Consumed by Fire {On Hold}

Chapter Seven: Hope from Harry

Draco opened the door to the drawing room to find Snape pacing in front of the fireplace.

“Where have you been?” Snape demanded as soon as Draco closed the door behind him.

“I was upstairs,” Draco said, pointing absently above him. ‘You said-“

“Never mind that,” Snape interrupted him, still pacing. “Where is Cathy?”

Draco flopped down in the armchair across from the door. “She had to leave.”

“Don’t lie to me, Draco. Where is she?”

Draco looked down at his feet. “She’s gone.”

Snape didn’t say anything for a moment. He stopped his pacing to stare into the flames. Draco continued staring at his feet.

“What will bring her back?”

Draco looked up, but Snape was still watching the dancing flames as though mesmerized. “What do you mean?”

“What will bring her back out of the book, Draco?”

“I-I don’t know,” Draco stammered.

Snape finally turned around. “Then how do you plan on getting her back?”

Draco stared up at Snape blankly. “I don’t know.”

Snape sighed and went to sit next to Draco. “You want her back, yes?”

“Well, yes. Of course I want her back.”

“Then you need to come up with a plan, Draco,” Snape said simply.

Draco cast his mind around, deciding who he could trust to help him with this. “Harry!”

“Potter?” Snape asked, confused.

“Yes, Potter. He is the one person that will be able to help me with this.”

Snape raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything.

“Yes, if I tell him that Cathy is missing, he’ll offer to help, he likes her. Then he can figure out a way of getting her back here. Yes, we need Potter,” Draco said.He got up and went over to the desk in the corner. “Call my owl, will you?” he said to Snape. “I need to write a letter to him now.” Snape didn’t reply, but Draco heard him walk out of the room as he scrambled around for a quill and began his letter to Potter.

Potter,

Cathy has disappeared. I don’t entirely know what happened to her, one minute she was sitting on her bed across from me, the next she had vanished into thin air. I think she may have been read into a book. Yes, I know that sounds stupid, and coming from me it won’t sound believable, but I am dead serious. Snape agrees that that is where she may have gone, and that you would be the best person to help us get her back.

I know you like her and don’t want to see her hurt. Help me get her back and she won’t be hurt. We are counting on you, Potter.

Let me know as soon as you get this if you are willing to help me.

Regards,

Malfoy.

Draco sent off his owl and then sat in the drawing room alone, waiting for a reply. His parents called him for dinner, but he told them he wasn’t hungry and stayed seated at the desk, watching the flames in the fireplace get lower and lower, until finally, when the flames had all but gone out, Draco’s owl swooped back in the window. Draco grabbed the letter and unrolled it, holding it up to the light to read it.