Disclaimer: I don't intend to infringe on any copyright laws, I just want to exercise my freedom of speech.
Escape
Draco had heard about the Order of the Pheonix. They worked against the Dark Lord, a sort of secret elite that ferreted out information from the Dark Lord. The Dark Lord despised and feared them above everything else, except perhaps Dumbledore. And maybe Harry Potter. But to be a spy for them…
"You are untainted and could more useful than Professor Snape. Because Voldemort knows that he is a spy, he can not get as much information as he used to be able to. But you, backed by your father, could do very well. Of course, you must be willing to do this. I do not believe in forcing people." Draco was stunned. It was a way out, a dangerous way out, but wasn't she already in enough danger anyways? And if he did this, maybe he would have a chance with her. Maybe he would escape the fate that had been set for him.
"I don't like you," he began, not knowing where his words came from, "You've got far too much influence over people. I don't like Muggles; I think they're stupid. I don't like Mudbloods; they're diluting our purity. I don't like Hagrid; I think he's a giant oaf. I don't like Potter and his friends; I think they've been given far too much slack. But I will do this if I can have a chance with-" he stopped himself. Dumbledore's looked sincere but his eyes twinkled with a smile. "A chance at a new beginning without my father's memory dragging me down. But I don't come cheap. I want two things." Mildly surprised, Dumbledore nodded for him to continue.
"I want to be able to ensure my mother's safety if she needs to get away from home. And I want Blaise Zambini to be initiated as well."
"The former I can ensure but I am not sure about Miss Zambini."
"Well I am. She's like me, caught between duty and desire. She thinks Voldemort is a crazy, old bat. She's the only real friend I've got in Slytherin house. Besides she's very er…faithful to Potter." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.
"Then I will have a chat with her."
"Erm…Thanks."
"Well, now that I'm your spy, I have a bit of information for you." Dumbledore paused, looking at him with interest. "As you know, I am to be initiated a week after Christmas. Originally, it was intended that I be initiated the day after I graduated from Hogwarts. The day after that was to be my wedding. The initiation, I suppose, was my father's idea of a bachelor's party. In his last letter, my father wrote that Voldemort is getting restless and wants to go to battle.
"I think that more students will be initiated; not just me. I suspect Crabbe and Goyle as their fathers are members. Millicent Bulstrode has a chance, but she's not very interested in the Cause. There should be a Ravenclaw or two, but I doubt any Gryfindors and Hufflepuffs. The Dark Lord thinks their blood has been tainted too much by Muggles. He will not seek them out."
"Thank you, Draco, for this information."
"It's – I thought you ought to know."
"Would you like another lemon drop? No? Very well then. I'll contact you within the week. Be careful and do not let anyone know what you are."
"Well, g'bye then. And er… thanks." Draco left, the gargoyle springing out of place to let him through.
"I'll be careful," he thought, "if not for my sake then for hers."
Draco,
You will have received an identical letter as Blaise. You must pretend to start dating each other. You will find out why in a few days, once everything is arranged. This message will ignite as soon as you have finished reading it.
The corners of the parchment burst into flame, just as the letter said it would, and Draco had just enough time to toss it into the fire before he was burnt. What arrangement? Were Blaise and he to work together? And Blaise, this meant she must have been accepted into the Order too.
He went to find her and when he did (she was sitting in the common room, staring at the fire while around her other Slytherin Girls compared clothes from the Gladrags Catalog, Teen Witch Weekly, Malkins' Must Haves, and Accio Footwear) he gave her a peck on the cheek before squeezing in beside her and draping his arm around her. She looked surprised at first, then melted into him as if she were chocolate and he was a warm fire. Pansy's eyes narrowed.
"So you've finally started dating, have you?" Pansy snapped, glaring over her magazine. Blaise smiled and put her hand on his knee.
"Well it was only a matter of time before I gave in to this lovely creature. You were so persistent." She tapped her finger on his nose affectionately.
"You've been around each other so much this year, I would think you would have progressed much farther than affectionate taps," Pansy snarled, challenging the validity of their union. Draco had expected this.
"I don't kiss and tell." By this time, a crowd of interested Slytherins had gathered around them. It wasn't every day that two of the most sought after Slytherins decided to get together, even though there was an awful lot of swapping partners.
"You two would be kissing by now, I think, having had plenty of time to get to know each other already," Marcus Flint taunted. Draco knew he had always thought Blaise was attractive and thought that he probably only wanted to use the image of Draco and Blaise kissing to fuel his self pleasure. He was about to object to this when Blaise cut him off.
"This is not a peep house. We do not snog on command and when we do snog, you all will not be watching," She said, her voice clipped with unspoken threats.
"Harpy," Pansy muttered, turning the page of her catalog.
"Pardon?" Draco said.
"Nothing, Draco."
"I certainly hope it was nothing. We wouldn't want you to have said anything that would require me to defend my girlfriend's honor, now would we."
"No," Pansy replied, trying to sneer but only ending up wrinkling her nose and pulling up the corners of her lips in an extremely unattractive manner, "we would not."
"Draco, all this talk about snogging…" Blaise's hand traveled further up his leg. He could feel himself stirring, as was natural because he was male, but was surprised at the degree he was aroused. He had only stiffened partially, but it was gradual, unlike the almost immediate arousal he felt around Ginny. He looked at Blaise, took her hand away from his crotch, and led her to his room. Once there, the vixen Blaise melted away to reveal normal Blaise. He was relieved.
"So you got the note?" he asked sitting on the bed.
"And you?" she responded, following him.
"Yeah."
" I also got this." She withdrew a folded piece of parchment marked with the Malfoy Crest and showed him the letter.
Miss Zambini,
It has come to my attention that you are spending a great deal of time with my son. I can only hope that this relationship will bring you forward into the cause. If you are interested, save Draco the date of January 1 and ask him to bring you with him. Your brother and father will be pleased.
Lucius Malfoy
"It'll be easier for you to do this than I thought."
"So you know everything about me."
"Know? I suggested you!"
"Dumb-" Draco clapped a hand over her mouth.
"Sh…you don't know who could be listening." Blaise silenced, and he removed his hand.
"Well, he told me about you."
"What about me?"
"He told me that you joined, and asked me a couple of questions. He said we'll be leaving in a couple of days."
"Leaving for where?"
"Headquarters. We have to know who's a member."
"Do you know how he's going to get us there?"
"I don't. We'll most likely fly because setting up an illegal portkey would be too dangerous and we can't Apparate –"
"Speak for yourself."
"You can Apparate?"
"Yeah, my father taught me." Blaise ran her hand over the comforted. Silver snakes coiled around the edges with another silver snake coiled in an S around a silver and black M in the middle. "I wonder why my father doesn't use that parchment burning charm on his letters," Draco said, making weak conversation.
"He probably doesn't know about it."
"I guess not." Blaise continued to smooth the cover.
"Are you worried at all?" she asked, finally.
"About what?"
"About getting caught."
"Of course I'm worried. But think about the alternative."
"I don't really want to. I'm not doing this for me, you know."
"Neither am I." Ginny's face swum into his mind and he banished it for the moment.
"I'm not doing this for you either." She grinned.
"Oh, Blaise. You've broken my heart," he cried, placing his hand over his heart in mock hurt. She smiled.
"What are friends for?"
"Blaise, can't you wait until we get to the dungeons?"
On Dumbledore's orders, Blaise had been flirting and groping him throughout Herbology. They had been talking in whispers just loud enough for their neighbors to hear them, Blaise saying a number of lewd things to him that suggested to the world what they would do immediately after class let out. Professor Sprout didn't seem to notice. The Alihotsy shrubs they were pruning seemed ordinary, but because eating leaves made people hysterical, they were required to wear hankerchiefs over their mouths. Draco thought Pansy was on the verge of hysteria anyways and didn't need the hankerchief.
The bell rang and with one final clip, he finished pruning the shrub. There was a rush to clean up because it was the last class of the day, but Draco and Blaise took their time, touching whenever they could for public display. When everyone was filing out of the greenhouse, Blaise and Draco snuck into a corner. They didn't kiss, Blaise hadn't been kissed yet and he didn't want to be the first, but they made it look like they were snogging. At the front of the room, Draco could hear Granger talking to Professor Sprout about their homework. Suddenly, he heard a painfully high pitched cry and felt Blaise go weak against him before he went weak against her.
When he opened his eyes, the world was very blurry and very white. His vision cleared and he saw they were in the hospital wing, lying in one of the beds. In the bed on the left was Ginny, lying very still, and on the right Blaise was sitting up, looking very confused. He probably looked like that scant seconds before. Across from him lay Potter, Granger and Weasley. Madam Pomphrey was poring something into a funnel that went down a tube into Granger's throat. Weasley was sitting up like he was; Potter stirred slightly before making a very unpleasant face and shooting into a sitting position. Off to the side stood Dumbledore, surrounded by six young wizards.
"What happened?" he asked, but Dumbledore just smiled. He noticed Professor Sprout a couple of beds down, still unconscious. It wasn't until both Granger and Ginny were fully awake that Dumbledore spoke.
"You were knocked out by a Mandrake cry. It was teenager, so it should have knocked you out for a couple of weeks, but we had some Mandrake Juice. These six–" he gestured to the wizards behind him "– will be taking your places in the hospital wing. We only have enough juice left after reviving you all to revive Professor Sprout and she needs to teach her classes. Without the juice, you would wake up in about 2 weeks. That would be 3 days before January 1. I cannot explain the situation to you now, you must explain everything to each other on the train. I am going to give each of you a flask of polyjuice potion. You need to pull out a few of your hairs and put them in the potion. Then exchange your flask with one of theirs. You must drink their potion and they will drink yours. Be careful not to spill any of the potion; you might need your identity if you are to venture out into London."
Without hesitating, Draco followed his directions. Each of them exchanged flasks with one of the strangers. Draco chose a rather good-looking blule-eyed man. If he was going to look like someone else, he didn't want to look like a hag.
Draco stared at the flask in his hand. He knew polyjuice potion tasted horrible. He saw Potter, Granger, and Weasley hesitating as well. Blaise and Ginny swiftly drank the potion, gasped, and doubled over to clutch their stomachs. Granger grabbed Ginny's flask and Draco grabbed Blaise's before it fell to the ground. When she had stopped groaning, he returned her flask to her and she capped it. He then drank his own potion, closing the cap as his hands began to shake. He hunched slightly as his stomach churned, the potion burning into him. He felt like he was melting, his body being reshaped into a tanner, shorter, wider man. Then, suddenly the melting stopped. His once well-manicured hands had chipped nails, edged in dirt. Blaise and Ginny, he couldn't tell who was who, were watching in amazement as the people changed all around them. He watched as the man he had become turned into him, his short brown hair growing long and blond. The man didn't have any gel to slick the hair back and simply tucked the hair behind his ears. "Everything becomes me," Draco thought.
The moans of pain stopped and Dumbledore surveyed the changes, smiling broadly."I must thank Severus for always insisting on having polyjuice potion ready at any time. Now, your trunks have been packed and brought down by your beds. Miss Granger, Mr. Weasley, Miss Weasley, and Mr. Potter, I have replicated your exteriors. I have yet to replicate the exteriors of your trunks, Miss Zambini and Mr. Malfoy, because I do not know if there are any objects that your family may wish to take when they discover you have gone." Draco thought but didn't think there was anything his parents would take.
"You might want to replicate the interior as far as it looks. The objects don't need to be functional," he replied.
"The same goes for me," said a woman with mousy, brown hair and clear, blue eyes. He assumed it was Blaise and gave her Blaise' flask
"Very well," Dumbledore replied, waving his wand. Draco's black leather trunk with an M for the lock shuddered before a second trunk, seemingly identical to the first, shot out next to it. With another wave, Blaise' trunk of a dark red leather, the color of dried blood, did the same. Another wave and the six real trunks rose forward, dropping at the feet of each of the owners. Well, they didn't look like the owners. Dumbledore conjured some earmuffs. "I'll be allowing the mandrake to cry and it would be a pity for any of you to be knocked out again." They were all pink and fluffy, but Draco took a pair anyways, as did everyone but the people who looked like themselves. Professor Sprout also received a pair, placed over her ears by Madam Pomphrey. Draco suspected that getting a double dose of a mandrake's cry could be fatal, even if it was only a teenager. It was odd to see himself without a mirror, although this person really couldn't be him because he let too much emotion show in his face that wasn't his face. Dumbledore and Madam Pomphrey took the last two earmuffs, securing them over their ears. Draco couldn't hear anything, but saw the Headmaster gesturing to the beds with his lips moving. His polyjuice self moved to the bed where he once lay as did the rest of the Polyjuice selves. Dumbledore cleared some dirt away from the mandrake withdrawing his fingers very suddenly as the root-like head popped out from beneath the earth, baring its teeth to bite the offending finger. It looked like the Mandrake was babbling (there was a sprinkling of white-tipped pimples across its dirty brow and chin) and all the occupants of the bed fainted. Seeing only Dumbledore, holding himself out of reach, the mandrake buried its head back down again and Dumbledore pushed the earth back into place.
"Hopefully, it won't pop up again. Now, gather the trunks and I'll be setting you off on the train." They did as they were told, but didn't speak during the entire walk to the carriage. He could tell who was who by the way they talked and held themselves, and Dumbledore didn't bother to clarify the exchanged identities. A blond haired woman turned out to be Hermione through the slight slouching of her back that came from carrying too many books. Ron, still red-haired but a darker red than Weasley slouched too, but it wasn't so much of a slight stoop of the shoulders as an inclination of the head to disguise his height. Harry, now with dark brown hair and brown eyes, having no height to disguise, walked with a straight back, a natural confindence in his step. Blaise, now a blond, held herself as a seductress would, straight with her bust slightly thrown out. Ginny's hair was now in light-brown ringlets, her eyes the color of a toffee Every Flavor Bean, but it wasn't her posture that gave her away to him. It was the expression in her eyes because they were the windows to her soul. No one else he knew could speak with their eyes like she could.
There were two horse-less carraiges, one for the baggage and one from passengers. It was a bit cramped as it was meant for only four passengers, but with Blaise on his lap, Hermione on Ron's and Ginny on Harry's, they managed comfortably. Draco felt an incredibly strong urge to kick something like Harry's shin or Harry's bag of goodies between his legs.
"Sir, what are they doing here?" Harry jerked his head to Draco and Blaise once they were inside the carraige. To prevent staring at Harry, Blaise looked at a hole in the carpeted floor.
"They too have joined the Order."
"And why have you decided to let us in earlier?"
"Voldemort," beside him, Draco felt Ginny flinch "is gathering underage wizards at part of his army. I thought it best to be well prepared." Dumbledore turned away and addressed the rest of them. "You'll need to take the potion every hour until you're at head quarters. Also," he continued, pulling two slips of parchment from his pocket and handing one each to Blaise and Draco, "you two will need to memorize these. Don't try to until you get to London. When you think you have, burn the parchment." Draco and Blaise pocketed the parchments as silence hung in the air, draping like a curtain between the Gryfindors and Slytherins.
"I expect all of you to get along and explain to each other on the train, is that clear?" Dumbledore tore the curtain of silence, looking at each of them in turn, the look of a chastising father nestled in every line on his face and although none of them spoke, he knew that none of them would object. Through the crunching of the carriage wheels, Draco wondered how they could be convinced. Harry shifted beside him.
"Geez, Ginny, you're getting heavy. Have you gained weight?" A glare from Hermione told Harry that it was exactly the wrong thing to say, but that wasn't what made Draco glare at him.
"Um…maybe a little. It's probably the potion." She was blushing slightly but wouldn't look over at him. Draco wished that Blaise and Ginny would switch positions. He wouldn't object to her being heavy, as long as he was touching her. Hermione wore a very disapproving look on her face. Behind her, Harry mouthed silently and she looked at the floor in disappointment. Obviously, Harry's lack of tact with girls was not a new thing. Luckily, Blaise could handle him with more ease than she could handle a slippery eel with a skewer. All it took was a few sharp stabs and it was caught.
The carriage windows looked as though they had not been washed in years and the interior smelled of must. The thought that must have been one of the older carriages, not put into use for a long time was supported by the squealing of an axle. Conversation seemed out of the question and Dumbledore seemed content to stay as a pressure to force them to talk to each other. When they reached the train, he bade them farewell indifferently, but with a warm smile. Draco would remember that smile; it was a loving expression.
~~~~~
Dumbledore has got to be the hardest character to write. He has this perfect balance of humor and wisdom, and I don't think I caught either aspect. Oh well. This is definitely the most forced chapter. There's so little D/G in it that it was weird because I keep thinking about what to do with them but was denying myself the pleasure because I had to get them out of Hogwarts and I had no idea how. Luckily, I read the Harry Potter books as often as good Christians read the Bible and was inspired. You might remember Professor Sprout saying: "As our Mandrakes are only seedling, their cries won't kill yet. However, they will knowck you out for several hours…" (p.93, American Edition, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets). I thought maybe if they were a bit older they would knock you out for longer, and they do according to me. I am a faithful follower of the canon. Come, join me in insanity (oh wait, you already have…).
Gwuinivyre: So you like the bad boys, eh? So do I, well I don't like the way Snape looks much but his voice…oh he can give me detention any time he wants. Especially if it's playing house-elf to Draco. And Lucius…like father like son. Well, that's enough for my hormones. Thanks for the compliment; this story is getting so many aspects I'll have to start paying people to clean the windows.
SicDreamsInc: Isn't it scary that I have so much power? I can do anything I want…anything and that includes dropping a sex scene right here. Of course, it doesn't really go with the plot but it's what we all want, isn't it? And I recognize the reference, hehe, Mulan was the best animated movie Disney came up with last (I mean, Treasure Planet? Come on…) and was the best thing Disney had given us last until Pirates of the Caribbean (oh, my, Orlando. Come here Orlando, I won't bite…hard). I love you too, mummy, lol.
jane-valar: Well, whenever I get the urge to write I do and I happen to get the urge quite a bit, which is very good for you readers. Thanks for your classically, dreamy, picnicky compliment.
Adie: Yay! I surprised you! It was supposed to be a surprise, it was for me too ("hey…what if she's pregnant…"). Thank you for introducing me to portkey.org; I didn't know it existed before. I'd recommend magicaltheory.com for day's when ff.net is down. It's got at least 3 months worth of fiction on it (If you're reading every day for 2 hour blocks) and is a D/G shipping site. Checkmated.com is good too, thought I don't think there's any D/G
Victoria006: I'll look for it. Thanks lass.
Sorrow in Shadow: Thanks ever so much. I like the poem too, if you haven't noticed, lol. It's always good to include some first rate poetry that way if your fition sucks, people at least get a good poem. It's like a funny commercial during a disgustingly tragic soap opera. "The road less taken" and "Do not go gentle into that good night" are right up there for me.
Anime10473: Playing god, as it were, I will not allow Ginny to have less than a beautiful baby if she has one. Because I mean, with Draco as the father? ::drools:: Oops, better wipe that up. Harry will get some action from Blaise I think, I mean she's got to get that first kiss and I hope she has to maul him for it. And of course he'll like being mauled. You'll have to wait on the shadows. I'm making you forget them for a reason. Obliviate! That's better. And just a minor correction. Chow is spelled C-I-A-O. It's Italian. Well, and also a Chinese name. Lol. Thank you for such lovely long reviews and for being such a faithful reviewer.
I hope you liked this chapter, and I've got plenty more writing where this came from. If you could drop a review I would be ever so grateful; I like knowing what my readers think (I even have a folder in my e-mail called Reviews where I keep all the pretty little things). Thank you everyone who has reviewed. This is my longest and most popular story (and the only one I'm getting anywhere with) and I smile every time I see that I've got a review. Wow I'm so sappy that I think I'm sticking to the chair. Ciao.