Chapter 6 “ Passing Time
One evening after dinner, the three teenagers were sitting in the dining room working on their summer homework when Draco jumped. He suddenly got a sick feeling in his stomach and it suggested trouble.
“What’s wrong?” Hermione asked.
The blond wizard had his wand out before she could complete the question. Gut feeling or not, he was not going to risk anything.
“Hermione, where are your parents?” He asked the question quickly and placed a disillusionment charm on the books so they would appear nonexistent. The young witch watched him as he did this.
“Why are you asking, Draco? You’re starting to frighten me.”
“Just answer the question... please…” He said the last word gritting his teeth, trying to stay level headed.
Harry watched everything unfold in front of him, observing Draco trying to stay in control. He knew that Malfoy was usually the epitome of calm but he was beginning to slip.
Harry suddenly seemed to understand and spoke up. “Malfoy, get under my cloak. If it’s a dark wizard, you can’t be seen here with us!”
Malfoy tried to object but realized his point and obeyed. “I will help the best I can. Hermione, where are your parents, though?”
“They’re at a dinner party.”
Draco knew that if there were truly dark forces here at the Granger home of all places, it put Hermione in the most danger. He gently but firmly took hold of the witch’s arm and told her to go to them.
He needed her out of the house but she would never go for that reason alone. If it was her home they were specifically targeting, she needed not to be in it when and if they arrived. Additionally, the last thing they needed was to have her parents come through the door at just the right moment.
She looked at him in fear and he quickly explained to her, “You have to keep them out of danger and as long as they are not here, they are safe. Just stall them as long as you can. Harry and I will be fine, especially if no one knows we are here. We’ll either find you if it’s over quickly or we’ll meet back here in two hours.”
Harry gave her a sweet smile and with a hug said, “We’ll be fine under the cloak. Now go disappear for a while so we can as well.”
Draco raised the cloak over Harry so they were both hidden. Hermione quickly made her way to the back door and, when she thought it was safe, she walked briskly down the street to their neighbor’s house to find her parents.
No sooner did she slip out the door was there a crashing noise somewhere in the house. Harry and Draco quietly walked towards the front entryway, hidden under the invisibility cloak. Since they were hidden, they felt confident enough to stand slightly away from the wall for a better view.
There in front of them were two Death Eaters. The boys each took a sharp intake of breath at the sight of the hooded figures.
Draco watched them closely and whispered, “I think that’s Crabbe and Goyle Sr. They often work in pairs. Unless…”
Harry stopped breathing. “Unless what, Malfoy?” he whispered urgently. He could practically hear his heart beating outside of his chest from the adrenaline.
Draco was silent for a second. “The only other two people that work in pairs would be…”
A voice in the living room interrupted his thought. He extended his arm out enough to stop Harry from moving forward.
“I know you’re here, Mudblood.”
The cold cackling voice made Harry’s blood boil. It continued.
“You can’t hide from us forever! Why not just make it easier on everyone and come out so we can get this over with. I promise it won’t hurt but for a minute.” The evil witch spat out the last few words in a mocking tone that ended in almost a whisper.
Draco swallowed hard.
“Bellatrix. That was her voice which means the other one is… Lucius.”
Harry quietly backed them flat onto a wall where they could still see what was happening. “If you want, you can go. I’ll find you in, say, two hours at the park down the street.”
Draco whispered again more determined. “I am not leaving you alone with that bastard who dares to refer to himself as my father. Just don’t make a sound and they might just Apparate when they learn no one is here.”
Hermione was halfway to her parent’s dinner party when she saw two figures walking towards her holding hands lit from behind by the streetlamp above. When they came into focus, she recognized it as the two people she was on her way to stall. She took a deep breath.
“Mum! Dad! What are you doing? Is the party over?”
She kept looking around to make sure she wasn’t being followed.
They looked at each other. Her father stepped forward, letting go of his wife’s hand to get a better look at his daughter and spoke.
“More importantly, why are YOU walking outside in the middle of the night? Where are the boys - are you hurt?”
Hermione shook her head quickly. “No, no, no… I just fancied a walk, that’s all.” She averted their eye contact.
Her mother noticed this and not missing a beat asked her, “Dear, what are you pretending not to be hiding?”
“Nothing! Honestly, if you can’t trust your own daughter…”
Her dad touched her arm affectionately. “We trust that our daughter would never lie to us. Want to try one more time?”
Hermione hung her head and mumbled incoherently.
“What was that, sweetheart? We didn’t quite hear you.”
The young witch took a deep breath and looked at her parents.
“I said you are in danger and you can’t go home right now or you’ll get hurt.”
They froze.
“Excuse me?”
She took a deep breath. “The boys are making sure nothing happens to the house. I’m supposed to meet them there in about an hour.”
Her father looked towards the house with a look of worry.
“Are they safe?”
Hermione nodded. “Yes, they haven’t been seen. Can we go now? I hate feeling exposed like this out in the open.”
Her mother went to give Hermione a hug and asked, “So now what?”
At that precise moment, there was a loud “bang!” and the Granger family jumped in fear.
In front of them was the Knight Bus.
Hermione had her wand out before realizing where the noise had come from. She motioned for her parents to stay where they were as she proceeded to make her way towards the other side of the purple bus.
As she rounded the corner to face the door, she became a bit nervous to see who it was. Once convinced that Voldemort would never take the Knight Bus to her neighborhood, she allowed herself to advance towards the entrance. She stopped as the doors opened and looked up. She smiled as her gaze met with a pair of blue eyes and messy red hair.
Harry and Draco sat huddled in a corner of the front entry way. They were able to hear Lucius and Bellatrix quite clearly. The intruders decided not to make any effort in keeping their voices down because of the impression that they were alone. Harry clenched his fist around his wand when he heard Bellatrix speak.
Once realizing that there was no one home to torment, Bella’s voice dropped to a more sinister tone, “I say we destroy the house and send them a message!”
Harry was angry enough to spit fire and moved to get up. Malfoy glared at him through the slits of his eyelids with his silver-blue eyes glistening and whispered, “Don’t you dare.”
Draco watched as his father took hold of Bellatrix on the arm and tried to calm his aunt down.
Lucius kept his vocal tone at a very calm and almost eerily peaceful level as he spoke, “Not so fast, Bella dear. We’ll return at another time. They can’t hide forever.”
Upon seeing her obviously disappointed facial expression, he offered her an alternative idea, “I have a compromise for you, however, as I believe leaving a message would be the polite thing to do. A warning, if you will.”
Bellatrix smiled and with a curt nod pointed her wand up towards the heavens. Harry’s face fell as he realized what she was about to do. He cursed silently and Draco closed his eyes when she opened her mouth to speak.
“Morsmordre!”
Bella looked at Lucius with a very satisfied smile, unaware of the two teens mere feet from them who wanted nothing more than to hex them into oblivion.
They were gone with a “pop!”
Harry and Draco threw off the invisibility cloak and ran out the door to find Hermione before she saw the Dark Mark hovering above her house.
Safe Haven by NikkiSue
Chapter Notes: I'm sorry this took so long to update and I promise not to become one of those authors who update every 9 months! (I have since added 3 other stories though, so my time was not wasted.) I owe my sanity to my beta, Rita Writer who has manned this (except for 1 chap.) since the beginning. Thanks for your patience and without further ado, here it is.