When You Turn Your Back [Drarry]

[14] Call Out My Name

Under the sea of piled up tension and fear, Draco swam through the hive of people, uncaring of the disturbance he had created in the mundane chronology with his out of the norm movements as he pushed through. The sky was inked dark without the stars above his head, but his path was lit all the same. Though the light never was a sign of security for him, not at least in the recent hours.

It was exceptionally hard to find a dark alley in the city for apparition without calling for danger even without the lurking men under the invisibility cloaks. There were muggles that could seriously harm people without even having an ounce of magic in their veins or life. No-one in their right mind would even consider about venturing into some secluded alley in the city of such population. But Draco only had so many options laying at his feet at the moment. He had to find Harry and Ron before it was too late for either Hermione or him.

Hence he took the risk, and a detour.

The alley cut open from the sidewalk inbetween two buildings, one of which displayed a For Sale sign on its padlocked door. The plan was to just be out of sight, enough for him to be able to send a patronus to Harry giving him the message and know his whereabouts before he could apparate to him. But the narrow path went straight down, without a dent where he could stick up and do what he needed to. It was a bad idea, his conscience kept telling him that, but still he paced briskly, ignoring every other emotion playing inside of him as it was the only way he could go at the moment.

Finally though, he reached a spot where he could back up from the straight view of the street and cast a quick patronus, thanking every God that he had learnt to cast one a few years back under forgotten circumstances. A raven was pretty out of his presumed list of animals but as long as it did the job, his complaints were little to none on the matter. One long exhale left his his lips as he waited patiently yet with bated breath for Harry's stag on the dimly lit alley, looking all the same to his sides for any sign of human inhibition within a few meters from him. There were none at the moment, thankfully.

Even though it took only another ten minutes to receive a response to his question, the few words saying, meet at your apartment. was enough to spring him back to action.

“Harry!” Draco barged in without a second thought. “Hermione's gone. Apartment's turned upside down, I don't know what happened.”

“It was him, again. I'm sure — ” he initially hadn't wanted to throw the news at him through a patronus, because he knew what it would do to Harry, but it would be wrong nonetheless to not tell him right away.

“Yes, it's him. He left a note on the bathroom mirror — nothing important, as usual.” though now, he wished he hadn't for a split second, as he saw Harry sitting on the couch with his face in his hands.

He approached the man with cautious hands, moving so that he could hug him from behind. “We couldn't have known — ”

“I could have tried!” Harry exclaimed as he emerged from his hands just for the split second before going back to his previous state.

“There was no way for you to know! He tricked us. It was my idea — ” Draco sniffed irritably. “It was my idea to alert Ron. This would not have happened if Ron never stepped out of the apartment and left Hermione alone. It would have been better if we had just gotten into the ministry.”

“Maybe, yes.” Harry mumbled in his hand.

The confirmation from the man sitting just beside him worsened the guilt brewing inside him like a cauldron full of poison. He couldn't keep those hands hugging around Harry any longer, as the coercion from his conscience weighed down on him like metal in his stomach. And he shifted afar, Harry barely noticed the movement.