Chapter 25

Harry panted heavily as he pulled out his Marauder's Map, desperate to catch up to the wayward professor. After concluding he must have already searched the most of the castle by now without finding it, that the next most logical place for it to be was the Headmistress's office. However when they got there they found the door already open. Harry had gone inside to see if anyone was still inside, only to find the room ransacked and empty. Hermione was supposed to stay and keep watch, but he heard her squeak something after he went inside and when he came out she was gone as well. Thanking Merlin that he still had his map on him he scanned quickly for the professor's dot.

Ice stabbed through his heart as he spotted him outside already heading away from the castle. Running now he felt a small shiver of relief as he altered his course away from the gates and towards another part of the grounds. Determination renewed he sped off to thwart the latest evil plot.

Draco sat idly in the shade of the great towering oak, his alabaster fingers absently twisting through the verdant blades. Dusk was approaching; he stared out with empty eyes into its swirling, fading tangle of pinks and purples claiming the sky. Sometime later he heard the rustle of someone advancing on him with preternatural speed. Unfazed, he tilted his head to meet his lover, his teacher, his new warden. He didn't care anymore, he wasn't entirely sure what Adrian really wanted to take him along for, but somehow it just didn't matter to him anymore. He was just a speck of dust in the wind, moving wherever it tore him to.

"Good boy, I knew you'd come." Adrian cooed as he bent down to scoop up his fragile, complacent charge. "We must go quickly though. It's time we start our new life together, they won't understand. Come, love." He added urging the boy up and forward.

Draco didn't even flinch when the hex buzzed past him. Adrian however immediately sprung into action looking for the source of the curse. He ducked quickly dodging another stunning spell, coming from the recent darkness. Growling he grabbed Draco's arm hard, eliciting a sharp whimper from the boy, and took off toward the gates, picking up his pace.

"Hold it!" A voice commanded at last, Adrian pausing only to see the figure of Harry Potter emerging from the trees.

"What do you want, boy?" The teacher spat angrily at his pupil. "You better hurry back to your dorm before I give you a detention for breaking curfew! Where I go as a professor doesn't concern you."

"It does if you're dragging my bunk mate off with you!" Harry countered, pointing his wand towards the dark man. "Did you really think you would get away with it? That I would just let you leave and take it with you? HA!" Harry shouted, still trying to get a clear shot of Professor Albatross, who was currently holding Draco in front of him, as a shield of sorts.

"Why do I feel we are no longer talking about your beloved bunk mate?" He replied, spitting out the last words with as much scorn as he could muster. "See he's already forgotten you Draco love, he didn't come he to rescue you." He purred into the trembling Draco's ear.

"Enough!" Harry shouted sending a wordless stupefy towards the pair, hoping his aim was accurate. However despite the element of surprise the Professor moved easily out of the way of the incoming spell.

"Oh you'll have to try harder than that," Adrian laughed tauntingly at Harry who shot yet another spell towards the dark man. Stepping effortlessly out of the way yet again with inhuman speed the professor growled hurling a painful spell of his own at the dark haired saviour.

"Gahhhh" Harry cried out pathetically as his head hit the ground hard. His glasses had been knocked off in the blast from the spell, and to make matters worse he could no longer feel his wand anywhere nearby. He scanned the dark ground hastily for the blurred glow of Draco's blonde head.

The previously docile figure of Draco however was no longer sitting quietly with a glazed look in his eyes.

"What have you done to him!" Draco demanded angrily, his stupor long forgotten.

"Nothing he won't recover from," Adrian snarled remorselessly, "He will be fine save for a nasty headache. No come on, we don't have much time!" He spat grasping Draco's wrist again with unnecessary harshness.

"NO!" Draco screamed, twisting away from the growling man. "STUPEFY!" He cried out pointing his wand at the now vicious looking man.

"BRAT!" He bellowed, "YOU THINK YOU CAN HARM ME?" He continued as his hand came across the boys face in a harsh slap that knocked him to the ground. The trembling boy's hand flew instantly up to the place where he'd been struck. Dazed and a little shocked he was confused by the slick feeling he got as his hand moved across his face. Vision blurring slightly he pulled his hand away, stunned by the red coating that now engulfed his palm.

From the elsewhere on the lawn Harry watched as the professor's sharp claws raked across Draco's porcelain skin, knocking him off his feet to the ground. He struggled to get up and go to the bleeding boy but found he couldn't move. More importantly his vision was growing dark and he was having a more and more difficult time focusing on the scene before him. Just before his vision went black he could see Professor Albatross dragging Draco's limp body with him. No! He though helplessly, this can't be it! But he was losing consciousness and there was no one there to save him. No one there to save Draco. He had failed. The last thing he heard was a scream and a name, then nothing more.