Of Doves and Dragons

Chapter Forty-two: The Test of Allegiance

"In the morning light, let my roots take flight. Watch me from above like a vicious dove. They don't see me come, who can blame them? They never seem to catch my eye, but I never wondered why."

-Imagine Dragons, Tiptoe

The group landed in a calamity of limbs. None of them had ever side-by-side apparated with quite that many people and therefore they landed outside the path that led to the Shrieking Shack with limbs entangled and long hair being pulled. Draco realized that he was laying on one of Harry's arms and gazed at the spectacled boy in horror before skittering to his feet and dusting off his shoulders and trousers as if nothing had happened.

They remained silent as they all tramped down the path towards the village. Hands tucked in pockets, heads pointed towards the ground; they walked in pairs with Harry in the middle, avoiding eyes and anything that would bring attention- not that there would be any to attract.

Hogsmeade was alarmingly scarce of witches and wizards in the unsettling version of a ghost town. It made it all that more startling when they stepped into the village and a loud screeching siren blared around them. They had all, including those back at Shell Cottage, conveniently forgotten the curfew that had been set upon Hogsmeade Village.

They recovered well enough and managed to trickle clandestinely through the back of the village and slide into the back of the Hog's Head without running into whatever poor Death Eater-affiliates happened to be on curfew duty that day. All were pleased to realize that the Hogs Head was empty except for an unamused Aberforth who was cleaning a glass behind the bar.

Without any sort of urgency, Aberforth placed the glass back on the bar and pointed behind them. "It's right through here," He turned to open what looked to be a spice cabinet and disappeared into its depths. The trio shared a glance before stepping to follow the quiet abstruse man.

Draco gestured exaggeratedly for Luna to enter before him, rolling his eyes when she stepped with a slight skip into the would be cabinet, and followed her and shutting the door behind him.

It led them through a spice cabinet but out the back wall was another door that led into a little room that was clearly the first level to Aberforth Dumbledore's apartments. By the time Draco met with the group, the trio were already gazing up at a portrait of a young girl no older than a fourteen walking down a path.

Aberforth was hovering in the back, pretending to straighten up the table while giving Hermione a begrudging look. Draco found it hilarious that he could evoke such a look from Granger in the short amount of time it took for him to tail end their party.

Slowly, the girl in the photo returned with a body trailing behind her. The person was ambiguous at first, nothing more than a shadow behind her, but once she got close enough to be in the foreground of the portrait, it opened, as portrait holes do, to reveal none other than Neville Longbottom.

The boy, with a badly bruised eye and a severely cut lip, grinned lopsidedly at the group, crouching down in the portrait hole. Draco wondered when the hopeless wizard had grown so tall. "Well, aren't you a sight for sore eyes."

"Neville!" Harry greeted with a grin of his own followed by similar responses from the group.

It seemed that it was then when the breathless laughter ebbed that Neville noticed Draco, his thickened eye brows pulling together strongly in severe displeasure; his eyes accusing. Draco had the good-nature to wince as he remembered all the awful things he had done to Longbottom over the years. "What is he doing with you?"

"Don't mind Malfoy. He's nothing but a vessel of useful information." Ron jibbed.

Draco glared at the lot of them. Harry sighed, trying to redirect the attention before Draco returned the tactless humor, and hefted himself up into the tunnel besides Neville.