Kelly was hanging to her thestrals' hind leg with one hand, her right grasping her left shoulder, which was bleeding freely. Harry looked around for the cause of the blood. As he looked to his left, he quickly ducked a yellow spell, just missing him. Another was thrown at Kelly's feet, since that was the only part the hexer could see.

"KELLY! LIFT YOUR FEET!"

Kelly complied immediately, though the pain showed on her face. She lifted up her feet and the spell flew under her. Her thestral, however, was getting tired. It looked at her and jolted its hind legs in protest. Kelly screamed again, but managed to hold on.

"I'm trying!" Kelly yelled to her thestral.

Harry pulled back on his thestral, making it turn around. He tried to direct it toward Kelly, but flew right past her. He turned around again, and this time managed to get the thestral under her. Kelly carefully let go and fell on the thestral behind him. She grabbed his waist nervously, then moaned in pain. She took her left arm off his waist, and Harry grabbed her right, which was still around him, refusing to let go. If she fell off….

Harry looked around for Kelly's thestral, but it had turned around and was now a little black dot in the darkness, soon to be disappearing.

The thestral quickly sloped down and started speeding toward a dark area, where there were blurry lights, half covered by trees. He heard Kelly shift behind him, bracing herself for an impact, but he squeezed her hand lightly and she relaxed. The thestral touched the ground light as a shadow.

Kelly took her hand off Harry, and Harry jumped off. He turned around back toward her and helped her down. "You okay?"

Kelly removed her right hand, which she had put over her left shoulder. Her robes near the shoulder had turned red. "Oh yes, fine," she said, grinning slightly, putting her hand back. "Do you know the spell?"

"To heal you?" Harry asked. Kelly nodded. "Sorry."

Kelly nodded again, in understanding. She took her hand off again and reached into her robes. "Please still be there…" she muttered. Harry reached into his own pocket. His wand was there. "Yes!"

Kelly took out her wand and pointed it at her shoulder. "Frienta!"

Her shoulder immediately complied. The skin covered itself back up, though the blood that had already flowed out remained. Kelly took a deep breathe of air and sighed. "Now that is better!" she said, putting her wand back into her robes.

Harry nodded and turned to look at the building where the thestral had landed. A dark, gray manor stood before them, and manor was quite an understatement. Not near as large as a castle, but certainly larger then a regular manor, Draco Malfoy's seven-story home stood before them.

The trees surrounding the place were probably a very large forest that the Malfoy's hid themselves in. Some of the windows were shut, some open with curtains covering the room within. There was no driveway, and then Harry remembered that they probably didn't even know what a car was.

Harry looked at Kelly, but she was looking at a window, and almost glaring at it. Harry followed her gaze, and saw the curtains sway, like someone had just left them.

"Our presence is known," Kelly said, though she hadn't needed to.

Harry nodded. "Let's go."

They started walking toward the house, wands out and ready, not sure what to expect or where the first challenge would take place. Now that Voldemort knew they were here, he'd surely have someone ready to strike.

Kelly took a glance at her watch. "Ten o'clock!"

Harry neared the front porch, and still there was no one to greet them with a flurry of spells. He didn't like this at all. He was entering enemy turf with no clue where he was going or what to expect.

Kelly seemed to know exactly what she was doing, however. She walked straight up to the front porch and did, what Harry thought, was the stupidest thing anyone had done all night. She knocked on the door.

They stood there and waited, for what, Harry thought neither of them knew. There was silence except for the whistling of the wind which made the eeriness impenetrable. They waited on the front porch, glancing at each other for a split second if they dared. The snake-shaped doorknocker seemed to be glaring at them, as if telling them to go away without words.

A thud came inside. Both their eyes immediately turned to the door. Someone's footsteps sounded toward the door. They held their wands up high and pointed them at the door, thinking of the best spell to use. Before Harry had decided, however, the door opened.

Lucius Malfoy, his blonde hair jelled back, was standing at the door, smiling at them in a rather strained sort of way, like he was trying to be friendly, though failing miserably. Harry doubted he'd ever smiled like this in his life. Kelly and Harry glanced at each other. Neither were about to let their guard down.

"Come in, come in! We've been waiting…" Lucius said menacingly.

Kelly pointed her wand so close to Malfoy's face Harry thought she was about to shove it up his nose. "Where are they?" she asked sternly.

"Oh, come in and you shall see…" Lucius replied.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" Harry yelled, his sudden temper surprising even himself.

Lucius looked up at him. "They, if you mean the weasel and bookworm, are waiting to be rescued. I'd hurry… you don't have much time to waste…."

"And what's to stop us from cursing you now?" Kelly asked, an edge in her voice.

"Well, if you curse me, the Dark Lord says you'll need to say goodbye to your friends a little sooner than planned." Lucius smirked. "Oh, please hex me!"

Kelly glared at him so furiously that any braver man than Lucius Malfoy would have ran and hid. Lucius backed away, uncertain if she would really curse him, and opened the door, bowing them inside.

Kelly stomped in, kicking Lucius in the stomach, and reminding him that it was only if she hexed him that they would kill Ron and Hermione early, and beckoned Harry inside. Harry followed hurriedly. It seemed that Kelly could play just as dirty as any Death Eater if she really needed to, but only when she was close to infuriation, which Harry had thought that no fool would be dumb enough to do. Apparently, he was wrong.

"Where to?" Kelly asked impatiently.

"Wherever you wish…" Lucius said, smirking as he held his stomach.

Kelly had halfway raised her wand, then turned around, infuriated that she couldn't hex him, kicking a bucket in her anger. The bucket leaped away, and grew arms and legs, grabbed the mop, and started swinging it at them.

Kelly didn't even bother with her wand. She stomped forward, grabbed the mop, snapped it in half, and kicked the bucket so far it burst through a window. The two halves of the mop grew into two mops instead, and as Harry turned around to see what Lucius was thinking of this, he saw the man leaving, smirking so viciously Harry felt it should be fined. When he turned back around, the mops were on fire, and Kelly was tapping her foot in impatience, staring at him.

"Kelly, take a chill pill," Harry advised.

Kelly stopped tapping her foot. "I'm just… stressed."

"Calm down. We'll get there in time. Where to now?"

"Upstairs?" Kelly asked. Harry nodded, and they started up.

The stairs creaked beneath them, and cobwebs actually littered the place, reminding Harry of a house he'd seen in a dream--the Riddle House. For such a place that Malfoy boasted about, it was quite unkempt. Harry imagined that the loss of Dobby the House-Elf had made quite an impact, but he hadn't imagined one this size. Maybe it was only because Voldemort and his Death Eaters now inhabited the place….

"HARRY, LOOK OUT!"