"In My Life"
Disclaimer: I own only the plot; the characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 11
The grand staircase Draco was running down opened into the large reception area that he had talked to Gerard and his father in before. Now it was deserted, much to Draco's relief. He looked around quickly before sprinting over to a small wooden door to his left; the entrance to the kitchens.
Steam and the smell of exotic spices filled the large room. Servants and cooks walked briskly around with trays of wonderful appetizers and bottles of wine. Draco closed the door quietly behind him and tried to stay in the shadows as he made his way over to a long wooden table covered in orderly rows of champagne glasses. Half the glasses were already filled and a servant was filling the others. Draco sat as still and quietly as he could, waiting for the servant to finish.
Hermione walked through the small third-floor hallway she had ended up in carefully, listening for the sound of footsteps as she went. It was eerily quiet up there, and the only sounds she could hear were the fast beating of her heart and once in a while a very loud laugh from downstairs.
She had been walking for several minutes and hadn't found a stairwell, much to her frustration. All the small wooden doors around her were locked, and, having no desire to see more of the horrors of Malfoy Manor than she had to, didn't put much effort into opening them. The paint was peeling off of the walls and the carpet below her feet was stained and looked as though it hadn't been properly cleaned in years. After thinking for a while about why such a corridor existed in the Malfoys' home, she came to the conclusion that this was probably the servants' quarters. She felt sympathetic towards the servants as she realized the reason that this hallway was so poorly kept was because the people that lived here were so busy serving the Malfoys and cleaning the other section of the manor that they didn't have time to clean their own hallway and rooms.
Hermione's thoughts about the lives of servants were instantly forgotten when she came across a small spiral staircase at the very end of the hallway. Rapidly descending the steps, she wondered what she would do next. If she just burst into the party panting and claiming that Lucius Malfoy was about to murder them all, who would believe her? They'd all laugh and think it was some sort of joke. She paused at the bottom of the stairs, wondering what she should do. All night she had been running from the Malfoys and their servants, trying to get to the first floor to save the guests, but not once had she thought about how she was going to do it.
Feeling helpless, Hermione sat on the bottom step of the spiral staircase with her head in her hands. Where was Draco now? Where was Lucius Malfoy? She lifted her head quickly and looked around, as if expecting someone to jump out of the shadows. She was in a small room, completely empty except for the staircase. A door stood ajar a few feet from her. Slowly, Hermione rose to her feet and quickly checked to see that no one was just outside the door before stepping out into the hallway.
In contrast with the one upstairs, this corridor seemed to be in perfect condition, full of beautiful marble designs and wooden furniture. Hermione cautiously stepped out onto the carpeted floor and headed towards the cheery voices of the people below her, which she could now hear distinctly.
A beautiful chandelier hung at the end of the hall, illuminating a central area that seemed to lead to the other hallways on the second floor. In the center of the area was a small wooden staircase, which Hermione, upon seeing it, sprinted towards. She leaned over railing, looking down at the party below, which seemed to be in some sort of ballroom. She recognized many of the faces, and tears welled up in her eyes when she thought about what would happen to them if she failed to warn them.
Absorbed in watching the guests below, Hermione failed to notice that a person was standing right behind her.
"Hello, Miss Madison. So glad you could attend," said the cold voice of Lucius Malfoy.
After watching a servant pour the last glass of champagne, some ten or fifteen minutes later, Draco slowly stood up. Everyone in the kitchen was too preoccupied to notice his presence, so Draco approached the long table without question. There was a large cauldron boiling at the end of the table, and the servant was now standing over it and adding a powdered ingredient. The potion, which had formerly been a light gray, suddenly turned a gold color, which must have been a good thing, for the servant looked pleased with himself. Draco waited until the servant had left before grabbing a glass off a nearby countertop and pouring a small amount of the gold potion into it.
Pulling out his wand, Draco used several charms on the potion to try and guess what kind of poison it was. He had just decided that it must have been Lotherium--a complex potion that took several minutes to act and dissolved as soon as the person was dead, leaving behind no trace that he or she was poisoned--when someone tapped him on the shoulder. Spinning around, Draco came face-to-face with his father and Hermione, who was struggling fiercely in Lucius's firm grasp.
Draco looked from his father to Hermione, slowly lowering the sample of Lotherium in his hand. "Let her go." He said calmly.
Lucius smiled evily. "I don't think so. Not yet. You two could have made this night very difficult for me, and I don't plan to make it any easier for you." He paused, eyeing the glass in Draco's hand. "So, Draco, I see you've discovered our Lotherium. The whole plan was quite elaborate. We needed a skilled potion maker for the Lotherium, which is going into the champagne in a few moments. I'd say that it should only be about five minutes after everyone is served that they'll all be, er, eternally asleep." Hermione put more effort into her fight at these words and Draco clenched his fists. Lucius's smile broadened. "After that, it would only be a matter of casting the dark mark into the sky and giving the ministry an anonymous tip to lead them here. Maybe then people will finally realize the immense power the Dark Lord possesses." Though Lucius spoke calmly, his excitement at his own words was evident.
By the end of his father's little speech, Draco's eyes were narrowed to slits and anger was pulsing through his body. There was a second's pause before Draco spoke. "Lotherium," he said, aiming his wand at the bubbling cauldron, "takes six weeks to brew properly, am I right?" Lucius only had a moment to look at his son suspiciously before Draco flicked his wrist and the entire contents of the cauldron vanished.
Draco, in his entire life, had never seen his father so angry. He barely had time to dive under the wooden table before Lucius had hurled his fist at him. "You!" Lucius spluttered, lunging under the table himself, hurling hexes at his son in his uncontrollable rage. "HOW DARE YOU?" Lucius shouted.
The next second, Draco howled in agony as he failed to dodge the Cruciatus Curse sent his way. "Draco!" Hermione shrieked, momentarily forgetting her mixed feelings towards him.
Servants and cooks in the kitchen stopped what they were doing to watch. Draco had stopped screaming, but was looking shaken as he scrambled out from under the other side of the table. Lucius grabbed his ankle and Draco tumbled to the floor with a groan. Champagne glasses crashed down around the fighting pair as the table shook. Lucius's wand was knocked out of his hand by a falling glass, but he managed to grab Draco's. "Avada K--"
"STUPIFY!" Hermione's wand was aimed at Lucius, but he moved at the last second. To her horror, Draco was the one who fell unconscious. Lucius looked surprised for a second, and then laughed horribly when he saw Hermione there, eyes widened in shock at having hit the wrong person.
"Excellent, Miss Madison, thank you very much." Lucius said to laughs from the surrounding servants and cooks. Hermione wasn't moving a muscle, but inside she was panicking. What was she going to do? If she stunned Lucius, would the servants turn against her? Most likely. In the end she decided to put her acting talent to good use.
"You're quite welcome, Mr. Malfoy. Draco was obviously getting in the way of the plan; he nearly foiled it. I daresay it was good I stopped him before he completely wrecked everything." She said casually, lowering her wand. Lucius stared blankly at her.
"But…you…what?" he mumbled, all traces of superiority and confidence lost.
Hermione rolled her eyes as if Lucius could not add two and two together. However, despite her confident appearance, she was frantically searching her brain for somewhere to go with what she had started. None of what she was saying made sense, and she knew it. "Honestly, Lucius. I thought surely you had figured it out by now." When Lucius continued to stare at her blankly, she continued. "Well, in a nutshell, I was appointed by my father to help you with your plan if you needed it. I saw that the biggest problem was Draco, who seemed to be anything but faithful to the Dark Lord, and I took matters into my own hands." Hermione said with a shrug. 'What?!' her mind shrieked. 'None of this holds together!'
Lucius looked at her suspiciously. "And who, may I ask, is your father?"
Hermione thought quickly. She didn't know the names of many Death Eaters, let alone ones with daughters her age. "Er…Rodolphus Lestrange." She said, remembering a time in her years at Hogwarts when she had read something about the Lestranges being sent to Azkaban. Lucius must have been familiar with the name, because his eyes widened for a moment before he continued to squint at her suspiciously. Neither spoke for several seconds while Hermione tried hard not to look guilty.
Eventually, Lucius spoke. "Gerard," he said to a man a few feet to his right, "Please owl Rodolphus. Ask him if he has a daughter named…" He looked at Hermione expectantly.
"Er…Violetta. Violetta Lestrange." Said Hermione, suddenly remembering a painting of violets she had seen on the second floor.
Lucius chuckled coldly. "We shall see. For now, please join my guests. Upon an owl from your 'father,' I will speak to you again." He flicked Draco's wand at the wall and a secret door to the ballroom of guests opened. Hermione chanced a quick look back at Draco, who was still lying unconscious on the floor at Lucius's feet, and joined her fellow cast members.