Draco and Harry: Escorts Abandoned

Chapter Three

It was nearing dusk when they finally arrived at what Draco called the Brough of Deerness, which looked like nothing but an ancient ruin perched at the edge of a barren cliff on a remote Scottish isle. Harry dismounted and walked to the edge. Two smaller islands could be seen from his vantage. He watched the waves crash over the rocks below and raised his eyes to the turbulent sea beyond. The place felt pristine and majestic.

Harry glanced at the tumbled stone that marked the ruin. Man had tried to imprint his presence here, but left little behind except the ghost of a memory. Lush grass was overtaking even that. The salt air was crisp in Harry's lungs and he reflected that some places would always be wild and beautiful.

He looked at Draco and acknowledged that some people would always be wild and beautiful, as well. The sun was setting behind Malfoy and turned the edges of his hair to bright gold as it fluttered in the breeze. Harry studied Draco's profile with pensive pride. Malfoy looked like a conquering Norse god from his position at the edge of the cliff. One hand held his broom and one foot was propped on a stone. His mind seemed far away. Harry swallowed hard past a sudden lump in his throat, realizing he would never stop loving the Slytherin, in spite of everything.

Draco's head turned in Harry's direction and he quickly looked away to study the view again.

"We should eat before we descend," Malfoy said.

"Descend?"

Draco gestured toward the ruin. "The chamber is beneath the old chapel, there."

Harry nodded and sank, cross-legged, onto a tuft of grass while Malfoy prepared their evening meal. He admitted he was starved. Harry had been too upset to eat breakfast and he had only picked at his lunch. Draco took his time and Harry found himself dozing while he waited.

He woke to Draco shaking his shoulder and sat up quickly. It was completely dark but for a small fire that flickered wildly in the seaborne breeze. Malfoy crouched beside him with a plate in hand. Harry took it without comment and began to eat. He nearly moaned aloud with pleasure after the first bite. Damn, but he had missed Malfoy's cooking.

Draco moved to the other side of the fire and sat some distance away to eat in silence. Harry felt a twinge of remorse at shoving Malfoy away so brutally. He had been too angry to listen to more than a rudimentary explanation of Draco's disappearance. Now that the rage was dissipating, Harry was curious.

There was no hint of sunset on the horizon and Harry wondered suspiciously how long Draco had allowed him to sleep. Harry had forgotten to grab his Muggle watch and could not have told time by the stars if his life depended on it. Astronomy class had been a waste of time.

When they finished, Malfoy Scourgified the dishes and packed everything away. Harry noticed Draco seemed to be in no hurry.

Finally, Malfoy made his way over to the ruined chapel, which looked very serene in the darkness. The walls were barely shoulder-high in most places and Harry wondered how they knew it had been a chapel. It was simply four low stone walls open to the sky. Draco stood in the center and idly tapped his wand against his thigh. There was something odd about the motion and after a moment Harry realized what it was.

Malfoy was nervous.

"What is it?" Harry asked.

"I don't know," Draco admitted. "There is something wrong about this, Harry. Maybe we should..."

"Should what?" Harry prodded. Alarm bells began to clang in his head--he had been with Draco on too many dangerous trips to ignore Malfoy's instincts now.

Draco sighed explosively and shook his head.

"I don't know. Maybe I'm being ridiculous."

"You've never been ridiculous in your life," Harry said flatly. Draco favored him with a soft smile and Harry continued, "Perhaps we should think about this a bit. Do you know for certain the object is here?"

"Yes," Draco said immediately.

"How do you know?"

A puzzled look ghosted over Draco's features. "I saw it."

"You saw it?" The statement seemed at odds with Malfoy's expression. "You were here before?"

"Yes."

"When?"

"A few days ago." Malfoy's answers were unhesitating.

"Why didn't you stop the spell yourself?"

Draco's eyes seemed to unfocus for a moment.

"I'm not strong enough," he whispered. Harry's eyes narrowed and he walked forward until he stood close to Malfoy.

"I didn't quite catch that," Harry said. He had never heard Draco utter such a ridiculous phrase in his life.

"I'm... not strong enough," Draco repeated, but a strange expression crossed the handsome features and the pale brows drew down. "Fuck, that's not right at all." Draco's hand reached out and grabbed Harry's shoulder in a grip that was nearly painful. "There is something else, Harry, something I can't re--"

Draco did not finish. He couldn't because the stone they stood on fell away beneath them. Without time to even cry out, they dropped into the darkness.

ooOoo

Draco regained consciousness with the growing awareness of cold, quickly followed by pain. He remembered falling--obviously that had been a tidy trap. The word seemed to ring in his head. Bloody hell, this whole thing had been a trap. A trap for Harry Potter. And Draco had led him right into it.

He opened his eyes to darkness, but it wasn't complete. He turned his head and saw a black candelabra on a low table. It held six or seven flickering candles that lit an object beside it on the table. A small golden cask. Draco sat up with a sound of denial. The cask was open!

The spell had already been released.

A soft noise nearby drew Draco's attention and he looked over to see Harry sprawled on the floor. Draco scrambled to his side.

"Harry," he murmured and slid his hands beneath Potter's neck. Draco shut his eyes at the feel of Harry's soft hair--it had been so bloody long since he'd touched it. He raised Harry to a sitting position and cradled him in his arms like a wounded child. He pressed a kiss against Harry's temple and willed him to awaken.

"What a touching little scene," a harsh voice said and Draco stiffened. Mulciber. He reluctantly released Harry and stood up, looking around carefully for the Death Eater, but he saw no one. "It seems you left out some details concerning your business relationship with Potter." Draco heard a chuckle, but he could not pinpoint the location of the voice. It seemed to ring in the room from several directions.

"No matter," Mulciber continued. "Is Potter awake?"

"Can't you tell?" Draco could see no sign of the Death Eater and decided Mulciber had set up some sort of scrying spell or device so that he could monitor the room. Another spell allowed him to speak. The room was small and round with a ceiling somewhere far above in the darkness--perhaps they had fallen from above. There were no visible exits.

"Oh no, he's tricky tricky like you, Draco. That's why you two are in there together."

Draco felt unobtrusively for his wand, but it was gone, along with their packs. He wondered how long they had been unconscious.

"What do you want with us?" Draco asked. "You already released the spell."

Mulciber laughed, an irritating, slightly insane-sounding titter.

"Oh yes, I have, haven't I? And you know why, don't you, Draco? Don't you remember?"

Malfoy was assaulted by a sudden, blinding headache. He remembered... something. Torture. Cruciatus Curses and potions. Pansy's face, terrified but cowed. And pain--

Harry moaned and Draco tried to ignore Potter as he struggled to recall anything useful. Something about Harry...

"You once called me a wretched, substandard, pathetic excuse for a wizard," Mulciber said. "Do you recall?"

Draco didn't, but it sounded like something he would say.

"It seems my memory charms are not so substandard after all, eh?" Mulciber laughed again and Draco clamped down on his growing panic. God, the bastard had been screwing with his mind! No wonder he had not returned to Harry. The memory of having some stupid fling with Pansy Parkinson was a lie. A lie.