Chapter Eleven
Harry, Hermione and Viktor all pulled out their wands, looking for an enemy that wasn't there yet but was certainly coming soon.
"Draco!" Hermione shouted, Draco was one the other side of the tent that was now filled with panicked and confused guests.
She turned to Viktor and put her hands on either side of his face, pulling him in for a kiss.
"I love you." She said quickly.
"I know, my love, I love you too. I vill come vhen you call." Viktor told her, tears streaming down his oddly shaped nose, "Go."
There was a bone chilling crash as the tent was suddenly swarmed with hooded Death Eaters.
Hermione clutched Harry's arm, digging in her nails so they wouldn't get separated. Lights flashed over their heads as people screamed or barked orders.
Harry saw Lily grabbing a crying Danica, as Tonks, Remus and Nikka battled their way over to Lucius as well.
"Harry!" Lily screamed, seeing him go in the other direction.
Harry wished time would stop. Let him say goodbye and that they'd see each other again. But it doesn't work that way.
"I LOVE YOU!" Harry screamed, praying that they'd be able to hear him over everything that was going on.
Hermione reached Draco and they grabbed hands, spinning on the spot and yanking Harry from the tent.
"I love you too." Lily said, tears streaming down her face as she watched Harry go.
Lucius took Danica from her as Tonks, Remus and Nikka reached them so they could apparate more easily.
"We're all here." Nikka said, clutching to their little group.
"Draco!" Lucius demanded, looking around the chaos around them.
"He went with Harry and Hermione." Lily sobbed.
"They went to the Manor?" Lucius said, more of a beg than a question.
"Ha… Harry said that he was going away." Danica sobbed, letting out another scream as they all ducked to avoid another spell.
"We have to go!" Tonks begged.
"Malfoy!" the hiss travelled across the tent from a Death Eater, several others turning to face him as well.
Lucius looked around, and turned on the spot.
It was a very untidy apparition, leaving them all in a heap on the grass outside Malfoy Manor but unharmed.
Winky and several other house elves rushed out to help them up.
"We was told." Winky told them, "Kingsley sent his cat."
"I need a minute." Lily said breathlessly.
Nikka took one look at her face and nodded, "Danica you come with me. I'll help you get changed and into bed. Tonks and Remus, I suggest you go check on your parents and Corvus."
Tonks and Remus nodded, leaving Lucius and Lily alone on the grass. Lily pulled Lucius in for a hug and clung to him like her life depended on it.
"They're gone… oh gods they're gone." Lucius sobbed into her hair.
"They're safe. We saw them get away." Lily sobbed back, "They'll come back to us." praying to anyone that would listen that it would be true.
It was over an hour later when the two parents managed to uncurl themselves from each other and the cold grass and drag themselves to bed. For the first time ever they shared a bed that night, neither one of them feeling they could be alone and taking some comfort from not being alone in their worry and stress.
Harry, Hermione and Draco landed in a large field that was occupied by four sheep, a Shetland pony and a very large horse.
They tumbled to the ground and gasped to catch their breath.
"We shouldn't of left." Hermione gasped, her head between her knees as she tried not to panic, "We should of tried to help."
"We helped by leaving." Draco said firmly, "They were after Harry, we all know that. They'll leave the others alone when they find out he's gone."
"I hope so." Harry said, shaking his head, "Where are we?"
"Not far from Malfoy Manor." Hermione said, letting out a small laugh, "Next farm over. First place I thought of."
"We can't stay here." Harry sighed, "It's too close."
Hermione nodded, "I know. More a case of get out and then think of a place. You both still have your bags?"
Harry and Draco checked their pockets and nodded.
Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out his glasses, the polyjuice potion was wearing off and he was struggling to see again.
"Can we have five minutes?" Draco asked, flopping dramatically onto the ground. He knew they couldn't be so close to his home, but it was where he wanted to be right now.
"Five minutes." Hermione conceded.
Harry flopped onto his back, hoping that everyone escaped OK from the Burrow. He felt so sorry for Fleur and Bill, having their wedding so badly interrupted.
Scrimgeour was dead. He'd said it would be Harry's fault if they lost this war. Did he blame Harry for his death? Harry seriously hoped not. There wasn't really anything Harry could of told him that could of prevented his death and it wouldn't be the last death in this war.
Five minutes doesn't last long when you really need to sleep for at least twelve hours and have a good meal. All too soon Hermione was dragging them to their feet so they could find somewhere new.
They landed on a pretty shore line that looked like it was straight out of a story book. There were pebbles leading down to a very sandy beach in front of them and green, rolling hills behind.
They all agreed that hills would be better than on the beach itself and wondered over to the nearest large tree.
Draco pulled the tent from his bag, he'd snuck it from the storage room over a week ago. Hermione had suggested they told Lucius that they were taking it but Draco pointed out he would never let them go if he knew what they had been planning. Besides it was only the small tent.
The small Malfoy tent was not what most people would call 'small'. It had two large bedrooms, a kitchen, sitting room (with small dinning area) and a bathroom with both a bath and a shower.
"Why is there a peacock feather in here?" Hermione asked with a small frown, pulling a snow white feather off the sofa.
Harry shrugged, "Well they do have about three pet ones, and at least a dozen peahens. I remember when we were little they had a… whatever a group of baby peafowl are called and we got to watch them grow up. It was very cool."
"What was very cool?" Draco asked, entering the tent, "All the protection spells are up by the way."
"Thank you." Hermione smiled, "I found this." she showed him the feather, "And Harry was telling me about when you had baby ones for a while."
"Ah yes. That was very interesting." Draco smirked.
He flopped down on the sofa, Harry and Hermione following suit.
"Well, home sweet home for the next two nights." Hermione said, trying to put some enthusiasm into her voice but she was just too exhausted.
"I think we should head to bed." Harry said after a minute of deafening silence, "We can form a plan in the morning."
Neither Hermione or Draco disagreed and said goodnight to one another before Harry and Draco went to the left bedroom and Hermione went to the right.
In the larger bedroom that Draco and Harry would be sharing, there was two bunk beds, one of which had a double bed on the bottom. There was also a wardrobe, two chest of draws and boxes under the beds to store things.
Tomorrow would likely consist of unpacking as much as they could, and getting settled.
Harry gave Draco the larger bed, it only seemed fair as it was his tent, besides, Harry was used to having a single bed more than Draco was. Harry lay awake on his own bed, hoping that Hermione was doing all right.
He'd thought it was a bit gloomy to have been planning everything since Hermione had first arrived at Malfoy Manor but he was glad that they had now, rather than wait until after the wedding like he'd suggested.
It had meant that the long conversations about how to set up, if they needed someone to be a look out or not and the lists of every protection spell they knew had already been sorted and now they could all just sleep.
The three of them woke feeling refreshed physically but unbelievably worried, the reality of everything they were facing had crashed down on them like a ton of bricks.
Hermione broke a cracker into three pieces and transfigured them into three bowls of Shreddies and milk before flopping down on the sofa while the kettle boiled.
They soon found out that while it was perfectly easy to survive on magical food, it always tasted slightly bland and left you wanting something just a little more.
Harry made three cups of sweet tea when the kettle boiled and brought them over on a tray.
"As far as I see it," Hermione said, thinking out loud, "The first thing we need to do is track down Mundungus, to find out where he put the locket. I did keep my eyes open for him at the wedding but I didn't spot him."
"I don't think he came, I didn't see him either. I doubt he'll still have it anyway." Harry sniffed, "He'll have sold it or swapped it by now."
"We will need to start tracking it down." Hermione said, once again failing to put any sort of enthusiasm into her voice, "The others are more difficult; we have no idea what some of them are, let alone where they could be."
"We have to hope they're all in the country still." Draco said, taking a sip of the tea and pulling a face from the amount of sugar in it, "They wont be able to track us if we're just apparating in the country, but you need a permit to apparate internationally. Some how I doubt they'll be all too helpful there."
"I think they will be." Harry said, "In fact I'm sure they will be." what he didn't say was the fact he didn't know if he was sure because he was actually sure, or if he was just really hopeful.
"Let's unpack." Hermione suggested, "It'll give us something to do and we might as well settle in, everything will pack up with the tent when we need to move after all."
Harry didn't argue but plodded into the bedroom and tipped his bag upside down, an impossible amount of things falling onto his bunk.
Clothes were easily sorted into the draws and wardrobe. They'd made sure to bring semi-formal robes, like you'd wear to an office as well as everyday ones and muggle clothes.
Harry looked longingly at the very thick jumper he'd gotten for his birthday, he would roast in it but he still wanted to wear it, to feel he was home, just for a moment.
The thought shot into Harry's head as the pieces fell together. He could of smacked himself, he knew exactly where to find Mundungus. They finished unpacking and gathered back in the sitting room.
Another cracker made them all tuna sandwiches and prawn cocktail crisps for lunch as they gathered around the coffee table.
"Do you think it would be too much of a risk to have a walk on the beach?" Harry asked, looking longingly at the waves from the open tent flap.
Hermione chewed her lip, "I don't know. I'm not sure it's worth the risk though."
"Maybe later tonight? No magic, darkness and we should be OK." Draco suggested, "It's going to get very frustrating caught up in this tent forever."
"Oh!" Harry said, actually smacking his forehead this time, "I think I have an idea where we might be able to find Mundungus."
"Where?!" Hermione and Draco said at once.
Harry took a large gulp of water to wash down the last of his mouthful, "He was stealing things from Grimmauld Place, I bet you anything he'll be going back, trying to get everything he can."
"Will he not have stripped it by now?" Hermione asked.
Harry shrugged, "I don't know. I doubt it; the place is filled with stuff. He'll be checking to make sure there was nothing unlocked when I turned seventeen and he'll be laying low right now. Give it a week and I bet he'll go snooping again."
Draco nodded, "Well, we're going to lose nothing by trying and it's a good idea certainly."
"They'll be waiting for us." Hermione said quietly, "I'm sure of it. They'll be Death Eaters on watch."
Harry sighed, "I think so as well. But we have to try. If we disillusion ourselves here, and apparate straight into the hallway we should be fine."
Hermione shrugged, "What other choice have we got? As you say, we have to try."