Just Breathe

Chapter Seventeen

Draco took a deep breath as he looked at himself in the mirror, dressed in stiff Auror robes and so nervous he was about to throw up. Harry was standing behind him, with Ron, Kingsley, and Robards. Kingsley appointed Harry to go with him, and he was glad for that. He would have refused to go if Robards had been the one to go with him. Ron would have been okay, but he was definitely more at ease with Harry.

He turned back to them all and nodded, ready to get it over with.

"We'll have to go into this office down the hall to apparate over, no other place will allow it."

"Good luck," Kingsley said. Harry led the way out and he followed him down the dark hall. He wanted to reach out to him and grab his hand, but he held back; now wasn't the time. Harry pulled out his wand and unlocked the door, walking in and turning on the lights.

"So, the plan of action we figured out this morning, at least me getting you in, is that I'll apparate you into the corridor where he's being kept and then you take over from there. I'll just follow your lead."

"Okay." Now that they were alone, he grabbed Harry's hand and lifted his knuckles to his lips. "Listen, Harry, no matter what you hear, just remember this, don't hold on to the Draco you see there."

"Of course," he said, his brows drawn together in confusion. Draco squeezed his hand and slowly let it go.

"I'm ready when you are."

"Alright. What I'm going to do is just a simple disillusionment charm. No one in Azkaban will know who I am, not even the Auror on guard who knows you're coming. Robards only told the one person. There will be another guard in there, not an Auror. He won't act unless the Auror does. They'll both be invisible to us and to Rodolphus, so don't try and look around for them, it might tip him off. We'll just act as though we've snuck in and go from there."

"Sounds simple enough. And you're sure we won't have to worry about the guard who doesn't know about us or the plan?"

"No. They're kept under the strictest confidence, so even if they were to see something, if their Auror in charge tells them to keep quiet, they have to. It's part of an oath they take before going to work in Azkaban."

"Okay." Harry nodded back at him and pulled his wand from the straps under his cloak and he tapped himself on the top of his head. Suddenly, his hair turned a sandy blond, his eyes a dark brown, and he switched his round glasses for rectangle frames.

"How do I look?"

"Unnerving... You still sound like you, but no one would ever know. I don't think you'll be doing any talking anyway." They both pulled their hoods over their faces and nodded at each other. He held out his arm and Draco grabbed hold, hoping against hope they would get somewhere with this blasted plan.

They came out in a dark, damp hall that was only dimly lit at the very end near the single cell. He scanned the hall quickly but didn't see even a slight shadow indicating there was anyone else in the hall with them. He walked quickly down the long hall, keeping up with the act of having snuck in and not wanting to waste time. In the cell, he could see a lump under a thin blanket on the only cot in the back. He kicked the bars and the loud noise reverberated through the hall and the lump shuddered. He kicked the bars loudly again and this time Harry jumped beside him.

"Rodolphus." He hoped that even after his long stay here he would recognize his voice. "Rodolphus, get up." The lump moved again and this time, his head popped out from under the blanket. His sunken eyes narrowed, and he sat up a little straighter.

"Draco?" He stood up but didn't step closer. "Is that you? What are you doing here?"

"I've come to speak with you, Uncle, about what's been going on outside these walls."