The Dream Trilogy Book Two: Tread On My Dreams (A Harry Potter FanFiction)

Chapter Thirty Two

Chapter Thirty Two

Draco watched Ron jab the elevator button again impatiently. "What's wrong with it?" he said, and poked it again for good measure. Draco frowned at the impassive doors, and looked around the corridors of Level Five. They'd been waiting at least three minutes for a lift to appear - surely that wasn't right.  

"Alohomora," he said, prodding the lift doors with the wand he'd taken from the Death Eater. Nothing. 

"But why?" wondered Hermione out loud again for the countless time. "Why would they be looking at Dimensional Hotspots, do they know you and Sarah have crossed over?" 

"I thought they were after Harry?" said Draco, pocketing the wand and seeing if he could force his fingers in between the soft rubber seal that connected the two sides of the doors.  

"And," continued Hermione, "why does the Ministry have a file like that? Are they researching them?" 

"Perhaps we can ask them when we wake them all up?" suggested Draco. He started pulling the doors apart; they wouldn't budge to begin with, but then something gave and they parted a few inches. He almost let go in surprise as he suddenly felt water splashing on his fingers. 

"What's that noise?" said Ron, startled as the two of them stepped up to Draco's side. Draco didn't answer, instead he just threw all his weight behind the doors and heaved. After another moment's resistance, the two doors slammed all the way to the side. The three students just stood and gawped. Before them stood the empty lift shaft, and down it was cascading a torrent of water that really did not belong there. 

"What the..." said Draco, trying to get close enough to look upwards to see where the water was coming from, but there was too much, it was like trying to look up a waterfall and within seconds Draco's face was soaked. He stepped back and swept his damp hair off his face. "Okay...that's not normal is it?" 

Ron shook his head slowly, whilst Hermione crossed her arms and scowled. "That shouldn't stop the elevator from working," she grumbled. "It's not electric is it, it's magic." 

Draco rubbed the back of his neck and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe there's just not room for a lift in there right now." 

"Why...?" said Ron, still shaking his head. "Why if the lift shaft raining?" 

Draco puffed out a lungful of air. "Okay," he said. "Let's add that to the list of things to explain later - maybe it's just a problem with the plumbing. Right now we should move to plan B." 

"Which is?" asked Hermione. 

Draco pointed back the way they'd come. "Stairs." 

They weaved their way back through the offices and frozen Ministry employees, checking that their prisoner was still unconscious and tied up in Kingsley Shacklebolt's office. "I think I should have the wand," said Hermione suddenly. She was being quiet, but the sudden noise still made Draco nervous. 

"Oh," he said, taking it from his pocket. "Sorry, I didn't really think." He held it out for her. "You can have it if you want." 

She looked a little flustered. "It's just Harry said you'd not been taught properly in your world, and I might know-" 

Draco held up his hands. "Hermione it's fine." 

She bit her lip and took it. "That's funny you know." 

He raised his eyebrow at her as they reached the sign he knew he'd spotted earlier. The emergency stairs were to their left. "What's funny?" 

"Hearing you say my name." 

Draco wasn't sure what to say to that except "Oh." He dreaded to think what their Draco - or Malfoy more like - normally called her. Probably 'Mudblood'. He felt ashamed for reasons that weren't entirely logical, and couldn't think of anything else to say. 

The doorway to the stairwell was up ahead, and Draco started to move quicker. He knew they'd probably be walking into a nest of Death Eaters, but even if it meant getting recaptured he had to get back to Sarah. 

The door started opening. Before Draco even had a chance to cry out, Hermione had the confiscated wand out and was blasting the door back in on itself. The three students stood breathing heavily, watching as the door swung violently forward again, forced out by the water racing down the steps beyond. 

Hermione looked at the two boys. "I thought there was someone behind there?" 

"Hello?" 

The three of them jumped and Hermione aimed the wand again. "Come out with your hands up!" she instructed. 

"I...I don't mean you any harm," came the voice again. Draco had gone very still. Whoever was on the other side was propping open the door a jar, and the water was rushing by, causing quite a racket. But there was something he couldn't place about the voice. 

"We'll be the judge of that," said Hermione, earning an enthusiastic thumbs up from Ron. 

"Come out with your hands up!" he called out. 

Draco was suddenly unsure though. "No, wait," he began, but the door was already opening. A drenched woman was on the other side, her hands obediently up. Her robes were soaked, but her hair was still relatively dry and styled in an elegant knot behind her head. She looked nervous more than anything else, and unsure in her footing against the surging waters which were now spilling out into the corridor, hurrying towards the three students feet. 

Draco couldn't seem to breathe. "I heard a group of children had been taken prisoner from the school," said the woman. "I couldn't believe it was really you, I had to come find you, to see for myself." 

Hermione and Ron looked a little confused, possibly because the woman had spoken directly to Draco. Probably because she looked like a Death Eater, but the words had been said with such concern.  

Almost certainly because Draco looked like he was about to lose all consciousness any second now. 

He fumbled to find the wall to his right, and spread his hand out on the cool painted brick to keep himself from falling. He looked at the woman standing in the rapidly expanding pool of water. 

"Draco?" she said. 

It was all he could do to keep the air flowing in and out of his lungs. The world was tilting horribly, but Draco urged himself to speak, to find the words. To find the courage. 

"Mum?" was all he found.