𝐉𝐈𝐆𝐒𝐀𝐖

Chapter 29

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Chapter Twenty-Nine:

The Battle of Beltane

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Interlude Nine:

Draco had a pounding headache when he woke up. He came to his feet after a moment, looking around the observatory. Madam Vablatsky was lying face down on the floor, looking rather dead. The other students seemed to be waking up. As Draco looked around, he saw a giant gaping hole in one of the walls. There was shouting outside, and flashes of light in the night.

"Wh-what happened?" Weasley asked, looking around the room as most of the students came to their feet, looking bewildered.

"Where's Harry?" Granger asked.

Draco shifted his gaze, but there was no sign of Harry anywhere. He felt panic rising in his chest, but forced it down. They had been attacked by Death Eaters, but there were no Death Eaters now. And Harry was gone.

"Oh no!" Longbottom cried, rushing past Draco and to a giant hole in the wall. When he got there, he seemed to stop dead in the air and bounce back for some reason. Draco watched in fascination was the boy put his hand up in the air, but couldn't seem to move through the hole.

"It's an invisible wall. I know just the thing," Granger said in that insufferable know-it-all tone of hers that made Draco want to choke her with her own hair. She pointed her wand at the hole. "Finite Incantatem!"

There was an audible popping noise and then Longbottom's hand finally went through the hole. He moved outside after a moment. All the Gryffindors--Weasley, Granger, Patil, and Thomas--followed. Most of the Slytherins hung back warily.

Draco exchanged a glance with Blaise and they headed out as well. To his surprise, Theodore followed. The flashing lights nearly blinded Draco at first, but when his eyes adjusted, he realized that they were on top of a hill, and there was a peat marsh valley below, filled with wizards fighting. When Draco looked across the valley, he thought he saw the Dark Lord battling with Dumbledore on the other hill. His blood ran cold.

"I think we should go inside," Draco said quickly, moving back into the observatory, away from the insanity of the battle. He tried not to wonder if his father and mother were out there. Blaise and Theodore had also come back in. Millicent and Pansy were still inside, both looking frightened.

"What's going on?" Pansy asked.

Draco opened his mouth to tell her they were in a lot of trouble when Rabastan Lestrange, Desiree Beauregard, Willie Fort, and Bill Weasley did it for him. Ron Weasley was screaming at his brother, and Draco dove for cover under a table when Willie started shooting hexes inside the building. He caught a glimpse of Rabastan grabbing Patil and dragging her outside. Draco didn't know Rabastan very well, but what he did know had been made very explicit by his father--don't touch him, don't look at him, don't go near him, and never, ever, be caught alone with him.

All the Slytherins were hiding and all the Gryffindors were fighting. Draco expected there was some deep philosophical meaning behind this, but he was too busy trying to sink into the shadows underneath the table he found. They were looking for him.

"Come on out, Draco!" Willie giggled. "The Dark Lord wants to talk to you!"

Draco shuddered, watching Weasley duel with his older brother for a moment. Bill Weasley seemed to be under the Imperius Curse. Draco pressed himself against the wall, clutching his wand and praying to a God he didn't believe in. He could hear Granger and Thomas exchanging hexes with Beauregard. He didn't even want to think about what Rabastan was doing to Patil. He couldn't hear Longbottom at all and just assumed the fat little idiot had got himself killed already.