Disclaimer:In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in yours ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC, I try to limit them as much as possible. Some lyrics may crop up now and then and will be attributed as appropriate.
Chapter 19 -The Vanishing Act
"Well I guess that you never knew me,
Or at least not well enough,
So I fill my gut with dark red wine,
Until my brain shuts off and my eyes go blind,
You won't see me there in that thick black air,
Yeah, I'll finally make something disappear.
Because I've been practising disappearing
And I think that I've got it down,
Now there is no sun, just a cellar,
Nowhere is sky, just that black, black dirt..."
Bright Eyes
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Once Draco had his father safely positioned on the settee in the living room, he took the chance to sit down himself. Blaise was still running around the place like a headless house elf, occasionally barking orders from another room like; "Obliviate the house elf and stuff him in the kitchen cupboard!" And Draco had yet to get his attention for more than 30 seconds since he had wandered out of Hermione's room, muttering cryptic things to himself about help being on the way.
Draco looked at Hermione, who had just entered the room, a leather satchel around her shoulder that he recognised as being his from Hogwarts. He pointed to it with his left index finger. "What's that?"
Hermione drew breath to answer, but she stopped as Blaise entered, placing a hand on her shoulder and guiding her to sit down next to Draco on the settee. "It's a bag of things you might need, mate." Blaise said, grabbing the firewhiskey decanter from the coffee table and filling four glasses; one he handed to Draco, one he handed to Hermione, one he kept for himself and the fourth he placed on the floor before kicking it over.
Draco peered at Blaise curiously. "Is there any reason you've just wasted good firewhiskey? And why in the name of Merlin's testicles might I need a bag of things?"
Blaise smirked a little, taking a drink from his glass. "Because it needs to look like we were surprised in here. And because you're going to have to go into hiding, at least for a few days." He pointed to Lucius' wand that was laid next to Draco on a side table. "Is that your Dad's wand? Where's yours?"
Draco looked at the wand for a moment before picking it up and holding it out for his friend. "Yeah it is, mines in my pocket."
Blaise nodded, taking the wand. "Ok, hand yours over."
"Oh, what's that? So you've gone mental, have you? Well that's ok Blaise, I can forget about what you just said."
"No I haven't, I'm thinking perfectly clearly." Replied Blaise. "Your wand needs to remain here, just trust me. You'll be safe, I promise you mate. Trust me."
Draco raised his eyebrows. "Well that's just it, isn't it mate. I don't know if I can trust you. I thought you told me about everything."
"Says Mr I-Just-Got-Caught-By-My-Dad-In-Bed-With-The-Mudblood-Servant." Replied Blaise curtly.
"Yes, but you knew about it that." Draco said.
"Yes, but you didn't know that I knew. We could go on about this all day mate, but at the end of the day I'm the only one who can get you out of this situation so you're going to have to remember that I am your best friend and I'm not going to let anything bad happen to you, it only has to be for a few hours."
After looking at his friend's extend hand for a moment, he reluctantly pulled his wand from his pocket and handed it to Blaise. He leaned forward, giving Blaise a stern look as he released his grip. "I amreally trusting you here mate."
Blaise carefully took Draco's wand and nodded his head. "I know that mate." Blaise drained the contents of his glass, and then smashed it on the floor.
"Hey! My Mum bought us those!" Draco said, pointing to the smashed glass on the floor.
"Get some perspective, I'll repair it later." Said Blaise, going into the hall and throwing Lucius' as far down as he could. He then came back into the living room and put Draco's wand behind the door.
"What the hell are you doing now you crack pot?" Draco asked, taking a swift drink from his glass and elbowing Hermione to encourage her to do the same before Blaise smashed every glass in the house.
"Disarming you of course." Said Blaise. "So when it's found they'll think you were disarmed, don't worry I'll get it back to you by the morning at the latest."
Draco wanted to ask more questions, as so far he was fairly confused; about far more than just what Blaise was trying to organise. But his train of thought was interrupted by the fireplace erupting with green flames and Victoria Frobisher emerging from it.
"Alright Blaiseykins, if I got your message right, then I'm here to help." Victoria said, smiling broadly and stepping into the room. The fireplace erupted again, another person stepped out of the green flames, a young looking wizard whom Draco didn't recognise.
"Frobisher! Excellent." Blaise said, reaching out and taking her hand, guiding her towards the settee where the unconscious Lucius Malfoy lay. "This one is fragile cargo, you need to take extra care when transporting him. I cannot stress enough how much you need to take care of him." He said, pointing to Lucius.
Victoria nodded her head. "Don't worry, we'll take care of him." She moved forward, beckoning the man stood behind her. "Come on Toby, we need to move him carefully."
Draco stood up from the settee, beginning to regret handing over his wand so easily. "I'm sorry Frobisher but, where the fuck do you think you're going to take my father?"
"The same place we're going to take you, Malfoy. I don't know what exactly it is you've done but from what Blaise has told me, you've got yourself into such a mess, that I've had to come help. Which much be a pretty desperate situation indeed." Frobisher replied, narrowing her eyes at the former Slytherin.
Draco moved forward, pointing his finger at the ex-Gryffindor but was stopped when he found that Hermione had gotten out of her seat and was now standing in his way. He looked at her curiously. "Granger, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Draco, for Merlin's sake just LEAVE IT!" Hermione said, putting her hands on the insides of his elbows. "Blaise is trying to help you, he thinks that Vicky can, so why don't you just trust him?" She said, looking at him with pleading eyes.
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"I cannot fucking believe I let you talk me into this." Draco said, looking at Hermione as they walked down the corridor of the resistance building behind Blaise and Victoria, who was levitating Lucius Malfoy in front of her.
"And as soon as he starts to stir I need you to feed him a good amount of Babbling Beverage." Blaise was saying to Victoria. "I don't care how many confundus charms you have to use on him but when he is safely returned to the ministry, I don't want a single person to believe a thing he says he saw."
Victoria was nodding at Blaise. "Are you getting all of this Toby?" She said to her underling, who was scribbling fiercely with a quill on a piece of parchment. She turned her head slightly to see if he had acknowledged her before returning her attention to Blaise.
"And Frobisher, this is very important, he doesn't get hurt, he has no permanent damage done to his brain. If he's addled for a couple of days, it isn't going to be anyone's problem, but anything more than that and I come down like a ton of bricks. Do you understand me?" Blaise warned.
"I understand, Blaisey." Victoria replied. "But you do know that this little episode is pretty much going to wipe you out with us don't you? You've called in all your favours here. We're providing protection to some of the most hated Death Eaters in Voldemort's circle."
"Don't worry Frobisher, I understand how much this is costing me." Replied Blaise. "Just make sure everything goes according to the plan."
"Don't worry it will." She said before turning with the unconscious Lucius Malfoy into a non-descript looking room. Draco went to follow her inside before having his collar caught by Blaise.
"Where do you think you're going?" Blaise said.
"With my father." Draco replied, pointing inside the room.
Blaise shook his head and pointed to a room at the end of the corridor. "You'll be down there you muppet. The idea is that when you're 'rescued' by the retrieval team, you won't be together and your dad will be claiming he saw pink elephants trying to paint a water colour of Tower Bridge so that no one will believe him if he says he saw his son in bed with the servant."
"Alright, alight." Draco said huffily. "You've turned into a right bossy git, you know that?" He started walking alongside both Blaise and Hermione, towards the door that Blaise had pointed to.
"I'm just looking out for you, mate." Blaise said. "You're not exactly liked in this place."
"And you are?" Draco said with an inclined eyebrow.
"Not exactly, but I come in handy." Blaise replied, opening the door to the room that he had said they would be occupying. "It's basic, but it will do for now. I'll get your wand to you by the morning at the very latest, but the faster I leave here, the faster I can raise the alarm."
Blaise pointed inside the room, it wasn't much more decorative than Hermione's room back at the manor, there was a bed in one corner, then what appeared to be a bathroom without a door as Draco could clearly see a toilet. "You expect me to stay here?" Draco began to protest, but Blaise gave him a soft knock on the shoulder, pushing him inside the room. Hermione followed voluntarily after him.
"Yes I do. Deal with it." Blaise said with a slight smirk. "I'll see you in a few hours." With that he shut the door and Draco could hear his footsteps trail off down the corridor.
He looked in slight disbelief at Hermione, not quite sure how they had ended up in this situation. "Well isn't this just... comfy?" He said, throwing the shoulder bag he had been carrying on the floor. "I suppose you're happy aren't you? After all, they are probably going to want you to stay here with them. You'll be free." He looked at her accusingly as if the whole situation was all her fault.
"Do you know what would make me happy Draco?." Hermione said, moving across the room and sitting down on the bed, kicking her shoes off onto the floor. "I do not want to be a slave anymore. I want to live on my own, do a job that makes me happy and I want to practise magic again." She looked at him hard.
"Well you've got your wish Granger. You'll be free soon enough and maybe they'll send you out of the country and sort you out with a wand." He said indignantly. "Then you'll never have to see me again."
"Yes well there's a problem with that Draco." Hermione said. "I'm not sure that never seeing you again is going to make me happy."
Draco looked at her for a moment with disbelief before waving his hand dismissively at her. "Oh shut up Granger. I think that hit to your head as given you a concussion and your babbling." He smirked at her, waiting for her goaded response, but she just looked at him. Draco went to take a step forward, then drew his foot back. "Oh come on Granger, you're not playing the game."
Hermione leant back against the wall that the bed was pushed against. "Maybe I don't feel like playing the game anymore, Draco."
Draco furrowed his brow a little, taking a step forward. "Come on, Granger. We've always played this game and it's your turn."
She turned her head slightly and looked at the wall instead of him. "I'm not playing anymore. I'm sick of it, I'm sick of trading insults and witty banter. I want to talk."
"Granger..." Draco looked at her, wanting her to look at him. "Look, you know I can't..." He threw his arms up in frustration. "Herm... Granger I think you're confusing our little trysts with something their not. Just because you sleep with someone, it doesn't mean you develop feelings for them. OK?"
She snapped her head around glaring at him. "I am more than aware of that, thank-you Draco, you patronising bastard. Why can't you do it? Why can't you just talk like a normal human being? Why do you always have to have an argument instead of a conversation?"
Draco was slightly taken aback, although almost everyone was aware of his aversion to any conversation that had anything involving how he felt about things in it, not many people had dared to ever call him on it. "I..." He began but was interrupted by the door to the room flying open and slamming into the wall.
"Malfoy!" The figure in the doorway shouted. Draco's mouth dropped open...
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Author's Notes:
I'd like to dedicate this chapter to The Flare's classic song; Foot Stompin' which I had on repeat between the Sweeney Todd soundtrack while writing this chapter.
So, shout outs: snapefan2007, ascii27, Jonathan J Strange, Parcheezie and darbythomas many thanks to you. Your reviews were greatly appreciated, keep 'em coming.
Special thanks to: fantasygirl26, ImperfectSilver and allycat1186, super fast reviewers all, it's nice to know you're sat with (probable) bated breath while my lazy arse sits, pissing about on itunes and watching Quentin Tarantino films instead of giving my full attention to the next chapter... Just kidding, I've actually been working pretty much straight through this week.
Super special thanks with bells and budgerigars on to my SVD, from your SCB. Just because your reviews reminded me of how much I enjoyed writing for an audience, not just myself.
So as usual please R&R and those who haven't yet taken part in the poll at the top of my profile page, please do so. ;)