The sun had just disappeared and twilight fell over the island, but night was hardly very different from day in the jungle. It was only slightly darker under the cover of the jungle trees, and not a bit cooler. But soon enough, the two boys found themselves exiting the jungle into a clearing, the bubbling the stream only a few meters away. Malfoy's shoulders sagged in relief, quite tired from walking such a long distance in a day. He'd even suggested to Harry that they should see if the dragon half-breed, which Harry had decided to call Anubis and Malfoy decided to call 'the Demon', wasn't rideable.

Malfoy all but threw himself into the large stream, which Harry found amusing. He had to admit that finally arriving at the water source had lightened their moods greatly. Harry watched with great interest as Malfoy grabbed a rock and turned it into a large cup. He then proceeded to fill the cup and cast a purifying spell. Harry raised an eyebrow, and Malfoy muttered something about filthy germs. With a snicker, Harry began setting up camp for the night.

Grabbing two sticks and a few large leaves, Harry transfigured them into a large tent. As he slipped inside and turned two rocks into cots, he was quietly grateful for the Advanced Transfiguration lessons he'd taken before the war on Hogwarts. There was suddenly a yell from outside the tent, and a great splash. Harry darted back out into the humid night air, and breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that Anubis had only dragged Malfoy into the stream. The giant half-breed was splashing in the water, looking nearly as happy as they had been to find the water.

Harry couldn't help but wonder where exactly the dragon half-breed had come from. It was not exactly common for a dog – not to mention, a dog with such a temperament as Anubis had – to mate with a dragon for no explainable reason. In fact, normally half-breeds were created through scientific means by wizards with the intention of inventing new breeds of animals. Half-breeds, however, were notoriously sterile, so Harry thought it was a waste of time and energy. Anubis was unusually friendly, so Harry couldn't understand why anyone would simply leave him on an island in the middle of nowhere.

There were certainly strange things going on on the island. Such as the unusual silence in the jungle, as though every animal that had perhaps once lived there had been taken away from it. In fact, Anubis was truly the only creature they'd seen since their arrival.

"Get this bloody beast off of me!" Malfoy shouted, pushing vainly on Anubis in an attempt to get him off. Harry strode casually over, thinking that Malfoy probably deserved what he got, before whistling and snapping his fingers. Anubis barked, gave Malfoy's face a great lick, before bounding over towards Harry. The sopping wet Slytherin pulled himself out of the water, his wet clothes dragging him downward.

With various profanities, Malfoy pulled off his robes and shirt. At first Harry thought Malfoy was too pale – especially since a red tan had begun to form on his face and the back of his neck, as compared to the rest of his body, which practically reflected the moonlight. Then, a stab of guilt hit him when he saw a thin scar snaking up Malfoy's chest and ending just above his collarbone. Averting his eyes, he tried to occupy himself with building a fire, which was incredibly easy for the trained wizard and took barely any time at all. Malfoy took the opportunity to cast a hovering charm on a stick and placed his clothes to dry on it.

"Do you know the counter-curse to the spell you tried to cast back at Hogwarts?" Malfoy asked him as they both sat near the fire. It was entirely too hot out for a fire, but it would dry Malfoy's clothes and keep away any unwanted animals (although Harry was sure Anubis would do that just fine.) Harry looked up at Malfoy, and shook his head.

"No. I don't think there was one," he answered quietly, knowing Malfoy was probably thinking about how to get back to Hogwarts as he looked to be deep in thought. A scowl crossed his face after Harry said this, and the Gryffindor sighed, watching the small fire dance merrily. He hadn't thought about how to get back to Hogwarts since they'd started on their trek through the jungle towards the valley. Truthfully, he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to go back. Who would want to go back to war, after all?

But he missed Ron and Hermione, his best friends. Island life wouldn't be so bad if he had been able to bring them along, along with their families. He dreaded returning almost as much as he dreaded not returning, however. He had to defeat Voldemort and soon. He didn't want to think what was happening back in Scotland without them. What if they'd already been defeated? What if they lost hope without Harry? What if they had begun driving back the Death Eaters and Harry wasn't there to cheer them on?

Thankfully, Malfoy spoke and broke Harry out of his depressing thoughts.

"Maybe if I cast the counter-curse to my spell, and you cast your spell at the same time, and they collided like they did back in the forest, it would send us back to Hogwarts," Malfoy said, as he stared into the fire. "But then, we might just end up some place worse than this," he added, though he sounded very much as though he didn't believe there could be a place worse than this.

"You know, it really doesn't make any sense how we ended up here," Harry said, after a moment. "I've only seen that reaction with spells when I was fighting Voldemort and his wand was the brother-wand to mine. Nothing like this happened. Your wand doesn't have a phoenix feather in it from Fawkes does it?"

Malfoy wrinkled his nose.

"My wand's core is dragon heart-string from a Hungarian Horntail."

Harry shivered slightly at the mention of the Hungarian Horntail, his thoughts drifting back to his forth year at Hogwarts. His shook these thoughts away, and leaned his elbows on his knees. "Maybe they're made of wood from the same tree."

"Mine is Ash."

"Oh."

They fell back into silence, both thinking hard. Harry thought hard about what could have caused the reaction the spells had had with each other, and Malfoy thought hard about how to get out of this awful predicament. It wasn't long until Harry had begun to doze off. Malfoy woke him just before he fell into the fire. After that, he decided that anymore thinking was best left for morning. He fell asleep before his head hit the conjured pillow of his cot.

Malfoy, however, stayed up the rest of the night, still wondering how they were going to get out of this mess. There was something else tickling the back of his mind, but he was either very good at ignoring it or he didn't want to admit it was there.

- - -

Morning came swiftly for Harry. Too swiftly, he decided. Malfoy had decided to wake him up cruelly. He'd sent Anubis into the tent, which prompted the dog-like beast to push his wet and scaly nose in Harry's face. It was a horrible way to wake up. He batted the dog nose out of his face but Anubis was persistent and eventually he was forced to get up. When he walked out of the tent, yawning all the while, his stomach grumbling noisily, Malfoy had a sneaky smirk on his face.

"What's for breakfast?" Harry asked, hoping in vain that there was something to eat. But Malfoy stared pointedly at him before rolling his eyes, and Harry knew there was nothing. "We're going to starve to death," he moaned, slumping onto a log. Malfoy was bottling water and packing it into a bag he had conjured or transfigured. Harry wasn't sure. Malfoy proved to be better at transfiguring things than conjuring them, and Harry attributed this to his incomplete education, which he would never bring up even if his life depended on it, because knowing Malfoy, he was sure his nose would end up as bloody as the blonde boy's had the previous day.

Anubis stared at Harry a moment and tilted his head before leaping off toward the jungle. Harry was surprised, and hadn't time to call after him before he'd gone. Malfoy mumbled something about 'good riddance', and Harry glared at him, wondering if he should chase after the beast, but found he hadn't very much energy. What with not having eaten in a day and just having woken up, he could barely lift himself off the log to call out to his newly acquired companion.

Malfoy walked over and handed him a bottle of freshly purified stream water. Harry stared at it glumly.

"We should probably leave in about an hour. I figure it's about seven or eight in the morning, and it's going to take at least five hours to get to that smoke we seen, and that's without any breaks," Malfoy said, handing Harry the bag to carry. He stared at Malfoy incredulously, but Malfoy ignored him and began pulling on his dried shirt. There was a sudden muffled bark from behind Harry, and he twisted around in his seat to see Anubis sitting with a brightly colored bird in his mouth. The bird was much larger than any bird Harry had ever seen, and he stared at it in surprise.

What surprised Harry the most was that Anubis had been able to find a live creature in a jungle that was so strangely quiet. Harry had been sure that nothing lived in the jungle, but Anubis and now the brightly plumaged bird proved him very wrong. The large dragon half-breed ambled over and dropped the bird at Harry's feet before sitting expectantly.

"Where do you think he learned to do that?" Harry asked, glancing over at Malfoy who was also staring wide-eyed at Anubis.

"Does he actually expect us to eat that?"

"Would you rather starve?" Harry snapped, shooting Malfoy a glare before petting Anubis on the top of his head (which was like petting a snake, rather than a dog) and scratching behind the beast's large, floppy ears. He then proceeded to pick up the bird and re-ignite the fire. Malfoy stared in disgusted fascination as he watched Harry cast a spell to strip the bird of it's feathers, a spell he'd learned while staying at the Weasley's one Christmas and watching Mrs. Weasley make turkey dinner.

Harry then began to roast the bird, turning it on a stick. Malfoy had decided not to watch any longer, because he looked vaguely sick and Harry muttered something about pampered babies. Soon enough, the bird was cooked well enough, and Harry called Malfoy over, but Malfoy called back about rather starving to death than eating something that the Demon Dog had caught. It was probably poisonous or something, he'd said.

After filling himself up, Harry stripped the meat and cast several drying spells before wrapping and packing it into the bag Malfoy had given him to carry. Not too long after, they began their hike towards the smoke that still trailed high in the sky.

Author Notes: Okay, that was a bit on the boring side, but after the last chapter (I love writing 'just dialogue' scenes), I figured I had to get a bit more serious. In the next chapter: Devil's Snare. I promise there'll be HD soon. Possibly a realization will come in the next chapter. Anyway, thanks for reading thus far! Review, flame, concrit, or leave me a silly little note. I thrive on comments and I always squee with glee when I get one (you should see some of the looks I get.) I probably won't write another Draco POV chapter for a bit – they always end up a bit silly with me. Also, I'm looking for a beta. I don't have one, and you can probably tell. Anyone interested, please leave me a note or email. Thanks!