Summary: Draco mysteriously wakes up in the middle of the forbidden forest, and winds up meeting a very unlikely stranger; the rat we all know as Wormtail. Takes place during third book.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything...it's all J.K. Rowling's ideas, just in a slightly twisted form that is my imagination.

I Saw Him, I Swear; He's Up To No Good

Draco moaned and turned over, whimpering while his head throbbed in pain. He couldn't remember ever being so uncomfortable in his entire life. His mattress was hard, it was freezing, and perhaps worst of all; he felt like he'd been repeatedly clubbed over the head with a broomstick.

Not wanting to open his eyes or move at all for that matter, he simply remained still and listened to the flapping of his expensive, rare, state of the art curtain fabric, which, oddly enough, almost sounded bizarrely similar to rustling sound of tree leaves.

A cool, gentle breeze played with his hair and would be almost relaxing if it wasn't for the little misty bits of water that began to spray his face along with it.

I swear to God, if Goyle's drooling again...

He yawned, slowly opening his eyes, and blurrily squinted at the abnormally bright surroundings. He was staring at a bright white light and it took a few moments for his eyes to adjust clearly enough to realize that he wasn't in his dorm, and was in fact staring up at an insanely bright, full moon.

"Oh shit!" he muttered and scrambled to his feet franticly. The Forbidden Forest? How the bloody hell did I get here?

Panicking, he stumbled backward and immediately tripped over a dead log.

"Urg," he groaned, flicking a disgusting looking spider off of his robes and fearfully scrambled away from the rotting log.

He hurriedly got to his feet again but stumbled in his haste, and fell to the ground once again.

Now abandoning any attempts of getting to his feet, he declared to himself that his leg must be broken, and ignored the fact that it felt perfectly fine.

Breathing heavily, he managed to clear his head enough to decide that he would have to remain still until someone found him.

But that's ridiculous...what if something finds me first...

He whimpered desperately, but made to attempt at getting up.

He was freezing cold, lost, tired, in pain, and absolutely terrified beyond belief.

He rubbed his aching temples and struggled to remember what on earth he had been doing here in the first place. He remembered walking to Hagrid's great mound of earth he apparently called a house after dinner. Draco was planning on watching the execution of the murderous hippogriff that had attacked him earlier in the year. His father had mentioned that someone from the ministry was scheduled to kill the vicious beast before sun set and Draco certainly hadn't planned on missing it.

But now all he could remember was seeing McNair standing over a stump and hitting it furiously with his axe in obvious frustration, then about a second later something orange and furry jumped on Draco's head for no reason, scratching at his face and making hissing noises, and that was the last thing he could remember.

But that didn't explain why on earth he was now lost somewhere in the middle of a dark, dangerous, never ending forest with nothing around to protect himself.

"Lumos," he muttered and held out his wand. He noticed his voice was shaking, but assumed it must be because of the air in the forest affecting his lungs. No doubt Hagrid's endless smoke had traveled into the woods and was causing the disturbance.

Draco peered into the nearby underbrush where he had suddenly heard a noise like parchment being crimpled.

Quite suddenly there was a loud 'crack' followed by a burst of bright blue light, then utter silence.

Startled and confused, Draco strained to see what had happened.

He was on his feet without realizing he ever even made an effort to do so, and his left leg was shaking madly.

Merlin only knows what dangerous creatures that great barbaric oaf Hagrid keeps in here, he thought desperately and raised his wand toward the area of commotion, perhaps ten feet away from where he was standing.

He fumbled backward along the forest floor, careful not to trip over any fallen branches and moving slowly, looking around desperately as he moved, not daring to speak or move too quickly, praying he wouldn't meet up with some violent forest creature.

Again, before he had time to collect himself, another loud cracking noise came from a spot very near him now with another great wave of blinding blue light.

Draco's eyes were blurred and watered when he opened them, but he could make out the dark figure of a man only a few feet away.

"What was that?" he voiced frightfully, still not able to see properly, "who – what...who's there?"

"Er...no one," a squeaky voice proclaimed, sounding as confused and frightened as Draco felt.

Draco's eyes focused and he looked at the man before him.

Pale and trembling; a short, bald man with evident lose and wrinkled skin quivered before Draco before turning slowly and running desperately in the opposite direction, flailing his arms wildly.

"Oy, you! I see you! Stop where you are!"

He wasn't sure why he was doing it, but he had the fleeting feeling in his stomach telling him not to let this man get away.

To Draco's great surprise, the balding ugly man stopped dead in his tracks and dropped to his knees. He made a whimpering sound, coved his eyes with his grubby hands and began shaking uncontrollably.

"I c-can't transform!" he called desperately through great intakes of breath. The man was now sobbing hysterically and muttering to himself.

Draco stayed rooted to the spot, not daring to move toward the mad man who was now bawling quite loudly.

"Don't come near me!" Draco yelled at him as the man began crawling along the ground toward him.

"But you d-don't understand...t-they're after me, boy. They know where I am...h-he always knows where I am..."

"What the bloody hell are you talking about?"

"P-padfoot...he knows...h-he always knows what I'm doing...," the man continued to blubber.

"Padfoot?" Draco paused staring at the very unflattering bald spot of the man's head, which was covered in beady sweat. "What's a padfoot?"

The man simply shook his head and only mouthed words, apparently not realizing that no sound was coming out. Without warning, the man launched himself at the hem of Draco's robes. Tugging on them pathetically and still sobbing madly.

Draco only caught a few words of the stream of unintelligible babble that followed this display. The stranger occasionally said things like 'you don't understand' and 'just leave me on my way'.

"Are you out of your sodding mind, old man?" Draco spat at him in disgust and pulled away. Those robes are my fathers', not some ratty old handkerchief for fat, balding men to wipe their slobber on.

"Get up," he ordered with irritation as the man yelped and closed his eyes in fear.

"Who are you?" Draco demanded, "or - er...what are you?"

The man paused and immediately stopped whimpering. His small, beady eyes suddenly became five times larger and he was apparently thinking hard.

"Oh honestly, is it that hard to remember your name?" Draco asked impatiently.

The man stuttered for a few moments and made squeaking sounds not resembling human speech before stumbling over words and managing "I'm...er....Ratomolus!"

"You're...a...what?"

"I'm a Ratomolus!" he repeated, now clearly with more confidence in his voice.

"A Rata-what?"

"Ratomolus," the man squealed again and nodded his head, "yes they...they're....I mean to say I....I am a very rare creature...not human, not animal..."

Draco simply stared at the man (or perhaps Ratomolus) with his mouth slightly open, eyebrows raised.

"Great," he drawled, "now I'm freezing, lost, tired, in pain, and in the company of a blubbering idiot who seems to think he's some rare magical creature. Things certainly aren't looking up, are they?"

"No!" the man suddenly hissed, the tone of desperation returning at full blast "you don't understand...I really am...I'm a magical creature. I've lived in this forest all my life. This place is my home! It's my home!"

"It's your home?" Draco repeated, part of him wondering vaguely why on earth he was continuing to communicate with this imbecile. "If that's true, then...that is to say, if this is really your home-"

"Yes," the thing cut him off, still nodding his head forcefully, "my home yes!"

Honestly, they'll let anything into these forests, he thought irritably.

"Right," Draco drawled slowly, "and if you are this...Rataflu...thing you claim you are...then you should be able to lead me out of here, is that right?"

The heap of blubbering incoherent speech shook slightly but nodded his greasy head quickly.

"Alright then," Draco continued briskly, "go on then...lead the way." He made an impatient gesture into the depths of the woods.

The Rata-something bit his lip and cowered once more, then darted directly in front of Draco and started walking along a dimly lit path, occasionally glancing over his shoulder, each time widening his eyes as though spotting a frightening stalker behind him.

A/N: Alright...I didn't exactly explain how Draco ended up in the forest...I may add something later, but chances are I'll just leave it to your own imagination. So that's it for now...please review!!!!