𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒

Chapter 15

Draco was waiting patiently, sipping on his allotted one beer when the two red-heads came in, only a couple of minutes late. They ordered a round for themselves and then Draco explained everything that had happened to him starting with what went on over the summer. He didn't explain that he had not tried to commit suicide, just glossing over that part of the story and not mentioning the wandless spell book at all. 'The fewer who know about that, the better,' Draco decided.

Draco had wanted to ask after Harry, he had thought of him over the months he'd been in the muggle world, but imagined that the dark haired Gryffindor probably had time to rethink the friend's thing, figuring the blonde and all his baggage just wasn't worth it. Just as well, he supposed as he wasn't sure how to explain why he'd be asking after The-Boy-Who-Lived in the first place. Still, he hoped he'd get a chance to see Harry again.

"So now you can see why I want to go back and help if I can," he told them as he finished his tale. The twins had been stunned into silence at some of the things Lucius had done to his own son. Breaking his arm and not letting magic heal it was bad enough, but to put him under Cruciatus was something else. What had further surprised them was that Draco, who they had always assumed to hate muggles, really seemed to care for the gypsy family that had taken him in.

"They're more of a family to me than my own," he had stated simply. "So will you help me?" he asked, changing the subject. "I can't allow my father to know that I'm back, and it could be dangerous..."

He was interrupted by two sets of identical grins. "We'll do it," they chorused out together, looking forward to the cloak and dagger aspect of the adventure.

"We'll have to tell our father though," Fred explained. "Snape had Dumbledore get the Ministry involved in trying to find you, so our dad's been participating in the search, he'll need to be notified."

"That's fine," Draco returned, suddenly feeling a hollow emptiness engulf him with the knowledge that he was going to have to leave people that he felt, for once, truly cared for him. "You two will have to explain things to the Vanner's. They think I'm mute, remember. And you'll have to call me Malachi in front of them."

"Malachi?" George questioned.

"It's the name Granny gave me and I don't want her to hear my real one." Draco was so proud that the old woman thought of him as her angel that he didn't want her to hear his own name with its darker connotations. He never wanted to disappoint his mentor and teacher, his Granny.

"I have just the plan to sneak you in," George added with a mischievous smirk. "I promise you, no one will know who you are." Draco supposed he should have been more troubled by that comment and the wide grin the two were sharing, but he just couldn't muster up enough emotion to care.

The two older teens finished their second order of beers and then the three left the pub, Draco leading them to his adopted family with a heavy heart so they could get this over with.

XXX

Harry sat looking out the window of his room he always stayed in at the burrow. It was Christmas Eve day and still no sign or indication of the blonde Slytherin had been found.

Harry, Ron and Hermione had gone though the book on wandless magic from front to back and could find nothing to help them locate the missing blonde. Harry had looked hard at the Enslavement spell, wondering if he could use it to make Draco come back, but Ron and Hermione talked him out of it. They had been afraid as it so closely resembled the Unforgivable Curse, Imperio. At least he knew that Draco had probably not been killed by his father or the Dark Lord. Having a spy in the enemy camp was very useful.

Harry and Severus had worked together to try and find the missing Slytherin and they had formed, if not a friendship, then a better understanding and tolerance of each other. It was during the course of their search that Harry had found out Snape had been marked as a Death Eater. To ally his fears and anger, Severus had taken him to Dumbledore who had explained the situation as far as the Potions Master was concerned. The-Boy-Who-Lived had been initially suspicious, but after working with the man and seeing how much he truly cared for his godson, Harry had come to trust him, at least a little bit.