Кассандра Клэр - Draco Dormiens

"Back so soon?" said Lucius.

"Yes," said Angus, a bit nervously. "The journey from Cornwall took less time than expected."

"And Sirius Black?"

Please let him have gotten away, Harry prayed silently.

"Is here," said Wormtail shortly. The last time Harry had heard his voice, he had been screaming for Voldemort to heal his severed hand. Which Voldemort had done. He had given Wormtail a hand of metal, which now winked in the light as he raised it and pointed it towards the door, almost as if it had been a wand.

"Everriculum!" he shouted and a bolt of whitish light emerged from the palm of the metal hand. The light rose and expanded into the air until it was a net of silvery strands, rather like a spider's web. Then the filaments of the web broke apart, and something crashed through them, landing hard on the ground.

It was Sirius.

He was in his animal form, in the shape of a huge black dog. All his limbs were rigid, sticking straight out; only his eyes were moving, rolling back and forth between Wormtail and Lucius.

"Very impressive, Wormtail," said Lucius, but his eyes were on Sirius.

"My Master has given me a hand of great power," said Wormtail, gazing at his metal extremity with fondness. He waved it carelessly in Sirius' direction, and the black dog went skidding helplessly across the floor towards Lucius.

Narcissa gave a little scream.

"That's enough," said Lucius sharply.

"Turn him back," added McNair in a harsh voice.

Wormtail snapped his metal fingers. "Sapiens," he hissed, and the black dog gave a sudden twitch and was Sirius again; Sirius dressed in torn rags, with vicious cuts and scratches up and down his arms that had not been apparent when he was in his canine form. He still could not move, but his black eyes fixed on Lucius with hatred.

Harry heard Narcissa gasp. Then Lucius walked quickly across the floor and kicked Sirius in the ribs with one booted foot. Harry tried to rush forward, but tripped on the leg of Draco's pajamas and fell to the ground.

He had just begun to scramble to his feet when he was stopped in his tracks by the sight of Narcissa, who suddenly, silently, and to everyone's great surprise, had fainted dead away on the floor.

"We're here," said Draco, standing up and tapping Hermione on the shoulder. She bolted upright and stared out the window. They were at a tiny, lamplit station whose wooden signpost proclaimed it to be located in the town of CHIPPING SODBURY.

This was not exactly what she had pictured. She had rather imagined that Malfoy would come from a bleak castle perched on top of a rocky crag in the middle of a barren desert where vultures were always swooping down on anyone who didn't move fast enough. Not a cute little town called Chipping Sodbury. Still, you never knew.

"Come on," said Draco, and she followed him off the train and down onto the platform, where he turned left and walked towards the end of the platform. "Uh, Malfoy," she said, trailing after him with the bag bumping her leg, "The station's this way…"

At that moment, he made another sharp left and walked right through the concrete wall at the end of the platform.

"Blast," she said, running to the wall, "how'd he do that?"

An arm came through the wall. It was Draco's. He yanked her forward, and with a whooshing feeling, she slid through the wall and sprawled onto the ground on the other side.

"Ow," said Draco. Her bag had caught him a sharp blow to the head.

"Sorry," said Hermione, standing up and looking around with interest. They were standing at the foot of an enormous wrought-iron gate whose arch bore the inscription Malfoy Park. "I guess we're not in Chipping Sodbury anymore?"

"Certainly not," said Draco, starting to walk, " This is Malfoy Park, itś the village at the foot of the hill where our house is. You can get there from Chipping Sodbury, though, if you know how to go."

'You have a whole village named after you?" said Hermione, aghast.

"Yes, surprising I haven't got a big head, isn't it?" said Draco.

Hermione was about to make a sharp comment when she realized he was joking.

Must loosen up there, she told herself.

They came out of the lane into a wider thoroughfare where there were shops and pubs. It was in many respects a little magical town just like Hogsmeade, but there was a difference: everything here seemed to either have the word "Malfoy" on it or be somehow related to Dark magic — it was Knockturn Alley imagined by Lucius Malfoy. There was the Malfoy Market sandwiched between Helga the Hag's House of Horrible Hexes and a pub called The Cold Christmas Inn that offered a Malfoy lunch special (toasted bat sandwich.)

"They must really like you here," said Hermione, trying not to laugh.

"Ha!" said Draco. "They hate my family, we've been oppressing them for generations and every once in a while my dad comes down into the village and does some horrible Dark magic thing that terrifies everyone and keeps them in line."

"Doesn't that bother you?" she asked sharply, but Draco shook his head at her and whispered, "Shhh… The last thing we want is for anyone to see me here and tip my dad off that Harry Potter is hanging around the village."

"Right," said Hermione, who hadn't been paying attention. For some reason, when he stood this close to her, and whispered like he was doing, she got little shivers all up and down her spine.

Draco turned and began trudging up the road that led out of town. Hermione followed him. They walked on for a bit in silence; Draco seemed lost in thought.

Finally, he turned right at the top of the hill, and they came out from the tree-lined road into a wide-open space. Hermione couldn't help herself, she gasped; it was just what she had imagined Malfoy Manor would be like. A huge spike-topped fence stretched away in either direction; directly in the center was an open gate shaped like an enormous M. Huge pillars topped by statues of writhing silver serpents flanked the gateway, and through the gate Hermione could see the looming black shape of an enormous, hulking house.

Hermione started forward; she had taken only a few steps when Draco seized her arm. "No," he said sharply. "What did I tell you?"

"Oh," she said, feeling foolish. "Seventeen hexes. Right."

"My father invented the one on this gate," said Draco, sounding proud, "It's called the Jigsaw Hex, because if you try to go through the gate uninvited it'll chop you up into pieces."

"Your father sounds like he must be a lot of fun at parties," said Hermione.

In response, Draco took a pen out of his pocket and rolled it across the ground toward the gateway. As it passed under the arch, there was a blinding flash of green light and a sharp clanging sound. There was a pause, and then the pen rolled back to Draco, severed in two neat halves.

"So," said Hermione faintly, "one of those simple, two-piece jigsaw puzzles then."

"It's not funny," he said severely, and took out his wand. He pointed it at the gate.

"Raptus regaliter," he said. There was another flash of light, this time blue, and Draco walked through the gate. Hermione braced herself, but he remained unscathed, so she followed.

They were now on the property of Malfoy Manor. Dark grounds stretched in every direction and she could see the luminous lights of the house in the distance.

"We can avoid most of the hexes just by skirting them," said Draco. "Here. Take my hand."

She took it.

They followed the fence for a while, then Draco pulled her behind him along a narrow path that snaked through the trees. There were occasionally loud thumping and bashing noises as if something huge was crashing through the shrubbery near them. Hermione didn't want to think about that, so she concentrated on not making noise.