The Slytherin prince

Chapter 64: Let's run away

Draco dragged me behind the corner, wand in hand. "Where did you get that?" By my knowledge, our wands were taken. Draco sighted before answering, like the words hurt in his mouth.

"Harry basically gave it to me." He bit his teeth.

"What? When?" He shushed me before answering. With a smooth motion and a quiet spell, my body was pressed in a small tube. Everything before me melted into each other, switching from bright colours to black and greens. I knew we had arrived. I had never asked where Draco learned to apparate. Not sure if I wanted to know. The room was busy. Wizards appearing from every corner, joining about what was ahead of us. I had heard a lot of rumours in school, most of them absolutely ridiculous, but so was the rumour that Harry had returned after a whole year under the radar. Anxiety shot me with the realisation that they all might be true too. With dumbledore dead, and Snape in charge, the school had not changed for the better. It became more and more some kind of controlled military base. The diadem represented some kind of token from the dark lord that could kill him, or so were the rumours. I hadn't had a chance to ask Draco about it, or anyone else. In all these weeks, I hadn't seen Anna once. I had been so worried about her that it had cost me many hours of sleep.

"My dearest soldiers." A sharp shivering voice penetrated through the room, everyone felt quiet. Goosebumps spread over my body. I felt Draco stiffen besides me, not as close anymore as before. The voice stopped abruptly and his pale bare head snapped our direction. I got goosebumps in places I didn't even know I could. "Aah." The voice cheered. "I see someone got their memory back. Good job Lucious." Lucious bowed deeply, not steady on his feet. "You will make a lovely pair after our victory." He stopped right in front of me, his rotten breath brushing over my face. I didn't dare to look up.

"What victory?" I heard a small, but confident, voice ask. The demons head turned sideways. Behind the crowd stood Anna, thin, pale and outstandingly angry.

"Sweet child, join us." The demon gestured towards the table. I was desperately waiting for Anna to meet my gaze. When she did, I saw something in her I had not expected. More anger. Did she blame me? I wanted to reach out, to explain myself, but we were in the middle of a nice briefing with the dark lord himself. I forced myself in place. "Harry Potter and his friend declared war to us." He started. "He found out about the horcruxes." It was very quiet in the room expect from his toenails tapping the ground by every step. "Thanks to our beloved Draco." He pointed our direction, all of their heads snapping towards us. "We have a free passage inside the Hogwarts castle. With his unsuccessful help, we eliminated the headmaster and made one of our own in charge. Tonight, Harry Potter will die. We will take over the wizarding world. You will all profit from it, my loyal soldiers." It took time for me to prosses everything I've heard. Horcruxes, like shattered pieces of someone's soul into objects? My stomach turned. The diadem was a horcrux. I felt a wind of relieve going over me to know that Harry had a hold onto it. Now I looked at Voldemort, I did saw some strange changes. His skin was less glossy, his eyes bursted with bloody veins, he looked thin and breakable. I almost cracked a smile knowing that Harry, Ron and Hermione had found a way to destroy them, to destroy Voldemort. This is not over yet, I thought in myself. There is still a chance left for the good side to win. Not my side. I added inside my head. Sadness overcame me again, feeling the mark prick. "Now go." He waved his bony hand in the air and wizards started to disappear. I looked over to Draco, he understood more about it than me. He was looking at something in the distance, frozen and pale.

"Draco?" I gently shook his arm. I wasn't completely sure on which side he really was, so I swallowed my words back in.

"7." He answered without looking at me.

"Horcruxes?" I whispered as low as I could.

"They already found 5. That is why he looks so..."

"deceased?" I added sarcastically.

"yea." He paused. "Victoria, you have no idea what we are about to walk into." He looked at me for the first time after we got there. I stayed quiet. "People are going to die." He urged

"Let's just run away." I suggested out of the blue. "Run and never look back." I took his hand and placed it over my heart. It was racing.

"To where?" He sighed.

"We will make it work." I hoped he couldn't hear the hopelessness in my voice. his eyebrows frowned, but a small smile settled upon his lips. He was about to say something but the ink under our skin interrupted our conversation. "Aah." I moaned in pain. I rolled my sleeve up and looked at the abomination on my wrist. The snake was alive and urging me to go forward. I dug my nails deep into the skin besides it. A stupid attempt to take my focus away from that thing. Draco was feeling it too, rubbing over his sleeve, trying to hold back. The urge to move was unbearable. It spread to every organ, every cell, hurting worse and worse. "We can make it." I whispered to myself, almost falling on my knees from the pain.

"You will make it when your task is over. You will get married and be praised from around the world for serving the all true master of the wizarding world." A voice penetrated my mind. It echoed through my skull. I placed my hands over my ears, trying to block the noise out.

"You have to relocate your focus, Victoria. That is how the dark lord penetrate everyone's minds." Draco sat beside me on the floor. "Think of something else." He demanded, taking my hand. I almost couldn't hear him.

"This is about us, about me." I looked into his icy blue eyes and the voice became less and less clear.

"That is how he gathers information to threat people into doing what he wants." Draco explained.

"That was straight out of a nightmare. Did you hear it too?"

"No, I've got used to it and learned how to block it at all times."

"You are very bright, you know that?" We sat on our knees, hands strangles into each other.

"Wish I could have used my cleverness for something else." He admitted in a sad tone while looking at the ground. The pain came back, even worse this time, and it forced us right back towards were we came from.