✓ | RECKLESS AND BRAVE | Draco Malfoy

82 | DRAPETOMANI

DRAPETOMANI
(n.) an overwhelming desire to run away

TESSA NEARLY CRIED TEARS OF JOY WHEN SHE FOUND HERSELF BACK IN THE STREETS OF HOGSMEADE. She sniffed dramatically, looking around at the familiar shops as best as she could through Harry's grip around her shoulders under the Cloak.

     Before Tessa could do anything else, the door of the Three Broomsticks burst open as a dozen Death Eaters flicked out to crowd the street by them. She nearly made a startled sound upon their sudden appearance were it not for Ron who clamped a hand over her mouth to muffle her voice.

     She knew that their arrival — even though hidden by the Cloak — had alerted Voldemort whose rage could be felt shuddering through the mountains and reverberating the earth.

     "Accio Cloak!" one of them shouted but thankfully the charm didn't work on the Cloak. "Not under your wrapper, then, Potters?" He turned to say gruffly to his companions, "Spread out. They're here."

"Back," Tessa whispered as quietly as she could under her breath as the four of them inched their way out to the nearest side street and away from the searching Death Eaters.

"Let's just leave!" Hermione hissed in the darkness. "Disapparate now!"

"Great idea," Ron replied at once.

But before either Harry or Tessa could respond to that, the Death Eater from earlier called out, "We know you're here, Potters, and there's no getting away! We'll find you!"

"They were ready for us," Harry murmured darkly. "They set up that spell to tell them we'd come. I reckon they've done something to keep us here, trap us —"

"What about dementors?" another Death Eater asked loudly. "Let 'em have free rein, they'd find them quick enough!"

"The Dark Lord wants the girl alive and unharmed, and the boy dead by no hand but his —"

"— an' dementors won't kill them! The Dark Lord wants their lives, not their souls. He'll be easier to kill if he's been Kissed first! And he just needs the girl's blood anyways, so it won't matter if she's got a soul or not."

At the sound of his companions' echoed agreement, Tessa started in an affronted manner. "I think the fuck not," she huffed under her breath.

"We're going to have to try to Disapparate!" Hermione whispered.

Tessa shushed her by taking hold of her wrist, already feeling the chilling cold hang over them like a veil. The air around them seemed rigid and solid, a charm casted over to prevent anyone around here from Disapparating. The cold dug deeper into her flesh and bones uncomfortably — they needed to get out of here.

She pointed over to the other side as the other three nodded and followed her lead. Tessa had to make sure they all moved in sync and noiselessly, considering the fact that there were more than ten dementors out there.

They were doing a decent job in steering clear from them, when Tessa's eyes caught sight of Harry pointing his wand out and whispering, "Expecto Patronum!"

A stag bursted out of his wand, charging at the dementors who moved away at once.

"It's him," a Death Eater shouted from afar, "down there, down there, I saw his Patronus, it was a stag!"

"Fuck," Tessa cursed and pointed her wand at the opposite direction. "Expecto Patronum!"

"Over here!" another one exclaimed upon seeing Tessa's Patronus leap across the street and chase away the dementors. "The Potter girl's got a panther — this one's hers!"