Day Three

Tilly woke up back in the bedroom. She was getting tired of being knocked unconscious and waking up in this damn bedroom.

She had to get out of here. Every moment that she was in that house it felt like a giant weight was pressing down on her, crushing her. That weight was named Voldemort. Voldemort and his evil, twisted plan that somehow involved Tilly.

Tilly got off the bed and walked around the room. She slowly evaluated everything for its usefulness or its weakness. The door was deadlocked from the outside and bound with layers of protective charms. The window was locked but not magically guarded. That was an option. But it was four storeys off the ground. She had no way of getting to the ground once she got out of the window without killing herself.

Was there really no way out?

What would James bond do? Nothing. By now James Bond would have escaped, disposed of the bad guy and would be making out with the girl. Tilly sighed. She was not James Bond. But she refused to be the girl who sat there and screamed while someone else rescued her.

Tilly needed an idea. She rifled through her purse. Her wand was gone but everything else was there: Her wallet, her compact and her cigarettes. She gasped. Her cigarette lighter was there too. That was the weakness with these pure-blood types. They were so dependent on magic they had no creativity. Tilly herself was half-blood, the best of both worlds. The Malfoys probably didn't think that the lighter would be useful in her escape. Dumb pure-bloods.

Tilly went into the bathroom and rifled through the cabinets. She needed rubbing alcohol, aerosol disinfectant, something flammable. Hair spray! Tilly nearly did a happy dance. This must be a girl's room.

She took it back into the bedroom and began pulling books off the shelves. Books on Black and Malfoy Family lineage were the first that she ripped up and threw in the pile. Next were books on the dark arts. The pile was huge now. Tilly smiled.

She went to the window and felt around the edges carefully. They hadn't put and charms on the window. It was on the fourth floor, with nothing around to climb down so they probably hadn't thought it necessary. Guess again. The window was bolted shut so Tilly grabbed a chair and bashed at the window until it broke.

She stood before the pile of books, with the lighter in one hand and the hairspray in the other. With a quick motion, the hairspray became a flamethrower and the books ignited. Tilly pulled the sheets off the bed and threw them on the flames, watching the fire burn through the Malfoy family crest. That's right, burn you bastards. The flames were as tall as she was.

Tilly took a cigarette out of her purse and lit it. Then she sat by the open window to wait. That was all that was left to do now. They'd come.

Maybe she couldn't get out but she could make their lives hell.

It only took two minutes for Lucius and Draco to come rushing in, blasting water from their wands.

"Hello, boys," Tilly waved at them from across the smoke. "I was wondering when you'd show up. Did you bring any marshmallows?"

Lucius said nothing. His face was a mask of fury. He crossed the room to her and slapped her, backhanded, across the face. Tilly cried out and fell off the window seat.

"How dare you set fire to MY HOUSE!" he roared at her. Tilly, still kneeling on the floor took a moment to master herself. The way to infuriate him was to not care. Tilly got up from the floor. Her cigarette was still lit, so she picked it up. Ignoring the burning feeling in her cheek she took a slow drag and blew smoke in Lucius's face.

Lucius let out a wordless cry, grabbed the cigarette from her and jabbed the smouldering tip into her arm.

Tilly screamed and tried to pull back but he held her fast.

Suddenly, Draco was next to them. "The fire is out, father," he said.

Lucius gave him a quick glance before returning his gaze to Tilly.

"Everything that you do will be returned to you tenfold, understand?"

Tilly said nothing. She was trying to keep back her tears. Lucius threw her to the ground at Draco's feet and stormed out. Tilly tried to keep her composure; Draco was still there, after all. But it was almost impossible. She didn't think she had enough self control to stand up and keep from crying at the same time, so she opted for remaining on the ground.

"He's gone," Draco said.

Tilly swallowed the lump in her throat. "I know."

"You can get up now."

Tilly bit her lip as pain surged through her, literally and figuratively. She didn't move. As much as she hated sitting on the floor at his feet she hated even more being ordered around.

"Fine, don't," he muttered. He moved away and fixed the window.

"God, woman, look what you did!" he exclaimed. Tilly turned her head and saw him staring at her handiwork, though probably not with the same level of delight as Tilly.

There was a huge black circle in the ceiling over where the fire had been. The hardwood floor was wrecked. Where the fire was, there was a charred black mark and a smaller hole right in the centre of the fire pit. Tilly smiled despite the pain that shot through her cheek.

"This will take weeks to repair," he complained. "Not to mention the cost."

"You're worried about money?" Tilly scoffed. "Why don't you just reparo it?"

Draco sighed dramatically. "Because, my ignorant little half-breed, reparo can't replicate the complex woodwork that was here before. The Malfoy family crest was right there." He pointed to the hole in the floor.

"Why else do you think I put the fire right there?" Tilly said imitating his finger point.

Draco turned around to retort but she was already walking away. He followed her to the bathroom and leaned in the doorway. He watched her take Polysporin and a band-aid from the medicine cabinet. She sat on the edge of the toilet and dabbed the disinfectant on her burn. As she struggled, one-handed, with the band-aid he went to her.

"Here, let me do it," he snatched it from her and put it on her arm himself. Tilly started.

"Um, thank you?" she said uncertainly.

"I can't stand to see a job done sloppily," he snapped. "And I don't want you wasting band-aids."

He stared at her a long moment.

"You should put some ice on that," he gestured to her eye. Tilly reached up to touch it and cringed as her fingers brushed the bruise.

"I don't have any," she said.

Draco picked a cup off the counter, filled it with water and froze it with a spell.

"It won't melt," he said as he handed it to her.

Tilly took it. "Why are you being nice to me?"

Draco cleared his throat, in that way that people do when they're feeling awkward, but didn't answer. He got up and went back into the bedroom. Tilly followed him.

"Give me that," he grabbed the lighter from her hand. "No more for you Little Miss Pyromaniac." He shot her a very Draco-like look and left, locking and replacing the charms on the door.

Tilly pressed her cup of ice to her cheek and looked at the damage that she caused. She smiled despite the pain. It was working.