Disclaimer: I am just a mere visitor in the sublime world constructed by the brilliant mind that is J.K Rowling. Anything that rings a bell is hers.
Chapter 67
Ky's POV
It spread like ice across my scalp... unhindered by the thick blanket that was my hair and I urged myself to lean forward, away from the deathly cold wall that seemed to feed the frostiness in the room.
For the hundredth time I glanced at the heap of black on the floor, at the glossy reflections that were its sewn to perfection dark grey buttons, at the trim that was somehow a shade darker than the rest of the offending black material, at the collar which stuck up even as it lay harmlessly on the floor, a sure sign that it's user had it propped up to fend off the wind.
I pulled my knees further into myself and cursed him for what felt like the thousandth time, holding my head stiffly so as to prevent it lolling onto the chilly surface at its back, why I shied away from the cold brick wall was beyond me, I already had a headache that seemed to resonate through my skull in tandem with my heart beat, further assault would make little difference.
My eyes fell on the dark pink stripes of my pyjama shorts which were definitely ill equipped for my surroundings, I followed one solid pink line to its tip until it ended almost rudely, without any heads up and stared at the pale skin of my thigh which was submerged by a forest of prickles that reiterated the cold.
I glanced at the coat again...
I groaned and it echoed across the room frighteningly, an echo that did a good job of bringing me to my senses, but before I could take a look at my surroundings, I massaged the back of my thigh, feeling what really broke my sleep.
I jerked my hand away from my skin, my fingertips like icicles and the full presence of the room attacked me. I ignored the small drop of blood that latched on my finger; unsurprised at its origin considering I was in this predicament because I was injected with what I concluded must have been Draught of the Living Death. How ironic.
I stared at the familiar space and bit back a growl, knowing who my captor must be prior to spotting the white blonde strands in the endlessly black vicinity.
I shivered to my feet, when not ladened with hundreds of burning candles and torches, the Dungeons were an unforgiving, wintry place and logically so, considering it was well below the Great Lake. You would never find the place by mistake, the amount of twists and turns that you have to take in the upper floors of the dungeons, and then there is that very deliberate sixty feet drop that lands you outside here, miraculously, or should I say magically, unharmed. So even without the stench of his cologne or the distinct colour of his hair, there were only a few people that could have dragged me down here and in any line up he would be my primary suspect.
Even though my teeth chattered, I held my glare just as light flickered before me, through the poles of steel, but the lamp did nothing to warm the air except throw Draco Malfoy into my existence.
"M...Malfoy." I gritted my teeth, any threat I could make stunted by its incessant chattering. It then dawned on me that the cold was probably a side effect of the Draught has I didn't recall the Dungeons being this cold in my last visit and that was in winter. A side effect that Sev and I both accommodated for but others rarely did. "Let me-"
"Did I... did I hit a nerve?"
My nostrils flared as he cut across me but I regretted the action quickly as I was assaulted with a blast of chilly air that filled my body so the cold simultaneously attacked from within and without.
I glanced down to what he was staring at and answered his question by standing up, my right leg, unhurt albeit a tad bit sore around the back of my thigh. I let my fingers find the puncture wound, ready for the cold of my fingertips this time and found it to be nothing more than a little dot covered with what felt like clotting blood.
"A vein, I think."
I don't know why I appeased him. It was reckless, using a recitator to inject a potion, only skilled healers did so considering you can end up nicking something that can't afford to be nicked, like a nerve, yet my voice was steady and non confrontational even though I had every reason to rage. Technically Draco Malfoy kidnapped me, but the fury never washed over me yet.
Maybe it was the cold, Godric it was cold.
Or the headache that seemed to gain strength with time.
Or perhaps it was the delicate timbre in his voice when he asked the question, the weakness in it and as I stepped forward, taking in his slight, pale face and trembling silver eyes, I wondered for a moment if it were not I that held him captive behind bars.
As if to answer my question I glanced down at the large keyhole that sat in the heart of the bars, the gate camouflaged within the iron would have been hard to make out if I had not passed through it months before. That night though the Dungeons were washed with warmth and colour that illuminated from the candles and the TV, submerged with the tinkles of laughter and the loudness of a lovers silence...
"Draco, let me out." I took the few steps that had me right behind the bars, never touching them knowing that it was useless, that he had locked it and that he had pulled me to the only place where my magic was ineffective.
His silver eyes stared past me, almost transfixed by the shackles that hung from the wall behind me and I closed my fists around the steel, the metal somehow strengthening my resolve. "Draco!"
The snap managed to grab his attention and he took a small step back, closer to the torchlight, throwing more of him into the light. He was still in his uniform, save the cloak, yet his body didn't seem to be affected by the cold at all. Physically Draco Malfoy was here but mentally he was all but lost.
I stepped as close as I could, my naked knees pressed against the unrelenting bars and my wrists just managed to slither through, "Draco."
He glanced at my fingertips, the right ones smudged with blood that was highlighted by my unusual paleness and my cheek pressed against the wall of iron, "Please..."
"I can't." He stepped back, his white shirt pressed against the brick wall, just out of the warm glow of the torch and the darkness consumed him. I squinted and fervently listened for footsteps that never came... he was still here...
"Draco!" My desperation was slowly rearing its head and I tried to clear my throat of it, but it seemed to do a good job of summoning him back as with two taps of a heel against cement he was back in my line of sight.
"I can't let you out of here." Everything about him was stringent, from his eyes to his stance to the set of his lips...unrelenting... determined...
I flicked my hand, tossing aside his words, "Not that. Leave me locked down here for as long as you want just please don't!"
His brows rose and his silver eyes brightened in excitement and for one moment his determination wavered for a look of almost pure madness, "You know? Have you always known?"
I glanced down at his right arm and I pressed harder against the bars. "That. Yes of course!" I had known he was a death eater for the longest time. Scarier still was that he had known that I knew yet he was reacting like this...
"But you... you were... with me? Why?"
"Because it doesn't make a difference. Draco, you are not that mark!" I bit my lip, the pain from my head knocking hard on my skull as if in reminder of its existence but I ignored it.
I desperately needed to bring Draco back to his senses, because the truth was whether he was shining with madness or sombre with determination... Draco Malfoy was not here with me now. Instead a stranger stood, wearing his clothes and his face and his stance but the life in those eyes was all wrong... I couldn't see him in there... I couldn't see him in there and it scared me.
He let out a shallow breath and shook his head, "You don't know. Of course not. How could you?"
I watched as his silver eyes began wandering away and I bit back the pain, I needed him present, I needed him in his senses so he can unlock me or stay with me but not exact whatever he planned to do... not achieve what had his face plagued with such worry and his shoulders dipping with such guilt...not enact what made him a stranger to me with just the thought of it on his mind...
"I don't know what you're going to do Draco, but I do know that you shouldn't. Look at you! No good would come from such... pain." I felt the tear almost magically appear and I touched my cheek... crying... I was crying?
"Ky..."
The tear did what my words couldn't and he hastened toward me, leaving the glow of the torch yet I could make out his features even this length away from the only source of light, and for one fleeting moment there he was. Draco Malfoy. "Ky... I..."
He stopped just short of the bars, as if remembering that he had locked me up for a reason, staring at my hands as if expecting them to lash out at any moment. I snuck them back into the cell and his eyes fell on me and suddenly everything was clear as if sunlight had bathed this room. I could see all of him...
And suddenly he was gone.
"DRACO!" I screamed, drowning out his footsteps, "DRACO! PLEASE DON'T!"
Suddenly every stitch that I wove to keep me together tore apart and I grabbed at the bars, "Please DON'T! Let me out! Let me out so I can help! Let me out so I can protect Mi! And Ron! AND Bobby and Parvarti and DRACO PLEASE DON'T!"
My voice was hoarse with the screams as I sunk to the floor, gripping the bars for support as his expression from earlier plagued my mind...that expression of steely determination...
Something bad was happening upstairs. Something that had Draco lock me up against my will so I would not be in harm's way. So I can be safe? But Mi... Ron... Harry at least was with Nonno... Nonno... he wasn't here...
"There's a coat on the floor."
My head snapped up but I couldn't see his face but I imagined him... frozen in the middle of the corridor that lead to the exit... just out of the torch light, "It will keep you warm."
The guttural sound that emerged from my mouth surprised me beyond words and I covered my mouth in surprise as the tears began falling relentlessly, wracking my body and I clutched my shirt for some sort of comfort.
"Ky..." I glanced up and he was back, crouched on the other side of the bars as some life was pushed back into his face as his cheeks reddened, "Ky, Granger is safe. I've arranged for a bottle of wine doused with sleeping potion to be sent to her... and if she shares it then everyone..."
I didn't know why I was crying but I would use it... as long as he stayed here. Away from whatever had riddled him with such worry, for I realised one other thing. Draco may have tossed me in this dungeon for my apparent safety, but it was also for his. Whatever he needed to do, he needed no chance of my interference. Interference that might have changed his mind...
I let my wrist slither through the bars and latched onto his crisp white shirt, I would hold him here if I have to. With my bare hands.
My hands stilled as I felt not strong fingers, but soft warmth with a hint of moisture... lips... I felt his breath heat up my hands for a moment longer and suddenly I was gripping at air...
"You were right. I keep choosing wrong..."
His footsteps receded into the darkness as Draco Malfoy disappeared, leaving me gaping at the place where his lips sat moments ago...
I kicked at the coat in frustration as I shivered to my feet. If Draco's actions were mercurial, then my response to his actions was just as bad.
I wiped at my face as a frustrated tear leaked out, they seeped out randomly as the hours went by. Hours... I wasn't even sure if it had been that long or that short... I had no watch and no window...
I growled as I slapped the wall in aggravation, gone were my initial feelings of understanding towards him. I kicked at the wall, the burning pain that radiated up from my foot warming me as I glared at the coat, refusing to put it on, steadfast now in my anger towards the blonde which took much time to come but when it did...
Ohhh I would kill him. I will make him hurt if Mi or Ron or...
I gripped my hair in frustration! What was happening! What could possibly put any of us in danger on these hallowed grounds! Hogwarts was impenetrable... it was the safest...
"AHhhh!"
I screamed as the pain from my head gripped me and I fell to the floor. I closed my eyes, willing it away as I wondered if Draco had hurt my head somehow whilst I was unconscious, but there was no physical sign of damage... it must be the cold... Godric it was cold...
I stood, pacing the room again, trying to make sense of it all. Draco locked me down here for protection. Well I assume it's for protection, why else would he take me away to a place only he and his most trusted friends knew about.
Which means that there was obviously danger above? But this danger came when both Nonno and Harry were out of the castle. Why attack when their two most wanted men were out of the castle? Was their target someone else then? But who?
It obviously wasn't meant to hurt the students because he had ensured Mi's safety somehow but the fact that he had to do that meant that they weren't safe in the first place...
"Fuck!" I spat, grabbing at the bars in frustration and tossing my head at it. "Shit!" I bit out stupidly as the steel banged against my forehead... smart move Ky. I gripped at my forehead where I instantly felt swelling and sniffled...
"DRACO!" I screamed in vain... what was he doing! "Draco!"
"Draco, Draco. You are not a killer." Nonno's voice was soft yet commanding, as unwavering as if he had been declaring the time of day.
Draco's wand stayed steady on Nonno as if there was an invisible rope that crossed the tower and bound them together.
His hand trembled as his Hawthorne wand shone darkly against his scrunched fist which slowly loosened and fell limply at his side, the wand held loosely between his two fingers, yet the determination in his eyes did not diminish, "You're right Headmaster. I'm not. I'm not a killer... I'm not a hero... I'm nothing. Nothing except exceedingly tired of all of this."
He gestured around the tower, empty save for the two, but his gesture understood by the older man whose eyes, which seemed to be fighting to stay open, softened at his words, "You've been on this Earth for precious little time my boy, it's much too early to tire out."
Draco's scoff echoed through the tower and both pairs of eyes glanced to the door, the faint sound of voices heard behind it, "I haven't the time to disprove your silver lined clouds. They'll be here soon."
"'They' meaning the death eaters? That you let into the school-"
"We've discussed that already Headmaster." Draco took a step forward as his shirt caught the full brunt of the night's wind in the open Tower and clung to his bony chest, "We've much more important things to discuss. As I said before... I'm tired. But unfortunately I don't have that luxury. I have a mother who's been at the mercy of her murderous niece, a murderous niece who happens to have taken a fancy to me. I have a brother and a sister which came into existence not two years ago but are inherently my responsibility. I have a prostitute whose head would be on a pike if above mentioned murderous niece finds out of her existence."
"Ahhh Draco... how your life has gifted you with such love-"
"Don't." Draco spat, glancing at the door once more, "I have a proposition for you. I need them... the four of them to be kept safe..."
"You had all this year to ask me this Draco... why now?" Nonno's voice crackled with weakness and he leaned against the parapet behind him for support.
"Why now? Don't you see? Now is the ONLY time. If I had done so earlier, apart from me and my family being killed, someone would have taken over for me... there are spies all over this school and I'm positive Davis at least knew I was working on something in the Room of Requirement. And Davis and that twat Banner don't care about..."
He took a deep breath reigning in his emotions, "The circumstances would be gravely different Headmaster and you should be thanking me rather than questioning me. Questioning me as if I HAVEN'T gone through EVERY single outcome possible... I needed to get them to safety... mother and Ari and..." He glanced at the door, "And this was a good enough distraction... the Manor is unguarded and this is probably the only opportunity I'll have to get them safely out so YOU HAVE TO-"
"I don't know if I HAVE to Draco. But I would love to. I do wish to help you and your family-"
"You have to!" Snapped Draco, "I'm not taking handouts! You have to because I've scratched your back. I've protected Ky! I've kept her out of harm's way and you OWE me! If you don't I can easily have her protection-"
Nonno slipped down the parapet and slowly nodded up at Draco, "Help will be given-"
"No! No... you have to swear it now! Give me your word Dumbledore. Give me your word that you'll help them-"
"I will help you Draco-"
His lips thinned at Nonno's words and he shook his head, "I'm tired. Tired of not being my own person. I want out Dumbledore... and you know there is only one way out for me..."
"Draco I can hide you-"
"You can't. You can't. Even if you protect me from him... she'll find me. And she won't hurt me... she'll hurt everyone that I care for. They'll never be safe with me-"
"Draco-"
"NO Dumbledore!" He bent and picked up a wand, "I've made up my mind..." He held it out for Nonno... "I'm just so tired..."
"Ahhhhh." The screech echoed off the walls as I crossed back to reality and I huddled my head in my arms as if to shield me from the pain, knowing full well that the assault was not an external one.
Nonno! Nonno was hurt... hurt and wandless and...
Oh Godric... Draco was on some sort of suicide mission...
He had me down here as some sort of bargaining chip...
I've protected Ky! I've kept her out of harm's way and you OWE me! If you don't I can easily have her protection-
Have her protection? Have my protection what? Reversed? How? I glanced outside the bars as if seeing the source of this reversal in the dark. I was so conceited to believe that Draco was doing this for the sake of protecting, purely because he cared... no agendas...
"Ahhh..." I bit into my right palm to distract myself from the resounding pain and suddenly clarity befell me. Visions. I was having a vision... all my tears and my moods made sense... I had not taken my potion...
I clutched at my shorts as if expecting it to be there, knowing that the clothing didn't even have pockets... I wasn't planning on being away from the Dorm today so I didn't think of carrying it...
Vision...
Draco...
I grabbed at the bars and begged that what I had was a vision of the distant future. That Draco wasn't currently up on Astronomy Tower with a very sick looking Nonno...
"Dammit!" I stopped shaking the bars and leaned my forehead against the cool surface.
Deatheaters were in the castle! Draco somehow managed to disarm Nonno and Harry! Harry was nowhere to be seen...
I sniffed, feeling the rusty taste of blood seep through onto my lip and I stemmed the flow... I had to get out of here... I had to help... stop the madness...
But there was no way out. Magic would be useless, I had no way of manually picking a lock and we were so far away from human existence I could scream till my vocal cords tore and nobody would come...
If Nonno was on Astronomy Tower... then where was Harry... down below with the death eaters?
I stilled suddenly, glancing into the dark corridor as I heard a sound that I was craving for what felt like centuries.
Breathing.
Of another human being.
But suddenly it was as welcome as the growl of a monster to me...
Have her protection-
Suddenly there was the brightness of green eyes as the faint light grew brighter as the footsteps grew nearer and my breath caught.
"Harry!" I gasped, "Oh Godric Harry!"
I slipped my wrists through the bars and held back the tears of relief but just as quickly as the relief came, it left...
"You."
It was all I could say because I never knew his name but his face... his face was everywhere. Tagging along behind Daphne... staring at me from across the Great Hall at breakfast... smirking as Harry and Davis swapped fists outside History of Magic after the poster debacle... looming into me after Teddy had told me where Selina and Silvain were hidden...
"Me?" I stepped back at the voice, my eyes ripping away at the boy's unmoving lips and stepped further into my cell...
His black eyes glittered amused above his smirk as he stepped out from behind the boy, "Miss me my little lamb?"
A/N: Feedback as always is greatly appreciated.
Kalina