Chapter 1, Part 2

Title: Harry Potter Battle Royale: Chapter 1, Part 2
Authors: Pernod Gilmore
Rating: R

Summary: Pitched against each other, and fighting for their lives, how will the students of Hogwarts respond?


Chapter summary: Draco finds himself faced with his first kill…

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoat Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

The air was thick with smoke and frenzied shouts. At first Draco thought he'd landed in the middle of a battle. He ducked, taking advantage of the puny shelter of a nearby shrub. Once out of sight, he chanced a look around. He appeared to have come out in a large clearing. The noise was away to his right. He could see vague figures running, but he couldn't make out who they were.

"Draco!"

A low, gruff voice called out his name. He couldn't tell where it was coming from and he ignored it anyway. He wanted to look through his backpack and to do that he needed shelter. This was far too vulnerable a position to stay in for long. He slung his bag over one shoulder and, keeping low to the ground, made a bee-line for the trees. He threw himself behind the nearest one in time to hear -

"Draco!"

The voice was much closer this time. He looked up. As luck would have it, he had stumbled into a nest of Slytherins. Crabbe, Goyle and Pansy stared at him with wide eyes.

"Bloody hell, Draco!" Pansy's voice was high-pitched and breathless. "It's really messed up out there." Her face gleamed with a repulsive excitement.

Stifling a grimace, Draco rolled onto his knees and unzipped his bag. Just my luck! I get stuck with this lot right from the start. May as well make use of them.

"Who's around? Is anyone dead yet? Have you spoken to anyone?" He fired questions at them as he rummaged.

"I got here first," answered Pansy. "It was quiet, but then more people arrived. Some of them were really panicking and started arguing. When they all remembered they had weapons things turned nasty. I don't know if anyone is dead yet, though."

"Why aren't you fighting?" Draco stopped his search to look at her.

"It's too confused out there. You're more likely to be hit than hit someone in all the commotion. I say we find somewhere safer to work out a plan."

"We? You're suggesting we work together on this?" Great, a fucking group activity! Last one to kill a classmate is a Flobberworm.

"For the meantime, at least. It's a good idea. We'll get further." Pansy met his eyes steadily.

Damn she can be cold sometimes, though that's no bad thing right now. And she does have a point. Draco scowled. So may people made the mistake of thinking he liked his housemates. As if I could like anyone with an IQ lower than a Troll. However, it appeared unavoidable that he would have to suffer their company for a while. He clenched his teeth.

"Right. Crabbe? Goyle? What are your weapons?"

"Club."

"Axe."

Hmmm. Apt.

"Pansy?"

"My wand."

Draco bit the inside of his lip. Smug bitch. That was exactly what he had been hoping for. Forcing down a pang of worry, he upended his bag onto the ground and stared at the contents. For a moment he didn't register what his eyes were telling him. Nothing! There was no weapon there at all, just some food and water.

That can't be right! All the blood rushed down his body and pooled somewhere around his knees, leaving him temporarily blind with dizzy panic. There must be some mistake. He scrabbled amongst the items, hysteria rising faster than was pretty.

Pansy pounced on something.

"Oh, look! You got your wand too. For a minute there I couldn't see it in the grass. Wouldn't that have been funny, if you'd had no weapon at all?" She giggled. Draco snatched the wand rather viciously from her hand. He was drenched in cold sweat and his heart was pounding. But he took a breath and closed his eyes in relief, choosing to ignore the fact that he had nearly just lost control.

Smooth, Draco. What next? Screaming like a Hufflepuff?

"Listen." Pansy put out her hands to hush everyone. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" grunted Crabbe.

"Nothing. That's what I mean. It's gone quiet. Fuck, this is creepy. What do you think is happening?"

Draco tensed at the silence, listening for all he was worth.

"AHHHHHHHH!"

A sudden scream rent the air, sharp and terrified. Hearing it was like being pierced by countless needles. Draco couldn't sit still and listen to it. He stood up.

"I'm going to look. The rest of you stay here."

"But I want to see – "

"I mean it, Pansy. Wait."

Draco stuck his wand into his waistband, scooped the rest of his stuff into his bag and ducked into the Forest. He made his way cautiously along the right curve of the clearing, keeping to the shadows of the trees. The screaming went on, but not as loud as before. Now it was rather more sobbing and wailing. He got as close as he thought was necessary to the source of the noise and tentatively peeked round a large oak.

What he saw would have shocked him, if he hadn't been a Malfoy. A small group of agitated Hufflepuffs stood near the body of a dead classmate. No one seemed to want to go near it. Loyalty wanes fast when it's a fight to the death, Draco noted wryly.

One boy stood a little away from the others holding a crossbow limply at his side. His eyes were fixed on the corpse. The rest of them were arguing loudly.

The dead boy lay on his back with his face turned towards Draco's hiding place. He had one massive arrow lodged in his throat, another in his chest. Blood had bubbled up around the neck wound and trickled in bright red rivulets to the ground. But it wasn't that so much as the expression on his face that was really disturbing. His mouth lolled open in a gruesome reminder of his final desperate gasps for life. A swollen, purplish tongue poked slightly out between his lips. His eyes were wide open and glassy.

The girl who had been screaming knelt at his feet, head bowed in grief.

"Kevin! Kevin!" She shook his legs uselessly, crying hard. "You can't be dead. You can't be. It's not fair."

An older Hufflepuff girl stepped forward and put her arm around the girl's shoulders, lifting her to her feet.

"Elenor, come away dear – "

"Fuck off, Susan!" Elenor shook the arm away. Her voice was hoarse. "Stop trying to be so calm when everything is falling apart. How can you stand there so bloody quietly when HE – " she whirled around pointing at another Hufflepuff boy, " – just killed Kevin. Owen killed Kevin."

Saying the words out loud had an eerie effect on the group. It seemed to make the kill real somehow, as though before there had been hope it was all a ruse. The realisation that it was actually happening settled over them. It bleached away any warm feelings they had for each other.

Taking the initiative, Elenor reached into her robes with both hands. It took Draco a second to see what she had taken out, as her back was turned to him. Two small knives, one in each hand, glittered dangerously in her grip. She prowled around the body.

"Elenor! Don't -"

"Owen, watch out!"

The noise level reached a crescendo as Elenor advanced on Owen. She paused about four feet away from him. Draco couldn't see the expression on her face, but he saw the blank shock on Owen's morph into terror as Elenor stepped forward once more. She spun her body in a full circle to bring all her weight down on the knife in her right hand. Slicing deeply into Owen's neck, she quickly followed up the first hit with another from the knife in her left hand. The second stroke hit his jugular and a hot spray of blood gushed from the wound. He slumped to the ground, rapidly turning paler and paler.

Elenor teetered back, turning to face the others. The front of her uniform was drenched scarlet. At her feet Owen bled quietly to death and all the while she smiled coldly.

Susan threw a panicked look at the remaining girls.

"Hannah? Laura?" Draco heard the catch in her voice.

Hannah looked at her, looked back at Elenor and ran. She grabbed her bag on the way past and disappeared into the Forest. Draco had to duck back behind his tree to avoid being seen. When he looked out again, Susan was biting her lip and dancing from foot to foot. Tentatively, she reached out to Elenor. The younger girl narrowed her eyes. That was enough. Susan turned and fled after Hannah.

"Elenor?" Laura tried one last plea. She didn't seem to hear. Laura licked her lips nervously. "I don't think Owen meant to kill Kevin. He was just panicked and it looked like Kevin was going to attack him. He was running at Owen. We realised too late it was to push him out the way of a spell. I don't even know who cast it, there were too many people -"

"Stop babbling. There's only one way to get through this now. The game's started and it's up to us to finish it."

"Finish it? No. I'm not going to let you kill me. We're friends, housemates. We help each other with homework. We laugh together."

"Not anymore. None of that matters here."

Elenor closed the distance between them and, for the second time, dyed her knife red in a classmate's flesh. Laura stumbled backwards, clutching the wound in her stomach. She gurgled, spluttered blood and pitched forward onto the grass. Elenor remained unmoved.

Now or never. Draco stepped out from behind the tree.

"Nicely done." He dropped his bag and drew his wand. "The world won't miss a few Hufflepuffs and it saves me the trouble."

Elenor still didn't budge. Draco frowned. He could have killed her already, why hadn't she moved? Why haven't you killed her? countered a little voice in the back of his mind. He took an uncertain step closer.

She suddenly lashed out. Draco had to raise his arm quickly to protect his face. Moments later it was searing in pain, split open nearly to the bone. He could feel his heartbeat along the gaping edges of the laceration as blood flowed freely from it, soaking his sleeve.

Letting out an angry roar, he backed away cradling the wound to his chest. Luckily it was his left arm. The other was uninjured and he brandished his wand threateningly.

"Do it." She taunted. "If you don't kill me, I'll kill you. Then another, then another…until this whole sorry mess is over. You have a wand. Why are you even injured? There was no need to get this close. You could have stayed at a nice sanitary distance and done the thing just as well."

Draco curled his lips into a contemptuous sneer. "Where would my manners be if I didn't at least introduce you to your killer?" Witty repartee took a back seat to remaining upright as nausea kicked in. He was beginning to feel cold and shaky. Fuck that hurts!

Elenor regarded him appraisingly for a minute. "I know who you are. You're a Malfoy. Ha! Getting your hands dirty doesn't sit well with the image, does it? Is that why you can't do it? Is that why I, a 3rd year Hufflepuff girl, am beating you at a Slytherin's game…"

"Avada Kedavra."

A dense stream of green light came whooshing past Draco's robes, cutting off the brazen tirade. Elenor was dead before she hit the ground. Her face hadn't even changed its mocking expression.

Draco twisted around, clumsy with blood loss. Pansy stood there, white and shaking with anger. Crabbe and Goyle came lumbering up behind her, carrying the bags.

"Pansy!" Draco exclaimed wrathfully. "I told you to wait. I was handling this."

"How could you let her talk to you like that? Filthy little whore." Pansy walked over and kicked the fallen Hufflepuff.

"I would have done it myself a second later. All you had to do was wait for me."

Pansy looked at him with narrowed eyes. "Do you think I'm stupid, Draco? You took all your stuff with you to 'come and have a look.' I knew you had no intention of coming back. Well I'm not going to let you off as easy as that. We're sticking together for the next few days or until circumstances dictate otherwise."

Draco swayed on his feet. He wouldn't admit he didn't have the strength to argue.

"Shit. Now we need to get you patched up. And we have to move. No more than 8 hours in one place, remember?"

Great. I get Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle to watch my back - a spoiled princess and a couple of gargoyles. How do you fancy your chances, Draco?

Pansy gave him no time to think of a get out solution. She pushed him gently in the direction of the trees. They melted swiftly into the shade of the Forest, leaving the scene of their first slaughter to ripen in the afternoon sun.