in which Draco is kidnapped
If Draco had to take a guess, he would say it had been about a week since the attack, and he grew more and more fidgety by the hour.
The girls fussing around each other didn't help.
The bloody tiger didn't help.
Theo incessant chatter didn't help.
Blaise befriending bloody Longbottom didn't help.
And, for a change, Draco wanted to die.
The adrenaline of their evasion long gone, he couldn't help but wonder what the hell that had been about.
His only consolation was Diogenes. Now this was a change. Generally, his feelings about the bird were more of the murderous kind. Now, he found himself sleeping with his pet eagle wrapped around himself on his chest, the weight calming him down more than he had ever thought was possible.
Draco wasn't under the Malfoy Crown territory, he knew that much. And they mustn't have been very far from the sea, because the smell of salt was doing terrible things to his nose. It itched like a bitch.
Draco had to actually refrain from turning around to lie on his side, not wanting to disturb Diogenes.
He was actually thankful for the heat emanating from the bird. They were getting closer to the autumn equinox, and the nights were slowly getting colder.
Sick of being unable to find sleep, Draco sat up, scooping Diogenes in his arms. The bird was a goddamned eagle. Eagles are gigantic. Way bigger than a cat. You dont just scoop up an eagle without getting smothered.
Draco was, in fact, smothered by the bird's feathers. But that was ok. He was used to it. He simply stood up, the bird in his arms, and started walking around the same way a nurse would have to put a baby to sleep.
Diogenes didn't mind.
Merlin. Draco might never admit it out loud, but he really did love his bird.
Without paying too much mind to it, Draco slowly adventured further and further away from their little camp.
And before he knew it, he was lost
However, he didn't have to worry about for too long, as before he even had time to process the information, a hand closed on his mouth and he suddenly had a much bigger problem than being lost.
***
Diogenes flying in his face was more than enough to wake Theo up. Actually, given the screeching scream he made, it was enough to wake all five others.
Wait, no. Four.
Something wasn't right.
By the time Blaise was up and screaming bloody murder about Draco, it had downed on Theo that the boy was missing.
His best friend was missing. His bird wasn't. His stuff wasn't. Everybody seemed to realised it at the same time :
Draco Malfoy had been kidnapped.
"Fuck, like we don't have enough problems already !" snapped Hermione.
Theo flinched. In all the crappy things that had happened to them that week, including having to hunt for food and her bloody tiger biting a thief's head off, she hadn't sworn a single time.
Theo had decided he liked the girl. He had figured it out a few days earlier. He didn't like-liked her, but Merlin knew he had come to care for her greatly. She was fierce and intelligent. And not just academic-smart. She was life-smart. Street-smart. Above everything, she was brave. Out of all of them, she had been the only one who hadn't broken down. Including Blaise.
The boy probably thought no one had seen him getting up in the middle of the night. But when Theo struggled to sleep, he tended to notice noises such as sobs.
Blaise may have seemed calm and composed on the outside, but he was a prince above everything else, no matter what. He was used to luxury, warmth of clean pricey bedsheets. To eating warm comforting food and having hours long showers.
He wasn't made to live in the woods. And even though he hadn't complained once, Theo knew how much it affected him.
Hermione, on the other side, had been perfectly put together until now, and it really was unsettling to see little droplets of water form at the corners of her eyes.
But she didn't cry.
She closed her eyes. Breathed in. Out. Once. Twice. Opened her yes.
"Okay. Let's go find whatever arsehole who thought it was a good idea to take that dumbass away."
She needn't say more. In a matter of minutes, their things were packed and they were on the move.
They let Diogenes bring them to where Draco had been taken. It was a mystery what he could have been doing there, but no one commented on it.
It was pretty clear it was the right place. They were many signs that Draco had fought back like a demon.
Whoever had taken Draco must have drugged him because, at some point, the messy way created from dragging someone in the woods switched to a single trail of footprint.
Hermione doubted anyone would have carried Draco with him letting that person do so. Which meant he had probably fallen unconscious, hence the drugging theory.
The footprints were deep due to the additional weight of Draco, and were therefore easy to follow.
When they finally made it to the seaside where the footprints stopped, Theo practically wished they had struggled more.
He recognised the place immediately. Or rather, he recognised the banner.
Ever since the old king had fallen, the clan of blood-thirsty hitmen he had under his orders had went into hiding.
They had just stumbled upon Riddle's Werewolves nest.