If the potion was ice, then the purple flames were lava, melting the chill that had settled in Draco's bones the second the yellow liquid had touched his tongue. Walking through the doorway back into the room with the troll was like walking through a waterfall of boiling water, the heat overloading Draco's senses. He couldn't tell whether he was really hot, or really cold, but before he could even attempt to figure it out he was already back in the large chamber, the purple flames at his back.
A shudder went up his spine, his whole body trembling with the force of it. He glanced back at the flames behind him, still flickering and popping like a normal fire, except there was no real heat, and no sparks, and they were definitely not orange and gold. Draco stared at them for a few moments, the smell of the troll that had previously made him gag and choke on the air he was inhaling seemed faint now, there, but not really there. How could he have just left Harry there, alone, without anyone to help him if he needed it? How could he have done that?
Draco bit his lower lip to stop it from trembling, guilt pooling in his gut like acid, burning through him like the flames he had walked through to leave his best friend behind.
Go.
Harry's voice yelled in his head, telling him and Hermione to get Ron and find Dumbledore. Draco glanced around the room, the only thing in there besides himself was the troll, still unconscious with a bloody wound on its temple, Hermione was nowhere in sight. Where was she? Had she run ahead to Ron? It made sense that she would, especially since the smell in the room really was terrible, burning his nose with every breath he took.
"You better come back out of there in one piece, Harry," Draco whispered even though the boy he was talking to couldn't hear him, and he ran across the room after only a moment's hesitation. He yanked the door open and stumbled out of the room with the troll, into the long, winding hallway that led to the chessroom. Footsteps echoed from far down the hall, growing fainter by the second, and Draco immediately set off after them. They couldn't waste any time, they had to get out of this place and find Dumbledore before it was too late to help Harry.
It seemed to take ten times longer to get back to the chessroom than it took to get to the troll room from there, and by the time Draco pushed the doors open his pulse was racing. What if Harry was already- Nope, not gonna think about that, he's fine.
Hermione looked up from Ron when Draco stumbled into the chessroom, the troubled look on her face fading somewhat when she saw him. Strands of her curly hair hung in front of her eyes, framing her face where it had come loose from the ponytail she had put it in before they left the common room.
The room had somehow set itself back up while they were gone, the pieces that were broken all fixed, the pieces all back in their respective places. Ron was the only one still on the ground at the edge of the giant board, his vibrant ginger hair standing out against the dark grey stone beneath him.
"Is he alright?" Draco asked as he knelt down beside his two other best friends, looking up at Hermione. His own concern was mirrored in her gaze, but still she nodded in response.
"Yeah, I think so. We just… need to wake him up," Hermione said and frowned down at Ron, chewing on her lower lip. She fidgeted with the strands of hair that were framing her face for a second, as if she didn't know exactly to do what she wanted to.
"Is there a spell for that?" Hermione glanced up at him, and for a second her usual self shone through her concern, her right eyebrow raising slightly.
"Really? Draco, we don't need to use magic for everything. I'm just not sure if shaking him is a good idea, I read once if you move someone around who's hurt it could make it worse and-"
"Then we won't shake him. I have to wake him up almost every day for classes, so I know what gets him up." Draco grinned at the confused look Hermione gave him and leaned a bit closer to Ron, the action both familiar and not at the same time.
"Wake up! If you don't get up this instant you'll miss breakfast and I'll hex you into next week!"
Hermione snorted next to him, and Draco rolled his eyes, sighing slightly when Ron didn't move. Usually that worked, then again, usually Ron was just asleep and there were usually blankets Draco could pull off him to get him up quicker, or pillows he could throw at his head. "Well, I've only said this once, but considering it's actually true this time…" A frown tugged at his lips before he yelled at Ron, "Wake up, Ronald, Harry's in danger and if you don't get your ass up, he's going to die, so you better wake up this instant!"
That got a reaction out of Ron, somehow, and he stirred, blinking groggily up at them. "What?"
"Ron!" Hermione yelled and practically threw herself at him, causing a small grunt to escape him. Draco sighed in relief and ran his hand through his hair, a bit of the tension bleeding out of his shoulders. At least one of his friends was mostly okay.
"What-" Ron looked around in confusion, blinking rapidly as if the torchlight was too bright for him, something he always seemed to do in the mornings because of the sunlight. "Where's Harry?"
"He…" Hermione pulled away from Ron and glanced back at Draco, the concerned look on her face returning. "He's where the stone is, only one person could go on and… he did. He told us to go get Dumbledore."
"He's there alone?" Ron demanded and Draco nodded, the guilt and fear becoming heavier in his stomach, more like lead now than acid. I should've found a way to get us both through the black flames, I should have found a way for Harry to not have to go alone. What if he's dead because we left him? What if-
"That's why we need to get Dumbledore, he's the only person who can help Harry. We have no idea what we would need to make to get past the flames, and besides, Dumbledore will be more help to Harry. Can you stand, Ron?" Ron frowned at Hermione's words, his eyes shining a dark, sapphire blue, a few shades darker than usual, but he nodded slightly.
"Yeah, think so." He pushed himself up and, with Hermione and Draco's help, stood up. Ron's legs trembled slightly underneath him, but he seemed steady enough when he let go of the two and took a few steps forward. He had a slight limp, quite obviously favoring his left leg, and he brushed his fingers against the side of his hand, looking down at the thin layer of scarlet red blood on his fingertips, but when he turned to face Draco and Hermione again his eyes were steely with determination.
"Are you alright?" Draco couldn't stop himself from asking, the blood made him nervous, as did the limp. What if he was hurt more than they originally thought?
"I'm fine, Dray." Usually Draco would have glared at him or whacked his arm with a book, but for once the nickname just felt like a reassurance that Ron was really okay, and was either trying to annoy him, or forgot not to call him that. "How are we planning on finding Dumbledore? He's still at the Ministry."
"Harry said we should take the brooms from the room with the keys and fly out to the owlery to send Hedwig to him," Draco said, and before Ron could respond Hermione spoke.
"Should Ron really fly though? I mean, he's clearly hurt, he could get hurt o-"
"Hermione, I can fly, my head just hurts a little bit." Draco swallowed down his comment on the fact that Ron was limping, and that maybe Hermione had a bit of a point. Ron was stubborn, like Harry, though his unwillingness to back down likely came with growing up with multiple siblings. Draco didn't have any, and his entire childhood he had trouble getting his parents to pay an ounce of attention to him, Ron having six siblings probably made it near impossible to be paid attention to without fighting with everyone else. Then again, the Weasleys seemed a bit different from his family, it seemed almost more likely Ron would've gotten stubborn having to deal with being blamed by the twins for things they did.
"But-"
"Hermione, I can fly, you just don't want to." Hermione stared at him for a moment, scowling in what seemed to be anger, even though her eyes really did show concern.
"Fine, but if you fall I will not feel bad about it." Draco snorted slightly. Even though she was joking, her tone sounded serious and if anyone were there who hadn't been friends with her for months and months they likely would have looked at her in slight horror. Ron's lips tugged up slightly at the corners.
"We should go," Draco said and they both nodded. The three of them moved around the many giant chess pieces that were somewhat in their way, looking at them warily, but none of them sprang back to life as they went to the door leading back to the keys. The three of them exchanged looks, making sure the others were ready to go back, before opening the door.
The keys were still flying around in a cloud of metal and colorful wings above them, the sound of their wings fluttering echoing through the tall, round room. The brooms were still where we left them on the ground, in a pile. Draco swiftly picked one up, the handle a familiar weight in his hand even though he hadn't been able to properly fly in months. A small amount of comfort washed over him like a cool breeze in the middle of a scorching summer day, and he felt a tiny smile tug at his lips even though the worry for Harry still made it feel as if he was being weighed down by sandbags. Hermione frowned down at the brooms for a few seconds before picking up one of the remaining three, while Ron grabbed one as well.
"Do we get on the brooms now, or do we wait until we get to the Devil's Snare?" Ron asked, and ,before Hermione could even attempt to put off getting on the broom longer, as Draco was sure she would, he spoke.
"Flying will be a lot quicker than walking or running, plus it's easier. It'd be better if we just flew from here." Hermione scowled at him, looking as if she wanted to protest. "Hermione, we'll be able to help Harry faster if we fly. I'm sorry you hate it, but… we need to get Harry help before it's… before it's too late." She closed her mouth and looked down, nodding almost imperceptibly.
"Okay, let's go." She climbed onto her broom and shakily rose up a foot or so from the ground, Draco and Ron doing the same, though much steadier.
All three of them raced down the hall leading back to the Devil's Snare and the trapdoor, going, as Draco had said, much quicker than they would have on foot. They flew through the door into the circular chamber-like room that the Devil's Snare was in and Draco pulled up swiftly, flying up quicker than Ron and Hermione, both of which struggled slightly to change direction so quickly, though luckily neither of them crashed into the walls. The trapdoor was still open above them, the square of light steadily growing larger and larger, from the size of a postage stamp to the size of an envelope, to the size of a textbook, and then its actual 4 by 4 foot size. They flew through it, right past Fluffy, who growled but didn't do anything to stop them from leaving.
The door of the corridor stood wide open, though Draco couldn't remember if they had left it that way or if something, like wind or a ghost, had opened it further than it had been before. They flew through it one at a time and then, for the first time, slowed the pace at which they were flying. "How are we going to get out to the Owlery? It's on the other side of the grounds!" Ron asked as he finally caught up with Draco, who glanced over at him and then around the corridor they were floating in, the same one they had been in months ago after running from Filch, almost the same spot as they had stopped in as well.
"Flying through the whole castle could take a while, plus we risk being caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris… The classrooms and the windows inside don't have any locks that Alohomora doesn't work on, right?" Draco directed the last thing at Hermione, who was hovering, no longer as shakily as she had before, beside Ron.
"There's nothing important enough in there for them to do that, and we could get past the door leading to Fluffy that way, so I'm pretty sure we could get in. What are you thinking, Draco?" She asked and Draco looked over at the nearest door, tilting his broom ever so slightly in its direction as he leaned forward slightly. He moved toward the door and right in front of it he slipped his wand out of his pocket.
"We'll fly through a window. They should be big enough for a couple of first years to fit through." Draco tapped the lock on the door with the tip of his wand, murmuring the spell to unlock it under his breath. A loud click came from the lock as it opened and he pushed the thick door, causing it to swing open.
"Are you sure?" Hermione asked and he looked back at her and Ron. They both had nervous expressions on their faces, frowns on their faces, eyebrows scrunched up exactly the same way.
"Yeah, hurry up," Draco said and looked into the dark classroom, lit only by thin shafts of silver moonlight shining in through the windows. "Harry can't last forever on his own, even if it's only Severus…" He leaned forward again, trying to push down his fear and worry, it would affect his flying and he couldn't let anything do that right now. He needed to get Harry help, nothing could distract him, not even the thought of Harry himself.
He flew, perhaps a bit too quickly since he almost flew into the window, across the classroom that looked as if it hadn't been used in years, tables stacked in corners and dust covering everything. He tapped the window's lock, murmuring "Alohomora." under his breath. This time the spell just opened the window completely of its own accord and cool, humid summer night air hit him in the face, blowing his hair back a bit.
A small breath escaped him and he flew out of the window, glancing back to see Hermione and Ron following him out of the castle. The moon shone brightly above them, stars glittering against the dark blue sky behind thin wisps of clouds. Draco looked around the grounds, trying to remember where exactly the Owlery was. Funny how he had lived in the castle for over nine months, yet still didn't know where everything was.
"This way," Hermione said and when Draco looked back at her, she was pointing to their right where in the distance a large tower was jutting up from the ground, slightly out of place all alone in the middle of the fields, a decent distance away from the rest of the castle. Draco tilted his broom in its direction, leaning forward again so he was flying towards it. He gradually picked up pace as he remembered why he had to get there. What if they were already too late? What if Hedwig couldn't reach Dumbledore in time? What if Dumbledore didn't come back to help? What if he -
Draco's worries cut off abruptly when he saw another broom flying towards them, the figure on it dressed in vibrant purple robes, visible even in the dim lighting. As they both continued flying in the direction they were going, approaching each other, Draco realized who the person on the other broom was: Dumbledore.
Draco yanked his broom to a stop. Why was he back? Were there alarms set on the trapdoor they didn't know about? Or had someone come to check on the trapdoor in the middle of the night and noticed it was open and run off to get him to come back? Was that why the door was open?
"Dumbledore?" Ron said in disbelief as he too pulled to a stop beside Draco, staring at their headmaster who was now barely ten feet away from them.
"Well, that certainly makes things a bit easier," Hermione murmured, mostly to herself. "Professor!"
Dumbledore pulled to a stop right in front of the three of them, though he looked ready to fly off again rather quickly. His long silver hair and beard were windswept, his usual pointed hat missing from his head, half-moon glasses on his nose in front of blue eyes that for once weren't twinkling. "Where's Harry?" he demanded, "He went after him, didn't he?"
"Yeah," was all Draco seemed to manage at that moment, not sure how the headmaster could possibly have known that. That seemed to be all Dumbledore needed for an answer, however, because he nodded. There was a small gust of wind and he was gone. Draco looked back and saw Dumbledore racing off back towards the castle, towards the window they had left open.
"Um, what do we do now?" Ron asked, blue eyes wide and confused when Draco glanced back at him.
"We go to the Hospital Wing, that's where they'll go afterwards, even if Harry's fine. Which he will be. He'll be fine, he will." Nobody had said otherwise, but the way Hermione repeated it, a scared look in her eyes, just made Draco more nervous than he already was
"He'll be fine," Draco repeated, trying his best to believe it. Still, his mind kept feeding him images of things he didn't want to think about as they flew back to the school themselves.