Chapter Five -
Reunion
Over the
portrait's screams Harry could hear the sound of running feet in the corridor outside. He
looked around wildly. There was only the one exit from the room and it led straight into the
hallway. If only he knew how to Disapparate!
The fireplace, said a voice in his ear. Harry spun around madly;
there was no one there. He didn't care, though. Dashing towards the fireplace he flung himself into
it just as the drawing-room doors opened. There was a ledge at about chest height inside the flue;
he climbed up onto it and braced himself there, panting.
Through a crack in
the bricks, Harry saw Lucius Malfoy enter the room, followed by the Death Eaters and
Narcissa. He looked angrier than Harry had ever seen him, angrier than Harry would have
thought possible. His eyes scanned the room, taking in the disarrayed rug and the exposed
trap door. Then his gaze fell on the portrait.
"Mona," he said.
"Who did this? Who committed this outrage?"
Harry braced
himself.
"A boy," said the
woman in the portrait. "A boy unknown to me."
"Not -- Draco?"
said Narcissa. Her expression was as set and angry as her husband's, but her eyes were
darting wildly around the room, giving her a weird, almost schizophrenic look. Harry
stared.
"The intruder had
no Malfoy blood in him," said the portrait.
"Did he enter the
dungeons?" asked Lucius.
"No," said the
portrait, "He fled when I screamed."
"And where did he
go?"
There was a pause.
Then the portrait said, "I do not see. I only sense. I do not know where he
went."
"Then you have
failed in your guardianship," said Lucius in a freezing voice, and raised his wand.
"Incendium!" he shouted.
The woman in the
portrait screamed once as green flames consumed her. Then a fine drift of ash sifted to the
floor.
"Lucius--"
Narcissa began, but Lucius spun and glared at her. Her expression didn't change, but she
turned and left the room.
One of the Death
Eaters cleared his throat. "My, look at the time," he said. "Lucius, thanks for a lovely
evening, regards to Narcissa." And he Disapparated.
One by one, the
other Death Eaters Disapparated as well, until Lucius was left standing alone with Eleftheria
Parpis. "Now, now, Lucius," she said soothingly, "It was probably just the portrait making a
fuss over nothing, they do that sometimes when you ignore them. I'm sure there was no one in
the house." Lucius seemed unmoved by this argument; he was still eyeing the exposed trap
door. "Anyway," Eleftheria added, "at least we're alone now."
She sidled up to
Lucius who, to Harry's astonishment, took her in his arms and kissed her neck. Harry was then
treated to the most disgusting ten minutes of his life as Lucius Malfoy and Eleftheria
snogged passionately on the loveseat. He screwed his eyes shut, but could still hear them at
it; he couldn't even stick his fingers in his ears since he needed his hands to brace
himself.
"Master Malfoy,"
said a soft voice in his ear.
Harry opened his
eyes a crack and saw Anton floating suspended before him, looking tranquil. He seemed not in
the least astonished to find the heir of Malfoy Manor hanging halfway up a chimney flue by
his fingernails.
"Master Malfoy,
might I suggest that you climb a bit higher up the flue? You will find yourself in a disused
second-floor bedroom, if I am not much mistaken."
Harry nodded his
thanks and began to climb. It took him about three minutes to reach the empty fireplace; he
clambered through and rolled out onto a bare stone floor, coughing and retching on
soot.
***
Draco blinked and
saw Hermione staring at him with her mouth open. "What happened?" she said. "You said
"'Harry, you stupid prat'," and then you shouted "T'he fireplace!'"
"Did I?" said
Draco, who had an odd little smile on his face.
"Did Harry fall
into a fireplace?" asked Hermione. "And don't smile like that, you look like a mental
patient."
"I'm not sure what
happened," said Draco, "I don't see what he's seeing you know, I just get little flashes,
like if he'd feeling something particularly strongly."
"So it's not like
watching a movie?" asked Hermione.
"I wouldn't know,
would I?" replied Draco. "I've never seen a movie."
The train started
to slow down. They were pulling into a Muggle station. Looking out the window, Hermione saw a
group of teenagers sitting on a bench under the florescent lights. They looked like they were
returning home after some party; they were laughing and joking with each other. One of them
was a tall boy with dark, untidy hair and glasses. He really didn't resemble Harry all that
much, but Hermione found her throat tightening anyway.
"Is he okay?" she
said, not looking at Draco.
"If he dies
suddenly," said Draco, "I'll let you know."
***
After sneaking out
of the second-floor room, Harry went to take a shower, since he was black with soot from head
to toe. Then he put on Draco's pyjamas (they had fire trucks on them) and returned to his
bedroom, where he found Lucius and Narcissa waiting for him.
"Boy," said Lucius
the moment Harry walked in. "Where have you been?"
"I went to take a
shower, Father," said Harry, who was quite glad he had left his soot-covered wet towel in the
bathroom.
"Come here," said
Lucius, and Harry very warily approached him. As soon as he got within grabbing distance,
Lucius grabbed him by the arms and stared furiously into his face. "I'm not stupid, boy," he
said with cold menace. "You've been acting peculiarly and I want to know the reason. Going
into the topiary garden!" he snapped. Harry looked over at Narcissa, who looked away. "Not
knowing about the family dress robes! Asking to be excused from one of MY dinners!" he
shouted. "And if I even thought you had anything to do with that fiasco after
dinner..."
"What your father
is trying to say, Draco," said Narcissa, twisting her hands in her skirt, "is....are you
taking drugs?"
Harry's mouth fell
open.
"Because you can
talk to us about it, if you are," she went on hurriedly. "We're, um, here to
listen."
Harry looked from
Narcissa, whose eyes were darting around the room again, to Lucius, whose face was so
contorted with rage that it looked like a carnival mask.
"Nope," he said.
"Not on drugs. Sorry!"
"Then--" Narcissa
looked over at Lucius uncertainly.
"Your mother,"
said Lucius, who was now smiling a very unpleasant smile, "is worried that you're going mad,
young Draco. There is of course madness in our family, as we descend in nearly a direct line
from Uric the Oddball, but I confess I hadn't thought about it popping up in you. Now that
she mentions it, however..."
"I am NOT mad,"
said Harry shortly. "I got a bad bump on the head yesterday, that's all. Honestly! It's not
like I've started talking to myself."
"Not yet," said
Lucius shortly. Then he bent close to Harry's ear and hissed, "I sometimes ask myself what I
did wrong, to be cursed with a idiot child instead of the heir I should have
had."
Harry's irritation
boiled over. "Come on!" he snapped. " Murder, torture, masses of Dark magic, what
haven't you done wrong? You're just lucky you didn't get a son who had three heads.
You must have the worst karma of anyone I've ever met!"
Lucius stared at
him. Narcissa gave a little squeak.
"You must be mad,
to speak to me in that manner," said Lucius. "Or perhaps you're just trying to show your
mettle." He smiled, showing his sharp even teeth. "I admire that. I will not punish
you."
Narcissa's
shoulders sagged in relief and she turned away to hide her expression. As soon as she did,
Lucius bent and whispered in Harry's ear: "If you put one toe out of line after this, my boy,
it's St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies for you. They can toss you in with the
Longbottoms and you can spend the rest of your life strapped to a bed, frothing at the
mouth."
This mention of
Neville's parents made Harry so angry he might well have forgotten himself and belted Lucius
in the eye if the bedroom door hadn't opened at that moment, admitting two men in travelling
cloaks. One of them was Angus McNair. The other was a short man in a dark green cloak, the
hood pulled low over his eyes. From one sleeve of the cloak protruded a black-gloved hand;
from the other, a shimmering hand made entirely of silver metal.
Wormtail.
"Sorry to barge
in," said McNair, pushing back his hood. "Anton told us you were up
here."
"Back so soon?"
said Lucius.
"Yes," said Angus,
a bit nervously. "The journey from Cornwall took less time than
expected."
"And Sirius
Black?"
Please let him have gotten away,
Harry prayed
silently.
"Is here," said
Wormtail shortly. The last time Harry had heard his voice, he had been screaming for
Voldemort to heal his severed hand. Which Voldemort had done. He had given Wormtail a hand of
metal, which now winked in the light as he raised it and pointed it towards the door, almost
as if it had been a wand.
"Everriculum!"
he shouted and a bolt of whitish light emerged from the palm of the metal hand. The light
rose and expanded into the air until it was a net of silvery strands, rather like a spider's
web. Then the filaments of the web broke apart, and something crashed through them, landing
hard on the ground.
It was
Sirius.
He was in his
animal form, in the shape of a huge black dog. All his limbs were rigid, sticking straight
out; only his eyes were moving, rolling back and forth between Wormtail and
Lucius.
"Very impressive,
Wormtail," said Lucius, but his eyes were on Sirius.
"My Master has
given me a hand of great power," said Wormtail, gazing at his metal extremity with fondness.
He waved it carelessly in Sirius' direction, and the black dog went skidding helplessly
across the floor towards Lucius.
Narcissa gave a
little scream.
"That's enough,"
said Lucius sharply.
"Turn him back,"
added McNair in a harsh voice.
Wormtail snapped his metal fingers. "Sapiens,"
he hissed, and the black dog gave a sudden twitch and was Sirius again; Sirius dressed in torn rags, with
vicious cuts and scratches up and down his arms that had not been apparent when he was in his
canine form. He still could not move, but his black eyes fixed on Lucius with
hatred.
Harry heard
Narcissa gasp. Then Lucius walked quickly across the floor and kicked Sirius in the ribs with
one booted foot. Harry tried to rush forward, but tripped on the leg of Draco's pyjamas and
fell to the ground.
He had just begun
to scramble to his feet when he was stopped in his tracks by the sight of Narcissa, who
suddenly, silently, and to everyone's great surprise, had fainted dead away on the
floor.
***
"We're here," said
Draco, standing up and tapping Hermione on the shoulder. She bolted upright and stared out
the window. They were at a tiny, lamp lit station whose wooden signpost proclaimed it to be
located in the town of CHIPPING SODBURY.
This was not
exactly what she had pictured. She had rather imagined that Malfoy would come from a bleak
castle perched on top of a rocky crag in the middle of a barren desert where vultures were
always swooping down on anyone who didn't move fast enough. Not a cute little town called
Chipping Sodbury. Still, you never knew.
"Come on," said
Draco, and she followed him off the train and down onto the platform, where he turned left
and walked towards the end of the platform. "Uh, Malfoy," she said, trailing after him with
the bag bumping her leg, "The station's this way..."
At that moment, he
made another sharp left and walked right through the concrete wall at the end of the
platform.
"Blast," she said,
running to the wall, "how'd he do that?"
An arm came
through the wall. It was Draco's. He yanked her forward, and with a whooshing feeling, she
slid through the wall and sprawled onto the ground on the other side.
"Ow," said Draco.
Her bag had caught him a sharp blow to the head.
"Sorry," said
Hermione, standing up and looking around with interest. They were standing at the foot of an
enormous wrought-iron gate whose arch bore the inscription Malfoy Park. "I
guess we're not in Chipping Sodbury anymore?"
"Certainly not,"
said Draco, starting to walk, " This is Malfoy Park, it’s the village at the foot of the hill
where our house is. You can get there from Chipping Sodbury, though, if you know how to
go."
'You have a whole
village named after you?" said Hermione, aghast.
"Yes, surprising I
haven't got a big head, isn't it?" said Draco.
Hermione was about
to make a sharp comment when she realized he was joking. Must loosen up there, she told
herself.
They came out of
the lane into a wider thoroughfare where there were shops and pubs. It was in many respects a
little magical town just like Hogsmeade, but there was a difference: everything here seemed
to either have the word "Malfoy" on it or be somehow related to Dark magic --- it was
Knockturn Alley imagined by Lucius Malfoy. There was the Malfoy Market sandwiched between
Helga the Hag's House of Horrible Hexes and a pub called The Cold Christmas Inn that
offered a Malfoy lunch special (toasted bat sandwich.)
"They must really
like you here," said Hermione, trying not to laugh.
"Ha!" said Draco.
"They hate my family, we've been oppressing them for generations and every once in a
while my dad comes down into the village and does some horrible Dark magic thing that
terrifies everyone and keeps them in line."
"Doesn't that
bother you?" she asked sharply, but Draco shook his head at her and whispered,
"Shhh... The last thing we want is for anyone to see me here and tip my dad off that
Harry Potter is hanging around the village."
"Right," said
Hermione, who hadn't been paying attention. For some reason, when he stood this close to her,
and whispered like he was doing, she got little shivers all up and down her
spine.
Draco turned and
began trudging up the road that led out of town. Hermione followed him. They walked on for a
bit in silence; Draco seemed lost in thought. Finally, he turned right at the top of the
hill, and they came out from the tree-lined road into a wide-open space. Hermione couldn't
help herself, she gasped; it was just what she had imagined Malfoy Manor would be
like. A huge spike-topped fence stretched away in either direction; directly in the centre
was an open gate shaped like an enormous M. Huge pillars topped by statues of writhing silver
serpents flanked the gateway, and through the gate Hermione could see the looming black shape
of an enormous, hulking house.
Hermione started
forward; she had taken only a few steps when Draco seized her arm. "No," he said sharply.
"What did I tell you?"
"Oh," she said,
feeling foolish. "Seventeen hexes. Right."
"My father
invented the one on this gate," said Draco, sounding proud, "It's called the Jigsaw Hex,
because if you try to go through the gate uninvited it'll chop you up into
pieces."
"Your father
sounds like he must be a lot of fun at parties," said Hermione.
In response, Draco
took a pen out of his pocket and rolled it across the ground toward the gateway. As it passed
under the arch, there was a blinding flash of green light and a sharp clanging sound. There
was a pause, and then the pen rolled back to Draco, severed in two neat
halves.
"So," said
Hermione faintly, "one of those simple, two-piece jigsaw puzzles
then."
"It's not funny,"
he said severely, and took out his wand. He pointed it at the gate. "Raptus
regaliter," he said. There was another flash of light, this time blue, and Draco walked
through the gate. Hermione braced herself, but he remained unscathed, so she
followed.
They were now on
the property of Malfoy Manor. Dark grounds stretched in every direction and she could see the
luminous lights of the house in the distance.
"We can avoid most
of the hexes just by skirting them," said Draco. "Here. Take my
hand."
She took
it.
They followed the
fence for a while, then Draco pulled her behind him along a narrow path that snaked through
the trees. There were occasionally loud thumping and bashing noises as if something huge was
crashing through the shrubbery near them. Hermione didn't want to think about that, so she
concentrated on not making noise.
They were right up
against the house now. The shrubbery ended, and a narrow white path wound towards the Manor
wall and then alongside. It glowed faintly in the moonlight. A high black tower rose above
their heads, spangled with sequins of light where windows broke up the darkness. Draco
pointed upward, to a single row of windows glowing with light. "That's my bedroom," he
whispered.
"Is Harry in
there?" she asked anxiously.
Draco nodded. This
was a mistake, for Hermione immediately darted forward onto the glowing path. He reached out
to grab her and pull her back, but his hand closed on air. He heard, rather than saw, the
small metal gate opening in the base of the tower - he knew what was going to happen, of
course he ought to, seeing as how he'd put the attack mechanism in place himself. He swore,
ran forward, and pushed Hermione aside, hard.
There was a loud
whistling noise that ended in an unpleasant thump, and Hermione heard Draco fall to the
ground next to her.
She scrambled to
her knees and looked around; the path was empty except for her and Draco, who was sitting on
the ground, looking down at himself with an expression of surprise. The shaft of an arrow,
about four inches long, was sticking out of the upper part of his thigh. Blood was spreading
around the wound, darkening his jeans.
"Blast," said
Draco, and then a number of other things, most of them rude. Hermione didn't blame him,
though, there was a lot of blood and it looked like it probably really
hurt.
She knelt down by
him and put her hand on the arrow's shaft. It was strangely cold to the touch. She felt
stupid tears welling up her eyes. "This is all my fault," she stammered. "And I don't have
any bandages...although I could tear a piece off Harry's bag...and maybe you need a
tourniquet....and oh, Draco, should you take your trousers off?"
Draco was staring
at her in disbelief. "Not that I don't appreciate being asked, Hermione," he said, "I mean,
some other time, sure, but right now why don't you just think for a minute!" He hissed
the last part. "Who's the smartest witch in our class? Who's been taking Advanced-Level
Medical Magic classes? Who here can fix my leg in five seconds
flat?"
"Oh," she said,
"Of course. Sorry!" She fumbled for her wand, pulled it out, and put the point against the
torn and bleeding hole in his pants leg. "Asclepio," she said softly, and saw the
lines of tension in his body relax as the wound healed, pushing out the shaft of the arrow,
which fell aside. She picked up carefully; it was sticky with blood and some kind of gluey,
glowing substance. She tossed it into the bushes.
"Thanks," Draco
said, feeling his leg gingerly. It seemed to be fine.
"Are you okay?"
she said, looking at him anxiously.
"Positively
cheerful," he said, reaching up his hand for her to help him to his feet. "Now I'll have a
lovely scar to show my grandchildren."
"Six inches to the
left and grandchildren would have been out of the question," said Hermione. "Now there's
something to be cheerful about."
***
Harry was indeed
in Draco's bedroom; he didn't have much choice in the matter, in fact, since he was tied to
the bed.
It was fortunate,
in a way, that Narcissa had fainted when she did, since Harry's desperate attempts to get to
Sirius had been interpreted by Lucius and the others as desperate struggles to get to
her instead. Otherwise Lucius would most likely have been even more angry when he had
tried to prevent Harry from getting past him and Harry, losing his head completely, had hit
Lucius in the eye. In a fury, Lucius had thrown a Binding Hex at Harry that had wrapped
around his wrists, fastening them to the bedpost. Then Lucius had magicked up a stretcher for
Narcissa and stalked out of the room with her, barking at Wormtail and McNair that they
should take Sirius down to the dungeons and lock him in.
Harry had been
trying to squirm out of the Binding Hex for several hours now, but all he had accomplished
was to wriggle partway out of his pyjama top so that he was now very cold as well as being
very uncomfortable and extremely unhappy at the thought of what might be happening to
Sirius in the dungeon at that very moment. This, he thought to himself, could not possibly
get any worse.
And then the
window exploded.
***
After a whispered
conference, Draco and Hermione had decided to use Lifting Spells to get themselves up to
Harry's window. Draco would go first with Hermione performing the spell; if it went well, he
would bring her up after him.
"Okay," said
Hermione, "here we go. Wingardium leviosa," and she pointed her wand at Draco. He felt
himself rising steadily into the air, twisting and turning a little as if he were being
pulled up by a string. He saw Hermione crinkle her eyes at him in concern and he gave her a
thumbs up. She gestured that he should bring her up as well, so Draco pointed his own wand
and at her and whispered the words of the spell.
He was, however,
not as good at that particular spell as Hermione was. Instead of rising slowly into the air
she rocketed up as if she had been shot out of a cannon, too startled to scream, and crashed
headlong into Draco. With nothing to brace himself, he flew backward, slamming into the Manor
wall. Hermione, quite terrified, had her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs wrapped
around his waist as they spun wildly in midair.
"Make it
stop!" she hissed in his ear.
Draco just shook
his head; he was trying to steady his wand. The spell seemed to still be propelling Hermione
skyward; even her hair was lifting into the air as she held onto him desperately (she had her
hands where no girl had handled him before, but he was in no mood to enjoy it).
"Leviosa!" he shouted hysterically, losing his head completely, and they plunged
sideways like a hanglider out of control, then flew upward again, rolled over, and shot
towards the Manor with the force of a cannonball. Hermione screamed once as they plunged
through the window, spraying flying glass everywhere, and crashed to the ground in a tangle
of arms and legs.
For a moment, they
just lay there, not moving. Hermione had her face buried in Draco's neck and was breathing in
long, unsteady gasps. I really thought we were going to die for a second there, he
thought, I guess she did too.
At that moment a
voice spoke from above their heads; a very familiar voice. "What--?" it said.
"How--?"
Draco had shut his
eyes, so he felt rather than saw Hermione loosen her death-grip on his neck and sit
up.
"Oh," he heard her
exclaim, sounding dazed, "Harry!"
***
"W-what?" said
Harry. "How?"
Harry knew he
should close his mouth, but he didn't seem to be able to. Hermione, her hair dusted with bits
of shattered glass, was staring at him from the floor, and while he was incredibly happy to
see her, he was horribly shocked to see that she had not just her arms but her legs wrapped
around....Draco Malfoy? A Draco Malfoy looking exactly like Harry in every particular,
true, but still Draco Malfoy.
"Oh!" she said,
and he thought she sounded rather guilty, "Harry!"
Draco had his arms
around Hermione, too. His eyes were open now, and he was looking at Harry with a faintly
amused expression that Harry desperately wanted to hit.
"Hello, Harry," he
said. "I see you've found my pyjamas. Although I usually wear the top bit as
well."
Hermione burst
into tears. "Harry," she said again, staggered to her feet, and limped over to where
he was sitting. "You're alive!"
"I told you
he was alive," said Draco, sounding irritated.
Hermione looked
like she wanted to throw her arms around Harry, but was discomfited by the fact that he was
both shirtless and tied to the bed. "Is that --?" she asked, pointing at his
wrists.
"Binding Hex,"
said Harry shortly.
Hermione took her
wand out and pointed it at Harry; "Finite incantatum!"
Harry's wrists
dropped into his lap, and a second later Hermione had thrown her arms around him and was
crying into his hair. Over her shoulder he could see Draco getting to his feet and brushing
glass off his clothes. He was looking at Harry and Hermione and his eyes were very
cold.
Harry put his arms
around Hermione rather stiffly. For nor reason that he could understand, he was feeling
extremely angry with her. "Where's Ron?" he said sharply.
"Ron?" Hermione
pulled away from him in confusion and rubbed her eyes. "He's...he's back at school," she
said, startled. "I left him a note."
"You left him a
note?" said Harry disbelievingly.
Hermione opened
her mouth and then shut it again. She couldn't believe Harry was being so obtuse; she also
couldn't believe that practically the first words out of her mouth had been Where’s
Ron? Wasn't he happy to see her at all?
"Ron hates
Draco," she said in a shaking voice. "He wouldn't have agreed to
come."
"Yeah he would,"
said Harry.
This, Hermione had
to admit, was true. "Okay, he would have, since it was for you," she said, "but I would have
to have explained the whole thing to him and he would have taken forever to come around to
the idea of going with Draco and it would have taken hours, and I thought we'd be back
by morning anyway, and Harry....." Her voice broke off. "Once I found out....all I thought
about was getting to you and making sure you were all right."
Harry was just
looking at her with a very odd expression on his face. "Did I hear you right?" he said. "Did
you just call Malfoy Draco?"
Draco stepped
forward, putting himself between Harry and Hermione. "Look, Potter," he said sharply. "I know
you don't like me. I don't like you either. I would have let my father toss you in the
dungeon to die if it were up to me. But it isn't. And whether or not you believe me,
you should at least believe Hermione that we are here to SAVE YOUR LIFE YOU UNGRATEFUL
GIT!" Draco yelled the last part. "So let's get going!"
Harry blinked.
Then he said, in a perfectly controlled voice, "I am not going with
you."
Hermione and Draco
gaped at him. Even Draco appeared to have nothing to say. Finally Hermione gasped, in a tiny
voice, "Why not?"
Harry sighed. Then
he explained about Sirius, about McNair's plan to trap Harry at Malfoy Manor and hand him
over to Voldemort, and about Wormtail. Finally he added, "And I think there's something wrong
with your mother, Malfoy."
"Ah," said Draco.
"Insults. Of course."
"No," said Harry,
"I mean there's something really wrong with her. She seems really unhappy and she fainted
this afternoon when they brought Sirius in."
This shut Draco
up.
Hermione's lips
were trembling but her chin was firmly set. "That's it," she said. "We're on a rescue
mission. We'll just have to get Sirius as well."
"That won't be
easy," said Harry. "I tried to get into the dungeon today and it set off all sorts of
alarms--"
"There's spells on
all entrances to the chambers under the house," said Draco, "you have to have Malfoy blood in
you to even get the doors open. We don't like strangers."
"Or anybody else,"
said Harry. "There's not a lot of positive energy in this house, you know that Malfoy? That's
about all I've learned being here. That, and you really need a better central heating
system."
"Harry, I bet
you've learned a lot of helpful stuff," said Hermione placating. "I'm sure
you--"
"It's all homework
to you, isn't it Hermione?" interrupted Harry rather nastily. "Fine, then. I've learned that
the Malfoys have madness in their family, which makes sense since everyone in this house is
completely bonkers; I've learned that blondes do not have more fun; oh, and I've
learned that Draco has a birthmark exactly the shape of the United Kingdom on his
bum."
"I do not," said
Draco.
"You do
too."
"Ooh, let me see,"
said Hermione.
"No," said Harry
and Draco together.
"What do you care,
Harry, it's not even your body," Hermione pointed out reasonably.
"Well, if you
behave, I might let you see Scotland."
"It's my body,"
said Draco sharply, "and I will not let you exploit it. Look at you!" he added,
"poncing around shirtless, you could hardly wait to get my clothes off could you? Nice to
have muscles for a change, isn't it, Potter?"
"Don't be stupid,"
said Harry. "You've got pipe-cleaner arms, Malfoy, and you know it." He windmilled them for
emphasis. "Look! All bone!"
"BOTH OF YOU SHUT
UP," said Hermione with finality. "We should be talking about
Sirius."
"Oh," said Harry,
feeling extremely guilty, "Right."
And then it
happened. There was a knock on the bedroom door. They all froze, staring at one another with
wide eyes and hoping that whoever it was would just go away. But as the knocking became
louder and more insistent, the door began to shake on its hinges.
Harry pointed at
Hermione and Draco. "You two," he hissed, "Into the wardrobe!
Now!"
**********
References:
1) "one of those simple,
two-piece jigsaw puzzles" -- Blackadder.
2) " Six inches to the left
and grandchildren would have been out of the question." -- Blackadder
again.
Chapter
6
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