Riding a Nightmare

Printed Peril

Cherry noticed that the fax machine finally stopped, but his attention was snagged by something else, "Can you draw a picture of the aunt you grew up with? ... I wonder why they kept you hidden, let alone as Harry Potter." Cherry mused out loud.

When Harry nodded, albeit weakly, Cherry went to grab a blank paper and some pencils. He was so distracted by the thought that he forgot to get the last papers the machine spat out. Now he was watching Harry sketch out a picture of the Petunia he knew. Thankfully, both boys were focused on Harry's sketching to see Loretta sneak into the cellar and find the blood remains of the grumpy attacker who was captured before.

"You're pretty good at drawing." Cherry commented before remembering the last papers waiting on the fax machine. He quickly got up and ran over to collect them, but the first thing he saw was the big red scrawled word 'RUN' that was on the page right on top. "Harry!"

At this moment Harry adorably zoned out while drawing the evil aunt. The calls from Cherry went unheard as he mulled over the name 'Issac' many times. How was it spelled? With an 'aa' or an 'ss'? As he pondered it he started liking the name and wanted to know more than anything if he truly had a family.

"Harry!" Cherry snapped, throwing in a good shake to the shoulder for good measure.

Finally, the red eyed teen came out of his thoughts, "I think I want to go by Issac." He said, not fully grasping the urgency in Cherry's voice.

Cherry smiled, "Ok. Hi, Issac! We need to run." He said and quickly shoved the last set of papers in Issac's hands.

"What-" Issac immediately shut up when he saw the single word warning written in red. "How do we get out of here? Your grandma locked us in, right?" Issac asked, now really worried that he accidentally put Cherry in danger.

"Umm ... I don't know." An embarrassed Cherry admitted. "I only helped in a couple lockdowns when I was little and normally that meant I played games with my mother and the guests until the door was opened up again. When I started training in self defense I wasn't allowed to participate until ... right now." Cherry mumbled, feeling bad about not being more helpful.

Issac smiled, trying to make Cherry feel better, "Everything happened so fast and no one is really sure what's going on. Let's try to get out first and, if we can't, we can then try to talk to your grandma when she's alone." He said softly, noticing that Loretta was currently following a Death Eater up the stairs of what might be to the second floor of the Malfoy manor.

The first thing that came to mind was breaking the door down. He ran over and took a heavy book off the shelf. Granted, Issac didn't think that a book would be enough, but they had few options. This would, at least, be a decent test before he tried something else.

"I'll try first. Could you look for any other option as I do this?" Issac asked Cherry, who quickly started searching for anything else that could force the door open.

Just as Issac swung the book at the door he felt stupid. This might've been a perfect chance to use the items on his necklace! Unfortunately, before he could change tactics the book connected with the heavy wood door. Of course, the book bounced back and clocked poor Issac on the cheek.

Cherry heard the pained groan and ran out of the kitchenette, "Issac? ... What happened?! Are you hurt?" The non magical boy exclaimed and saw Issac holding his cheek. "Let me see." Cherry demanded in a gentle tone as he tugged at Issac's arm.

After a moment the red eyed wizard moved his hands and revealed his bruised cheek. Without any hesitation Cherry dragged Issac to the kitchenette and placed a cold bag of ice on the bruise. It may have been a painful detour, but it did calm things down enough that they realized that Loretta was calling them out.