***



I couldn’t bring myself to harm him, probably because I knew I wasn’t like that. I wasn’t the type of person that will just kill somebody, especially a man who has done me no wrong. I still am not that kind of person.



Seeing my Headmaster there, dirty, pale, bleeding, wand less, nobody with a conscience could have brought themselves to kill him. But that was what my father trained me for, right? To kill people, innocent people, to harm people who have done you no harm? Yes, that’s what I was trained for.



But when he said my name like that, in such a soft, weak way, that I’d never heard him use before, I knew at that moment that the measly chance of me murdering him, the slight bit of a chance that had been there before, was gone. I remember what he said, as if it had happened two minutes ago instead of two weeks ago.



“Draco,” he said. “Draco, Draco you are not a killer.”



“How do you know?” I said, almost at once. It was something I prided myself in. Not many people pride themselves in being able to kill somebody, and I’m not all to sure why I did at the time. My voice was shrill and loud. I’m surprised that the whole battle didn’t stop at the high pitched, intensity of my words. “You don’t know what I’m capable of doing, you don’t know what I’ve done!” I defended myself further still.



He told me he knew what I’d done, and he did. I’d let Death Eaters into his school. Death Eaters, whom battled for an evil ruler. They fought for a cause, but what cause? Where they like me, fighting because their families had been threatened? Had they learned to enjoy watching others suffer over time? Or did they fight for Voldemort simply because nobody else cared about them?



When Amycus and Alecto came out to where we were, he didn’t lose his cool. Not for a second. He just, talked to them. I could see they were losing their tempers, and at an unnervingly fast rate. Besides that, what was going to happen to me when Voldemort found out I hadn’t killed Dumbledore?



Then, Snape came outside, and almost immediately, he killed Dumbledore. One of the only people that I knew might have given a damn about me, was dead. Snape fled, along with all the rest of the Death Eaters and myself as Potter emerged to fight. How had Snape killed him like that? Just like that? Dumbledore had asked for help, and all he’d been given was the reaper of death from the living. I guess that Snape felt the need to play God, and take a life that day.



Now, it’s two weeks later. Two weeks after Dumbledore’s death. I’ve been beaten, enslaved, starved half to death, and imprisoned in the basement of The Riddle House. Father was killed, in front of my eyes, and Mother was killed soon after. Voldemort wasn’t joking when he said he would murder my family if I didn’t destroy Dumbledore. But then again, when does Voldemort ever joke?



It wasn’t time for the guard to bring me my food yet, but I was starving. My blonde hair, now filthy and matted, fell in my face while my head leaned forward, I was shackled to the stone wall, the foundation of the house. My body was immobile feeling, it felt like I weighed a thousand pounds, instead of my regular hundred and ninety five. Or at least, I know I weighed that much before I was starved for weeks. The weight was all hanging from my arms and wrists, and let me tell you, that hurt like Hell.



I could never find a way to be even slightly comfortable, and at night my dreams were the memories of my parents being tortured to death with the half circle of death eaters watching, laughing cruelly. That is, I had those dreams when I could actually find sleep.



“Malfoy!” a voice said, outside my cell, yes there were cells in the basement of The Riddle House, amazing, isn’t it? I looked up at the door of the cell. There was nobody there. I watched for a moment, and then turned away, again. Great, now I was hearing things. “Malfoy! Are you awake?” a semi-familiar voice asked.



“Who’s there?” I asked. I couldn’t quite place my finger on who the owner of the voice was, but I knew I recognized it from somewhere. “Show yourself!” I called.



“Where’s the key to get in there?” the voice asked.



“I don’t know! Tell me who you are, and what are you doing here? How did you know I was here?” I asked.



“All will be revealed in due time, my boy. But first we need to get you out of there. Not healthy how you are living, this day care center is pretty pathetic,” the voice told me, taking a stab at humor, and failing. It would have been funny, had I been in another situation.



“Just be quiet and get me out of here. We don’t have much time, the guard will be down soon with food,” I told the voice. “Besides, how do you intend on getting me out of the house, let alone these shackles?”



“Pushy today, aren’t we? You’ll see. I’ve got a very…,” he paused. “It’s just an original tool that will break unlock any lock. It was loaned to me by a friend. I tell you, he wasn’t all to pleased about our decision, thought you were a lousy bastard who deserved to be shot. The rest of us think otherwise, and we have no idea what being shot is,” the voice told me as the cell door swung open.



“What do you mean? You keep saying ‘The rest of you’. What do you mean? Who are the others?” I asked curiously. I ignored the fact that the owner of the tool being used to break me out thought I deserved to be shot, whatever that was. Probably some foreign word, like Dutch, or something.



“I told you, all in due time! Now, which hand is your wand hand, because I don’t want to cut that one off,” the voice asked me.



“What?” I exclaimed, becoming anxious and thoroughly disturbed. “Don’t even think about it!”



“I was joking,” the voice said. A hand appeared in the air, with a long knife. I watched in fascination as the hand and knife broke both the shackles that held around my wrists, cutting the flesh and causing them to bruise and bleed. For the first time in two months I could see my wrists again.



“Let’s go! Like you said, we haven’t much time!” the voice exclaimed. I got up numbly, only to find that I could barely stand up. I fell back down, because I hadn’t stood in a long time. “Damn. Okay, you can’t walk, marvelous. But, I’ve got a spell for that. I tell you, working with a bunch of Goblins over in Cairo, Egypt, you pick up on some pretty useful techniques!” the voice said to me semi-cheerfully.



I just looked at the air where I thought the person might be. Working with Goblins in Egypt? Now where had I heard that before? Oh, great, now it was going to drive me crazy until I figured it out. “What’s the spell?” I asked.



“Restringersi il mio piccolo amico!” the voice said, and I felt a very funny feeling all over my body, suddenly, I was shrinking. Smaller and smaller, until I was very tiny, only about two inches tall.



“Hey!” I yelled up to him. My voice was very quiet, high, and squeaky. “What are you doing?”



“This is so I can put you in my pocket and you won’t be any trouble! I am not very sure why the Goblins knew this one, but I suppose it came in handy while transporting all that gold from tombs back to Gringotts,” the voice laughed. I didn’t see anything funny about it! Wait, the invisible person worked for Gringotts? I’d heard that somewhere, sometime in the past that seemed like it had been another life time. Also their voice was still seeming vaguely familiar. I thought hard, and then realized! Oh, now I knew who he was!



“Bill Weasley! Why are you here? Who sent you?” I asked.



“So you figured out who I am? Well, The Order Of The Phoenix sent me, of course!” the voice, Bill Weasley, said. He picked me up on the palm of his hand, and proceeded to apparate outside.



“Whoa, how did you apparate? I thought that they had a barrier up! Is there a way to get past it?” I asked. Normally, I would be insulting the guy up and down. But right now, I wasn’t stupid enough to insult someone who could abandon me back to that basement, squash me like a bug, and frankly I’m not dumb enough to piss off somebody who is saving my ass.



“Yeah, but that’s secret known only to the Order. I can’t tell you the trick just yet,” he told me. “Anyway, I can promise that you’ll be eating in a matter of minutes. You look like you haven’t eaten in weeks, which you probably haven’t,” he said.



And with those final words, we were off. I had no idea what was about to happen, but nothing could be worse than what I had just gone through, right?



***



A.N. Okay, I hope you guys liked this story! It’s my first one to be validated (I hope!) so please no flaming! Reviews are welcome! Bye the way, the spell that Bill said earlier is really ‘Shrink, My little Friend!’ in Italian, incase anyone was wondering. Next chapter will be more funny, than this, I hope! I’l update as soon as I can!

I looked up after the Apparition, and found that I was in the woods. I was still very small, and my body was numb from the unpleasant sensation of Apparating while this small.

“Hey, Bill!” I called up in the high pitched, squeaky voice. I still could not see the Weasley; he was hidden under the Invisibility Cloak. There was a disturbance in light and the pattern of the trees as the red head whipped off the cloak and hung it over his elbow.

“What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. From his tone, I got the impression that he didn’t like helping me anymore than the provider of the knife. I couldn’t blame him, I had been a git to his family, Harry (whom was very close to the blood traitors), and the Mudblood all through Hogwarts.

“Would you mind returning me to my normal size?” I sneered, not letting his foul attitude bother me. “It’s not exactly comfortable to be a millionth of your original size.” It was getting on my nerves that I as an accomplished wizard could be crushed by just about anything at any moment.

“Sorry, no can do, mate,” Bill chuckled. “My orders are to bring you back to headquarters. Now, if I returned you to normal size, you’d be able to run away and be a threat to us. Besides, what do I care if you’re comfortable or not?” he offered me a cocky half smile.

“Do you think I’m a fool? Why would I try to escape while emaciated and dehydrated?” I demanded, thinking that I wasn’t exactly the foolish one. It was more likely him. Who would run away in this state? Not me, I wasn’t going to run away starving and beaten half to death. Especially not to simply be caught all over again.

“I don’t know. Cowards do stupid things in desperate situations,” Bill shrugged, closing his hand around me. This was an extremely aggravating moment. Not only had I just been called a coward, but he’d closed his hand down on me! Stupid Gryffindors thinking they were the only brave ones in the world. And what was the git thinking, anyway? Was he about to murder me? I thought he was supposed to bring me to this base!

“Hey!” I called out, my voice echoes within his cavernous hand. It bounced around the space and gave made me twitch from the volume. I didn’t yell anymore, and not only because I didn’t want to get a headache.

I heard the voice of someone I had seriously thought dead. Even when he spoke, I truly believed that I was hearing things. Bill’s arm raised in the air as he opened his fist. I looked first at the enormous mass of white beard, at the half moon spectacles, and finally at the sparkling blue eyes. And then everything went black.

:: ! ::

I heard voices around me, and felt a comfortable mattress beneath me. There was no way that this could be real; I was being kept in the basement of the Riddle House. I decided that this must be a dream; I was no longer at home. Nor was I at school.

Consenting to allow myself to live his dream a little longer, I relaxed my body and turned my head to the side. I couldn’t make out the words; I had a terrible head ache. But the voices of the people speaking were unpleasantly familiar. There were two female voices, speaking in harried whispers.

The rest were masculine, and I was only glad to hear one of them. I felt a pressure next to my left leg, as if someone had sat down on the bed next to me. My shirt was lightly brushed and sent a shiver crawling up my skin as someone reached up and placed a hand on my forehead.

It was pleasantly cool on my hot skin. “He has a fever,” a girl’s voice announced. I frowned slightly, my eyelids fluttering as I looked between them to see my surroundings.

The last few hours came rushing back to me. I realized that it hadn’t been a dream, and that I was indeed at… I had no clue where I was. Where ever the oldest Weasley son had brought me, I supposed. I saw the back of a head covered in bushy, chestnut hair; pulled back in a whittled, ivory clip.

Her hand rested on my forehead still, and I grimaced. Damn that Mudblood, who did she think she was touching me? I was Draco Malfoy, heir to one of the oldest Pureblood families in all of the United Kingdom, for Merlin’s Sake!

“Get off me, Granger,” I opened my eyes and swatted her small hand away. Sitting back on my elbows, I scanned the room. A blush crossed my pale complexion when I realized that everyone in the room was looking at me.

It was a surprising group. Remus Lupin, my sorry excuse for a cousin Nymphadora Tonks, and half of the Weasley children. Hermione Granger sat on the bed next to me, and her chocolate eyes looked worried. I wondered why she would even care, seeing as I’d been nasty to her through her school days. However, who cared? She wasn’t anything to me.

“Where am I? Why are you all looking at me like that?” I sneered, not letting the alarm show on my face. I must have failed, however. Remus stood up and strode over to me, hands in his pockets. Looking down his nose at me, he raised an eyebrow.

“You’re terrified out of your mind,” he smirked, but his tone stayed expressionless. That got me angry. I wouldn’t have called myself terrified out of my mind. I wasn’t even scared! At least… I wouldn’t admit it, not even to myself.

“I’m not!” I replied, crossing my arms in defiance. I mentally kicked myself, I probably sounded like a child. Couldn’t I come up with a better comeback? “You should be the ones afraid! You defied The Dark Lord and stole me from his prisons!” it was all I could think of and I know it made me sound like an ass.

The room fell silent, and there was a sudden movement that I saw with my peripheral vision. I turned my head in time to see a blur of red as two hands grabbed my collar. I yelped and tried to back up. A face came into view.

“What’s that supposed to mean, Malfoy?! Do you want us to bring you back there? Because we will, without hesitation! It’s because of Albus Dumbledore that you’re even out of that Hellish Prison!” the twin exclaimed.

“George, er, Fred! Stop it!” a girl’s voice exclaimed, and the man was pulled away from me. I brushed imaginary dust off myself and straightened my shirt. It was then that I realized I was wearing a crisp, white hospital gown. I looked up to see Ginevra Weasley pulling her brother back to the couch in the room.

I thought for a second, and suddenly his words hit me. My jaw dropped and I gasped. Albus Dumbledore, but there was no way! I’d seen him die with my own eyes! He went flying up in the air and flew over the Astronomy Tower!

“Did you say Dumbledore?” I whispered, my head whipping around to look at everyone in the room. An identical goofy grin was plastered to all their faces. They knew something that they weren’t telling me. I wasn’t about to go another moment without knowing the truth!

“Yeah, Dumbledore! Are you surprised?” Tonks asked from her seat next to Fred. She raised an eyebrow and frowned at me.

I heard chuckling above me and looked up to see Remus with a hand running through his graying, auburn hair. He was supporting himself on the headboard of my four poster bed as he laughed. His smile was almost comical, and his eyes were squeezed shut as tears formed at the corners.

I’d never seen my ex-Professor laugh, and I wondered what could make him laugh now. On the topic of Albus Dumbledore, too! But wait… another memory flew through my mind.

I had seen Professor Dumbledore in the woods. Was it true? Was Dumbledore alive? “Tell me right now,” I spun around to look at Hermione whom was trying hard not to laugh. I grabbed her shoulder desperately.

“Eh?” she began, glancing down at my hand, which was holding tightly to her shirt. My gray eyes searched her face, looking for answers. I came into contact with her chocolate orbs and asked desperately:

“Is Albus Dumbledore living?” She stared at me for a second, here eyes wide. Granger’s mouth was slightly agape as her lips moved, not saying anything.

“Yes.” I released her as my arm went limp and my grasp slackened. My arm dropped to my side as the word rang through my head like a church bell over and over again.

Yes, Albus Dumbledore was alive.

:: ! ::

A/N Oh, surprise ending! Bet you didn’t see this twist coming! See you all soon, and please review!!!