Crocodiles

CHAPTER EIGHT.

"Malfoy wake up. Wake up!"

"Nurgh? Huh-uh…" Malfoy stopped thrashing around and opened his eyes to find Potter's concerned and annoyed face mere inches from his own. This naturally had to be the very split second that his body betrayed him and he turned away hastily with a gasp.

Harry removed his hand hastily and took a step away. "Please, oh please tell me that I did not just see you come." To his horror he realised that the other boy was shaking with the effort of controlling his helpless sobs of embarrassment and pain.

"I c-can't help it, every time I fall asleep here he sends me these fucking intense images, they're just so fucking vivid, not even good anymore, just like hell, fucking bastard what the hell's he trying to do…" he was babbling. Harry sighed and sat down awkwardly on the edge of the 'mattress'. Malfoy shifted as far away from him as the wall would allow. "Don't come near me." His voice was shaking. Harry paused, and then moved away back to 'his side'.

"Weird type of mind game to play."

Malfoy didn't answer.

"Don't give in, Malfoy, whatever he offers you to stop doing this, he's always lying. Right?"

"I'm not stupid, Potter."

"Oh yeah? Explain to me again how we got here then, I must have been hallucinating."

888

"Isn't this what you want, Malfoy? Isn't this just what you've always wanted?"

"I –Potter what do you-"

He knew it wasn't Harry, not really: the eyes were too red, the person who had pushed him behind the tapestry was too rude and demanding and sure of himself to actually be Potter…Harry unbuttoned half his shirt and took Malfoy's fingers so that the other boy could feel exactly what it was he was missing; what he apparently had always wanted. Malfoy's head felt funny…sort of foggy…his vision wasn't letting him see anything apart from Harry's collarbones, smirking lips and teasing red eyes…he'd been having a normal day before this… Potions, Transfiguration, Herbology and he couldn't remember now what had happened in a single one of them…had he eaten today? He didn't know. Seen or said anything to anyone? Who cared…he trailed his right fingers over Potter's pectorals, vaguely listening…

"I can give this to you, Malfoy… all of it…" reasonable voice. Clever voice. Truthful voice… "just give him to me, and you can have him afterwards… you can have him all to yourself… now tell me the truth boy: isn't that all you've ever wanted?"

He felt his head come up as if on string, his head was nodding and he said: "Yes. Take him."

And He did.

888

When Draco awoke, he knew that he would regret that offer for a long time. Edging his hands out from under him, he braced his weight onto his palms, painfully, so that he could take a first look at wherever in hell he was. Hell's about right, he realised. A first sweeping glance of the general vicinity took in a very normal and battered looking Potter slumped against the nearest wall, unconscious through a small head wound which luckily did not appear to be too serious, thank Merlin. On the stone flags he was lying on were two hay-stuffed 'mattresses' and a tin bucket. There was no source of daylight, and he immediately realised he was underground, in some sort of hollowed rocky cavern, with a water source nearby judging by the persistent dripping coming from the rough ceiling. He didn't need to explore to know that his wand was gone, and so was Potter's. And that this was his entire fault.

"What are we going to do? Oh God, what are we going to do?" Potter's voice was getting damned annoying. Malfoy screwed his eyes shut again and prayed for mercy. All he wanted was some nice, restful, and preferably dreamless sleep. It was highly unlikely that he would be getting it. Harry spun round on his heel an glared at him again: "tell me again: how exactly did we get here?"

Malfoy groaned, "I said 'I don't know', Potter, some sort of apparition."

"But you can't apparate from Hogwarts' grounds," Harry argued exasperatedly, "it's in 'Hogwarts: A History!'"

Malfoy sat up. "You've read 'Hogwarts: A History?'"

"Of course I haven't, but Hermione has. Damn, I wish she were here. If I had my wand we might be able to magic something into a passable portkey… oh! My wand!" Harry ran his hands through his unruly hair and paced vehemently for a minute, muttering "my wand!" until Malfoy got both annoyed and more than a little curious.

"Potter would you kindly Sit Down, you're giving me a headache. What about your stupid wand?"

Harry threw himself onto the other 'mattress' and bit his nails for a second, then said: "my wand is connected to Voldemort's –I always knew they were 'brother' wands because their phoenix core feathers come from the same bird –Dumbledore's, actually, but this never really meant anything until that thing with ce-Cedric in the tournament. I duelled him –Voldemort, I mean- and something weird happened with our wands that made this thing happen –hard to explain, Dumbledore called it 'priori incantatem' whatever that is…"

"Yes, I know about that bit," said Malfoy, stupidly. He shut his mouth quickly –offering proof of his father's Death Eater activities did not seem very wise… but luckily Harry wasn't listening to him –

"Shut up," he said, distractedly. He rubbed his nose. "I can't imagine the damage he could do with the two wands together… we have to get it back. Voldemort's always had this weird link to me, though search me why he'd try to get you involved –have you done something to upset him?"

"If I had, I'd hardly tell you about it, Potter," said Draco, coldly. He turned over presenting his haughty back to the Gryffindor.

"Oh for fuck's sake, Malfoy, this is hardly a time for you to get all defensive. Don't you get it? Daddy isn't here and is not going to save you! Neither of us have our wands, we haven't got a hope in hell's chance of getting out of here in one piece, not unless we work together. To top it all, it's all your bloody fault that we're even stuck here. Come up with some bloody ideas!" Draco didn't say anything. Harry sighed, "look, Malfoy, I'm going to be frank," he said quietly, "have you or have you not been given the Dark Mark?" Silence. "Listen, I just want to get back to Hogwarts. Ginny must be frantic by now, let alone Ron and Hermione, and what do you think Dumbledore's doing? They must have half the professors on a manhunt for us, and the other half keeping the press at bay. So come on, Malfoy, please."

"I have it."

"Um, okay," Harry paused, unsure really of how to put his theory into words without offending the other boy, though why he was afraid to offend him was really beyond him. Maybe because, at the heart of it, the underlying reason that they were in this predicament was due to a rather strange attachment that Malfoy junior seemed to have formed on him. "Okay, well then my theory is this: My mind is intrinsically linked to Voldemort's on several levels –which you as you're well aware, have been privy to on a rather personal level – and you're linked to him through the Mark, which must mean that the three of us could become sort of merged together at some point… argh this is making my brain melt… what happens when you're summoned?"

"I don't know. You sort of apparate to him. It feels like being pulled in by the mark. You come out on the other side in another place. When you apparate you have to sort of visualise your destination. It's not like that. It's like a portkey that's attached to you all the time," Malfoy spoke to the wall, "you can't escape it."

"Okay, a portkey… hmm… well you can use those in Hogwarts, Dumbledore uses them all the time. So you sort of portkeyed me along with you. So we should be able to get back the same way!"

"We haven't got any wands."

Harry scooted over and came back to Malfoy's own mat. "What did you do to upset him? I get everything but his intentions as far as you go."

"Father upset him."

"How?"

Malfoy turned his head and cast him a withering look. "You really think I'd be privy to that information? No one can stop him, Potter. You're wasting your time."

Harry wet his lips, then planted them squarely on Malfoy's. The Slytherin reeled back. "Help me get us out, and I'll sleep with you," Harry said, in a haggling tone.

"I don't want to sleep with you!" Draco spiralled off the mattress and kicked the wall: "Fuck!" he took a steadying breath and turned round so that he could lean his back on the rough surface. "Don't you ever be a fuck like that, ever again. What's your plan?"

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Aha, what is his plan? We'll just have to wait and find out, won't we?

And before anyone asks me this in reviews, No Harry is Not going to sleep with Draco. This is highly unrequited slash. For once (very rare in my fics, lol) Harry stays with Ginny. Good for her. Lol.

Please review nicely, or if not nicely, then constructively.

skinnyrita.