To Kill You With a Kiss

Chapter 16

Tom pointed his wand at the portrait and said coldly: "It's not a dream, Abraxas. Now, shut up, will you? Any minute now, someone will hear us, and we will lose the element of surprise. Oh, Merlin! I hear someone coming..."

Distant footsteps echoed against marble floors, drawing closer. A solitary black-clad figure stepped into the hall, wand outstretched.

"Who's... who's there?" Draco's voice sounded small in the vast room.

"Hello, Draco," said Harry softly.

Draco looked as if he had seen a ghost. For a moment he stood frozen, staring at Harry with wide eyes.

Then he grabbed Harry's arm and dragged him towards the door. "Are you crazy, Potter? What the hell are you doing here? Don't you know that this is where the Dark Lord and the death eaters gather? No one's here right now; they are all out searching for Harry Potter. Yaxley reported that you'd been spotted near Ottery St. Catchpole, so they all set off to find you. But that was hours ago; they'll be back any minute. Get out, Potter! Quickly, before they find you here!"

"Wait a minute." Abraxas sounded baffled. "This dream is getting stranger and stranger. Why does my grandson think you are that Potter boy they are all looking for, Elias?"

"Shut up, grandfather!" hissed Draco. "Harry, get out of here before the Dark Lord comes!"

"Hey, there's no need to take that tone with me, you ill-mannered child!" Abraxas's voice was indignant. "Merlin, young people these days! And for your information, young man, the Dark Lord is already here."

"He's here? Where?" Draco was deathly pale now.

Abraxas sighed. "Right there, you idiot. Next to Elias, the one you think is Harry Potter."

"What?" Draco stared at Tom, uncomprehendingly. "The Dark Lord? No, grandfather, he's not..." Then his glance fell on Tom's wand, and Draco sank down on the floor, shivering uncontrollably. "You... You are the Dark Lord-?" His whisper was almost inaudible.

"I suppose you could say that." Tom's eyes glittered as he pointed his wand a Draco. "And I will have you know, you treacherous nitwit, that I do not like to have my correspondence intercepted. Why didn't you give me Harry's message? I'm going to hex you for that, you foul little..."

"Oh, leave him alone, Tom." Harry pushed Tom's wand aside, impatiently. "Draco, can you show us the room where Voldemort and the death eaters gather?"

"What?" Draco's voice was a whisper, and his glance was blank with confusion as he looked up at Harry. "But... but Harry, he is vv-Vol..."

Tom sighed. "Oh, just do as Harry tells you, Draco. I'll deal with you later."

"Wait, now even Tom thinks Elias is this Potter boy? I'm getting a headache," muttered Abraxas.

Draco scrambled to his feet and gazed bewildered up at his grandfather's portrait. "Why are you calling him 'Elias', grandfather?" he whispered. "He is Harry Potter..."

Harry and Tom followed Draco out of the hall. Behind him, Harry could hear Abraxas' portrait mutter: "Maybe I shouldn't have encouraged Lucius to marry a pure-blood witch after all. Too much inbreeding among the few remaining pure-blood families, that's the problem. That's probably why my poor grandson isn't quite right in the head..."

Draco led Harry and Tom up an immense marble staircase. There were no portraits or tapestries here to soften the cold beauty of the grey-white marble walls. In the upstairs hallway, they came upon a small frightened house-elf dressed in a ragged sea-green towel. He looked terribly out of place against the flawless marble walls, like a bewildered insect trapped inside the otherworldly beauty of some great basilica. The elf jumped anxiously aside as they approached.