Chapter Two Escape Draco Malfoy was flying on his broomstick behind the bus Ginny was on. The clouds were very thick, so he had to stay right behind it or he would lose sight of it.

He was not enjoying himself. His father had asked him ---- no, ordered ---- him to follow the bus to Azkaban and see there were no problems. Why there would be problems, he did not know.

He knew the Weasley girl was innocent. Lucius had all but told him so. The person who had tortured him had been Voldemort, and Lucius did not want anyone to know for some reason.

Everyone knows that Voldemort’s back in power, Draco thought, his lips twisting into a sneer. Why he had to go and blame Weasley, I don’t know.

He also didn’t know how she managed to lie through the truth potion. Of course, she had been forced to answer. It wasn’t like she had wanted to say yes. The truth potions made you say the truth, even if you didn’t want to. It sort of forces it out of someone.

But Ginny hadn’t used the Cruciatus Curse. She had denied it even after the truth potion had made her admit it. The only thing that Draco could conclude was that his father had done something with the truth potion.

What use is it to think about it? he wondered. It seems all I’ve done is think about it and I don’t even like Ginny Weasley.

He should’ve stayed home. He hadn’t wanted to come, and even though they were having a hot, sticky July, he was cold. Several kilometers above the ground, in the lower regions of the clouds, it was chilly. Even Draco’s thick wool cloak was not keeping him from getting the goosebumps.

Below him, he could not see the ground through the thickness of the clouds, but he knew that they were flying over water. Azkaban was on an island (more like a collection of large boulders that had been conjured up by magic) in the middle of the North Sea. It was nearly two hours off the coast of England.

Draco sighed, frustrated. When it was all over he would just have to turn around and come straight back. And then he’d have to navigate on his own.

Should’ve made Father follow this bloody bus himself, Draco thought, irritated.

He released his grip on the broom, holding on and keeping his balance with his legs, and rubbed his face wearily. It was around three thirty in the morning, and he was exhausted. He knew he wouldn’t be able to get sleep until sometime that afternoon, which seemed like forever at the moment.

When he removed his hands from his eyes, he realized with a jolt that he was alone in the darkness of the clouds, and that the light from the bus had disappeared.

“Damn,” Draco swore, reaching into his robes and pulling out his wand. “Lumos,” he whispered, and the tip lit up. The light was strong, but the clouds were too dense to really see anything in.

Draco increased speed, never changing direction. He knew the way to Azkaban, it wouldn’t be like he was lost without the bus or anything. But it would defeat the entire purpose of following it and keeping an eye on it. He might as well just turn around and go home.

Unfortunately, Draco made a mistake. Instead of staying behind the bus, he had increased speed so much that he was now in front of it. He turned around, preparing to go home and face the wrath of his father, when all the sudden the bus appeared through the clouds.

***

Ginny was nearly half asleep when the bus suddenly jerked to the side.

She looked up towards the front and out the windshield, and for a moment thought she saw a person right in front of the bus. A person with silvery hair.

But then the driver turned the wheel even further, and the person disappeared from sight.

Ginny’s stomach dropped as the nose of the bus plunged downward. The driver was shouting in attempt to get it straight again, but it continued to drop. It started to shudder violently, causing Ginny to lose her balance and fall to the floor.

“We’re going to crash!” some girl shrieked.

Oh God, Ginny thought, grabbing the bars and trying to get to her feet despite the shaking of the entire bus. We are. We really are.

She turned her head to look out the window. Instead of clouds, she saw the vast expanse of water. They were no longer up in the air, but seconds from colliding into the sea.

And then, with a very vicious and sudden jolt, the bus stopped going forward and hit the surface of the water. With a scream, Ginny was thrown forward against the bars. She got lucky – her head did not hit any of the bars directly, but rather fell between them. All around her, the yells and shouts of the other girls filled her ears, and dazed she tried to stand up again.

The bus had hit the water nose first, and the rear had been up in the air. A moment later, it righted itself as the back fell into the water.

Cold seawater swirled at Ginny’s ankles as she managed to stand erect. Looking around, she saw water flooding from both the front and the back. All the other prisoners were screaming their brains out, grabbing the bars and shaking them as if they would budge. Up front, the driver had opened the doors and was swimming out. The guard was not far behind them.

Ginny watched this, her mouth open, fear and panic causing her heart to pound in slow, loud throbs. They were leaving them! Leaving them to drown! The Dementor, meanwhile, did not make an attempt to leave and just sat in it’s seat, as if waiting for death.

As if it was ever alive anyway.

Water was now up to her waist. Icy water, too cold for the hot, humid July they’d been having.

I’ve got to get out of here! Ginny thought, once again looking at what the other girls were trying to do. Some were trying to break down the cell doors. Others were kicking and punching at the windows. The rest were just standing there in terror, either too afraid to move or knowing they wouldn’t succeed in escaping.

I’m going to die, Ginny thought, horror slowly seeping through her body. I really am going to die. I won’t ever be able to get my name cleared. I will die with everyone, including my parents, thinking that I had used an Unforgivable Curse on another person.

But she had to try. If she were going to die, she would die fighting for her life.

There was no way she could get the cell doors to open. So frantically she made her way towards the window, the water, which was nearly up to her chest, holding her back as if it didn’t want her to get out alive.

She began pounding on the window as hard as she could. The glass was thick, not the type that would shatter easily. She needed her wand, but the guard who had left them had it. When they got to Azkaban, it was to be snapped in half before her eyes. Soon she wouldn’t have a wand.

Or a life.

Tears of terror began to make way down her cheeks, and they felt as cold as the water swirling around her neck. The window was almost completely submerged, and it was hard to get momentum to hit it underwater.

“Please!” she shrieked shrilly, not really sure who she was talking to. Moving back a little, she let the water hold her up as she kicked at the window. This only caused her to move backwards, back towards the bars, and probably didn’t do her any real good.

The surface was nearly past her chin now.

She was numb, both from the cold and from fear. The actualization that she was minutes from death hit her, and she had to fight to keep from sobbing.

I don’t want to die, she thought, kicking at the window again. I want to be able to live so I can convince everyone I’m innocent. I want to grow up and marry Harry Potter. I want to have ten kids and watch them grow up. I want to live.

The water was up to her nose.

Salty tears mixed in with salty seawater, and she took desperate breaths to keep alive as long as possible. Other prisoners were still screaming, but she knew they would be silenced in a matter of moments.

She kicked the window again as the surface crept up to her eyes.

As she shifted positions so she could use her fists on the glass, the water moved up past her forehead.

Even if I do make it out, she thought, the bus has sunk into the water. We’ve got to be quite a distance from the surface now. I’ll never make it up there.

Her lungs burned. She needed air. But when she went up to tilt her head back and breathe the last of the little air at the ceiling, she found that there wasn’t any. The bus was completely flooded.

Ginny let out a cry, and bubbles clouded her vision for a moment. Then she blinked, the salt stinging her eyes, and found the window. She gave one final, hard kick before she decided on giving up.

And to her shock, the window shattered.

Ginny did not hesitate. She cupped her hands and kicked her feet and swam, squirming out of the window. She felt a shard of glass cut through the side of her jumpsuit, but it barely nicked her skin.

She kept on swimming.

Once out of the bus, she got confused. Which way was up? She drifted for a moment, totally dazed.

Then she let out another burst of bubbles, and found the direction they floated. That way is up, she said, her eyes traveling after the bubbles. Then, with every ounce of strength she possessed, she kicked towards the surface.

***

Draco hovered in the air, watching as the bus sunk. He couldn’t do anything. It was too late. Everyone on board was going to die.

It wasn’t my fault, Draco thought stubbornly, the screams from inside causing him to feel a bit guilty. That stupid driver should’ve been able to pull up after he avoided hitting me.

The driver and another person came out of the bus first, and then started swimming off. Draco did not help them. They’re just leaving everyone there, he thought, but that wasn’t the reason he wasn’t going to help them. He didn’t want anyone to know that he was the one who had caused to bus to crash.

Everyone there is a prisoner, he told himself. They’re going to jail – dying is the best thing for them. They’ll probably die in a few months anyway.

Yet there was one person on there who was not guilty of any crime. And that was Ginny Weasley.

For some reason, Draco stayed there even after the bus sunk from sight. He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for, but he didn’t leave yet. After a few moments, the two dark figures of the driver and the guard disappeared into the darkness. They won’t be able to swim all the way to shore, he thought. They’ll eventually get tired and drown.

For about two minutes, Draco stayed. Just as he was about to turn and fly back home, someone popped up from below the surface with a great gasp of air.

It was Ginny. He knew instantly from that shock of deep red hair.

Even though he was a bit above her, he could hear her coughing and wheezing as she tried to catch her breath.

She managed to get out, Draco mused. The only one.

He felt something close to admiration for the girl.

She treaded water for a little while, and he could hear her sniffing as she cried. He knew she realized that she couldn’t make it back to shore.

She did all that just to end up dying anyway, he thought.

Then another voice inside his head told him to help her. She’s innocent. She doesn’t deserve to die like everyone else.

Besides, he was the one who had caused the crash in the first place. He should’ve been paying attention.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” he muttered, and swooped down.

***

Ginny felt something grab the back collar of her jumpsuit and screamed. At first, she thought that a giant bird had snatched her up. When she was hauled onto a broomstick, she felt very stupid for thinking such a thing.

Dripping wet, she flailed as she tried to get a good grip on the broom. When she was situated, she sat for a moment, trying to calm her pounding heart. She wasn’t going to die. Someone had saved her.

Maybe the driver and guard did come back after all, she thought, and turned to thank her savior.

Her smile of thanks slowly dropped off her mouth when she saw who it was.

“Malfoy?” she cried.

He smirked. “Who’d you expect? Potter?”

“But – but . . .” Ginny sputtered, wiping her dripping hair off her face. “You saved me.”

Draco’s smirk turned into a scowl. “Yes, so I noticed. You should be thanking me at this moment, you know. If I hadn’t been here, in five minutes you’d be fish food.”

“Thanks,” Ginny whispered. “I really thought I was going to die.”

Draco looked slightly uncomfortable. “Well, I’m not letting you drive my broom, so you better get behind me,” he ordered.

Ginny nodded, and with the help of Draco she managed to climb on the back of the broomstick. When his hand accidentally brushed her side, she cried out before she could stop herself.

“What?” he demanded.

Ginny glanced down at the slice in the side of her jumpsuit from the glass of the window. It was bleeding freely – she hadn’t thought it’d cut so deep. Draco saw her wound and frowned.

“I’m not good at healing,” he snapped.

“If I had my wand I could do it myself,” she replied tartly.

“Isn’t it snapped in half?”

“No, they don’t do that until you get to Azkaban,” Ginny said.

“So where is it?”

“The guard had it.”

“Then I can get it back for you,” Draco told her slowly, as if reluctant to help her out. He reached for his own wand and then cried, “Accio Ginny’s wand.”

They hovered in the air for so long, Ginny began to realize that it wasn’t going to come. As she opened her mouth to tell Draco, “Let’s go,” something shot out of the darkness into Draco’s waiting hand.

Her wand.

He handed it to her wordlessly, smirking triumphantly. Ginny felt a little annoyed at his attitude, but grateful, and took her wand and quickly fixed her side.

“Well,” she sighed heavily, “at least I get it for another couple of hours.”

“What do you mean, another couple of hours?” he asked. Even in the darkness she could tell what a silvery gray color his eyes were, and it gave her goose bumps to see him staring at her so intently. She had always thought of Draco Malfoy as attractive, though would never admit it to anyone.

“When I get to Azkaban they’ll just snap it in half –”

“Who says we’re going to Azkaban?”

Now it was Ginny’s turn to stare intently. For a moment she was speechless. “You mean . . . you’re not taking me there?”

“Look, Weasley, you’re a lot of things, but you aren’t evil,” Draco said, sounding slightly irritated he had to explain himself. “I know you didn’t use an Unforgivable Curse on my father, and that’s the only reason I saved you. I’ll take you back to shore and I won’t tell anyone that you’re alive. Because not only will you be hunted for, my father will personally see to it that I’m killed.”

Ginny knew it was to be taken as an exaggeration, his last sentence, but for some reason she felt it was true. She stared wordlessly into Draco’s eyes, wondering how she could’ve ever thought he was heartless and cold when he was acting so different now.

Without another sound, Draco turned and changed directions, heading for the mainland.

* * *

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