Grey-Eyed Serpent √

Chapter Five

Draco Malfoy

I Apparate outside of the tall iron gates, walking theiugh them as if they're nothing but smoke, as all Death Eaters can. I walk down the passageway to the front doors, cautiously looking around me all the way. I pull them open, and they're so huge that it takes almost all of my strength.

As I walk through the manor to the meeting room, my shoes are loud on the floor. The mansion is quiet, but I can hear faint screaming drifting up from the dungeons. Hearing it only reminds me of Hermione, and the thought of her down there makes my heart hurt. I push the feelings away as I enter the room.

I take a seat beside my father and mother, and Mother tries to send me a reassuring glance. I don't look at her, though. I don't need her pity. I don't need anyone's pity.

At the head of the table, Lord Voldemort sits with his snake, Nagini, beside him. I remember at the beginning of the year, when Nagini ate the body of the Muggle Studies teacher...I bite my lip and shove away the thoughts as Voldemort begins to speak.

"Draco, if I remember correctly, then dear Bellatrix had ordered you to bring me Harry Potter and his friends." Ordered- not asked. Voldemort raises his chin higher, catching my gaze. "Why have you not brought them to me yet?"

"I haven't found them yet," I say. "My Lord," I add after a warning glare from Father. "I didn't know where to start looking; they could be anywhere."

"Wrong answer, Draco," Voldemort says, his voice high and cold. The way he says my name, making it sound like a curse, a spell of death. Hermione says it like a spell of life, a spell of love. I can't seem to get her out of my mind, no matter how hard I try. Why? "The right answer would be 'because I have found them but am too weak to bring them'."

I swallow, trying not to make it obvious. But Voldemort notices, and gives me a thin, lipless smile. "That's right. I know that you have found them, Draco." That cursed bloody name! "And I know that they are searching for my Horcruxes to try and destroy them. I need them right now, Draco, and you have been ordered to go and get them for me." I try to speak, but the Dark Lord waves his hand and something that feels like an invisible gag wraps around my mouth. I can't utter a word. "Is that clear, Draco?"

Every time he says my name is a blow to the heart, a reminder of what I want and can't have. I nod in response to his question, and he waves his hand again to release the gag. "Yes, My Lord," I say.

He nods and smiles again, and it's anything but friendly and kind. "Very good, Draco. Now go, get them, and being them to me. If they put up a fight, then that is good, because that gives you an excuse to hurt them. But that is the most you can do. I want all of them alive; the other two might be useful for information, and I want to kill Potter myself." I nod again, and he waves his hand. Not to wrap a gag around me again, but as a dismissive gesture.

I am dismissed.

I get up and walk out of the room, leaving the manor. As soon as I get back to the Apparating point, I disappear and go to their camp.

***

Bonus: Ron Weasley

I'm sitting outside of the tent, my wand out and ready, standing guard. Hermione and Harry are asleep inside, and before I left I made sure that they were on opposite sides of the tent.

Now, a hear a pop and someone emerges from behind a tree. I'm about to Stupify the git when I see it's just Malfoy, and his hands are up, his wand not drawn. I lower my own wand and say, quietly, "What do you want, Malfoy? Why'd you come crawling back?"

Malfoy sighs, and I don't quite understand why. "Look...I had to go because he was calling me, okay? And when he does, I don't have a choice. You don't understand." He looks away, in the direction of the tent, and I step in front of the entrance. "I have to take you three back," he says at last.

I shake my head. "No way I'm going back to that hellhole." I draw my wand again, paranoid that he might try to Stun me and drag me back or something.

"I know, and I don't expect you to," Malfoy says. As he continues, he runs a hand through his hair. "I don't want to take you back." Why? I ask myself, but he keep talking. "So maybe I could find three Muggles or something and give them Polyjuice Potion-"

"No," I say. "Those are innocent Muggles. You don't know what they'll do to them."

"Actually, I do know!" he snaps. "I'm forced to see everything they do. Forced to watch them kill people, Weasley! To watch them murder!"

I put my hands up as if in surrender. "Okay, Malfoy. So I don't know what it's like, and you do. I'll admit that. But what are we going to do? I'm not going to let Hermione and Harry be dragged back there."

"Okay, but...Her-Granger does have Polyjuice Potion, correct?" he asks. I nod, trying to ignore the fact that he also called Hermione by her first name. "Okay, so what about Crabbe and Goyle? Nobody cares about those oafs."

"True..." I muse. I'll go, too."

"Really?" he asks, looking at me again. "Why? Don't you want to live? I thought you said you weren't going back...?"

"Yeah, but...they don't need me. They've been talking to each other, late at night, and last night when she was talking to you...I haven't contributed anything. They won't miss me."

"Are you sure? I think they will," Malfoy says.

It's then that I realize just who he is. "Wait, why are you trying to convince me not to die?"

He shrugs. "I don't know. I've quite surprised myself." He lifts the flap of the tent. "You go get the Polyjuice Potion. I'll go get Crabbe and Goyle, and we'll meet back here. Then I'll take you all."

I nod, surprised that, for once, I'm agreeing with Malfoy, and enter the tent as Malfoy disappears into thin air.