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Draco in an unexpected situation
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Last time on Draco in an Unexpected Situation:
Goyle took a shocked look at Ginny one last time before Chappy hit Goyle with a powerful forgetting charm.
"Sorry Master Greggy. I did as you asked. Sorry." He pulled on his ears a few times before Dobby rested his hands on the little elf's shoulders.
"It's ok Chappy. You did what you must do. You have no reason to punish yourselves."
15) Convening the Army
Chappy had cast a powerful memory charm on Goyle and taken him home less than two weeks ago, when the news was given to Draco and Ginny.
"Preparing the militia- two days" it took a few minutes for Ginny and Draco to figure out what he meant.
"We're all coming together? In two days?" Ginny's voice went a slightly higher pitch than usual. "We are that close to being ready?"
Dobby chirped "We are ready. We just hases to bring all of the army together."
Draco and Ginny used the final two days to perfect some areas that they were not completely sure of, not knowing what exactly they would need.
When Draco asked Dobby about it, Dobby's response was "Who knows what you need in a battle to win?"
Draco had no response but determined himself to not mess up anything he had prepared for. 'This is why they had us learn as much as possible, no matter what it is' he thought to himself 'any skill or application could be of use'.
An hour before they were due to leave, Draco and Ginny were told to pack their things. They both did so in a matter of minutes as they knew so many charms and transfigurations now. They brought all of their belongings outside, the majority of which could be shrunk for easy carrying which they put in their school book bags or in their pockets.
Draco, knowing that he was going to see several people who were not too keen on him, dressed to impress that morning. He wore his most intact work robes that he had (a light grey robe that flowed in layers at the bottom), he washed his hair carefully, which had grown down to his shoulders and slowly combed it as it dried naturally so that it was as straight as it would go, and he slipped a thin band in his hair to keep the hair back off of his face, pulling the hair into a low pony tail.
He looked in the small mirror at the changes that had altered his look over the past nine months. His skin had darkened to a deep tan which only offset his pale blue eyes; his hair had- if it was possible- lightened even more, causing his hair to look almost white. He also had a few days growth of stubble, which remained a dark honey-blond colour. A scar that came from a swinging tree branch back in November had left a tiny scratch next to his left eye, and the tea-spoon battle with Ginny of a few weeks before had given him a bump on his forehead, which Ginny had triumphantly shouted "thwack" upon delivery, and then looked abashed, whilst trying to hide her giggles.
All in all, he looked older and fairly rugged. He was happy with the look.
When he saw Ginny that morning, he saw that she had put similar care into her dress that day. Although she always looked healthy and fit, she had, unlike Draco, scrunched her hair whilst letting it dry, so that it had a wavy, windswept effect; she had used something in her skin to make it seem brighter than usual, and had brushed something slightly red on her lips to make them brighter than normal. Her robes she wore were a pale green and were tight across the upper, and flowed out on the lower part.
With all of their belongings, they waited for Dobby and Pappy. They watched as Dobby raised his arms and practically disintegrated the whole cottage in one wide arm gesture. Where the centre of the cottage had been, Dobby placed a single seed, pressed it into the ground, took a few paces back and then pressed both hands hard against the floor. Where he had pressed the seed, a sapling began to grow. Before their eyes, the sapling grew into a strong young tree. Dobby took his hands off of the floor when the tree was strong and wide enough to sustain life. He then stroked the trunk of the tree, and the tree blossomed with fruit.
He then walked over to the two awaiting teens. Pappy then came over shortly afterwards, carrying a large bag on one shoulder. Pappy took Ginny's hand, and Dobby took Draco's.
"Three, two… one!" they all disappeared in a crack.
They apparated into a bright, cavernous place that echoed greatly. It seemed to be some kind of cave, but the chamber that they were in, was larger than the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
The two Elves led the teens towards a dark place that was a way off on the distance.
"We're the first here" Dobby said conversationally. Pappy grunted an assent to this observation. Draco and Ginny both bit back their comments and questions. They knew that they would receive no response.
Where the dark spot was, there were seven large stone tablets against the wall, each about seven to eight feet apart. Each had a name on it. Draco spotted his name on the far left one. The one to the right of him was Neville. He felt relieved at this for some reason.
Dobby tapped the stone with the index finger on his right hand. The stone rolled a complete turn to the left, so that the name 'Draco' faced the normal way again once it was completely away from the opening. Draco and
Dobby went inside the chamber.
A single bed that looked suspiciously like the one he had left in the cottage lay at the right of the room. An armoire was on the left. Nothing else was in the room.
"You can unpack. I'll see you outside in half hour?" He asked, not waiting for a response.
Draco unpacked his belongings. His stuffed dragon seemed to like the confines of the stone room much more than the wooden room at the cottage. Instead of lying on the bed and sleeping, it trounced around the room, peering at the walls every so often, and nuzzling into them. Draco sat against the wall for a moment and raised his hand up to the dragon. It pounced over and flopped into Draco's lap. Draco squeezed into the stuffed animal, appreciating the squashiness, and the joy the dragon found at being hugged. It licked Draco with a fuzzy, fluffy tongue.
It was like this, that Ginny found Draco when she came to see if he wanted some water. Ginny, rather than being discrete and walking away, burst into laughter and giggled out her question. Draco threw the stuffed toy at her. The dragon panted and flapped its rather un-airworthy wings which did nothing to the direction or gravitation of the throw. Ginny caught the stuffed dragon in her arms and let it lick her face. She enjoyed the feeling. She decided it was like rubbing a piece of material against her face as a child. She placed the dragon down and she and Draco left the room to get some water. The dragon padded off to nuzzle the walls some more.
Draco pushed Ginny playfully as they left, and from standing next to him, she swung her arm up around his shoulders, pushing her weight down on him and rubbed her knuckles into Draco's carefully pulled up hair.
Dobby and another Elf stood in the shadows. "These are warriors?" the husky voiced Elf asked.
Dobby let out a short burst of laughter "Yes. Draco Malfoy and Ginevra Weasley".
Along the edges of the massive cave, as well as an exit, rooms for each of the warriors, and a large kitchen, there was also a large space fitted out with many small bunk beds and normal beds for the Elves. Whilst Draco and Ginny had been unpacking, the central space had transformed (Draco guessed that Dobby had completed the transformations). It had one extremely long table down one side of the room, and hundreds of padded crash-mats along the centre of the room. The other side was filled with many small tables interspersed between bookshelves. Seeing the volume of bodies that the space was obviously catering for, Draco tried mentally preparing himself for a great amount of noise for the final preparations before the battle.
Before an hour was over, Draco's preparations came under attack and failed. Hundreds of Elves filled the cavernous room. They ranged from tiny two feet Elves like Chappy, to huge warrior Elves like Pappy. Most of the Elves were around Dobby's height however. They varied in skin tone from pink, to brown, and in come cases, a slight greenish tinge.
The warriors were obvious in the crowds. A tall, well-defined red-haired man who must have been Ron Weasley was sparring with great speed with a black-haired man with very pale skin, with extremely large muscles. Draco was sure it was Harry Potter. Neville was wearing bright red robes that were hemmed off just above his knee, and brown sandals. His long hair was left flowing and set off just how much weight he had lost as it came to his jaw bone. Draco thought that he looked like a Roman soldier without the armour.
Hermione was obvious as she seemed to glow in the room. She wore her dark brown hair down in loose curls on a short robe, like Neville's but it was cut for a woman, was short sleeved and was pure white. She wore a wide dark blue belt with the robe which cinched it around the middle.
The other girl who Draco did not know…Luna… had pulled her golden hair high on her head in a pony tail. Unlike the others who were all wearing robes, Luna was wearing light blue denim jeans, coupled with a tightly fitted pink t-shirt. The jeans were scuffed and her t-shirt had a slight stain that looked like blood. Or it could have been ketchup.
Ginny was talking with Hermione and Luna. Neville came over to Draco when he noticed that the latter had been alone. Neville was looking browner than he had when Draco had been placed with him.
"So, how's it going?" Neville asked him
"Fine I guess. Weird… all this… isn't it?" Draco responded.
Draco and Neville, by an unspoken agreement decided to stick together as they knew each other fairly well after spending so long together in the forest.
It turned out, that after being with Draco, Neville had gone to a tropical island, and both Ron and Harry had been placed there with him.
As they had all left before breakfast, the majority of the day was left. The Elves were too organised to waste a day letting everyone settle in.
A very pale Elf, whose skin seemed to shine with light, sat on a seat at the top of the table, on the side far from the cave opening. She did not speak, but a shorter Elf who looked no less regal spoke in a carrying voice that seemed not to be magnified, however Draco was sure that it was to carry so loudly. She called everyone to the table.
The speaking Elf informed the warriors that Mystie- the Elven Seer saw fit to bring them all together as the time was drawing near. She invited everyone to eat a little something before converging. She waved a hand conversationally whilst speaking, and all of the food that had been prepared in the kitchen that morning was transferred to the table.
After eating their fill, Pappy directed all seven of the teens to a cubicle area within the bookshelves. He instructed Draco to work on crafting weapons until instructed otherwise. This was not long. After less than half hour of work, in which time Draco had created seventeen long bladed axes, ten spell bombs (which he had yet put spells in), seven long-bladed swords and a variety of short-handled blades, he was doused in a dark shadow.
He looked up to see Harry standing there with a strange expression on his face. It took Draco a few moments to realise that the expression indicated that Harry was feeling uncomfortable. Draco took a deep breath and steeled himself for what he was about to do.
"Harry" He said after standing, and holding out his hand.
Harry loosened up and with a nod, shook Draco's hand, "Draco- Thanks".
They shared a small smile before Draco gave Harry an enquiring look.
"Oh- yeah." Harry began, "I have been asked to find out if you can become an animagus"
"Ok. Are you one?"
Harry didn't answer. He smiled briefly and within the second had transformed into a large black hairy dog. He would have looked ferocious if he didn't appear to have an embarrassed look on his face. He was back to Harry an instant after. "I'm a Belgian Sheepdog". Harry explained.
Draco had thought that the dog was exactly like an Alsatian (German shepherd) except that it was pure black and had a skinnier face.
"What do you have to do to find out?" Draco asked, a little curious if he had the ability.
"Legilimency… ready?"
Draco steeled himself again "Ready!"
It was like having a wand poked into his brain. It didn't hurt. It felt strange, like a strange tornado had whipped up all of the memories in his head. He couldn't see any of them, just had a vague awareness that they were there, on the outskirts of his head. He didn't know if Harry was looking at them, or experiencing the same tornado sensation as he dived in. Draco realised after a while, that Harry was the tornado. He was pushing the memories out of the way to find something deeper than mere memory.
When Harry was done, Draco felt very dizzy.
Harry placed a hand on Draco's shoulder, "I'm sorry" he said looking calmly at Draco.
"Am I not able?" Draco said a little disappointed.
"Oh, you are… but I'm sorry for making you dizzy. You have one weird mind. I kind of got dragged around and around. If I perform leglimency on you again, it won't be as bad. If I'm looking at your memories… or your surface thoughts, you probably wouldn't even notice." He said with a smirk. Harry turned around as if to walk away. Draco was about to call him back, but Harry was indicating for Pappy to come over.
When Pappy got to them, he didn't say anything. As usual, he didn't say a single word that didn't need to be said. Harry responded to the unspoken question, "Surprise surprise- guess who is a slimy serpent."
"Hey!" Draco exclaimed
"Relax- I was kidding… well, not really. You are a sea serpent"
"What on earth…"
"A dragon, well the closest non-magical creature to a dragon. Not very inconspicuous though" Harry frowned.
For the rest of the day, Harry showed Draco how to transform into his inner creature.
"Why does it take some people years, but I can transform my head within a day?" Draco asked.
"Because people who do it on their own have to use potions and spells and work out how to do everything by themselves. It takes a long time. We've been focussing on it, and you know how the transformation works… it just takes a little practice once you know how it's all done."
Draco was enjoying learning how to transform, and because Harry had seen the creature in Draco's head, he knew exactly how the creature was supposed to look and move, and he was rather gifted at explaining it and drawing pictures of it.
An hour before dinner time Pappy came back "Not finished?" he asked. "Taking long". He commented before walking away.
Draco was shocked. Less than a day to learn how to become an animagus was the expectation?
He renewed his efforts and by dinner time had managed to complete the transformation… well, with the exception of his hands, but was that a big deal? He determined himself to work on the last bit on his own before bed.
Meal times were strange in the large cave with so many Elves around and so few humans, but the teens supposed that they would get used to it.
The Elves ate mostly a vegetarian diet, so there was very little meat on the table but otherwise there was a small variety of foods available that they could chose from although not a great deal of it. Nothing would be wasted though. Down to the last scrap it would be eaten this evening. They couldn't chance attracting attention by leaving food around for mice or other creatures to come into the cave. Not that Draco knew where they were other than in a cave somewhere.
That evening, Draco finished his transformation. He marvelled at how he had two sets of breathing organs. He had lungs that breathed air, and also it seemed another set that breathed water, like internal gills. He couldn't wait to get to some water to try them out. He decided that he did look kind of like a dragon, but longer, and his scales were much smoother. His legs were thinner and more flipper-like than a dragon's too. Overall, he was impressed with the creature. It was large and powerful and its mind was malleable. Draco did not feel oppressed by instincts of the creature as he had heard can be a problem. He suspected that in the water he would have more issues with this however.
From the next morning, the joined up working began. All of the teens worked together with a horde of representative Elves who asked questions and advised where necessary.
The roles of the teens became clear. Ron and Luna were the 'generals' for want of a better term. They were planning and coordinating the battle using the wide range of skills and knowledge that they had developed, coordinating the general troops and the other teens. Ginny had scoped out where the battle would commence- where Voldemort and his lead Death Eaters were currently hiding. Ginny was also going to transport the troops to the battlefield. She would then lead the aerial attack team. Draco would lead the ground attack force. Hermione would lead the support teams, including healers and directing the back-up attackers to help the appropriate other teams. Neville would lead a specialist defence team who would prevent disaster as far as possible. He had a glow in his eyes that showed his pride. Harry would be the key person, hidden in reserve to take the fight to Voldemort. Even when he showed his nerves, Harry was clearly a formidable foe. He had a considerable amount of physical, mental and emotional strength.
The Elves had been trained well. More arrived by the day, filling the cavernous room to capacity. The teens and the lead Elves were leading and coordinating the Elves with different skills.
Ginny and Luna had developed separate communication devices that could allow them all to communicate with each other. They had both done so as part of a project whilst in training.
Ginny had developed a small device which was handheld and allowed different settings to be used, to communicate with people separately, or as a large group. This option was voice activated.
Luna's was a disc shaped device that attached to the ear. It could only allow everyone to communicate together and not to identify individual people or groups of people.
When at a vote, it was agreed to merge the two ideas. They chose to use the design of Luna's with the features of Ginny's. Ginny and Luna were happy with the compromise and showed a small team of Elves how to create them, so that they could get on with other work. If some of them were covert, they did not want to give away their positions by having voices coming out of the pieces, no matter how quietly.
For the remainder of the week, they all worked on individual projects, as well as honing their skills in small teams. The following week they began having battle scenarios. They worked on eight scenario's a day, practicing the commands, ensuring that everyone knew to whom they reported, and when and if the line of command changed within the situations. The teens got to know their teams of Elves a little, and were quickly able to train new Elves as they turned up to fight for the battle. Many Elves had to leave during the night, as they would be missed, or took it in shifts if they were working for a wizarding family who had more than one house elf.
HP/HP/HP
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Next chapter: The day of reckoning
There are four chapters left until the ending of this story.