The Heirs of Dreams

Chapter Eleven

"No! No!" she shouted as she ran. She hit the end of the corridor and slammed her fists into the shiny white marble. "God dammit! Mother fuckers! Asshole pieces of Goddamn shit!" she continued as she kicked and screamed and plunged her fists into the marble. She stood back once a circle of red appeared on the white marble.

She turned back to the group with defeat written across her face and her wounded hand cupped in her other. She didn't look at any of them, but at the floor.

"We're trapped," she said quietly, "and we're Muggles."

"What?!" Ron burst out from Draco's side.

"It's midnight...we've all lost our powers...and I only just got mine back too!" she added mournfully.

"What do you mean we've lost our powers?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"The six of us...anyone who was in the halls really I think. Funny how Draco forgot to mention that defense mechanism," Zora added with a sneer towards Draco.

"Sworn to secrecy...and it's not my fault you couldn't remember why we needed to get out of here before midnight, is it?"

"So there's no way out?" Ginny said from behind Harry as she peered between he and Ron's shoulders.

"No," Draco said weakly over to her from the wall, "there are millions of ways out, you just need a spell for all of them."

"So, how do we get out?" Ginny asked, looking back hopefully to Zora.

"We...don't," Zora replied sadly. "This was the only way out I could think of...simple Alohomora...but we're locked in."

"Will it wear off?" Ron asked worriedly as he reached into his pocket and drew out his wand.

Zora looked at the charmed wood and noticed it had lost its luster and gleam...just a normal piece of whittled wood.

"In two weeks," Draco replied to him, "but don't worry, we'll be dead long before then."

"We're not going to die," Zora said although she didn't look as though she believed her words.

"Then how are we going to get out of here?" Draco asked her, "We have six hours until sunrise, but we still can't get out of here no matter what. It's hopeless, let's just go find him now and get it over with."

"Would you shut up and think for a second?!" Zora shouted.

"No...I'm not supposed to get us out of here, you are. No offense, little red," he said to Ginny and back to Zora, "but I told you not to go after her, we would be out and laughing about this now."

"You'd be the only one laughing, asshole," Ron said with a sneer as he looking down on the pale blonde boy leaning against the wall.

"I meant no offense, I told you that," Draco replied as Harry eased Ron's arm back from Draco a few steps.

"What about Hogwarts? The portal in the Infirmary?" Ginny offered quietly from behind Harry.

"The Infirmary," Zora repeated airily,

"Is sealed," Draco reminded her.

"No...we can break it," Zora said with deep thought.

"Yes...from the opposite end of the seal and with no powers what so ever...yes, it's so impossible it will never work," Draco replied sarcastically.

"Someone on the outside...someone like...Hermione," Zora said conclusively.

"She's at Diagon Alley," Ron said immediately. "It's just a train ride from Hogsmeade."

"Last train's at one, I think," Ginny added helpfully.

"You Gryffindors really are insane, aren't you? Listen, that's great and all, Team Optimism, but how are we going to let little Granger know we're even here?"

"A raven," Zora burst out with her first real smile of the night. "If we send a letter tied with a black ribbon on a black raven, then whoever sees it will think-."

"It's my death notice to my father," Draco said for Zora. "It's stupid enough...it might just work."

"We've got an hour to get it to her," Zora said as she started off down the hall. "He knows we're powerless, there shouldn't be anyone in the halls until sunrise."

"Ahem," Draco called to Zora.

She turned and noticed everyone was now following her down the hall.

"Oh...Ginny and Harry stay with Draco, will you?" Zora asked, looking back at Draco resting against the wall all alone.

Ginny and Harry nodded their heads and turned back and walked toward Draco. Zora rushed up and tugged Harry back, making sure Ginny was across from Draco and far enough away not to hear. "Do not leave either of them...understand?"

Harry looked a bit confused, but nodded his head just the same and went to sit with Ginny and Draco against the wall.

Zora turned back and walked down the hall with Ron at her side. She knew the way although she knew she could not instruct anyone else on how to get to the specific room she was looking for. It was strange how well she knew this place she had only entered once and had never explored. She would have been scared, but there was no time for that now.

She took the required turns, momentarily losing Ron with her quickness.

"It should be this door," she told him over her shoulder.

She wasn't surprised that it was unlocked or that all the candles were lit, waiting for the next comer. Everyone in the castle knew someone was going to die and it was customary for the discoverer to send the death notice. The room was filled with owls and birds of all species and colors. The shelves lining the walls contained stacks of scented and colored parchments for any use along with boxes of ribbons.

"What is this place?" Ron asked after he closed the door behind them.

"Message room, older castles have them...now we have Owl Posts and there's no need to have one, but back when everything was spread out it was a necessity," Zora said as she went to the stacks of parchment. "Do you think cinnamon is a 'Draco scent'?" she asked as she sniffed one piece of parchment.

"Try 'Grotesque vomit'," Ron replied with a sneer.

"Looks like they're out...let's settle for pepper," she said as she took a light gray colored paper from its stack. "Just in case someone intercepts it...they'll know it's a death notice, hopefully they won't open it," Zora said as she took the paper and settled herself at a desk.

She took a feather quill and dipped it into a pitch black ink bottle and began to write:

"NOT A DEATH NOTICE" at the very top. "Hopefully she doesn't cry too much over it, thinking its one of you who died," Zora said with some thought. She took another ink bottle marked "Run Free" and dipped the quill into it. "Just in case," she said to Ron.

"This...thing she has to do...is it dangerous?" Ron asked as he looked over her shoulder to see what she was writing.

Zora stopped her quill mid word and thought how to reply. "Well," she began, "it's...difficult...and she might...it won't kill her or anything, ok?"

"But will it hurt her?" Ron persisted.

"It will test her. It's a powerful spell Dumbledore put on the door, he didn't want anyone to get through it again. The counter spell is very advanced and it's possible that there are some...booby traps built in, but I promise she will be that same Hermione as before," Zora assured him.

Or at least I hope, she thought to herself.

She replaced her quill on the page and continued to explain the process of undoing the seal in the Infirmary. She hoped this letter reached Hermione and only Hermione. This was their last chance of escaping death.

**

The three sat in silence. Draco was propped against the marble wall, his hand clutching at his side. Harry was at his left and was taking the moment of peace to examine his arm. The wound had reopened as it had in his dream while he ran down the corridor to Zora and Ginny, but he hadn't had time to examine it since. Ginny sat across from the two boys, her legs stretched out straight in front of her and her hands clenched tightly together in her lap.

"How..." Ginny began, her voice echoing through the hall, she began again more quietly, "How does she know how to open the seal?"

"She dreamt it...just like me. I don't think I could explain it to another person, but if she wants to take a crack at it...then let her have at it."

"You don't think she'll be able to explain it?" Harry asked, looking up from his arm.

"Probably not...it's not like a swish and flick and it's done. It's complicated. If she leaves something out or doesn't clarify a pronunciation, then we're fucked."

"And you say that so calmly," Ginny remarked as she stood and walked over to Harry.

"No, I'm accepting it. It's more than likely that we won't be getting out of this castle...ever."

"Let's hope you're wrong," Ginny said quietly as she removed the blood soaked rag from around Harry's forearm and tossed it to the side.

"Let's hope I am...but I'm not usually," Draco replied airily.

"You said you've dreamed four endings...how can you be sure which is right?" Harry asked as he watched Ginny.

She reached to the bottom of his already torn shirt and pulled a new, cleaner, scratch of cloth and wrapped it around his wound.

"Well...to be honest, I'm baffled. I haven't dreamed once where all of us get out, at least one of us has to die. So unless one of us does die soon...then it's more than likely all of us will when the sun comes up."

"How do you know? You can't know that for sure," Harry replied as Ginny stood and walked calmly back across the hall.

"You don't understand the way this works," Draco replied as he closed his eyes, trying to keep his patience, "you'll never be able to understand."

**

"Ok," Zora said as she held the large black bird clasped in her hands, "I know the tag says Lucius, but I need you to take it to Hermione Granger...Diagon Alley...Blourish and Blott's, understand?"

"Rawk," he replied and gently pecked at her finger.

She went over the process she had seen in her mind and was completely positive she had included everything. With a silent prayer, Zora finally let go of the black bird. It had only taken twenty minutes to complete the letter, and she was satisfied that she had included everything.

"Are you sure that you got everything...I mean I saw all the scratch outs you made, are you absolutely positively completely sure that this is going to work?" Ron pestered in her head as they left the room, walked down the halls, and meet Harry, Ginny, and Draco.

"What's he babbling on about?" Draco asked with annoyance.

"He doesn't trust me is all," Zora smiled as she rolled her eyes.

"Can't really blame him with everything you've put him through in the last few hours...cheating on his brother and getting everyone's life in danger and all," Draco replied.

"I wouldn't bring that up if I were you considering you were the other person involved in both of those," Zora warned him.

"I'll wait till Harry, Ginny, and me are all out of here and still alive before I start holding it against you two," Ron replied as he took Draco's arm and wrapped it around his neck.

"See? No worries," Zora smiled from behind Ron.

"You're a bit more chipper than I'm comfortable with," Draco added as he slowly rose from the floor, just as Harry stepped in and took his other arm. "You sure you got everything...if you left just one thing-."

"Draco!" Zora interrupted, her voice ringing throughout the halls, "I got everything...trust me."

"You're sooooo lucky that no one's roaming the halls looking for us, 'cause that scream would wake the dead."

"Yeah...well, they shouldn't have been damn cocky to think we wouldn't get out and find a way to escape that they wouldn't guard us...right?"

"First of all...they're the ones who set the whole 'steal your powers' booby trap. And we're still not out, oh optimistic one," Draco sneered.

"We're an hour a way...I promise," Zora insisted with a confident nod.

**

And so they sat in a vacant marble walled corridor. The only hope they had for escaping lie on the other side of the dead end hallway. Harry could visualize Hermione with her wand in her hand, muttering numerous incantations, fighting to get them free. It had not occurred to him at first just how many people could intercept the letter or the fact that the bird could get lost or simply that Zora had in fact forgotten a piece of the spell. No, none of these thoughts had entered his mind until he was sitting on the cold floor for nearly two hours, waiting in complete silence. Doubt had set in and acceptance was still far off. He closed his eyes and felt the weight of Ginny's head on his shoulder as the thought that they really weren't going to get out entered his mind. Draco was right. The portal was sealed, the castle was sealed, their fates were sealed. They really were going to die.

A burst of light flooded the hallway and the sound of roaring thunder echoed uncontrollably down the hall. Everyone who had been sleeping was wide awake and eyes alert and darting all around. All except Draco, who simply yawned. When the brilliant light finally faded, a black square was now in the dead end hallway, the same square that had been present once before for their escape. Harry was the first to his feet, instinctively going to Draco's side and easing him onto his feet, Ron soon took the other. Zora quickly stepped in front of them.

"Let me go in first," she said as she held her hand out before them, signaling them to stop. "If I scream, just run as fast as you can in any other direction."

Before anyone could even think to ask or say anything, she had turned and jumped through the black square. Her body disappeared through the darkness, and the four remaining waited impatiently on the other side for Zora's voice to call back.

"It's all right," her voice echoed back, "it's Hermione. Ginny, come through first."

Ginny looked startled for a moment, but obeyed and walked up to the square with a little hesitation. She looked back to the three remaining boys and gave a smile to her brother and to Harry before she eased herself through the square. Once she had disappeared, Harry eased Draco and Ron through. The Infirmary was cold and silent as they walked in. Hermione sat on one of the beds, her face pale and her chest heaving from exhaustion. Zora was standing in front of her, muttering something to her and nodding her head.

"Ron, Harry," Zora called once she saw them, "quick give me a room with no windows and only one way in and one way out."

Harry stared at her for a moment. What on earth was she talking about?

"Snape's store room," Ginny quickly answered for them.

"Is it big enough to fit all of us?" Zora asked her quickly.

"Should be," Ginny guessed with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Why do we-," Ron began, but Zora was already darting out of the Infirmary.

She paused at the entrance and shouted "Well, hurry up!"

Hermione rose and limped a little as she made her way to the door. Ginny stood at her side and took her arm, helping her along. Harry and Ron stood for a moment before Draco made an attempt to follow on his own, stumbled, and nearly fell to the ground. There was no more time for thought as they followed to the dungeons.

Snape's store room was a lot like his bedroom as far as Harry could recall from his romp the previous school year when Zora had taken over his body for an hour. The small room was filled with thousands of ingredients and rare liquids held in tiny bottles. Bowls and jars lined the entire room. The group entered the small space with a little discomfort, especially since Draco needed to be lain down on the floor, leaving only standing room for the rest.

**

"All right," Zora began, as she looked around the room, "Hermione and Ginny...I need you two to go and find me a certain book. It's black with a red spider printed on the cover. Go to the restricted section and it's the third row, fourth shelf, seventh book, got it? On your way, get me a bottle of Pepper Up potion....and a book on healing potions, Draco's wound opened again and so has Harry's."

"Why not just heal them?" Hermione asked as she took her wand from her robes.

"NO WANDS!" Zora burst out and reached for Hermione's wand. "Just...no wand magic. Just potions."

Hermione gave her a curious look, but left the room with Ginny following on her heels. Zora quickly closed the door behind them. With the absence of the two girls, she now had room to kneel at Draco's side. She gently lifted his blood stained shirt and examined the wound. It was not a wide slash and only a thin stream of blood was escaping. However, she was fully aware of what lie under his skin and was convinced that if it weren't for his bloodline, he would be dead already.

"Harry grab his arms, Ron his legs," Zora said as she began to undo Draco's belt.

"Ah...I'm not an expert on these situations," Ron began, "but wouldn't you like to wait until after we're rescued to shag, or at least be alone?"

"Just do as I say, Ron," Zora said as calmly as possible as she gently removed the strap of leather.

Harry took Draco's hands and placed them above his head, holding them to the ground. Ron knelt next to Draco's feet and held them in place. Zora removed the dagger from the belt in her hands and placed it at her side. She folded the belt in half and placed it between Draco's lips, his teeth clenching it.

"I'm going to make it as quick as possible," she said as she reached above her head and retrieved a metal bowl.

"Just get it over with," Draco muttered as he clenched the belt between his teeth.

Zora took the dagger from its holder and dragged the tip across the open wound and beyond, making the cut larger. Harry was dumbfounded as he watched.

Zora turned her head from the oozing blood as it flowed from the widened wound. She felt her stomach turn violently. She always hated the sight of blood. She took in a deep breath and reminded herself that this was worse for him than it was for her...it would all be over soon. Well, this part at least. Once she was calm enough to continue she returned her eyes to Draco. His pale stomach was stained with the streams of blood running down his side. Before she had a chance to really accept what she has doing, she dove two fingers into Draco's wound.

He growled in pain and moved violently against Harry and Ron. Zora was thankful he was weaker than normal or else there no way they would get through this. She didn't stop to think about what the warm squishy things she was feeling inside Draco were as she thought only of what she was looking for. She felt the warm solid object and wrapped her fingertips around it and drew it our as gently and quickly as possible. Once her fingers were out of Draco's body, blood flowed twice as much as before. Zora looked from the wound to her hand, which was now completely covered with deep red blood, and back to the oozing wound. The sight was too much. She let the object drop into the metal bowl with a sharp clang and she turned to the door. She threw it opened and made her way to the trash bucket filled in the corner of the room. She threw up what felt like everything she had eaten all summer.

**

Harry was speechless and felt his stomach turn as he watched Zora work. As he listened to Zora vomiting just outside the small room, Harry forced himself to not become sick as well. Ron, whose face was tinted a horrible green, was obviously putting forth great effort to avoid losing it himself. Draco lie in the center of the room, his chest heaving and his eyes shut tight. He was still clenching his teeth on the belt, placed to keep him from grinding his teeth together as Zora removed whatever that thing was from his side.

Harry stood, feeling the need to leave the room. He left the small room and held himself up by using on of the long tables for support. He wondered what normal teenagers his age were doing. Probably just getting home from hanging out with their friends. Crawling into bed no doubt and sleeping happily. He wished he could know what it was like not to worry day in and out about what was now becoming simply "his life". He saw Zora in the corner, next to the trash bin. She was curled in the fetal position on the floor, her face buried in her red stained hands.

Sensing his duty as a friend, he sat next to her and placed his hand on her arm. She tensed under his touch but did not stir. She only removed her hands from her face and said, "I just...put my hand...inside of Draco," she said with distant disbelief as if she were just realizing it.

"Why did you do that?" Harry asked.

"The swords were tipped...sort of. A design of Salazar Slytherin himself. The ones you and Draco fought with were normal, but since he wanted to be sure one of us would die, he used those. The tips were made from poison...and they break off once it enters the body so the poison can't leave unless the tip is removed. I had to get it out of him or else no antidote would work, it'd just keep releasing in him."

"Are you all right?" Harry asked after she was quiet for a while.

"I'd be a lot better if none of this had happened," she said and returned her blood stained hands to her face.