Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter- that’s all JKR, of course!
Draco fought the urge to vomit Mrs. Weasley’s excellent dinner. He wished he could at least lean against a wall for support. But that wouldn’t be an option at the moment. After several long seconds of motion sickness, he finally felt as though he was standing on solid ground. It was dark, though, and he couldn’t see where he was.
It was also very quiet. He forced himself to listen closely. He could just make out labored breathing- as well as footsteps approaching from somewhere not so far away.
“Lumos,” came a man’s voice just outside the room that he was standing in. A door slowly creaked open at the far end of the room. A blinding light filled the darkened space. He quickly shielded his now light-sensitive eyes from the light.
Where is this? he wondered. He felt as though there was something he should be remembering right now- something just at the edge of his memory. He was here for a purpose.
“So this is the child,” came a different man’s voice.
I know that voice, Draco thought. But he was still unable to find any coherence in his thoughts and his surroundings.
The other man laughed. It was a cruel watery sound.
Draco’s eyes were beginning to adjust to the light. He couldn’t see who was behind the light. So he turned to look in the same direction in which the two men were looking.
“Louisa!” he shouted, running to his child’s prone body. He kneeled in front of her, noting her dirty clothes and scratched face. He tried to take her hand but he couldn’t seem to grasp it.
He fought another wave of nausea as he watched his hand glide completely through her own.
“Louisa! Look at me!” again he shouted. Her eyes fluttered open and he could clearly see fear in them. But they weren’t focused on him. Rather, she now raised a hand to shield them from the bright light.
“Daddy,” she breathed.
“I’m right here, love. Right here…. Look at me, Louisa,” Draco cried. But the child closed her eyes again and stifled a sob.
“Daddy, where are you?” she whimpered. Draco felt as though his heart was going to burst. He again became aware of the two men behind him. They had been laughing about something, but he hadn’t been able to make out their words. He had been entirely focused on Louisa.
Movement from his daughter made him turn back to her. She was trying to sit up now.
“Now where do you think you’re going, little one?” leered one of the men.
“You leave her alone!” Draco bellowed. Swiftly, he was up, charging towards the two men. But where he should have collided with their bodies, there was nothing. He felt consumed with helplessness as he whirled around, trying to understand why he couldn’t protect his child.
He looked at the two men. He was behind them now. The strong wand light was cloaking them in a silhouette and he couldn’t discern their features. He moved closer to them. It was as if his vision was clouded. The two figures were just too hazy to see clearly. But there was something odd about them- if only he could put his finger on it.
Just then, he felt a very real hand on his shoulder. Startled, he turned away from the two figures and his daughter and looked directly into the clear emerald green eyes of Harry Potter.
“What?” Draco mumbled. He felt like he would swoon from all the strangeness of the situation.
“Malfoy? Malfoy, are you okay?” Harry asked. When Draco said nothing, Harry continued, “We’re in the Pensieve, remember? These are Louisa’s memories.”
Draco looked past Harry then to see Ron and Ginny. He felt as thought he was beginning to wake up from a dream. He forced his weary mind to concentrate on Harry’s words.
Before he could get any clarity, he heard one of the men shout, “Stupefy!” He turned back around to see Louisa hurled against the ground.
“Louisa!” He ran back to his daughter’s side. She was even more rumpled and now unconscious. With murder in his eyes, he again ran at the two men, who had begun laughing again.
“Malfoy!” Ginny shouted, as Ron and Harry both grabbed Draco’s arms.
“It won’t do any good,” she reasoned. “These are memories. We have to pay attention to what Louisa saw here.” She paused to be sure that Draco was listening to her. “She’s okay, you know. She’s currently sitting in the kitchen back at Headquarters, waiting for us. And we’re in her thoughts- in the Pensieve.”
A rush of thoughts hit Draco and he slumped a bit in Harry and Ron’s hold. He shrugged them off and took a few steps away.
The four continued to watch as the two indistinct figures retreated from the room. They were speaking in muddled words. Draco struggled to understand them.
“Why can’t we hear them?” he asked, frustration in voice.
“Because she couldn’t hear them,” Harry explained. The other three turned towards him then. After all, he was the only one with any experience being in a Pensieve.
“We felt what she felt- we saw what she could see- and we only heard what she could hear. That’s why we were so discombobulated at first, too. We experienced some of her portkey travel and her fear.” He paused. “Now what happened here?” he asked, looking at each of them.
“I’m almost positive that one of those men was Peter Petigrew,” Ron piped. Harry nodded his head in agreement.
“Anything else?” Harry queried.
“This place is oddly familiar to me,” Draco started. “And I know that other man’s voice, too- but it seems off somehow- and I just can’t remember to whom it belongs,” he crooned, his eyes back on his daughter’s unconscious form.
“Yeah- I thought his voice was familiar, too,” Harry added. “Though I don’t recognize this place at all. Interesting that you do…”
“Did either of you notice anything odd about the appearance of the two men?” Ginny asked.
“Now that you mention it, only one of them was really shaped like a grown man- the other was much smaller or maybe thinner,” Ron replied.
“I thought the same,” Ginny agreed. Harry was nodding his head, too.
Draco thought of the two figures again- trying to remember how they had looked when he was next to Louisa as well as when he ran behind them. He had noticed something then, too. He strained to recall what he had previously been unable to identify.
“It was a woman! The second figure wasn’t a man at all- and she had the voice that I couldn’t place, too,” Draco groaned. “None of this makes any sense!”
Before anyone could respond to this admission, their surroundings began to whirl. A few seconds later, Draco could hear footsteps again.
He turned his head to where the door should be. He only saw an obscure wave of light. He heard the footsteps coming closer to where he was standing.
“Enervate,” came the voice of Peter Petigrew. The world around him came more sharply into focus. He could clearly see Petigrew now hovering over Louisa, his wand still pointed at her chest. Draco fought the urge to pummel the man, recognizing the futility of the action. He continued to watch the two, his fists clinched together.
Louisa had jumped up and was backing away from Petigrew. He jeered at her. It seemed to Draco that something had snapped in the face of his daughter. He watched as the smoothness of her childish forehead was replaced by highly arched eyebrows. He saw a smoldering blaze ignite in her gray eyes. He shuddered- he had never seen such a look on the face of his daughter.
With a quick lunge, she had rushed Petigrew- kicking him with more energy than a five year old should reasonably be able to muster. Petigrew was thrown off guard. He had been squatting next to the child- now he had toppled over onto the dungeon floor. Louisa continued to kick at his chest. Draco heard a sharp snap and then Petigrew’s wince of pain. With a surge of pride, Draco realized that his daughter had indeed broken one of the man’s ribs!
“Enough! Quit playing, Peter. Get the blood!” came a woman’s voice. Draco whirled around to the forgotten second person. She was standing in the darkness and he couldn’t see her. But her voice- it was unmistakable. His anger was surging and he tasted bile in the back of his throat. She was laughing now.
Draco turned back to his daughter. Petigrew was on his feet now. He had reached into his robes to pull out a knife and a glass vial. Louisa shrieked in horror and quickly turned to run. But Petigrew had already gripped her arm. Draco recoiled at the roughness with which his daughter was being restrained.
“Petrificus Totalus,” the woman’s voice said, lazily. Draco watched in horror as Louisa’s body became instantly rigid. He heard her hit the ground with a loud thump. Petigrew advanced on her then, drawing the knife. Quickly he sliced into her forearm and then held the vial underneath her dripping wound.
Draco could barely contain his anger- only when he felt Harry’s hand on his shoulder did he remember that his daughter was currently safe.
He watched as Petigrew continued to collect Louisa’s blood. But then he had to shield his eyes from the increasing brightness of light.
Where was it coming from? He forced himself to look back at the now blindingly bright light. It was Louisa- she was engulfed in dazzling red and gold flames of light. Petigrew had already shrunk away from the child.
Draco heard a loud crack- very much like a gunshot and Louisa vanished. Then he saw himself in Hermione’s arms, lying on Louisa’s bed before he again felt his surroundings spin.
A scant second later, he felt his feet come to rest on something solid. It was completely dark but Draco had the feeling that he was back in the same dungeon. He could hear Harry, Ron, and Ginny somewhere close by, though he could not see them.
He felt drawn to something in front of him. Hesitatingly, he let himself follow the pull. He knelt down on the ground. He reached out with his hands, knowing that he wouldn’t be able to touch anything. He couldn’t help it- he felt a strong magnetism towards….
“Hermione!” he breathed.
“What? Where is she?” Harry called.
“I can’t see her but I know she’s here in front of me. I can feel it,” Draco answered. He leaned down towards what he knew to be form of his beloved.
“Hermione,” he whispered. He could hear her soft even breathing now. He didn’t think she was asleep. Rather it sounded as if she was deep in meditation. As if from far away, he recalled that she had tried to reach out to all of them.
“We must be in Louisa’s vision- when Hermione tried to communicate with us,” he said to the three standing somewhere behind him.
He continued to look down into the inky blackness, listening to her deep breaths.
“Harry, Ron…” came her faint voice. Draco heard the shuffle of feet and knew that the other three had moved closer at the sounds of their names.
She continued to breath ever deeply.
“Harry, Ron…” she mumbled again. Then silence. Then came a deeper throaty breath, “Draco… Louisa!” she cried.
Involuntarily, Draco moved back as her raspy voice filled the dungeon.
Even as he did, he became aware of warmth and a small surge of light. There, just inches away from him, Hermione lay, glowing as if lit with an inner fire.
Her eyes had flown open and Draco could see that she was crying.
“Draco, Louisa,” she said again, strongly. “Find me!” she wailed. The light within her had reached a feverish pitch. The room was swelteringly hot now. He could see Hermione slipping into unconsciousness as the room once again gave a frightful lurch.
This time there was no solid ground on which to stand. Draco felt totally disembodied. He tried to look down at himself and was shocked to see nothing. He looked all around him for the others but again saw nothing.
“Ginny? Ron? Malfoy? Are you there?” Harry’s voice echoed.
“This is weird,” Ron responded.
“I’m here, too,” Ginny answered.
“Can anyone see anything?” Draco asked.
“No, not even myself!” Ron grimaced nervously.
Draco looked ahead and saw nothing but swirling grayish mists.
Slowly, the mists seemed to dissipate. He could just make out a darkened room.
“It’s the foyer of Hermione’s office building!” Ginny cried.
He could hear the foggy sounds of someone approaching the foyer. Before he could even identify the person, he heard a clear female voice ring out, “Stupefy!”
The mists returned. Seconds later he saw flashes of a fireplace as Dumbledore stepped out. More mists, then he was watching himself and Hermione, sitting at the kitchen table of 12 Grimmauld Place- he was leaning into her, about to kiss her lips. The mists returned. This time he saw nothing but felt Hermione’s presence. With certainty, he knew that she was safe, though very sad- and also resigned to do something that frightened her. The mists evaporated again, he averted his eyes as he saw a huge fire. He felt consumed by it, as if he was standing within it. He caught his breath and struggled to keep looking at his surroundings. Now the images were flashing at an alarming rate- he strained to take in and catalog each one. His mother and father loomed before him- both wearing sinister expressions and laughing. He saw Hermione again, lying in a heap on the floor. He saw himself, though much older, holding a small child in his arms. Then there was nothing, not even the swirling gray mists- just laughing, familiar cackling, harsh empty bellows, and soft gentle laughing. He felt as though he might drown in the sounds.
“Daddy?” he heard her voice from far away.
“Daddy?” the voice was more insistent now. With a huge effort, he opened his eyes. Louisa was kneeling over him, concern shining in her brilliant gray eyes. Slowly, he hauled himself up to a sitting position. His head was pounding.
Someone handed him a glass of clear liquid. He downed it in one gulp and instantly felt a refreshing coolness trickle over his brain. He opened his eyes more fully this time, taking in his surroundings.
His was on the floor of the kitchen at 12 Grimmauld Place. He looked around the room. Harry was standing, but leaning alongside the hearth. Ginny was propped up against the stove. Ron was still lying on the floor where Mrs. Weasley was tending to him.
“I suppose I should have warned you,” Dumbledore began. “It takes a disciplined mind to preserve one’s memories in the Pensieve though Louisa proved to be an apt learner. But it takes a great deal more skill than I possess to organize the visions of a Seer. I’m afraid I’m not the best teacher for that,” he chuckled softly.
“Now, we must discuss what you have seen. The rest of the Order members will be here within the hour. It is my hope that we can form a plan before then,” Dumbledore finished.
“I know where she is,” Draco said, with a certainty that even surprised him. “And I know who has her- and if we don’t hurry, I know what Hermione will do…” his voice faltering slightly, “I know what she’ll do to protect Louisa.”