Chapter Eight ~Halloween~
It had been about a month and a half since Draco and Adelaide had confided in each other, since then they had worked on the cabinet, meeting up every few nights but still making little progress when it came to fixing the problem. Today, as it was Halloween, they decided they would skip the nights work in favour of the Halloween party being held in the Slytherin common room after dinner. As dusk fell, students were readying themselves for the festivities; Adelaide in particular had a joke in store. Once the party had begun and the music playing she put the final touches on her costume, a large pointed hat, and stepped out of her dorm to the top of the girl's staircase. She cleared her throat and yelled, arms spread wide, so as to get everyone's attention "500 points to Slytherin!" Everyone stopped, turned towards her and cheered. She was dress as Professor McGonagall down to the spectacles. Draco caught her eye, the only one knowing her secret, and shook his head, laughing before taking another drink of butterbeer.
As the party roared on, most of the students under 5th year had gone to bed, leaving the older students to play, Adelaide grabbed Draco's sleave and the two slipped, unseen, through the common room door to the hall outside. "What are we doing?" he asked "We said we weren't working on the cabinet tonight. Did you find something important? Something to fix it?" Draco was anxious now.
"No. Of course I haven't." Adelaide fished something out of the sleeve of her Grandmother's robe, a tiny slip of folded parchment and began to unfold it. "My Mum and her friend Trixie used to sneak out of the castle all the time to see my Dad, he was a few years older and playing professional Quidditch, Gran told me. I'm guessing this is how they did it." Adelaide held up the parchment. It had become impossibly large considering the size it had been folded, though was still no bigger than Adelaide hand. It was a miniature map of the castle. "Come on!" She said and the two scurried off, hoping not to get caught by Mrs Norris or Filch.
Once in the entrance hall Draco went to the door in an attempt to open it but before he could place a hand on the door handle it was torn back sharply by Adelaide. "You think they haven't sensory charmed the front door to touch? Really? You're sillier than I thought. Come on, over here." She whispered and headed behind the Slytherin house points hourglass. There, she magically prised up one of the large stone floor tiles, revealing a long drop down into darkness. "Go on." She said to Draco indicating he climb down the ladder before her. He did so with Adelaide climbing down shortly after, stopping long enough to levitate the heavy stone back into place and light her wand with a quick Lumos. Once at the bottom, Adelaide took off the heavy outer robe, hat and spectacles. Underneath she wore a low, long skirt, a billowy cream top that showed her shoulders and belly but not too much of her scar and plenty of jingly bangles. "That's more like it." She said, tying her hair up in a colourful scarf. "Well, what are you then?" She asked Draco.
"Umm… Nothing, I suppose." He looked down at his usual black suit.
"Merlin, you are boring sometimes." And with that she strode off down the dark, dusty corridor, Draco following behind. After a fairly long walk, about the time it would take to walk to Hogsmede, the two came to a small wooded door and with a bit of a shove it came free and out they tumbled into a store room of a pub it looked like.
"Great Merlin's beard, you two game me a fright!" They looked up to see Madame Rosmerta holding two bottles of fire whisky. "Goodness, I thought you were... No, cant be. Go on, then just this once. Fireplace is over there." She inclined her head to the corner left of them, "Make sure you're back before I close the floo. That's 2:30." And with that she left with her bottles, Draco and Adelaide still gaping on the floor. Quickly they righted themselves and headed to the floo before they were caught by someone less accommodating. "Where are we going?" Draco asked curiously.
Adelaide shouted "The Leaky Caldron!" and they were off with a whoosh of green flames.
On arrival at the Leaky the two students received a few confused looks but not one person stopped them or asked why they were out so late. It was Halloween after all and no one was in the mood to kill the party atmosphere. Quickly Adelaide grabbed Draco's sleeve once again and hurried him through the back wall, weaved in and out between groups of celebrators and into the dark, dank Knockturn Alley. "Where are we headed? You said this wasn't to do with the cabinet." Draco stopped in his tracks and pulled his shirt sleeve from Adelaide grasp. While he'd never tell, Knockturn Alley unnerved him, even on the sunniest of days.
"It has nothing to do with the cabinet. Come on fraidy-cat, live a little bit, wont you."She went to grab onto his sleeve one last time but Draco sharply pulled out of her grasp, affronted by her comment. Adelaide was getting tire of this already but could see Draco's hesitation.
Holding out her hand to him she told him to trust her and that everything was going to be fine. "better than fine, it will be great!" Taking a deep breath and squashing his pride until it would fit in his shoe he took her hand. Adelaide smiled. It wasn't long until Draco was dragged through the back door of Melody's Melancholies, the store that the two met in. The back door opened into a store room and against the far wall was a set of rickety stairs. "Oh, almost forgot. In no circumstances, besides an absolute emergency, do you use your wand. Any underaged magic and we'll be snagged by the aurors as fast as you could apparate." Draco nodded and followed Adelaide up the stairs, half convinced they would brake if he lingered on a step too long. The girl knocked and after a short wait the door opened and out flooded music and happy voices. In that brief moment it took for the door to open Draco noticed Adelaide's hip, left bare by the costume and inline with his site due to him standing lower on the staircase. The light from under the door cast enough of a glow that he noticed light goosebumps dotting her skin and realised she left her robes back in the tunnel. "What an impractical girl," he though. These thoughts were squashed when the party goers, obviously having had too much to drink, affectionately greeting the two even though Draco didn't know one of them.
Adelaide had a ball, Mel had put on an excellent party, as she always did, and there were plenty of familiar faces to catch up with. Draco, however, didn't have quite as much fun. He knew no one but Adelaide and not many guests were inclined to talk to someone that looked so much like a son of a death eater. Couldn't be him, though, they thought, he'd never sneak out of Hogwarts. Daddy's boy. As it was, Draco was getting nervous as they night became later. At quarter to two the pair found themselves slapping the pavement with tired feet trying to get back to the Leaky Cauldron's floo before Madam Rosmerta closed hers. They tumbled through with seconds to spare just as the Three Broomsticks owner was raising her wand over the fire place. "Better not cut it so close next time, you too." She said and shooed the laughing teenagers back into the tunnel to Hogwarts.
None of this had been that much trouble at all. It wasn't until they lifted the tile in the great hall and scrambled onto the floor that they noticed a furious Professor Mcgonagall, and then Draco remembered that this was also a grandmother furious at her granddaughter. Family, he knew, brought out a whole new type of anger.
"What do you think you were doing?" Mcgonagall's voice was ice cold, trickling with barely contained rage. This was not a regular scolding from a teacher. Mcgonagall had a way of making you feel as though you were a puppy who accidently peed on the rug. This time it was different, Draco had gone cold all over just waiting for the storm that he knew was coming. Adelaide, however didn't seem quite as concerned, perhaps she had faced this before.
"The same thing I do every Halloween, I went to Melody's Halloween party." She replied seemingly casual but there was definitely an undertone of self righteous defence.
McGonagall snapped "Do you know what could have happened to you?!" She shrieked. "Sneaking out of the castle, to Knockturn Alley, at night, alone!"
"Draco was..." Adelaide began defending before she was cut off.
"Draco Malfoy is not an adequate form of protection, he too will not escape punishment for this disobedience. Give me the map. Now!"
"It's mine."
"It is not! It is your mother's and that awful woman's!" McGonagall cried before she stopped short, sparing a glance at Malfoy.
"I've told him. All of it." The younger woman held her chin high, defiantly.
McGonagall paled significantly. "We'll continue this in my office. Malfoy, you too." she added before he could sneak back to his dorm.
I apologize for a HUGE gap between postings but i seem to write more at the scary end of the semester because it allows me to procrastinate from writing depressing essays :)