Journey to the Battlefront

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters mentioned or depicted or any spells mentioned in the following chapter. J.K Rowling owns them.

N.B: The description of the characters Ted and Andromeda Tonks and of their home is my own though the characters belong to Rowling. The incident of Sirius Black running away from home to live with the Potters and Andromeda being a family outcast is given in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix but the rest of it is my invention.

-Chapter Five-

The Black Black-Sheep

What a storm 'twas that shook last night'

The eagle-owl had taken flight,

The air and earth now quiet sounds fill,

But in the mind it rages still.

From the edges of the leaves of the low branch that almost barged into the kitchen from the garden, rainwater that had collected was dropping slowly on the window sill. The candles were burning low. Around the flame of the tallest one, a fly was hovering, irresistibly attracted to it. Draco Malfoy watched, fascinated as it joined the heap of dead insects buried in melted wax around the candles. On the half-illuminated wall facing the kitchen window, tall, ominous shadows were gliding like ignoble phantoms. Andromeda watched the play of light and shadow on her nephew's pale pointed face. He was a handsome boy.

"You don't look much like Cissy," she spoke at last. Draco looked up at the aunt he was meeting for the first time in his life. She looked a lot like her elder sister Bellatrix, they had the same dark hair and the same features on their faces, though hers was not so haughty nor wasted away by living with dementors and she had blue eyes like his mother. In fact, Draco thought, she was quite pretty.

"I look like my father." He replied.

"Yes, I thought so. You look exactly like him. This is the first time I am seeing you," she added softly, "I did not even attend your parents' wedding. I was the family outcast. I suppose you know all that?" she asked casually. She did not seem too disturbed at being disowned by her family.

Draco nodded without looking at her. He felt strange.

"It's almost morning." Said Ted Tonks. He had brown hair with tinges of grey and a good-natured face. The three of them were sitting in the kitchen at the Tonks' home in the village of Brill. They had been sitting there like that ever since Draco had arrived there with Nymphadora Tonks a little after midnight, dripping wet and shivering with cold and fear. She had had a hurried yet hushed talk with her astounded sleepy eyed parents, told him to wait there for her and had then gone. His aunt had then brought him some dry clothes, possibly belonging to his uncle and consequently larger than him and she had lighted the kitchen fire to make him warm. She and her husband had sat there with him, waiting for Nymphadora to return but none of them had known what to say. It has been a pretty uncomfortable night for all three of them. Now Andromeda rose to extinguish the diminished candle with her wand. "Would you like some breakfast?" she asked Draco, "you don't know when Nymphadora will return." Without waiting for his reply, she laid plates on the table as she spoke. As he began to eat, Draco realized how hungry he was.

After he had eaten his aunt remarked he looked tired and suggested he took some sleep till his cousin returned. He followed her up the wooden staircase to the second floor into a small bedroom with a single bedstead, a dresser and a cupboard, all made of polished oak. "I've cleaned the room while you were eating. Its not been in use for years but I think you will find it comfortable." She turned and found him looking at a photograph of a boy and a girl on the dresser. The boy, who seemed to be around eleven, was dark and good-looking. He was sitting on a squashy armchair. The girl, who seemed to be a few years older, was standing beside him. Both of them wore Hogwarts robes.

"That's me and my cousin Sirius." She said quietly. "It was taken right after he got to Hogwarts inside the Gryffindor common room." She was quiet for a few seconds. "It used to be his room when he ran away from home, i.e when he visited us."

Draco looked up. "You mean he didn't always stay with you?" he asked.

"Oh no!" she said; "He went to live with his best-friend's family, the Potters."

She touched the door knob "If you need anything, let me the know." The door closed.

Nymphadora returned around lunchtime. Draco and his uncle and aunt were already halfway through their lamb chops.

"Sit down," said her mother, "I'll get your plate."

"Don't worry Mamma," her daughter hurried forward, "I'll get it myself, no need to bother…" CRASH! She had dropped a plate.

"Oh not again!" shouted her mother, "Nymphadora you are utterly hopeless."

"Sorry mamma, reparo." She muttered.

"I can't work out why they keep you at the ministry, what with your crashing banging habit and your abnormal hair." She scowled at her hair, which was bubblegum pink.

"What's my hair colour got to do with my catching dark wizards?" Tonks retorted indignantly and then turned to look at Draco. Her expression became serious. "Listen," she said, "We have been talking about you all this while."

Draco gathered "we" meant the Order, he said nothing. He was looking at his plate; his heart thumping so loudly that he was sure Tonks could hear it.

"I think you have to stay here for a while." Draco felt his throat was as dry as the Sahara.

"Of course," she continued, "our ultimate plan is to shift you to a safer place, I mean, after what you did last night You-Know-Who will be after you and the ministry is also very keen to make arrests so obviously we want to hide you from both sides so you can't stay here permanently. But I reckon if you don't wander out on your own you will be all right here for a while."

"But why are you risking his safety?" interrupted Andromeda, " Why not take him to a safer place NOW?"

Tonks hesitated and then looked at Draco. "We have to ask .. some people, I mean we need to think a bit and discuss certain points, don't worry Draco, it will be all right."

Draco nodded. The storm that had raged through the night seemed to hammer at his heart. He needed, desperately needed that safer shelter his cousin was talking about. If the dark lord found out…

Chapter 6: Wedding Bells

N.B: The show..er..story will go on. I have postponed publishing my other story so that I can update this one quicker, maybe I will change my mind when the summer vacation begins, right now I can't manage 2 stories together.