Learning to Live

We are into the home stretch here, adoring readers!

Chapter 12: Wonderful Thing

Harry’s plan was simple really: take the son of Voldemort’s prize Death Eater hostage and pretend to bargain, get close enough to blast the scaly son of a bitch away, and then kill or be killed.

Harry was unsurprised by the nearly empty Slytherin Commons room. When he stepped out of the Ways, Zabini was sitting in front of the fireplace, seemingly checking his wounds.

Harry slipped away before he was noticed, heading for the dormitories. He was just another Dark shadow. He slipped silently up the stairway and into Draco’s room. The blond boy was sitting on his bed, his head in his hand. Harry paused, hearing the strange sounds the other boy was making. ‘Is he... No, it can’t be. He’s not crying, is he?’

Before Harry could recover from this shock, Draco looked up and saw him. The light in the pureblood boy’s eyes said he was recognized. ‘Damn!’

“H-harry? Is that you?” Draco stood and made hesitant steps toward the boy who still thought him his nemesis. “We thought you were dead...” Before Draco could finish what he intended to say, he was struck down with a quick, wandless Stunning Charm. He collapsed to floor like a puppet who’s strings had been cut.

Harry threw him over his shoulder, not bothering to use valuable energy to levitate him, and stepped back into the ways. Walking the Shadow-ways is an experience not unlike a waking dream. He had to put his mind into a relaxation similar to when he is sleeping, then step into the Darkness and believe he was where he wanted to be. Mistakes had been made of course, and those people had never been seen or heard from again, but occasionally, one can hear screams and maniac laughter in the shadows.

Harry stood, just inside the Gateway, peering out at the world from the midnight shadows. The encamped Death Eater army stood around him. His shadow was in the middle of the camp, and he could see a huge tent where he assumed Voldemort to be. But Harry waited, unwilling to take any unnecessary chances. He put Draco down, but kept touching him. If he wasn’t carful, Something would come along and steal his hostage.

Harry sat in the Nothingness of the Gateway, his hand on the unconscious Draco’s chest, and waited for Voldemort to make some sign of his presence. Dawn was just lighting the skies when Harry heard screaming. A nameless, faceless Death Eater crawled on hands and knees from the huge tent, screaming for mercy. Tom followed him, wand trained on the helpless minion, obviously the bearer of unwanted news. Though he was sight-unseen and sound-unheard on the other side of the Gateway, Harry could hear everything that went on.

“What do you mean he is gone? Malfoy was supposed to meet and deliver us valuable information tonight. That cagy old bastard must have ferreted him out... Damn.” Tom began muttering to himself about having only one spy left. Harry looked at the blond boy beside him. ‘Malfoy... he must have faked joining our side. I never heard about that at the Order. Unless.... No. Dumbledore would never trust him.’

Harry turned back. Another masked Death Eater was asking after the fate of his fallen comrade. Tom answered simply. “Kill him. He is of no further use to me. He failed.” After the brief flash of green light, Harry set his Final Plan in motion.

He turned back to Draco, waking him with a quick, “Ennervate.” Draco sat up with a start, looking around him wildly. Harry grabbed a fistful of his hair and yanked his head around to look at him. “Listen to me very closely, Malfoy. You are my hostage. Make any move to run for it, and I will kill you, simple as that. Do as I instruct, and you might make it out of this alive, but I doubt it. Do you understand?” He yanked the other boy closer, putting them nearly nose to nose.

Draco swallowed audibly. Harry thought it was nervousness on his part, but it wasn’t. It was a sweet torture to be so close to kissing the brunette boy, yet all Harry wanted to do was either use him or kill him. He was so hard Draco thought he would expire from the tension. He merely nodded his understanding of Harry’s terms. “Where are we? Why can’t anyone see or hear us?”

Harry let go of him sharply, sending Draco sprawling, but kept his other hand on the boy at all times. It was enough to drive the Slytherin mad. “Ever heard of a talent called Walking the Shadow-ways?” He glanced back over his shoulder, and grinned at the look on his nemesis’s face.

“I thought that was a lost art. The only book known to document that technique was locked away in... Oh, so that was you, was it? Mother was most upset when she woke up. And here we all thought you were the Golden Boy, pride of the Light. You’re eyeball deep in Dark Magic and sinking fast aren’t you?” Draco looked at him with an expression Harry couldn’t understand, or one that he didn’t want to understand.

“Glorious, isn’t it? The power, the freedom... I understand how Tom got addicted to it. Now be quiet and stand up. If I don’t have physical contact with you until we leave the Ways, you might get lost or stolen. And I don’t want to loose my hostage.” Draco stood willingly, and calmly faced the man who would lead him to his probable death. Love is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

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