Please Be There If I Remember

Chapter Fifty-One: Flying

Run.

And they did. Draco and Harry pelted out the door, Draco understanding Harry's urgency. Now that they knew that Sirius really wasn't there and he was being tortured...

Yes, Draco understood.

Harry was faster than him, despite Draco winning the not-race that night when they had chased each other to the broom cupboard all that time ago, and he turned the corner to where Hermione, Ron, Ginny, and Luna were waiting, skidding to a harsh halt so he didn't bowl them over.

"Harry, what happened?" Hermione questioned, eyes dancing between Draco and Harry's panting forms after they had sprinted there.

Draco smiled through his breaths. "Harry cursed Umbridge," he grinned triumphantly, still on a high after seeing her bound to the chair with boils sprouting over her cheeks like a plague.

"You did what?" She screeched, then instantly lowered her voice and glanced around once realising that students could be nearby in the other halls.

"It doesn't matter what happened. We have to go." Harry's gaze travelled along Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Luna before finally pausing on Draco. "I've been thinking—"

"You're not going alone," Draco began, stopping Harry before he even started. "Don't you even think about it. Either we're all coming with, or we're not going at all." He then stopped as a thought occurred to him. "Wait, we need to tell someone about where we're going, maybe they can help—"

"No!" Harry exploded, and just as he did, Neville popped around the corner.

"Harry? What's going on?"

"Merlin, not another person," Ron grumbled, and Draco agreed with him for once.

"We're going to save Harry's godfather," Luna spoke up dreamily, and his first thought after hearing that was oh. So that's who it is, before his brain turned back to the pressing matter of telling someone.

Well, if someone else wasn't going to, he was.

As Neville asked, "Harry's godfather?" with enough incredulity that made Draco feel better about his lack of knowledge about the current subject, he ducked behind the corner of the hallway. There were two students not far away, probably chatting about their OWLs, for they were leaning into each other as they spoke amicably. Draco turned his back to them, listening as the small group that had formed continued to talk about Sirius, quickly getting Neville into the loop.

He tried to ignore them as he took a deep breath. If he was going to tell someone, he needed to do it quickly.

Knowing that Harry would disapprove, he cast a silencing charm on the corner of the hallway so that he no longer heard their conversation. If Harry wasn't going to tell someone, Draco was.

And he had an idea.

It was a little far-fetched and absolutely ludicrous, considering that it might not work, but it was worth a shot regardless.

It was just, he hadn't managed to cast a Patronus yet, and if he failed and they couldn't save Sirius, it didn't matter whether he could or not. Draco attempted to calm his nerves as he whipped his wand out in front of him and thought of the happiest memory he could.

Gripping his wand tightly, like Harry had taught him, he squeezed his eyes shut and cast the spell.

"Expecto Patronum."

Draco forced the thought of Umbridge tied to a chair, boils like leeches sprouting from her face to the front of his mind. He thought back to the sight of Harry as he cursed her, his pupils blown wide and stance strong.