The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later

-----------------The Fat Muggle, Ten Years Later. chapter six,"Malfoy's Lair"--------------

What's this? Yellow lights on the ground? They seem to start from the door and lead up to....my feet?!?

I'm being tracked!

You have found me faster than I expected.

Disaster!

I'm not ready yet!

I must speak with father and him.

It can't end like it did the last time.

I must run, yes run away!

Until I'm ready to face You.

Harry and Grindle walked for at least twenty minutes and the early sun was already getting warm.

They had found nothing.

Harry couldn't bear the silence any longer.

"So. You're American?" Harry said and cleared his throat.

Grindle looked at him.

"Yeah, so?" he answered and kept walking.

"What part of America are you from?" Harry asked and followed him.

They were on the edge of a big park and there were a group of Muggle children out jogging.

"New York," Grindle said and walked onto the dewy grass in a fast pace.

Harry had to run a few steps to keep up.

"Oh! I've always wanted to go to New York," Harry said.

"Why didn't you?" Grindle asked.

"Too much work! Never got the time," Harry answered.

Grindle stopped suddenly and stared into the bushes.

"Jackpot!" he said and ran into the bushes, followed by Harry.

There was a broad yellow mark that covered the narrow path completely and it streched out far through the bushes.

"He's been here recently. And by the look of it, it was in his Basilisk shape," Grindle said and took out a leatherbag and sprinkled something that looked like ordinary flour over the track.

A green arrow emerged in the track and pointed to the east.

"That's where he's headed! Let's go!" Grindle said and ran off with his wand ready for battle.

Harry felt his heart thumping in his chest as he followed as fast as he could.

Ron and Dudley had reached an area of lowbuilt houses in red, orange and white colours and where still looking for any tracks.

They had the sun in their eyes and could smell a bakery nearby.

There were little children everywhere obviously going to school.

Dudley felt excited.

He had never gone hunting for Dark wizards before.

But just as he was about to ask Ron about something, a yellow glow caught his eye.

"Ron! There..." he said and pointed across the street.

"I know. I saw them too," Ron said and ignored the traffic and ran across the street.

Dudley waited until it was safe to cross.

Once he got over it was easy to see Malfoy had been in his human shape here.

"He's been running. And it can't have been more than ten minutes ago!" Ron said and took his wand out and shot blue flairs into the sky.

"Hey! There are Muggles everywhere!" Dudley said.

"These flares are invisible to them! Only wizards can see them!" Ron said as if Dudley was the dumbest person ever.

"Now we wait for Harry and Grinlde so we can get that piece of shit," he continued and sat on a nearby bench.

It took exactly seven seconds for Harry and Grindle to apparate to their location.

"Ten minutes away. Still heading east. Should we take the Thunderbirds?" Ron told Grindle.

"No. Too many Muggles around. We walk," Grindle said.

"Wait! Here's a second track!" Harry said.

"What? How could that be? We specifically traced Malfoy."

"The track is headed west. Away from the other tracks," Harry said.

"Lucius," Ron said.

"What?"

"It's Lucius Malfoy. One of the footprints belongs to Lucius Malfoy," Ron said.

"Of course! We didn't specify it was Draco we were after so the tracker went by just Malfoy!" Grindle said.

"But which one is Draco? And why aren't they travelling together?" Dudley asked.

"They must have seen their own tracks and decided to throw us off," Grindle said.

"Should we call in the rest of your team?" Harry said.

"No. We went after him alone and we're gonna catch them both alone," Grindle said.

"We must split up again," Ron said.

"Let's just stay in the same team we were in," Grindle said.

"We take this track," Grindle said and pointed to the eastern track and began walking.

Ron and Dudley walked in the other direction, wondering which Malfoy they were going to encounter.

The two teams had followed the tracks for two hours;Ron and Dudley were almost on the other side of town and Grindle and Harry were coming close to a farm outside town.

Ron and Dudley had dinner, but they didn't take their eyes of the track for one second.

Harry and Grindle tried to ignore their hunger as they followed the track into the farm.

"I don't want any Muggles asking any questions," Grindle said.

"So what do we do?" Harry asked.

"Easy. We become invisible," Grindle said and waved his wand.

"Transperatos Humanos," he said and they became invisible.

The track led into the stable; the door was already open.

The two wizards frose when their eyes registred the sick sight inside the stable.

Four horses had been killed and blood had covered the stone floor.

Their stomachs had been torn open and partially eaten.

The stench of guts and the metallic smell of blood was too much for Harry.

He threw himself outside and vomited.

Grindle just stood there.

"It was Draco. He must have been hungry," he said lowly.

Harry covered his nose and mouth and entered the stable again and followed Grindle through the bloodfilled floor to the opened door on the other end of the corridor.

Harry started hating Draco even more than he already did for every step he took in the blood.

Ron and Dudley had followed their track to a deserted and shut down theater on the outskirts of town and the whole place stunk Dark wizard.

The theater was at least four floors and a basement, Ron told Dudley, and who knows who else could be in there but Draco or Lucius?

Ron and Dudley had their wands drawn and Ron rolled across the ground between the hedges to get closer to the main entrance.

Dudley kept both eyes on the windows and was ready to zap anyone in there.

Ron reached the entrance and performed a trapcheck spell with his wand and found out it wasn't rigged to explode or anything worse.

He signalled Dudley to run up to him.

They entered the theater at the same time.

No-one in sight, but the tracks where all over the place and it was impossible to see where the owner had been last.

It could be upstairs or in the basement or just around the corner, waiting.

Ron checked the first floor and found there was no-one there.

There was rats running along the floor and they didn't seem to be afraid of humans.

One began climbing up Dudley trousers and he kicked it away, but as he did so he saw a silvery flicker reflecting from it.

His heart stopped.

A loud bang was heard and Dudley saw how Ron flew at him through the room and hit the wall.

A second later, Lucius Malfoy entered the room, wand in hand, and laughed a madmans laugh that scared Dudley more than any fairytale monster ever could have when he was a child.

A creak from a door caught his attention.

A shadow emerged from the basement door.

Dudley felt absolutely terrified when he saw the small man with the thinning hair and torn clothes and his silver hand holding the doorknob.

"Welcome, Dursley!" the man said in a raspy voice.

"I think there is someone here who want's to see you," he said and pointed down to the basement.

"I definately don't want to see whoever it is, Wormtail," Dudley said, trying to sound defiant but failed.

"Oh, you want to see him! And you won't ever leave this place, either one of you," Wormtail said.

"Get up here!! Now!!" he said and snapped his silver fingers.

A shadow began climbing the stairs; a creak with every step.

As the contours began to clear, Dudley saw who it was.

He felt how the darkness came over him and he fainted.

"Just the reaction I was hoping for," Wormtail said and turned to the man in the stairs.

"Well, aren't you going to give your loved one a kiss, Longbottom?" Wormtail said and laughed.

-----------to be continued in chapter seven,"Confrontation"------------------