A Tale of Two Dragons: A Dramione Story

Chapter 15

When Draco revived after an hour or so, he leaped to his feet and started to pack.

"Do you know how to find the portkey?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. They showed me where we're going through Legilimency. We need to create an unauthorized portkey on our end which will connect to the portkey they left where they found the Dark Lord. I've never done it before, but I think I can do it. I have a clear image of where they want me to go."

Hermione looked at him skeptically. "Are you sure? I don't think either of us want to get stuck in limbo," she said, shoving her things into her luggage.

Draco laughed. "I'm not sure at all. But we have no other choice. Here, let's go outside," he said, holding the tent flap open for Hermione as she walked though, "We need to disfigure our site."

Hermione disfigured the site and erased any sign of their presence while Draco searched for more food and water to add to their stockpile. With their supplies refreshed, they were ready to leave.

Draco and Hermione glanced around, looking for an object to use as a portkey.

"Does it really matter what we use?" Draco asked, picking up a stick.

"We probably want something more durable than that," Hermione said, digging in her bags, looking for a satisfactory object.

Draco pulled out an old leather glove from his pack. "We can use this," he volunteered.

Hermione nodded. "It looks good enough. Now, I've never made a portkey before but everything I've read about it says to conjure up the image in your mind and focus on being in that location, sort of like apparating. Then you cast Portus on the glove and you should be taken there."

"I think I can manage it. It can't be too different from repairing a vanishing cabinet."

Draco focused very hard on his destination. He could almost hear the lapping of the water on the stony lakeshore and tried to imagine the smell of the forest. He concentrated the hardest on the stone obelisk he had seen and directed every desire he had for travel into that object.

"Portus," Draco said, wand pointed at the glove. The glove glowed a faint red and then faded back into its normal state.

Hermione stared. "Aren't portkeys supposed to be blue?" she questioned.

"Every portkey I've seen is blue. But I wouldn't be surprised if this one was cursed somehow."

Draco stowed his wand in his pocket. With one hand he held his luggage and his other hand touched the glove. "Are you ready?" He asked Hermione.

"Yes," Hermione said, shrugging on a backpack.

The portkey glowed again, this time jerking their bodies through space, slamming them down again onto a different forest floor. This time their hands were clutching the stone obelisk and not the leather glove. Draco stood up, brushing his clothes off and spitting out pine needles and leaf litter. Hermione was gathering their scattered bags.

Draco looked around and everything was as it seemed in his memories.

Hermione suddenly jumped back. She grabbed his hand and dragged him back, hissing in his ear. "Look," she said, pointing at a silhouette standing by the lakeside, facing away from them.

The figure turned around and started to shuffle towards Draco and Hermione. Draco saw a glimpse of the hooded face. It was a very old woman, wrinkled beyond all reason. The skin on her face sagged, creating jowls that wobbled as she tread toward them. The veins in her arms stood out underneath the paper white skin. Her fingers ended in gnarled and blackened fingernails. The woman had thinning hair, long enough to drag on the ground.