Wow, Astoria and Malfoy are both pretty vindictive little buggers. ^.^ But the guy deserves it. (see below for details)
3,551 hits! I'm crying! I'm laughing! I'm screaming! And now people are looking at me strangely. (ducks under computer table.)
Thank you so so much to:
tat1312, GuurrlyGalxoxo, paper parasols (that last review made me all teary; thank you SO MUCH), Elizabeth-nightwatchman, myppe, Material Girl, SB, gigi, BittersweetSummer (psh, Draco's always a stalker), pinker, pinksummer909, lb1863, Love Is A Fast Song, emLILYEVANS, Amarette, Aparecium1, AshleyCartwright, ElizabethKnightley, necklace, Shot Down In Flames, star-girllx, allie94, Bitterly-Me, buckbeak99, Dark Buterflies, evilwriterofdoom, Fawkes Merryweather, footprints93, iRabid, lil manny, ower, Siriusly Cute, SomeKindOfFunny, stormy hopes, and twilightfreak025.
I'm sobbing to say that there's only one chapter left after this one (which is driving me nuts; I hate uneven chapter counts; but I can say this guarantees a bonus chapter or three!) and I hope I haven't disappointed you throughout this journey. Thank you all for sticking with this until the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter Franchise, Draco Malfoy, Daphne Greengrass, or anyone else recognizable from the books. I do own the rebel centaur herd, including Taybur, Elmer, and Cressel; the concept of the Chain, and anyone unrecognizable who is a part of it; Astoria's past, father, mother, and stepmother; and the plot.
Story stats
Title: Silver, Part Two
Word count: 2187 words
Rating: PG-13 (I always thought PG-14 had a better ring to it, and plus it's an even number, but oh, well.)
I hope you enjoy!
Silver, Part Two
by Shu of the Wind
***
"I would like to request an audience with the prisoner."
It was Daphne Greengrass who said the words, saving him from the questions his request would have brought. He hadn't left the courtroom with the remainder of the crowd, and neither had Daphne; she was standing in front of the prisoner's back room, her arms crossed over her chest as she attempted to stare down Artemis Cornswallower, the Snatcher who had testified against Greengrass.
"I would like to request an audience with the prisoner." Cornswallower mimicked. "Get back to school. She's not meant for the likes of you, now."
Color flooded Daphne's pale cheeks, and her fingers clenched, as though around a wand. "If you don't let me in to see her –"
"You'll do what?" He growled. "Hex me? End up where your bitch sister is? They might even let you share a cell in Azkaban." Cornswallower grinned. "Would you like that, Mudblood-lover?"
"What are you doing?" Draco asked, stepping up behind Daphne. Daphne jumped violently and pulled away, flashes of emotion crossing her face – surprise, anger, confusion, suspicion. Cornswallower snapped to attention, and for the first time in a long while, Draco truly appreciated the weight of the Dark Mark carried.
"She wants in to see the prisoner." Cornswallower snapped. "Told her she can't. She won't bugger off."
"Why not?" He asked, in a dangerously quiet voice. Seeing Cornswallower, the Snatcher who had probably put those bruises on Greengrass he'd noticed the night she'd kissed him, the Snatcher who'd put a tracking dot on her and stuck her into Azkaban in the first place, and who'd cast the Cruciatus Curse on her in the midst of court proceedings, quake at the sight of him was sincerely satisfying. More than enough to shut up his rational side, which whispered for him to get out of here, that Greengrass was a lost cause, not worth saving.
Why am I risking my neck and my family's neck for her? He would have never even thought about doing something like this last year. It would have guaranteed the deaths of him and his parents. This was so completely against everything he believed in that he simply seemed to be watching himself go through the motions, as though from far away. His rational side and his mad side, sheared apart as though a spell had split them in half.
"Let us in." Draco ordered, and Daphne's eyes narrowed.
"Madam Umbridge instructed –"
"She's not going to know, is she?" Come on, you fool, they'll come looking for us in a moment, the Portkey goes off in half an hour. Let us in.
"But –"
"Or do you want to be the one going to Azkaban instead? You can go in the cell Sirius Black left. I'm sure the dementors have kept it warm for some other bit of scum."
Cornswallower wavered for a moment; then he jerked his head and stalked away, scowling furiously. "Fine. Five minutes. That's all you get. Under your supervision," he added, with a beady look at Draco. "Don't let 'em be alone together for a second."
Draco studied both Daphne and Cornswallower, his eyes sizing them both up. He hadn't planned that Daphne would be in the room, but he couldn't afford to let this chance slip by.
"Fine." He said.
Draco stepped forward and pushed the door open with one hand.
The urgency of the situation was making everything move faster as he closed the door, Daphne running forward to revive Greengrass with a silent spell. The dementors were nowhere to be seen, vanished like ghosts; this would be the only chance he would get. Half an hour until she returned to Azkaban. Five minutes to put this plan into action.
"Astoria –" Daphne sounded desperate, cupping her sister's face in her hands as her eyelids fluttered, and she came too slowly back to consciousness. "Astoria, wake up, please –"
"For God's sake, Daphne, don't be so loud." Her voice was rough and croaky. She coughed a few times, as though it was difficult to speak. "You're making my head ache."
Draco stayed back at the door, checking his watch. Four minutes, forty-five seconds. He'd give Daphne ten more seconds to blubber.
"Why did you testify for me, you idiot?" Greengrass hissed, looking angry. "I didn't want you to, do you have any idea what kind of suspicion you've put yourself under for doing that? You fool, Daphne!"
"I couldn't just let you be sent to Azkaban!" Daphne whispered back furiously. "Astoria –"
But Greengrass was already staring at Draco over her sister's shoulder, a mocking smile on her mouth. "And what do you want? You're not honestly here to commiserate, are you? I thought better of you, Malfoy."
This was his last chance, to just turn around and walk away, and no one would know about this but him. He stared at Greengrass, and she stared right back, her eyes narrowed and angry. If he was going to leave, he'd be turning his back on her in plain sight of her. He wasn't sure he could do that. He had had no choice about this, and hadn't since he'd first met her.
"Shut up, will you?" Draco snapped. "And stay quiet for once. Get her out of that chair," he ordered Daphne, who looked so shocked he doubted she knew what was going on, but pointed her wand at Greengrass's bonds, muttering spells. "We don't have much time."
Greengrass went even whiter than before, her eyes huge blue-grey pools in her face, and she had to wet her lips several times before she managed to speak again. "You've gone mad, Malfoy. You can't honestly think –"
"We need to get Cornswallower in here." Draco said, before she could continue. "He'll do, whatever you might think, people will expect him – you," he said, pointing his wand at Daphne, fear turning him desperate, desperation turning him mad. Every instinct was shrieking at him, Leave them, leave them, for God's sake, get out of here, don't risk your neck for her, but his feet were planted to the floor. "Give her your wand. And scream. Right now. Scream your head off."
Three minutes.
"But –"
"If you want to get out of here alive, Greengrass, you'll shut up." The hand holding his wand shook. "Scream."
She handed over her wand. Daphne licked her lips, opened her mouth, and gave a shriek worthy of a banshee. Greengrass pointed her sister's wand into Draco's face, snarling, "Expelliarmus!"
Artemis Cornswallower pushed the door open just in time to see Draco's mother's wand fly from his hand, and before he could say a word, Greengrass had turned the wand on him, her eyes wild. "Stupefy!"
He fell to the floor, Stunned. Draco kicked the door shut, and took Narcissa's wand back, as Greengrass shook her head for a few seconds. She'd caught on, thank God. He didn't have to explain anything.
Two minutes, thirty seconds.
"Here." He shoved the Polyjuice Potion into her hand, as Daphne dug through Cornswallower's cloak, collecting his wand so he couldn't attack back. Her face was drawn and grim, focused as she handed it to Greengrass; Greengrass viciously snapped it in two across her knee and Vanished the pieces, without even looking at Cornswallower. There was a dangerous blankness in her eyes. Draco could feel himself reeling from the consequences of that action; she had just snapped a man's wand. But his rational side, the cunning side, told him that the Snatcher had not only tortured her for weeks, most likely, and followed her for even longer; she had deserved that bit of revenge though she could probably be court-martialed for it. "Here –"
His hands shook as he added four hairs from Artemis Cornswallower's head to the mud in the flask. It immediately turned a color resembling dragon meat, greenish red, with a vile smell. He expected Greengrass to swallow it instantly, but instead she caught his hand with her free one in a fierce grip, far stronger than anyone who had just spent half a month in Azkaban should have reasonably had.
"Did you give them information?" Greengrass said furiously. "Did you?"
"What?" He stared at her blankly. "No."
"Then why?" Her voice was low and furious. "Why help me? Do you have any clue what you're doing?"
"Of course I know what I'm doing." He tried to push her hand away, but she simply tightened her fingers, stubby nails digging into his hand. "Get out of here, damn it!"
"For God's sake, tell me why!"
Two minutes.
"You're asking me that now?" Even in the most tense of situations, she could still work up enough energy to be annoying. He closed his fingers around her wrist, so that they were joined by their hands, pulled her wand out of his pocket, and set it in her hand. "Drink that right now, damn you, or you'll kill us all. You're risking all our necks, and frankly I don't want to die because of that."
And he gestured at the Stunned body on the floor.
Her eyes flickered. Then Astoria seized him by the collar of his shirt, pulled him down, and kissed him hard on the mouth, and this time she was desperate, but her arms went around his neck and he heard Daphne make a shocked noise, but he didn't much care, because he finally had his answer to the question he'd been asking himself for days – weeks now, even from before the trial.
Astoria Greengrass was probably the only person other than his parents that he would risk his neck for.
He was just asking to die, doing this. But he'd tried to break this off, tried to destroy it, end it, and it hadn't worked – she had, too, back when he'd agreed to teach her Occlumency again, and neither of them had been able to finish it. He couldn't have picked anyone more dangerous to care about, and on her side it was the same way, but neither of them could bloody stop. And he wasn't sure they were supposed to, because of it.
Astoria broke away. "Malfoy –"
He kissed her again, focusing hard on how she felt and tasted, and finally, pulled away from her enough to hiss, "Don't you dare get killed. And if you say a single word to anyone –"
Astoria nodded, closing her eyes for a moment as she simply breathed, cheek against his. Then she tore herself away, plucked two strands of hair from her head, put the flask to her lips, and swallowed the potion.
He had never seen another person take Polyjuice Potion before, and it was grotesque. Her skin bubbled like hot wax, features distorting; her shorter hair (just a little past the nape of her neck) spiraled back up into her head, copying the buzz cut of Cornswallower. She grew even taller, burlier, and finally, there were two Cornswallowers in the room.
"I hate that feeling." Astoria muttered, her voice no longer recognizable. She then crouched, stealing Cornswallower's robes, and Daphne quickly averted her eyes, casting a glance at Draco. He said nothing. He didn't have to explain himself to Daphne Greengrass, of all people.
"We all have to leave together." She muttered out of the corner of her mouth. "The same way we came in."
He nodded, staring at the prone form of Cornswallower on the ground, and in a sudden burst of vicious anger, he stomped on the man's nose. It snapped under his shoe, and blood began to trickle down his face as Astoria yanked her old clothes over Cornswallower's head and forced the rest of the potion down his throat.
He checked his watch. Forty-five seconds.
Cornswallower, now a pure copy of a beaten, bruised Astoria Greengrass – with a broken nose – was heaved into the chair and chained up. Draco moved to open the door.
"Wait." Daphne said, fumbling with the silvery pendant around her neck. She unclipped it, pressing it into Greengrass's fake hand, and closed her fingers around it. "Keep it. Please. And when it's safe for you to come back –"
"Yeah."
A wet smile spread across her face, and she nearly hugged her sister before remembering that she wasn't exactly her sister at the moment. Daphne wiped her eyes, steeled herself, and opened the door, leading the way out into a group of Imperiused Aurors and Death Eaters.
"What do you want?" She asked, with superb disdain.
"We was told someone screamed." One of the black-robes said, in a reedy little voice. Astoria's sister shook her hair back.
"Of course I screamed, wouldn't you if your own sister tried to steal your wand?"
The black-robe peered over Daphne's shoulder into the room, where a trussed up Cornswallower in the form of Astoria Greengrass was slumped over in the chair. Daphne scowled angrily, looking disgusted.
"I go out of my way to testify for her, and see what she does? I had to elbow her in the nose in order to get her to let go of my wand, and after everything I did for her! I don't know what the world's coming to, I swear…"
Without another word, the real Astoria Greengrass slipped away, leaving Daphne and Draco to fend off the questions from the angry Aurors and black-robes.