our house is. You can get there from Chipping Sodbury, though, if you know how to go.'
'You have a whole village named after you?' said Hermione, aghast.
'Yes, surprising I haven't got a big head, isn't it?' said Draco.
Hermione was about to make a sharp comment when she realized he was joking.
Must loosen up there, she told herself.
They came out of the lane into a wider thoroughfare where there were shops and pubs. It was in many respects a little magical town just like Hogsmeade, but there was a difference: everything here seemed to either have the word 'Malfoy' on it or be somehow related to Dark magic — it was Knockturn Alley imagined by Lucius Malfoy. There was the Malfoy Market sandwiched between Helga the Hag's House of Horrible Hexes and a pub called The Cold Christmas Inn that offered a Malfoy lunch special (toasted bat sandwich.)
'They must really like you here,' said Hermione, trying not to laugh.
'Ha!' said Draco. 'They hate my family, we've been oppressing them for generations and every once in a while my dad comes down into the village and does some horrible Dark magic thing that terrifies everyone and keeps them in line.'
'Doesn't that bother you?' she asked sharply, but Draco shook his head at her and whispered, 'Shhh… The last thing we want is for anyone to see me here and tip my dad off that Harry Potter is hanging around the village.'
'Right,' said Hermione, who hadn't been paying attention. For some reason, when he stood this close to her, and whispered like he was doing, she got little shivers all up and down her spine.
Draco turned and began trudging up the road that led out of town. Hermione followed him. They walked on for a bit in silence; Draco seemed lost in thought.
Finally, he turned right at the top of the hill, and they came out from the tree-lined road into a wide-open space. Hermione couldn't help herself, she gasped; it was just what she had imagined Malfoy Manor would be like. A huge spike-topped fence stretched away in either direction; directly in the center was an open gate shaped like an enormous M. Huge pillars topped by statues of writhing silver serpents flanked the gateway, and through the gate Hermione could see the looming black shape of an enormous, hulking house.
Hermione started forward; she had taken only a few steps when Draco seized her arm. 'No,' he said sharply. 'What did I tell you?'
'Oh,' she said, feeling foolish. 'Seventeen hexes. Right.'
'My father invented the one on this gate,' said Draco, sounding proud, 'It's called the Jigsaw Hex, because if you try to go through the gate uninvited it'll chop you up into pieces.'
'Your father sounds like he must be a lot of fun at parties,' said Hermione.
In response, Draco took a pen out of his pocket and rolled it across the ground toward the gateway. As it passed under the arch, there was a blinding flash of green light and a sharp clanging sound. There was a pause, and then the pen rolled back to Draco, severed in two neat halves.
'So,' said Hermione faintly, 'one of those simple, two-piece jigsaw puzzles then.'
'It's not funny,' he said severely, and took out his wand. He pointed it at the gate.
'Raptus regaliter,' he said. There was another flash of light, this time blue, and Draco walked through the gate. Hermione braced herself, but he remained unscathed, so she followed.
They were now on the property of Malfoy Manor. Dark grounds stretched in every direction and she could see the luminous lights of the house in the distance.
'We can avoid most of the hexes just by skirting them,' said Draco. 'Here. Take my hand.'
She took it.
They followed the fence for a while, then Draco pulled her behind him along a narrow path that snaked through the trees. There were occasionally loud thumping and bashing noises as if something huge was crashing through the shrubbery near them. Hermione didn't want to think about that, so she concentrated on not making noise.
They were right up against the house now. The shrubbery ended, and a narrow white path wound towards the Manor wall and then alongside. It glowed faintly in the moonlight. A high black tower rose above their heads, spangled with sequins of light where windows broke up the darkness. Draco pointed upward, to a single row of windows glowing with light. 'That's my bedroom,' he whispered.
'Is Harry in there?' she asked anxiously.
Draco nodded. This was a mistake, for Hermione immediately darted forward onto the glowing path. He reached out to grab her and pull her back, but his hand closed on air. He heard, rather than saw, the small metal gate opening in the base of the tower — he knew what was going to happen, of course he ought to, seeing as how he'd put the attack mechanism in place himself. He swore, ran forward, and pushed Hermione aside, hard.
There was a loud whistling noise that ended in an unpleasant thump, and Hermione heard Draco fall to the ground next to her.
She scrambled to her knees and looked around; the path was empty except for her and Draco, who was sitting on the ground, looking down at himself with an expression of surprise. The shaft of an arrow, about four inches long, was sticking out of the upper part of his thigh. Blood was spreading around the wound, darkening his jeans.
'Blast,' said Draco, and then a number of other things, most of them rude.
Hermione didn't blame him,though, there was a lot of blood and it looked like it probably really hurt.
She knelt down by him and put her hand on the arrow's shaft. It was strangely cold to the touch. She felt stupid tears welling up her eyes. 'This is all my fault,' she stammered. 'And I don't have any bandages…although I could tear a piece off Harry's bag…and maybe you need a tourniquet….and oh, Draco, should you take your trousers off?'
Draco was staring at her in disbelief. 'Not that I don't appreciate being asked, Hermione,' he said, 'I mean, some other time, sure, but right now why don't you just think for a minute!' He hissed the last part. 'Who's the smartest witch in our class? Who's been taking Advanced-Level Medical Magic classes? Who here can fix my leg in
