Кассандра Клэр - Draco Sinister

"Do you want to move," Draco said, with narrowed eyes, "or do you want to find out what fine Italian footwear tastes like?"

Ron blinked at him. "What?"

"I think he means he´ll kick you in the face," said Hermione helpfully.

Draco rolled his eyes. "I´m having a bad day," he said. "My threats are not what they could be. Letś start this over. Move out of the way, Weasley."

"No," said Ron.

"Move out of the way, or I´ll slice off your leg and beat you to death with the boot end," said Draco.

"Oooh, that was much better," said Hermione supportively. "Really good imagery."

"I´m still not moving," said Ron.

Hermione looked from Ron to Draco. Harry was behind her, she couldn´t see his expression. Draco seemed caught between surprise and bitter amusement.

"Stand aside," he said. "I mean it."

"Put that sword down first."

"Weasley, we haven´t got much time. Get out of the way."

Ron didn´t move. Draco glanced over at Hermione, who raised her eyes to his. For a moment, their gazes caught and interlocked, and she remembered that these eyes belonged to a boy her own age, and one she loved and had trusted. She had looked into them so many times and seen his own love for her, reflected back, only now it was overlaid with something else, and somehow changed.

It was Harry who spoke next, and for the first time since Draco had come into the room. "Ron. Itś all right. Let him by."

Reluctance tempered by confusion, Ron stepped aside, and Draco moved to stand where he had been standing. Hermione saw the bright gleam of blue light on the blade of the sword as he raised it over his head. And Harry — Harry had gotten to his knees, and held his cuffed hands out, so that the chain pulled taut between them. He was looking up at Draco, and his green eyes were steady.

"Do it," he said.

Draco brought the sword down, so fast and so hard that it seemed to whistle as it cut the air. It sliced down, striking the coils of adamantine chain binding Harryś hands together, and shearing them neatly in half. They fell to the ground, not with the clanging sound of metal, but with a hissing sort of noise as of a snake shedding its skin.

Hermione caught her breath and started forward, but a hand gripping her arm prevented her. She knew without looking that it was Ron, but not why he was holding onto her.

Harry got very slowly to his feet, reaching out for the wall to steady himself. She saw Draco reach out as if to help him, then take his hand back quickly. Harry, who was looking down, didn´t notice.

Ron let go of her arm. She ran forward to Harry, and put her arms around him, helping him stand up. She felt him grip her shoulder, as if standing up after so long being chained hurt him. It probably did. He stood still for a moment, as if gauging the steadiness of his legs. Then he took a quick step forward, grabbed a very surprised Draco by the front of his shirt, and shoved him hard against the wall. "All right, Malfoy. Where the hell is Ginny?" he said.

"Look, a strip search really isn´t necessary."

"Oh, but I think it is," said Raven, who was standing with her hands on her hips, looking at Sirius as if she really craved chocolate and he was the last Crème Brulee truffle in the box. "Now remove your clothes."

"Not without dinner and flowers first."

Raven looked sideways at him, and smiled. "Prisoners must be divested of their wands and other weapons, thatś the rules. You could have hidden your wand somewhere on your body. All I have to do is call out, and this room will be filled with dementors willing and eager to assist me. Therefore, you must remove your clothes, or I will bind you and remove them."

"No, come on, I´ll just give my wand to you. Look, here it is." He held it out, and Raven took it and pocketed it, a small smile playing about her red lips. There was a certain dark hunger in her eyes that made her banshee heritage suddenly seem very apparent. Sirius felt very sorry that he had ever thought she was attractive. Perhaps this was karma. He sent out a silent apology to Narcissa, who he suddenly missed very much.

"How do I know you don´t have two wands?" Raven demanded.

"How do I know you don´t have a Lockpick Charm?"

Before this ineluctable logic, Sirius had no response.

"Now remove your clothes," she said.

He began unfastening his robes, wondering how this had all happened. He was meant to be rescuing his godson, and instead he was doing a striptease for an extremely demanding banshee in a very cold dungeon. He wondered if Draco had known that his incarceration would involve nudity. Better not to think about that.

He set to work on his shirt as Raven took hold of his discarded cloak and went through the pockets. She giggled at the Every Flavor Beans in Flower Power Flavors, and gazed quizzically at the Zonkoś Magical Reality Pencils and stacks of old letters. "I like you," she said, running a red-nailed finger down his bare chest in a very familiar fashion. "I will let you keep these things."

"If you really liked me you wouldn´t make me take my trousers off," he pointed out, backing away.

She smiled at him. "Don´t worry. I know it is very cold in this dungeon. I will not pass judgement."

Sirius sighed, and set to work on his trousers.

"I don´t know," said Draco, not taking his eyes away from Harryś.

"I thought she´d be here. Thatś why I came. Part of the reason, anyway."

"You don´t know?" This time it was Ron who spoke. He was pale with rage, his freckles standing out in splotches. "She went to look for you."

"Did she find you?" put in Hermione anxiously.

"Yeah," said Draco. "She found me."

They all stared at him expectantly.

"Would you let go of me?" he said to Harry, almost plaintively.

"You´re ruining my shirt."

"That is a shame," said Ron, "especially when he should really be ruining your face."

Harry let go of Draco and stepped back. "Talk," he said, tersely.

Dracoś eyes went to Hermione. "I was in my room. Ginny found me. I left her there with Fleur when I was summoned to talk to Slytherin. When I came back to the room, she was gone. Fleur said didn´t say where she was going, she just went."

"And why should we believe you?" said Ron in a soft and dangerous tone.

"You´re right, Weasley. She found me, I killed her, and then I decided to come and tell you all about it because I hadn´t yet reached my personal abuse quota for the day and I thought you could help me fill it."

"Well, I think you´re lying," said Ron. "Thatś my opinion."

Draco looked as if he had reached the end of his endurance. "Thatś your opinion? Well, how would you like me to put my fist in your opinion?"

"Enough!" said Harry sharply. "You two, either have a proper fight, or shut up and get along. But this…this… sarcasm rally is not helpful. Ron, heś got no reason to have come here if he is responsible for Ginny being missing. Malfoy, start talking in the next five seconds or I will make you swallow that sword."

Draco grinned. It was a fatigued sort of grin, but a real one. "Well, since you ask nicely," he said. The grin faded quickly, and his eyes darkened to slate. "She left this," he said, and held out the folded silvery square of the Cloak. Harry took it without comment. "This is a very bad time for her to be wandering around the castle," Draco added. "Events are on the move. Part of the reason I came here was because I was looking for Ginny. And part of the reason that I need to find her is that, if what she told me is true, she was the way that you all got here. And sheś the only way you can leave. And you need to leave now." Now he was looking at Harry. "Slytherin wants you dead," he said bluntly. "I stalled him and kept him from killing you; I told him there was some kind of charm on your life. Thatś why he wanted your blood. Now that heś examined it, he´ll know I was wrong, or lying, and he´ll come for you. You have to get out of here before that happens."