Harry, Draco and Ron: Vampire Hunters

Chapter XII. The Escape.

Gone are the days when freedom shone,
Now blood and steel meet bone,
In the light of the battle's way...

- Manowar, "Battle Hymns".

"Is it my imagination or you two are sitting in here as if you're all up and ready to die?" Ron pondered nervously.

"You've got bright ideas on escape, Weasley?" Draco sneered.

"Actually," he said, getting up, "I do. HEY, GUARD!"

"What're ya yellin' for, boy?" the Death Eater that stood guard upon them grumbled after being woken up rather rudely.

"My friend here--" Ron pointed at Draco, who was still lying on the floor of his cage, "--is sick! You've got to help him, quick!"

Draco instantly played along to the oldest trick in the Muggle world - he started writhing on the floor, swearing rudely and complaining that he's feeling awfully bad.

"What's wrong?" the dumbstruck Death Eater asked, "Why should I help?"

"And if it's contagious?" Harry asked with pure horror, "We'll get sick!" he yelled, then added "You'll get sick!!!" as an after thought, then followed it by "The Dark Lord won't get the prize of killing us!" he added.

"Alright, alright!" the guard replied, opening the door of Draco's cage, "Let's see now--"

He was cut short though, as Draco sprang up from the floor, landing several well-aimed punches and a kick, which, being enhanced in effectiveness by his werewolf strength, had incapacitated the guard for good.

Actually, judging by the state in which the guard was now, he looked quite dead.

"And now, oh great warrior, make sure you free us!" said Ron eagerly.

"Why should I do that?" Draco drawled.

"Because you might need help escaping from here... Because Lavender you'll have to save as well, and how will you face her if you've left her Housemates in here to rot and die?" Harry suggested grimly.

"You've got a point there, Potter. Alright, move aside," Draco replied, drawing the guard's wand, "Alohomora!"

The lock clicked open and Harry made his way out of the cage quickly as Draco freed Ron as well.

"Now we need to get our stuff back!" Ron exclaimed.

*****

They climbed up the long winding staircase, finally finding themselves on the castle wall. Apparently, this was the fortress Harry saw in his dream - there were the barracks housing the vampires, and the shapes in the air were...

"Oh, shit! Nightmare riders!" he exclaimed, "Run for cover!"

Harry and Ron darted towards the next tower as fast as they could, while Draco stood and stared at the rider that approached him, riding a Nightmare. The withered flesh, the black attire, the mount... The rider was definitely a lich.

"Sssssstop, mortalsssss!" the undead hissed, raising the staff he held in his hand. At the sight of the staff bearing a skull on top of it, Draco immediately shot running after the other two boys.

They've already got into the tower, and, as Draco got inside, they closed and barred the door.

"Whew, made it!" Ron exhaled.

"What were those things on the Nightmares?" Harry asked of Draco.

"Liches. Nasty undead buggers," the werewolf replied, "So, we go down here or what?" he asked, nodding at the descending staircase.

"Well, seems that we have no other way out," said Ron.

*****

They have descended the stairs, and were now traversing a long hallway.

"Watch it, Potter, you're gonna burn me with that torch o'yours!" Draco was positively annoyed with Harry's way of lighting up the corridor.

"Shut up Malfoy, or you'll find this torch somewhere inside your lower intestine!" growled Harry.

"Whatever," the Slytherin responded.

The hallway ended with a dark room that turned out to be some kind of armoury.

"What the he..." Ron cut off Draco's undoubtedly witty remark:

"Swords!" the red-haired Gryffindor yelled as he jumped forward, looking around. Indeed, the room was full weapons, including, but not limited to, swords. Ron got hold of one, a particularly long and sharp-looking two-handed sword with a curious handle - it was a catholic crucifix, much like the one the windows in many catholic churches were shaped after.

"I'll be damned Weasley, that's a... a..."

"A cross sword, I know"

"Cross?" Harry asked.

"Yes, it's called that way because of the handle. You see, those are the weapons of vampire slayers, what was exactly the reason for the muggle legend that the crucifix is capable of warding a vampire off. It was more the especially enchanted sword that did the warding though," Ron looked a bit (if not to say more) like Hermione at that particular moment.

"I s'pose we have to find ourselves something appropriate for battling those creeps outside," Harry said, looking around. Ron, however, seemed to have already made up his mind.

"I'm keeping this one!" he said with a tone that implied for the other two boys to try to steal the enchanted sword from him.

"Fine," said Harry, looking around. Draco seemed to have found something though.

"Over here Potter, look at this," he said as he pointed to a stand containing two almost identical scimitars, along with name plates for each, their only difference was the shade of metal they were made of.

The one on the left, entitled "Wolf" was greenish and the one on the right, entitled "Gryphon", was reddish. The colours were almost imperceptible, but the difference stroke the mind of whoever looked at the two blades lay side by side.

"I get the "Wolf", I reckon," said Draco, taking the green sword from the left stand.

"Go ahead, make my day," replied Harry, whilst doing the same to the red sword. The blades appeared to be glowing faintly for a moment as they were removed from the stand, what made both boys draw back a bit, their hands gripping the swords tightly.

"Look," said Harry, "There's an inscription behind them -

These swords are made of steel,

Yet they appear to be of gem,

Thou cannot take, thou cannot steal,

Unless with someone thou'll share them,

'Tis thy foe who shall wield,

The other blade apart from yours,

But fight as fellows in the field,

And benefit of their joined force."

"What?" Draco's look betrayed his emotion then, but for a moment - he was stumbled.

"It means, these swords can't be taken by none other then enemies, yet when we use them for one cause, together, that's as fellows, brothers-in-arms and their force shall increase," Ron's voice echoed through the emptiness of the room, filling it with the feeling of confidence in his voice.

"Who died and made you Divination God, Weasley?" Draco sneered again.

"Maybe it was our guard? Sincerely, Malfoy, don't you think it's obvious from the engraving?"

"Whatever, I don't need you two killing each other right now, we'll get to that later, let's get us some armour!" said Harry, trying to break up the tension that was building up in here at a very tremendous rate. It did not help. Harry waited for someone to respond, but a few moments later he understood that the probability of Ron being at least not openly hostile towards Draco, even in such circumstances, was almost equal to the probability of Snape giving Neville a 100 points for a correct answer, what was impossible thrice - Snape would never give such an amount of points to anyone, he would never give points to a Gryffindor and he would never give points to Neville. "Poor Neville!" Harry thought.

"Armour?" Ron's response to his suggestion was an unforseen thing for Harry.

"Yes, as in the things you wear to insure you live longer," said Harry, pointing to the racks behind the rows of various weapon holders. He moved towards them, scanning the racks for anything appropriate, while being faintly aware that neither one of the other two was even remotely doing the same. As he turned around to ask Ron how he would look in studded leather armour, he saw the two crossing their swords. Already.

"Alright you two, break it up!" he yelled, "It's no time to be killing the only backup we have!" he added as he crossed swords with Draco, who caught Ron off-guard and would have wounded him if not for Harry. The swords met with a clash almost equal in the deafening effect to a thunderstrike, as the sparks ignited by the contact of the two scimitars increased their brightness to an unbearably high level, almost blinding the three young wizards.

"Looks like these things weren't supposed to be used in that particular way," said Ron as he observed the two other boys.

"Nice idea Weasley, like we couldn't've guessed without you!" Draco sneered, but not as harshly as usual.

"Shut up already, Malfoy; let's be more concerned with the matter at hand!" said Harry as he lowered his sword. Draco followed suit, "Let's get us some armour so we'll stand a chance if those bloody vampires want to get a bite of us!" Harry added as both Ron and Draco burst out laughing.

"What's so funny?" he asked of them.

"You... said... bloody... vampires!" Ron chortled out between laughs. Harry once again set off towards the armour racks, grinning at the idea of vampires being not bloody.

Several minutes later, they were ready to get clashin', hackin' and slashin', as they observed each other's choice. Ron got a simple ring mail suit - cuirass, greaves, helm and gloves, which, combined with the awesomely heavy look of the cross sword, looked like Ron barely withstands the weight. However, Ron himself looked like he had no trouble with his load whatsoever. Harry and Draco although separately, picked similar armour - light leather, along with fitting leather gauntlets, boots and greaves. Aside from the hair colour and Harry's glasses, they looked very much like mirror images - Draco was left-handed, so he attached the Wolf to his right side, whilst Harry hung the Gryphon on his left. The three wizards-in-training-dressed-as-warriors-in-battle had set out towards the exit.

As they stepped outside, a bolt of lightning hit the wall in a spot near them as the undead monsters were circling around in the air. Harry shook his fist at them and the three set off running towards the next tower. The door went down into splinters after several slashes at it, and it seemed so that all three had an adrenaline surge so high that they forgot to use their minds on simply checking if the door was locked or not. The scene behind the door, however, seemed to cool down their eagerness to kill a bit, if not to say more. Seven reanimated skeleton warriors stood there in a semi-circle, almost like statues that some demented necromancer ordered to construct. However, unlike statues, these skeletons charged into battle as soon as they saw the opposition in the faces of Ron, Draco and Harry.

"Time to die!" yelled Harry, but as he realized that the skeletons were already dead, he added "Again!"

His sword drove deep into the skull of the first one as he saw Ron cutting through two more as if he was cutting thin air. "So much for anti-undead enchanted swords," he thought as he saw the two crumble into dust, while his own skeletons only collapsed onto the ground hea- er... skull-less. Draco was like a god of war - fast, furious and deadly (If anything that could end the non-existence of any undead could be called a deadly threat).

"Time for some serious bone-crushin'!" the blond Slytherin yelled as he mowed down one more opponent. At that moment, Harry could have sworn he saw Draco's sword, as well as his own, glow with an eerie inner light. He felt great strength surge through him as he slashed away at one more skeleton. Soon, the room was full of dead (once more) bones. The door that the skeletons were guarding seemed to lead down to the dungeons, so Ron grabbed a torch and they were on their way again.

In the dungeon, it was dark, damp and cold. Not to mention spooky. As much as one might consider a simple unoccupied dark, damp, cold dungeon spooky after living through four years of studying at Hogwarts, especially if someone really bad (who, by the way, owns the aforementioned dungeons) tries to kill you on a very regular basis. So our bold heroes did not consider the dungeon spooky as they bravely ventured into the unknown.

"I wish we'd have a Map of this place," said Ron, meaning the local version of the Marauder's Map.

"What'd a map give you, Weasel?" Malfoy asked pointedly "you still have the guards to face."

"He doesn't know what we're talking about, now does he, Harry?" Ron asked instead of responding.

"S'pose so" Harry replied, not really paying attention to the ever-going ego conflict of these two.

"Now what d'ya reckon we're looking for?" Ron asked after several minutes of rather silent dungeon crawling.

"Um, a door maybe?" Draco suggested.

"Nice idea!" said Harry as he pointed at the first door they found down here so far. Beyond it they, much to their surprise, found a pair of Death Eaters playing Exploding Snap and guarding a chest and a door. A quick fight moved the Death Eaters into control of the ancient god Morpheus, and Ron broke the chest open. Inside was their stuff, well, most of it - the Cloak and the Map were absent. Harry pocketed his wand and The Flashlight, and gave their respective wands to the other boys. Meanwhile, Draco turned his attention to the door.

It looked suspiciously like a cell door, complete with a barred window. "Anyone in there?" he said as he knocked on the door lightly.

"No-one but us, mice!" a hoarse voice responded. Somehow, it reminded Harry of a raven's croak.

"Who are you?" he asked of the door.

"And who are you, might I ask?" the prisoner replied.

"Some blokes breaking out of here and you are?"

"My name is Jack O'Reilly and I'm a wereraven, if you're wondering."

"A were-what?"

"Wereraven. I suppose you know what werewolves are, don't you?"

"Yeah, one's my friend over here." Harry said, meaning, of course, Draco.

"So, instead of wolf take raven and you get, well, wereraven, that's me."

"How come Vol... er...You-Know-Who keeps you locked up then?"

"I refused to do the killing, as it's against my ideology. Besides he was too keen on taking the Staff for himself."

"What?"

"Are going to be asking questions like you're interrogating me or you'll let me out?" the voice seemed a bit PO'ed.

"Sure..." Harry said, but then stopped. What if this is a trap? "How do I know you won't do something not really nice if I let you out?"

"Define 'not really nice'," the voice responded.

"Like running off or attacking me..." Harry started, but was interrupted by Draco

"No, wait, that's insane, we have three wizards in here, one of 'em is a werewolf and the other has a very cool magic sword... Nah, attacking us would be insane!"

"I promise I won't attack you or run off, my goal is to guard the Staff, and Voldemort has it now. Until it is returned, I must see to its return. In other words, let me out and I'll help fight Voldemort, if that's what you came for."

"No, we came for something else, though your words put a different tone to our actions... What is the Staff you speak of?" Harry said as he fumbled his wand out.

"The Staff of Darkness, the fabled prize for any Dark Arts practitioner. It is said to give its bearer immortality and the power of Necromancy."

"Is said?.." Draco inquired as Harry said "Alohomora!" and the lock clicked.

"Yes, no-one has used it for centuries, we, the Order of Raven have been guarding it," Jack said as he steeped out. He was of average height, with dark brown hair and, as far as the light allowed to see, greenish-brown eyes. There was something... birdlike about his features. Maybe it was the shape of the nose, maybe something else... Nevertheless, it was there, Harry was certain.

"Order of Raven?"

"You see, the Staff can't be destroyed, so we had to guard it. Besides, it was a nice idea to hide the entire wereraven community inside a magically sealed fortress. Until Voldemort learned of its location and we got into trouble. Most of us he killed but some, like me, were taken prisoner. I think he doubts that he'll succeed to use the Staff," Harry and the others slowly studied the ex-inmate's look. Muscular, dirty, unshaven, wearing only a pair of studded leather pants... He made a perfect escaped prisoner.

"So what do we do with you?" Ron asked finally.

"Pardon me?"

"We have to do some saving of our own, not to mention foiling You-Know-Who's next ingenious plan to take over the world and kill Harry Potter in the most gruesome manner."

"Harry who?" the prisoner asked. Now that was something new.

"You know, the Boy Who Lived, He Who Survived A Direct Avada Kedavra Hit And Got Away With Only A Strange Scar On His Forehead, you know?" Ron looked a bit surprised to see someone not familiar with the legend.

"I'm afraid I'm a bit behind on the news, we don't get in contact with the outside world often."

"Okay, what are you going to do then?" Harry asked.

"Let's free my brethren first and whoever you came after, and then we can go after Voldemort."

"Agreed," said Draco.

Moving down the corridor, they have located several more cells.

"I can't believe He left this place unguarded!" said Ron as he looked around.

"He locked them up, why'd he need guards? No-one expects the inquisition until it comes," Draco replied.

"Let's get to work then!" Harry said as he magically opened the first door.

In a few minutes they have freed seven more wereravens, yet no signs of Hermione, Cho or Lavender were seen. The wereravens took off for flight in their raven forms.

"What the..." Draco half-asked.

"They're off to find loot. Weapons, armour, you know, loot," said Jack.

"What for?" Ron asked.

"To arm me. It's all part of a nifty plan developed by our ancestors, you'll see," was the reply.

"Okay, Mr. Big Bad Wolf, time to get to work!" said Harry.

"What?" Draco seemed a bit surprised to hear something like that from a Gryffindor.

"We have a major crossroad ahead, and you're the only one capable of tracing the trace," Ron responded, "So get to work already, Malfoy!"

It was a marvellous thing to see, how Ron and Draco managed to use each other's last names as insults whenever speaking of each other or their family members. With a heavy sigh, a shrug and a sniff, Draco turned himself into a wolf.

"So, he's a natural born then?" Jack asked.

"Yeah," Ron replied.

Draco looked at them with something like hatred, then turned round and started sniffing around, trying to smell something. Meanwhile, the other wereravens returned with some salvaged weapons and armour, passed them to Jack and made themselves scarce.

"Where'd they go?" Harry asked.

"Most of them are unable to fight, you know, wereravens don't have nice benefits like the strength of the werewolves or the sight of the werebats, we're just human in human form. Besides I don't think making women and children fight evil wizard overlords is a nice idea, do you?" Jack replied as he sorted out the salvage and picked some things out for himself.

"But we are fighting evil wizard overlords and we're still alive, aren't we?" said Ron.

"Weasley, I suppose he meant 'sane women and children'," said Draco.

"Then how come you, being a warrior of some sorts, were a prisoner along with the others?" Harry asked.

"That was because the Death Eaters aren't bright enough to realize that the most authoritive one may not be the wisest one. So they captured me along with killing most of our people that did know how to work the bloody staff." Jack replied as he put on the plate armour he was supplied with. The only weapon in the pile was a longsword that looked aged, yet was whole and durable enough to be used. Jack looked at it in deep thought and finally hoisted it onto his belt.

"Let's go," he said.

They have turned to Draco who was still acting like a police dog that was on a mission.

"So, how's it going, mate?" Harry asked.

"Badly," Draco said after shifting back into his human form, "I don't smell any of them. Either it is that they were taken through a different way or the smell was removed in some way. You know, perfume, et cetera..."

"Whatever. Coin toss then?" Ron said.

"Have a coin to toss? Anyone?" Jack asked.

"Yeah, I do," Harry said, fishing a sickle out of his pocket, "Tails for left one and heads for the right one, alright?" he said as the coin went up into the air. It landed.

"Tails. Alright, let's go," Draco said as Harry scooped up the coin and pocketed it.

The corridor was a rather long and complex one. It writhed around like a decapitated snake and tended to turn at unsuspected angles.

"I hope the person that planned this fortress now rots in Hell, or else he's risking me helping him to it," Draco said angrily after yet another turn.

"You know what, Malfoy?" said Harry, "Once in a lifetime I agree with you."

"Shh..." was the reply, followed by a motion that could only be understood as "Stay silent you git, I'm hearing something!" because Draco put his finger to his lips in a very dismissive move with a not-very-happy facial expression.

"What is it?" Ron whispered faintly, Harry even had to strain his ears to hear it, but Draco's werewolf hearing was keen enough to make it out as he mouthed "Voices... four people," in response.

Harry cursed under his breath and drew his sword.

"Hurt first, ask later, bet its Death Eaters anyway!" Ron whispered. Jack nodded as Draco drew his own sword as well. They crept slowly up to the corner and Draco looked round it, nodded and charged suddenly with a yell.

"Time to die, Death Eater scum!"

Harry shrugged and followed suit. In a few moments, the four Death Eaters were on the floor unconscious and slightly wounded by the swords of the young warriors. They have been incapacitated for good, Harry knew it.

Around the next corner, they have finally found what they were looking for - a door supposedly leading to a cell. Ron looked inside through the bars on the small window.

"Bingo!" he said as he stepped back, pulling out his wand, "Alohomora!" he commanded as nothing happened.

"S'pose 'tis enchanted not to be unlocked in that particular way," Draco concluded calmly.

"Then what the hell do we do?" Ron yelled at him.

"Who's there?" came a tired and muffled voice.

"Only us, Hermione!" Harry replied.

"Harry? Ron? Who else is there with you?"

"Only Draco and a wereraven guy we freed on the way here."

"Draco as in Draco Malfoy?"

"The one and only, m'dear!" Draco replied cheerfully.

**********