Chapter 30: The Circular Room
Draco, Harry and Pansy had been walking a winding corridor for the better part of an hour. It hadn’t split off from itself even once but kept going in an endless, twisting line. Tired as they were, they trudged on despite having no leads of finding Ginny. Once more, Draco could feel the frustration taking over his emotions. He was just about to voice his concern over the matter when Pansy stopped dead in her tracks, motioning for everyone to keep quiet by putting a finger to her lips.
“What?” Draco looked at her questioningly.
“Shh,” said Pansy. “Listen.”
Draco and Harry exchanged glances before they tuned their ears to whatever sound Pansy was referring. It took a moment before he began to recognize a soft melody of piano music drifting down the corridor. It was quaint…uplifting…something he hadn’t heard in years. Draco’s mind began to reach far back into his childhood as the delicate tune caused one memory after another to surface within him and it was taking every ounce of resolve to beat those reflections back down again.
Harry was staring at him. “Wonder who’s playing it?”
Suddenly the last twenty-four hours flew through Draco’s mind so swiftly that he had trouble making sense of it all. He thought back through all of the events that had brought him here. There was the owl from his mother telling him that Ginny had been taken, the news of Narcissa’s disappearance from the Manor, and then the old servant of Voldemort’s locked in his father’s secret room. And now…now this familiar piano music was drawing him near.
Was his mother helping him? Could she really be disguised as the old woman - risking everything to ensure that he found the girl he’d expressed such feelings for?
“Mother must know that Ginny's alive and she’s luring me in the direction of that music.”
Without giving a single thought to the consequences of his actions, Draco pulled his wand from the inside of his robe and began to run rapidly down the corridor, winding through each and every turn as he went. He could hear the others calling his name from behind, but the power of that enchanting melody continued to pull him in its direction and he wouldn’t relent.
“Draco!” Pansy’s voice echoed off the walls just as the corridor ended and he found himself standing at the edge of an enormous circular room surrounded by green iridescent candles and oval mirrors. He stared around at the stone walls and looked high above him to a ceiling that resembled that of the Great Hall. It was dark as night, dotted with an array of stars and a full moon that caused a shiver to run down his spine. His gaze returned to the center of the room and he immediately became focused on an antique piano, which eerily continued to play its tune without a single soul in front of it. Disappointment settled in the pit of Draco’s stomach. He thought for sure that his mother would be here.
A few moments passed before the sound of Harry and Pansy’s footsteps reached him as they slowly came up behind him; they, too, were speechless at the scene in front of them.
After several short minutes, Harry was the first to speak.
“It’s enchanted.” He took a few steps forward, glancing around the room until finally turning toward Draco. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”
Draco came out of his trance long enough to narrow his eyes at Harry. “Why, Potter, because you didn’t find it?”
Pansy approached Harry’s side as though offering him her support. “He’s right, Draco. Something about this just doesn’t feel right. What if we were lured here?”
“We were lured here,” spat Draco. “It’s my mother’s doing, I know it is.”
“What are you playing at?” asked Pansy. “How can you be sure this has anything to do with your mother?”
“It’s the song,” said Draco. “She used to play it for me when I was young. She’s enchanted the piano to lure me here and I know Ginny has to be near.”
“Draco…” Pansy’s voice trailed off.
“Just trust me, Pansy.” The annoyance was evident in Draco’s voice.
“What if it’s a trap?” Harry finished Pansy’s sentence for her as she nodded in agreement.
“It’s not a trap!”Draco was growing more and more impatient with the others and wanted nothing more than to continue his search without them. “Look, you can bloody well stay here for all I care, but I’m going on. Ginny’s close, I just know it.”
Draco began to walk the perimeter of the room, ignoring their immediate protests, tapping the walls and pressing the stone in search of some hidden exit. Just as Draco was pulling on the neck of a wall sconce he caught sight of a reflection within one of the oval mirrors. He jumped back several feet in surprise and, after several moments, slowly walked back within view of the mirror, transfixed by what he saw. In the mirror was an old woman. A woman he’d seen tied up in his father’s secret room just hours before.
As Draco continued to stare at her image, he noticed a tear glistening in the corner of her eye. She gave him a gentle smile, causing it to trail softly down her left cheek. Draco opened his mouth to speak but choked on the words as he fought back the emotions surfacing within. He returned the smile slowly, then spun around to look behind him and drew in his breath in shock. The spot where she ought to be standing was vacant. He turned his head back in the direction of the mirror and the same reflection was still gazing right at him. Draco urgently placed his hands on both sides of the mirror as though trying to remove it from the wall.
“What? What is it?” said Pansy, stepping forward. She gasped, “Draco!” Pansy, too, stared into the mirror clearly unaware of the woman’s true identity.
“Mother!” Draco shouted with all his might.
“Mother?” Harry had taken his place beside Pansy to see what all the commotion was about. “What are you on about now, Malfoy?”
Just at that precise moment, the woman carefully stepped from the oval mirror into the circular room. No one could speak. Draco was certain that neither Harry, nor Pansy, had managed to work any of this out in their head so he asked again rather tentatively. “Mother?”
“Draco,” she said as the tears spilled down her cheeks, her soft smile spreading wide across her older facade. As Narcissa’s beauty began to reappear, she reached out to embrace her son. The soft melody continued to play behind them as Draco shut his eyes, holding onto his mother tightly.
He was afraid. Draco had wrapped his mother right into the middle of this mess along with the girl he loved. Because of his carelessness, the two people that meant the most to him could die at any given moment. “I’m sorry, Mother,” were the only words that escaped his lips. It was such a simple thing to say, yet she held him tighter and gave a gentle stroke to the back of his head. Draco fought back the urge to release his tears and imagined all of his surroundings away. He remembered a simpler life before any of these events had taken place. A life before Ginny…before Hogwarts…before his father had had any effect on his upbringing. A time when his mother had poured so many of her wonderful qualities into his soul and raised him to be the boy that he’d unwillingly come to bury. Only a moment had passed before Draco breathed a sigh of relief. A strength he never knew existed began to build up inside of him, raging through his veins and fueling the desire to put an end to this misery. He remembered why he was here and what he needed to do.
Draco pulled away from his mother’s grasp and searched her worried face. “Where’s Ginny? Is she safe?”
She nodded her head slowly as she spoke. “Draco, I need you to listen very carefully.”
“What do you mean?” He quickly noted the urgency in her tone and began to panic. “Has something happened to her?”
“Ginny’s unharmed, but I have a lot to tell you and very little time to do so.”
Draco grew silent as Pansy and Harry took their stance next to him.
“She’s just beyond this wall.” Narcissa gently touched the mirror in which she had surfaced. Draco took a step forward, but Narcissa held out a hand to stop him. “Listen to me first, Draco. The mirror is a portal. On the other side, there’s a small chamber where she’s being held captive. You’ll need to go alone and once you’re on the other side you’ll only have a few moments. He’ll be expecting you.”
Draco’s stomach gave an overwhelming lurch as though he’d be sick. They would have no time to escape once he got to the other side. “How will we get out? It took us ages to get this far and I’m not even sure where we’re at anymore.” He peered into the mirror again trying desperately to catch a glimpse of Ginny.
“Ginny has your Prefect’s badge and her wand so she’ll be able to help you. I’ve turned your badge into a Portkey and it will take you back to Hogwarts. You’ll need to get Ginny out of the chamber and bring her back here. The enchantments surrounding the room she is in are far too complex for the portkey to work.”
“Then how…how did this portal--”
“We’ve no time to discuss that now. Let’s just say that I was able to take care of it.” Narcissa glanced nervously over her shoulder while speaking.
“But the others,” Draco protested. “The others are off somewhere in this place and-“
Pansy was quick to interrupt. “We have the coins, remember? We’ll use the coins to tell them where we are and they can Apparate.”
“There will be no Apparating,” Narcissa said gravely. “You can’t Apparate anywhere within these walls unless you’re the Dark Lord himself.”
Silence fell over the young wizards as Hermione’s ingenious plan dissolved into thin air. “So how…” Draco’s voice trailed off. He felt his resolve sinking down within him once more.
“I will find them for you, Draco,” said Narcissa. “You’ll only have a few moments alone with Ginny on the other side and then you'll need to get back to this room. You must be ready to use the Portkey because once you're back here he’ll be coming for you. I’ll have the others waiting here for your return.”
“But Mother!” He began to protest again.
“Draco there is no other way! Do you want to get out of here alive or not?”
A deafening silence followed until Harry broke it. “I’ll go with her.”
Draco stared over at his nemesis, trying to wrap his head around any of this as he heard his mother’s words slowly leaving her lips.
“Thank you, Potter, but I will go alone.” There was scorn in her voice as if the idea detested her.
“If you go alone, Ron and Hermione will never trust to follow you here,” spat Harry.
“She’s right, Mother.” Draco was forced to side with Harry, knowing full well that only Blaise would be willing to return with his mother. “Take Pansy and Harry with you and stay together once you find them. I’ll bring Ginny back down the corridor with me as soon as I get her out.”
Narcissa looked very reluctant, but knew there was no talking her son out of his plan. She nodded her head slowly, in answer. “Alright, then. Quickly. There’s no time to lose.”
At her command, Pansy and Harry turned to leave the room ahead of Narcissa, but the next words out of Draco’s mouth made them stop in their tracks.
“How long have you been drinking the Polyjuice Potion to spy on him?”
Narcissa stared back at her son, unable to speak.
“The potion,” Draco reiterated, “how long have you been drinking it?”
She hesitated a moment more before answering. “It’s not Polyjuice Potion, my son.”
It seemed all she was going to say. Draco stood there, staring at his mother as though he didn’t know her…trying to work out the details out in his head. How on earth was she transforming into another being without the assistance of a potion? Unless…
“You mean…it’s…you’re a?” He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“A metamorphagus?” She held her head slightly higher. “Yes, Draco. Your father, however, does not know this.”
“But a Pureblood…they can’t…they can’t be…” He couldn’t continue. It was all too much of a shock for him.
“There’s nothing more to say about it now.” Another tear slid down Narcissa’s cheek once more as she gazed at the floor. “Now hurry, Draco!”
With that, she turned to leave and Draco was left standing alone in the circular room. A mixture of confusion and adrenaline seemed to be at war within his body, fighting for the chance to overtake him. Draco swallowed hard as he focused on the oval mirror, determination rising above the other emotions as he vowed to save the piece of him that lie on the other side.
Draco, Harry and Pansy had been walking a winding corridor for the better part of an hour. It hadn’t split off from itself even once but kept going in an endless, twisting line. Tired as they were, they trudged on despite having no leads of finding Ginny. Once more, Draco could feel the frustration taking over his emotions. He was just about to voice his concern over the matter when Pansy stopped dead in her tracks, motioning for everyone to keep quiet by putting a finger to her lips.
“What?” Draco looked at her questioningly.
“Shh,” said Pansy. “Listen.”
Draco and Harry exchanged glances before they tuned their ears to whatever sound Pansy was referring. It took a moment before he began to recognize a soft melody of piano music drifting down the corridor. It was quaint…uplifting…something he hadn’t heard in years. Draco’s mind began to reach far back into his childhood as the delicate tune caused one memory after another to surface within him and it was taking every ounce of resolve to beat those reflections back down again.
Harry was staring at him. “Wonder who’s playing it?”
Suddenly the last twenty-four hours flew through Draco’s mind so swiftly that he had trouble making sense of it all. He thought back through all of the events that had brought him here. There was the owl from his mother telling him that Ginny had been taken, the news of Narcissa’s disappearance from the Manor, and then the old servant of Voldemort’s locked in his father’s secret room. And now…now this familiar piano music was drawing him near.
Was his mother helping him? Could she really be disguised as the old woman - risking everything to ensure that he found the girl he’d expressed such feelings for?
“Mother must know that Ginny's alive and she’s luring me in the direction of that music.”
Without giving a single thought to the consequences of his actions, Draco pulled his wand from the inside of his robe and began to run rapidly down the corridor, winding through each and every turn as he went. He could hear the others calling his name from behind, but the power of that enchanting melody continued to pull him in its direction and he wouldn’t relent.
“Draco!” Pansy’s voice echoed off the walls just as the corridor ended and he found himself standing at the edge of an enormous circular room surrounded by green iridescent candles and oval mirrors. He stared around at the stone walls and looked high above him to a ceiling that resembled that of the Great Hall. It was dark as night, dotted with an array of stars and a full moon that caused a shiver to run down his spine. His gaze returned to the center of the room and he immediately became focused on an antique piano, which eerily continued to play its tune without a single soul in front of it. Disappointment settled in the pit of Draco’s stomach. He thought for sure that his mother would be here.
A few moments passed before the sound of Harry and Pansy’s footsteps reached him as they slowly came up behind him; they, too, were speechless at the scene in front of them.
After several short minutes, Harry was the first to speak.
“It’s enchanted.” He took a few steps forward, glancing around the room until finally turning toward Draco. “I have a really bad feeling about this.”
Draco came out of his trance long enough to narrow his eyes at Harry. “Why, Potter, because you didn’t find it?”
Pansy approached Harry’s side as though offering him her support. “He’s right, Draco. Something about this just doesn’t feel right. What if we were lured here?”
“We were lured here,” spat Draco. “It’s my mother’s doing, I know it is.”
“What are you playing at?” asked Pansy. “How can you be sure this has anything to do with your mother?”
“It’s the song,” said Draco. “She used to play it for me when I was young. She’s enchanted the piano to lure me here and I know Ginny has to be near.”
“Draco…” Pansy’s voice trailed off.
“Just trust me, Pansy.” The annoyance was evident in Draco’s voice.
“What if it’s a trap?” Harry finished Pansy’s sentence for her as she nodded in agreement.
“It’s not a trap!”Draco was growing more and more impatient with the others and wanted nothing more than to continue his search without them. “Look, you can bloody well stay here for all I care, but I’m going on. Ginny’s close, I just know it.”
Draco began to walk the perimeter of the room, ignoring their immediate protests, tapping the walls and pressing the stone in search of some hidden exit. Just as Draco was pulling on the neck of a wall sconce he caught sight of a reflection within one of the oval mirrors. He jumped back several feet in surprise and, after several moments, slowly walked back within view of the mirror, transfixed by what he saw. In the mirror was an old woman. A woman he’d seen tied up in his father’s secret room just hours before.
As Draco continued to stare at her image, he noticed a tear glistening in the corner of her eye. She gave him a gentle smile, causing it to trail softly down her left cheek. Draco opened his mouth to speak but choked on the words as he fought back the emotions surfacing within. He returned the smile slowly, then spun around to look behind him and drew in his breath in shock. The spot where she ought to be standing was vacant. He turned his head back in the direction of the mirror and the same reflection was still gazing right at him. Draco urgently placed his hands on both sides of the mirror as though trying to remove it from the wall.
“What? What is it?” said Pansy, stepping forward. She gasped, “Draco!” Pansy, too, stared into the mirror clearly unaware of the woman’s true identity.
“Mother!” Draco shouted with all his might.
“Mother?” Harry had taken his place beside Pansy to see what all the commotion was about. “What are you on about now, Malfoy?”
Just at that precise moment, the woman carefully stepped from the oval mirror into the circular room. No one could speak. Draco was certain that neither Harry, nor Pansy, had managed to work any of this out in their head so he asked again rather tentatively. “Mother?”
“Draco,” she said as the tears spilled down her cheeks, her soft smile spreading wide across her older facade. As Narcissa’s beauty began to reappear, she reached out to embrace her son. The soft melody continued to play behind them as Draco shut his eyes, holding onto his mother tightly.
He was afraid. Draco had wrapped his mother right into the middle of this mess along with the girl he loved. Because of his carelessness, the two people that meant the most to him could die at any given moment. “I’m sorry, Mother,” were the only words that escaped his lips. It was such a simple thing to say, yet she held him tighter and gave a gentle stroke to the back of his head. Draco fought back the urge to release his tears and imagined all of his surroundings away. He remembered a simpler life before any of these events had taken place. A life before Ginny…before Hogwarts…before his father had had any effect on his upbringing. A time when his mother had poured so many of her wonderful qualities into his soul and raised him to be the boy that he’d unwillingly come to bury. Only a moment had passed before Draco breathed a sigh of relief. A strength he never knew existed began to build up inside of him, raging through his veins and fueling the desire to put an end to this misery. He remembered why he was here and what he needed to do.
Draco pulled away from his mother’s grasp and searched her worried face. “Where’s Ginny? Is she safe?”
She nodded her head slowly as she spoke. “Draco, I need you to listen very carefully.”
“What do you mean?” He quickly noted the urgency in her tone and began to panic. “Has something happened to her?”
“Ginny’s unharmed, but I have a lot to tell you and very little time to do so.”
Draco grew silent as Pansy and Harry took their stance next to him.
“She’s just beyond this wall.” Narcissa gently touched the mirror in which she had surfaced. Draco took a step forward, but Narcissa held out a hand to stop him. “Listen to me first, Draco. The mirror is a portal. On the other side, there’s a small chamber where she’s being held captive. You’ll need to go alone and once you’re on the other side you’ll only have a few moments. He’ll be expecting you.”
Draco’s stomach gave an overwhelming lurch as though he’d be sick. They would have no time to escape once he got to the other side. “How will we get out? It took us ages to get this far and I’m not even sure where we’re at anymore.” He peered into the mirror again trying desperately to catch a glimpse of Ginny.
“Ginny has your Prefect’s badge and her wand so she’ll be able to help you. I’ve turned your badge into a Portkey and it will take you back to Hogwarts. You’ll need to get Ginny out of the chamber and bring her back here. The enchantments surrounding the room she is in are far too complex for the portkey to work.”
“Then how…how did this portal--”
“We’ve no time to discuss that now. Let’s just say that I was able to take care of it.” Narcissa glanced nervously over her shoulder while speaking.
“But the others,” Draco protested. “The others are off somewhere in this place and-“
Pansy was quick to interrupt. “We have the coins, remember? We’ll use the coins to tell them where we are and they can Apparate.”
“There will be no Apparating,” Narcissa said gravely. “You can’t Apparate anywhere within these walls unless you’re the Dark Lord himself.”
Silence fell over the young wizards as Hermione’s ingenious plan dissolved into thin air. “So how…” Draco’s voice trailed off. He felt his resolve sinking down within him once more.
“I will find them for you, Draco,” said Narcissa. “You’ll only have a few moments alone with Ginny on the other side and then you'll need to get back to this room. You must be ready to use the Portkey because once you're back here he’ll be coming for you. I’ll have the others waiting here for your return.”
“But Mother!” He began to protest again.
“Draco there is no other way! Do you want to get out of here alive or not?”
A deafening silence followed until Harry broke it. “I’ll go with her.”
Draco stared over at his nemesis, trying to wrap his head around any of this as he heard his mother’s words slowly leaving her lips.
“Thank you, Potter, but I will go alone.” There was scorn in her voice as if the idea detested her.
“If you go alone, Ron and Hermione will never trust to follow you here,” spat Harry.
“She’s right, Mother.” Draco was forced to side with Harry, knowing full well that only Blaise would be willing to return with his mother. “Take Pansy and Harry with you and stay together once you find them. I’ll bring Ginny back down the corridor with me as soon as I get her out.”
Narcissa looked very reluctant, but knew there was no talking her son out of his plan. She nodded her head slowly, in answer. “Alright, then. Quickly. There’s no time to lose.”
At her command, Pansy and Harry turned to leave the room ahead of Narcissa, but the next words out of Draco’s mouth made them stop in their tracks.
“How long have you been drinking the Polyjuice Potion to spy on him?”
Narcissa stared back at her son, unable to speak.
“The potion,” Draco reiterated, “how long have you been drinking it?”
She hesitated a moment more before answering. “It’s not Polyjuice Potion, my son.”
It seemed all she was going to say. Draco stood there, staring at his mother as though he didn’t know her…trying to work out the details out in his head. How on earth was she transforming into another being without the assistance of a potion? Unless…
“You mean…it’s…you’re a?” He couldn’t finish his sentence.
“A metamorphagus?” She held her head slightly higher. “Yes, Draco. Your father, however, does not know this.”
“But a Pureblood…they can’t…they can’t be…” He couldn’t continue. It was all too much of a shock for him.
“There’s nothing more to say about it now.” Another tear slid down Narcissa’s cheek once more as she gazed at the floor. “Now hurry, Draco!”
With that, she turned to leave and Draco was left standing alone in the circular room. A mixture of confusion and adrenaline seemed to be at war within his body, fighting for the chance to overtake him. Draco swallowed hard as he focused on the oval mirror, determination rising above the other emotions as he vowed to save the piece of him that lie on the other side.
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