Another City, Not My Own

"ANOTHER CITY, NOT MY OWN"
Chapter Thirteen
"Running Guests"

BWEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEEOOOEEE!!

And that was the absolute last thing in the world that Harry had expected. Lucius Malfoy hated Muggles. With his distrust of anything non-magical and his over-reliance on magical devices, the last thing Harry had ever expected Malfoy to do was to install a Muggle burglar alarm in his chateau!

Stupid!

Harry chided himself. So stupid! Should have known Lucius Malfoy would use every last trick in the book!

The siren echoed through the floors of the chateau above them. Gabrielle stared up at the ceiling and looked at Harry in horror. She was a banker's daughter. She knew what that sound meant!

"Wait here!" Harry told her. "I'll be right back!"

He ran back to the stairwell. Pointing his wand up the stairs, he shouted, "Claustra Glacio!"

A jet of red light from his wand shot up through the stairwell and hit the door at the top of the stairs. The spell was a useful one that Hermione Granger had taught him. It would freeze the lock in a door so that no one could open it. It might buy them at least a few minutes of time.

Harry ran back into the wine cellar and shut the door. Footsteps thundered across the ceiling overhead. The Malfoys and their guests were running back and forth through the rooms above, searching for the intruders. The alarm was still wailing.

"Lumos

," Harry whispered. The tip of his wand blazed to light.

The secret chamber under the two steel doors was a hole set into the floor, a little more than three feet in depth. It resembled a freshly-dug grave without a tombstone. Looking down, Harry saw a collection of sinister-looking objects stacked around the edges of the hole. There were glass jars filled with grisly, organic-looking things, grotesque wooden witch masks staring up at them with angry expressions, and voodoo wands topped with animal skulls and tied with musty bunches of feathers. There were sheathed knives, medieval-looking weapons, piles of rusty chains and shackles, and sepulchurs of bone clustered around the sides of the dark pit.

A small clear space had been left in the center of the secret chamber. Harry jumped down into the hole and started to look around.

A loud BANG! sounded from somewhere in the house and the burglar alarm shut off with an abrupt screech! It sounded to Harry as if Draco Malfoy, unfamiliar with Muggle devices, had shut the alarm off by blasting the alarm control panel with his wand, rather than trying to figure out how to shut it down manually.

Harry reached up and helped Gabrielle down into the secret chamber. "We've only got a few minutes before they come down here. Help me look around in here, but don't touch anything. Remember, these are Dark Arts objects. Some of them may be cursed. We're looking for a flat rosewood case with a skull-and-crossbones on the lid."

More footsteps and angry voices came from above. It sounded as if the Malfoys and their guests were now running up and down staircases and searching the higher floors of the house.

Maybe we're lucky

, Harry thought. Maybe they think somebody set off the burglar alarm while trying to break in! They don't realize that we're already down here, that we've already BROKEN into the house. Maybe they'll waste their time searching the upstairs rooms, and it'll take them a while to get around to searching the wine cellar.

Behind him, Gabrielle suddenly screamed! Harry whirled, startled.

Gabrielle pointed shakily to a dark corner of the chamber. A full human skeleton sat upright against the side of the pit. It was dressed in a Carnival costume, a decaying white clown's outfit with black pompoms, and a cone-shaped cap-and-bells on its head. A few white human hairs stuck out from under the cap, floating across the grinning face of the skull. It looked as if, whoever the skeleton was, he had been locked down here in the secret chamber while he was still alive!

Harry grabbed Gabrielle's arm and shook her gently to snap her out of her fear. "Okay, he can't hurt you. Come on, help me search!"

Gabrielle nodded and started to look through the objects in the pit once more. Harry searched through small, porcelain statues of dragons that looked as if they might come to life and bite your finger off if you touched them, glass containers of snake skins, lizard eyes, and powdered unicorn horns, stacks of Dark Arts spellbooks, and a small table lamp that seemed very ordinary--until Harry realized, with a sickening shock, that the base of the lamp was decorated with human bones and the lampshade was made from stretched human skin!

He kept searching, his ears listening to the repeated thudding sounds in the rooms above. On a stack of spellbooks lay a square-shaped, leather-bound box, like a music box without a crank. Harry looked at it, and after a moment, picked it up.

Was this it? It wasn't a rosewood case, like Dobby had said. And it didn't have a skull-and-crossbones on the lid. Probably the wrong box, Harry thought. Better check it anyway, just to be sure.

He opened the hinged lid. To his horror, a ghostly-white human hand popped out of the box! Harry let out a yell! Gabrielle screamed again!

The white human hand grabbed Harry's nose and tweaked it. "Ow!" Harry yelled. Then the hand slapped Harry back and forth across both cheeks several times. It grabbed the lid of its box and pulled it down, slamming it shut angrily!

"That's--not--it!" Harry said grimly, his face smarting. He had the feeling that, whatever the thing inside the box was, he had just woken it up. He replaced the leather-bound box on the stack of books and started to search again.

He was going through a pile of spiked metal torture instruments when, behind him, Gabrielle exclaimed, "'Arry! I think I 'ave it!"

She held up a small, flat wooden case, with a skull-and-crossbones engraved on the lid. Harry took the case from her and tried to open it. It was locked.

"Oh, bloody hell," he grumbled. "Nox!" His wand-light went out. He pointed the wand at the keyhole on the front of the case. "Alohomora!"

The lock on the case clicked open. "Lumos!" Harry's wand lit up again and he handed it to Gabrielle. She held it up so he could see the contents of the case.

Harry opened the lid. Inside was a collection of about thirty small bottles, each with a glass stopper. They were set in divided rows in a bed of persimmon velvet. Harry pulled the bottles out, one by one, and examined their labels. Instantly, he knew that he was on the right track. This was a collection of rare and deadly poisons: Ground Surka Leaf. Iocaine Powder. Devil's Foot Root. Basilisk Venom. Cinema au Madonna.

From the stairwell came the sound of hammering fists, beating on the frozen door at the top of the stairs. Angry, muffled voices sounded from the floor above. The occupants of the house, having looked everywhere else for the intruders, had finally decided to search the wine cellar.

"Oh, great," Harry muttered, through his teeth. "Here comes the Comic Relief!"

The hammering from the door at the top of the stairs became louder. Harry hoped the lock-freezing charm would hold the invaders off just a few seconds longer. He sorted through the bottles in the rosewood case as quickly as he could, pulling each bottle out and reading its label carefully. Monk's Hood. Aysgarth's Milk. Dragon Sand. Lobalug Venom. Panserbjorne Liver Oil. Extract of Isley's Vine.

And then he found it! A small bottle with a silver stopper and some kind of green-brown plant substance inside. The label on the bottle said "Radix Chimaera."

"Chimaera's Root!" Harry said, finally.

A loud CRASH--BANG!! sounded from the stairwell. Harry knew that sound. It was the sound of the door at the top of the stairs being blown off its hinges. Another loud crash followed a second later! That was the sound of the door hitting the stone floor at the bottom of the stairwell.

Harry shut the rosewood case. He put the bottle of Chimaera's Root in the inside pocket of his jacket and zipped the jacket up. Grabbing his wand from Gabrielle, he whispered, "Nox." His wand-light went out, plunging them into darkness once more.

He jumped out of the secret chamber and reached back to help Gabrielle out. "Come on. Let's get under the Invisibility Cloak fast."

He grabbed the cloak off the floor. Gabrielle stood with her back to him, and he put the Invisibility Cloak around them both. Taking hold of her shoulders, he backed up slowly with her until they stood against the wall opposite the window.

They waited.

* * *

Soft footsteps sounded from the stairwell outside, coming slowly down the stairs. Then the wine cellar door was kicked open!

Draco Malfoy, Marcus Flint, Vincent Crabbe, and Gregory Goyle came into the wine cellar like a Muggle S.W.A.T. team bursting into a drug dealer's apartment, their wands pointed in all directions! They looked around the room in confusion, surprised to find no one there. Then Draco stepped forward, eyes widening. His jaw dropped as he saw the secret chamber, lying open in the moonlight that shone in through the window!

Harry and Gabrielle waited tensely under the Invisibility Cloak. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Flint stared at the open chamber. Then Malfoy shouted, "Search the room!"

Crabbe and Goyle wandered around the edge of the secret chamber, blundering past Harry and Gabrielle, searching the corners of the room behind the wine racks on either side. Marcus Flint checked behind the open door.

"Nobody here, Draco," Crabbe grunted.

Malfoy looked at him angrily. "There has to be someone here!"

More footsteps sounded from the stairwell. Narcissa Malfoy entered, holding up a lamp to illuminate the wine cellar. "What's going on? Did you find anything, Draco?"

She stopped, staring in horror at the open chamber in the center of the floor. Draco started moving erratically around the room, searching the walls and corners. His eyes swept wildly over Harry and Gabrielle, hidden under the cloak, and he moved on. He looked up at the ceiling and down across the stone floor. He strode past his mother, out the door into the stairwell, looked around, and came back into the cellar, seething.

"The door at the top of the stairs was sealed!" he yelled, his voice ringing off the low ceiling. "They've got to be in here somewhere!"

"Draco, the room's empty!" said Marcus Flint, bewildered. "There's nowhere in here they could hide!"

Narcissa Malfoy moved slowly around the edge of the secret chamber, staring down into the pit. "How did they open the secret chamber? How did they even know that it was down here to begin with?!"

"How did they even get into the cellar in the first place?!" Draco shouted. He moved to the side of the chamber and looked down into it.

Crabbe, Goyle, and Flint came to the center of the room. Marcus Flint pointed down into the chamber. "What is all this stuff?"

"It's my father's Dark Arts collection!" Draco growled. "We shipped it down here a few days ago from Malfoy Manor."

"Is anything missing?" Narcissa asked. "Has anything been stolen?"

"I don't know." Draco knelt at the edge of the chamber and jumped down into the pit. Narcissa put her lamp down on the floor and held up her hands to Crabbe and Goyle. They dutifully helped her to lower herself down beside Draco.

Everyone's attention was focused on the open chamber in the floor. Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry pushed gently against Gabrielle's left shoulder, indicating that they should move to the right. Very slowly, they began to edge their way along the wine racks towards the open stairwell door.

"I don't see anything missing," said Narcissa, from the chamber. "The voodoo wands are all here. Your father's spellbooks are all here." She pointed to the skeleton in the Carnival costume. "Uncle Fortunato is still here."

"You're sure nothing's missing, Mother?" said Draco. He hopped up out of the chamber and glanced around the room once more. "Why would someone break into our secret chamber and steal nothing? How did they even know it was here? And how did they get inside the wine cellar to open it?"

"Maybe they Apparated in," Marcus Flint suggested. "And then they Apparated back out again when they were done."

Draco shook his head. "You can't Apparate in or out of here. My father put special spells on this house. No one can Apparate in or out unless they're of Malfoy blood!"

He pointed to the secret chamber. "But even if someone could Apparate in here, how could they open the secret chamber? They'd have to know it was here to begin with! And then they'd have to know the magic passwords to bring it up from under the floor! And then they'd have to know the Combination Spell for the crystal lock!"

"Crystal lock?" Flint repeated.

"It's a magical lock," Draco said. He paced the room, still searching the walls and corners for any sign of the intruders. "It holds these steel doors shut. And my father is the only one who has the Combination Spell for this lock!"

"Draco!" In the chamber pit, Narcissa Malfoy picked up the rosewood case. "My collection of rare poisons! It's been opened!"

She opened the lid on the case and searched through the bottles inside. "The Chimaera's Root! It's not here! It's been stolen!"

Draco looked at her sharply. "What?!"

"Oy, Draco," said Crabbe. "Wasn't that the stuff that your father used on that owl that he sent to Dumbledo--?"

"Of course it was, you idiot!" Draco snapped.

Narcissa put the rosewood case down and held up her hands to Marcus Flint, who helped her up out of the secret chamber. She looked frantically around the wine cellar. "The Chimaera's Root is the most valuable poison in my collection. We must get it back! It's worth one thousand galleons an ounce!"

Draco looked towards the open door of the wine cellar. "They sealed the door at the top of the stairs. Why did they seal it? Why?"

"Maybe there was something down here that they didn't want us to find?" Marcus speculated.

Under the Invisibility Cloak, Harry and Gabrielle had reached the cellar door. Harry pulled back slightly on Gabrielle's shoulders, and they began to slowly back out through the open doorway.

"Or maybe," Marcus Flint continued, his voice sounding more pressing, "maybe they were hiding in the stairwell! Maybe after we all came rushing down here, they ran back up the stairs! Maybe they're upstairs right now!"

"But they couldn't have done that," said Narcissa. "There's nowhere to hide in the stairwell. We would have seen them when we came down the stairs!"

Draco Malfoy suddenly started, as if he'd been struck by a small stone.

Uh oh!

Harry thought. Several years ago, Malfoy had learned about Harry's Invisibility Cloak.

Malfoy's gray eyes darted around the room, peering into the corners again. Harry knew that he was putting the pieces of the puzzle together in his mind.

"Hey, Draco--" Crabbe started to say.

"Shhh! Quiet!" Malfoy hissed.

He looked around the room once more. Then his jaw clenched.

From the look on his face, Harry knew what Malfoy was going to do a few seconds before he did it. Malfoy's hand went into his pocket. Harry pushed down urgently on Gabrielle's shoulder. Gabrielle got the message and dropped to the floor. Harry went down on top of her under the cloak, trying not to crush her.

Malfoy yanked out his wand, pointed it across the room at the open door, and shouted, "Stupefy!"

The Stunning Spell whizzed over Harry's and Gabrielle's heads and through the open doorway, into the stairwell behind them. Malfoy pointed his wand at the corner of the room to the left of the door, and shouted "Stupefy!" He pointed his wand at the corner of the room to the right of the door, and shouted "Stupefy!" The Stunning Spells hit the empty corners and bounced off the walls, rattling the wine bottles in their wooden racks. Narcissa and the others stared at Draco in shock and confusion.

"Potter!" Malfoy yelled. "I know you're in here! And I know you're wearing that damned Invisibility Cloak! Show yourself! You can't get out of here! We've sealed all the doors upstairs! You might as well give up now!"

Crouching on the floor on his forearms and knees under the cloak, Harry gripped his wand, his heart hammering hard. Gabrielle quivered underneath him.

What now?

he thought. Do I fight them? All five of them? Or do we try to attempt a backwards military crawl up the staircase?! In a few seconds, Malfoy's going to run straight through this doorway here, and then he's going to trip over us and find us!

And then behind him, he heard a high-pitched, angry yowling sound!

Oh, no!

Harry thought. The cat came back!

Looking back over his shoulder, he saw Narcissa Malfoy's black cat standing on the third step up in the staircase behind him. Its fur was standing on end, and its evil yellow eyes were peering at them. It was hissing and spitting as before.

Draco and his friends looked at the open wine cellar door. Harry knew that, from their point of view, they could see the cat on the stairs outside the door. They could see that the cat was yowling and spitting at something at the bottom of the stairs. But they couldn't see what was making it angry!

Now what?

Harry thought. NOW WHAT?

And then suddenly the matter was decided for him.

The cat leaped from the third step, through the open doorway, and landed on Harry's back, digging its claws into him through the Invisibility Cloak!

Wincing in pain, Harry looked at Draco Malfoy. In one second, he knew, Malfoy's mind would realize that the cat was floating in midair. In two seconds, Malfoy would realize that the cat wasn't really floating in midair, but that it was standing on something invisible. In three seconds, Malfoy would realize that the cat was standing on Harry Potter under his Invisibility Cloak!

Harry didn't give him time to make these conclusions.

* * *

What happened next almost seemed to happen in slow motion:

--Harry Potter jumping to his feet and throwing off the Invisibility Cloak (and the cat) in one swift move.

--Draco Malfoy's eyes widening as Harry Potter suddenly materialized out of thin air ten feet in front of him.

--Harry pointing his wand straight at Draco.

--Draco pointing his wand straight at Harry, their eyes locked.

--Harry suddenly pivoting to his right, aiming his wand at Narcissa.

--Draco turning in horror, afraid that Harry was about to curse his mother.

--Harry shouting "Conicio Vinum!"

A jet of red light from Harry's wand shot past Narcissa Malfoy and hit the wine racks along the wall to Harry's right, the red light spiraling madly through the necks of the wine bottles.

And suddenly every bottle in the wine racks on that side of the room popped its cork with the caliber of a rifle shot. In the enclosed space, it sounded like an infantry battalion firing off a barrage, the surreal sound of Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop-pop!! echoing off the stone walls of the cellar. Draco, Narcissa, Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint were suddenly hammered with flying corks. They howled in pain, their bodies jerking and twisting as if they were being riddled with machine-gun bullets.

Harry pointed his wand to his left, at the wine racks on the other side of the cellar, and again shouted, "Conicio Vinum!"

Every wine bottle in the racks on the opposite side of the cellar popped its cork. Malfoy, Narcissa, and the others shouted and screamed as they were bombarded with flying corks from the opposite direction. They held up their hands, jolting and twitching, trying to shield themselves from the torrent of stinging missiles.

In a flash, Harry snatched up the Invisibility Cloak, grabbed Gabrielle by the wrist and pulled her to her feet, and ran out the open door.

In the stairwell, Harry and Gabrielle stumbled over the wooden door lying on the floor at the bottom of the stairs. They dashed up the steps together. As they reached the top of the staircase, Harry gave Gabrielle a slight push towards the open doorway.

"Keep going!" he told her. "I'll be right out!"

Gabrielle ran through the doorway. Harry stopped on the top landing and looked back down the stairwell. He could hear angry shouts coming from the wine cellar. He aimed his wand down the stairs at the two large wine casks on the center landing, and shouted "Volvo!"

The two wine casks jumped off the center landing and bounced down the stairs towards the wine cellar door. Crabbe and Goyle were the first ones out through the open doorway. They let out a yell as they saw the wine casks tumbling down the stairs, coming straight for them. The wine casks rolled through the open door, knocking Crabbe and Goyle flat like tenpins. Harry heard the wine casks crash and break in a shattering of wood and a huge splash of liquid somewhere inside the cellar.

"Noooooooooo!!" Narcissa screamed, through the open door. "My best casks of Amontillado!!"

Harry ran through the open door at the top of the stairs. Gabrielle was waiting in the salon. "What did you do?" she asked.

"I gave 'em both barrels," Harry said, dryly. "Come on! Let's get out of here!"

Together they ran through the archway into the vestibule, and back to the front door. Harry grasped the heavy door handle and jerked it. The door was locked. He pointed his wand at the door, and said, "Long live the Death Eaters!"

But when he tried the door handle again, it was still locked.

"Alohomora!"

Harry tried. He jerked the door handle. It still refused to budge.

"Great!" Harry grumbled. Malfoy must have magically sealed the door somehow when he heard the alarm go off. "Here, stand back, Gabrielle! I'm going to blast it open!"

He took a few steps back and pointed his wand at the door. "Reducto!"

The spell hit the center of the heavy oak door with a tremendous crash! The door jolted in its frame, but stayed upright. The walls shook, the crystal chandelier rattled overhead, and fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling.

Harry stared at the door in disbelief. "I think we're in trouble!"

From the wine cellar stairwell, they heard Draco Malfoy shout, "Come on!"

"Tactical retreat, Gabby!" Harry grabbed Gabrielle's hand and they ran for the staircase. As they dashed up the stairs, Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Flint charged into the vestibule.

"There he is!" Malfoy yelled.

Harry pointed his wand over the staircase banister and shouted, "Stragulum Volatilis!"

The oval-shaped rug on the vestibule floor was suddenly yanked out from under their pursuers' feet. Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, and Flint flew in the air and came crashing down on the tile floor underneath. Harry and Gabrielle disappeared up the stairs.

They dashed down a long, wide hallway with five large doors on each side. As they reached the far end of the hall, Harry grabbed Gabrielle's shoulder, stopping her. "Hang on! I've got an idea!"

He pointed his wand back down the hall and shouted, "Aperio Omnis!"

Every door on both sides of the hall sprang open. Harry pulled Gabrielle through the nearest door, into what looked like an unused guest bedroom with a canopy bed, a wardrobe, and an empty writing desk on one side of the room.

"Get under the Invisibility Cloak," Harry said, unfolding it. "We'll stand here until they search this room. Then we'll try to slip past them and get back downstairs."

He backed up against the wall next to the open door, throwing the cloak around his shoulders. Gabrielle stood in front of him, and he covered her with the cloak as well. They waited. Harry fingered his wand as footsteps sounded in the hallway outside.

"Search everywhere!" Malfoy shouted. "They're here somewhere!"

Gabrielle was breathing hard under the cloak. Harry squeezed her shoulder, reassuringly. "Shh! Just be calm."

A few seconds later, Vincent Crabbe ran into the room. He stopped about two feet away from them, looked around dumbly, then ran back out again.

They waited, but one else came in the room. Harry could still hear the four boys moving through the other rooms nearby. There was a sound of closet doors being opened and slammed shut, and more running footsteps down the hall.

"They're not here!" Goyle shouted.

"Yes, they are!" came Malfoy's voice. "They're hiding under Potter's Invisibility Cloak! Search the rooms again! Tear them apart if you have to! But find them!"

"Let's try to sneak past them," Harry whispered to Gabrielle. "Remember, move slow. Keep to the side of the hallway, so they don't blunder into us."

Gabrielle nodded under the cloak. Moving slowly, his hand on her shoulder, Harry slipped around the edge of the open doorway and out into the hall again. He guided Gabrielle to the side wall. Together, they started back down the hall towards the staircase, moving at a snail's pace.

The scene in the hallway reminded Harry of something out of a "Golden Age of Television" sketch. Malfoy, Flint, Goyle, and Crabbe were running back and forth across the hall, darting in and out through the open doors on either side, looking around wildly as they ran from room to room. Harry half-expected to see a ballerina in a pink tutu come dancing across the hall from one door to another, followed by a man in a gorilla suit leaping across the hall in the opposite direction.

I think the Marx Brothers had a routine like this,

he thought, dazed. How did Groucho say it? "This house not only has running water, it has running guests!"

As they crept down the hall, Harry glanced in through the open doorway to their left. Gregory Goyle was swinging a footstool blindly around the room, as if he expected to hit them with it by sheer luck. In the room to their right, Vincent Crabbe was poking a mop underneath a canopied bed, as if trying to flush them out.

They were almost to the stairs when a familiar yowling sound reached their ears. Glancing down the hall, they saw Poopsie, the black cat, blocking their path to the stairway, its fur standing on end.

"Oh no, not again!" Harry groaned.

Marcus Flint dashed out of a room at the far end of the hall. "Oy, Draco, I think they're out here in the--!"

Harry didn't let him finish. He threw off the Invisibility Cloak, pointed his wand at Flint, and shouted, "Stupefy!"

The Stunning Spell hit Marcus Flint and he flew backwards down the hall, crashing into the wall at the far end. Gabrielle grabbed Harry's wand arm and yanked him around to face the opposite direction, just as Draco Malfoy leaped out of a room at the other end of the hall, his wand already pointed at them.

"Stupefy!"

Malfoy shouted.

"Defendo!"

Harry yelled, just in time.

This was the Shield Charm that he had learned two years ago during the Triwizard Tournament. It threw up a magical shield that could deflect minor curses. Harry was relieved to discover now that it worked against the Stunning Spell. The jet of silver light from Malfoy's wand hit the invisible shield--momentarily illuminating a large transparent bubble surrounding Harry and Gabrielle--and bounced off. The Stunning Spell slammed into Malfoy and knocked him flat on his back. As Malfoy fell, he landed on Poopsie!

Two loud bellows sounded from rooms on either side of the hall. Harry spun around once more, wand ready. Crabbe and Goyle would be next!

He needn't have bothered. Crabbe and Goyle came barreling out through open doors on opposite sides of the hall. They collided stupidly in the middle of the hallway and crashed to the floor in a heap.

Harry and Gabrielle stared at Crabbe and Goyle in complete disbelief for a few seconds. Then Harry heard a shout behind them, followed by footsteps thundering up the staircase from the vestibule. "Oy! Come on!"

It was Derrick and Bole. Harry wondered where those two had been all this time. He quickly snatched up his cloak and grabbed Gabrielle's hand. "This way!"

They hurdled over Crabbe and Goyle, Gabrielle scrambling up and over Crabbe's huge back, and fled down the hall. Stumbling over Marcus Flint, they turned right at the end of the hallway and ran down a side corridor. Harry started opening doors, looking for a window, a balcony, anything that would allow them to escape from the chateau.

At the end of the corridor, he opened a large white door and found a conservatory room enclosed by glass walls. It was filled with potted trees, ferns, and flower boxes, with a marble-topped table in the center of the tile floor. Harry and Gabrielle ran inside and dashed to the glass wall, looking for a door or a window that they could open.

"I don't see any way out, do you?" asked Gabrielle.

Peering through the glass, Harry saw that they were still on the second floor. The conservatory had apparently been built over an old rooftop terrace. Just outside the glass enclosure, he saw a thirty-foot drop straight to the ground with nothing to climb down.

"No," he said, bitterly. "We can't get out through here. Come on, let's get out of this room before--!"

A door on the far side of the conservatory flew open. Narcissa Malfoy darted in, brandishing her magic wand. "Stop right there! Don't move, either of you! Put your hands up!"

Harry and Gabrielle raised their hands. An evil smile came over Narcissa's face. "Going so soon, Harry Potter? I wouldn't hear of it! Our little party's just beginning!" She turned and shouted back through the open doorway. "Draco! I've got them! They're in the conservatory!"

She glared at Harry. "How dare you break into my house and steal my possessions?!"

"How dare you?!" Harry shouted, suddenly angry. "Trying to kill one of my teachers!"

"Dumbledore deserved it!" Narcissa screamed. "He expelled my Draco from Hogwarts!"

"Your son should have been expelled years ago! He doesn't deserve to go to a school like Hogwarts!"

"Silence!" Narcissa turned and shouted through the doorway again. "Draco! They're in here! Hurry!"

Harry looked around at the glass walls of the conservatory. He reached down and caught Gabrielle by the shoulder. "Cover your ears!"

Gabrielle did as she was told. Harry covered his own ears with his hands, his wand sticking up in the air by the side of his head, and shouted, "Tormentum!"

This spell--another useful one that Hermione Granger had discovered--could replicate the sound of a cannon being fired. A deafening BOOM! ripped the air just over Harry's head. The concussion blast shattered the glass walls and ceiling of the conservatory. Harry grabbed Gabrielle around the waist and pulled her under the marble-topped table as a storm of deadly glass plummeted down on them from above. Narcissa screamed and lunged back out through the open doorway.

"Shut your eyes!" Harry shouted as the falling glass rained down on the marble table top just over their heads. It sounded like a thousand iron nails crashing across a tin roof. Gabrielle let out a long, horrified scream.

It took several seconds for the lethal shower of glass to stop falling. A ringing silence followed. Harry and Gabrielle looked around the room, dazed. The floor was covered with sparking, shattered glass. Still holding Gabrielle around the waist, Harry quickly brushed the flakes of broken glass from the sides of their arms and legs with the tip of his wand.

"Let's go," he whispered. "Keep hold of my hand. Be careful how you walk across the floor."

They stepped gingerly across the glass-covered floor together. Narcissa Malfoy suddenly reappeared in the open doorway in front of them. She took a long, slow look around the room, then stared at Harry in horror.

Still walking towards her, Harry fixed Narcissa with a burning, withering glare that he had picked up from Sirius Black. Get the hell out of my way before I drop the entire house on your head!

Narcissa turned and fled down the hall!

Harry and Gabrielle reached the conservatory door and took off down another hallway. There seemed to be no end to the maze of corridors in this chateau. Harry opened doors leading into spare bedrooms, polished studies, and billiard rooms. He found windows that could be opened, but could not find any place where they could climb down safely or jump easily to the ground outside.

As they ran through the hallways, Harry and Gabrielle heard angry shouts and pounding footsteps and knew that Draco Malfoy and his friends were back on their trail. Ducking through another door, they found themselves in an enormous library, surrounded by tall shelves full of leather-bound books. There was a door on the opposite side of the room. Harry and Gabrielle made for it. They were halfway across the floor when a shriek sounded from a nearby wall.

"What are you doing in here?! How did you get in here?! Help! Help!"

Looking up, Harry and Gabrielle saw a portrait of Narcissa Malfoy in a white Victorian ball gown, staring down at them in horror. The door in front of them burst open and Derrick, the former Slytherin beater, dashed into the library. Derrick's partner Bole came rushing in through the door behind them. Both had their wands out.

"Get them!" the portrait of Narcissa screamed. "They're art thieves! They're obviously here to steal my beautiful loveliness! Get them, quick!"

Derrick shouted back over his shoulder, "Oy, Marcus! We found 'em! In the room with all the books!"

"It's called a library, you idiots!" shouted the painting of Narcissa.

Harry looked around at the shelves full of books. As Derrick and Bole advanced on them, Harry turned and swung his wand in a wide arc around the center of the room. "Expello Libri!"

Every book in the library suddenly sprang off the shelves. Caught off guard, Derrick and Bole yelled in surprise as they were bombarded with flying books. Harry pulled Gabrielle to the floor and threw himself over her. Only a few books made it as far as the center of the room, but Harry still took some hard blows on his back. He winced in pain as the books bounced off the bruises he'd received the day before in his fall in the Hogwarts Owlery.

He waited until the leather-bound volumes stopped falling, then pulled Gabrielle to her feet. They stepped through the piles of books, heading for the door directly in front of them. Derrick and Bole lay flattened under the landslide of books.

"Oh, my goodness! Look at this horrible mess you've made!" shrieked the portrait of Narcissa. "Where are you going? Come back here and clean this up at once!"

"Shut up!" Harry shouted at the portrait, as he and Gabrielle went out the door.

"Tais-toi!" Gabrielle shouted at the portrait, at the exact same moment.

The portrait Narcissa put her hand to her heart. "Well! I never!"

* * *

Racing down the hall once more, Harry and Gabrielle turned a corner and dashed through a long gallery where the walls were covered with portraits of Narcissa Malfoy. The portraits screamed at them as they ran past.

"What are you doing in here? Get out of here! You don't belong in here!"

"Help! Intruders! Encroachers!"

"Call security! The police! Interpol! MI-6! ANYONE!"

Sheesh, these things are worse than Peeves the Poltergeist! Harry thought.

At the end of the gallery, they suddenly came to a dead end with a single door in the wall. Harry wrenched the door open and they ran inside.

It was the entrance to the tower that they had seen from outside the house. A long staircase spiraled up the circular stone walls of the tower and disappeared through a trap door in the wooden ceiling fifty feet above their heads. There were no doors or windows along the tower walls through which they might escape.

Behind them, footsteps pounded down the gallery hall, heading in their direction. The portraits of Narcissa Malfoy were screaming at the tops of their voices.

"They went down that way! Towards the tower! Hurry, you've got to catch them! Help! Police! Murder!"

Harry slammed the tower door shut, pointed his wand at the lock, and shouted, "Claustra Glacio!" Then he and Gabrielle turned, and ran up the thirty-nine steps to the top of the tower.

At the top of the staircase, they found a circular room with four large arched windows. Harry and Gabrielle ran back and forth across the room, peering out the windows, trying to find a nearby tree, or ivy vines along the wall, anything that they could use to climb down to the ground. But there was nothing!

Hammering sounds came from the door at the bottom of the stairs. Gabrielle glanced toward the staircase, then looked at Harry as if to say, Now what?!

Harry looked around the room. Against one wall, between two windows, were two large flat wooden crates, one stacked on top of the other. There was a familiar emblem on the sides of the crates, a racing broom surrounded by fiery lightning bolts.

"Wait a second!" Harry pointed his wand at the top crate. "Aperio!"

The lid on the top crate came flying off. Inside, embedded in straw, were six sleek racing brooms.

"Firebolts!" Harry exclaimed, pulling one of the brooms from the crate. It was the latest Firebolt model, the X300. He'd heard about these brooms, but had never seen one before. "This is perfect! We'll fly out of here! C'mon, grab a broom!"

Gabrielle looked at him helplessly, and Harry remembered that she hadn't yet learned how to fly. "Oh, no! All right, we'll have to improvise. Here, you put this on!"

He took off his backpack and quickly stuffed his Invisibility Cloak inside. Gabrielle put the backpack on, and Harry quickly tightened the straps around her shoulders. The hammering on the door at the bottom of the stairs was getting louder.

Harry mounted his Firebolt. "Get on behind me! Hang on as tight as you can!"

It would slow them down a great deal with two people on the broom. But hopefully, this would be a very short trip. If they could get to Vieux Latrece, Harry thought, they could set down on a rooftop and put on the Invisibility Cloak. Draco Malfoy and his friends could search for days and never find them.

Gabrielle got on the broom behind Harry, grabbing him tightly around the waist. From below, they heard a huge crash and splintering of wood, followed by more footsteps pounding up the stairs. Harry pointed his wand at the nearest window and shouted, "Reducto!"

A jet of red light from his wand hit the window. Spiderweb cracks appeared in the glass, but the window held.

"I don't believe this!" Harry grumbled. He pointed his wand at the crate full of Firebolts. "Wingardium Leviosa!"

The crate rose in the air. Harry swept his wand to one side and sent the crate crashing straight through the window.

"Hang on! Here we go!" he shouted over his shoulder.

As Harry and Gabrielle shot out through the open window on the Firebolt, Draco Malfoy charged up the stairs and into the room. He pointed his wand after them and shouted, "Stupefy!"

But Harry and Gabrielle were already gone. Malfoy's spell bounced off the window arch, chipping stone and knocking out the remaining bits of shattered glass. Crabbe, Goyle, and Marcus Flint dashed up the stairs behind Draco, followed by Narcissa Malfoy. She was carrying Poopsie, who looked very squashed and not at all happy. "Where are they? Where did they go?"

"They stole one of my Firebolts!" Draco shouted. He pointed his wand at the remaining crate. "Aperio!"

The lid of the crate tumbled off. Malfoy reached inside, pulled out two Firebolts, and tossed them to Crabbe and Goyle. "Come on! After them!"

Crabbe and Goyle mounted their brooms and bolted for the window together--and got stuck side by side inside the arch! Draco and Marcus Flint stared in disbelief as Crabbe and Goyle both tried to jam through the open window at once. ("Grrrff!!--Nrrrgh!!--Rrrrff!!--Waitaminute!!")

Exchanging disgusted looks, Draco and Marcus walked to the window together, raised their feet, and punted Crabbe and Goyle hard in the backsides. Crabbe and Goyle popped out through the open window and took to the air.

Derrick and Bole appeared at the top of the staircase. Both had dazed looks and were holding the tops of their bruised heads.

"Where the hell have you two been?!" shouted Marcus Flint. He moved to the crate containing the Firebolts, pulled out two brooms, and tossed them to Derrick and Bole. "Come on! Potter and his friend just escaped on a broom! We're going after them!

Derrick and Bole mounted their brooms and flew out the open window. Flint pulled the last two Firebolts from the crate and tossed one to Draco Malfoy.

"Draco," said Narcissa. "Be sure you get the Chimaera's Root back. That's the most valuable poison in my collection. You can't let them get away with it!"

"Don't worry. Mother," said Draco. "Potter's not going to get away with this!"

Draco and Flint climbed on their Firebolts and zipped out the window. Narcissa put her cat down on the floor and ran to the open arch. She watched as Draco, Crabbe, Goyle, Flint, Derrick, and Bole circled the tower on their brooms.

"Fly!" she shrieked, waving her arms wildly. "Fly! Fly! Fly!"

[Next Chapter: What she said!]