Sold-Chapter 9-To the Rescue
By Marmalade Fever
Hours later Draco found himself with a large headache. He had taken a nap and had a dream. He had been standing next to a gigantic aviary filled with swallows. They had twittered at him, as if begging for him to release them. His hand had moved to the lock by its own accord. He opened the cage door and just then the birds grew silent. A shadow fell across the entrance and Draco turned to see what it was. It was then that he had woken up, screaming. His arms were covered in gooseflesh and he felt feverish.
It was now about one o'clock in the afternoon. Draco knew by experience that if he wanted to go after the girl, it was best to do so in the light of day. Night-time was when everyone became suspicious and all of the really treacherous things began to happen. Besides, hardly anyone went out in the daytime anymore. They all preferred the cover of night.
Draco went to his desk and opened a drawer. His wand was lying just beside Evander's. He had noted that both were made of the same type of wood, but he suspected the core to be different. He took up his wand and closed the drawer. He then grabbed his cloak, a few helpful potions, and left his office.
"Granger!" he shouted, as he made his way to the dungeons. He had a nasty hangover and was not in a fair mood.
"What is it Malfoy?" she asked, calmly, as he opened the door to the dungeons.
"I've made my decision," he answered, surreptitiously.
"Have you?" Granger was lounging on the floor, her arms crossed under her head. Since the day before at the auction, she had been wearing a very dingy pair of gray overalls. Perhaps it was time to reward her for her genius by giving her a change of clothes? But that could wait 'til later, much later.
"I've decided to go after the girl and bring her back here… for now."
"So?" she asked, closing her eyes and relaxing.
"So?" Draco repeated to himself. Why was the woman so difficult?
"So, why are you wasting time telling me? Are you or are you not the master of this household? Am I or am I not the lowly mudblood you purchased at an auction yesterday?"
"Granger! Are you really objecting to politeness? I simply thought that you might want to know!"
Granger adjusted herself so that she was looking straight at him. "In that case, Malfoy, I thank you for your gentlemanly manner." She stood and walked to the bars and her eyes seemed to soften in a dangerous way. They turned upward so that her lashes seemed sweet and girlish. Draco's breath caught in his throat. "Thank you," she said, her voice no more than a whisper.
Had they been in a different situation, Draco might have considered her actions as an invitation to kiss. Indeed, for a moment he felt that ancient wandless magic that caused men to go weak in the knees whenever a pretty young thing gave them a tender look. But then again, a moment later, her eyes had hardened and she was sitting at the opposite end of the cell. Draco had to blink to try and decide if she had really been standing only a half-foot away just seconds ago.
"I…" his voice faltered. "I'm going now." He turned fully and his cloak billowed out behind him like an enormous bat. As soon as he had left and closed the door behind him, he stopped to catch his breath.
She was thirty-eight years old! Why, in heaven's name, would he suddenly feel such great attraction to a woman like her? Everything that could be wrong in a woman was easily found in her. She was too old, too scrawny, too dirty, too… everything! She was his enemy, a mudblood, and far beneath him… So why… why did she make him feel that way? As if… as if he actually had a heart beating beneath his breast.
There was no time to lose. Lily had been in the woods for a full week and in eminent danger. What compelled him to actually go to the rescue of Harry Potter's thirteen-year-old daughter from an alternate universe, he would never know. The truth, that is, the truth that he would never in any circumstance reveal to either Evander or Granger, was that the coin had landed on tails. Even now the silver sickle was sitting safely in his pocket.
Hurriedly, Draco left the house, grabbed his old flying carpet, and began making his way over the patch of trees that separated his home from that of his parents. He noticed a bird flying almost alongside him, but it swooped down and out of his sight. He had barely begun to cross over his parents' lawn when he noticed a figure on the ground below, waving him down.
Begrudgingly, Draco landed on the wide lawn. "Yes, Father?" Draco asked, as he came to a stop in front of the man's feet.
"Draco, I was just about to pay you a visit. Your mother wants you to come over for dinner tonight." The elder Malfoy's hair had turned white over the years, but he still kept it as long and tidy as ever. Draco had adopted his father's long hairstyle around the time that the Dark Lord's victory had become apparent.
"Not tonight, Father. Perhaps some other time?"
"Draco," Lucius replied, removing his spectacles and polishing them, "your mother's health is diminishing. You have already failed her request for grandchildren. I think you owe her this, at least."
Oh yes, the guilt talk. When his marriage to Antoine had ended so quickly without a Malfoy heir to be found, his mother had begun to complain. She wanted a grandchild, and quite badly too. Recently she had begun to cough up blood on a regular basis. Even the best healers had not been able to help her. "She will just have to wait for another night, Father. I'm busy. Now if you don't mind, I need to be somewhere." Draco began to pull up on the tassels of his carpet, but his father's cane shot out of nowhere and grounded him.
"Unless you are going to go pick up a mail-order bride, Draco, I think not. You will be here at eight o'clock. Do you understand?"
"Fine!" Draco kicked his father's cane from his carpet and took off without a backwards glance. Now he began to fly a little more quickly. The days ended much earlier than they had before the war. It seemed to grow dark as early as three-thirty in the afternoon. Draco rose above the clouds. A group of birds flew below him. He swerved a good mile to the left to avoid flying directly over the Dark Lord's lair. It would never do to allow so many death-eaters to know of his plans.
Draco could get in very serious trouble if he were ever found out. He still wasn't exactly sure why he was risking so much for a family that was not even truly his. Evander was not his son. Granger was certainly not his wife. Lily Potter was not even close to being his daughter-in-law. Sharing a grandchild with Potter and Granger… what a disgusting thought.
The wind licked his face as he finally moved in to land in the woods. He rolled his carpet up and placed it in a pack on his back. Something alighted in a tree nearby. Now came the hard part—actually finding the silly girl.
Draco took out his wand and muttered a silencing spell, followed by lumos. He had never liked being in the woods before. He remembered his few forced ventures into the Forbidden Forest. But never mind that. It was not a full moon and he did have the cover of day, even if it were still quite dark. He trudged ahead looking back and forth and muttering locating charms.
It was actually probably a good thing that Lily had ended up in the woods. Here she would have food and water, and there was a lesser chance of her being picked up by the wrong sort of people. There were many rumors that those members of the resistance, a.k.a. the non-Death Eaters, who had not already suffered at the hands of the Dark Lord were more likely than not living in woods much like this one.
Draco froze. He had heard a twig snap. Deftly he spun around in the direction of the noise. His wand lit up a wild niffler, who had probably noticed his watch. Draco removed the sickle from his pocket and threw it away from him. Immediately, the niffler went for it. Draco turned again and continued his search. A moment later, the niffler ran past him with the coin in his mouth. On a hunch, Draco began to follow it. The niffler led him through the maze-like trees toward a clearing near the heart of the woods. The niffler paused and butted a knot in a tree with his head. The ground opened up and Draco gasped under his silence charm. A head of long black hair appeared from the staircase-like hole in the ground. A hand reached up to pet the niffler and take the coin. Quite suddenly, the girl spun around.
"Mr. Malfoy! Thank Merlin!" Lily cried, hoisting herself from the hole toward him. She wrapped her arms around him and began to cry.
A.N.: Are you happier with me now? Two chapters in two days, and this one is of a more decent length, though still quite short. I liked this chapter. Be sure to leave me lots of feedback. I'm probably only going to be able to write on Fridays and Saturdays, so that you know the schedule.