Murder at Malfoy Manor

A/N: I had a lot more planned for this chapter- tons more clues, but it sort of took on a life of its own and I had fun with them in the dark. Next chapter, I promise.

"Hermione, do you still have those matches?" Draco's voice said from the darkness somewhere next to her.

"I did, but I put them down when we came in." She tried to remember which way the entrance to the secret passage was, but in the blackness, there was no way to tell; everything was turned around.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Harry said. "Who's this?"

"That's my hand you're trying to hold, Potter. In case you're wondering, I don't swing that way."

Harry removed his hand quickly, glad that Draco couldn't see his blushing face. "Even if you did 'swing' that way, you're not my type, Malfoy."

"And what type is that, Potter? Short and stupid with an Irish accent? Me Mam gave me my first blowjob right there when we were visiting the Blarney Stone, and then she took me straight home and made me some potato soup! Later, we went hunting for Leprechauns to molest." Draco mimicked in a very good Irish accent. "Finnigan! Yuck! What were you thinking Potter?"

"I'd shut up if I were you, Malfoy," Harry warned. "I have a gun remember?"

"Is that a threat, Potter?"

"Would you two stop the damn arguing?" Ginny said. "This is not the time nor the place to be having a row!" She squinted in the dark. "Hermione can try and find those matches?"

Hermione put her hands out in front of her, turned the way she believed she should go and slowly walked forward. "Ow!" she said as she bumped into a piece of furniture, stubbing her toe. She took a few baby steps forward, met no obstacle and so continued on her way. "I think I know where I'm going. If I'm not mis..." She slipped in something, and crashed to the floor, the back of her head smacking the hard floor with a sickening thud.

"Hermione?" Draco said. "Are you alright? Where the bloody hell are you?" he asked, feeling his way in the darkness towards where he thought she was. "I wish my fucking wand worked!" he said angrily. "Stupid fucking Blaise and his stupid fucking bright ideas! I can't believe he disabled our damn wands! He walked forward a few more steps. "Hermione? Answer me damn it!"

His foot met something solid and he bent down. His heart was pounding fiercely in his chest. He had a crazy feeling that this was the dead body and he DID NOT want to put his hands in Blaise's leaking brains.

"Did you find her?" Ginny's voice floated out from the darkness somewhere close by.

"I found something," he said, reaching out a shaking hand. He expected to feel the bloody sheet beneath his fingers, and was relieved to feel Hermione's nightgown instead. "It's her," he said. "Hermione?" He shook her lightly. "I think she slipped in the blood and hit her head because she's not moving."

"Is she breathing?" Harry asked, panic evident in his voice.

Draco leaned his head down and put his ear to her chest. He was almost crying with joy when he heard her heart beating and felt her take a shallow breath. He felt his way to her face and gently kissed her on the lips. "She's alive." He put his arms under
her neck and legs and lifted her. "We need to get out of here," he said.

Suddenly there was terrifying screaming and the sound of glass breaking.

"That's Pansy!" Draco said.

Everyone turned towards the sound, clutching each other in fear.

***


"I hate the dark!" Pansy said, shivering and gripping Neville's arm so hard it was cutting off the circulation. "Don't you?"

"Have you forgotten who you're talking to? I'm afraid of everything, remember?" Neville was shaking in his slippers. Clearly someone else had been killed, and more than likely, that killer was probably still in this room with them. He was scared to death but knew he had to protect Pansy. He had done courageous things before, hadn't he?

"What do we do?" she asked.

He thought for a moment. "The door is still open. We can feel our way over and then once we're out in the hall, we can find the others- or maybe we should just go back through the secret passage?"

"I am not going in that tunnel again! There are rats in there!"

"Well there's a damn murderer in HERE, Pansy!" he said in an angry whisper. "Take your damn pick."

"Let's just get out into the hallway and then we can go from there," she said, in a pleading voice. "The killer is probably hiding in the secret passage waiting to cut our heads off or something."

Neville thought she was right. They had heard the killer just moments before they came into the room. Where did he or she disappear to? The only probable answer was the secret passage. "You're right, let's go out the door."

They managed to get to the wall and started feeling their way towards the door. The only sound was their breathing and the pounding of blood in their ears. Their fingers and hands brushed over paintings and shelves, and Pansy was feeling her way across a huge smooth mirror when Neville stopped her in her tracks.

"Wait!" Neville whispered, holding Pansy back with his hand. "Do you hear something?"

Pansy tried to concentrate. "I don't hear anything."

"Maybe it was my imagination," Neville said, praying he was right.

They went a few more shuffled steps and then froze. This time there was no mistaking it; there was definitely someone or something coming into the room. They could hear its footsteps and its heavy breathing.

"What is it?" Pansy squeaked, her voice hovering on the border of hysterics.

"I don't know," Neville said. "Shh. Just be quite and try not to move." He held her against the wall. The sound came closer and Neville's heart raced faster. He knew he was going to have to do something- but what?

It came into the room and both Pansy and Neville closed their eyes tightly and tried to stay still. Pansy, tears of fear sliding down her face, gripped Neville's hand like a vice. There was a sound like something being dropped, and then her other hand that was clutching her nightgown, was suddenly licked.

She jumped in shock and fright, screaming at the top of her lungs. What ever it was jumped on her, sending her flying into the wall. She knocked the mirror off, sending it crashing to the floor where it shattered, showering them with splinters of broken glass. There was a whimpering sound and the intruder fled from the room.

"I don't want to die! I don't want to Diiiiieeeee!" she screamed over and over.

Neville grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth, attempting to shut her up. she was squirming and kicking, trying to bite his hand.

"Calm down, Pansy!" he said. "It's just the dog!"

She fought a second more and then went limp. Neville slowly removed his hand and Pansy started crying, throwing herself on his chest.

***

"My god! Do you think she's being murdered?" Ginny asked.

"One can only hope," Draco said, sarcastically.

"How can you say that?" Harry asked, disgustedly. "She's the mother of your child!"

"I'm fairly sure that Scorpius is not my child, but one never knows. With his mother being the whore she is, he could be anyone's."

"Just shut the hell up, will you?" Ginny said. "We need to help her!"

There was more screaming, then silence, and to their astonishment, a few seconds later a light appeared in the secret passage.

"Who do you think it is?" Ginny asked, finding Harry in the dark and hiding behind him.

"I don't know, but I'll be ready for them." He pulled out the gun and held it up. Clicking off the safety, he aimed it towards the growing light.

***

"The dog?" Pansy asked, wiping the tears from her eyes. She started to laugh.

"The dog," Neville said laughing along.

Pansy moved away from Neville's embrace and her foot kicked something, sending it skittering a little across the floor. "Did it sound as though that dog dropped something right before it licked me?"

Neville couldn't remember.

"I'm sure I heard something hit the floor. She got down on her hands and knees and crawled towards the object she had just kicked. "What's this?" she asked, picking up the object and pressing the button on the side.

The room suddenly lit up.

"A flashlight!" Neville said excitedly. "I've seen pictures of those!"

Pansy turned the light so it flashed right in her eyes. "Kind of bright, don't you think?" she asked, temporarily blinded again.

Neville laughed, glad for the fact that Pansy had broken the mirror and she couldn't see herself right now. Her mascara had run down her face and were now dried black rivers. Her bright red lipstick was smeared across the left side of her face and her hair was bedraggled to say the least.

"Why are you laughing?" she asked, narrowing her eyes suspiciously. She shone the flashlight in his face. "I see nothing..." She caught a glimpse of herself in a broken shard of mirror on the floor. "Oh! I look like death!" She dropped the flashlight and it rolled to Neville's feet.

"You have time to fix you're makeup later," he said, picking it up. He rolled his eyes as Pansy struggled to get the black lines from her face with the spit soaked hem of her nightgown. "Let's go. We need to get back to the others." He walked over and yanked her up from the floor, violently. "In case you've forgotten, Pansy, my love, there is still a killer on the loose; one that could care less if you don't have you're damn eyeliner on right!"

"You can be such an asshole, Longbottom!" Pansy said. "I don't want the others to see me looking like this!"

"It's dark, you idiot! They can't see you! Just keep the light away from yourself and then there will be no chance of them seeing you looking like Cookie the Clown!"

"How dare you! You can't insult me like that!"

"Yes I can, now get you conceited ass down that secret passage!" He grabbed her arm and pushed her into the tunnel. "I'll be right behind you."

Pansy threw off his painful grip. "When we get out of her, Longbottom, I never want to lay eyes on you again!"

"Fine with me."

They walked slowly down the passage, the rats and the vermin scurrying away from the light. More than once Neville had to force Pansy onward. She whimpered every time she saw a spider, and at one time refused to step through a puddle because it might be unsanitary. She was becoming a royal pain in the ass and he wondered now what he had ever seen in her.

Finally, they could see the end of the tunnel and picked up the pace, glad to once more be in the safety of numbers.

***

Harry's aim was steady. He was 'in the zone' as they say. He saw nothing but the light- heard nothing but his calm breathing. He was ready to defend his friends from whatever was coming towards them.

"It's getting closer!" Ginny said, anxiously.

"Fucking shoot now!" Draco yelled.

Harry pulled the trigger.

A/N: next chapter- one of the couples gets freaky in a closet, they stumble upon a HUGE clue and maybe someone else will die...