Chapter 6
Harry, Ron and Hermione stood waiting impatiently in the room of hidden things for Draco. It was the second of December and he was already 10 minutes late. Ron began restlessly humming a festive Celestina Warbeck tune, and Harry, after spending many a Christmas in the Weasley household, inadvertently joined in.
"Draco cannot be any later! We only have an hour as it is. Not to mention its two days until we take out Crabbe and Goyle senior, and we have no idea of the plan. What does take out even mean? Because I do NOT want to be a part of some murder conspiracy." Hermione squeaked, talking faster and faster as she went.
"Hermione, I highly doubt Malfoy is going to get us to assist him in the murder of his parents' friends." Harry sighed, as the door swung open, leaving an empty gap like a missing tooth. The trio shrunk back behind a large chess piece. "I swear this is the Queen from that giant chess game we played in first year to get to the Philosopher's stone." Ron whispered, looking fondly at the piece of stone, a glimmer of maudlin remembrance twinkling in his eyes.
"When you were our knight." Hermione murmured. Harry stifled a laugh and Ron, having not heard the statement, said "What?" Forcing a wave of heat to spread over Hermione's face.
"You realise how cringy that was right?" Harry whispered in her ear.
Suddenly they heard the door slam.
"And I thought I was late!" Draco said into the emptiness.
"Oh, hello Malfoy." Harry stepped out from behind the chess piece, followed by Ron and Hermione.
"Oh, there you are. Sorry if I kept you waiting; I got a little held up by the other Slytherins." He said, not sounding all that sorry. In fact he seemed rather bored by the whole ordeal. "They couldn't stop raving about my brilliant alliance with the Dark Lord and asking what my task is and wanting to see my da-" Draco stopped abruptly, berating his idiocy.
"Your what?" Harry asked, eyebrows raised.
"Nothing." Draco muttered. "Okay, so the plan is to go to Malfoy Manor, because the death eaters seem to enjoy living in my house rather than their own. We'll be taking a portkey there to meet Crabbe and Goyle."
"You can't use an unregistered portkey!" Hermione cried.
"Hermione, since when have we really gone by the rules?" Harry said. Hermione just laughed, to Draco's surprise, who knew her as the greatest rule-abiding student in the school.
"We're meeting them quite far away from my house, but within walking distance, so that we won't be seen by the other death eaters. I owled them pretending to be my dad, to tell them I was organising a surprise party for Voldemort, or something along those lines. They replied expressing their agreement yesterday."
"They believed that?!" Ron said sceptically. Draco nodded, a laugh emitting from his mouth. Ron grunted in amusement.
"How did they know to send their reply back to Hogwarts?" Hermione asked.
"I guess they just sent it back with the same owl. After that we basically knock them out with a few spells and get them sent off to Azkaban! Other than that, I believe you've done enough little 'missions' of your own to sort out tactics, I'll see you at nine on Thursday evening then."
"That's it?!" Harry said, horrified.
"I know what I'm doing, Potter. Oh, and bring your best three people from the D.A." Draco said.
"Draco, I don't think we're well enough prepared. At the Ministry break-in I ended up knocked out, Ron was completely befuddled and-" Hermione said breathlessly.
"Sirius died." Harry finished, hot tears stinging the backs of his eyes. Whilst Hermione was talking Draco had begun to laugh at her state of unbridled panic but immediately stopped at Harry's statement. Fading mirth twinkled in his eyes.
"I don't see why we need seven people to knock out two idiots who believed Lucius Malfoy, who is in Azkaban, is throwing Voldemort a surprise party." Ron muttered.
"You'll see." Draco said, his mind whirring with morose thoughts of his father slowly rotting in Azkaban, each breath a countdown towards his demise within the ghastly walls.
It was the night of the fourth of December and Draco watched restlessly as the other sixth year Slytherins discussed how much they abhorred various students and teachers. Half eight quickly arrived and Draco knew he had to make his way to the room of hidden things. "I'm going to the…library." He said feebly, flashing them a reluctant smile.
"What for? We don't even have any exams coming up." Pansy said, stroking his arm as if he were her pet.
"Okay, that was just an excuse." Draco lowered his voice to a whisper. "I'm actually going to prepare myself for the task." As their eyes widened into pools of fascination, Draco put a finger to his lips to suggest secrecy was vital. All of them nodded vigorously, signalling zipping their lips, apart from Blaise who raised an eyebrow in disgust at Draco's grovelling admirers. Draco couldn't help but bask in the glory he received from his Slytherin minions.
"I'm going to leave now." He said, pointing to the door. He strode out to the sound of the Slytherins vehemently beating their palms together.
Draco slunk down the dimly lit corridors, narrowly avoiding being speared in the head by Peeves, who somehow had gotten hold of a harpoon. In the room of hidden things he was greeted by Luna, Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Neville.
"Ah, the illustrious ministry team! I had hoped I'd be dealing with less Gryffindors but I'll live." Draco said, smiling broadly; he received none in return. "I assume you have told your chosen three the plan?"
"Yes, but we still don't really know what we're doing." Harry said.
"I'd hoped to go for it in the spur of the moment, but as we have a few minutes I'll explain the plan. I have with me some polyjuice potion to turn into my dad, which I'll be taking once we arrive by portkey – which is this exquisite Slytherin ring I prepared earlier. I'll meet Crabbe and Goyle senior and distract them then you; Harry, Ron and Hermione will use your apparently advanced magic on them from behind. I'll join in as extra support and once you've knocked them out, contact some aurors to get them to Azkaban. Then I'll go with Luna, Ginny and Neville to save some muggleborns from the dungeon. What the death eaters do to them really is barbaric. I have a key to get in." Draco plucked a silver key from his pocket with a flourish.
"You have a dungeon?" Ron gaped.
"Interesting. Perhaps you should have asked for some help with the planning though." Harry said bluntly.
"Do you doubt me, Potter?" Draco said in mock innocence and curiosity,
"Yes, I do actually, Malfoy."
"Let's just get on with it, shall we?" Ginny suggested.
The seven teenagers surrounded the portkey and Neville said, "Is it not a little a small?" He shrank back as if he expected Draco to attack him.
"Engorgio!" Hermione and Draco said simultaneously. The ring expanded to four times its original size with a 'pop' which sounded like a balloon exploding. Everyone clutched the oversized ring, and Draco felt Luna slip her free hand into his. He looked down at her reassuringly, expecting her to look afraid, but she had the same calm expression as always. "Have you used a portkey before?" He whispered. An image of an empty butterbeer bottle flashed before Luna's eyes. She saw her mother's hand clutching the bottle and then her other hand holding tightly onto Luna's. She remembered her mum's nails with a layer of dirt in them from her adventures to find whimsical creatures. They whizzed through the air, a flying carousel, and landed in a grassy field. Luna had pulled the cork out from the bottle and expressed her admiration for the item. Now she touched the cork attached to the blue ribbon which she had made into a necklace with fondness. She nodded sorrowfully.
"So when's this thing actually setting o-" Ron began. The portkey started to spin, like a velocious roundabout that induced horrible sickness in the passengers. They rose into the air and a curtain of blackness slid across their eyes; they landed on stony ground, and could see Malfoy Manor in the near distance. None of them had quite mastered landing after portkey travel so they lay groaning on the hard floor for a few moments. Night had befallen and the stars winked down at Draco from their elaborate constellations as if suggesting his plan was going to work, and the half-moon cast its creamy white light over the scene like a half open door to the heavens. Draco reached into his pocket and pulled out a leather pouch and a long blonde hair.
"Why do you even have one of your dad's hairs?" Ginny mused.
"He likes manual labour, so when the house elves are preparing our clothes he enjoys leaning over them to check on their work. I discovered one of his hairs on my robes."
Hermione gasped in disgust.
Draco dropped the hair into the pouch and after a few seconds took a swig. His skin began to bubble ferociously and he stretched out lengthwise. His hair flowed into a glossy blonde waterfall. "What do you think?" Draco said, flicking his hair around enthusiastically, leading to accidentally hitting Neville in the face with it with the force of a whip.
"Apologies Longbottom. Crap, there are Crabbe and Goyle! Hide!" Draco urged.
Neville, Ginny, Luna, Hermione, Ron and Harry hurried into some nearby shrubs, although Draco thought he saw Harry disappear before he shimmied between the leaves and gnarled branches.
Draco turned to see two bloated figures galumphing towards him like talking exercise balls. Without the exercise.
"Lucius! We thought you were in Azkaban!" Crabbe said.
"I, er, got out! Did the Dark Lord not tell you?" Draco smiled.
"No. You seem to be in a good mood." Goyle grinned.
"Well, party planning really cheers me up." Draco said, on the outside he was beaming but inside he was panicking. He realised he hadn't sorted out a signal for when Harry, Ron and Hermione should emerge from the greenery. Suddenly Harry appeared out of nowhere and shouted, "Stupefy!" Crabbe flew backwards as Goyle screeched, "Incarcerous!" Thick ropes wound themselves rapidly around Hermione like a python. Draco heard Ron snarl and start attacking Goyle. "Liberacorpus!" And Goyle was hung in the air. Crabbe bounced up with surprising speed and hit Harry with the Leg-Locking curse. Harry shouted stupefy again, but it was too weakly to work. Draco then had a go at aiming the stunning spell at Crabbe who was rendered unconscious by it. "Lucius?" He murmured before closing his eyes.
"Liberacorpus!" Ron shouted, and Goyle fell to the ground. He looked dazed for a moment before Harry shouted, "Petrificus Totalus." And Goyle moved no more.
Ron said the counter curse and Harry was able to move his legs again. Hermione was still struggling within the ropes, and Harry then used the counter curse to free her. "Thanks." She gasped.
"That was actually harder than I thought!" Draco said, as he felt himself turning back into his teenage self. "Get in touch with some aurors to come and take them to Azkaban. I'll go into the manor."
"Your polyjuice potion wore off quickly." Hermione observed as Harry sent out a patronus message to Moody.
"I made it weak so that I wouldn't be seen as my imprisoned dad by anyone except those idiots." Draco said. Harry came over to join them.
"I'm coming with you." He said simply.
"You don't always have to be the hero, Harry. Stay here until we get back."
"I'm not letting you take my friends into your house, which is a beacon for death eaters, for merlin's sake."
"This is your first step of trusting me then."
"At least take this." Harry handed Draco the blanket like item that he had pulled off him on the train.
"An invisibility cloak?" Draco said, impressed. "I didn't realise these existed!"
"Well they do, now go." Harry sighed.
Draco stalked down the path towards his house with Ginny, Neville and Luna in tow.
Draco turned the silver key in the lock and with a satisfying click the substantial door swung open. They stepped into the empty entranceway which was littered tastefully with white marble statues, and had paintings of past Malfoy family members dozing halyconly on the magnolia walls. Draco draped the invisibility cloak over Luna and Ginny, wanting to make sure they were safe more than him or Neville. As he began to extricate his hand from the cloak he felt Ginny jump underneath.
"You could have at least told me you were going to do that!" She hissed. Draco shrugged and signalled for Ginny, Luna and Neville to follow him. They crept soundlessly towards the dungeons and the paintings seemed to be watching their every move. Each creak in the old house was a trigger of fear, Draco expected one of the death eaters to trek down the stairs and kill them at any moment. In an attempt to abstain these morbid thoughts he focused fully on the plan. He peeked around the wall to check that there wasn't anyone there and once they were at the dungeon entrance they were greeted by a shadowy figure…
"Mum?" Draco asked, his heart palpitating at the speed of a hummingbird's wings beating. Narcissa stepped out of the darkness and engulfed him in a hug. "What are you doing down here? You need to get out of here with your friends." She breathed, anxiety palpable in her hushed voice. She looked sympathetically at Neville, remembering quite clearly her sister torturing his parents to insanity, and willing the same fate not to befall him.
"We came here to save the muggleborns from the dungeon. I know what happens to them and I wanted to help." Draco found he couldn't lie to his mother. "What about you, I'm pretty sure this isn't an ideal death eater hangout?"
"Actually it is. I'm meant to be on torture duty, so they don't get any respite." She shuddered. "But I can't do it. Now get these muggleborns out. And Draco, I'm proud of you."
"Won't you get blamed?" Draco whispered, turning the key in the lock.
"I'll blame it on Pettigrew or something." Narcissa urged. "Now go." Draco turned to Neville, Luna and Ginny. "Go and take these five out to Harry. I need to get something from my room." Draco said.
"Now's hardly the time to grab some items you forgot at the start of the year." Ginny muttered before running towards the door with Luna, Neville and the five captive muggleborns.
Luna hated the idea of innocent people being punished because of their family line. Although she was a pureblood, she knew what it was like to be hated and called names, because of The Quibbler, not that she really minded. If people wanted to endure an infestation of wrackspurts and not know what to do about it, it was their choice. Things had improved of late because of the article about Harry that her father had published the previous year, but Luna knew most people still thought her dad, and also her, a lunatic. She didn't really mid what people thought of her, as long as she was happy. Although, before she met Harry, loneliness was not something that made her happy, it was nice having friends. Her thoughts were interrupted by a low growl. They had sent the muggleborns off with the aurors, who had questioned them about their activities about Malfoy Manor, but Harry had made up a ridiculous backstory that they somehow believed. Now they were waiting for Draco and a way to get home. The growl resounded again, and the homicidal werewolf, Fenrir Greyback emerged from the shadow. Hermione screamed and Luna bit back one of her own, hot blood sprouted from her bottom lip. Harry was the first to spring into action, but Greyback dodged all of his spells. Soon all six of them started shooting spells at him, but Greyback blocked them all. He was successful in disarming Harry and Ron also.
"It's a shame to see so many purebloods go to waste; however, trespassing Potter worshippers aren't worth living on this Earth anyway. How do I kill first? Blood traitor Weasleys? The Dark Lord wants Potter for himself so you can watch your friends die then come with me. Mudblood Granger perhaps? Neville Longbottom? How are mummy and daddy doing? And Lovegood, your dad doesn't need to be tortured, he's already insane." Greyback snarled, a laugh rising in his throat. "I'll go for you first Lovegood, sometimes it's necessary for the mentally damaged to be put down.
He knocked her over and Luna felt the breath evacuate her lungs, it felt like ice water was running through her veins. He traced a claw over her throat, creating a shallow cut, a grotesque necklace; beads of blood fell from it as if rubies embellishing the chain. Luna could feel silent tears spilling down her cheeks. Each beat of her heart was like a gunshot, each directly after the other like the pattern of bullets on the front line. She could hear her friends attempting to fight off Greyback but even the five of them couldn't hold him off. He bared his sharp teeth, a bestial smile dancing on the corners of his mouth, and reached towards her neck, ready to clamp his teeth into it, when Luna heard a familiar voice shout,
"Crucio!" Greyback flew off her and began writhing around on the ground, a cruel imitation of a contortionist doing their big finale. "Run!" Draco called, never taking his eyes off Fenrir. He threw Luna a hoop and said, "Climb through it!" Luna did what he asked without a second thought and found herself tumbling onto the floor of the Room of Hidden Things. She watched, panting, as Ginny, Hermione, Neville, Ron and finally Harry appeared on the ground before her.
"Tergio." Hermione said, raising her wand. Luna felt her skin stitching itself back together as simply as a piece of fabric. "You're going to have a scar there for a couple of weeks. You'll have to think of a cover story."
A figure stumbled into the room through the portal and wrenched the hoop out of the air, before throwing it carelessly towards the ground as if a child with a broken toy. "Well done on getting Greyback, Malfoy!" Harry called.
"He used an unforgivable curse!" Hermione said in a scolding tone, but Draco wasn't listening. He ran up to Luna and hugged her tightly.
"I'm sorry, if I'd known what would happen I would never have left you-"
"I'm okay." Luna said placidly.
"He could have killed you and it would all be my fault. After everything you've done to help me if-"
"I'm fine, Draco!" Luna smiled, a little more forcefully.
"Good." Draco said, finally letting go of her. His eyes lingered on the scar that ran along her neck, a pained expression on his face. He looked around at everyone else, who had confused expressions decorated on their pallid faces.
"Well, good work everyone. We got some death eaters put in Azkaban and saved five muggleborns!"
"I thought you hated 'mudbloods'" Hermione growled, although she was more forgiving than Ron, five years' worth of being called the worst insult possible in wizarding society wasn't forgotten so easily.
"I've learnt that blood purity isn't everything. In fact, it doesn't really matter at all. I'm-" Draco began an apology but stopped. He wasn't ready for reparations yet.
"Was that a hula hoop we just climbed through?" Neville queried, holding the plastic hoop in his fingers, looking at it inquisitively.
"I don't really know what it is, but in summer Crabbe and Goyle stole it off some muggle children, the immature bastards thought it fit to congratulate themselves for it, but I took it off them and made it into a portal. It was kind of my summer project."
Even Hermione looked impressed by this.
"You're a much better wizard than you think, Draco." Luna said, thinking aloud.
"Erm, thanks. Anyway, I'm going to bed." Draco said.
"Before we get killed, or worse, expelled." Ron murmured to Harry, grinning.
"Shut up, Ronald." Hermione blushed, but a ghost of a smile appeared on her lips.
As Draco retired back into the Slytherin common room his head was full of thoughts; since when had his mother been so against everything the death eaters stood for? Had Fenrir Greyback seen him so obviously working against the Dark Lord? And how Luna Lovegood wasn't as crazy as he thought.