Cliché

chapter 23: Phases

Draco headed down the corridors, a dozen roses in hand. The flowers were white roses. He had been informed by a Ravenclaw that those were Harry's favorite.

As he approached the the Great Hall he came across Luna Lovegood, "Oh, hello, Draco."

"Hey, cousin. Have you seen Harry?"

"I thought he'd be with you." She smiled wistfully, "That piece of parchment excited him quite a bit."

"What piece of parchment?" The Slytherin's eyebrows furrowed.

"You know, the letter you owlled him?" Lovegood frowned slightly, "The one where you asked to meet him?"

"Has anyone seen Trevor?" Neville interrupted.

Ron exited the Great hall, a sick expression plastered on his face, "Fred is gone. We can't find him anywhere."

As a group formed, asking questions about missing students, Draco felt a draft coming from down the hall. He followed it and as he got closer, the roses began to wilt.

He cupped one of the buds between his thumb and index finger. The slightest bit of pressure caused the flowers to crumble into dust. Draco knew that flowers wilted and died. However, they didn't tend to do this when the flowers were perfectly lively ten seconds before. He dropped the roses on the ground, and watched as the draft carried them off.

That was odd as well. The wind was strong enough to carry them through the air.

"You're onto something."

He turned to see George at his side.

"I need to find Harry. Something's off."

"I know." The Weasley frowned, "But what?"

Draco noticed that the breeze faded and surpassed the west wall. Draco approached it and immediately felt pins and needles in his skin. Something was off. He caressed the stones and immediately jerked his hands away from the stone, "They're white hot."

George frowned, in disbelief and mimicked Malfoy's movements and found that indeed, the stones were smouldering.

This had to have something to do with Fred and Harry's disappearance. It just made sense. Without hesitation Draco placed both his hands on the wall and winced at the searing heat. He felt around on each brick. He felt his skin literally melting off but he remembered his promise. Keeping Harry safe was worth his life- it was worth anything.

"Malfoy! You're going to kill yourself!" The twin hissed, attempting to jerk the student away.

Malfoy clung to it like a lifeline and pushed the final stone and both of them fell through the wall.  The blonde glanced down at his hands and found that they began magically healing. The red blisters and crisp flesh became baby pink and smooth. The minor burn on George's palm had healed as well. The two whipped around and noticed that the rocks were no longer there. They were now in a misty forest. But not just any misty forest. The forest from Draco's nightmare.

"Where are we?" The redhead asked, rubbing his head.

"No... this c-can't be..." Draco felt fear wash over him, but he didn't let it paralyze him this time. He had a goal.

"We need to find Harry."

"And Fred."

The two walked through the deep wood and things started to get darker. The blonde tripped over a vine, and fell over a tree stump, "Just my luck."

When he regained his stance he noticed that George was nowhere to be seen.

"Weasley?"

No response.