In The Shadows² ★ Draco Malfoy

*Enemies of the what?

News of Ron's incident had spread through the castle like wildfire, and wherever the red headed boy went, people either moved away to avoid him in fear he would start spitting slugs out of his mouth, or made gagging noises to upset him.

Ron had become very tired of their jokes, and had taken a lot of persuading to even leave Gryffindor tower for dinner. He was still repulsed by the very thought of food, but after his detention with Filch polishing silver in the trophy room, by hand, he was starving, so he agreed to go.

He only nibbled on bits of bland food, like crackers, enough to satisfy him, but his mood was worsened by the sight of the glorious Halloween feast laid out on the Gryffindor table, which Briar and Hermione were gladly digging into.

They were sitting with Briar tonight because Harry was still serving his detention with Professor Lockhart, and Ginny was busy working on potions homework, so the three of them had banded together.

Both Harry and Ron had been serving their detentions tonight for flying Arthur Weasley's car into the school, missing the train, and damaging the Whomping Willow. A story which Ron was all too happy to tell anyone who would listen.

Tonight though the only thing he seemed capable of speaking about was how Filch made him use elbow grease for detention, that his elbow was now unbelievably sore, and how much he wished he could eat some of the Halloween food.

The two girls were dying for Harry to arrive so that Ron would stop talking about all of his complaints, but even when all of the food on the house tables disappeared Harry still hadn't emerged, so, the three of them decided to head for Professor Lockhart's office to find him and find out what was taking so long.

Maybe they could sneak down to the kitchen to get him some food after all of this.

Luckily, they found Harry easily, since he was already on his way out of the Defence Against the Dark Arts tower. 

"Hey" said Ron "We were worried about you. Dinner's finished but I'm sure we could sneak down to the kitchens and steal some leftovers if you want"

His friend looked like he was going to reply, but then suddenly, Harry stumbled slightly and fell against the wall beside him.

Ron, Hermione, and Briar had similar expressions of worry, and the latter of them stepped towards the pale boy. "Harry, what are you-"

"It's that voice again, shut up a minute" he gasped

Confused, Briar turned to the other two, who looked alarmed. Upon seeing the younger girl's expression, Hermione quickly explained "Harry heard a voice a while ago. A voice in the castle, saying it was going to kill or something"

"Listen!" said Harry urgently, and the three of them froze, watching him with worry. His eyes were trained on the walls, moving as if following this voice no one else could hear. "This way!"

He began to run, and Briar, Ron, and Hermione chased after him in a panic. He sprinted up the staircase to the first floor, and then stopped, giving the other three a chance to reach him 

"Harry, what are we-"

"SHHH!" He hissed, and his eyes began to frantically look around again. Then, a moment later he shouted, "It's going to kill someone!" before he bolted once more

He ran up the next flight of stairs, and then hurtled down the nearest hallway. He continued to run, and run, with his friends calling after him, until finally he stopped as he turned the corner into the last, deserted hallway of the second floor

Ron, panting, said "Harry, what was that all about?"

The three of them were sweaty after chasing him around, but Harry seemed so focused on this voice, that he had barely lost any breath.