For The Greater Good (A Draco Malfoy Story)

Betrayals and Blades

       "Right, well. I think we better be off. Thank you for the tea and the information, Mr. Lovegood," I blurted as politely as I could, standing up. I shot my friends an expectant look, urging them to all stand and abandon their tea cups.

Lovegood visibly panicked, shooting up out of his seat. "Oh but wait! Your tea seems to have gotten cold, let me just go downstairs and give you a proper cup before you go!"

"It's really not necessa--"

Before I could finish my sentence, he hurried out of the room like a bat out of Hell.

"What's going on, Rose? What are you doing?" Harry frowned.

"Something's seriously wrong here, Harry. We have to leave, I think they've got Lovegood on their side."

"The Death Eaters?" Hermione gasped.

I nodded quickly before leading them all downstairs. I could feel adrenalin begin to course through my veins when finally the buzzing in my ears started.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Lovegood blurted.

"Thank you for helping us Mr. Lovegood, but we really need to go," I urged.

"But I was just about to bring up the tea!" he sputtered as he glanced out the window so quickly that I might have thought I imagined it.

"You forgot to put the kettle on..." Hermione stated furrowing her eyebrows as she saw that no tea was prepared. A crash was heard from the upper floor's window. I quickly made my way to the door only to be blocked by Lovegood. He blocked the door entirely with his body and his frail body had begun to tremble.

"No! W-Wait! You can't leave! I won't let you!" he shouted hysterically. The buzzing in my head grew deafening as I looked up from where the crashes were coming from.

"Hide, hide!" I whispered, nudging my friends into a nook on the far side of the house. "They're here." Suddenly the whole top floor broke apart and fell down upon us. Dust filled our lungs making us cough. We heard rough voices coming closer and closer to us.

Death Eaters.

Hermione snapped out of the daze we were all in and took out Harry's infamous invisibility cloak. Instead of putting it on Harry, she covered Ron with the cloak. The boys looked at her confused but I knew her intentions.

"Shh! You're supposed to be home, bed ridden! They already know Harry is here," she whispered frantically to Ron. We all stayed quiet as we waited for the voices to go away. When they did we made a run for it and apparated as quickly as we could out of the house, leaving Lovegood's shouts behind us.

"That little git!" Ron seethed, pulling the cloak off of himself as we appeared in another forest. "He writes all that rubbish about you, Harry, and then he betrays us!" I sighed and rubbed the place where my heart rested. The prickling feeling continued, alerting me that the danger wasn't over yet.

"Guys, we can't stay here--" I turned to look at my friends only to come face-to-face with a yellowed-grin. A man with ratty hair and grime all over his face reached out with a dirty hand to stroke my cheek.

"'Ello girly," he rasped, his revolting breath fanning over me.

Run, Gabriel whispered to me before breaking the trance, keeping the pace with us as we ran for our lives. I spotted more men from my peripheral vision chasing after the rest of us. Fuck, where had they come from?

Gabriel!

Rose?

Should we?

I saw Gabriel look back at me as he ran and with one nod, he transformed into a Bengal tiger. I inhaled deeply, relinquishing control of my body to my animagus and felt my limbs start to transform. They could never catch me in the sky. But as I was in mid-transformation, I felt a searing pain rip through my right arm. Screaming, my step faltered and at the speed I was running, I tripped over a branch and felt myself topple over until my head connected with the ground and dirt and blood mixed into my mouth.

Gabriel roared, turning back immediately to pounce on my attackers.

"NO! Run, Gabriel!" I shouted but to no avail.

Gabriel ripped out the throat of one of the snatchers, blood dripping from his maw. One of the snatchers placed his boot on my back, pressing something sharp further into my skin. I looked to my side quickly to assess the damages and nearly gagged with horror. They had thrown barbed wire over me when I was about to transform so my right arm was an eagle's wing, bent and bloody with some of the golden feathers shredded. My feathers, I winced. The barbed wire was strong as a chain, the sharp bits sinking into my torso and arms horridly. I felt pain in my scalp and shouted as the snatcher pulled my head back by my hair and pointed his wand at me throat.

"Oi, kitty cat!" The snatcher taunted Gabriel. My twin turned to face the snatcher, too occupied to catch the rest of the men who in turn went after Harry, Hermione and Ron.

"Retract them claws and turn back into a bloke before I blow little birdie's head off."

Gabriel growled, inching closer and closer but as he did, the snatcher's wand dug into my jugular painfully. "Do it!"

Rose, use your magic! He doesn't know about it, just do it, Gabriel shouted in my head but his voice came out warbled as if I was underwater. I tried to focus on my magic but my thoughts were too cluttered, my brain only occupied with the firing of my nerve endings. The wire grew tighter around me the more I struggled, reopening wounds that were healing quickly and leaving my broken wing in a state of grotesque disarray. My eyes met Gabriel's bright ones and I shook my head briefly. I couldn't do it.

"Come on then, kitty cat," the man sneered, bringing his foot back and sending a swift kick into my side and another one against my arm. "Turn back to a human and this could all end."

Pain engulfed my body in flashes, alternating between states of balm and agony. And that was just my body, my brain was in another state. The buzzing was so loud then, I couldn't take it. The edges of my vision blackened as the last thing I registered was Gabriel morphing back into his human form, shame coloring his outline.

I awoke a few minutes later with the barbed wire still around me, surrounded by dark faces with muffled voices. Where was I?