Chapter 30 Draco
Chapter 30 Draco
Draco was brimming with a cocktail of emotion as he hobbled his way back to his bedroom. He was overflowing with joy, Dudley wasn’t disgusted by him, he’d kissed his stump and in an instant Draco’s hatred for his stump had softened, knowing someone else didn’t hate it made it easier for him not to hate it either.
As much as the joy was filling him up there was a nagging anxiety humming through him too. The task he had set himself was such a huge mountain he couldn’t bear think about it too much or he wouldn’t be able to make the first step.
Basilisks. He had agreed with Dudley that he would bring down every book in the Malfoy library that even mentioned dark creatures and they would start their basilisk research the following morning.
Draco detoured to the library, luckily he knew the Malfoy library inside out, he knew exactly where the books he needed would be. He removed each one that he thought might contain even a passing mention of a basilisk, when he was finished he stared at the tower of books and quickly realised he had no way of carrying them back to his room. In the end he asked Vinny to apparate the books straight to the dungeon ready for tomorrow.
He then retreated to his bed where he enjoyed the most peaceful and uninterrupted sleep he had had in weeks.
The next morning Draco and Dudley sat together and began their research. Annoyingly they were still separated by the bars, but Dudley stuck both his long legs through the gaps and Draco sat cross legged in-between them. They were very close still but the cold steel was impossible to ignore, Dudley wished fervently that he would recover quickly so he could hug Dudley with no barriers. Even with the bars in the way Draco felt like he was flying, the easy touches between them were magical, a simple pat, the way their legs were touching as they sat together, a playful push on the shoulder, they all made the corners of his mouth twitch with delight.
The stack of books that lay infront of them was well past Draco’s waist, it took them hours to pore over them. Dudley kept asking Draco ‘is this thing real?’ before holding up a picture of a magical creature. ‘Mermaids?’ He asked pointing at the illustration on the cover
‘mermaids, here in the uk, just swimming around in the sea?’
‘Yeah pretty much’ Draco nodded.
He took particular pleasure in convincing Dudley that a ‘haggis’ was in fact a small magical rodent that lived in the highlands.’
He could barely breathe properly when he told Dudley it wasn’t true, they both had tears in their eyes by the time they stopped howling with laughter.
By early afternoon they were both experts in basilisks.
Basilisks were incredibly rare, breeding them had been banned since the Middle Ages, and no one seemed too keen to break the rules because of how dangerous they were when they hatched. They could kill with just a look and petrified anything that looked at it indirectly. Basilisk venom was one of the most deadly poisons in the world, it could kill a living creature in minutes, even if it was just a drop that had been ingested and the only known antidote was phoenix tears, which were even rarer.
They were mortal though, several of the books pontificated on the effectiveness of different methods of killing a basilisk. The smell of a weasel was said to be fatal by one book, in another it was the crowing of a rooster, and one book suggested a mirror, surmising that upon looking at its reflection it would at the very least petrify itself. However, by far the most interesting thing they learned was that breeding a basilisk was actually fairly easy. It required only a fertilised chicken egg and a female toad. Simply hatch the egg underneath the toad and a baby basilisk would hatch.
As Dudley finished reading this fact out loud he looked up and they stared silently at each other for a beat. Both of them thinking the exact same thing but not wanting to be the first to say it.
Dudley bit the bullet it in the end, he always was the braver of the two of them.
‘We could just… make our own?’
The idea was both wildly ridiculously insane and also the only logical one Draco could think of.
‘We can’t! Where would we keep it? We can’t just start breeding dark creatures in the house Dudley! Do you not remember the part where they can kill with their eyes! One look and we’re both dead.’
‘Yeah yeah, I mean, obviously ideally we wouldn’t be breeding a basilisk down here but how else are we getting our hands on basilisk venom? We could quietly hatch it down here, extract the venom and then kill it before it has the chance to kill anyone else. Job done.’
‘Bloody hell’ Draco had his head in his hands. This was a bad idea, it would end in disaster and probably both of their deaths but it was the best they had. Draco couldn’t procure basilisk venom any other way without raising suspicion. Even if he tried to buy it on the black market there would be no guarantee that it wouldn’t make its way back to Voldemorts ears. If Voldemort knew he was trying to source basilisk venom he would know that Draco was aware he had made a horcrux.
Dudley stuck his arm through the bars and placed a hand on Dracos shoulder.
‘We might as well try Draco, once we have the venom we can start to make a plan to get the horcrux, sourcing the venom is basically half the job done.’
‘Fucking hell Dudley. This is insane.’
Dudley grinned at him.
‘I know! Go get us an egg and a toad Draco, and maybe a box… and some duct tape.’ Dudley playfully pushed on his shoulder to encourage him away.
The next few days were wonderful. Voldemort and the rest of the death eaters, including his father were on some important excursion so Draco was largely left alone, with the house to himself, if only he could apparate Dudley out of the dungeon, they could fly together again, Dudley could finally have a proper shower! Even with the frustration of their separation Draco was incandescently happy, he spent every spare minute he had down in the dungeon with Dudley, they kissed several times and Draco felt like the luckiest person in the world, he wanted more. He wanted to kiss Dudley long and deep, taste him properly, grab his hair and pull him close. Dudley’s kisses were wonderful but chaste, he never lingered when Draco did, Draco couldn’t quite fathom why. A small voice in his head taunted that maybe Dudley didn’t want him after all, but Draco tried his best to push the thought away he wouldn’t let anything sour his happiness. He still felt weak and wobbly and occasionally he couldn’t tell if a sound was in his head or not, he had taken to asking Dudley often ‘did you hear that?’ But he was getting stronger, his ribs were still painful but the bruise was turning brown now, his stump was sore but mostly healed and the lacerations to his face had closed up nicely. Draco was still getting used to life with one hand, getting dressed was harder, eating was now mostly done with a spoon, he would forget sometimes and feel a fresh pang of grief when he went to pick something up with his left hand and then remembered that he couldn’t. As the days went on Draco grew more frustrated with the physical barrier between them, Dudley was putting all his broken pieces together slowly but Draco couldn’t help but wish for more. He wanted his whole body pressed up against Dudley’s, nothing between them. He mourned all the wasted opportunities they had to be close when Draco could still apparate, how many hours had they been together in the cell but sat on opposite sides? Draco needed to focus on getting himself properly better, once he had his strength back he’d be able to apparate and they could be together properly. He was eating well now and he could feel some of his strength returning.
Draco procured some fertilised chicken eggs with relative ease, Vinny picked some up from a local farm on his request. The toad was relatively simple too. On a trip to Diagon alley with his father he managed to slip away and buy a female toad from the menagerie, he tucked it in his pocket and managed to keep it from jumping out on the trip back. He found a sturdy wooden box in one of the sheds, along with a roll of duct tape. Vinny apparated it all into Dudley’s cell for them, he gave them both a quizzical look but asked no questions.
Dudley stood looking at the various accoutrement that Draco had accumulated.
‘So like… we just stick the toad on the egg and shove it in the box?’ He asked.
‘I guess so. I’ve never done this either!’
‘Alright alright!’ Dudley picked up the toad.
‘Sorry little lady’ he apologised as he carefully taped the toad to the egg, not too tightly, leaving her a little bit of wiggle room.
‘Merlin’s beard, I feel bad.’ Draco said.
‘I know, it won’t be for too long though, we’ll release her after and she can have a happy little life in the pond.’
Dudley placed a blanket in the wooden box and carefully set the egg and toad inside. She was remarkably calm for being taped to an egg and left in a box. They left her some dead beetles and water. Dudley then shut the box and covered it with a sheet.
‘Weirdest thing I’ve ever done.’ Dudley announced turning back to Draco.
‘Agreed.’ Draco said.
‘So how long until it hatches?’
‘About twenty days I think. We’re going to have to blindfold it or blind it as soon as it hatches, or you are since I can’t get in there.’ Draco said bitterly.
‘Sorry. Oh god Dudley, I don’t know if we should have left it in there with you.’ Draco couldn’t believe he was leaving Dudley with an incubating basilisk as a roommate. He wouldn’t even be able to get in there to help if it all went wrong.
‘We talked about this. It’s safest, if she does get out of our control she can’t get anywhere and you can kill her before she goes on a rampage.’
‘I know. But you’re in there.’
‘It’ll be fine, I’ll be careful.’ Dudley looked relaxed but Draco couldn’t help but think he had just put a ticking time bomb in a locked room with his favourite person.’
‘And once she’s hatched, it’s a month before she’ll start to produce venom.?’ Dudley asked.
‘1-3 months according to one book and 2 months according to another… so I suppose we’ll just wait and see.’
‘And once we’ve got the venom we can go and get the horcrux, you’re sure it’s at Riddle manor?’
‘It’s definitely there, I felt it as I left, there was a corruption in the air that wasn’t there before. I’ll be able to find it I know I will, I think I’m kind of a part of it in a way’ he lifted his stump.
‘Getting us there will be the hard part, as long as I can apparate again we can do it in sections, if I still can’t we’ll have to floo, but If I can’t apparate I don’t know how I’ll get you out of here.’
‘We’ll think of something, you’re definitely not going alone.’ Dudley looked quite sure of that.
‘Fair enough.’ Draco didn’t want to do it alone, he was too much of a coward for that.
Later that afternoon Draco was sat in his default position in-between Dudley’s open legs, when there was an almighty crash from above them. The loud bang was followed by raised voices, Draco recognised Voldemort’s and Bellatrix’s but there were several others also shouting. It was loud but too muffled for Draco to pick out any specific words.
‘Did you hear that?’ Draco asked quickly hoping it was just in his head but he could tell from the concern on Dudley’s face that it was real.
‘No I heard it too. Something bad is happening up there.’
‘I should probably go, if they start to look for me I don’t want them to come down here.’
Draco stood to leave, the bruise under his rib still blossoming with pain as he got up.
‘Draco?’ Dudley quickly grabbed his arm.
‘Be careful.’ Dudley looked anguished.
‘I’m always careful.’ He pecked Dudley’s forehead.
As Draco hobbled along the corridor the voices grew louder. Voldemort was howling at someone in the entrance hall.
‘Tell me now!’ He bellowed.
‘I’ve told you. The wands are brothers.’ Replied a frail voice.
‘There’s more. I know there’s more. ‘Crucio!’
An agonised squeal echoed through the cavernous hallway.
Draco took a deep breath to centre himself before he rounded the corner, he didn’t know what he would be walking into but if he could help that person he had to try.
He stepped forwards and was confronted with the crumpled form of an elderly man in the middle of the room. He recognised him immediately, it was Ollivander. The old man was a pitiful heap on the floor, his face contorted with pain. Voldemort was bent over him wand in hand, Voldemort looked healthier, he still moved with some stiffness but his cheeks were fuller.
‘My lord.’ Draco bowed in Voldemort’s direction.
Bellatrix was there too, unhinged glint in her eyes and a dead goblin at her feet. Of course his father was there too, stood next to Voldemort, wand out and pointed at the feeble body that was now writhing in agony and flinging itself across the tiles.
‘Draco, retrieve the muggle, bring him here, Ollivander has been entirely unhelpful so far but perhaps he will reveal the muggles secrets, and succeed where you have failed.’
Draco felt like he’d fallen off a cliff. No. Not again, he didn’t think he would be able to watch them hurt Dudley again. To watch Dudley endure torture was too much, he couldn’t do it. The blood drained from him, he couldn’t see properly, the room had gone fuzzy, sounds distorting and crackling in his ears. He was vaguely aware of someone moving closer and talking to him, he just about managed to bring himself around enough to hear what they were saying. It was his father.
‘You left your want at breakfast’ he said slipping it reluctantly into Draco’s hand, he struggled to hold both his cane and the wand. Of course, without his wand Draco wouldn’t be able to collect Dudley even if he’d wanted to.
As far as Voldemort was aware Draco was firmly on side, it was only his father who knew his true feelings and Lucius had to hide them from Voldemort for the sake of the family reputation.
Draco had his wand back. He had missed it so much, he felt vulnerable without it, like something important was missing. Now he had some power back. The feeling of it in his hand snapped him into focus and pushed away some of his rising panic.
Voldemort was staring at him impatiently with his empty yellow eyes.
‘I said bring me the boy Draco.’