[Discontinued] When Shadows Collide, The Game Begins

Chapter Twenty Seven

"Where the hell is he?" Draco muttered as he paced the length of the Slytherin common room. It was well past midnight and he hadn't seen Harry since breakfast. The idiot had probably jumped down the trapdoor and snapped his neck. Draco's stomach sank at the thought and he immediately sprinted into their shared dormitory, rummaging through Harry's trunk until his hand closed around the silk-like fabric of the invisibility cloak. He pulled it on as he ran back to the common room and out into the dungeon hallway.
    Draco sprinted through the school, not stopping until he reached the door to the Ravenclaw common room. He stared at it for a few moments, trying to remember how to get in, then the eagle door-knocker spoke.

    If you drop me I'm sure to crack, but give me a smile and I'll always smile back. What am I?

"Fuck. I don't have time for this. Uh, an egg with a smiley face drawn on. I don't fucking know." Draco tried to remember if he had to defend his answer, but the eagle seemed silenced by the pure stupidity of the answer. "Am I right or not? The thing'll smile back and it'll crack, open the goddamn door!" The door slowly creaked open and Draco shoved the door open.
    Inside was a dimly lit room, the walls lined with bookcases, and several armchairs around a fireplace, not unlike the Slytherin common room. Seated in the chairs were a few students, all surrounded by piles of books and parchments, a few of them sleeping with open books in their laps. All of those who were awake turned to look at the open door immediately. Draco realised he was still invisible and tried to think of a way to get Hermione.
    "Get me Granger or I'll soak all your books!" yelled Draco in his best imitation of Peeves. No one acted until he knocked over a massive pile of books, several of them nearly hitting the fire. The moment the students realised that their precious books were in danger, one of the girls shot up from her seat and ran to the girls' dormitories, re-emerging minutes later with a bed-haired Hermione following close behind. Without question, she shoved the poor girl out of the common room and into the hallway, Draco following quickly before the door was slammed shut.
    "Wh-what's going on?" asked Hermione, rubbing her eyes. Draco pulled off the invisibility cloak and took Hermione's arm, leading her out of the hallway. "Draco? What're you doing?" she asked, yawning.
    "Harry's missing." That woke her up immediately. She looked up and grabbed the cloak, throwing it over the both of them.
    "You should've said so sooner," she said. "Are we getting the twins? Actually no, that'll be too difficult. Gryffindor's password changes too often and neither of us know the current one, so we'll have to just brave it alone, which is what Harry probably did. That idiot. Anyway, to the third floor corridor." Draco had forgotten how much Hermione could ramble, but was glad for it; it helped with his nerves.
    Luckily, they came across no teachers of prefects as they half-ran to the third floor corridor, and there was no one outside the door as they unlocked it and shoved it open. Both were surprised to see that Fluffy was gone, but concerned to see the trapdoor open, the darkness seemingly leaking out, an aura of menace coming from it. Draco and Hermione gulped before edging towards it, dropping the cloak beside it.
    "Lumos," said Hermione, leaning over the trapdoor and shining the light below. "I can't see anything," she said. Draco knelt beside her and looked too. Hermione began whispering under her breath, and a few moments later, the trapdoor was transfigured into a spool of rope.
    "Nice," said Draco,  fastening the rope to a bracket on the wall. He then dropped the end down the hole. "Lady's first," he said, his face paling slightly.
    "Alright then," replied Hermione, casting an air-cushioning charm, praying it worked, before jumping down into the darkness.
    She landed on something soft a few seconds later, and called up to Draco, telling him it was safe.
    "Are you certain?" asked Draco, his voice wavering slightly.
    "Just jump, goddamnit!" yelled Hermione, moving away from the center of the floor. As she did, she felt the floor move beneath her. Before she could get a proper look at it, she heard a piercing scream before Draco landed beside her.
    "It's a good thing there's this cushiony stuff here," said Draco, his voice definitely shaking now.
    "Sure," said Hermione, watching silently as vines began twisting around Draco's ankles. "Draco, look at me. I'm gonna need you to relax." This was seemingly not the right thing to say, as panic immediately flickered in Draco's grey eyes. Hermione sighed, feeling. herself sink through the plant. "Stay calm!" she called before sinking through the plant entirely and disappearing from Draco's view. 
    "Devil's snare," Draco realised. He sighed, and began concentrating on relaxing. It was proving quite difficult, as the vines refused to stop climbing up his legs, wrapping around his torso, and coming dangerously close to his throat. "You have to save Harry," Draco said under his breath, concentrating on his friend's face and praying it would be enough.
Just as the vines reached his neck, Draco let out a breath and with it his whole body went still. With his eyes closed, he recalled the feeling of flying, playing quidditch, Harry and his other friends. Then he felt himself falling, slowly sinking, then a brief free fall. There wasn't even time for him to scream before he landed with a thud on the stone floor. Hermoine was already on the other side of the room, looking worriedly at the charred remains of the door.
"We've got to find him," she said, stepping out of the room and into the hallway.
"We will, Hermione. We've got this," Draco replied, though he couldn't even convince himself.
The pair continued, past shards of burnt wood and into a massive chamber. The stone floor was covered in hundreds of winged keys, feathers bent and seemingly dead. Above them flew very few, all slowly and injured. Draco prayed that they weren't sentient before he and Hermione continued through yet another burnt up door.
"Who did this?" asked Hermione as the walked through the doorway.
"I dunno, but whoever it is, I hope they're long gone." Hermione nodded, clasping her wand tightly. Draco did the same, hoping that whatever was in the next room would be taken care of too.
Unfortunately, that didn't seem to be the case.
The room was massive, almost all of it taken up by a raised checkered floor. The walls were piled high with crumbling stone and what looked like massive chess pieces, though most of them were broken. Only when Draco could tear his eyes away from the walls did he notice the true spectacle of the room.
The floor before them was a massive chessboard, set up with pieces far taller than him and Hermione. The white pieces stared at them menacingly, daring them to try and beat them, while the black ones had their backs turned. On the other side of the chess board was a door, this one undamaged and well guarded.
"Uh, Draco. You any good at chess?" asked Hermione, her voice wavering.
"Not in the slightest," he replied, what little colour he had draining from his face. He tried to recall what he could of the game, but found only his father scolding him for not winning dozens of times. "How about we just walk across and see what happens?" Hermione nodded, taking a step forward. Draco's hands shook as he joined her, but stopped when Hermione took his hand and together they stepped towards the white pieces.
The moment they were within a meter, the pawns sprung to action and drew their swords, barring the way. Hermione frowned.
"Maybe we could-" without warning she dropped Draco's hand and jumped up, her foot landing squarely on the pawn's hand before she swung her leg over and slid down its back, dodging under the queen and ending up on the other side. "A bit of a design flaw," she said, grinning. Draco nodded and gulped before attempting the same manoeuvre. He managed it, though stumbled slightly at the end, and joined Hermione as she pushed open the door.
The room they entered was dark and empty, the only notable thing being the awful stench of rotting eggs. Draco and Hermione wasted no time looking around before running into the next room, slamming the door behind them in an attempt to stop the smell. It worked, but the moment they stepped away from the doorway, flames sprung up at either end of the room.
"What do we do now?" asked Draco.
"Look through those potions, I guess," said Hermione, gesturing to the center of the room. There was an overturned table and several shattered bottles around it, different coloured liquids seemed into the cracks of the stone, swirling together in pools. Half-soaked in the potions was a slip of parchment. Hermione walked towards it and, with wingardium leviosa, lifted the parchment off the floor and at eye level.
"This is not good..." she said, kneeling beside the pool of potions. As she did, Draco noticed a slight mist rising from the pool, swirling dangerously close to Hermione's face. She saw it too and quickly backed away. "What's gonna happen?" asked Hermione, continuing to back away. Draco quickly did his best to analyse the potions, but came up with nothing, because potions looked real weird when they weren't in cauldrons, but he had a slight feeling the same thing happened every time you mixed random potions.
"Well, they'll either be unreactive and stay there or they'll ex-" he was cut off by a massive bang as the potions exploded in a flash of orange fire, disappearing moments later and taking the opposite wall and half the floor with it.
He and Hermione stood there in shock for a few moments, Hermione breaking the stillness by walking carefully around the newly-formed crater and into the room beyond. Draco cautiously followed, accidentally kicking a piece of gravel and watching it fall down the crater. He heard it crash against the walls, but not land.
"Should we do something about that?" asked Draco, backing against the wall as he edged out of the room.
"Just don't fall in," replied Hermione, clearly distracted. Draco sighed and sped up slightly, almost running out of the room to avoid the crater. There was still a pillar of fire where the door had once been, but it made no heat. Draco briefly considered sticking his hand in it to see if you even had to drink the potion, but was distracted by Hermione's defeated voice.
"Someone took him." Draco was about to ask how she knew before his eyes settled on a familiar Hogwarts trunk, it's contents spilling out onto the stone floor. The tip of Harry's wand was poking out from under a shirt. Draco went to pick it up and was shocked when he saw that it was broken.
"We have to tell Sherlock and John," he said, his eyes prickling as he shoved the wand half in his pocket.
"First we have to figure out how to get out of here," Hermione responded, already walking out of the room. Draco followed her quickly, almost slipping into the crater.
The blue fire was still flickering over the entrance, but Hermione raised her wand and yelled, "Bombardus Maximus!" The wall was all but obliterated, the shockwave almost sending both of them to the ground, but the moment they regained their balance the two began sprinting, through room after room, sliding under the outstretched swords of the white pawns and broken keys crunching under their feet.
"What now?" asked Draco, leaning against the wall of the devil's snare chamber. Hermione said nothing, only grabbed onto one of the vines hanging from the ceiling. It immediately wrapped around her arm and retracted, pulled her with it. Draco did the same, trying not to panic as other vines joined the first, constricting around him. There was a muffled yell from Hermione and the vines retracted. Draco almost fell before a hand wrapped around his forearm, holding him long enough to wrap a hand around the rope that Hermione had summoned.
Climbing it with the assistance of magic took no time at all, and soon the two of them were running to the owlery, skidding to a stop at the entrance.
"Do you have a quill?" asked Hermione, taking a piece of parchment from her pocket. Draco quickly rummaged through his own pockets and found nothing.
"Maybe there's someone ins-" Draco was cut off by Professor Mcgonagall emerging, a quill in hand.
"What are you doing up?" she asked, looking at them sternly. Draco tried to think of an answer, but Hermione beat him to it.
"Harry was making sure that the Philosopher's stone was safe, and now he's been taken. Don't ask any questions, we need to contact Sherlock and John." Hermione spoke so fast there wasn't a chance for Mcgonagall to interrupt.
"The floo in my office can be reconnected to Harry's house in moments. Follow me." She walked off immediately, not checking if the two kids were following. Luckily, there were, slightly jogging behind the headmistress in an attempt to keep up.

"What do we tell Sherlock and John?" asked Draco once they were staring into the emerald green flames of Professor McGonagall's fireplace.
    "The truth, I suppose," replied Hermione before stepping into the grate. "221b Baker Street." Her voice almost wavered, but not enough to change her destination.
    "You next, Draco, and I'll be right after," said McGonagall, pushing Draco forward slightly. Draco nodded and stepped into the great. This wasn't his first time using the floo, why was he so nervous?
    "221b-b b-baker st-street," he said, moments before the flames whipped up around him and sent him spinning through a tight tunnel of sooty stone. He kept his elbows in tight and his eyes clamped shut, praying he would leave at the right grate.
    A few seconds later, Draco landed sprawling on an unfamiliar floor. The beige carpet that his face had oh so gracefully collided with smelt damp and moldy. He sat up, checking for injuries before standing and dusting himself off. Looking around, he saw that the place he'd arrived was not Sherlock and John's living room. Instead, it was a small, white room, moldy and lit only by a filthy window in one corner. Across the other side of the room was a door, closed, but hopefully not locked.
    The door was locked.
    "God fucking dammit!" Draco kicked the wall in frustration, way harder than intended, and cried out when it collided and he felt something snap. Falling to the ground, he inspected his injured foot and found that it was fine. What had snapped was the drywall, leaving a foot-sized hole in the wall. "Oops..." Draco was about to fix it before he remembered that he couldn't use any magic. Goddamn rules wouldn't let him fix a broken wall. He sighed before trying the door once more, pulling on it with all his strength. Nothing happened.
    It took Draco all of two minutes to give up, pull out his wand, and charm the door open. His father could sort it out with the ministry, Draco had more important things to do. Speaking of which, he heard someone yelling from above. It sounded like John, so at least he was in the right building.
As he heard another yell, Draco began sprinting, up a flight of stairs and into the entrance hallway of 221. He sped up another flight and skidded to a stop just outside the door to the living room of 221b. Without knocking, he burst through it and was greeted by Hermione, McGonagall, Sherlock, and John, all looking slightly angry and more than a little bit worried.
"Where the hell is my son, Draco!" yelled John, pointing at the young boy accusingly. Sherlock stood up and looked as if he was about to calm his husband, but all the lights went out before he had the chance.
"Now why on earth would he know that?" The voice sounded light and airy, coming from all around the room, yet feeling as if it was in Draco's head. He couldn't recognise the speaker, only the feeling of malice and evil that he'd only associated with the Dark Lord. "If you want to find your son, I suggest you find out about a lovely little place called Sherrinford. You might learn something new." The voice stopped and was replaced by a cold, harsh laugh. It echoed throughout the room, hurting Draco's ears and almost sending him to his knees.
When it finally stopped, the lights flickered around the room. Something was off, and Draco was the first to realise what it was.
Hermione was gone.