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Chapter Seven: Christmas Mission

Explaining my relation with Draco to Ginny was...complicated to say the least. She didn't understand, and even that was an understatement. There was a lot of cursing between her and Draco as I tried to explain the situation that we were currently in. Ginny hated Draco because he was in fact a Death Eater and he let the Death Eaters in last year. She blamed him for Dumbledore's death, even though it was Snape who did it in the end. Aside from those two big reasons, he was always horrible to her at school. Draco hated her as well, so this only made him want to leave faster. He walked out the door halfway through out conversation...but he only went to their pond, so he didn't go far. I was hoping he was just giving me empty threats and that he wouldn't leave.

It was hard telling this all to Ginny. I finally told her about Draco and I. She was angry at first and she sarcastically asked if I was under a spell. I told her about how we had been traveling, and how I sort of liked him in school but I did not go over that in detail...Baby steps. Ginny was more than surprised, even a little angry when I brought that up, but eventually she got it. "I don't agree with it, but it's your life and you'll do what you want," she said. 

Then I had to go talk to Draco. He wanted to leave so badly, but Christmas was in two days. I begged him to stay, saying it would be terrible to be on the run at Christmas. I can't imagine how Harry, Ron, and Hermione were handling it. "Please it's all I want for Christmas. You don't even have to get me a gift," I joked. He rolled his eyes, but couldn't hold back his smirk.

"Two days?" he repeated.

"Yes, we can leave Christmas night," I said nodding with a hopeful look. "You can hold me to it."

"Whatever then, fine." I hugged him tightly in excitement that he agreed to stay while kissing him on the lips, and was glad to see he kissed me back as he put his hands around my waist.

"Disgusting," I heard someone snap and turned to see Ginny with a look of distaste. Draco smirked at her look. "I told you that I get you making your own decisions and all...but make those decisions in private." She she shook her head and took off.

"Sorry Ginny," I called back with a tone of laughter. She kept walking.

Christmas Eve was lovely. Draco was in a better mood but still kept his distance from the Weasley's. They had a lot of guests, so he mainly stayed in his room. Bill and Fleur came to visit, unhappy to see Draco of course but they were a little more accepting than most. Charlie came and I was glad to meet him finally. Fred and George were there of course and were constantly teasing me about my boyfriend. On Christmas day, the crowd got even bigger as the Weasley's was one of the safest place to be.

It wasn't the same Christmas we knew. I caught Mrs. Weasley crying a few times, since Ron wasn't there. Everyone seemed to be pretending to be cheerful, while I knew everyone was worried about the people they loved who were off in the wizarding world. I myself was very worried for all those at Hogwarts, and mainly for Harry, Ron, and Hermione. It was the afternoon, I knew Draco was excited to get out of here but I had no idea where we would go. Lupin arrived with Tonks. "Caoimhe what a pleasant surprise," he said. "Everyone has been so worried, they hadn't told us you would be here." That meant they didn't know Draco was here. I suppose it was best he stayed up in the room considering members of the Order were arriving and wouldn't be too pleased to see him.

"Yes I was just hiding, but I felt guilty considering my friends are probably being much more productive than I am," I admitted. He nodded understanding.

"Well it's good to see you." He nodded once more before walking off.

Ginny and I sat in the living room. Fred and George were kind enough to give us a few of their newer products as Christmas gift. We were testing them all out. Yet I couldn't help but overhear Lupin and Shacklebolt's conversation with Arthur Weasley in the next room. "Ah yes the book is called Inevitable Enchantments. It's full of rare and very dark spell, spells unknown to us all. If they get the book well..." Arthur trailed off and suddenly my interest was caught. Ginny turned her head as well.

"Where is it?" Shacklebolt asked.

"Well we don't know exactly. No one is known to have it. They believe it was mixed up with a load of other books. It could be on the shelves of a library or being sold a book store for all we know!"

"Well it can't be at the Ministry or Hogwarts library because those have all been checked. Plus, Borgin and Burkes are only selling Ministry listed books. If no one has it, then where is it?" Suddenly, I had an idea of where it could be.

After the Order left, I told the Weasley's I was leaving that night. Mrs. Weasley begged me to stay but I told her we had to keep moving and that I would check in. Ginny was upset, but she was leaving to go back to Hogwarts in a few days. I went upstairs to get Draco and opened the door. He looked up at me from the chair he was sitting in. I showed him my backpack. "Like I promised," I said and he nodded with a smirk.

"Finally," he added picking up his already packed bag. 

"Let's go say goodbye." He groaned. "Please, just say goodbye and we will be on our way."

When I got downstairs, I hugged them all goodbye. Draco stood there. "Be safe dear. Keep her safe like before," she said to Draco with the nicest smile she could put. "Be careful out there."

"Goodbye, thank you so much," I said to them. "You'll hear from me soon." 

"Yes...thanks," Draco muttered as we left. I smiled at him as the door shut. "What?"

"That was nice of you," I pointed out as we walked. As nice as a muttered 'thanks' could get.

"What? I can't be nice?" he added holding his arms up in defense. I laughed and shook my head. "Where are we going now?"

"I have an idea," I added.

"If we are going to Granger's house this time warn me now," he said sarcastically.

"No not to Hermione's house. It involves polyjuice potion."

"Why?" 

"We're going on a mission."

"And who exactly assigned this mission?" he asked looking at me confused.

"I did."

"You're assigning us a mission?" he asked. I nodded. "You're getting weirder every day. Remind me why I like you again."

Ignoring his last comment, we continued walking down the path. "We have to get this book. I have an idea of where it may be, but I didn't want to get their hopes up."

"Of course this mission involves a book," he said while shaking his head.

"Not just any book. A one of a kind book that we need to find and keep safe. I'll turn it into the order after we get it, but we have to find it first."

"Where is this exactly?"

"Knocturn Alley," I said calmly, looking up at him with an innocent smile. When I overheard their conversation, I got a strong feeling that the book was at Knocturn Alley. It had to be! Where else would keep a unique, one of a kind, dark book? The last time I was in that store there were plenty of dark books to choose from. 

"Oh so you wanted to hide at the Weasley's so that we were 'safe', but have no problem walking into Knockturn Alley." Draco looked at me like I was crazy. "Haven't you even thought about the new 'muggle-born control' situation going around. We can't disguise ourselves as ordinary muggles. If you don't walk in there as a recognized wizard, you'll be turned in."

"Exactly," I added. "Which is why I grabbed a piece of hair from Fleur's brush and Bill's sweater. We can go in and get out. I have left over polyjuice potion."

"You're crazy. And I don't want to be Weasley."

"Do you want to be Fleur then?" I teased with a smirk. He looked at me amused.

"Fine, let's go tomorrow." 

Draco and I were very cautious. If only he could apparate, that would make this a whole lot easier. We went back to our old ways of enchanting muggle's to forget us after we saw them. We took a cab to a local village and stayed at an inn. Draco put charms all up around the room as I mixed the hairs with our left over polyjuice potion. The room we were in was a one bed again. Draco always found that funny and in reality I did not mind.

I was exhausted from the load of walking we did in between the cabs so I laid down. He fell next to me. "You know I actually really missed this. It was lonely at the Weasley's being in that room all day," he added with a smirk facing me. He put his arm around my waist. I shook my head and laughed. 

"Good night Draco," I said rolling over and falling asleep.

The next morning we awoke in the same position. I tried getting up without waking him, but I failed at that. He sat up and looked at the clock. "It's seven in the morning," he muttered annoyed. 

"I know and a great time to go to Knockturn Alley," I pointed out. The later we went, the more risky it was. He nodded in agreement standing up. After we woke up a bit, I poured two glasses of polyjuice potion. There was enough to give up an hour or two. I slid the glass over at him and he looked at it hesitantly.

"This taste bloody disgusting..." he said looking at the glass. 

"Just pretend it's Butterbeer or that fancy wine we drank," I said even though I looked down at mine in disgust. Closing my eyes I took a sip and drank as fast as I could, trying my best not to think of the taste. Eventually I managed to finish it and put the glass down. Draco finished his. The two of us stared in the mirror. For Draco it was a complete change to Bill.

For me, it was quick. Fleur was blonde and blue eyed like I was. My hair and height shrunk a bit as my facial features changed. "This is weird..." I said looking in the mirror and laughing.

"You have to do the accent," he pointed out. 

"Damn, I hadn't thought of that..." I said nervously. "I can't do a French accent!" I looked up at him. "You can do all the talking." He nodded and the two of us left the hotel. There was a pub close to the Weasley's so we got there and took the Floo network. A lot of people greeted Draco/Bill, considering the Weasley's used to spend a lot of time there. Once we arrived in Diagon Alley the two of us were very careful.

It was extremely empty, but we were planning on going quickly. We walked straight to Knockturn Alley. "How weird..." Draco pointed out. I couldn't stop looking around at the even more deserted alleyway. I nodded in agreement as he grabbed my hand. "What we're married?" he added with a joke, trying to lighten the mood. I smiled as we kept walking, but couldn't keep my eyes off of all the wanted posters. They all had Harry's face on them. A few had Hermione's and some had Ron's. 

As we got to the corner entrance to Knockturn Alley, Draco came to a complete stop. "What are you-" I began saying but then noticed what he was looking at. There was a 'Missing' poster with his face on it and a very large reward. His family did indeed believe he was missing. "I-" I didn't know what to say.

"Come on," he said talking my arm once more as the two of us walked. It must be hard for him to think of his parents how worried they were about him. I hadn't thought much about that.

We walked all the way to the end where Dark Tales was. The streets were empty except for a few people passing by quickly, even more shops were closed. Probably from bad business. At least Dark Tales was still open. As we stepped inside, the same crazy old woman was standing there. Her eyes lit up as she saw us. "Customers," she said with a large smile. "Anything specific?" I looked up at Draco.

"Just looking," he said with a nod. The old lady nodded as she stayed behind the counter. From the corner of my eye, I noticed how she was watching us very closely. It was actually me she was staring at. I tried to ignore it, but it was obvious how much she was staring at me. She was making it too obvious.

I shuffled through bookshelves. Draco and I stepped away from her. "It'd be best if I just summoned it," he said. "Go distract her." I nodded as he went off into the corner to summon the book.

I walked up to the register as the woman stared at me with the same smile. "You look familiar," she said curiously. "Have we met?" I shook my head. "Are you sure...there's something about you." 

A man entered the store, I turned to see who it was but couldn't see their face. It was probably just a local wizard looking for a new book. "This here tells me who is a new customer and who isn't." The woman lifted up a crystal ball. "When you walked it, it was red. You've been here before...but not with that face." My heart stopped as she said that very loudly. 

The man behind me dropped whatever he was holding and turned to look at us. I recognized him, it was a Death Eater who was back at the Malfoy's. "You're using polyjuice potion, aren't you dear?" the crazy woman said. I looked back at Draco who noticed what was going on.

"Polyjuice potion," the Death Eater repeated and raised his wand. Quickly he was knocked over by a spell casted by Draco. 

"Come on," Draco said grabbing my hand as we fled the store. The man jumped up and came running behind us out the door.

"They're using polyjuice potion, it could be Potter!" he shouted. Suddenly alarms began going off all around us. More black cloaked figures came running. Draco and I ran faster, trying to avoid them by going down alley ways but they seemed to be coming from everywhere. Squeezing his hand tighter, I knew we had to out run them. If only Draco could apparate! There was no way I would risk it myself in case of splinching.

They were shouting spells at us that we were dodging. Draco and I shot them back as well. They didn't know who we truly where, thank Merlin, but we had to keep it that way. Using my wand for the first time in a while I shot spells back at them. I created ditches in the ground in hopes of them not being able to follow us. A Death Eater intercepted us, coming around a corner and shooting a spell just as I hit him with the body-binding curse. Draco fell to the ground, the Death Eater's spell managed to hit him. 

He managed to his Draco's arm, just barely, but the spell was spreading. It was Sectumsempra. "No..." I said in horror. Draco winced in pain, but stood up.

"I'm alright..." he lied as the blood was spreading. This had happened to him before. It spread quickly.

"No we have to get you out of here!" I panicked. More Death Eaters were coming. "Bombarda Maxima!" I yelled and the brick walls exploded, separating us from the Death Eaters as the walls caved in. They were all knocked back and covered by bricks. I dragged Draco back. I knew the counter curse, I remembered asking Snape about it and how he healed Draco. With only a minute before they would get through I muttered, "Vulnera Sanentur."  Quickly the wounds started to heal, but it was painful and slow. At least this would stop the bleeding. "Let's keep moving."

Draco was weak but we managed to get to the Leaky Cauldron and use their Floo Network. I ended up making the decision to go back to the same small pub in Ireland we started at, just to get out of the way. We quickly arrived and went to the inn. Plenty of rooms were ready and we got one right away. The second we got there, Draco laid down on the bed and I could tell he was in pain. I put enchantments up all around the room and used the spell a few more time. "This will stop the pain," I said adding a little remedy that would cause a cooling sensation. His face flushed in relief. "This will stop the scarring." I poured dittany over his arm. 

Finally, he looked as if the pain had stopped but he looked tired. I sat down next to him, we were back to our normal selves. "I'm so sorry..." I admitted. "It's all my fault. If I didn't drag you there, this would never have happened. All for nothing." I hung my head, but surprisingly he moved his hand to mine.

"Not for nothing," he said. I looked at him and he pulled out a very tiny, hand sized book from his pocket. "I got it and shrunk it."

"Merlin," I exclaimed excited, taking it from his hand and kissing him quickly on the lips. "Still, I'm sorry."

"Well now we know where not to go," he added with a small smile.

Hope you're liking it! x