Day Four

The next morning, Tilly was woken up by Draco banging on her door.

"Get decent! You've got five minutes!" he yelled from the other side of the door.

Tilly groaned and rolled over. The bed was too warm, and it was too early.

Draco banged the door again. "Are you awake?"

"Yes!" Tilly yelled back. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. She took in the blackened ceiling and the remains of her fire and smiled. Pain shot through her cheek.

"Damn," she muttered as she got up. She went to the mirror and took in the black eye. The ice had helped but it still hurt.

She glanced at the clock. Ok, it wasn't that early, 10 am. Tilly threw on yesterday's clothes, since it was all she had.

She went to the door and banged on her side. "I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille!" she called. Draco entered and grabbed her arm without as much as a good morning.

"Jeez," Tilly teased. "Don't you want to buy me a drink first?"

"Shut up," he muttered as he strode down the hall, dragging her along with him. He finally took her into a room that looked exactly like the one that she just left but reversed.

"Whoa, déjà vu," she said to herself.

"What?"

"Did we fall through the looking glass?"

Her only answer was a grumbling sound from Draco. Confusing him was fun. He held her arm in a vice like grip as he strode around the room.

"We're in, you can let go of me now," Tilly grumbled.

Draco chuckled. "After yesterday's stunt I'm not taking any chances." He held her with one arm and cast protective charms with the other. Tilly heard him casting fire-repellent charms as well as the more usual ones. No more campfires. He also cast charms around the windows. He'd learned from last time.

When he was done he threw her onto the ground.

"Ow!" Tilly said even though it didn't hurt. She was just trying to be irritating. And it was apparently working. A vein throbbed in Draco's forehead.

"So why are you on Tilly-sitting duty?" she asked. "Where's Daddy?"

Draco's face tightened. "He has been sent on an important mission," he said.

"Oh! So you're here all on your lonesome with just Mommy and me?" Tilly laughed hard, more like a cackle. "We're going to have some fun!"

"Look, can't you just behave yourself?" he asked, sounding exasperated. "I don't like you being here anymore than you do."

"Then why don't you let me go?" Tilly taunted. Draco glared at her. She knew why. Voldemort wanted her for some unknown reason. No one would tell her. Tilly suspected that the Malfoys didn't know either.

Tilly sat up and crossed her legs and arms like a kid throwing a temper tantrum. She wanted to slap Draco, take her anger out on him. She settled for sticking her tongue out. Draco threw his arms in the air with an angry sound and stomped out.

Tilly heard the lock click.

She sprang into action immediately. She walked around the room, slowly evaluating everything. What else could she destroy? Books were always easy but he had taken her lighter. It was a minor setback. She'd have to re-assess. She stopped in front of a large tapestry. It depicted the Malfoy family tree. It was ugly but probably not that valuable. And cutting it up with scissors wouldn't attract their attention in a house this large.

She went into the bathroom. It was a beautiful bathroom. White marble, double sinks, a glass shower stall and a big deep bathtub.

She went to the cabinets. All things aerosol had been removed. It made Tilly smile. She had them running. But she still didn't know what to do today. She sat on the toilet lid and pondered. She flicked at the chain on the bathtub plug absently.

It was only after doing this for a few minutes that it hit her. The Bathtub!

Tilly grabbed the plug and jammed it into to the drain. Then she turned on all the faucets. It was a big tub and would take a while to fill, but when it did, it would flood the bathroom. She went to both sinks and did the same to them.

Then she stood over the toilet. She took the toilet paper off its stand and began unravelling it into the toilet. She turned the roll over and over until all the paper was in the toilet. Then she flushed it. As predicted, it clogged and overflowed, gushing cold water all over the bathroom floor.

Tilly gasped as the freezing water lapped over her feet. She hadn't realized how cold it would be. She tiptoed back to the bedroom, dried her feet on the carpet and sat down to wait.

Twenty minutes later, Draco barged into the room, wand blazing. He stopped short when he saw Tilly.

She had gotten bored waiting. So, she had folded herself a pirate hat out of pages from a book and turned the blanket trunk into a pirate ship.

"Avast mateys! Trouble on the horizon!" Tilly raised an empty toilet paper roll to her eye and looked through it at Draco.

She gasped dramatically. "The English Navy off the port bow, captain!"

Draco hadn't moved. He was staring at her like she had grown an extra head.

"What are you doing?" he asked hesitantly.

Instead of answering, Tilly turned around to unfurl her bed sheet sail from it curtain rod mast. "Full speed ahead!"

"You're crazy," Draco stated. He walked past her into the bathroom. She heard him curse. The water probably ruined his shoes. He was like a girl that way. She heard the water turn off and Draco came back into the bedroom. He stood in front of her "ship" and stared at her.

"Seriously, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Playing pirates," Tilly deadpanned.

"I can see that," Draco was talking the way you talk to children. "Why?"

"Because there's three centimetres of water over the floor and I got bored of waiting for you to notice that I was trying to flood your house," she turned her eyes towards the ceiling, screwed up her face dramatically and pretended to think. "Oh, and it's fun."

"Fun?"

"Yes fun. Did you never play pirates as a child?"

"As a child, yes. But we're adults."

"Says who?"

Draco opened his mouth but all that came out was a groan. "I can't believe I'm having this conversation with you." He grabbed her under the armpits, lifted her bodily out of the blanket chest and threw her down on the bed.

"Ah!" Tilly cried. She bounced off the other side of the bed and ended up on the floor. By the time she'd straightened herself, Draco had already cleaned up her pirate ship with a flick of the wand. Draco stood in front of her.

"Incarcerous!" he said. Ropes came from nowhere and bound her hands behind her back.

"Hey!" she cried again.

"Come on," Draco grabbed the ropes and hauled her to her feet. "And no smart remarks." He marched her out of the room and down the hall.

"Where are we going, Daddy?" Tilly asked in a childish, sing-song voice.

"To another room, Matilda," he taunted. Tilly cringed at the use of her full name. She hated it. What parent names their child Matilda?

"This house is going to run out of space if you keep this up," Draco grumbled.

"Awesome," Tilly laughed. Draco scowled.

He stopped in front of a door, opened it and threw her in. Without the use of her hands, Tilly lost her balance and fell on the floor.

"Aren't you going to Tilly-proof this one?" she asked.

"Already done. I plan to be one step ahead of you until you finally leave."

With a lot of wriggling, Tilly pushed herself into an upright position. She stared at him defiantly. "I will make your life hell. You'll wish you'd just let me go and dealt with Voldemort's punishment."

A flicker passed over Draco's face but he mastered himself, every inch his father's son. He slammed the door and started putting up the protective charms.

"Aren't you going to untie me?" Tilly yelled through the door.

"Do it yourself!" he yelled back. "It'll buy me some peace and quiet."