DustFactory
"Shite, let's go!" Harry barely had enough sense of mind to grab their pants on the way out. It had worked! But they needed to get the hell out of there, and now, or they would never be free. Draco grabbed Harry and yanked him through the quickly closing hole. The tendrils of magic seemed to snap at their heels like angry hell hounds, trying to drag them back. The wall was at least two feet thick, and toward the other side, the hole shrank down smaller. Draco's fire flared again in front of him, burning through the webs of dark magic. They were on the other side and off sprinting.
The anti-apparation, unplottable, and other defensive magics were strong and suffocating. They could hear the wailing siren they had set off, and shouts of Death Eaters quick on their heels. Harry could feel his body kicking into full Incubus mode, his muscles shifting into something sleeker, stronger, and better suited for running. Fangs grew and his eyes shifted into the catlike slits that could better see in the dark.
Draco was up ahead of him and Harry could see the wings burst from his back, spraying far less gore this time, and see his talons and beak forming. Draco grabbed Harry around the waist and flapped his enormous wings, and with some difficulty managed to pull them up into the air. Curses flew by them from all directions, but they were soon out of range.
Draco flew like his wings were on fire, towards the almost tangible apparation barrier. If they could make it that far, they could get away for good. Angry Death Eaters were lifting off into the sky on brooms, fast catching up. Draco wasn't at his strongest yet and it showed. His eyes were determined, but puffy and bruised looking. His whole body was beginning to tremble with the energy it took to carry Harry and himself on new, never before used wings.
They were never going to make it. He needed to do something, and fast. For once, he was totally without a clue. Draco's breath was getting labored, and Harry wrapped his arms around him tighter, clutching the Veela to him. Please, help us, anyone, hear me now, I beg your protection! He opened his eyes to see that they were still in the same place, Draco was still slowing and dipping dangerously close to the treetops, but now he couldn't see Draco's white gold wings. In fact, he couldn't see either of them at all.
They seemed to be invisible
Draco was gasping for air now, and his feet were brushing the treetops. "Sorry, Harry, couldn't... couldn't make it...tried..." He gasped before falling limp and toppling downward, but luckily (Harry continued to graciously thank whoever was looking out for them) not on top of a tree or pointy branch of some sort. He did however fall close enough to a tree that Harry was able to snag a branch and swing himself and his mate (who he still couldn't see) up onto a large branch. He pulled the invisible Draco tightly against him, wedging them as far back into the tree as possible.
They had gotten quite far before Draco had begun to falter, the apparation barrier couldn't be more than a few miles away. He shifted, the bark digging into his back in an uncomfortable way, and settled more firmly into the curve of the tree. He closed his eyes for an instant, and before he knew it he was fast asleep.
"I heard Ginny is adopted-"
"No, she just had a fit, that's all-"
"It's because she's become allergic to the potion she's been taking to keep her appearance the same."
"Yeah, she's really a Death Eater that's using Polyjuice to spy on the school-"
"Ginny's really Professor Snape-"
"No, you've got it wrong, Ginny is having an affair with Snape, and he's not a Professor any more, remember?"
"Got it. Ginny really killed Dumbledore, and Snape is hiding her."
"STOP IT, SHUT UP ALL OF YOU!" Ron was standing, huffing in the middle of the Gryffindor common room. His face was beet red, and he looked like he was about to murder. "Ginny is just...sick, and needed some time to recuperate. All of your silly dumb bumbling lies will get you nowhere but the end of my fist! Is that clear?" The students (most of them second and third years) nodded adamantly, eyes wide. (But Juliet said she heard Pomfrey say that Ginny was adopted, and that she was Snape's daughter, I'm sure of it... She told me herself.)
Ron glared menacingly around the room once more, just for the sake of it. He needed to stop this before it got to out of hand. "My sister is not the traitor here. The traitor is Potter!"
Hermione looked aghast that he would blurt something like that to the rumor mill. He had given his word that he wouldn't say anything regarding Harry.
"What? Why?" Ron received several angry shouts from adamant fan girls and other loyal friends.
"Because, my dear Gryffindors, Harry is a dark evil creature. None of us knew what we were sleeping next to, what we had allowed our friends and family near. What we had let into our hearts and what we had accepted into our homes." Hermione tried to stand up to slap a hand over his mouth, but he calmly held her wrists, and silenced her with a quick spell. "No, Hermione, they need to know what has happened, I can't keep them safe, they can't keep themselves safe if they do not know the awful truth." Hermione nodded her head slowly, realizing there was not much she could do here. Her best bet was to stay calm and wait for the right moment to make a move. She wanted to scream, to strangle, even to kill that redheaded bastard that had ever dared to call himself one of Harry's friends. Oooh, she would get him. Just you wait, Ronald Weasley.
She tuned back in to Ron's self righteous speech to see that most of the Gryffindors now were hanging on his every word instead of shouting at him angrily.
"...Our dear Boy-Who-Lived is actually a witch raping sex demon. Potter is an Incubus, and we must take all precautions to make sure that he never makes it back to our sanctuary again."
Hermione was positively disgusted by the end of Ron's little speech. To her, it was quite obvious now. All the signs had been there, all the jealousy, all the rage. He had only been waiting for his chance.
"It's not going to work, Poppy, what ever happened to her overloaded her so completely with Malfoy magic that it won't accept anyone else's. I fear another attempt could very well kill her."
The medi-witch sighed, and hung her head. She didn't know what to do for the girl. They couldn't send her back out into the school looking like that. It would cause a riot, and it would be all over the Daily Prophet by tomorrow. By the end of the week, Ginny's parents would be in Azkaban.
"We'll just have to wait a few days, we'll figure out something. Let's just keep her in seclusion...deadly virus or something...and after we perform the Cooriortus ritual and have Mr. Potter back with us, we will worry about Ginny. Tonight is the last night of the moon, tomorrow night it is new, and we will have our savior back."
Harry snapped awake. He could hear footsteps. He quickly checked to see that they were still invisible, before quieting his breathing as much as possible. He clutched Draco to him, Sometime during the night Draco had wrapped his still extended wings around them and Harry could feel the silky feathers against his cheeks, even if he couldn't see them. A slight shift in Draco's breathing let him know that the Veela was awake and had heard them also. After a few seconds, Harry could smell them, and by the way Draco stiffened, he was sure he could too.
"Lucius..." Draco brushed the word against Harry's ear, barely loud enough to even be a thought.
"And dogs," Harry whispered back.
"Oh, Draco! My beautiful friends here can smell you. Do you remember them, dear son? I know you're very near. You can't escape me." Lucius' dangerous voice could be heard very close now. Draco had begun to shake, and Harry had a sudden flash of a small blond boy running for his life through thick bushes, falling and scraping his knees bloody as large hounds with red eyes and poisonous spittle that hung from ferocious teeth pursued him through the grounds of Malfoy Manor. "I will find you, and they will rip that pale, traitorous skin from your bones. They will crunch your spine, and lap up your innards."
A feather detached itself from one of Draco's wings, and floated gently downward, the invisibility pulling back from it. Lucius, who was now standing almost directly underneath them, caught it with deft fingers.
"Interesting, what is this? Incubi do not have feathers." He held it up to the extremely faint moonlight, and even then it pulsed a bit with life. "A Veela feather, hmm? What have you gotten yourself into this time, Draco?" Lucius looked straight up, almost directly at them. "No matter, either you come down here and fight like a man, or I will send my hell hounds up after you. They still remember the taste of your blood. They can have dear Harry for dessert." Harry tensed, getting ready to fight. Draco had gone from scared, to extremely angry and protective in less time than it took to blink. Before Harry could stop him, he was out of the tree, blinking back into sight, and on his father in an angry ball of feathers and talons.
"Crucio!" Lucius shouted, pointing his wand up at the descending angry Veela. Draco fell to the side, clawing at the ground, and then at his skin. His wicked sharp beak opened in an inhuman screech of pain. A few strands of hair fell loose and over Lucius' face, making him look more like the crazed madman he was.
"You're nothing but Potter's whore, you little miscreant wretch. I should have killed you the day you were born." Harry had seen enough. Lucius was preoccupied with Draco, and the hell hounds (there were three of them) were circling the spectacle slowly. He inched down the tree trunk, careful not to draw attention to himself. The first dog was easy. He snagged it as it walked by the tree and snapped its neck. It fell into a limp pile behind the large trunk. Lucius didn't notice, but the other two dogs sure did.
They bared their teeth and snarled, charging at him. Fangs gnashed, and spit flew. Harry was scared, but the large feline-like creature that seemed to inhabit his form took over and instinct kicked in. He snarled, and swiped at the second one, knocking its feet out from under it. He leaned down and quickly ripped its throat out with fangs he had forgotten about. It let out one final whimper before dying, and then the third pounced on him.
It latched onto his shoulder, ripping at it. He could feel the hot sticky blood run down the side of his face and neck. Faintly he could still hear Draco screaming in the background. It couldn't end this way. The hound dug its teeth in harder, and Harry heard bone snap. He fought the best he could, but he was no match for the dog that was twice his size. His vision spun, and spots swam in front of his eyes. All he could think about was Draco. It couldn't end this way.