IMPERIO // Draco Malfoy X Reader

Chapter 29: Hogwarts Corridors

You stumbled into the common room in your pajamas, Lyre and Pansy behind you, pushing past bleary groups of your housemates. Blaise and Leo were already down there, confusedly looking around at the mobs of people.

You made your way over to them immediately.

Blaise's eyes were wide with confusion. "What's going on?" He asked, reaching out to grab Lyres hand.

"Don't know." You said, even though you had an inkling of an idea. "Where's Draco?"

"Don't know." Blaise shook his head. "He wasn't up there when we woke up."

A jolt of panic shot through your stomach.

"I think he's been trying to kill Harry Potter." You said.

"What?" Lyre asked incredulously.

You nodded. "I think he was the one behind that necklace, and the poison. He basically told me he was that night he got back from the hospital wing."

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" Leo asked.

"That's not really something you just say-"

You were interrupted when the walls tumbled again. A couple of first years screamed when some loose bits of stone and a couple of books fell.

"Draco's out there." You said. "I don't know what's happening, but I'm positive he's out there."

"Where are you going with this?" Lyre questioned.

"A lot of people are going to get hurt, and Draco's out there..." You trailed off, forcing yourself to breathe. "I think we should go out there and try and... get him back, I don't know."

Glances were traded. You looked at your friends. Their eyes were full of mild confusion and panic.

"Okay." Blaise said.

"Okay?" You asked.

"Okay." He repeated. "If you think Draco's involved with all this, then yeah, let's go find him."

"Okay." You responded.

With that, an unspoken determination spread between your friends. Wands were drawn from pajama pockets, and you quietly slipped out of the common room and into the castle proper. The dungeons hallways were dark and quiet, but you didn't dare light your wand until you had a better idea of what was going on.

Padding quietly up the stairs, you headed to the Great Hall, your friends behind you. You were almost to the top of the stairs when a blur of dark smoke barreled past you and into the recesses of the dungeons.

Your heart stopped.

You knew what that was.

Death Eaters.

You turned back to your friends, and saw your own panic reflected in their eyes. They were terrified.

But underneath that, determined.

"Does anyone have any idea where Draco might sneak off to?" You asked.

"I've seen him go into the girls bathroom on the second floor before." Pansy said. "When he got into that fight."

"He has Crabbe and Goyle follow him to the seventh floor sometimes." Blaise said. "They complain about it a lot.

"We'll split up then." Lyre said.

"Is that a good idea?" Leo asked.

"It's better than walking around in a giant mob." You said. "Pansy and Leo, you guys go to the second floor. Use the secret passageway behind that one statue."

Leo nodded, sliding closer to Pansy.

You turned to Blaise and Lyre. "We'll go check the seventh floor."

Pansy grabbed your arm. "Be careful."

You nodded. "I'll do my best."

With that, you went your separate ways, melting into the shadows of the castle as best you could. You could hear your heart thundering in your chest, the cloud of black smoke on the edge of your mind.

What if your parents were here?

The trip up to the third floor was quiet - eerily so. This part of the castle was still asleep and the portraits watched you curiously as you snuck by.

It was when you got to the fourth floor that you heard a pair of voices.

You ducked down, hiding in an alcove with a suit of armor, Blaise and Lyre behind you. The voices edged closer.

"...go already, these pictures are setting me on edge..."

"...wait for the signal..."

"...should have come already Jacques..."

Jacques.

You glanced back at Lyre. Her face was frozen as she listened to her fathers voice.

Mr. Benoit and his companion stopped at the corner, directly across from the staircase that would lead you up to the fifth floor.

"They stopped right there." You whispered, almost not daring to breathe. 

"We need to distract them." Blaise breathed back. He glanced over at Lyre and you followed his gaze.

Her face was stony now, her eyes cold as ice.

She pulled out her wand and whispered two words.

"Expecto Patronum."

A large tarantula appeared in a cloud of silver smoke, picking its way forward. The thing rounded the corner and a scream sounded out, as well as a blast of magic.

"Now." Lyre darted forward, sprinting towards the stairs. You and Blaise followed closely, ducking into the stairwell after her.

It was only when the door swung shut that you let yourself breathe properly again.

Lyre was already moving up the stairs.

"That was pretty smart." Blaise said, starting after her.

Lyre kept moving forward. "Dad hates spiders."

You scurried up the stairs after them.

The castle rumbled again, and you gripped the banister tightly, trying to calm your racing heart.

The fact that there were Death Eaters in the school - that Lyre's father was in the school - didn't let you calm down.

Plunging forward, you kept moving.

The sixth floor was quiet and as you passed through.

"He'd better be up here." Blaise said, opening up the door to the next flight of stairs.

A cackling laugh echoed down from above.

Blaise let the door fall shut, his face paling somewhat.

They were up there, and they were coming down.

"Hide, hide." Lyre hissed, pulling you and Blaise away from the door. She opened up an empty classroom, muscling you both inside and quickly closing the door behind her.

You pressed your ear up against the wood, listening for anything.

You could hear a rush of footsteps come past, accompanied by the same high pitched cackling laugh. It sounded... almost gleeful.

You waited about thirty seconds after the footsteps had gone past before you opened the door. You peered out into the darkness.

"I think they're gone." You said, stepping out and turning towards the stairs again.

You stopped in your tracks.

Draco stood at the top of the stairs.

His eyes met yours for a moment, and then he was gone, following that delighted, cackling laughter.