Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

97. Insult to Injury

Chapter 97 - Insult to Injury

There wasn't a single second that passed before everyone in the ballroom was moving. I could hear each of the Death Eaters screaming to each other, shouting instructions and commands as they rushed to the Manor doors, only to Disapparate away seconds after passing through the gate...the impenetrable gate.

The speed which everyone was trying to go and catch my brother somehow made me freeze in horror. It was almost too much to take in and digest; after months of trying to escape him, after months of not wanting to see his face, the idea of seeing it trapped here alongside me was horrifying.

I needed to act fast. I needed to move.

"Now's your chance," Daphne gasped, taking my wine away while she forcefully shoved the lavender clutch back into my hands. "Now's the best time to try escaping!"

I knew she was right, but my feet still felt like they were made of lead. For some reason, in my panic, everything felt too fast. It all felt too unplanned. There were too many variables to take into account with this quick decision that needed to be made. Should I stay here and wait for my brother so I could escape with him? If I did, what would be the probability that they won't catch him at all? And if they didn't, I would be stuck here, on my own, eventually running out of Polyjuice potion. Besides that, I didn't know what would happen if I tried to go through that gate ahead of my brother's possible capture. I didn't know what would happen if I made the Order have to fight to try and smuggle me out - I wasn't ready to die. And suddenly, it felt really inevitable. It felt like death was tracking me like my shadow.

Draco tugged me by the hand and pulled me toward the grand front doors of the mansion. I could hear the clicking of Daphne's high heels behind me - or I thought they were her heels. They could have been anyone's, as many of the women were wearing them. I could feel the panic and the excitement around us - the breath of the Death Eaters pants were hanging in the air above the mob like a dangerous, ominous fog.

"THE ORDER IS HERE!"

Spells lit the sky like fireworks, illuminating the already chaotic front gate. I could hear the screams as the Order members battled the Death Eaters from afar. I couldn't see any of the bodies but I could hear the urgency. Did they know why they were being rushed near the gate? Did they know that the Death Eaters had finally tracked down my lesser half? Oh Godric, what had I done? I had lead all of us into a trap and we were savagely outnumbered.

"Stop!" Draco planted his feet at Daphne's word, still gripping onto my hand as he looked around us frantically, trying to figure out what we should do. I didn't know any better than him. I didn't know what the probabilities of any of these situations were - I felt like I was blinded by the spontaneity of the situation. There was no plotting involved in this escape; now we had to run off of impulse and intuition. Now was the time I had to be like my brother.

Merlin, I hated it.

Draco took a long moment, staring off into space as he weighed the options before us. He turned his eyes to me, tension all along his posture and uncertainty raging behind his eyes. There was a moment, a quick and barely decipherable moment, before he seemed to make a decision. It took half a second for him to bound forward in one large step, dragging me with him through the gate.

There was nothing. No pain, no burning, no metamorphosis - just the bitter cold of winter that had been warded off from the Malfoys gardens. Draco let out a sigh before enjoying a deep breath of the cool, crisp air around us. I could tell he was relieved.

"What the hell, Draco? What if-"

"You need to go," he told me, placing his hands on my shoulder to distract from the anger that had built up by my now displaced feelings of fear.