AN: Sorry this has taken forever. I had some serious real life problems and a family crisis. But the show must go on. Thanks for the reviews guys! I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Chapter 14: Rescue
Hermione felt something on her foot.
"Ouch! Ron! Would you be careful?"
"Sorry," he whispered. "It's not exactly easy for two people to travel under this thing."
Hermione sighed. She was on edge. It had been two days since Harry had gone missing and still they had heard nothing. At least they had heard nothing until they had heard Snape whispering to McGonagall that there was a meeting with Dumbledore that night. It had to be about Harry.
So now they were making their way to Dumbledore's office under Harry's Invisibility Cloak hoping to get some information about where their friend had disappeared to.
As they reached Dumbledore's office, they saw Professor McGonagall giving the password. They hurried to follow her. Snape was already speaking to Dumbledore in a low voice.
"Minerva," Dumbledore began, "Severus has some new information that you will need to carry to the rest of the Order."
Ron and Hermione stood in a corner of the office and listened as the teachers spoke.
"It has come to my attention," Snape said, "that there will be a special meeting of Death Eaters tomorrow at Malfoy Manor. I believe the Dark Lord will also be there."
"So that's where they are keeping Potter?" McGonagall asked. She seemed as relieved as Ron and Hermione to finally be hearing something.
"So I assume," Snape said. "I'm not sure how they were able to get a hold of him. But it seems he is being held there. He probably would have been dead already if the Dark Lord had not been in Albania gathering the werewolves for his Dark army."
McGonagall looked apprehensive. "Are we positive that he's not dead?"
Dumbledore said, "I think we can assume that this is a task Lord Voldemort wishes to perform himself. We need to get Harry out of there as soon as possible. Inform the Order that we will go tomorrow. See who volunteers for this operation. We need as many Aurors as possible."
"Albus," Professor McGonagall said looking stricken, "Surely you don't plan on going on this mission yourself. What if something happens?"
"I cannot ask others to do something I'm not willing to do myself," Dumbledore said calmly. "I have failed Harry once before. I will not fail him again."
"I must return to the dungeons," Snape said. "I have Veritaserum brewing."
McGonagall got up to leave as well promising Dumbledore that she would visit Headquarters immediately. Ron and Hermione silently followed the two professors out of the room. Hermione had the strangest feeling that Dumbledore was watching them leave.
As soon as they were free from the presence of Snape and McGonagall, Ron spoke. "Hermione, we have to go tonight. We have to go to Malfoy Manor."
"But Ron," Hermione whispered. "The Order is going tomorrow. They'll find him. They'll get him out of there."
"How do you know?" Ron asked. "It's stupid that they're waiting. V-Voldemort might be there by then. What if Voldemort arrives early? What if Lucius Malfoy decides not to wait? Harry could be in trouble now."
Hermione bit her lip. Ron might be right. Harry could need them. "How are we even going to find where Malfoy Manor is?"
"Miss Hermione Granger, the most intelligent witch of her age, can't figure this one out?" Ron teased. "We don't need it."
"Oh," Hermione muttered, catching on. "I forgot about the Thestrals."
She hesitated for a second and then spoke again. "You're right. Harry might need us now."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Harry wondered idly what Lucius Malfoy would say if he came in here at this very moment and saw the two boys lying next to each other in their boxers. He almost laughed at the mental image.
But then he remembered that he would probably be dying soon and the snicker died in his throat.
"Do you think anyone even knows where you are?" Draco asked.
Harry thought for a moment. It had been two days since his disappearance. "I don't know. I suppose it's possible. Dumbledore has his sources, of course, but I'm not sure. Ron and Hermione must be killing themselves trying to find me," he added as an afterthought.
He knew Draco was probably rolling his eyes beside him.
Harry shivered and reached for his trousers. He pulled them on, but Draco remained unclothed. Harry lay back down and sighed. Things were certainly uneventful in jail cells.
He felt Draco's hand on his chest and sighed again, this time contentedly. At least something good had happened before his imminent death. Harry closed his eyes and enjoyed the sensation of the other boy's fingertips sliding up and down his body.
And Harry let a vision play in his mind. He imagined that they somehow got out of this mess and Draco came to Grimmauld Place with him during the summer. It was a pleasant dream, if an impossible one.
Suddenly Harry heard a loud bang and opened his eyes to see the door of the cell being thrown open. He saw only someone being thrown in quickly before the door was shut with yet another loud bang. He looked at the person now lying at his feet and gasped.
It was Hermione.
"Hermione?" Harry asked. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Granger?" Draco asked as well as he tried to put on his clothes as fast as possible. But Hermione wasn't paying attention to him.
"Oh, Harry! I'm glad you're okay." She hugged him quickly. "But oh, damn! Ron…Ron is…oh…they don't know he's here. He'll be okay. He has to get here…"
"Hermione, slow down. I don't understand. What's going on? How did you get here?" Harry asked her.
She took a deep breath and started speaking rapidly again. "Well we didn't know anything until tonight. We tried to find out what was going on before, but it was impossible. There was not one clue that led us to what had happened. But then, well we listened to a meeting of some Order members and found out that there's a Death Eater's gathering set for tomorrow. The Order was supposed to come bust you out of here tomorrow, but Ron and I couldn't wait. We thought you might need us. Oh, Harry! Voldemort is supposed to be coming here soon."
Harry tried to take all of this in. "Well what happened when you got here?"
"We took the Thestrals to get here. And we figured there would be all kinds of wards up around this house. I took some charms off a second story window and we were able to climb through. When we got in, we decided to split up. Oh, it was kind of stupid, but this way we wouldn't both get caught…and we'd have a better chance of finding you. I stumbled into a room with an alarm, I suppose…because I soon as I went through the doorway, a bunch of people attacked me."
"The drawing room," Draco commented. "We have our secret trapdoor under there so Father put a charm on the doorway to alert if anyone not of Malfoy blood or one of our servants entered the room."
Hermione looked at Draco for the first time since she entered the room. She smirked and gave Harry a knowing glance. Harry realized he still had his shirt off. He felt his face turn scarlet despite the circumstances.
"What are you doing here, Malfoy?" She asked. She tried to keep the venom out of voice, but Harry sensed a hint of it.
Draco stuck his chin into the air. "My father no longer wants anything to do with me Granger, now that he has discovered I'm gay."
Hermione decided not to ask any further questions on the subject. "I wonder why they put me in here with you two? Why not put me somewhere separate so we couldn't plot?"
"Convenience," Draco said. "There are charms and wards to take down before you can access any dungeon. It would be easy for them to take down these ones since they've already done it a bunch of times in the last few days. Also, does it really matter? We can't get out and we're all going to die anyway."
"There's still Ron," Hermione said confidently.
Draco snorted. "Sorry if I'm not exactly optimistic that Weasley can outsmart a bunch of Death Eaters and save our lives."
"Well right now he's the only hope you have, so I suggest you hang onto it," Hermione said icily. She glared at Draco and he returned the cold look.
Harry thought he probably should have said something to cool the tensions, but he was too preoccupied with the current situation to play peace-maker. His death before had seemed a certainty and he had almost come to terms with it. Now that Ron and Hermione were involved in this, they needed to get out. And suddenly the words of the prophecy echoed in his mind. He wasn't just the hope for the two people in this cell; he was the hope of the entire wizarding world. Unfortunately there was nothing he could do about it at the moment.
And so it seemed that the fate of the entire wizarding world for once lay with someone else.
"Good luck, Ron," Harry whispered to no one.
AN: Please review!