PRINCESS ➳ harry potter , draco malfoy (OLD VERSION)

95 || Draco's Letters

Grimmauld Place was exactly the same as Katie remembered it: eerie, cobwebbed and dimly lit. Apart from a few jinxes that had been put in place to scare away Snape if he ever dared to come lurking, everything was identical to the way it had been two years before.

"Right, where's the Horcrux?" Harry asked as soon as they had settled in the drawing room on the first floor. Hermione shot him a piercing look.

"Relax, Harry," she scolded. "We just got here."

Ron moved towards the window, pulled the heavy velvet curtain aside and inch and peered down into the lamp-lit street.

"Can't see anyone out there." he reported and turned his back on the window; but as soon as he did, Katie let out a panicked cry and pointed towards the window. They all drew their wands as a silver Patronus soared through the window and landed upon the floor in front of them, where it solidified into a weasel that spoke in the voice of Arthur Weasley.

"Family safe, do not reply, we are being watched."

Ron let out a noise somewhere between a whimper and a groan and dropped on to the sofa. Hermione joined him, gripping his arm.

"They're all right, they're all right!" she whispered, and Ron half laughed and hugged her.

Despite the relief that flooded her upon hearing that Ron's family were all right, there was nothing Katie could do when her mouth grew dry and her heart clenched. Hermione noticed her distressed state and frowned.

"What's wrong?" Hermione quizzed.

Katie tried to swallow but found that her mouth was too dry to do so.

"Chris," she croaked out. "I don't know if he's all right."

Hermione and Ron exchanged newly saddened glances while Harry placed a comforting hand on Katie's shoulder.

"I'm sure he's fine," he assured her. "The Killing Curse is green, remember? The spell that hit him was red."

Katie nodded stiffly and attempted to curl her lips into a grateful smile, but she still could not shake the looming feeling of dread that was steadily growing in her stomach.

"I'd be more worried about your Niffler, Katie," Ron joked, trying to lighten the mood. "Without you around to keep him tamed, Mum might just throttle him."

After Hermione said that she did not want to be alone that night, they all agreed to set up sleeping bags and sleep in the drawing room together. Harry was very adamant on finding the real locket, but Hermione insisted that they all needed rest and they could search in the morning.

Katie was the first one to wake the next morning. It was barely dawn — only the tiniest sliver of faint golden light was seeping in through the crack in the window. She had been jolted awake by a nightmare — a nightmare that she had not had for quite some time. She had seen her father's death again, and whether or not Voldemort had made her see it like he used to, she couldn't be sure, but one thing was certain: the dream was much more horrifying now that she knew it was her mother casting the Killing Curse on her father.

Not wanting to rob the others of a good night's sleep, Katie started searching for the Horcrux herself. For extra safety precaution, she kept her wand gripped tightly in her hand as she searched the house, casting nervous glances over her shoulder every few seconds as though she was expecting a Death Eater to lunge at her from the shadows. She had a vague memory that the room in which she found the locket was on one of the higher floors, so she skipped the first few floors and began searching on the taller levels.

It felt as though she had checked every room in the house until she came across the one that she was searching for. At once, she recognised the green, chipping wallpaper, the moldy bed sheets, and, on the door, the printed gold letters reading: Regulus Arcturus Black.