Chapter 10: Back from the Dead
"So you're the vampire, eh?" Evra asked as though he were asking Draco about the weather. "You look strikingly like my master, you know—?"
Draco had had his eyes closed and his head turned away from Ginny and towards Evra, but he abruptly flicked his eyes open and felt his heartbeat quicken. "You think I'm a what?" Draco asked as furiously as he could in his current state.
"A vampire, boy! Welcome to the gang!" Evra said, sluggishly punching Draco's arm.
"I am NOT a—" Draco had tried to fling himself up into a sitting position, but he hadn't had enough strength to even lift his head five inches; his head fell back onto the dungeon floor. Outraged that he had to lie on the floor like a helpless baby, he gritted his teeth, looked at Evra through squinted eyes and restated what he'd been trying to say. "I am NOT a vampire! I am a pureblooded wizard! A Malfoy!"
"So that's why you look so much like the master! You're his son!" Evra declared, chuckling to himself.
Draco was now trying to use his elbows to prop himself up, but wasn't having any real success at this either. "You don't work for my father! I would—"
"Tut tut!" Evra said, placing a slimy green finger on Draco's lips to silence him. Instead of making Draco go silent, it made him erupt into a coughing fit; placing slime on anyone's lips ought to produce a similar reaction. "He's delirious! Who wants to transfer some power into him?" Evra turned to everyone, his chin making a big sweeping motion through the air as he did so.
"I'll give him some power," Ginny quietly volunteered, avoiding Ron's eyes.
"Ginny!" Ron exploded.
"That's fine and dandy," Evra said, ignoring Ron's outburst, "but I forgot to mention, you have to be a male to transfer energy to him."
"Oh," Ginny trailed off.
"Why don't you do it then?" Ron asked.
"Because," Evra said lightly, "I'm part snake! I could give him energy, but it'd also kill him since right now he is a vampire!" He nearly snarled the last part.
"He is not a full vampire yet!" Hermione countered. "He's not drank any human blood! You can't call him a vampire yet!"
Had Ron been in this situation, he would've been confused by now, but Draco knew what they were talking about; he'd read about vampires in many books.
Evra rolled his eyes. "Whatever! He's still part vampire. Hurry up and decide between the two of you," he looked at Harry and Ron.
Hermione turned to her boys. Ron was absolutely fuming now. The Malfoys were one of the top enemies of his family and Draco and his cronies had been his enemies at school too. But Draco was an enemy of Harry too, but he didn't hold such a large grudge against him… did he? Harry also looked so worn out; he hadn't slept much and though they had apparated outside of Malfoy Manor, the trip into the mansion seemed to have worn him out as well—
"I'll do it," Harry said wearily, causing Hermione to snap to attention again. "What do I have to do?" He dragged his feet to where Draco lay and Evra sat.
"Harry!" Ron yelled.
"What?" Harry snapped back. "Do you want to do it?"
Ron cowered at Harry's sudden outburst. "No," he trailed off. "But can't we just leave him here?" Ron asked.
"No!" Ginny told her brother. "We can't leave him! His father betrayed him! He's like one of us now—"
"I will never be like one of you filthy Mudblood loving fools," Draco growled.
"Hey!" Hermione said.
"See?" Ron said loudly over Hermione's protest. "He doesn't need our help!"
"He never said he didn't want our help!" Ginny hollered back.
"Oh, yeah, you're right," Ron said sarcastically, "but the fact that he's laying there like a filthy rug and insulting us makes it even more just for us to put him back on his feet so he can run to daddy dear and order our heads to be chopped off!"
"Get your heads chopped off later," Evra interrupted Ron again. "This guy's not going to last in this cell much longer in this state—"
"Why?" Ron asked scathingly.
Evra closed his eyes, annoyed at being cut off by Ron, but not noting that he had also been interrupting Ron. He opened his eyes again. "If he stays here like this any longer, his strength will take too long to come back. He'll freeze to death before his strength is fully restored naturally. Vampire Wizards can use magic, but like she said," he pointed to Hermione, "he's not a vampire yet and he's not really a full wizard at the moment; he's hovering somewhere in-between those two."
"So?" Ron asked in the same bitter tone but in truth, still confused.
"Alright, let me make this simpler for you," Evra said irked. "You humans have warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals. No animal is mediocre-blooded; you're one or the other. If slick over here," he hit Draco's shoulder with the back of his hand, "stays in this halfway area for long, it'll kill him. Why?" Evra asked the question before Ron could and then answered it himself. "This space between being a vampire or wizard, or in the example, between a warm-blooded or cold-blooded animal, well, this space is not supposed to exist, meaning young Malfoy here is not really supposed to exist."
Ron snorted and muttered, "That'd make the world spin easier."
"Alright, Scarhead, sit," Evra instructed Harry quickly.
Ginny noticed Draco's left eye twitching ever so slightly. She could tell that he hated the idea of receiving help from anyone. She almost felt sorry for him, but remembered toward the end of her fourth year and his fifth year at Hogwarts how he had taken such pleasure in trying to expel her and several other Gryffindors. The Bat Bogey Hex she'd placed on him had been brilliant. A small grin snaked its way across Ginny's face. It didn't matter about Draco's dignity at the moment; his life was more important… that stupid Slytherin toad-rat.
"You sure you want to do this?" Evra asked Harry. "Your redheaded mate over there looks like he has more energy to spare."
Ron made a face that looked as though he was pouting and Harry grimaced. "Just tell me what I have to do. The sooner I do this, the sooner we can leave." Harry said.
Draco's eyes were still closed.
"Right then," Evra continued. "Place your wand to his heart."
Harry positioned his wand an inch above Draco's chest, but Evra nearly jabbed the wand into Draco's body, the surprise causing Draco's eyes to fly open.
"I said to place it to his heart! Not hover, not float, but place!"
"Yeah, sorry," Harry muttered.
"Good for nothing…" Draco had trailed off and started mumbling a colorful string of words most likely about Evra.
The snakeman ignored Draco and continued to counsel Harry. "Listen carefully and then commence. Do not lift your wand off of him. Trace a circle around his heart with your wand then say Thoma keh ahmee theeboe akón! Make sure you greatly emphasize the akón. You'll feel a slight jolt as though you were using a Port Key, and you may feel a bit weary but you should expect that since this is a very advanced spell… but that's all the spell book said." Evra scratched his nose while he thought about the spell but suddenly stopped scratching as though he'd abandoned thinking about it. "Any questions?"
"No," Harry stuttered a bit, answering as though he were asking a question.
"Great. You?" Evra asked Draco.
"Let's tango," he grumbled.
"Fantastic! Let's do it then! Everyone else, back away— no, you, stuck on the wall… you can stay there since we can't really move you yet… just stay close to the wall."
Ginny had an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach and looked to the opposite side of the room at Ron for comfort, but he was too busy looking at his best friend. Harry looked awfully aloof at the moment. She could tell by his furrowed brows that he was a bit nervous about conducting this spell, but he also looked rather groggy. She remembered Hermione had talked to her about how she'd been worried about Harry's recent changes, but Ginny hadn't noticed until now.
It was strange, but looking at Harry and Draco at that moment, probably two of the brightest wizards in their class and also the two most opposing people in their class, Ginny noticed that these two were so alike. Both were built tall and slender, each had the same piercing gaze and the same elegant way of doing things. Though Harry's hair was far messier and darker than Draco's, both boys' hair seemed to lay in the same lazy fashion right now— damp with sweat, fringe dangling just above the eyes.
Yet they differed in so many ways as well. Draco seemed so tense all the time as though he were trying to hide everything from view, even when holding his wand he'd grip it so hard that the knuckles of his left hand would turn white. But Harry tried to go about everything in a relaxed fashion. He held his wand in his write hand as though he were shaking hands and when Harry was angry, you knew he was angry; when he was happy, you knew he was happy.
Those were just the minute and trivial things Ginny had noticed… was it really okay for two people that were so different to be mixing their powers? No… Ginny thought to herself, they're not really too different. She had compared them herself! But why did she have a bad feeling about this?
If Ginny had any opposition, it was too late; when she reeled back into reality, she eyed Harry just in time to see his wand begin to trace the circle around Draco's chest. She looked at Draco and he lay as still as possible, his mouth pursed shut and his nostrils flared as he breathed heavily, his eyes following Harry's wand at all times.
Harry's wand finally returned to the original spot it had been touching on Draco's white shirt. He took a deep breath and began the incantation. "Thoma keh ahmee theeboe akón!"
Harry put great and loud emphasis on the last word of the spell as he was instructed to do. This was followed by a pregnant pause that seemed to last an eternity but moments later, Harry felt his wand begin to vibrate.
Draco felt Harry's wand and he opened his mouth slightly to gasp, but it turned into a groan and then a scream. A large radius of glowing black light began to emit from Harry's wand and Harry was beginning to feel dizzy— not dizzy like spinning in circles, but dizzy like he was going to be sick. Harry tried to pull his wand off of Draco, but it would not budge.
Ginny looked past the two and saw that Ron and Hermione were staring on horror-struck. When she looked back at Harry and Draco, she could not see them; the glowing black light had completely surrounded the boys and Evra, Ron, and Hermione were on the other side. What was going on in there?
At first the strength was leaving through Harry's arm into Draco's chest quite slowly, but suddenly, Harry felt his strength surge out of him— he felt as though all his power, energy, strength, everything inside of him was flooding into Draco. He had to make this stop— he felt like he might die!
Harry had had his eyes closed the whole while, but he finally opened his eyes when his ears began ringing. He looked down at Draco and was shocked when he realized his ears had not been ringing— Draco had been screaming! Malfoy's eyes were large, open and circular; his pallor made him look nearly translucent and his mouth was open gruesomely wide. It looked as though Malfoy was worse off than Harry was at the moment.
Harry continued trying to pull his wand away from Draco. This spell seemed to have been in effect for hours, but a mere minute at the most had passed by. Teeth gritted and face screwed up with concentration, Harry pulled hard again, but he only managed to knee Draco's side. As he readjusted his hand and gripped harder, Harry's brilliant green eyes flicked open and an idea like a candle in the dark emerged in his mind. He didn't need to pull the wand off Malfoy; he just needed to get his hand off his wand!
He tried to take his fingers off his wand, but it was like Harry's fingers were metal and were attracted to his magnetic wand. Every time he tried to pull his wand away or release his fingers, he was also using up strength. This would have to be an all or nothing attempt. Mustering every bit of strength he could find in himself, Harry slowly pried his shaking fingers off the wand. Just as his last finger left the wooden hilt of the wand, both Harry and Draco screamed louder as the black light began to waver. Then unexpectedly, the light gathered together and rammed into Harry! Harry shot back away from Draco and his crash landing was cushioned by whomever it was he had landed on.
Harry's head was aching now and he didn't want to, or maybe he couldn't open his eyes.
"Harry!" he heard. "Harry! If you're all right, mind getting off me?"
"Ron! He is NOT all right! He wouldn't be laying on you if he was fine!" Hermione yelled. Harry felt his head bounce slightly on Ron's chest; Hermione had whacked Ron across the back of his head. Harry's eyes were still closed but he felt Hermione's slender fingers brushing aside the hair on his forehead. "Harry? Harry, can you hear me?"
"Or me? The one pinned to the wall by Harry the Boulder?" Ron wheezed.
Harry groggily came back to his senses. He rolled his head side to side very slowly and finally blinked his eyes open. He was drenched in sweat, shaking, and felt totally drained of his strength.
"Okay! Up we go!" Harry saw Hermione's bushy head whiz past his eyes in a blur of colors and felt two strong hands put him on his feet. "Can you stand?" It was Evra. Evra had placed his hands under Harry's arms and had pulled him up. Unexpectedly, Evra let go of him to see if Harry could stay on his feet.
To Harry, his legs felt like toothpicks that were asked to support a tree. As his right leg began to buckle, Harry stepped out with his left leg hoping it would hold his body's weight, but as that leg began to buckle as well, he bumped into the wall and tried standing still, but teetered dangerously before he finally fell onto someone. He felt fuzzy hair on his neck; Hermione had caught him.
Hermione scowled at Evra. "Harry, sit down," she said soothingly. There was nothing else Harry really cared about at the moment so he did as he was told. He sat against the wall and began breathing slowly. He felt it was good to catch his breath first before trying to stand up again.
Hermione had kneeled down to help Harry into a sitting position but sprang right back up when he was situated. "Evra Von, what the bloody hell was that all about?"
"Hermione!" Ron gasped at her language.
"It was Dark Magic, that's what it was," Draco's icy voice hissed. A round of collective gasping could be heard at this news.
Draco had managed to sit up on his own, but he still looked very pale. In any case, he looked better than Harry, who still seemed drowsy.
"Potter, you're drooling," Draco pointed out.
"Don't you say a bloody damn word!" Hermione growled at Draco. "Sit and heal! Harry wouldn't be like this," she flung out an arm toward Harry who was in fact drooling, "if it hadn't been for you!"
"Oh? So it's my fault for becoming a vampire without knowing it, Mudblood?"
"You're not a vampire yet and yes, this is all your stupid fault, so shut it!" Hermione barked, choosing to ignore his snide remarks. Then she rounded on Evra. "What in Merlin's name was this supposedly Dark Magic spell?" Hermione was breathing loudly through her mouth and her face was red.
Evra raised his eyebrows at Hermione's shocked reaction. "It's exactly what I told you it was. He has some strength now," he said, pointing to Draco who was now sitting up without help from the wall.
Hermione closed her eyes and pursed her lips in frustration then opened her eyes again. "And this was black magic?" She asked.
"No," Evra answered.
"But he just said—"
"Oh yes it was Dark Magic!" Ginny cut Hermione off. Though she was still attached to the wall, she chose to stand up now. She stomped her foot and declared, "If anyone, I would know what Dark Magic is!"
"Oh?" Evra said, interested. He clapped his hands together and sat down cross-legged in one swift motion. "Story time!" He chimed.
"Story time my arse!" Ron suddenly stood up, fists clenched. He had been kneeling beside Harry wiping drool and sweat off his face, trying to get him back to normal. "If Ginny says it's Dark Magic, it's Dark Magic! Explain yourself you good for nothing, yellow-bellied, scaly—"
"Ron, calm down," Hermione put a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down?" Ron whirled around almost whacking Hermione in the face.
"Yes, look, I can try to use some healing magic on him and then—"
"Hermione, you were just yelling at the toadman over here and now you want me to calm down?" Hermione stared at Ron and he stared back, his cheeks full with color. "And your spells won't work very efficiently against Dark Magic!" Ron had calmed down enough to use a normal voice now.
"We don't even know if it was Dark Magic—"
"Hermione, Ginny was possessed by You-Know-Who! I think her opinion on the matter might overrule yours or anyone else's."
"I know, but— Where do you think you're going?" Hermione whipped out her wand and with a wave, a golden string of light zipped across the room, wrapped itself around Evra's waist and brought him next to Hermione. "Why are you trying to leave?"
Evra rubbed the back of his neck with a slimy hand and chuckled. "I wasn't leaving! I was just walking around while the lovebirds sorted out their arguments!"
Both Hermione and Ron went red in the face and this seemed to have jerked Harry back to his senses a bit. Hermione gripped her wand harder. "One last time," she warned. "Was it Dark Magic or not?"
"Oh fine! Yes, it was! But I wasn't lying! You asked at first if it was black magic and no such term exists. So there." He motioned towards Harry whose head wasn't lolling around anymore. "The kid probably hasn't ever used Dark Magic before, so that's why it's affecting him like that—"
"What? You think they go around teaching us the Dark Arts at school?" Ron asked sarcastically.
"Only if you ask nicely," Draco added in. He was standing up now, but leaning on the wall unnoticeably, hands characteristically stuffed in his trouser pockets.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "How long until Harry's back to normal?" She asked.
"Twelve minutes and twelve seconds since he started the spell," Evra and Draco said in unison.
Ron arched an auburn eyebrow. "And you've used Dark Magic before?"
"Just on stupid animals and house elves and centaurs and stuff," Draco said in a matter-of-fact tone. "It takes a lot out of you, really, but once you get used to it, it's not so bad." He shrugged his shoulders as Ron looked at him with even greater disgust. Hermione had gasped aloud at his remark on using Dark Magic on house elves.
There was silence as Draco and Ron glared at each other, but Evra had suddenly gotten back onto his feet again. "Anyone have smelling salts?"
"I can conjure some," Hermione said, realizing what the snakeman was getting at. With a wave of her wand, a small square-shaped object that appeared to be damp appeared in Hermione's hand with a faint popping sound accompanying it's entrance.
She stuffed her wand back into her robe pockets and slowly waved it around Harry's nose. Moments later, Harry's eyes were wide open and his face was turning a violent shade of green. "Oh dear, too much!" She tapped the object with her and the smelling salts disappeared. Then she went back to her friend. "Harry? Can you sit up all right?"
Harry coughed a bit and his face was still reacting to the horrible smell. "When did you last wash your socks, Ron?"
"Those were not my socks!" Ron protested.
"Could've been," Draco said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ron glared at him but turned back towards Harry as he heard a rustling noise. "Harry! Are you sure you can stand up?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," Harry groaned, accidentally pushing too hard on Hermione's shoulder as he got onto his feet.
"So all that yelling could've been spared if you had just told Hermione she could magic some smelling salts in here—"
"Oh, dear Godric!"
"What?" Ron and Ginny said.
"Draco, where are we?" Hermione asked.
"The dungeons," Draco answered as bluntly as he could.
"Is this your house?" She asked. "No, it's Weasley's," Draco spat. "What're you getting at, Granger?"
Ron noticed Hermione was biting her bottom lip; she always bit her bottom lip when thinking so with much effort he held back his response to Draco's ridicule. "Draco, your house is mentioned in Ancient Dwellings: Dark and Dreary Edition, and Mullet-head Manors and Mansions!"
"Marvelous," Draco said dully.
Hermione furrowed her brows. "The Hogwarts grounds are near here and an enchantment has been placed upon the school so that no one can apparate or disapparate from there. In 382 BC, an early Malfoy stretched the enchantment to a portion of his house: the dungeons. He modified it a bit so that prisoners could not do magic… but I just conjured some smelling salts! And," Hermione pointed her wand at Ginny's arm. "Alohomora!" The lock around Ginny's arm burst open and Ginny gratefully cradled her arm and thanked Hermione with a smile. "We're able to do magic in here!"
Everyone was silent and busy looking either at Hermione's mystified face or Ginny's freed arm.
"You're a freak, y'know that? You spend your time memorizing pointless books like that—?"
Hermione gasped again, coincidentally in the middle of what Draco was saying. "Harry! Professor Dumbledore disapparated from of his office the other day!"
"Granger, you're smart, I'll give you that, but a bit mad."
Harry ignored Draco. "Hermione, are you sure? When did this happen?"
"Of course I'm sure! Why would I make up something like this? It was the day I went to see him… about you… and he disapparated to go—"
Hermione went white in the face.
"To go what?" Ron asked.
"I'm sure I remember it clearly! He said he was going to go play Exploding Snap with Mr. Crouch! Mr. Barty Crouch!"
"He received the Dementor's Kiss a couple years or so ago," Ginny said. "He's dead."
"So we thought," Draco added with a puzzled look on his face.
Everyone in the cell followed Draco's gaze to the entrance of the cell where a young looking man stood looking rather arrogant— but in Malfoy Manor, who didn't look arrogant? He was of average height, had finely groomed dark brown hair, a youthful face, and a sinister grin. He wore beige trainers with vertical stripes down the fabric and a darker tawny-colored dress shirt; the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
With a sharp intake of breath, Hermione gasped aloud, "Barty Crouch!"
"But you're supposed to be dead!" Ron insisted.
Mr. Crouch chuckled and invited himself into the room. His ominous cackling continued when he suddenly stopped and looked up sharply towards Ron. "Same to you." A fleeting instant later, Barty Crouch had whipped out a wand from the back pocket of his pants and it was pointed straight at Ron's heart.
"What're you—?"
Crouch ignored whoever it was that had spoken aloud and began his incantation. "Avada—"
Author's Note: Yes, this is the part Eiko will be wringing my neck for. What will happen to our precious Ronnikins? Well, I was evil not to tell you… Oh well! I guess I'll stay evil. >D Not really anything else to say about this chapter… it was rather odd to me how I spent eight pages on one scene… *stares* Um… hope it turned out nice. :)
Cultural Note: The words in the Dark Magic spell Harry conducted are Bengali. I speak the language, so I would know! ^_^ Thoma keh ahmee theeboe akón means, "I will give you now". Simple, short, and somewhat appropriate for the spell. Now you know! :)
Chapter 11: Nothing major happens in the next chapter, except for some character interaction and a few laughs. It's a nice, funny chapter, in my opinion. But that's just what we need after all these 'deep' chapters, eh?
And thanks so much to all commenters! Kudos and props to Erika, Lily Among the Thorns-89, Eiko, Jonah, Bubble, Yuna, and bitchy brunette! All the comments were so nice!! XD
"So you're the vampire, eh?" Evra asked as though he were asking Draco about the weather. "You look strikingly like my master, you know—?"
Draco had had his eyes closed and his head turned away from Ginny and towards Evra, but he abruptly flicked his eyes open and felt his heartbeat quicken. "You think I'm a what?" Draco asked as furiously as he could in his current state.
"A vampire, boy! Welcome to the gang!" Evra said, sluggishly punching Draco's arm.
"I am NOT a—" Draco had tried to fling himself up into a sitting position, but he hadn't had enough strength to even lift his head five inches; his head fell back onto the dungeon floor. Outraged that he had to lie on the floor like a helpless baby, he gritted his teeth, looked at Evra through squinted eyes and restated what he'd been trying to say. "I am NOT a vampire! I am a pureblooded wizard! A Malfoy!"
"So that's why you look so much like the master! You're his son!" Evra declared, chuckling to himself.
Draco was now trying to use his elbows to prop himself up, but wasn't having any real success at this either. "You don't work for my father! I would—"
"Tut tut!" Evra said, placing a slimy green finger on Draco's lips to silence him. Instead of making Draco go silent, it made him erupt into a coughing fit; placing slime on anyone's lips ought to produce a similar reaction. "He's delirious! Who wants to transfer some power into him?" Evra turned to everyone, his chin making a big sweeping motion through the air as he did so.
"I'll give him some power," Ginny quietly volunteered, avoiding Ron's eyes.
"Ginny!" Ron exploded.
"That's fine and dandy," Evra said, ignoring Ron's outburst, "but I forgot to mention, you have to be a male to transfer energy to him."
"Oh," Ginny trailed off.
"Why don't you do it then?" Ron asked.
"Because," Evra said lightly, "I'm part snake! I could give him energy, but it'd also kill him since right now he is a vampire!" He nearly snarled the last part.
"He is not a full vampire yet!" Hermione countered. "He's not drank any human blood! You can't call him a vampire yet!"
Had Ron been in this situation, he would've been confused by now, but Draco knew what they were talking about; he'd read about vampires in many books.
Evra rolled his eyes. "Whatever! He's still part vampire. Hurry up and decide between the two of you," he looked at Harry and Ron.
Hermione turned to her boys. Ron was absolutely fuming now. The Malfoys were one of the top enemies of his family and Draco and his cronies had been his enemies at school too. But Draco was an enemy of Harry too, but he didn't hold such a large grudge against him… did he? Harry also looked so worn out; he hadn't slept much and though they had apparated outside of Malfoy Manor, the trip into the mansion seemed to have worn him out as well—
"I'll do it," Harry said wearily, causing Hermione to snap to attention again. "What do I have to do?" He dragged his feet to where Draco lay and Evra sat.
"Harry!" Ron yelled.
"What?" Harry snapped back. "Do you want to do it?"
Ron cowered at Harry's sudden outburst. "No," he trailed off. "But can't we just leave him here?" Ron asked.
"No!" Ginny told her brother. "We can't leave him! His father betrayed him! He's like one of us now—"
"I will never be like one of you filthy Mudblood loving fools," Draco growled.
"Hey!" Hermione said.
"See?" Ron said loudly over Hermione's protest. "He doesn't need our help!"
"He never said he didn't want our help!" Ginny hollered back.
"Oh, yeah, you're right," Ron said sarcastically, "but the fact that he's laying there like a filthy rug and insulting us makes it even more just for us to put him back on his feet so he can run to daddy dear and order our heads to be chopped off!"
"Get your heads chopped off later," Evra interrupted Ron again. "This guy's not going to last in this cell much longer in this state—"
"Why?" Ron asked scathingly.
Evra closed his eyes, annoyed at being cut off by Ron, but not noting that he had also been interrupting Ron. He opened his eyes again. "If he stays here like this any longer, his strength will take too long to come back. He'll freeze to death before his strength is fully restored naturally. Vampire Wizards can use magic, but like she said," he pointed to Hermione, "he's not a vampire yet and he's not really a full wizard at the moment; he's hovering somewhere in-between those two."
"So?" Ron asked in the same bitter tone but in truth, still confused.
"Alright, let me make this simpler for you," Evra said irked. "You humans have warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals. No animal is mediocre-blooded; you're one or the other. If slick over here," he hit Draco's shoulder with the back of his hand, "stays in this halfway area for long, it'll kill him. Why?" Evra asked the question before Ron could and then answered it himself. "This space between being a vampire or wizard, or in the example, between a warm-blooded or cold-blooded animal, well, this space is not supposed to exist, meaning young Malfoy here is not really supposed to exist."
Ron snorted and muttered, "That'd make the world spin easier."
"Alright, Scarhead, sit," Evra instructed Harry quickly.
Ginny noticed Draco's left eye twitching ever so slightly. She could tell that he hated the idea of receiving help from anyone. She almost felt sorry for him, but remembered toward the end of her fourth year and his fifth year at Hogwarts how he had taken such pleasure in trying to expel her and several other Gryffindors. The Bat Bogey Hex she'd placed on him had been brilliant. A small grin snaked its way across Ginny's face. It didn't matter about Draco's dignity at the moment; his life was more important… that stupid Slytherin toad-rat.
"You sure you want to do this?" Evra asked Harry. "Your redheaded mate over there looks like he has more energy to spare."
Ron made a face that looked as though he was pouting and Harry grimaced. "Just tell me what I have to do. The sooner I do this, the sooner we can leave." Harry said.
Draco's eyes were still closed.
"Right then," Evra continued. "Place your wand to his heart."
Harry positioned his wand an inch above Draco's chest, but Evra nearly jabbed the wand into Draco's body, the surprise causing Draco's eyes to fly open.
"I said to place it to his heart! Not hover, not float, but place!"
"Yeah, sorry," Harry muttered.
"Good for nothing…" Draco had trailed off and started mumbling a colorful string of words most likely about Evra.
The snakeman ignored Draco and continued to counsel Harry. "Listen carefully and then commence. Do not lift your wand off of him. Trace a circle around his heart with your wand then say Thoma keh ahmee theeboe akón! Make sure you greatly emphasize the akón. You'll feel a slight jolt as though you were using a Port Key, and you may feel a bit weary but you should expect that since this is a very advanced spell… but that's all the spell book said." Evra scratched his nose while he thought about the spell but suddenly stopped scratching as though he'd abandoned thinking about it. "Any questions?"
"No," Harry stuttered a bit, answering as though he were asking a question.
"Great. You?" Evra asked Draco.
"Let's tango," he grumbled.
"Fantastic! Let's do it then! Everyone else, back away— no, you, stuck on the wall… you can stay there since we can't really move you yet… just stay close to the wall."
Ginny had an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach and looked to the opposite side of the room at Ron for comfort, but he was too busy looking at his best friend. Harry looked awfully aloof at the moment. She could tell by his furrowed brows that he was a bit nervous about conducting this spell, but he also looked rather groggy. She remembered Hermione had talked to her about how she'd been worried about Harry's recent changes, but Ginny hadn't noticed until now.
It was strange, but looking at Harry and Draco at that moment, probably two of the brightest wizards in their class and also the two most opposing people in their class, Ginny noticed that these two were so alike. Both were built tall and slender, each had the same piercing gaze and the same elegant way of doing things. Though Harry's hair was far messier and darker than Draco's, both boys' hair seemed to lay in the same lazy fashion right now— damp with sweat, fringe dangling just above the eyes.
Yet they differed in so many ways as well. Draco seemed so tense all the time as though he were trying to hide everything from view, even when holding his wand he'd grip it so hard that the knuckles of his left hand would turn white. But Harry tried to go about everything in a relaxed fashion. He held his wand in his write hand as though he were shaking hands and when Harry was angry, you knew he was angry; when he was happy, you knew he was happy.
Those were just the minute and trivial things Ginny had noticed… was it really okay for two people that were so different to be mixing their powers? No… Ginny thought to herself, they're not really too different. She had compared them herself! But why did she have a bad feeling about this?
If Ginny had any opposition, it was too late; when she reeled back into reality, she eyed Harry just in time to see his wand begin to trace the circle around Draco's chest. She looked at Draco and he lay as still as possible, his mouth pursed shut and his nostrils flared as he breathed heavily, his eyes following Harry's wand at all times.
Harry's wand finally returned to the original spot it had been touching on Draco's white shirt. He took a deep breath and began the incantation. "Thoma keh ahmee theeboe akón!"
Harry put great and loud emphasis on the last word of the spell as he was instructed to do. This was followed by a pregnant pause that seemed to last an eternity but moments later, Harry felt his wand begin to vibrate.
Draco felt Harry's wand and he opened his mouth slightly to gasp, but it turned into a groan and then a scream. A large radius of glowing black light began to emit from Harry's wand and Harry was beginning to feel dizzy— not dizzy like spinning in circles, but dizzy like he was going to be sick. Harry tried to pull his wand off of Draco, but it would not budge.
Ginny looked past the two and saw that Ron and Hermione were staring on horror-struck. When she looked back at Harry and Draco, she could not see them; the glowing black light had completely surrounded the boys and Evra, Ron, and Hermione were on the other side. What was going on in there?
At first the strength was leaving through Harry's arm into Draco's chest quite slowly, but suddenly, Harry felt his strength surge out of him— he felt as though all his power, energy, strength, everything inside of him was flooding into Draco. He had to make this stop— he felt like he might die!
Harry had had his eyes closed the whole while, but he finally opened his eyes when his ears began ringing. He looked down at Draco and was shocked when he realized his ears had not been ringing— Draco had been screaming! Malfoy's eyes were large, open and circular; his pallor made him look nearly translucent and his mouth was open gruesomely wide. It looked as though Malfoy was worse off than Harry was at the moment.
Harry continued trying to pull his wand away from Draco. This spell seemed to have been in effect for hours, but a mere minute at the most had passed by. Teeth gritted and face screwed up with concentration, Harry pulled hard again, but he only managed to knee Draco's side. As he readjusted his hand and gripped harder, Harry's brilliant green eyes flicked open and an idea like a candle in the dark emerged in his mind. He didn't need to pull the wand off Malfoy; he just needed to get his hand off his wand!
He tried to take his fingers off his wand, but it was like Harry's fingers were metal and were attracted to his magnetic wand. Every time he tried to pull his wand away or release his fingers, he was also using up strength. This would have to be an all or nothing attempt. Mustering every bit of strength he could find in himself, Harry slowly pried his shaking fingers off the wand. Just as his last finger left the wooden hilt of the wand, both Harry and Draco screamed louder as the black light began to waver. Then unexpectedly, the light gathered together and rammed into Harry! Harry shot back away from Draco and his crash landing was cushioned by whomever it was he had landed on.
Harry's head was aching now and he didn't want to, or maybe he couldn't open his eyes.
"Harry!" he heard. "Harry! If you're all right, mind getting off me?"
"Ron! He is NOT all right! He wouldn't be laying on you if he was fine!" Hermione yelled. Harry felt his head bounce slightly on Ron's chest; Hermione had whacked Ron across the back of his head. Harry's eyes were still closed but he felt Hermione's slender fingers brushing aside the hair on his forehead. "Harry? Harry, can you hear me?"
"Or me? The one pinned to the wall by Harry the Boulder?" Ron wheezed.
Harry groggily came back to his senses. He rolled his head side to side very slowly and finally blinked his eyes open. He was drenched in sweat, shaking, and felt totally drained of his strength.
"Okay! Up we go!" Harry saw Hermione's bushy head whiz past his eyes in a blur of colors and felt two strong hands put him on his feet. "Can you stand?" It was Evra. Evra had placed his hands under Harry's arms and had pulled him up. Unexpectedly, Evra let go of him to see if Harry could stay on his feet.
To Harry, his legs felt like toothpicks that were asked to support a tree. As his right leg began to buckle, Harry stepped out with his left leg hoping it would hold his body's weight, but as that leg began to buckle as well, he bumped into the wall and tried standing still, but teetered dangerously before he finally fell onto someone. He felt fuzzy hair on his neck; Hermione had caught him.
Hermione scowled at Evra. "Harry, sit down," she said soothingly. There was nothing else Harry really cared about at the moment so he did as he was told. He sat against the wall and began breathing slowly. He felt it was good to catch his breath first before trying to stand up again.
Hermione had kneeled down to help Harry into a sitting position but sprang right back up when he was situated. "Evra Von, what the bloody hell was that all about?"
"Hermione!" Ron gasped at her language.
"It was Dark Magic, that's what it was," Draco's icy voice hissed. A round of collective gasping could be heard at this news.
Draco had managed to sit up on his own, but he still looked very pale. In any case, he looked better than Harry, who still seemed drowsy.
"Potter, you're drooling," Draco pointed out.
"Don't you say a bloody damn word!" Hermione growled at Draco. "Sit and heal! Harry wouldn't be like this," she flung out an arm toward Harry who was in fact drooling, "if it hadn't been for you!"
"Oh? So it's my fault for becoming a vampire without knowing it, Mudblood?"
"You're not a vampire yet and yes, this is all your stupid fault, so shut it!" Hermione barked, choosing to ignore his snide remarks. Then she rounded on Evra. "What in Merlin's name was this supposedly Dark Magic spell?" Hermione was breathing loudly through her mouth and her face was red.
Evra raised his eyebrows at Hermione's shocked reaction. "It's exactly what I told you it was. He has some strength now," he said, pointing to Draco who was now sitting up without help from the wall.
Hermione closed her eyes and pursed her lips in frustration then opened her eyes again. "And this was black magic?" She asked.
"No," Evra answered.
"But he just said—"
"Oh yes it was Dark Magic!" Ginny cut Hermione off. Though she was still attached to the wall, she chose to stand up now. She stomped her foot and declared, "If anyone, I would know what Dark Magic is!"
"Oh?" Evra said, interested. He clapped his hands together and sat down cross-legged in one swift motion. "Story time!" He chimed.
"Story time my arse!" Ron suddenly stood up, fists clenched. He had been kneeling beside Harry wiping drool and sweat off his face, trying to get him back to normal. "If Ginny says it's Dark Magic, it's Dark Magic! Explain yourself you good for nothing, yellow-bellied, scaly—"
"Ron, calm down," Hermione put a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down?" Ron whirled around almost whacking Hermione in the face.
"Yes, look, I can try to use some healing magic on him and then—"
"Hermione, you were just yelling at the toadman over here and now you want me to calm down?" Hermione stared at Ron and he stared back, his cheeks full with color. "And your spells won't work very efficiently against Dark Magic!" Ron had calmed down enough to use a normal voice now.
"We don't even know if it was Dark Magic—"
"Hermione, Ginny was possessed by You-Know-Who! I think her opinion on the matter might overrule yours or anyone else's."
"I know, but— Where do you think you're going?" Hermione whipped out her wand and with a wave, a golden string of light zipped across the room, wrapped itself around Evra's waist and brought him next to Hermione. "Why are you trying to leave?"
Evra rubbed the back of his neck with a slimy hand and chuckled. "I wasn't leaving! I was just walking around while the lovebirds sorted out their arguments!"
Both Hermione and Ron went red in the face and this seemed to have jerked Harry back to his senses a bit. Hermione gripped her wand harder. "One last time," she warned. "Was it Dark Magic or not?"
"Oh fine! Yes, it was! But I wasn't lying! You asked at first if it was black magic and no such term exists. So there." He motioned towards Harry whose head wasn't lolling around anymore. "The kid probably hasn't ever used Dark Magic before, so that's why it's affecting him like that—"
"What? You think they go around teaching us the Dark Arts at school?" Ron asked sarcastically.
"Only if you ask nicely," Draco added in. He was standing up now, but leaning on the wall unnoticeably, hands characteristically stuffed in his trouser pockets.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "How long until Harry's back to normal?" She asked.
"Twelve minutes and twelve seconds since he started the spell," Evra and Draco said in unison.
Ron arched an auburn eyebrow. "And you've used Dark Magic before?"
"Just on stupid animals and house elves and centaurs and stuff," Draco said in a matter-of-fact tone. "It takes a lot out of you, really, but once you get used to it, it's not so bad." He shrugged his shoulders as Ron looked at him with even greater disgust. Hermione had gasped aloud at his remark on using Dark Magic on house elves.
There was silence as Draco and Ron glared at each other, but Evra had suddenly gotten back onto his feet again. "Anyone have smelling salts?"
"I can conjure some," Hermione said, realizing what the snakeman was getting at. With a wave of her wand, a small square-shaped object that appeared to be damp appeared in Hermione's hand with a faint popping sound accompanying it's entrance.
She stuffed her wand back into her robe pockets and slowly waved it around Harry's nose. Moments later, Harry's eyes were wide open and his face was turning a violent shade of green. "Oh dear, too much!" She tapped the object with her and the smelling salts disappeared. Then she went back to her friend. "Harry? Can you sit up all right?"
Harry coughed a bit and his face was still reacting to the horrible smell. "When did you last wash your socks, Ron?"
"Those were not my socks!" Ron protested.
"Could've been," Draco said, crossing his arms over his chest.
Ron glared at him but turned back towards Harry as he heard a rustling noise. "Harry! Are you sure you can stand up?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," Harry groaned, accidentally pushing too hard on Hermione's shoulder as he got onto his feet.
"So all that yelling could've been spared if you had just told Hermione she could magic some smelling salts in here—"
"Oh, dear Godric!"
"What?" Ron and Ginny said.
"Draco, where are we?" Hermione asked.
"The dungeons," Draco answered as bluntly as he could.
"Is this your house?" She asked. "No, it's Weasley's," Draco spat. "What're you getting at, Granger?"
Ron noticed Hermione was biting her bottom lip; she always bit her bottom lip when thinking so with much effort he held back his response to Draco's ridicule. "Draco, your house is mentioned in Ancient Dwellings: Dark and Dreary Edition, and Mullet-head Manors and Mansions!"
"Marvelous," Draco said dully.
Hermione furrowed her brows. "The Hogwarts grounds are near here and an enchantment has been placed upon the school so that no one can apparate or disapparate from there. In 382 BC, an early Malfoy stretched the enchantment to a portion of his house: the dungeons. He modified it a bit so that prisoners could not do magic… but I just conjured some smelling salts! And," Hermione pointed her wand at Ginny's arm. "Alohomora!" The lock around Ginny's arm burst open and Ginny gratefully cradled her arm and thanked Hermione with a smile. "We're able to do magic in here!"
Everyone was silent and busy looking either at Hermione's mystified face or Ginny's freed arm.
"You're a freak, y'know that? You spend your time memorizing pointless books like that—?"
Hermione gasped again, coincidentally in the middle of what Draco was saying. "Harry! Professor Dumbledore disapparated from of his office the other day!"
"Granger, you're smart, I'll give you that, but a bit mad."
Harry ignored Draco. "Hermione, are you sure? When did this happen?"
"Of course I'm sure! Why would I make up something like this? It was the day I went to see him… about you… and he disapparated to go—"
Hermione went white in the face.
"To go what?" Ron asked.
"I'm sure I remember it clearly! He said he was going to go play Exploding Snap with Mr. Crouch! Mr. Barty Crouch!"
"He received the Dementor's Kiss a couple years or so ago," Ginny said. "He's dead."
"So we thought," Draco added with a puzzled look on his face.
Everyone in the cell followed Draco's gaze to the entrance of the cell where a young looking man stood looking rather arrogant— but in Malfoy Manor, who didn't look arrogant? He was of average height, had finely groomed dark brown hair, a youthful face, and a sinister grin. He wore beige trainers with vertical stripes down the fabric and a darker tawny-colored dress shirt; the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.
With a sharp intake of breath, Hermione gasped aloud, "Barty Crouch!"
"But you're supposed to be dead!" Ron insisted.
Mr. Crouch chuckled and invited himself into the room. His ominous cackling continued when he suddenly stopped and looked up sharply towards Ron. "Same to you." A fleeting instant later, Barty Crouch had whipped out a wand from the back pocket of his pants and it was pointed straight at Ron's heart.
"What're you—?"
Crouch ignored whoever it was that had spoken aloud and began his incantation. "Avada—"
Author's Note: Yes, this is the part Eiko will be wringing my neck for. What will happen to our precious Ronnikins? Well, I was evil not to tell you… Oh well! I guess I'll stay evil. >D Not really anything else to say about this chapter… it was rather odd to me how I spent eight pages on one scene… *stares* Um… hope it turned out nice. :)
Cultural Note: The words in the Dark Magic spell Harry conducted are Bengali. I speak the language, so I would know! ^_^ Thoma keh ahmee theeboe akón means, "I will give you now". Simple, short, and somewhat appropriate for the spell. Now you know! :)
Chapter 11: Nothing major happens in the next chapter, except for some character interaction and a few laughs. It's a nice, funny chapter, in my opinion. But that's just what we need after all these 'deep' chapters, eh?
And thanks so much to all commenters! Kudos and props to Erika, Lily Among the Thorns-89, Eiko, Jonah, Bubble, Yuna, and bitchy brunette! All the comments were so nice!! XD