"In My Life"
Chapter 12
The secret door closed behind her and Hermione quickly hid her wand behind her back as muggles surrounded her. Forcing a smile at those who were looking at her curiously, Hermione tried to casually back up against the secret door in the wall. As hard as Hermione tried to listen to what Lucius was saying in the kitchen, the loud talk of the guests made it impossible.
Hermione looked around the wall for a crack, a keyhole, something she could listen through. To her great frustration, the door was incredibly well-concealed. The only way anybody would even be able to tell there was a door there was to look very closely at where the wall met the floor. There was a very slim crack there, but this was of no use to Hermione, who couldn't very well lie down on floor with so many onlookers.
"Damn!" she swore, glaring at the crack. And then, quite suddenly, she had an idea. Casually leaning against the wall, Hermione dropped her wand to the floor and pushed it with her foot until about half of her wand was under the door. On the pretense of wiping a piece of dirt off of her pants, Hermione allowed her hand to touch her wand as she muttered "Ennervate."
Standing quickly and pocketing her wand, Hermione could only pray that it had worked and that someone would hear Lucius's backup plan on the other side of the door.
Draco felt conciousness return to him and opened his eyes slowly. He had somehow ended up on the floor in the kitchens. Someone was standing above him, talking loudly. He looked up, and realizing that it was his father, closed them again quickly. If he concentrated, he could just make out what Lucius was saying.
"How many of you can manage the killing curse?" He asked the servants around him. From the muttering and shuffling of feet that Draco heard, he guessed that only a few of them could. He was right; when he opened his eyes the tiniest bit, he saw only Gerard, William, Vincent, Carl, and Hector raising their hands. "One, two, three, four, five of you? Is that it?" asked Lucius. "Well, I suppose it will have to do. Alright then, I was hoping to finish them all off at once with the champagne, but seeing as that plan has been ruined"--Draco felt his father's glare--"our only option seems to be Avada Kedavra, which, quite obviously, will arouse panic in the guests, as there are only six of us and over a hundred of them, meaning they will have to witness one another's murders, something I had hoped we could avoid." Lucius drew a deep breath and continued. "We will start at midnight. The doors to the ballroom will all be magically sealed by then so none of the guests will be able to escape. If all goes well, the Dark Mark should be in the sky and we will all be long gone by two. Any questions?" There was a silence as Lucius looked around, then a servant spoke.
"Sir, what about Master Draco and Violetta Lestrange? What shall become of them, sir?"
"I will wait for a response from Rodolphus to see what to do about our supposed 'Violetta Lestrange.' As for Draco, just leave him there, he's not going anywhere soon." Lucius chuckled and walked briskly out of the kitchens to rejoin his guests. The servants then rapidly got back to work, serving hors d'oeuvres and pouring glasses of fine wines to give to guests.
Draco waited until all the servers and chefs were too busy dealing with their own tasks to notice his disappearance. He then slid carefully into the shadows and down a set of steps that led to the dungeons.
The dungeons were horribly dark under this section of the manor and Draco found himself tripping often on his way to the south stairs. Eventually, he reached the stairwell and started up it quickly, as it was already eleven-thirty. He reached the first floor and opened the door, which led into a small but elegant side hallway.
Draco ran down the hallway and opened a small wooden door that led into the crowded ballroom. Thankfully there were no servants nearby, and Lucius was not to be seen. Draco casually made his way through the crowd to the other side, where he finally found Hermione. She immediately rushed over to him.
"Draco, I'm so sorry! I missed! I didn't mean to hit you, I was aiming for Lucius, but he moved, and I'm sorry!" Tears were welling up in her eyes once again and she suddenly reached out and gave Draco a fierce hug, one that held relief, apology, anxiety, and fear. Draco found himself trying to comfort her while leading her to a less crowded corner where they might not raise as many suspicions. Hermione loosened her tight embrace on Draco to look into his eyes. "And now they think I'm Violetta Lestrange because I thought they were going to imprison me or--or kill me." She sniffled. "And now they've owled Rodolphus Lestrange to ask him if he really has a daughter named Violetta, and then they'll find us and who knows what will happen?" She said hopelessly.
Draco nodded and began to think about their options. They only had about twenty-five minutes before Lucius came in and started murdering his unknowing guests. "Well, I don't know how long it will take for Rodolphus to reply, but Lucius is going to come in here with five others at midnight and start killing everyone off with Avada Kedavra."
Hermione's eyes widened. "What?" she said, shocked, "But, that's even worse than the poisoned champagne! Lucius is a Death Eater! Shouldn't he know horrible dark curses that kill off thirty people at once, or something?"
Draco blinked. "No," he said simply, "There's only one curse that is strictly for killing--Avada Kedavra. Others can kill you, of course, but you'd die from blood loss or some weird hex that rearranged your insides or something"--Hermione gasped at this, horrified,--"but Avada Kedavra's the only curse that will kill merely for the sake of killing and leave no trace. It's like your life just ends for no apparent reason, that's what makes it so horrible, and that's why it's an Unforgivable Curse and others aren't."
Hermione wasn't entirely sure that she understood, but she nodded. "So, do you know who the other five are? The people who are going to help Lucius at midnight?"
Draco thought, straining to remember. "There was Vincent and Carl…then, er, Hector…and, yes, Gerard too…and the last one was…" Draco tried to remember the faces of the five servants who could perform Avada Kedavra. "William."
"Good, at least we know who we're after," said Hermione. "But we'll have to get out of here to do anything about it…preferably before they lock the doors."
"Right," said Draco, and he led her to the door that he had come in. They left as casually as they could, hoping that no one would suspect their leaving. "Alright, what now?" Draco asked when they were safely outside in the small hallway.
"Where do you think those five people you mentioned--"
"Carl, William, Vincent, Hector, and Gerard?"
"Yes, them. Where do you think they are right now?" When Draco looked at her quizzically, she explained her plan, "If we can stun those five and Lucius before midnight, we might have a chance of getting everyone out of here safely without arousing too many suspicions." She looked at her watch. "Twenty minutes." She said.
"Okay, the quickest way to the kitchens is through the dungeons," said Draco, leading the way.
They made it to the kitchens without incident (except for Hermione shrieking loudly when a spider crawled up her arm). However, when the reached the kitchens and had found an appropriate hiding place, it became quite clear that Draco's absence from the floor had not gone unnoticed for long, and the servants were arguing about who was to tell Lucius.
"It's not my fault he got away!" said one of them. "Master Malfoy knows I'm a squib."
"I don't even know what Miss Lestrange did to him, so I obviously couldn't cure him!" said another.
A few of the servants seemed extremely uninterested in what had happened to Draco and continued about their business as if nothing had happened. Draco told Hermione that Carl and William were the two leaning over a plate of what looked like calamari, adding finishing touches. Hector was opening a fresh bottle of red wine to serve and Vincent was sautéing mushrooms on a stove across the room. Gerard was nowhere to be found, so Hermione and Draco presumed that he was in the ballroom, probably guarding an exit or talking with Lucius.
Hector was walking quickly towards where Hermione and Draco were hiding in the shadows and Hermione chose that moment to act. "Stupefy," she whispered as he passed with the open wine bottle. Before the servant could come crashing to the floor, Draco caught him and pulled him swiftly into their hiding place. Hermione caught the wine bottle before it shattered on the stone floor, but some of the wine sloshed anyway. The two looked around the kitchen quickly to see if anyone had noticed Hector fall behind a refrigerator. No one had.
Draco told Hermione that he'd be back in a second and dragged Hector down the stairs to the dungeons. Hermione looked at the wine bottle in her hands and shrugged, taking a sip. Maybe it would make their situation seem less hopeless. To Hermione's great frustration, it didn't.
Draco reappeared after a minute or two, but at first Hermione did not recognize him; he had stolen Hector's serving clothes and the small hat that Hector always wore concealed his brilliant blonde hair.
Hermione tried very hard not to laugh as Draco took the wine bottle from her hands and winked at her. "I'll try to stop the other servants from telling my father about my disappearance. Can you try and stun Carl, William, and Vincent if they pass? I'll be back soon."
"Okay," said Hermione shakily, determined to keep a straight face.
Draco went over to the others, who were still arguing about who should tell Lucius that his supposedly stunned son was gone. "Tell you vat," He said in a perfect imitation of Hector, "I vill go tell Meester Malfoy abut Draco, okey?"
"Yeah, you go Hector," said one of the others.
"Yes, he likes you," said another.
Hector nodded and cast a swift look in Hermione's direction before stepping out into the ballroom.
Hermione waited patiently for one of the other three to walk past. It was a while before one of them did. It was Carl, and, thankfully, he wasn't carrying anything. "Stupefy," Hermione whispered as he past. She reached out a hand to slow his fall, but quickly withdrew it into the shadows when she heard a voice coming from across the kitchen.
"Hey, what happened to Carl?" asked William, walking quickly to where Hermione was hiding.
"Shit!" Hermione muttered, trying to get down the stairs to the dungeon before she was seen.
"Hey! Miss Lestrange! What are you doing in here?" asked William, spotting her.
Hermione turned around and tried to look innocent. "Looking for Lucius. Have you seen him?"
Right at that moment, Lucius himself walked through the secret door. "Five minutes until midnight. Get ready."