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“And this is something that you could not speak about to Mr. Malfoy himself? And felt it necessary to wake me up in order to speak at this particular time?”

Screwing up every ounce of Gryffindor courage he had, Harry replied. “Yes. Because I only just found out that Draco isn’t anywhere in Hogwarts.” After a second’s hesitation he added, “sir,” just to try and appeal to Snape’s good side…if he had one.

Something shifted in Snape’s eyes, but outwardly he appeared the same. “And you know this, how?”

Bloody hell, Harry hadn’t thought how to reveal how he knew that Draco wasn’t in school. Think Harry, think, he told himself.

“Well Mr. Potter?”

“I know it in the same way that I knew how to get to Hogsmead back in third year” Harry muttered, looking down at his shoes, or what he assumed were his shoes—he couldn’t tell in the dim light of one Lumos spell.

He could feel Snape’s eyes burning into his skull as the man thought about what Harry had just said.

“Where do you think Mr. Malfoy is?” Snape asked after a long silence. Harry’s eyes shot up in astonishment before he realized that he was supposed to answer the question.

“I found this in one of Draco’s books.” He held out the map of England to Snape. “I think he’s gone to the starred area…wherever that is.”

Snape cast his own Lumos spell in order to look at the map. “If you are right, Mr. Potter, which I highly doubt you are, then Mr. Malfoy has gone to Malfoy Manor. You are undoubtedly aware of how impossible it is to get to Malfoy Manor at this time. How would you propose he got there? Apparated out of Hogwarts and into Malfoy Manor? Rode in one of the school carriages perhaps? Sprouted wings and flew?”

Snape stopped short and Harry’s mouth dropped as they both realized what the potions master had just said. A memory of last weekend played through Harry’s mind, of snitches, bludgers, and black wings.

“Yes, Professor.” Harry replied. “I think he did sprout wings and fly there.”

Chapter 29: Serpentis Draconis

Harry fumed silently as he paced the Gryffindor Common Room. Draco had been missing for over fifteen hours now; how long exactly wasn’t known because Harry didn’t know when Draco left.

Harry fought back the yearning to hit something, knowing that were he to let out his rage, his two friends would become more scared of him than they already were. As it was, his behavior resembled a caged animal to them.

It was all just so stupid! Sure, if a student was petrified the whole school went on bloody alert, but if a student was just missing, there were protocols! Was Draco really missing? Bloody hell, Harry was so sick of hearing another teacher ask that to the rest of them.

Snape had gone to Dumbledore immediately and while Harry was sure that Dumbledore believed them, there was a bunch of legal stuff set in place for just this occasion.

So after rounding up all the teachers at four in the morning, they had begun searching the castle. All of it. Every room. And Harry had been sent back to his dormitory to wait! Then, when everyone realized Draco really wasn’t in the castle, as Harry had been telling them, they had to search the bloody Forbidden Forest because apparently Draco had permission to go there because he needed someplace to go be a Veriae for a while where no one could see him, or something like that.

And of course, the centaurs hadn’t taken kindly to a group of people gallivanting around in their forest, even if one of those people had been Hagrid, who knew his way around pretty well. Of course, they found that Draco wasn’t in the forest, after three hours of searching. Harry could have told them that but they didn’t listen, of course.