They were all a painful pile of limbs for several moments before they started untangling themselves, Harry getting to his feet first, wand drawn wearily on instinct, though he was the only one familiar with the surroundings as he stood in the hallway of number four, his old cupboard door still innocently open behind them all.
The moment Malfoy found his feet he bolted to the front door and struggled to open it, still shouting like a lunatic now for anyone's help. Harry took a few more moments to look around and confirm neither his aunt or uncle were home to worry about and frowned with his first real concern for their situation. "What's happening?"
"Remus's theory still stands I suppose," Hermione answered slowly. "We're, trapped, in the book?"
"More like around its existence I'd say," Tonks bent down and picked it up from where it still resided on the cusp of the cupboard. "We can't go where it doesn't want us to."
Malfoy had moved to the window in the living room and thrown it open, which it did, but he could not get a single silvery blonde hair out. He'd resorted to throwing a chair in frustration which sailed out just fine.
"Just what I always wanted, a sentient book to torture me," Ron sighed. "Here's your wand back Neville."
"Oh, thanks," he murmured, taking it back gratefully as he watched Malfoy's progress. He'd come up with the idea of hugging a couch cushion to his chest and running at the window now in clear hopes to go out with it, but when he hit the edge, the cushion fell through and he was left face planted against nothing.
His eyes fell down to the floor to see the great black dog tugging on the pants of Harry's robes and huffing in concern. "Um, mate, I think your dog wants out."
Harry had been purposefully ignoring just that, he felt Sirius trying to nudge him back towards the kitchen and still wasn't sure he wanted to talk to him even in this strange new experience going on, especially after all they'd just heard. "Let him piss on the rug, we can't get out," he pointed out, nobody could miss how Malfoy had not yet gotten up from the floor and seemed to be hyperventilating.
He clearly wasn't going to get a say in his life though, as usual, as Ron took a hint with unusual grace and suddenly grabbed Neville, edging past Padfoot with an obvious enough air of casual, "well, we did miss breakfast, and so long as we're stuck here, might as well grab something," then gave a very pointed look at the stairs, the dog, and Harry.
Even before Lupin had given him a tap on the shoulder and gestured to the stairs as well Harry had given a resound sigh and trudged that way with Sirius nearly tripping up his feet he was staying so close like they still feared he was going to drop dead any moment. Hermione hovered in the hallway and watched in concern like she wished to join, but Tonks distracted her by asking, "what potion were you trying to do anyways? Even if Harry messed up his attempt, the results might draw some conclusions."
She got sucked into that and Malfoy didn't seem likely to move ever again without divine intervention as Harry took one step at a time.
He tried his bedroom door first, which did not open to his surprise, and merely slumped against it and frowned anxiously to finally see Sirius standing before him once more. "What are you even doing here Sirius?"
A joke didn't even come to mind to return the same as his godson, stuck here like everyone else. Instead he answered seriously, "we were coming to have a chat with Snape about Dumbledore's absence and making sure he knows to keep up with those occlumency lessons. I'm sorry we startled you Harry, but now I'd sort of like to talk about what that book just said with you living in that space!"
Harry flattened his hair and looked miserably around this place, guilt flooding some of his anger as he imagined being trapped in here now for some unknown time and his godfather just wanting to leave his own crypt to offer help. "Did you think I was living in a palace when I begged you to let me live in that grim old house with you?"
"Harry, have they ever hurt you?" Lupin asked quietly while Sirius went sallow for never having asked Harry about his home life. Merlin he'd found his godson on the street with his trunk and always thought he was there to draw the bus on purpose, but now he was really wondering if Harry had been trying to escape a house; like he'd once been kicked out of in a very similar fashion.
Harry rubbed at his neck for a moment rather than answer and clearly changed the subject instead. "I'm fine. Look, you two started this mess for nothing, Snape quit the Occlumency lessons anyways and frankly I'm relieved-"
"HE WHAT!" Harry jumped and barely heard something break down in the kitchen both shouted so loud.
"I knew that good for nothing sod would do this to you," Sirius barely kept himself from shouting by just the barest hint at seeing his godson startle like that. "Snape's supposed to help you make them stop but bloody hell I knew he couldn't ever put his hatred of James aside-"
"Harry there is nothing so important as you learning Occlumency!" said Lupin sternly, cutting across Sirius' unhelpful rant. Harry needed to know this explicitly. "Do you understand me? Nothing!" Dumbledore had emphasized it beyond words in the letter Sirius had shown him, surely Severus must be able to put some childhood mess behind him to help Harry with what he needed?!
"Well it's not doing us any good now," Harry told them in exasperation, his anger starting to spike right back at being scolded now of all times. "I can't hang Snape up by his pants and make him do it," he finished, the flagrant words slipping out before he could stop them.
Sirius and Lupin exchanged startled looks, and the rest of the story came out of Harry before he'd want to stop himself, going into the pensive and the entire awful memory he'd witnessed, finishing with a beseeching look at Sirius in particular.
Hermione and Tonks finally ran out of theories, let alone implausible solutions out of this and were more than concerned about what those boys were getting up to upstairs from the shouting, and the kitchen from the smell of something burning. Also a vague concern if Malfoy was even breathing in there now.
A quick look and gesture, and Hermione was trying to go up the stairs as noisy as she could so she wouldn't sneak in on anything private, and Tonks went to go make sure the two purebloods didn't burn down this muggle household.
"-yeah, okay, I just never thought I'd feel sorry for Snape." Harry sighed.*
"Erm," she cleared her throat, still unsure if she should be stepping in but unshy in doing it. "Is everything alright?"
Harry had already received a lecture and a half today, two if you counted Hermione's botched attempt to get him to even pay attention during the potions mess that started this, and was not looking for a third from Hermione on a rehash of anything weather it be her concern for his living conditions, his stopped Occlumency lessons, or even her opinion on a still sore subject about his dad. "Yeah Hermione. Tonks almost done with the chapter?"
"Hasn't even started," she said aghast, "we wouldn't without you, it's your story."
He made a face and looked expectantly back at Sirius as he said, "guess we'd better get on then."
It took him a moment to remember he was supposed to change back. "Stay close to me Harry." It was more of a concerned statement than a demand, but Harry heard it as a question and smiled sadly at his godfather.
"So that I can step on your tail next time?" He joked.
Hermione squeaked a sorry he waved off as he changed back.
They went slowly back down the stairs, Hermione feeling more on edge than the other three for still feeling their unease but noticed Harry just seemed sort of content with his sadness rather than so distracted of late. She'd noticed of course how distant he'd been and feared he'd been lying about his dreams stopping and wished he'd listen to her urges about going back to Snape for more lessons, so she hoped Professor Lupin and Sirius had talked him back into it.
Remus trailed behind as the three went into the kitchen, Harry calling for Tonks to get The Vanishing Glass over with already. It disturbed him a bit he could still hear her perfectly clearly as she did so as if she were still standing right next to him while he lingered by the living room, yet she hadn't raised her voice one jot. The Malfoy boy was finally sitting up slowly, looking near tears with exhaustion but quickly straightening his face into a disgusted sneer as he caught sight of his audience.
"There's food if you'd like it," was all he said in the gentlest voice before turning away.
Draco would rather starve than subject himself to the squalor of scraps in there for such a place! He had no idea why this was happening to him, but at least now understood some of what exactly it was they were being put through as he'd followed along that mudbloods conversation with the Auror. He just hoped he wasn't the one being eaten, he thought viciously as he watched the werewolf leave, perceiving that as a threat.
Finally storming back to his feet and determined to at least put as much space as possible between himself and every one of those useless people he was trapped with, he went up the disgusting muggle stairs, glaring at every tread in the carpet along his way, but paused on the landing.
Potter's childhood sounded pathetic as he was subjected to these Muggles, but it was pitiful to realize for the first time how alone the wizard had felt, ostracized from his real community. His blood status should have at least had him in middle-class, being a halfblood and all. Maybe he could have even climbed higher up the food chain if he'd worked for it like some poor fools who weren't gifted enough to be purebloods. It was the idiots own fault he'd fallen in with waste like the Weasley's; he'd offered him a hand of friendship, but clearly these Muggles had made him too stupid to function as they refused to hand over his Hogwarts letter, truly a bizarre species the planet did not need.
He tried one door that didn't open again, but still stubbornly tried the next, and was amazed to finally find one that would open! He bounced around the entire landing with delight to see a door open again and again, jumping in and out of the doorways with his middle finger raised high for a moment and even daring to use a muggle toilet just in case before walking back into the first room and looking around in confusion.
This must be the gorilla looking cousins room, one teenage boy could tell of another's, even if the wizard would admit to no such thing. Malfoy was still in a rather vindictive, prideful mood as he turned wearily on the spot for this alien space and went over to the large, shiny, fancy looking machine in the corner and shoved it off the pedestal, watching it be destroyed at his feet, and then reaching down to put his hand in the odd, brightly colored bits of string inside.
"What on Earth do you think Malfoy is doing up there?" Hermione asked uneasily as she nibbled on her hastily thrown together sandwich when the crash echoed downstairs.
Ron garbled something in between bites while Neville was still prodding his wand at the stove that Tonks had turned off, but Harry was spreading mustard on his bread and didn't even look up in concern. "Haven't a clue, or a care. Whatever he breaks, the Dursley's can't even blame me for this time, I shouldn't even be here." He slapped it down on his own massive sandwich and took a hearty bite.
He choked on a bit of lettuce and suddenly looked at his godfather in concern as it occurred to him he'd never shared the tidbit that had gotten him locked up in his cupboard he was released from weeks later, his first instance of Parseltongue. He couldn't be sure, what with the furry face and all, but as Tonks read over the moment he didn't detect a hint of shock in the shaggy black dog. He just panted and kept gnashing on a sausage that fell out of Ron's sandwich.
Remus tapped his fingers uneasily on the table as he stuffed the last of the crust in his mouth while Padfoot whined uneasily and leaned against Harry's legs even being passed bits of turkey and cheese for their own concern of Harry's circumstances, but Tonks froze in the middle of Harry's depressing recount of how he'd be spending his eleventh birthday and stood up abruptly. "The words vanished." Then she took off up the stairs in true concern for what Malfoy had done, pocketing their precious ticket unconsciously as surely as she would her wand.
Draco Malfoy lay upon the floor, twitching and convulsing with his hand sticking out of the back of Dudley's now broken computer. Training kicked in, one of Moody's she'd even laughed at for the time, what wizard would get in trouble around a Muggle house regarding their electrical equipment? She'd have to be sure to take back her crack about him being a paranoid fool this time when she got back. She snatched her arms around his chest and kicked the device away to be certain it was no longer in contact with him as she said a quick healing charm for the teenager.
He sat up with a wild gasp and looked at her with the first real human emotion on his face, but the gratitude didn't even make it to his lips. He merely crossed his arms and looked away at nothing like a petulant child that had been scolded, and she sighed for the youth.
Remus was right behind her, Padfoot and the other teenagers lingering awkwardly in the hall having seen it all. "Turns out we can, and should not die around here, or it'll be bad business for everyone," she said as cheerfully as she could as she took the book back out of her pocket.
"We're doomed," Ron now agreed with Tonks. He brushed the last of the crumbs from his shirt and resisted going back for fourths as she read the rest of the chapter in the heavy silence.
"Well, we should be safe so long as we just don't do anything crazy around here," Neville tried to say hopefully. "Maybe the book just brought us to read here instead of the castle-"
He didn't even get to finish, as Tonks did, because they were all zapped away again.
*The skipped conversation played out exactly as it did in the books, I had nothing to add to that, but the follow up the book never covered will be in the next chapter!