Green Eyed Monster | Draco Malfoy

101. Malfoy Manor

Chapter 101 - Malfoy Manor

Malfoy Manor was exactly as I remembered it. It was a grand home that somehow eluded the cold of winter inside the wrought iron gate that protected it from the outside world of Wiltshire. Unlike the last time I was here, it did not look as shiny and spectacular though...now the dread that filled my stomach was enough to dull the entirety of the manor so that it looked little more impressive than a dollhouse.

We stood outside the iron gate, the Snatchers too afraid to enter. They'd spoken enough on the way in about what would happen if they were wrong about whom they had captured - I think that's why they had bothered to bring us here at all. While I had unceremoniously made it clear that I was the Audrey Potter, they did not have any guarantees that I was with Ron - who no longer looked quite like himself, Hermione - who to them looked like any other muggle, and Harry - who looked closer to a blast-ended skrewt than a wizard.

They had spoken enough between the lot of them that I had a vague idea of what to expect. They knew that if they were to bring Voldemort here on a false-call, claiming they had the Potter twins and they were wrong...well, they wouldn't last to see the sunset. If, however, they were right about who they had, they all knew they'd be rich enough to buy a manor just like this one.

Better safe than sorry, they had said.

Funny, I didn't feel safe at all.

"How do we get in? They're locked, Greyback, I can't - blimey!" The Snatcher who had tried the gate leapt back in fear of the iron bars. It had begun contorting itself, twisting in and out of patterns too quick to see - this was new. Likely added after I had escaped the first time. There was a long moment of coiling and clanking before the iron settled into the frightening image of a face.

"State your purpose," a clanging, echoing voice boomed. From the injury I had gotten to the side of my head, the voice made my ears ring and burn. I tried shaking my head to be rid of the sensation, but it only made the nausea increase. I had a concussion, it was easy enough to tell, but I didn't have time to worry about how bad it might be. I had more important problems than a head-injury to deal with at the moment...despite the head injuries making the problems seem all the more impossible to deal with.

The Snatcher who stood beside my captor, Greyback, nearly jumped out of his skin. Apparently, they did not come to bring prisoners here often, or else this wouldn't have been such a surprise.

"We've got a Potter!" Greyback celebrated. "We've got her! We may have captured them both!"

Greyback spoke the last part quietly, it was clear he wasn't sure whether he was right about if it was my brother or not. Luckily, my brother seemed to be having some sort of fit, so he didn't defend himself like the horrible liar he could, at times, be. If I could get my head straight, odds are I could weave some sort of lie to get him out of this...which just left what to do about me.

And Ron. And Hermione. And all these other prisoners we'd been stuck with.

They weren't great odds.

The gates swung open only a moment later, the distorted iron eyes of the gate following us eerily while we made our way through. The high hedges made it virtually impossible to see any route for escape that may lay past them and the long walk up the drive was lined with albino peacocks that watched me go just like the gate did. Beside me, my brother nearly tripped me as he writhed in the Snatchers grip. He was seeing something, it was obvious - did Voldemort somehow already know we were here? Is that what Harry was feeling?

As much as I wanted my chance to take out the noseless man, I felt very ill-equipped to do it now with only one Horcrux destroyed. And a head injury. And with the sword being in the Snatchers grip.