Little Bird

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Draco

"Malfoy, wake up. Malfoy. Come on, you gotta get up mate-"

I had the pillow shoved over my head as Flint was pushing my shoulder, trying to block out the sunlight that was now streaming through the windows above my bed. Keeping my eyes squeezed shut, I grumbled something that was too muffled by the pillow to be understandable-but Flint refused to leave me alone.

"I'm not kidding, wake up-"

"S'matter?" I groaned, keeping my head under the pillow and pulling my arm out of Flint's grip. "Fuck off, would you-?"

"I need to tell you something," Flint said quickly, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was excited. "Shit went down last night, everyone's talking about it. Just get up, mate."

"Get off me," I snapped, finally throwing the pillow back and rolling onto my back. Shielding my eyes from the sunlight with one arm, I squinted up at Flint to see that he was fully dressed and pacing by the side of my bed. "What time is it?"

"Doesn't matter," Flint said. "Listen to me. Zabini told me this morning that Umbridge is missing."

"She's-what?" I asked, finally sitting up in bed. The dormitory room was empty, and the sunlight was bright through the windowpane-it had to be early. As I rubbed my eyelids with my fingertips, I struggled to remember what day it was; I wasn't missing class, was I?

I gradually started to wake up completely, remembering that it was in fact Sunday, and Flint continued excitedly, "I don't know the whole story, but I heard Potter got caught last night trying to leave the castle and then Umbridge went into the Forbidden Forest with him and Granger-dunno what the hell that's about-but now no one knows where she is! And now there's rumors that Dumbledore is coming back-"

"Christ, slow down, would you?" I interrupted, sleep still tugging at my mind and making it difficult to process everything he was saying. "Why did they go into the Forest?"

"Beats me." Flint shrugged as though it didn't matter much, launching back into his explanation and saying, "That isn't even the crazy part-something happened at the Ministry last night, and everyone's saying that there was a run-in with some Death Eaters and that Potter and his friends were there. Isn't that mad? And there's rumors that the Dark Lord showed up and now Fudge can't deny that he's back-"

"Which Death Eaters?" I asked quickly, throwing back the covers and swinging my legs out off the mattress. "Which Death Eaters were there?"

"Dunno," Flint said, but I was already tugging on the first pair of shoes my fingers touched. He watched in confusion as I struggled to tie the laces quickly, and when I stood from the bed too fast and nearly fell, he grabbed my arm and said, "Mate, I'm sure your parents are fine-people would be talking way more if someone got really hurt."

I hesitated, glancing over at him to try and determine if he was just trying to get me to calm down. Blinking the last traces of sleep from my eyes, I nodded slowly after a moment and took a step back. I shrugged Flint's arm off and he let go easily, clearing my throat and saying, "Guess you're right. But what the hell was all that about? Why would Potter go to the Ministry?"

"No idea," Flint said, shaking his head with his eyebrows raised. "Everyone's talking about it in the Great Hall, come on. I want to see if The Prophet put anything about what happened in it-I mean, it's about time Fudge stopped playing dumb and admitted the Dark Lord's back, am I right?"

"Yeah," I agreed absentmindedly, my head spinning as I tried to piece together everything Flint had just told me. What if someone had gotten hurt at the Ministry last night? What if had been Lucius?