Chapter 32
Hermione, Ron, Emily, and Ryan weren't very good at sneaking around. They weren't very good at being quiet. And they most certainly weren't very good at blending in.
"Hey, we're doing great so far!" Ron whispered loudly. "None of the Death Eaters have found us yet."
"We'll be dead in less than a minute if you don't keep your mouth shut," hissed Hermione.
Ron's face turned as red as the maroon sweater he was wearing. In the beautiful, large, well-designed, gold and emerald walls of Malfoy Manor, his sweater stuck out like a sore thumb.
Emily shushed them both and turned away muttering something that sounded slightly like, "totally useless," and "no idea how dangerous this is."
Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment and then turned to Emily. "Do you remember what Draco said about this place having weird spells. And how we could only get out of the basement if we split up," she whispered.
Emily's eyes widened. "So maybe to get into the basement….."
"Exactly! I once read about this spell where you can hide a place so that only people who are alone can find it. It was created by the enchantress Morgan Le Faye to hide her personal secret entrance to Avalon. She wanted to only be able to find it when she was alone."
"Are you suggesting we completely split up?"
"No! That's more danger than we'd ever need to risk. We just need to make someone think that they're alone and then they can find it."
They both smiled devilishly. You thinking who I'm thinking?" asked Emily.
"Oh yeah," nodded Hermione with a mischievous grin.
Emily quickly tapped Ryan on the shoulder and warned him to stay quiet. Hermione flicked her wand and suddenly….
"W…What!" Ron stuttered. He spun around, jumping like a crazy person to see where his companions could have disappeared to. "They're gone. Completely gone. I'm alone in Malfoy Manor. Blimey, this is not good. Okay, Ron. Calm down. It's up to you to rescue them. For once you get to be the hero, not Harry. And Hermione……….. Okay, I have to get this right...for her if not for everyone else."
Emily felt an invisible arm elbow her, and heard a slight giggle.
"Hello?" asked Ron, frantically.
Nobody replied. Ron panicked and spun around. He ran down the hall.
"Follow him," murmured Hermione in a low voice. They chased Ron down the hall, until they found him still in front of a wooden door that obviously did not fight in with the halls organized décor. It obviously hadn't been there on their way down the hall the first time. Ron threw open the door and jumped down the stairs, practically tripping and falling headfirst down the long flight of stairs. The bottom of the stairs were cold and damp. Small cells with bars led down another long hallway, seemingly located directly under the one above. It was disgusting and slimy. An awful place to be. Judging by the dust, people didn't come down here very often. But there was a line of fresh foot prints followed by some footprints that looked as if they had been dragged along.
"This is it," gasped Emily in amazement. Ron jumped.
"Who's there?"
"Oh…" everyone reappeared as Hermione waved her wand. "We were here the whole time, you silly boy. We had to do that spell so we could find the dungeon."
"You mean, you heard me earlier…."
"Yes, Ron. We heard you talking about Harry… and me."
Ron was silent, looking at his second hand sneakers. He glanced up at Hermione and his eyes caught hers. He reached for her hands, which she raised, blushing furiously.
"I really like you Hermione. I wouldn't want anything to happen to you," he finally said.
Emily chuckled. Hermione joined her. "Well, that was long in the coming," Hermione replied.
"You knew?"
"Of course, Ron. You're an open book."
"I'm a… what?"
She sighed. "Never mind."
"No, really, you like me because I'm a book?"
"Just forget it, Ron."
"How romantic," Emily giggled to Ryan.
"C'mon, let's go!" Hermione shrugged. She grinned knowingly back at Ron and raced down the hall, her three friends hot on her trail.
They heard a loud growl and froze.
"Uh oh," Emily shivered. "Professor Lupin?"
Harry, Genny, Jon, Draco and Seamus dug through the closet one last time.
"Look here," pointed Draco. "It looks like something was just moved. Everything has been thrown to the side next to it, but below it everything's organized and sitting straight up. Somebody took something."
"So somebody knows that this stuff is down here," Harry acknowledged.
"Is that a bad thing?" asked Seamus.
Draco shrugged and responded, "Could be."
"Oh. I hate this place! I just wanna get out. Where's Lucy and Gabrielle? The Order should have found them already," Genny complained
"It could take days to find them. Not a few hours. We need to keep going. There has to be a way out," Draco urged.
"There!" pointed Jon. Another door was in the wall ahead of them. "That definitely wasn't there before."
Draco swore. "Stupid spell. Let's just get out of here. It could bring us to any place in the house."
Behind the door was an enormous, elegant bedroom, with an enormous emerald colored bed in the center.
Seamus whistled. "Nice place you got, Malfoy."
Draco was completely pale. Paler then normally that is…"This is my parent's room. I'm not allowed in here."
"Technically you're not allowed to turn traitor and help the good guys into your house either," joked Harry.
"My former house, you mean," said Draco glumly. "After this I'll be disowned for sure. A fiery glint shone in his eye as he looked up at the others, "But you know what, I don't really mind. I'll miss my mother a bit, but there was never much here for me. Except money and influence. But I won't need that anymore. Not the kind my father has anyway."
"I'm glad you're on our side now, Draco," said Genny, slapping him on the back. "I always knew you had a good side to you."
"Even when I was practically working for Voldemort?"
She shrugged. "Pretty much, then too. So, where to from here?"
"It depends what happened to those two girls and the Order. If they were captured, they're in the dungeons downstairs. If not, they could be in a trap or just wandering around. It also depends on where we're trying to go now."
"Assuming they're fine, how are we going to stop the Death Eaters from taking over despite Voldemort being," Harry gulped, "killed."
Draco disregarded Harry's unconfortableness with killing Voldemort and replied, "I believe they're all in the main ballroom downstairs. That's where Voldemort held most of his meeting when he was in power."
"You mean alive," muttered Seamus. Genny elbowed him sharply.
"There's a room next to it on the second floor. There's a small hole in the wall where I used to watch the Death Eater meeting. Before I was allowed to come to them, that is. I used to sneak out of my bedroom to watch."
"So where is your bedroom, Draco?" Draco blushed. "Down the hall. But you don't want to go in there."
"Why not? Embarassing?" Genny grinned devilishly.
Draco blushed even more.
"Don't worry about it. My cousin Ron still sleeps with a blanket," Genny said matter-of-factly.
"Genny! You can't go around telling people that!" Harry laughed with disbelief.
"Well, it's true."
Draco led them to the room on the second floor that he had mentioned. They gathered around the small hole in the wall, all trying to peer through it.
"Did I mention I was much younger when I used this?" Draco added.
"Forget it, Mal…er, Draco. You said you knew a way to get their wands. How?" Harry interrupted.
"Well, not trying to be a know-it-all, but couldn't we just accio their wands?" Jon suggested. Everyone laughed.
"Smart," said Harry as he shook his head.
"Definitely a Granger," agreed Draco.
"I'll do it," decided Harry. I know I can cast a powerful enough summoning charm to get all of their wands. The practice for the Triwizard Tournament really pays off."
"Plus it kept you from getting clobbered by You-Know-Who," said Seamus.
"Accio!"
Genny reached her hand through the hole and grabbed the wands. She had to angle her wrist to pull the wands through the hole.
"They'll notice any second. Hurry up!" murmured Harry.
Genny yanked the wands through and handed them to Harry. Harry and Draco took turns breaking them on their knees.
"Now they can't protect themselves. But….now what?" Jon asked.
Nobody answered. They hadn't thought that far in advance.
"Well, maybe we could…no…" began Jon.
"What?" everyone shouted at him, immediately covering their mouths afterwards. Luckily nobody heard them.
"I think we need to get downstairs. Find the Order. While the Death Eaters are panicking and trying to find their wands, we can form a plan involving everyone. We need some people with more experience than us."