Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to HP. It all belongs to JK Rowling, Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Inc., Warner Bros., and any other entities involved.
Narcissa felt light-headed, she remembered falling and then the dark. She looked around and realized she was in a meadow near the Manor and Stonehenge. She looked up to the sky and with a start, realized there were no stars. A soft radiance illuminated everything in excruciating detail.
She idly wondered if that meant she was dead. She didn't feel dead at all; nevertheless she had the strange sensation that her limbs were larger than normal. She wondered if she would meet Lucius in this strange place. Narcissa realized she was holding her wand. She whispered "Point me" and tried to find a way out.
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In the Dark Lord's lair, Nott kneeled with trepidation at Voldemort's feet. He kissed the hem of his robes and announced with a light stutter: "The a-a-attack is on, my Lord. The hilly-copter dropped the miss-sail on the wretched Malfoy Manor!"
Voldemort sighed; it seemed many of his followers lacked in the brains department. He wished he had a handful that were smart like Lucius. The Dark Lord wished Lucius hadn't had the bad manners of getting Kissed when he did.
When Salazar Slytherin was exiled and went abroad, he had gone looking for a source of raw magical power, a Nexus. He settled at first in France, and then traveled to Egypt, Russia, Prussia and Spain, hoping against hope to find such a resource and use it to augment his considerable powers and reach his goal of having eternal life.
It was only at the end of his days that he realized the bitter truth: the Nexus was located in England, more precisely, on the property of the Malfoy family. Voldemort had only recently learned this after bypassing all the security Slytherin put on his writings. Lucius had been ready to transfer to him the ownership of the Manor; he'd had plans in place to ensure that even if Lucius died, his property and magic would become entwined with the Dark Lord's.
Apparently, the brat outsmarted him in this. He somehow got Lucius Kissed and produced a legitimate Will leaving him the Malfoy estate; because Lucius was not technically dead, his magic remained unavailable to the Dark Lord.
Voldemort had to claim the Nexus, only then would he be powerful enough to take Hogwarts and eliminate the nucleus of the resistance to his ascendancy.
Voldemort turned and hissed to Nagini: "The plan startssss now, my beauty."
Nagini answered, "Very sssssmart of you, my Liege, to use the Malfoy blood to insure passage for your followers in that strange machine that smellsssss so wrong."
Voldemort smirked evilly. Indeed he had followed the brat's idea and made it his own with some modifications. He wished he could see the Little Lord's face when the full scope of his plan became known.
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When she had waved at Tonks and Andromeda, Ginny had felt genuinely relieved to be alive after the missile exploded. She figured Draco's planning had been executed flawlessly.
But when Tonks shouted at her and she turned, she was startled out of her wits, and babbled, "Oh Merlin, not that, please, not that!"
While they suffered the effects of the aftershock, three Dark creatures had encroached upon them. They were now flying 40 meters above them and zooming in for the kill. They had a wingspan of 10 meters, claws sharp as razors, cruel beaks and glittering red eyes denoting rudimentary intelligence intent on killing and maiming. Their color was a poisonous green and yellow. They had spikes at the end of their tails. Surprisingly enough, each creature had a collar around its neck, and in its center there was a blood-red stone.
Ginny was a fan of Muggle movies, and to her the creatures looked like demonic dinosaurs, Velociraptors with wings.
The wyverns, which had been flying together, separated and each one chose a person to attack: Draco, Ginny and Harry.
Ron, Hermione and the twins were seemingly in shock and unable to move. The wyverns landed 20 meters from them and started to charge.
Ginny thought in despair, "Always look for the exit to any room. What happened to that maxim, Draco? Where is the exit now? Though I suppose there are things even you cannot plan for."
"And we were so close to succeeding."
Before the wyverns could pounce on them, Draco waved his wand and threw a shield around Harry, then in an uncharacteristic move, he stepped in front of Ginny and prepared to face the beasts.
He did it automatically, he only knew that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if either Harry or Ginny died when there was something he could have done to tip the scales and save them.
As the lead wyvern pounced on him, it lunged and threw its razor-sharp claws at him. Draco hurriedly ducked and rolled, almost avoiding the claws which sliced through his robes as if they were made of butter and badly cut his shoulder.
Draco hastily stood up and ran to the nearby orchard, firing spell after spell at the wyverns. They followed him and left the others alone momentarily.
When Draco had thrown the shield in front of him, Harry had been astounded. The missile, the aftershock, the beasts, Draco saving him, it all was a little too much. He numbly watched as Draco ran and the wyverns started following.
Despairing, Harry refused to allow another person to die because of him. This was much too close to the scene at the Department of Mysteries. Deciding to act now and avoid a repetition, he furiously threw an Avada Kedavra at the lead wyvern.
Finally rid of their paralysis, Ron and Hermione started reacting to the creatures.
The lead wyvern lazily evaded Harry's AK. The largest one, with a red patch in its wings, lunged at Hermione. Only Ron's quick thinking in throwing a hastily erected Protego shield around her saved her.
The last wyvern, the meanest one, with a dark green marking in its rump, feinted and turned back, its enormous wings threatening to knock Ginny over. Fortunately Harry's quickly shouted "Duck, Ginny," allowed her to remain unscathed from the vicious beast's attack.
In the blur of the battle against the wyverns, Draco had lost sight of his guests. He only knew that the beasts were chasing him and leaving the others alone for the moment. However he was forcibly reminded of their presence when Fred Weasley sucker punched him.
George Weasley was three meters in front of Draco, Fred stood beside him and they were separated from the rest of the party by the wyverns.
Draco stood alone facing the betraying twins. After the enormous drain of maintaining and directing the shield around the Manor and fighting with the wyverns, Draco was physically and magically exhausted, yet he managed to glare threateningly at the twins. Even now, outnumbered and near collapse, he stood straight and coolly surveyed the situation. This alone earned him the title of Slytherin Prince, for even in apparent defeat he would search for a way out. A Slytherin through and through, he wore a tired, weary smirk on his face; a single thread of defiance informed his posture and demeanor.
George directed his wand at him and muttered "Crucio."
Fortunately Draco had foreseen this eventuality and had cast conditional mines for such a moment. Upon hearing the twins' insistence in coming to the Manor, he saw that ineluctably there would be a confrontation between him and the ginger-haired Gryffindors.
The spell could be seen as a beam of bright light pouring out of George's wand and hurtling toward Draco. Before the beam could touch him, though, it stopped and abruptly changed its direction of travel, arching back towards the caster.
The spell hit George and he slumped to the ground, writhing in pain until Fred shouted "Finite incantatem!"
Fred muttered, "Fucking ferret," and cast "Stupefy" at Draco. Malfoy managed to erect a shield and the spell rebounded; he immediately cast a Stupefy of his own against Fred and effectively vanquished this enemy.
Unfortunately, while his attention was distracted with Fred, George had surreptitiously walked up next to him and cast a spell of his own at Draco. He noticed and muttered Protego, but he had been a millisecond too late.
The strain of defending the Manor against the missile and his guests against the wyverns had caught up with him and diminished his magical force and reflexes, which must have been exactly what Voldemort intended. When Draco fell with a thud, George kicked his ribs viciously. A dull crack could be heard, signaling that he had broken two ribs.
George looked for something in the pockets of his robes; finding it, he took out a small object, threw it to the grass, pointed his wand at it and whispered "Engorgio." The object grew and turned out to be a flying carpet.
George grabbed Fred and Draco and heaved their bodies onto the carpet. Once they were in the carpet, he muttered the word to activate it and it lifted, smoothly flying to the orchards and the borders of the Malfoy estate, beyond which they would be able to Apparate freely.
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Narcissa noticed nothing unusual about this place, the trees, the nearby road, even the ley line she was walking upon; it all shouted normalcy. If only the sky were ordinary, she would immediately try and Apparate to Hogsmeade or the Manor, but it was not. If you observed carefully you would notice at the edge of the background that things tended to blur a little.
Hearing a rustling sound, she started to turn when a voice she was very much acquainted with drawled, "Hello, mother."
She turned and strove to sound nonchalant, "Well, hello Draco, fancy meeting you here!"
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Ron, Hermione, Harry and Ginny had been too occupied with battling the wyverns to notice anything unusual until the beasts had been subdued. Harry succeeded in killing two of them, and Ginny cunningly used an obscure Dark curse to mortally wound the remaining wyvern. It managed to take flight and soon disappeared from view. The presence of Andromeda and Tonks proved to be crucial, for Tonks had shown her impressive Auror training and stopped a wyvern from nearly decapitating Ginny.
Free of the murderous beasts, Harry and Ginny looked for Draco, only to witness George hexing and kicking him, obtaining what seemed to be a flying carpet and flying off into the sunset.
Ron and Hermione were too upset about the entire incident to be of any use. Ginny was inwardly wailing her grief: "Oh, Merlin. Plans within plans, you're not the only Slytherin, Draco. Oh, sweet Merlin, help him, please. He's good and smart; please don't let it end like this, oh please!!"
Harry knew that there was still time to cast a cutting curse, like Sectumsempra, and have it tear the carpet to shreds. Unfortunately it would cause them to plummet to earth and might kill Draco.
He knew that as soon as Voldemort had Draco in his clutches, he would torture the poor boy and cause him a most gruesome death.
He just wanted to laugh with Draco one more time, to have Draco look at him once more, even if it was with contempt, even if he hated him, it would be enough if Draco were alive and by his side.
This could not be happening to Draco, oh no!
Harry was nearly hyperventilating, and his hands shot to his chest, trying to open up his shirt and get some more air. His hands met a metallic object, the necklace Draco had given him, the portkey.
Then he had a great inspiration, born of despair. He violently yanked the necklace and shouted the trigger word, "Covenant!"
Immediately there was a swish of air and Draco's body was portkeyed next to him. Harry crumpled to the ground and grabbed Draco's chest, sobbing with relief.
He called for a house elf and told him to Apparate Draco back to the Manor, to the Heir's room. He paid scant attention to the rest of his friends; he just had to make sure Draco was OK.
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Before Narcissa could tell Draco anything, he said, "Excuse me for a minute, Mother. There is someone I have to see." Narcissa scowled as Draco walked away and disappeared from view. He returned presently.
Then she approached Draco and sat beside him in the meadow, a posture utterly strange for a Malfoy, but one that she managed to pull off with her customary regal grace.
"Dragon, you might be interested to note that our spat had the desired effect. I ran to Dumbledore, like a vindictive mother, telling him how you had changed from the good boy you used to be."
Narcissa chortled with glee and continued, "As if you ever were a good boy, you were always a brat, my little Lord." Narcissa leaned on Draco and ruffled his hair adding, "I will get into Dumbledore's good graces as the tool he considers me to be, and we'll find out about his plans. It is very demanding to keep up the charade in front of the Light's hypocritical leader. Still, it needs to be done."
"Now will you tell me what happened, Dragon?"
"Yes, Mother. We were coming back from the brook when I sensed the alarm going off. I saw a helicopter approaching in the monitor. We went to the Nexus."
"I cast a protection spell with Ginny's help. Harry as usual butted in and helped. We managed to create a shield to stop the missile from destroying the Manor. It was very draining. I thought we were out of danger, when suddenly three wyverns attacked us."
"I managed to distract the wyverns and they chased after me, leaving the others alone."
Thoroughly amused, Narcissa raised an eyebrow and smirked in a decidedly Malfoy fashion, "Why, Draco, I'm quite surprised, that is a rather Gryffindor thing to do!"
Draco blushed and pouted in what Harry would surely describe as an adorable way. He answered, "Being near them, I've found their ideas are contagious. I just couldn't sit back and let them come to harm. Besides, what about my duties as a host? That would be bad manners." Draco smirked at his mother.
Narcissa replied, "Touché. What happened afterwards?"
Draco continued, the atmosphere noticeably more relaxed after the banter, "I managed to hold off the wyverns for a few seconds, when suddenly Weasley One hit me. If I ever get back to the real world I am going to Crucio the weasel bastards!"
Narcissa lifted a hand and replied soothingly, "Think before you act, Draco! This is so uncharacteristic for a Weasley, it might be that he did not act under his own volition."
Draco responded, "You might be right, Mother! I guess they could have been Imperio'd. This reminds me of what happened to Harry. Mother, Granger fed Harry the Suggestion potion and told him to date Ginny, then recently she suggested that he break up with me."
Narcissa arched both eyebrows and drawled, "Then you will find interesting the book your cousins in Wiesbaden gave me. It has a method to counteract precisely that potion; it strengthens judgment, volition and free will. At any rate, do continue."
"Weasley Two tried to put me under Crucio, but the mines prevented that. Weasley One stupefied and kicked me, and then I was here. Do you think we're dead?"
"I don't think so, Draco. Would you mind it too much?"
Draco looked up wistfully to the starless sky, and answered somberly "I yearn for peace in the middle of this storm, for resolution and endings."
Narcissa hugged Draco and whispered fiercely, "You'll have your time to live, Dragon, even if I have to die to provide it for you."
Draco hugged back just as intensely and basked in his mother's love. Here, in this place and time, they were free from prying, calculating eyes. They were free of Lucius and Death Eaters or the Order; they didn't have to keep up any pretense. They could be just mother and son.
It reminded Draco of one of the best times of his life. He'd been eight years old and they had gone to a local fair. Lucius had been away in Death Eater business and for precious days Draco was free of his overpowering and abusive father.
He ate cotton candy, got on all the rides; he even won a Teddy bear. He was inordinately proud of winning; when he returned to the Manor, though, he hid the bear so his father wouldn't punish him for having it. He hid it so well that he never found it again.
He also saw people perform and sing. This was the first time he saw a piano. Later he would cajole and whine to his mother so much that she relented, bought him a piano and arranged lessons for him. He never knew what arguments she used to convince Lucius to allow that. It didn't matter, he learned the piano and played it with passion and verve, always being careful so that Lucius would not notice it and destroy another source of escape for him.
The crisp autumn air, the smell of wet pavement, the sound of leaves being crushed under his feet; he cherished this lone moment of freedom amidst the grey and dreadful prison constructed by Lucius. These were the golden yearnings for a childhood that never was, the memory he used to cast his Patronus. These moments of freedom were very few and rare in between.
After the hug, Draco asked, "And why are you here, Mother?"
Narcissa replied, "I always suspected that Voldemort would attack the Manor. I followed Lily Potter's example and cast a spell to protect you and the Manor from his assaults. When your Aunt Andromeda told me you were under attack, I cast the spell on my side. I think it was one of the reasons the missile failed to destroy it, but the spell drained my magical core. Returning to the Manor would help immensely in replenishing my magic. If I stay away too long I think I will die."
Draco gently scolded her with tears brimming in his eyes, "Then return, Mother! I don't want you to die!"
At that moment, at the edge of the meadow appeared a bright Light. Draco felt a sense of calmness descend upon him, he wanted to go to the Light and submerge himself in it, to drown in its rich and seemingly warm color. He started walking towards it when his mother grabbed his arm. She warned him, "Don't go Draco, if you do you will not return! Stay here and fight the pull!"
Draco answered wearily, "I'm tired, Mother. I'm weary of people loathing me because of my name. I'm tired of their endless suspicions, of Dumbledore's sneaky ways, of having to watch my every step because of You-know-who. Most of all I'm tired of chasing after Harry and never having him, I yearn for a moment of peace."
"Mother, I'm fed up with keeping up pretenses, Lucius beating me and having to appear weak, only to survive. Now that I don't have to pretend any more I realize I don't know how to feel. The game has lost its shimmer, and frankly, I'm fed up with playing it. I yearn for a place where I can truly be myself."
Narcissa answered exasperatedly, "Then fight, Draco! Don't listen to what commoners say! Stay with your friends! Voldemort will die soon, and you and I can outsmart Dumbledore."
"If Harry doesn't want you, then look to Ginny Weasley. It's obvious she fancies you! She is a beautiful, headstrong girl and will help you to define the Malfoy legacy! It's up to you, stay and fight!"
"But if you do decide to go to the Light, then I will follow you, for there is nothing in this world to hold me back if you are not in it."
Saying this, Narcissa started walking with Draco towards the Light.
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Tbc
Picture of the wyvern here: