4.1 | Draconian ✓

25 | reducto

DRACONIAN IS NOW ON TEMPORARY HIATUS.

(Please read the author's note at the end for more information.)
(Republished because the system was bugged yesterday. Let me know if you can see this chapter.)

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2 5

r e d u c t o

Destroys solid objects.

THE TENSION IN the kitchen was palpable the next morning.

Draco found Blaise, Pansy and Luna engaged in a lively conversation about the Order. Theo and Hermione, on the other hand, sat quietly on the counter. Everyone turned him when he entered.

"Hermione," he said. "Could you help Lovegood into the room? The four of us have some things to discuss."

She nodded and went to help Luna up. After the girls left, Draco cast a muffling charm and turned to his friends.

"I once said that we can't fall apart," he started. "So I think that we're better off sticking together. Sorry, Theo," he added, with an apologetic look at his friend.

Theo shrugged. He'd guessed that this would be the outcome. Blaise and Pansy were so insistent that Draco would have to go along with them.

"But we're going to defect my way," Draco continued, and Theo smirked now, because it was just classic, arrogant Draco Malfoy and the world was now righted on its axis once again.

"Alright," Blaise agreed. "What do you suggest we do?"

"We'll have to destroy this place," Draco replied promptly, "so that no one discovers what we've been doing this past three years. We'll have to camp somewhere else in the meantime."

His words were met with stunned silence.

Theo slowly recovered, but his expression was still laced with incredulity. "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I'm joking?"

"But - but this is our home," Pansy said, sounding well and truly distressed. "You're talking about leaving everything - and I do mean everything, all the memories and all the fun we've had behind, and it's just - "

"Do you want to defect, or not?"

Pansy subsided. "Sorry."

"It's fine." He shook his head. "I hate this too, but it's the safest option. We have to destroy this place. The second thing is that we can't all defect at once. It's too suspicious. I don't want us to be killed before we can even contact the Order."

"Actually," Blaise cut in, setting down his mug of tea, "I think I have a suggestion. How about Pansy and I defect - while you and Theo find some other more obscure way around it?" Draco began to frown, and Blaise hastily explained, "this is something the two of us chose to do. You and Theo are just going along with it. So we should bear the consequences of our decision in full force."

Pansy nodded. Draco mulled over Blaise's words for a while.

"Alright," he acknowledged, at last. "You two can defect, and you two can do it on the day the Order attacks us. And Theo and I will somehow allow ourselves to be captured by the Order."

"What?"

"It's not difficult. You just don't fight back or block any spells."

"What if they shoot an Avada at me?" Theo yelped, glaring daggers at Draco. "Am I supposed to just stand still and let them?"