Harry Potter: Metamorphosis

He woke up feeling someone shaking him fervently.

Draco immediately took in his surroundings, noting the bright half-moon in the sky; it was about midnight.

"Why did you wake me up Donna," he muttered lightly and let out a yawn.

The mentioned elf was currently sitting on top of Draco's covers.

She was restless, twitching on top of the boy's lying form and sported a haunted look.

What's wrong with her? h wondered slowly, still reeling from sleepiness.

Upon hearing the question, the elf started fiddling with her purple pillowcase, looking everywhere but at her young master's eyes.

"Donna, what happened?" the pureblood half asked, half demanded, really tired and not in the mood for theatrics.

Draco grabbed the elf's arms, gently, without harming her, and looked into her grey eyes.

"What's up," he asked again with a soft tone and watched as Donna's expression froze.

Draco waited for her to speak, not wanting to push her more and knowing that if he did so, she could just snap away.

"Do-Donna got master's book," she said very swiftly as if that would make the uttered words go away.

Donna got master's books. Donna got master's books, the phrase iterated through Draco's eyes.

Book.

There was only one book she could be mentioning.

I only asked her about one book. The occlumency book on mind arts that the Dark Lord confiscated from our library, he thought mechanically and pausing at the last observation.

A feeling of cold ran down his spine.

And then he saw it.

There it was.

How come I didn't see it before?

Held by a weak grip, Donna's grip, a thick and weighty book embossed in silver with a dark binding manifested itself in Draco's eyes.

He stared, willing for the elegant white letters to disappear.

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

Into the mind, the young Malfoy read despondently.

"Shit," he cursed.

Shit, shit, shit.

There was no way Voldemort wouldn't notice the book missing from his quarters and then someone would pay.

Not someone, me.

Voldemort would move heaven and earth to find out who betrayed him.

He'd probably round everyone up in a single room and penetrate into every mind until he gleams into mine. He'll probably kill me even before finding out about the book…

He had to do something.

He had to fix things.

I must return the book, he concluded.

That was the only way to patch the situation up.

"Donna, listen to me. This book would have been of great help and much appreciated but we can't let the Dark Lord suspect that something is amiss. If he realises that we stole from him, he would immediately dispatch us. He will kill us, Donna! So return it as quick as you can and return here," Draco commanded with steel in his voice, any hint of his lethargy from waking up in the middle of the night gone.

He had to make sure she understood exactly what was at stake.

Their lives.

He was wide awake, ready to escape his family home if the need arose.

Even as he was talking to Donna, his mind noted everything he could take and the things he had to do if he were to leave in the next moments.

Deep in his thoughts, he didn't notice Donna's pale face.

He only looked up because he thought he was being shaken again but as it turned out it was Donna who was shaking, much more intensely than before.

Did I say anything wrong? Draco wondered and opened his mouth to ask just that.

"The dark master summons Donna," the elf informed him with teary eyes.

"Don't go," Draco almost shouted, but the female elf was gone.

The boy simply stared at the now blank air where his elf stood moments prior.

"Bloody hell," he exclaimed and got up with a push.

Voldemort will kill me, he realised.

And with Donna's leave, his means of escape also left.

I'm fucked.

Flicking his wand from the wand holster on his right arm, he cast the summoning charm towards an inconspicuous-looking pouch.

The wand holster was a gift from his father when Horus, his wand's name, accepted him.

Lucius had said that a Malfoy should always be ready to defend himself and the wand holster would allow him to do so.

I'm kinda jealous of that cane thought. He walks around holding a wand and no one ever says anything…

Discarding that useless stream of thought, he grabbed the summoned pouch, which was spelt bottomless and contained a few thousand galleons, every allowance his parents gave him and some money his mother sneaked in throughout the years.

I should have prepared everything beforehand, Draco thought bitterly, cursing his earlier self for not preparing for the worst.

"Accio The Darkest of Magical Arts," he intoned and got a hold of the tome he was studying the day before; it was half-read.

He pushed the book into the pouch which contradicted the common muggle sense, growing wider to accept the offered item.

Draco then turned around and his gaze fell on the book which ruined both his sleep and his immediate plans, possibly his life.

With another swiftly cast summoning charm, he stashed the offending book in his trusty pouch and opened his mouth.

"Tilly," Draco said while staring at the wall with a sudden jolt of inspiration.

There followed a familiar cracking sound and another elf, not dissimilar to Donna, appeared in front of Draco, albeit he had to look down to see her.

"Young master called Tilly," the elf said with a high-pitched and chirpy voice.

"Take me to Hogsmeade, immediately," Draco commanded with a no-nonsense voice, doing his best to keep it firm.

He was deathly scared that Voldemort would apparate inside his room after finishing Donna's interrogation.

Despite the clear doubt and something akin to reluctance in the elf's features, she followed her master's command and whisked him away.

In the next moment Tilly walked closer to Draco and touched him.

Immediately, a disorienting pull gripped the young pureblood and his stomach lurched as though he was being squeezed through a narrow tube.

The world around him spun into a dizzying blur of colours, shapes and shadows, each merging into the next with jarring speed.

Just as suddenly everything started, it ended.

Draco found himself a few metres away from the outer buildings in the famous magical town.

"Thanks, Tilly. You are to return back home and tell of this to no one," he said when the dizziness stopped.

At least, it's not raining, Draco thought, trying to look into the bright side.

Tilly nodded with a bright expression and apparated away, leaving the young boy all alone…

Just as she appeared back in the Malfoy manor though, away from Draco's sight, she fell on her knees, her happy expression evaporating.

In the muggle world, there was a superstition about family members being able to sense when something bad befell their loved ones.

That superstition was true for a few magicals, mostly the born twins.

It was also true for all the house elves as their magic, different than that of the wizards, connected them in ways incomprehensible to the human mind.

That's why Tilly fell down, breaking into tears inside her small closet…

Her beloved sister, Donna, had just died.