Dan and Phil and The Chamber of Secrets

Chapter 7

Dan walked quickly down the corridor, eyes constantly scanning the students he passed. He turned a corner and glanced at each student, still not seeing the head of greasy yellow hair he was looking for. It was after the Christmas feast. Harry, Hermione, and Ron had gone to chase after Crabbe and Goyle, and he was to find Draco. Which was proving to be rather difficult with the large horde of students moving along the corridors. Finally he spotted him, leaning against the wall. Dan pushed through the flow of students to get to him.

"Where are your two bodyguards, Malfoy?" Dan said loudly. "You don't look as brave without them glued to your side."

Draco frowned at him. "You're one to talk. Finally your nerd friends realized they didn't want to associate themselves with someone friends to Harry Potter? Probably afraid he's going to petrify them." He laughed suddenly. "As if."

Dan pulled out his wand, feigning a furious look. "I told you not to insult my friends!"

Draco sneered and pulled out his own wand. "And I told you I'll do what I want." At this point there were only a few students in the hallway, and all of them hurried along, not wanting to accidentally get harmed by the brewing fight. Draco raised his wand. "Stupefy!" The red spell flew by Dan's ear. He raised his own wand. "Expelliarmus!" His spell missed as well. Draco advanced on him, a nasty scowl on his face.

"Everte Statum!"

This spell hit Dan full in the chest. He flew back several feet before landing hard on the ground. He gasped as he sat up, a sharp pain in his chest. He pointed his wand at Draco. "Expelliarmus!" Draco's wand flew out of his hand and clattered to the ground. Draco leapt for it, but before he could grab it, Dan cried, "Accio wand!" Draco's wand flew into his hand. He stood up and started running. Draco yelled and Dan heard him chase after him. He ran as fast as he could, taking each turn of the corridor towards where Hermione had said the Slytherin dormitories were. He flew down a flight of stairs he had never been down before, leading down to the dungeons. The hallways got smaller and darker, but Dan didn't slow his pace in fear of Draco catching up.

"You have no business down here, Howell!" Yelled Draco behind him, his voices bouncing off the stone walls. "There's nowhere to hide!"

Dan ignored him and ran deeper into the corridor. He lit his wand with a panted, "lumos" then continued on. The corridor was now almost pitch black, lightened only by dim torches on the walls. Dan suspected they were under the lake by this point, and it seemed as though his guess was correct; water was dripping from the ceiling and running down the walls.

"Please hurry," he thought desperately in his mind to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Eventually he wouldn't be able to keep Draco busy anymore. He gasped when he finally came to a dead end. In front of him was a worn looking stone wall. Although it just looked like another wall, Dan knew he had arrived at the entrance to the Slytherin dormitories.

"You don't have the password, idiot," spat Draco behind him. "I thought you were supposed to be a smart Ravenclaw. I guess that musty sorting hat made a mistake when he put you in your house, just like your parents made a mistake having you."

Dan grit his teeth. He would have time to get Draco back later. Right now, he had people counting on him. He pulled Harry's invisibility cloak out from his pocket, and was about to put it on when he suddenly thought of something. Draco would surely recognize Harry's cloak. Harry had said more times than he can count Draco had nearly gotten them into serious trouble by using it as evidence against them. He would know that Harry had given him the cloak for some plan. Maybe then he would be suspicious enough to recognize that Crabbe and Goyle weren't acting their usual selves.