It All Began With Dwarfing Draco

Taking a deep breath, Draco tried to control his trembling hands. He balled them into fists and squeezed them as hard as he could. When he reopened them again, he saw the half moons where his nails had dug into his palms from his force. He shook his head and glanced around his room, eyes flicking everywhere for anything he might need.

His fingers unconsciously found his wand in it’s holder, safely on his belt. He had checked about a hundred times in the last five minutes, letting his paranoia take hold. But, of course, he had good reason to be paranoid. Going into a Death Eater hideout without a wand to fight the Dark Lord and his army wasn’t exactly the best idea.

Draco took another deep breath.

"Okay," he muttered to himself and turned towards the door. "Let’s do this." Slowly, he made his way towards and out of the door to his room. He stopped just outside however and stared into Ginny’s. The feeling of something pulling him, telling him to go in, washed over him like a wave. In the end, he was grateful he did.

After taking a only few steps into the flowery smelling room, Draco saw something poking out from under Ginny’s bed. Curious, he walked over and pulled it out. He was amazed at what he found. Ginny’s wand!

"Thank the gods!" Draco whispered to himself and rolled the wand over in his hands to make sure it hadn’t been damaged. It was perfectly all right minus a tiny scratch that wouldn’t do anything to it’s performance.

As if anxious to get back to it’s owner, knowing that it was needed, the wand sent tingles through Draco’s skin. Laughing slightly, Draco pocketed the wand and left the secret room a little more hopeful. This changed things a bit indeed.

* * * * *

Ginny’s eyes began adjusting to the dark. She could see the grate and the outline of the door but not much else, course, what else was there except stone wall?

Her voice had died not too long ago so she was giving it a rest for the mean time. The silence was driving her crazy. From now on, Ginny vowed, she would surround herself with as much sound as possible. Until she went mad from being surrounded by sound so she would shut it all off again. Until she became afraid of the silence and turned everything on again. It would be a vicious circle, never ending. Ginny couldn’t wait.

She began thinking about all the things she would listen too. It calmed her a bit, thinking about all the sounds she knew and loved. The way her mum’s stove would grumble sometimes when it was baking something inside and how mum would hum as she worked over it. The sound of the grandfather clock chiming ever time a Weasley got home. Fred and George laughing about something or other and then the loud bang that would follow.

Ginny laughed at the memory. Every time there was a bang, the twins would always come out with ashen faces and snicker quietly as mum scolded them till she was blue in the face. Mum’s yelling. May sound crazy, but at the moment, Ginny even missed that. Anything, even being on the receiving end of her mother’s shouts would be better than this.

Oh, but the thing she missed most right now, was Draco. His laugh that was always heartfelt and sounded like music to Ginny’s ears. His soft breathing as he slept at night. His voice that sounded silky smooth and carried sarcasm just as easily as it did compassion. That was the sound she wanted to hear, Draco’s voice. She wanted to hear it so much that she practically could. Wait a second.

Ginny leaped to her feet and scrambled over to the grate. She squinted to see through the darkness. Her heart sunk into her stomach a moment later as disappointment washed over her. There was no one there.

"Get a hold of yourself Gin!" she scolded herself quietly and left the grate, returning to her corner. She sunk back down and hugged her knees to her chest. "There’s nothing out there. Nothing." Tears began to sting her eyes again as she started to sing once more. She didn’t know how wrong she really was. Someone was out there.

* * * * *

They stood not far from the building, huddled behind some of the old trees. Faux had led them well. It had taken a while but they had made it.

Draco looked nervously over his shoulder at the old run down building. It looked innocent enough but of course, that’s what they wanted you to think. Soon, he would have to enter that building although by which means had not yet been determined.

"Draco!" Hermione hissed. Draco snapped back to reality, blinking as if being woken from a dream. "Pay attention! This is important!"

"Right, sorry."

"Okay," Harry said after receiving a nod from Hermione. "Everyone knows the plan then. Ron you’re with me. Professor, Hermione, I need you two to make the first distractions. That’ll help me and Draco and Ron get inside."

"Did you grab the invisibility cloak?" Hermione asked.

"Got it right here," Harry confirmed and pulled the long, thin material from under his baggy shirt. Hermione gave a quiet sigh of relief and visibly relaxed, but not by much. Dumbledore cleared his throat then, startling everyone.

"I want you all to listen and listen closely," he said in a very serious voice. "Take the utmost care here. We are on dangerous ground and far from safety. Do not go out of your way to make trouble." The ancient professor glanced around at his four students but let his gaze linger on Draco for a moment longer than everyone else. Draco nodded to the headmaster, knowing the reasons for his speech and why he watched him now, before walking over to a near-by tree. He leaned against it, crossing his arms over his chest and losing himself in his thoughts.

"You ready for this mate?" Ron asked calmly. He was standing beside Draco now and staring at the building, his face emotionless.

"Ready as I’ll ever be," Draco replied honestly. It was the truth. As much as he loved Ginny, it was scaring the hell out of him right now of what might happen while in that building. He was more afraid of what could happen to Ginny then he did himself. Very un-Malfoy like but then again, he hadn’t considered himself to be really Malfoy-like at all for quite a while now.

Ron turned and looked at Draco with very serious eyes.

"Look, you don’t have to go." Draco was surprised. He hadn’t expected Ron to say anything like that, especially from the person who had hated him the most for his seven years at Hogwarts up to now. Draco took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Yes, I do. I won’t, I can’t stand by and watch you risk your life while it was me who got her in this mess in the first place. I love her to much to do that. I’m going in." Ron sighed, understanding Draco’s reasons and respecting them. He would probably feel the same way if he was told he could sit it out.

"Don’t do anything dumb okay? Ginny would kill me if she came out alive and you didn’t."

"Same to you." Ron nodded and clapped Draco on the shoulder before turning away to talk to Dumbledore.

Out of the corner of his eye, Draco saw Harry pull Hermione aside to whisper quiet promises and pull her into his arms. A twinge of jealousy hit Draco in the stomach as he eyed the pair. He did not know why. Maybe it was because he feared that he and Ginny might never have a chance at having that again. There were to many things that could go wrong tonight to tell himself that he was being stupid.

He turned away to give the couple their privacy and scanned the house infront of him, his cockiness getting the better of him. ‘Some hideout,’ he thought. The place looked like a rundown shack, weathered and falling apart. It was as if they were inviting their enemies to come and raid the place. It wasn’t out in the open but as long as you knew what you were looking for it was easy enough to find. It was too easy and that disturbed Draco.

There was a small grate, low on the stone wall. It wasn’t very large at all, maybe up to Draco’s shins and a few feet across. An odd place for a grate. But then he saw something. Red hair, behind the grate. His breath caught in his throat. Ginny! Taking a step forward, his eyes went round and his jaw slackened. He couldn’t believe it, she was safe. Apparently she couldn’t see through the darkness because her eyes wandered aimlessly across the trees infront of her. Draco took another step. He wanted to shout out to her, tell her to be strong and that he was coming but before he got any further a hand was on his arm. It was Hermione.

"No Draco," she said in a stern voice. "Too many things could go wrong. She could be hurt, or worse. Don’t do anything that you’ll regret." Draco wanted to protest but he knew Hermione was right. Ginny could be in danger if he was stupid and did something rash. With a heavy sigh, he nodded and watched as Ginny disappeared from view.

"I’m coming Gin," he said quietly to himself. "I’ll be there soon."