Rescuing the Dragon

My profound apologies for the length of time be the the update. The next chapter is written and I\'m in the process of editing it now.

AN: I know that the entrance to Diagon Alley is in the Leaky Cauldron -- which in turn is spelled to be unnoticed by muggles. I\'m in turn, assuming muggles can\'t simply \'accidently\' enter it either. However, I\'m also assuming that if \'escorted\' they can enter the wizarding realm as I can\'t see *all* wizards who marry muggles living in the muggle world.

Also, I\'m going to be making some *other* assumptions, the primary one being that there are other ways to access the wizarding world from the muggle world -- there\'d have to be. As far as I can tell, it isn\'t actually in another \'reality\', but rather spelled to be unnoticeable. If there is canon evidence of it being different than I picture, and someone can point me specifically to where I need to read, feel free. : )

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Chapter Four
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Draco headed for Hogwarts automatically, his mind tied up in his confused thoughts. The crisp autumn breeze and the beautiful day around him went unnoticed, as did the multi-colored leaves his feet sent swirling with each absent-minded step. He didn\'t understand his behavior today. He freely admitted that -- to himself anyway. He didn\'t understand his sudden willingness to associate with the family he\'d always held in contempt.

So, why was he now spending time with them? Having fun with them? Had today been a sample of what might have happened if he and Potter hadn\'t got off on the wrong foot that very first day?

He groaned. It was official. He was off his nut. Sure, his world had been torn apart, his family virtually destroyed, but what did that matter? It didn\'t mean he needed *Gryffindor* do-gooders for friends. He was still who he was. He was still Draco Malfoy, a Slytherin and heir to one of the oldest pureblood lines in the wizarding world. There was still pride to be found in that -- despite the scandal his father had created by getting caught.

**Then, why do I feel so bloody alone?**

He swallowed convulsively, fighting the urge to turn right back around and rejoin his fellow students. Today, for the first time since his father had been indicted, he hadn\'t felt completely isolated. He\'d been the only student whose parent, or parents, had been indicted that had actually returned to Hogwarts. Oh, he wasn\'t the only one still there who had parents who had followed Voldemort. He was very sure of that. He was just the only one there that everyone could point to. That made it . . . difficult.

\"There\'s the brat! Get him.\"

\"What?\" Draco exclaimed, startled, the shout snapping him out of his sullen thoughts. His eyes widened in horror. Heading toward him were three wizards in full death-eater rigalia.

**Out in the open, in *daylight*?!**

\"There he is!\" A new voice, far off to his left, spurred Draco into movement. He was too too proud to run; standing ground and fighting to the bitter end was a Gryffindor trait, not a Slytherin one -- a fact he had *never* before been so profoundly grateful for. He spun around, sprinting back the way he\'d come. Unfortunately, he hadn\'t realized there were two more behind him, and he found himself slamming face-first into one very solid chest.

\"Stupify,\" he heard from behind, and before he could react, he fell bonelessly to the ground. **Bloody hell!** he thought as his fear spiked. Unfortunately, the spell did nothing to relieve him of that. No blessed darkening of his vision occurred. He didn\'t pass out. Instead he lay utterly still, unable to move or speak, terror coursing through him.

\"Shit! They\'ve got him!\"

**Who?** Draco frowned, well, tried to frown, as he was lifted. Was someone there going to help him? A soft murmuring voice -- a woman, he thought -eceeeceeded startled shouts, and he found himself thrown unceremoniously to the ground. He cried out soundlessly as he hit, an ominous *crack* making him nauseous as white, hot pain shot through his shoulder and radiated down his arm.

\"Xander!\" shouted another woman, \"get the kid to safety.\"

**The kid? Him? Merlin, please!!** Draco couldn\'t ever remember a time in his life he\'d so wanted the ability to *beg*. Malfoy\'s didn\'t beg -- but by Merlin\'s robes, he\'d do it now if it got him out of death-eater hands!

\"I\'m on it, Buff,\" Xander -- Draco assumed -- replied immediately, and for the second time he found himself lifted, only this time he mercifully passed out, the movement sending renewed agony shooting down his arm.

**

\"Hey, did we ever actually *reach* that town I can\'t see?\"

**What??** Draco thought in confusion, awareness coming to him slowly.

\"No, and I still don\'t see *how* you could miss an entire town, Xander.\"

Draco grit his teeth against making any sound. He well knew better than that. He didn\'t know where he was -- other than noting the fact that he was no longer outside. It was too warm for that. He didn\'t know who had him, or what they planned to do now that they had him. Experience told him that the longer they believed he was unconscious, the longer he had to figure out a plan of escape -- or to hope for rescue.

\"The kid\'s awake,\" said a new male voice, this one without the strange flat accent.

**How\'d he know?** Draco thought, alarmed. He\'d been absolutely certain he hadn\'t moved at all, had made no sound.

\"Hey, kid,\" Xander said softly -- at least Draco thought it was the bloke they called Xander. \"You\safesafe now. No way those dudes\'ll get past Buffy.\"

Draco almost choked at that -- death-eaters, described as \'dudes\'. \"Those . . . \'dudes\',\" he whispered hoarsely, and even that sound was too loud for the headache that was suddenly pounding his skull apart, \"are death-eaters. What they want, they get.\"

\"Can I just say *eewwww*, who\'d want to eat death?\"

Draco let out a strangled laughed, then winced. \"Ow!\" he whimpered. Fighting the urge to simply curl up and cry, he dared crack open his eyes. They already knew he was awake, he may as well see who they were and where they\'d taken him.

\"Your arm hurt, sweetie?\" said another woman -- a red-head. Was she the one who\'d cast the spell knocking down the death-eater that had picked him up?

\"No,\" he replied in a pained whisper, \"well, yes,\" he amended, only then realizing his arm had been restrained against his chest. He couldn\'t move it at all. \"But my head\'s worse.\"

\"Yeah, I bet it is,\" the same woman said softly. \"You dislocated your shoulder, but we fixed that. Unfortunately, we couldn\'t fix your concussion as easily. I don\'t know how bad it is, though. So if you hadn\'t woke up soon, we were going to take you to a hospital.\"

\"No!\" he yelped, regretting it instantly, the gods awful pounding taking on new heights of pain.

\"Shhh,\" she soothed. \"It\'s okay. We didn\'t want to. Now that you\'re awake, you can tell us where to take you. Someone is bound to be worried about you.\"

\"You\'re letting me go?\"

\"Oh!\" she exclaimed, then immediately quieted her voice at his obvious wince. \"Of course we are. We didn\'t kidnap you. We rescued you.\"

Draco fought with himself, slowly looking from one apparently worried face to the next. They were all dressed like muggles. **What have I got myself into?** he wondered, a new fear replacing the old. His inspection, however, stalled as he caught sight of the platinum blond leaning against the far wall.

**Okay, that\'s just plain weird.** Draco had never seen someone who looked *so* like his family, but who equally obviously wasn\'t.

He swallowed hesitantly, his mouth and throat painfully dry. He couldn\'t think well enough to reason out what he should do, what he should say. Would invoking the name of Hogwarts help him or hurt him? He groaned. He just didn\'t care right now. All he could think about was getting to Madam Pomfrey and her blessed painkillers.

\"Hogwarts,\" he said, his eyes never leaving the pale blond man, and was shocked when he, incredibly, paled even further.

\"Who\'s Hogwarts?\" the other woman asked.

Draco fully focused on her for the first time. Blonde and pretty, were his first thoughts. Before he could process the fact that she didn\'t know what Hogwarts *was*, the English blond replied for him.

\"Hogwarts isn\'t a who, it\'s a what.\"

\"Come again, Spike?\" Xander asked.

\"It\'s a school,\" Spike replied flatly.

**He doesn\'t like Hogwarts!** Draco realized with a start, his slowly ebbing panic suddenly back at full force. Who *were* these people? Somehow he didn\'t think they were really going to take him back to the school -- not after seeing \'Spike\'s\' reaction to the school\'s name.

\"I know you\'re hurting,\" Red said quietly, \"but with the concussion, we don\'t dare give you anything for it. Sorry.\"

He nodded cautiously, wanting nothing more than to demand they do so anyway. Obviously none of them was a medi, though, and he really didn\'t want to risk anything *worse* happening to him. For all he knew, they\'d poison him.

\"Can you tell us who to call?\"

**Call?** Draco let his eyes drift from Spike toward the door that seemed incredibly far away, wondering if he could actually get to it.

\"You can\'t call there, Xander,\" Spike said, straightening abruptly and striding across the tiny room to the curtained window.

Draco struggled to sit up, Red and Xander both immediately restraining him. \"That\'s not a good idea,\" Redd sod softly.

**Obviously!** Draco thought sourly, gulping against the sudden wave of nausea that cramped his stomach.

\"It\'s dark now,\" Spike said suddenly. \"I know where the place is.\"


TBC
Kiristeen
Feedback, the food of the gods and muses alike! : )
Kiristeen@kiristeen.com


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