind at the ingenuity of it. Short notice, she had said, but it would do.
"Everyone ready?" A chorus of 'ayes' and 'yes' echoed, Draco made a throaty sound a millisecond too late but no one cared. "Everyone understands their tasks?" Another chorus of agreement. "Kill the snake, kill Voldy." A stronger chorus and Draco could feel it in his blood, adrenaline pumping through him as the anticipation of going home, seeing his home again flowed through him and he was nauseous and sweating while his limbs tensed. "Portkey is set to go in two minutes, hands on!"
The portkey was an unused chessboard, the chess pieces were modified and used as illustrative forces. He got his finger to it, his shoulders bumping the Weasley brother he didn't remember the name of, and Kingsley Shacklebolt's bicep, he was so tall. His finger was warm, then felt like it had melded with the surface before the unfamiliar hook yanked behind his navel and the world spun. He landed on his feet and blinked into the darkness.
It would be three more hours before the sun rose. The birds were asleep in the treeline and the grass in the meadow licked wetly against his calves. He blinked again and his eyes adjusted, he could see the shadow of the peak of the Manor in the dip over the hill. They had landed just outside the secure border where the alert would trip if anyone stepped over it without disarming it.
He stepped toward the one daisy in the field that eerily stayed upright even as the blades of green lay sideways in waves of the wind. The clouds in the sky blocked out the moon and everything became a darker blue hue, the grass looked black so the daisy, with its white petals and yellow core looked like a beacon. He whispered the countercharm and a static like ripple of dim electricity dissipated outward until it was too far to see.
"We're clear." Draco stood up and crushed the daisy under his heel. A whisper of charms and Draco had the odd experience of seeing entire beings disappear from sight. Feet crunched the grass around him and Draco whispered his own charm, one he had to practice to perfect and still couldn't do wordlessly; when his feet disappeared and he wiggled his toes against the flattened grass, he trailed behind the indentations in the grass.
"Team A." Granger whispered. A red, dull light flashed once followed by two others. "Team B?" A blue light, followed by two others. "Team C." One followed by three others in yellow.
"Team A, approach." Granger's disembodied voice said and a group of three pairs of feet flattened grass. Draco followed, realising that Luna would be with them. The feet halted, but Granger dared not say a word. A sleeping mercenary was slouched against the inner wall.
Draco stepped around where he assumed the women were. He peered at the man and silently stunned him when he was satisfied he was the only one. He was right, the protection of the grounds had slipped, one guard instead of two, and not even a Death Eater. They would be celebrating. But that meant the Dark Lord was torturing someone, and if Draco didn't need to make sure Luna would be okay, he would apparate right away to find them, his parents, the Dark Lord's toys.
Draco slit his palm and watched the blood bloom in the air before he tilted it and let what he counted as ten drops before he sewed his palm up and scourgified it clean. "Clear." Draco murmured, still afraid the mercenary would hear him. A yellow, then blue light lit up once each and Draco heard their feet on the gravel as the respective teams approached. He went through and beamed a red light, hoping he was using it right and cursing himself for not asking questions or being more present at the debriefing.
The group of them approached and Draco breathed in relief. Draco saw a dark pool on the gravel beneath the stunned mercenary and his stomach lurched. He chastised himself, he was stunning instead of injuring and he needed to change that quickly. There was no room for mercy. The wand near him blinked all three colours and they walked alongside the gravel pathway on the grass until they got to the door. Draco opened the door and found no one there. He gestured them in by way of the lights and once they had gathered, the teams separated.
Draco stared at the space where the three other red lights had dimmed into non-existence, waiting for the sound of their feet and after one more flash, they were moving. Draco kept up with them, counting their paces with his so he wouldn't bump into them.
A spell knocked the wind out of him and he hit the wall sideways. His shoulder stung and his temple throbbed. He tried getting to his feet, his body was sound, but the force of the curse was so powerful it physically pushed him. He recognised Luna's fluid movements by the way the spells shot fluidly from her wand. I could pick her out from a crowd , he thought stupidly. He got to his feet finally, and his eyes focused on his aunt. She wasn't cowering like he remembered her before his mother, but she was fighting desperately; a familiar craze was in her black hole for eyes, her features stretched in a wide, toothy grin.
"I've got her!" Ginny's voice called, somewhere to the left of Draco.
"Go!" Granger's gravelly shout echoed. Draco listened to the two pairs of feet patter down the cobblestone corridor until he couldn't hear it anymore. Luna was gone. Bellatrix screamed, a feral, throaty, panicked sound and a flurry of spells bounced off the walls and off Ginny, then off Draco who was finally able to conjure a shield.
"Bella!" Draco shouted, and Bellatrix's eyes widened as they skittered to find him.
"Trait-" Bellatrix began to scream. The rest of her word was lost in an expulsion of breath from her lungs.
Ginny hit her square in the chest with a burgundy spell and she crumpled. Then another, and Draco looked down at his aunt's still surprised face before he twisted on the spot and reappeared in his room.
This wasn't the plan.
