Be Careful
10: Who You Ask For Help
By Anne B. Walsh
"Mum! Mum!"
Cecilia roused with a gasp. Dark, it was dark, and so cold, and the boy she’d loved so dearly for such a short time was gone, he’d left her as her only love had left her, as everyone left her eventually—
"Mum, say something, please."
But isn’t this his voice?
"Draco?" she whispered.
"Mum!" Strong arms wrapped around her, and she heard the ragged breathing of a boy neither young enough nor old enough to cry. "Mum, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, please say you’re all right, say it didn’t hurt you—"
"There wasn’t time." She remembered now. She had been crying, and the darkness had gathered over her so subtly she hadn’t noticed it until the last second, until too late to defend herself.
"How did it get in?" Draco pulled away to look at her—the lamps in the hall were lit again, though not the ones in the room, giving an eerie twilit effect to his face. "I thought the wards…"
"They must have been breached." Cecilia took her first full breath in what felt like hours. "Enough hungry dementors in one place and magic itself begins to fail. We must hurry, Draco. Sound the alarm."
"How?"
"The incantation is Tumultuo. Point your wand at any wall and say it."
"Tumultuo," Draco repeated, aiming his wand at the wall nearest them.
Above their heads, a great bell began to toll.
"Good." Cecilia stood up, Draco assisting her. "Come. They will need every wand they have."
Remus was just bending down to kiss the cheek of his daughter-in-law-elect when the bell sounded for the first time.
"Oh dear," said Luna.
"Oh dear" does not begin to express this, said Danger.
As usual, love, you’re right. Remus kissed Luna quickly, then straightened up and turned to face the room, willing his voice to carry. "Our wards have failed," he said simply. "Hogwarts students and younger, to the middle of the room, please. Adults, wands out, Patronuses at the ready."
"Everyone check your neighbors," Danger added, drawing her own wand. "If anyone notices a missing person, speak up." No need to worry about the littlest ones, love, she added silently. Hermione’s taking care of them.
How so? Remus blinked once and saw, through Danger’s eyes, their oldest daughter on one knee, talking to a young house-elf. Of course, she called Echo. Good for her.
Indeed. Danger watched the house-elf disappear. The extra wards on the nursery had better have held. Or I shall be taking strips out of somebody’s hide.
I hate to point this out, but you put those wards up yourself.
So I’ll take strips out of my own hide. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Before Remus could come up with an answer for this, Ray turned around from his conference with Harry, looking worried. "No one’s seen Draco or Aunt Cecy," he said. "They both left, and I don’t think they ever came back."
"When did they leave?" Remus asked, going to one knee and flattening his hand against the floor.
"Draco left first, with Cousin Tom, about an hour ago. Aunt Cecy’s only been gone a few minutes."
Our son and his information network, Danger commented.
Amazing, isn’t it? Remus answered absently, most of his attention on the complex process of querying the inherent magic of the Manor itself. As it roused, awakening to his touch, he fed it the personality impressions of the two missing people. Find these, he willed. Find them and tell me where they are.
A picture formed, visible only to him, floating in the air level with his eyes—a blond boy with his arm around a woman’s waist, helping her walk down a hallway towards a brightly lit room. Remus breathed a sigh of relief. They’re safe, he told Danger, sending her the picture. They’re on their way in. Send someone to make sure they get here?
Of course. Danger’s sense diminished for a moment as she spoke to various people around her, then returned. Echo’s back with Charlie and Nicki, and the other house-elves are already gone. I think we might actually have reacted quickly enough this time.
Thank God. Remus sent his final command to the Manor’s magic, then began to disengage himself from it. Have you seen Albus yet, or Minerva or Tom?
Albus is here. Minerva—oh, there she is, over by the door. I think she’s waiting for Tom. He went to bring Draco and Cecy in.
Good for him. Remus pulled the last of his magic free and sagged slightly. That’s starting to take more and more out of me.
Ray will be of age soon, Danger said soothingly. As if he weren’t waiting behind you to tell you that himself.
Remus turned his head. Sure enough, Ray was standing beside him, watching him with a mix of envy and worry. "Father—" he began.
"On your birthday," Remus said firmly. "Not one day sooner. Your hand, please?"
Ray held it out. Remus took it and pulled himself up, then took advantage of the moment to embrace his son. "Take care of your siblings until we get there," he said. "Don’t abuse your authority."
"I don’t!"
Remus raised an eyebrow. Ray wilted. "Usually," he conceded.
"Keep it that way, then." Remus let go and turned around to find Danger and Albus waiting for him. "Are we ready?" he asked them both.
"I believe so," said Albus as Danger nodded. "All the children in attendance are accounted for. I am only waiting for—ah, here they are."
The adults parted to reveal Minerva and Tom, who had Cecy in his arms. Draco was beside them, looking pale and shaken but with his wand in his hand. Abby detached herself from the huddle of children and ran to him, clinging to his waist. He put his free arm around her and smiled at her.
Someday I will find out exactly what about Abigail brings out the protective spirit in most adults.
The doors of the ballroom swung closed with three resounding booms, making most of the children and a few of the adults jump. Remus had been expecting it—it was the Manor’s way of telling him everyone was gathered—but it still sent a little frisson through him.
If we can successfully battle them until the children are safely gone… if we can keep our pairings together long enough to ensure we all get away…
Woolgathering, Danger said pointedly.
You’re right, love. I’m sorry. Remus pulled his thoughts together and nodded to Albus, who insinuated himself into the crowd of brightly-dressed children and teenagers at the center of the floor. Minerva walked around the edge of the group, shooing some of the smaller ones back into line. Tom set Cecy on her feet and supported her as she swayed.
"You can come with us," he said under his breath. "There’s no shame in it."
"And leave everyone else to fight?" Cecy glared at him. "What do you take me for?"
"An intelligent woman," said Danger acidly. "Who can admit to weakness after a run-in with a dementor—at least I assume you had one, not much else produces that particular color in a person’s face—and get herself to safety while those who have not almost had their souls removed yet tonight get their turn."
Cecy smiled faintly. "Remind me at your next birthday to get you another sharpening stone for your tongue," she said. "But since you insist."
Draco caught Danger’s eye and mouthed a phrase at her. She smiled and nodded.
Did he just say thank you? Remus asked.
He did. And from everything Cecy’s told us about him, that is something rather memorable.
Tom, Cecy, Draco, and Abby joined the shifting crowd in the middle of the floor just as Albus reached its center and Minerva completed her circuit. "I believe we are ready," the Headmaster said.
One of the doors on the far side of the ballroom emitted a loud crack, making everyone jump.
"Not a moment too soon," Remus said, lifting his wand. "Hold tight."
Hands reached out to hands, arms tightened around chests, and Tom and Minerva pointed their wands toward Albus’, which showered what looked like long purple ribbons over the heads of the children—except that these ribbons stuck fast to the floor around the outside of the group, and spread until they touched one another, creating a rippling violet shield.
Remus spun his wand through the three complex figures, concentrating on the secret room under the Quidditch pitch and what was kept there.
"Ablego navis caeli!"
Draco held onto his mum with one arm and Abby with the other, feeling the floor start to shake under his feet. The room outside the shield seemed to melt and run like a watercolor painting—
And then they were somewhere else entirely, a low-ceilinged room with walls of dirt and rock and a wooden floor.
The shield vanished. "Quickly, please," Professor Dumbledore said, lowering his wand. "Seventh years to the broomshed, sixth and fifth to stabilization points. All others, secure yourselves and your siblings."
"I have to go," Draco told Abby, loosening her arms. "I’ll be back in a minute. I think."
Abby nodded, gray-faced.
"I’ll take care of her," said Mum, squeezing Draco’s hand. "You go with the others."
Draco squeezed back, then followed the stream of familiar faces towards—
That’s a broomshed all right. Looks just like the one by the Quidditch pitch.
And, he discovered when Ray unlatched the doors, it held the same selection of brooms. This time, though, there was no good-natured banter, no snatching for the best and newest models. Ray simply pulled out the brooms as they came to his hands, and the other students passed them back through the crowd in silence. Draco, at the back, got one of the first things Ray had grabbed, the same Nimbus Two Thousand he’d ridden earlier.
Guess I didn’t damage it too badly, then.
When everyone had a broom, Ray shut the doors of the shed. Draco turned to start back towards the place where he’d left Abby and Mum, and stared in surprise.
What had been a wooden floor was now a large, flat-bottomed ship. Poles with hand-size rings on their ends protruded from it all the way along both sides. A cabin in the center covered the crowd of younger children, around whom seats had formed and straps had been fastened. Professor Dumbledore sat in their midst, holding a misty-looking orb from which streamers of fog were beginning to extrude.
Professor McGonagall stood near the front of the ship with a group of fifth years around her, and Professor Riddle was at the back with the sixth years. All of them had their wands out, and one rather nervous-looking fifth year was watching Professor McGonagall demonstrate a wand movement for her.
"Malfoy, come on!" Harry shouted from the back of the ship.
Draco blinked and discovered he was standing alone near the broomshed. The other seventh years were attaching their brooms to the ringed poles and mounting up.
Oh. That’s what they’re for.
He quickly took the last available position, near the back on the right side of the ship. His broom’s handle fit the ring as if they’d been made for each other.
Probably they were.
A notch carved in the side of the ship proved to be at the perfect height to give him a leg up, and he felt the Cushioning Charm on the broom go active as he mounted. Abby looked over at him from her seat in the cabin and waved, and Draco freed a hand to wave back.
"All riders set?" Ray called from his place near the front of the ship.
"Set." "I’m good." "Ready to fly," the answers came back quickly.
"Bow stabilizers ready," Professor McGonagall reported crisply.
"Stern stabilizers ready," Professor Riddle echoed her.
"Open the door," Professor Dumbledore commanded.
Ray drew his wand and flicked it at the ceiling.
The ceiling ceased to exist. Above, Draco saw nothing but darkness, and a wave of cold rolled down over him.
How many of them must there be?
Professor Dumbledore tightened his hands around the ball he was holding and whispered something Draco didn’t catch. Instantly, the ship was surrounded by thick silver fog, and the cold lifted.
"Boost on my mark," Professor Riddle said quietly. "In three… two… one…"
The fifth and sixth years all had their wands pointed over the side of the ship. "Impello!" they shouted together.
The ship shot upwards with a stomach-turning lurch.
"Brooms!" Professor McGonagall snapped out.
Draco leaned forward on his Nimbus, feeling it strain at the weight it was carrying. Slowly, so slowly, the ship began to ascend.
"I need your help now, little ones," Dumbledore said softly, his attention still on his orb. "Can you make me very happy, so that I can keep us all safe?"
"I can," said Marcus Black immediately. "But I need everybody to do it with me. Will you?"
A few of the children giggled; others looked puzzled, but they all nodded.
"Okay. It goes like this." Marcus took a deep breath and began to sing, in a voice that sounded like a fight between a crup and a kneazle.
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts…"
Draco cracked up laughing. So did most of the other broom riders, along with all the stabilizers and everyone inside the cabin.
"Teach us something, please!" Marcus continued, several of the other young students catching their breaths enough to join him.
"That voice drives his mother mad," Luna said from her place behind Draco. "She’s always telling him not to sing, and he always does anyway."
"Whether we be old and bald or young with scabby knees…"
Nearly all the students in the cabin were singing now. Some of the stabilizers had joined in. Professor McGonagall’s face was a study in irritated patience, while Professor Riddle seemed to find the whole thing very funny.
"Our heads could do with filling with some interesting stuff…"
Professor Dumbledore was beaming, nodding his head in time, and the fog around the ship was glowing brighter silver every second.
"For now they’re bare and full of air, dead flies and bits of fluff…"
Draco arched his back, stretching. "Is someone steering this thing?" he asked Luna over his shoulder.
"So teach us things worth knowing!"
"It doesn’t need to be steered," Luna said. "It only goes to one place."
"Bring back what we’ve forgot!"
"I wonder where that could be," Draco muttered.
"Just do your best, we’ll do the rest…"
The entire complement of the ship took a huge breath simultaneously.
Oh, why not. Draco took a breath of his own.
"And learn till our brains all rot!" he sang along.
The airship sailed on, carrying its precious cargo towards safety.
"Hogwarts, Hogwarts, hoggy warty Hogwarts, teach us something please…"
Professor McGonagall conjured herself a pair of earplugs.