Brutally Honest

Draco Malfoy

My biggest character flaw is that I act very compulsively at times. For example, when I heard that daddy dearest was looking for me, I panicked. I decided on the first plan I thought up; to leave the cavern and find The Blaze.

Bad idea? Totally. But staying in that godforsaken cave wasn't an option either.

When we left the cavern, the sun was just beginning to rise. The sky was tinted with a gold-pink color that was warm and comforting. At the same time, however, it was scary, since the light was what could ultimately give us away.

"I went this way last time," Ginny whispered. We all followed… she knew better than we did.

We walked in silence for hours. Finally, Granger sat down on the ground. "I need a break."

"There's a clearing in the woods just up there," Ginny pointed. "There's a waterfall and some rocks we could rest on…"

We took her up on that suggestion and found the clearing. I sat on the first rock I came to and Granger sat by the water. "This is becoming more and more of a really bad idea," she said.

"Well, then," Ron scoffed, "what do you and your brilliant mind suggest?"

Granger bit her lip and shook her head. "I don't know! But, come on, Ron! What's wrong with you?"

"Sorry," he regretted, sitting next to her. "I just am not happy right now."

"None of us are," Ginny admitted. "But we have to go somewhere far from here."

"Yeah," I chimed in. "We need to go somewhere that takes months to find."

"The Blaze," Granger said simply. "We need to find it."

"And another thing we need to do," Ginny said slowly, "is rid ourselves of magic."

She then stood up, climbed up the side of the waterfall, and motioned to us to follow her. We all climbed up the cliff… even Granger, who claimed to be so tired. Then Ginny took her wand from her pocket and snapped it in half.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Ron exclaimed, his eyes bulging from his head. "We don't have money for a new one! Mum and Dad will…"

"Don't you get it, Ron?" Ginny chuckled under her breath. "Money doesn't matter. Mum and Dad could be dead," Granger gasped slightly, not wanting to think about it. I couldn't help but think that Ginny was being very blunt. "And magic will only get us hunted down." With those brutally honest words, Weasley Junior tossed the broken shards of her wand off the cliff. They cascaded down into the cold, clear water.

I knew what was going to happen next, and I was prepared. When Weaselette gave her touching little speech, I had taken it upon myself to pick up a pointed stick from the ground. When Granger sighed, reached into her pocket, and snapped her wand in half, I followed. I, however, used the stick. There was no way in hell I was breaking my wand… we didn't even know what we'd find in the forest! Granger smiled at me with her approval, and we let go of the pieces of our wands. Weasley Senior caved in and cracked his wand in half, too.

We then turned our backs on the waterfall and everything we once knew to be our lives. We all knew that things were never going to be the same.

----

Around nightfall, we found another cave where we intended to spend the night. "This cave is a little cleaner than the last one," Granger said with forced optimism. She seemed to be the most miserable out of the four of us.

"Yeah," I snorted. "The other cave didn't have a dead person in it."

"What?" Ginny Weasley asked, clinging to her brother.

"Over here," I said nonchalantly, "there is a dead body."

Granger rose from her seat on the ground and came over to where I was standing. She gasped when she saw the mangled human form on the ground. "Who…?" she trailed off, not wanting to know.

I shrugged. "It's a little hard to tell."

Granger suddenly gasped. "Is that…" she bent over the body. "Oh my god!" She covered her mouth with her hands and looked as though she was about to cry.

"Who is it?" I asked, still not too sure.

"It's Luna Lovegood!"

Ginny Weasley started crying. I rolled my eyes, which caused Granger to mutter, "If I had my wand…"

"Ah, see, but you don't!" I said cheerily. "So, therefore, you can't hex me into oblivion, which I'm sure is what you would have said."

"But, seriously Malfoy! One of our classmates is dead!" Granger said. "Can't you act like a decent human being?"

I thought about this. "No."

She gave a frustrated cry.

"What was Loony—" Granger glared and Ron. "Er… I mean, Luna doing in this cave, anyway?" He asked.

Ginny was still crying. "I was so mean to her when she was alive!"

"Stop wailing," I said firmly. "It doesn't matter, anyway, how you treated her. She's somewhere else now, with her mother."

"Malfoy," Granger said warmly, "that was almost decent!"

I rolled my eyes. "She always used to say that she'd see her dearest mum in the afterlife."

"Speaking of afterlives," Ron interjected, "we're all going to have one if we don't get out of here."

We all looked at him, and he pointed at the Death Eater who was headed toward our cave. "Shit!" I cursed, recognizing the wizard as a man my father was particularly fond of. It was Gregory Goyle's father.

I got off of the log I was sitting on and went to the mouth of the cave. No one followed me, but I knew it wouldn't help if they did… since they didn't have wands.

"Draco!" Goyle said with fake happiness. "Your father will be so pleased to know I found you!"

"Where is he?" I asked casually. "I've been looking for him," I lied.

"Well, Draco, he isn't in the forest! Whatever gave you that idea?" Goyle asked.

"Oh, well, I just thought he'd run away from the Ministry… seeing that they decided to come to the attack and all," it was a risk, making up that Ministry bit, but Goyle bought it.

"Very logical, indeed, Draco!" He praised. "Hang on," he glanced behind me. "Is that Mudblood Granger?"

"Ah, yes," I smirked.

Goyle reached for his wand. "Let me finish her off for you, Draco—"

"No, no," I said slowly. "That won't be necessary. I'm saving her for myself…. for later."

Granger made a face of utmost horror, though I'm sure she was only acting.

"I see," Goyle laughed. "But you must bring her with us, then."

"What?" I asked, not wanting to leave the cave.

"Your father wants to see you as soon as possible, Draco," Goyle explained. "So bring the Mudblood with us while we go find him."

"I'm not going," I said bravely. "I'll find him later."

"No, Draco, you see," he sighed. "I was given very strict orders to come and bring you to your father."

"Well, I'll catch up with him myself, Goyle."

"Draco, don't make me—"

"Stupefy!" I yelled as there was a flash of light.

"Malfoy?" Three voices asked with shock from the back of the cave.

"What in the world was that?" Granger asked, eyeing my wand.

"That was me saving your goddamn life for the third time in two days!" I scoffed. Some people were so ungrateful!

"Not that!" Granger muttered angrily. "Your wand! You still have your wand!"

"Well, obviously," I said, twirling it between my fingers.

She put her hand out and said, "Give it to me."

"No!" I said forcefully. "We can't destroy them all! What if we run into my father… or another Death Eater… or Voldermort himself?"

Ginny stood up. "Yeah, I have to agree here. Maybe cracking all the wands was a bad idea."

"So we should keep one, is that what you're saying?" Granger asked her.

"Yeah," Ginny nodded.

"Wait a minute!" Ron said. "Why should he get to have control over the only wand we've got? He's a bloody Death Eater!"

"Are you thick or something, Weasel?" I asked. "I'm not a Death Eater!"

"Oh, yeah, right!" Ron rolled his eyes. "You heard him, 'I'm saving her for myself…for later'!"

"That was bloody acting!" I yelled. "I was trying to persuade Goyle to leave us alone!"

"Oh, right! Like I should believe you!" Ron yelled.

"STOP IT!" Granger screamed. "Stop!" Everyone turned to look at her. "We can't keep doing this! We have to get along or we'll never get anything accomplished! If we can't work together than we'll all go our separate ways and just… get ourselves killed!"

We all looked at the ground in silence. And as much as it killed me to think it, she was right.

Author's Note: Thanks for reading! Please review! I finished the book (okay, so I cheated on my "three chapters a day" thing), and I still stand with what I said: read this as if Half Blood Prince never happened. I hope you all enjoyed the book!

NEXT CHAPTER SPOILER: Hermione's POV. They all try to sleep in the cave, but it's a little hard with the dead body and everything. And then Draco has another secret. It turns out that his wand wasn't the only thing he was keeping from the others…