Be Careful
48: How You Escape
By Anne B. Walsh
The dementor's hand around Snape's throat held him upright as he went limp. The other hand went to its hood and lowered it, revealing the eyeless face and greedy mouth, just as terrifying as Draco recalled them from Fidelus Manor. He held Abby more firmly against his side as she tried to look up and thanked his lucky stars Dragon wasn't trying to break free as well. The tiger Patronus was still circling them, but it was beginning to waver, its edges to degrade, the cold was starting to seep back through—
I might be able to recast mine and knock it away from him, get us over to him, hold until someone shows up to help us—
The dementor leaned forward and fastened its mouth over Snape's.
Or not.
All sound stopped, as if the other dementors were holding their breaths. Snape convulsed, his arms and legs jerking wildly, as the dementor Kissing him slid its free arm around him and lifted him from the ground in a horrific parody of a lovers’ embrace. The tiger Patronus froze where it stood, twitching much as its caster was.
Mum's not going to like this—
Snape gave one final shudder and was still, dangling in the dementor's embrace like some gigantic doll. His Patronus vanished like a blown-out candle flame. The dementor dropped him unceremoniously to the ground, then lifted its head, seeming to look up at the blank sky above it.
Draco blinked. Was he really seeing—
It's got light around it. Just a tiny bit, but light. Silver—like a Patronus—
He recalled in that instant what he had to do. Clinging to the thought of his mum and the reality of the two children beside him, he aimed his wand and prayed he wasn't too late.
"Expecto patronum emeritum!" he shouted in a cracked, shaking voice.
Nothing.
Draco swore inwardly, shook his wand, but nothing emerged, not even a drop of mist, and his shout had reminded the dementors he was there, they were turning to look at him—in a second they would be breathing again, and the cold and the terror would roll out of them, and he would fall before their power—he and Abby and Dragon would all be Kissed, Kissed as Snape had been—Snape, who had been loved so desperately by his mum her entire life long—
It'll kill her. Knowing he's a dementor now, knowing I am, it'll kill her. Or make her walk outside at night and join us, it's the sort of crazy-stupid thing she'd do. And she wouldn't be alone, not if this story ever got back to my world, I know someone else who'd do the same thing if she felt the same way I do about her—
After all, if he was going to spend an eternity hunting down and destroying love, he might as well admit it to himself in his last few seconds human.
I've fallen in love with Luna. My world's Luna. I love her, I want to save her, but I'll never get the chance now, I can't even save myself—
Or can I?
Draco lifted his head. The lead dementor was nearly on him, still glowing ever so faintly with its silver light.
Silver. Luna thinks my eyes look like silver, I heard her tell Weasley so the other day, and try to convince her that meant I had to be good because silver is an ingredient in a lot of antidotes—she defends me every time Weasley and Longbottom run me down, even if she does it in weird ways, she's still doing it—she isn't just playing along with me to save her skin, she's playing along to help me, because she knows I've changed, and because she thinks it's fun—
Draco shoved himself to his feet, bringing Abby with him, clutching Dragon tighter than ever.
You can't have me.
Not when there's a chance the girl I love might love me back.
"Expecto patronum emeritum!"
The silver owl shot forward from the tip of Draco's wand and swooped through the outlined dementor before him. The dementor threw its head back in a silent scream, then just as silently exploded, fragments of blackness shooting outward in all directions. The other dementors retreated instantly, but did not break their ring.
Damn it, we still can't get back to the castle—
The thought he'd used to conjure the Patronus slipped back into Draco's mind, as the Patronus herself turned on a wingtip and flew back through the silver light, which had not disappeared when the dementor had been destroyed.
We can't get back to this castle. But I brought Luna here with me that one night, just by touching her.
Why can't I take Abby and Dragon back with me and get inside the castle there?
His wand was already moving, roping his Dragon-holding hand together with one of Abby's, conjuring a bit of plaster over one of Dragon's hands where it touched his back. "It's all right now," he murmured to them, feeling Abby shivering against him, hearing Dragon's little whimpers as he burrowed closer to Draco. "I'm going to get you somewhere safe—it'll take a little while, but we'll make it—"
The silver light, around which Draco's Patronus was now flying, had coalesced into the shape of a man. Neither ghost nor memory-figure, Professor Severus Snape stood one last time on the grounds of Hogwarts, looking at Draco with approval.
"Tell them I made my choice," he said in a voice that echoed about inside Draco's head, and then he was gone, all at once as though he had Disapparated, though not even Disapparition was that quick or that—final was the word Draco settled on—
The bits of darkness all about, the pieces of what had once been a dementor, were beginning to shimmer. Draco's owl flew to one of them and brushed it with her wing, and it burst into vibrant light, drawing the three nearest pieces to itself, where they began to glow as well. The dementors drew back even further.
But they won't stay back. As soon as whoever that used to be comes together and goes wherever he, or she, is headed, they'll be on us again. We need to be out of here by then. And getting into dream-state takes a minute or two after falling asleep—we won't have that kind of time…
Good thing Mum helped me find that Dreams-Without-Sleep Spell a few weeks back.
I'd better make these two actually sleep, though. That way, if it doesn't work and we're Kissed, they'll never know about it.
He touched his wand to Dragon's head. "Dormio." The little boy grew heavier in his arms, and Draco went to one knee, then repeated the spell on Abby, who crumpled across his upheld leg. Carefully, he lowered her to the ground beside him, then lay down, arranging Dragon on his chest.
My turn.
The soul of the former dementor flew together beside him, revealing a worn-looking witch with an astonished expression. Draco saluted her with his wand, then pointed it at himself.
"Alucino!"
Darkness streaked with light rushed over him as the witch lifted her arms to the heavens.
From the tower window, an excellent view of Hogwarts grounds could be had, where they weren't obscured by fog. The person currently in possession of that view hated the fog. It was the sort brought along by dementors, and dementors did not belong at Hogwarts. Still, under the current rules, there they were, and there they would remain, until…
Until it is all over. Until better times come.
A sudden change caught the watcher's eye. In the center of one patch of grass near the edge of the grounds, where a moment before there had been nothing, there was now a dark blotch. It seemed an odd shape to be a human being…
But could it be two? Or even three?
Natural eyesight augmented by a quick spell, the watcher peered closer, and ascertained that it was, indeed, three human beings. One was a normal size for an adult, while the other two were smaller. The normal-sized one had very fair hair, silvery in the light of the moon overhead. The other two had hair that reminded the watcher of someone who ought to be at Hogwarts, but wasn't.
They will need help. It would be too dangerous for me to go myself, but I can summon someone who can.
But I had best hurry. With so much fog, the dementors could be here any second…
The watcher stepped away from the window to seek some privacy. This particular activity must be done alone.
"Wake up! Wake up!"
Draco stirred. "Not asleep," he mumbled, trying to remember what he'd been doing. He felt as if he were just emerging from a trance, or from being under the Imperius Curse. His left hand was stiff, a patch of skin on his right shoulder was uncomfortably warm, and his chest was weighted down, making it difficult to get a decent breath. Also, someone was shaking his right arm—someone with small hands and a familiar, if squeaky, voice—
"You must wake up now!"
The voice registered at last. "Dobby?" Draco opened one eye to see the clothed house-elf, looking frantic. "What's wrong?"
"The girl," Dobby hissed, pointing past Draco, who levered himself up to see Abby lying asleep beside him, her right hand roped together with his left. "You must bring her closer, so that Dobby can touch her along with you and the boy—you must hurry, dementors are coming, patrolling the grounds—"
Draco swore and quickly pulled Abby towards himself, rolling her over in the process so that her left arm flopped across her. Dobby leapt over him and seized Abby's left hand, then reached out towards Dragon, still asleep across Draco's chest—Draco laid a hand against the house-elf's smaller one as it touched Dragon's arm—
The familiar twisting compression of Apparition, and then they were in an empty classroom, behind rows of shrouded desks, Abby and Dragon both starting to rouse. Draco drew his wand and Vanished the rope holding him to Abby, then did the same for the sticking plaster he'd conjured over Dragon's left hand where it touched his right shoulder. Dobby had vanished again almost as soon as they'd materialized.
God, that was awful, I never want to do anything like that ever again in my entire life…
"Draco?" Abby's tentative voice cut into his thoughts. "Where are we?"
"Hogwarts." Draco laid Dragon across his lap and helped Abby sit up. "My Hogwarts, not yours. We'll have to stay out of sight, people will start asking questions if they see you two, and I can think fast, but not that fast."
Abby nodded, her face gray in the dim light. "Professor Snape," she whispered. "Was he—"
"He didn't make it." Draco braced against a brief wave of shivering. "I got the dementor, though."
I think, I hope, Snape was unconscious by the time it actually started—and once it was over, he looked all right, or as all right as he ever looks—so I can tell Mum he didn't suffer, or not much. That's important. She'll want to know.
Dobby burst back into existence beside them, balancing a large tray with three steaming mugs on it. "You will need this," he said importantly, setting it down. "Drink all of it, and do not be arguing, it is helping you."
Abby reached eagerly for the mug the house-elf extended to her. "Thank you," she whispered, sniffing the steam. "It smells wonderful, thank you so much…" Her voice trailed off as she gulped down a hasty mouthful. "Oh, it's delicious!" she breathed as soon as she could speak again. "Even with the nutmeg in it, just like Mother makes it…"
Dobby started in surprise, nearly dropping the second mug. "Who is this, then?" he asked Draco, who rescued his drink from the house-elf's hand before it could spill. "That she knows the secret ingredient?"
"I always wondered what you used to put in there." Draco took a sip of his own hot cocoa. It did indeed have the same taste he remembered from snowy days in his childhood, the sort he had loved to spend catching snowflakes on his tongue from his broomstick. "As for who she is… that's a bit of a long story. Give me a second and I'll see if I can't shorten it up." He prodded Dragon in the side. "Time to get up, you, you're putting my feet to sleep and there's chocolate."
"Big Charlie says dragons shouldn't have chocolate," Dragon muttered drowsily. "Says it's not good for them."
"You've been transfigured into a human, remember?" said Draco, ignoring Abby's cocoa-y giggle. "So that means chocolate won't hurt you any more than it hurts your Uncle Sirius. And he eats enough of it."
"Not as much as Father." Dragon rolled over and sat up. "H'lo, Dobby."
Dobby held out the third mug to the little boy, but his eyes were fixed on Draco, a distinctly questioning look inhabiting them.
"They're… relatives of mine," Draco said after another few swigs of cocoa. "From pretty far away. And we've got to get back there as soon as we can."
In the middle of his next drink, the truth of his words hit him.
God, we really do have to get back—using that spell means this counts as a waking transit, the same as it does when I'm under Dreamless Sleep and go over in spirit form—that means time is running one-to-one, a minute here is a minute there, and they're going to break through those dementors any second and find Snape Kissed and us gone—
He swallowed just in time to keep from choking. "I'm not lying," he said to Dobby, who had adopted the same pose of skepticism he'd always used on a small boy who claimed he had no idea at all how the lamp had been broken, or how the table had fallen over, or how the huge hole had appeared in the floor…
That one really wasn't my fault—Lucius thought he'd cleaned up all the slow-acting Vanishing Potion he'd spilled there a month ago, but he'd left a drop or two, and it did what it was supposed to do until that whole section caved in.
Thoughts of his childhood mishaps brought a smile to Draco's face, and he cupped his hands around his mug, letting the residual heat soak through his chilled fingers. "They're part of the reason I've changed," he said. "Abby especially, but my little Dragon too."
Dobby nodded slowly. "Your mother was like that," he volunteered. "Different before you was being born than she was after. Dobby knows they are not yours that way—" This, scornfully, in response to Draco's half-spluttered denial. "But you care for them. You care about them. That is what is changing you."
Abby scooted close to Draco and put her free arm around him. "I love my Draco," she said, her voice still shaky but getting better. "Even if his world is dark and scary and doesn't have Cousin Tom or Sangre in it anymore."
Her words sent Draco's mind spinning back in time for a brief instant.
"…dead there, and unlike some people…"
"I'm not," he murmured. "But you are. Both of you."
"We are what?" said Dragon, looking up.
"Tell you in a second." Draco took a large drink of his cocoa, then set it atop a nearby desk. "Dobby, do you think you can stay with Abby for a little while? Dragon and I need to go get something important before we go back home."