Awakening to See...

...The Hero in the Elevator

*

"Even when I have been told that there is no legal obligation, I have always said, 'if there is a moral obligation then we must step up to the plate.' People's lives are more important that money."

~ Bishop Sean Patrick O'Malley

*

"What happened to the baby?" Ginny asked him, sitting cross-legged on the bed while he sat across from her, leaning against a bed-pole. He tore his eyes away from the wall above her, something that had been extremely interesting to him in the past half-hour, to look at her.

"The baby I delivered?" he asked, showing no emotion at all in his face except for an indifferent thoughtfulness that could not have been accomplished unless you were a Malfoy. She nodded. "He became an heir to a prestigious advertising company that he will inherit in twenty years, give or take."

Ginny gave him a small smile. "Does this baby have a name, by any chance?" she asked.

"John, John Indravis," he said, after a short pause in which he became fascinated with the burnt window. This led Ginny to believe he had something to do with the name, so she inquired about it.

"And is John a name you wish you had for yourself instead of the name 'Draco'?" she asked, biting back her smile and making her face seem as if it was curious.

This question brought Draco back to the present. He seemed a little taken aback by Ginny's inquiry, maybe even a little appalled that she would suggest such a thing. He scoffed at her. "As if I would take on a Christian name," he sneered.

Ginny raised her eyebrows, not in a sarcastic way, though. She had raised her eyebrows because this topic had brought back to him a piece of his old self; the one who always smirked at those he thought lower than him. And she didn't like this transition.

Instead of replying back to him, she lowered her head to look at her hands, which were folded in her lap, and asked, "Do you ever see John?"

For a moment, there is no reaction. She doesn't even hear him breathing. Startled, she looks up to see that he has disappeared, leaving something behind on the bed in his place. It was a small bottle that had a beige cork inside to keep the liquid from spilling out. The liquid itself was green, and it was bubbling in such a fashion that it reminded her of the Advanced Potions class she had taken at Hogwarts where they had studied up on time efflexirs, potions that could take you to whatever destination in time you wanted to be.

She picked up the bottle and held it in her hands, feeling the warmth of the potion bubbling up against the side of the glass in random places. It felt nice to the touch, but she knew it was dangerous.

And then it smashed.

*

"Draco!"

She sat up immediately and looked around. Draco was no longer on the bed beside her, his arm was not protecting her, and he was not anywhere else in the room. This surprised her. Lately, he had taken to sleeping on the bed with her ever since she had been infected by the dreshnok and had high fevers.

She got out of the bed and padded into the living room. No Draco there. She opened the door to the washroom, thinking it safe since the shower wasn't running. Still, no sign of him.

Then the realization hit her. She had been left all alone in the house with no note from Draco as to where he was off to; it was obvious what had happened. He had left, breaking his promise and returning to his father. He had probably taken the little bottle she had seen in her dream, and by now the Dark Lord was probably exacting his revenge on Harry Potter and the Wizarding World would probably go back to the way it had been when Voldemort had first been in power. Harry would be dead and Voldemort would be loose, his strength back to his full potential.

"Dammit," she muttered, closing the door to the washroom resignedly. She took a deep breath to calm herself -and to tell herself that it simply wasn't true and that Draco had probably gone for a walk-- before she began to walk into the kitchen. She perched herself on a stool and looked around, not knowing what to do.

She felt like a complete failure, like she didn't deserve to have such a great place in life, to have such a great job. She couldn't keep the worst from happening when she had visions on her side, proving that she was useless to the Wizarding World.

Yet, why did the witch in her say that she should have some faith in Draco? Why did her inner Seer sense that hope was close at hand? Why did some force draw her eyes to the--

Black silk cloak that was hanging on the coat rack by the front door? Ginny frowned and made her way towards it. She pulled it off the hook and felt the material, relishing the smooth feel of the silk and the way it glided over her fingertips almost like water. Such an item was too expensive for her, even if she had bought herself a BMW. There was only one person it could belong to, and that person was Draco Malfoy.

She looked through the front pockets of the cloak and soon stumbled across the little bottle. She gasped as the heat of the bottle pressed against her fingertips and she drew it out of the silk pocket. This could only mean one thing: Draco had kept his promise after all and he was somewhere else.

But where?

Then she noticed that one of her own cloaks was missing from the coat rack, one that had been a tad bit too long for her and she had left it there just in case she ran across someone who would fit in it, and give it to them as a present. It seemed like Draco was about to get a new present the next time she saw him.

*

The drive into London was hell, or at least something close to it. First, Draco had to find a suitable car that would not electrocute him like Ginny's did when he tried to open the car door. Then, he had to drive that car all the way to London in the pouring rain that had just started and try to miss some of the traffic jams on the major highways.

This was no easy feat for Draco, who had only driven a car twice or three times in his life and had no clue what all the symbols and buttons on the dashboard meant. As the rain poured harder on the country lane that he was on, he squinted through the river of water pouring down onto the windshield. Twice, he had to pull over when the visibility wasn't clear enough to even see a tiny bit through.

Once the rain had stopped pouring and only little droplets were now hitting the windshield, he started off again for London. Halfway there, the rain completely stopped, after which Draco finally figured out what the windshield wipers were for.

Using the telephone box that was a doorway to the Ministry of Magic, he went down underground into the Ministry of Magic and hid in the telephone box to see if there was anyone on guard. It took him a couple seconds to realize that there were witches and wizards running around, going about their daily routines. Not one witch or wizard seemed afraid or extremely upset, except for the couple of small children who were wailing at the top of their lungs, upset that their parents wouldn't let them have the candy the witch at the reception desk was giving out to other kids.

"Must've gotten here early," he thought, stepping out of the box and into the crowd of milling people. Some of them seemed to be giving him odd looks, as if they found it odd that he was hiding in the box, or at least trying to, since it was mostly glass. He ignored their gazes and looked around, trying to see if he could spot any of Voldemort's spies.

There was a man standing with his back against a pillar across from him. As the man's eyes raked the crowd and almost came to Draco, Draco hurriedly pulled his cloak hood up to cover his face, not wishing to reveal his identity too soon. He felt the man look at him for a second before looking at everyone else in the area.

Once the man had fixed his eyes on a Floo fireplace which had multiple people coming out of it at once, Draco snuck a look at the man, recognizing him as one of the new Death Eaters. Usually new Death Eaters were sent to spy on public places if Voldemort needed any information since it was unlikely that the Ministry of Magic would suspect them of doing something illegal. And it seemed as if this one had been sent to make sure no one got out.

The man suddenly began to move towards the fireplaces all along his side of the Hall. Draco kept his eye on him as the man started pushing people away from the fireplaces and casting a spell on them to board them up so that no one could get out or in. More spies came to help him and Draco felt it was time to move.

Not really knowing what he was doing, he ran over to the elevator as it began to unload passengers before its ascent up to other floors. He pushed his way through the crowd of people to get onto it, jostling several people along the way, some of them yelling at him.

The elevator had just begun to move when screams erupted from the Hall and flashes of green light flew about the room, one narrowly missing the elevator. The people in the elevator began to panic; some began to cry as they watched through the grilles dozens of people fall to the ground, dead.

Draco forced himself not to think about it, to keep to his resolve to find Arthur Weasley and save people on that floor. He alone could not help the people in the Hall. He had to focus on getting to Arthur.

As the elevator opened on Level Seven, Draco was overwhelmed with the question of why he was there in the first place. He knew the main reason was to help the Ministry of Magic avoid a disaster and get Mr. Weasley out of there in time with other people, but his thoughts kept coming back to the fact that it used to be him eager to be doing all the massacring.

"'Used to be' being the operative choice of words," Draco thought to himself. His eyes floated over to a witch who was shielding her son, prepared to keep his eyes away from any death that might be going on in Level Seven. She seemed vaguely familiar, but when he couldn't place where he had seen her before, he looked away.

No one got out on this floor. They were too scared to do it, afraid that a Death Eater would hop out from a corner in the corridors of Level Seven and throw curses at them. The people waiting for the lift on this level saw that only a few people could get on. As some of them boarded the lift, the rest headed to the stairway to go down to the Hall before a freaked-out witch stopped them in their tracks.

"Don't go!" the witch yelled from on the lift. She struggled to get to the front to talk to them more clearly. "There are Death Eaters in the Hall! They're killing everybody!"

The small group of wizards and a witch tensed. The witch departed quickly, apparently going back to her office as she had turned away from the route to the stairway. The rest of the wizards pulled out their wands and hurried to the stairs, probably going to help anyone in need in the Hall.

The frightened witch on the lift suddenly launched herself at the grille as the door to the lift began to close, yelling at the departed wizards, "Don't! Don't go! They're going to kill you!" Several wizards on the elevator struggled to hold her back to keep her from getting in the grille as it closed and she kept on screaming at the top of her lungs as the elevator began to go up again to Level Six. The witch with the child picked up her son and held his head to her chest as he began to cry, frightened at the other witch's antics.

"Madam, calm yourself!" an angry wizard who was holding the witch back yelled at her. She struggled to get free, causing the wizards holding her to bump into people behind them. Everyone jumped a little backwards and Draco was pushed further into the side of the lift. He took a deep breath and watched as an old witch with a walking stick bent down to the younger witch and whispered something to her. After a couple more sobs, the young witch calmed down somewhat and the old witch put an arm around her, releasing her from the wizards who were holding her.

"But Madam Tibbles..." the angry wizard complained, trying to get a hold of the frightened witch again.

Madam Tibbles, the older witch, knocked him over the head with her cane and yelled, "You'll be frightening her more if you keep her bound like that. She needs to be able to move in order to calm down." As soon as she sensed the wizard knew his place, she bent down to the younger witch and whispered to her again. The young witch slid down the grille to the ground and drew her knees up to her chest like a little child while Madam Tibbles nodded approvingly.

The elevator opened its doors again on Level Six and the young witch crawled back a little to look at the group waiting for the elevator. The group's eyes ran over the young witch's tear-streaked face to Madam Tibbles who was leaning against her cane, examining them, to the frightened faces of all the other passengers. Their own faces became alarmed.

"What's happened?" one of the wizards asked. His face had already been crinkled with worry, suggesting he might have known something about what was happening. He looked towards Madam Tibbles. "I heard that the Floo Networks had been shut down. Is something going on in the Hall?"

Madam Tibbles considered him for a bit, her wrinkled face clouding over, before saying, "My dear Nodstockings, you'd better get down to the Hall and open the Floo Networks. But you'd better be careful. It seems that Death Eaters have taken over the lobby."

Some of the witches in the group outside of the elevator gasped and a small group of witches and wizards took out their wands, departing for the lobby with set expressions on their faces. Nodstockings nodded briefly at Madam Tibbles before moving to follow the group of wizards who had just left.

Two wizards were left with the group of witches left behind. Draco recognized both the wizards as being two of his teachers back at Hogwarts, Professor Lupin and Professor Snape. He frowned as he realized Lupin was looking at Snape in askance, and he frowned even more when he realized Snape was looking directly at him, an odd expression on his face.

The group of witches, Lupin, and the people on the elevator followed his eyes to where Draco was standing, his face hidden by the cloak. He carefully avoided Snape's eyes, as the professor could have used Occlumency, if he had wanted to, to look into Draco's thoughts.

It was Madam Tibbles who spoke first. "My dear," she said to Draco, in a calm voice that suggested she knew something everybody else didn't, "I would remove the cloak at once and reveal your identity, or else..." She left that sentence unfinished to emphasize the seriousness of the situation to Draco, and he found himself obeying.

Those who understood what it meant to have a man with a pointed face and silvery blonde hair on board gasped. Some stepped back from him, including the young witch who was sitting on the floor. They all knew what it meant. A Malfoy, and a son of a prominent Death Eater, was on board.

Draco, meanwhile, looked at them all indifferently, even almost amused at the fact that they were scared of him because of his name. For a moment, everyone was frozen in place. Then several wizards whipped out their wands and brandished them at him. He sighed and looked towards Lupin, who had his hand in his cloak, ready to take out his own wand, and Snape, who seriously looked as if he was about to smile for once in his lifetime. Out of the corner of his eye, he could've sworn he had seen Madam Tibbles smile proudly at him.

"Have you seen Arthur Weasley?" Draco asked Snape and Lupin, keeping his expression calm.

"Why?" asked the angry wizard, who had his own wand out and was angry again. Draco turned sharply towards him. "Have you been sent to kill him by your father?"

"Contrary to popular belief, I am not my father," Draco told him, still keeping the exterior calmness so as not to alarm them anymore than he had already done. "In fact, I am here on behalf of Ginny Weasley. She's sick and can't make it, so I am to deliver a message for her."

"And how do you know where Ginny Weasley lives?" Lupin asked, suspicious.

"It's a long story, actually," Draco told him, looking at his watch. They were wasting time here.

"We have a few minutes," Snape said, the first time he had spoken since he had spotted Draco in the lift. "Tell us what you can."

Draco rolled his eyes. Snape had his arms crossed and a small smirk was tugging at his lips. He just loved the idea that another 'evil' person had crossed over from the Dark side.

So Draco told his story, from the part where Ginny had hit him with her car down to the part about her last vision. When he finished, he asked Snape, "Satisfied?"

The elevator doors began to close again, but Snape pressed the elevator button, automatically opening them again. "Alright, everybody off," Snape said, moving back to make way for the passengers.

"But sir!" the young witch exclaimed, standing up. "We may be safer on the lift."

"'May' being the operative word," Snape said, a bit reproachfully. "Will you be safe if they cut the power to the lift and come up to kill you? You'll be vulnerable in there, even more so because there wouldn't be a way to get out." This frightened the young witch even more and she jumped off the elevator like it was a spider that was going to bite her.

"Very good," he said in approval. He continued, "I want everyone to take the stairs. Go upwards and come out on each floor. Warn those who are waiting for the lift and take them with you. Lupin, if you could shut down the lift from here that would be great."

Lupin nodded and went into the elevator as the passengers finished unloading. Draco stepped off and watched as Lupin opened a side panel in the elevator before pointing his wand at it and muttering a spell. The lights flickered once before going off and Lupin stepped out as the elevator's doors began to close.

"Draco," Snape said. Draco turned and walked over to him, curious as to what Snape wanted him for. "As to your question, Mr. Weasley is still in his office. But for the moment, you are to lead everyone up the floors. Get as many people with you as you can. It will be safer if you remain in a tight group. Always keep as many adults with you as you can to keep a good defensive and offensive guard."

Draco nodded, not noticing that Snape had just called him a teenager. He asked, "What about you and Lupin?"

"We'll be down in the Hall," Snape told him, bringing out his wand. "Keep your wand at the ready. To remind you, you'll find Mr. Weasley on Level Two. And warn as many people as you can."

With that, Snape and Lupin departed for the stairs, leaving the now quite large group behind. Madam Tibbles turned to Draco expectantly and asked, "Well, Mr. Malfoy, are you leading us to safety or are you not?"

Draco looked at her for a moment. Then, he looked over the group, searching for able-bodied people. When he spoke, he sounded as if he was about to lead them to war. "Everybody have their wands out and ready." The group scrambled for their wands. He began to point to certain people that he felt would be useful in defence.

"I want you three to take up the rear defence," he said to them. They nodded in reply. "If you hear anyone coming up the stairs behind you, whistle twice. Everyone is to flatten themselves against the wall and the three of you are to identify the stranger. If you recognize him and know that he is on our side, welcome him to our group. If you don't recognize him, or you do but know him as a Death Eater, stun him."

"Mr. Malfoy, are we to attack someone we don't recognize simply because we don't recognize him?" one of the three defence wizards asked.

"That's absurd!" cried a witch.

Draco was about to talk, but Madam Tibbles beat him to it. "Would you rather we were attacked first by the stranger? He could be a Death Eater, for all we know!"

"That is exactly right," Draco agreed. "Voldemort sends his newest recruits in first as spies, simply because the Ministry doesn't know if they are Death Eaters or not. Better safe than sorry." He looked over his group again, expecting someone to burst out with, 'How do we know that you're not a Death Eater?' but it never came, probably because Madam Tibbles was frowning at anyone who looked as if they were about to speak.

Draco appointed another two wizards to join him at the front and gave them the same instructions. Then he turned to the rest of the group and told them that if they heard two whistles, they were to hide as best as they could. Then, he gave them a defence layout too, putting those he perceived to be the most vulnerable in the middle. The woman with her son and the young witch stood beside each other without a fuss.

Once he was satisfied, he promptly gave them a nod of approval and turned out of the room, starting for the reception area of Level Six. They were to warn the people on this level first before they started for the stairs.

*