The woman crashed to the floor as Draco hit her with an Incarcerous. Some patrons snapped their chins up in shock; others immediately fled the scene.
The woman writhed against her bonds. Avery and Mulciber sprang to their feet.
"Malfoy," hissed Mulciber. He stalked toward Draco. "What are you doing?"
Draco kept his wand trained on the woman, though his hand shook slightly. She glared back at him. The thick ropes tightened around her mouth and torso, burning their marks into her skin.
In Draco's eyes glinted a moment of calculation. He leaned toward his companions, and spoke quietly. "That - is Harry Potter."
Mulciber stared. Avery broke into laughter. "Boy, I knew you were a bit off," he hooted, "but this is some kinky shit -"
Draco wrinkled his nose. "I'm not roleplaying, you f-" He caught his tongue, closed his eyes. "I'm telling you, this is Potter. In disguise, obviously."
Mulciber had been watching the girl closely. "Avery, search her," he murmured. "Quickly."
Avery looked down at the woman, who looked ready to bite. He smirked. He knelt down and slipped his hand into her robes. Draco thought he saw Avery's finger brush against her breast as he reached into her inner pockets. The woman growled.
"If this is some joke…" Mulciber warned Draco, who was scowling at Avery. "Think about your mother, boy…" Draco looked at the floorboards and nodded.
Mulciber turned to address the remaining patrons. "Everybody leave the premises at once," he said. The remaining customers scurried out.
Avery extracted from the woman's pockets a flask, a wand, a metal block with an antenna, and a folded piece of leather. Avery handed the wand to Mulciber, who inspected it.
"Could be Potter's. What's in the flask?"
"Polyjuice potion," said Avery. He opened the folded leather object and slipped something out from a pocket inside. A plastic card.
"What is it?" Mulciber snatched the card from Avery. As he stared at it, his mouth twisted into a smile. "Malfoy, you aren't so useless after all."
He held the card for Draco to see, and Draco tore his eyes from the woman's face. A small photograph in the corner of the card showed a young, dark-haired man. Even without the signature eyeglasses, Draco could recognize who he was.
On the floor, a look of horror shot through Harry Potter's defiance. Mulciber pointed his wand.
"Stupefy."
Harry woke as he hit the stone floor of a dark cell. With a wave of Mulciber's wand, the metal door clanged shut. A crackle of magic like static electricity zipped along the bars of the cage. Harry immediately felt his energy draining from all sides, like the cage was feeding on him.
"We'll wait until he transforms, just to be sure," Mulciber told Avery. "Then we'll call the General."
"We'll definitely be promoted for this."
Harry couldn't keep his eyes open. The cell was like a vampire. As Mulciber and Avery retreated into the darkness ahead, he fell to his knees and passed out.
"Hello, Harry Potter."
The soft voice woke Harry with a start. A sharply-dressed woman wearing a neat brunette plait and a faint smile gazed at him through the bars of his cell. Two masked death eaters - her bodyguards, Harry guessed - hung behind her.
He sat up from the floor and rubbed his head, which was covered in shaggy black hair once again. Groggily, he lifted himself to his feet, then faced her.
"Are you the General?" he asked, his voice hoarse.
She laughed softly. "I've been told of your arrogance. I'm afraid you don't warrant a visit from the General. I'm merely his assistant."
Harry was silent. He had a nagging feeling that he'd seen the woman before, but he couldn't place her.
She began to pace slowly. "You make a fair maiden, Harry," she said. "Do you often transform into ladies before venturing into Death Eater territory?"
He didn't answer. She looked thoughtful, then extracted a wand from her robe. His wand. He twitched.
She stopped pacing and inspected the wand by the firelight of a sconce.
"Where have you been all this time, Potter?" She sounded genuinely curious. "Obviously not in Britain, or else you wouldn't own one of these." She brushed the wand gently with her finger.
Then she produced another object from her pockets. A heavy, silver-ended, glass tube about 35 centimeters long. It looked to Harry a bit like a telescope. She looked at him.
"How do you like the cell, Harry?" she asked him. "Anti-magical properties. I designed it myself."
She tapped one silver end of the tube with her finger. It snapped open, as if on a hinge. Harry's jaw muscle worked as she slid his wand inside it. The silver cap closed.
Harry flung himself forward to clutch the bars of the cell, but he was repelled forcefully backward. When he regained his balance, the tube had lit up with a pale indigo light. The wand inside began to vibrate and blast red sparks. Black smoke filled the tube. When it dispelled, the wand inside was splintered and dull.
The woman reopened the tube, slid the wand out, and tossed it into the cell. Harry immediately snatched it. He examined it with the concern of a father.
"Go ahead, keep it," the woman said with a smile. "It's useless now."
Harry tore his eyes from the destroyed wand. He shot the woman a look of pure ire.
Unfazed, she turned to her death eater companions. "We can get some information from him tomorrow. But for tonight, why not give him a taste of what he's in for?"
With a curtsy to Harry, she departed. The two death eaters advanced. They raised their wands.
"Crucio!"
Sleep, sweet sleep had finally descended on Harry when the sound of footsteps echoed from the darkness once again.
He was curled up on the stone floor, his body aching. Whenever he'd nearly nodded off, aftershocks of pain would shoot through his limbs and startle him awake.
Now, a pale face emerged from the darkness. When Harry saw who it belonged to, he grit his teeth. Flinching, he slowly got to his feet.
"Get back, Malfoy," he said quietly.
Draco stopped short. He glanced over his shoulder, into the darkness behind him. Then he drew closer, standing just beyond the vampiric magic of the metal bars.
"Potter," he breathed. "There's no time. We have to -"
"You fucked me, Malfoy," Harry hissed. "I hope you got a nice bloody reward from your death eater friends."
"Shut up, Potter, and listen to me -"
"I thought you were on our side, you bloody traitor -"
"Potter - Potter! - look at me!" Draco growled.
Harry glared into the grey eyes. A moment later, all he could see were those eyes; his vision tunneled; darkness closed in.
When he could see again, he appeared to be standing in a dark room. Draco stood facing him. An amorphous cloud of soft light engulfed them, but their surroundings remained in shadow.
He glared at Draco, his chest still heaving. Draco clasped his long fingers behind his back and turned on his heel, very much like Snape. He began to walk around the room - or at least it felt to Harry like a room; he couldn't see any walls, or even a floor for that matter.
The glowing cloud engulfing them split into two. One followed Draco, and one stayed behind with Harry.
"Malfoy." Harry's voice echoed a bit. "Where are we?"
"Your mind," he answered. "Obviously."
Draco seemed to inspect something on an invisible wall. "You have some scars in here, Potter."
"Nice trick, Malfoy," Harry said sarcastically. "But what the hell are you doing inside my mind?"
"I had to speak with you," answered Draco, still examining the room. "Without the guards overhearing."
"What do we have to talk about? How pleased we are to see each other?"
Draco turned to smirk at Harry. "You should be pleased to see me, Potter. I'm your ticket out of here. And you're mine."
Harry blinked. Draco came closer.
"You're going to help me escape," Draco breathed. "Me and my mother."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "What are you playing at, Malfoy?"
"I'm not playing, Potter. I'm trapped here," said Draco. "They're always watching me - I can't even carry my wand most of the time. Unless I'm brewing their potions, or patrolling with them. They tell me they'll ship me off to the camps if I disobey. They say they'll hurt - hurt my mother. They keep her locked up in some filthy vault downstairs. I haven't seen her in weeks. I'm starting to think -"
Draco abruptly stopped. He turned away and paced the mind-room again, keeping his face averted.
Harry shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Malfoy," he said slowly. "If that's true I - I'm sorry. But, I can't help you."
"Yes you can," Malfoy said, locking eyes with Harry again. "I've managed to dodge their watch on a handful of occasions - this little trip down to your cell being one of them. I've seen where they're keeping my mother. I've heard her crying." He set his jaw. "Her vault is heavily reinforced. It's decorated with stone serpents. I'm guessing that Parseltongue is the only way to get inside. I don't know about the General - I've never seen him here. But that assistant of his...she's a Parselmouth."
Harry ran his fingers through his hair. "That's impossible, Malfoy. I can't speak Parseltongue anymore. I haven't been able to since Voldemort died."
Draco shook his head. "No. Dark magic changes you permanently. You can still speak it, somewhere deep down."
Harry gave him a pity-filled look, to which Draco scowled. Draco took a few steps backward, stretching his hand toward Harry. "Serpensortia!"
Harry suddenly felt the weight of something hanging around his shoulders, and he heard a hiss in his ear. On reflex, he threw the snake to the ground. It was made of shadows, but he could see its fangs. It reared at him.
"Talk to it," demanded Draco. "Like you did before."
"Malfoy, what the hell?" Harry backed away slowly. The snake slithered toward him, bobbing its head. "Get rid of it, Malfoy -"
"Just try, Potter."
"Malfoy, for Merlin's sake, I -" he bit his lip. The snake advanced; it opened its jaws. "I can't. I can't do magic, all right?"
Draco narrowed his eyes. He waved his hand just as the snake prepared to sink its fangs into Harry's leg. It dissipated like smoke. "What do you mean?"
Harry looked away. "I can't do magic," he repeated.
Draco stepped closer. "Potter," he said, as if to a particularly slow child. "You do realize this cell is designed to drain magic."
"It's not the cell." Harry glared at Draco. "It's me. I can't do any magic - I haven't casted a spell in two years."
The mind-room dissolved around them. Once again, Harry stood in the cold cell. On the other side of the bars, Draco gaped at him.