Chapter Twenty-Two:
She hadn’t slept more than five hours the night before, and even those had been broken up by several dreams that had left her feeling cold and out of breath even though she couldn’t remember any piece of them. That fact that she couldn’t remember was both comforting and terrifying. The redhead was sure, given how she had woken from each dream, that she didn’t want to know what she had seen in her mind in those slumbering moments, but at the same time she was afraid that they had been surfacing memories from the diary that they would need to get out of this alive. Maybe they should have waited for more than the two days it had taken for them to iron out the logistics and get everything set up after the last of their lessons ended. Maybe, but as Ginny’s eyes met Draco’s over the improvised seats of the empty aircraft, she knew it was too late to turn back. They were on their way to the cave and they would either be back on the plane with a giant venomous snake or they would most likely never see the airplane, or anyone else, ever again.
With that cheerful thought, the witch felt her heart drop several meters towards her feet and decided to concentrate on something, anything, else. The pile of gear in front of her offered the best option and she began to shift it around pointlessly until Draco received a signal from the pilot and began going through his own gear. His actions were much more focused than hers had been however, as he started putting it on. She began to do the same with a deep breath and before she knew it, they were both fully suited up and ready to go. In the moments it took the door to open and them to make their way towards it, the redhead couldn’t help noting that even with as many times as they had practiced with more weight than they were currently wearing, right now it felt heavier than it ever had. Of course, maybe it was just her stomach that felt so heavy, she conceded as it knotted up inside her.
For his part, Draco didn’t notice any change in the weight of his gear, real or imagined, but his heart rate was a different story. As steady as he had felt up to this point, he couldn’t deny that his heart began to hammer in his chest as they reached the open door of the plane. The wizard almost asked the pilot to circle once around the area but he knew that it would be more to give his heart time to slow than to afford them any extra recon so he shoved the urge aside and instead shifted his gaze from the open door to the brown eyes of the witch beside him. She didn’t have to say anything for him to know that her nerves were starting to get the best of her too.
Ginny struggled to keep the knot of her stomach from dropping all the way into her heels as she maneuvered against the force of the rushing wind to get into position. One hand had a death grip on a storage tie attached to the wall of the plane by the door, the redhead not sure how she was going to be able to force herself to pry it free when it came time. She didn’t get the chance to really contemplate that however, when her gaze met Draco’s an instant later and she knew that the wait was over. It was time to go. The second that they held each other’s gaze felt almost endless. Even so, it took no more than a slow heartbeat after the pilot switched on the light above the door to signal they were over the correct coordinates for Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley to exchange a single decisive nod, step up to the door and jump, one after the other.
It was as if the wind rushing past her face wiped her mind completely clear, not a single discernible thought passing through her head on the way down. One minute she was jumping from an airplane higher above the ground than she had once thought it possible to be even with a broom, and the next she was feeling the jolt of her landing in every joint and finding her feet running to a stop on a barren field of brown grass. The fact that she couldn’t even remember having pulled the cord on her chute threatened to give her a moment of panic, but the redhead focused on searching out her partner before it had a chance.
She found him quickly, already wrapping up his chute only a few yards to her left and she hurried to get her own together and off. By the time they had both removed the heavy parachute, the blond was indicating a large group of scrub brush in which they could stash the landing gear. Ginny nodded again wordlessly. Although they had never specifically agreed to it, neither had spoken a word to each other since they had boarded the plane and she wasn’t sure she was comfortable breaking the silence.
Draco wasn’t bothered by that in the least instead feeling almost as if it would suddenly broadcast their position like a distress beacon if they spoke aloud. It was a ridiculous idea, but going along with it afforded him some degree of calm so he went with it and after checking the compass and GPS unit on his wrist, gestured in the direction of the caves. Ginny fell into step beside him, mentally reviewing all the charts and maps they had poured over during their preparations, assuring herself that they had the right coordinates. Even so, she found herself letting out a breath of relief when they spotted the cave about ten minutes later.
The blond felt the corners of his mouth tilt up just the slightest amount at the sound of her sigh, the expression seeming to push away the numbing sensation that had, up to that point, covered him from head to toe. It was as if a tinge of color bled back into a world which had been turning grey around him over the last few hours. He fought to keep the change from distracting him as he and Ginny slowed their steps before they reached the edge of the cave shaft. The last few dozen meters they crossed to their destination were some of the most nerve wracking moments of his life, his shoulders tensed in expectation of some kind of alarm or defensive spell striking them down. He knew, intellectually, that any magic would have interacted with the anti-magic wards in a negative way, unbalancing one or the other and so would not have been used this close to the cave entrance but he couldn’t completely suppress the fear.
Either she could see his apprehension on his face, or she was preoccupied with her own fears, because Ginny stood motionless, staring at the shaft for several seconds before she seemed to shake herself and kneel close to the edge to begin pulling her equipment out of her bag. The movement jarred him from his own thoughts and it was barely a second after she had unzipped her pack that he was on his knees doing the same. Both worked on autopilot, their movements smooth from innumerable practices as they set up the three battery powered winches, making sure they were securely anchored in the ground and to a large boulder nearby. The silence hung between them for the duration of the process until they had both connected the end of the winch lines to their repelling harnesses.
The partners were standing on the edge, leaning back, and about to take the step back needed to begin their descent when suddenly her left hand shot out to grab hold of his right. Steel grey eyes snapped to hers, a question clear in them, but though she finally broke the silence, she kept her explanation short and her voice quiet.
“For the wards.”
Her words seemed to echo between them for a moment before he nodded and returned his gaze to the space in front of him, open air that would soon be the rock face of the shaft. Brown eyes shifted in the same direction as they each took a deep breath, and with a tight squeeze of their joined hands, stepped back and began to make their way straight down into the cave. They hadn’t gone more than a few steps before a strange breeze chilled their backs. He was almost sure that she could feel his heart pounding through her grip on his hand at the feeling when he glanced over and noticed that the breeze, though strong enough to feel, didn’t shift a single of the red strands swinging in the air behind her.
He knew she had noticed the same irregularity when her nails actually began to dig into his skin. Ginny didn’t seem to notice her reaction, focusing instead on maintaining a steady and even pace as they repelled further and further into the dim shaft until their feet hit the ground exactly at the same time. Draco felt the unexpected urge to smile at her in either relief or celebration of their small but notable success, but she beat him to it, shooting him a tight but genuine smile. He rolled his eyes at her expression, giving in and smiling himself when she responded with a mock glare.
“Come on,” he said in a whisper, unhooking himself from his winch line and the line from the spare winch while she detached herself from her own. Before they turned to make their way down the tunnel deeper into the cave, he caught her giving a worried look to the spare line, which hopefully would soon be connected to a sack carrying a comatose Nagini. He’d felt a similar concern when he’d attached the line to his harness and without further thought he reached out and took ahold of her hand once more. “For the wards,” he stated softly with a weak grin.
Ginny’s expression lightened slightly at his blatant lie and she walked along at his side without hesitation, the two continuing on at a cautious but steady pace for an unknown amount of time. It felt to the witch and wizard as if their hike through the tunnel dragged on for nearly half an hour before they reached a sudden and unexpected maze of tunnels splitting off from the one they were in. The partners came to a halt at the sight, their breathing loud in the silence for several long moments until Draco spoke.
“What the bloody hell...” Grey met brown and she tensed as if he had slapped her at the almost accusatory tone.
“Well, it’s not like I see a friggin’ movie in my head, is it?” she snapped.
His eyes closed while he took a deep breath, then reopened to meet her gaze once more. “I know you don’t, okay. Let’s just take a sec here. Maybe if you look around you might remember something.”
Ginny nodded slowly, muttering a quiet ‘sorry’. The blond waved off her apology, knowing his own nerves had gotten the best of him too, but she had already started to turn slowly in a circle to look at each new tunnel in turn.
The minutes ticked by, her frustration growing more and more obvious until she grabbed at her hair with a silent scream. She closed her eyes, picturing every memory she had of the cave. She could see the shaft, the first tunnel, even the larger chamber that held Nagini clearly, but she couldn’t see any other tunnels, certainly not the maze of tunnels now facing them. With another deep breath she opened her eyes and made a final turn, staring hard at every tunnel, then swiftly lifted her arm to point at one ahead and to the right. “That one.”
“You remembered?” he asked in a relieved tone, though it was more a statement than a question. To his surprise she shook her head.
“No. I can’t see it, I don’t remember anything about these tunnels. I just have a feeling that we go through that one.” She tensed in preparation of his reaction but he stayed silent for so long she finally spoke up herself. “Well? What do you think, which way should we go?”
He merely shrugged, though his calm tone was belied by the nervous look on his face. “Hell if I know. Your guess is better than mine.”
He started towards the tunnel she had indicated but before he got there, she pulled back on his arm. “Wait, are you sure we should go that way, what if I’m wrong, I don’t actually remember anything.”
He put a hand on each of her shoulders below the straps of her pack, grey eyes watching her bite her lip. “You’ve been right so far, yeah? I mean, haven’t there been times you’ve just known things, just had a feeling based on something you know but can’t remember?” She nodded hesitantly, thinking about times when she’d known an answer on an exam though she’d never have been able to cite her source if asked where the information had come from. “So who says you can’t know something he did even without his specific memory about it?”
After a couple more deep breaths, she simply nodded again, this time with a little more certainty, and turned towards the new tunnel. She was almost a meter into the tunnel before she realized that she was holding his hand again. Ginny thought perhaps she should let go if for no other reason than they didn’t know when they would need to bring out the tranquilizer rifles strapped securely to their backs. She continued on, hand in hand with Draco, however, for at least another couple of meters before a slight noise coming from ahead of them caused them both to stop in their tracks.
In wordless agreement, they took off their packs, unstrapped their rifles, replaced their packs and crept cautiously ahead, guns at the ready. They covered the remaining length of the tunnel in countless heart pounding minutes. By the time that they had reached the opening to a larger chamber, both of them had to concentrate on keeping their hands steady on their weapons. Draco swallowed audibly and she tensed beside him as they both glanced ever so carefully around the edges of the opening closest to them.
The snake was coiled up about ten yards away, its head facing the far wall of the cavern where a small opening could just be seen where the wall curved away to the left. Two thoughts rushed simultaneously through his mind, first that the other opening appeared to lead further into the cave, and that with the snake watching it so intensely that it was highly possible that Voldemort himself or his Death Eaters were somewhere through that opening. Would someone be coming through that opening soon, was it the snake’s feeding time and that was why she was watching so closely? Draco shook his head slightly, trying his best to dislodge that thought process before it went any further so he could concentrate on the situation at hand. They were here to get Nagini and that was what they were going to do. Wasting time worrying about what-ifs would not help them complete their mission.
Apparently Ginny’s thoughts had traveled on a similar track because she was just pulling her gaze from the opening with a determined expression when he looked over to meet her eyes. With a series of silent and subtle hand gestures their sniper instructor had taught them, they analyzed the possibilities of taking the shot. Draco wanted it. His finger twitched more than once, eager to shift back off the guard to settle on the trigger. He wanted the shot. He wanted to push the redhead back so that if something went wrong she might have a chance to escape back into the tunnel unseen.
He knew, however, that Ginny had done remarkably well in their weapons training and was just as capable of making the shot as he was, if not more so. He knew that she had a familiarity with the animal because of the transplanted memories and while it was unlikely that they would help in this situation it was still possible, and any advantage was worth it right now. He also knew that she was in a marginally better position to sight in on the target and that if he moved at all, even the few steps needed to get a better view that it might make enough noise to alert the snake to their presence. It simply made more sense for her to take the shot, yet it still took him a few moments to convince himself to give her the gesture to go ahead.
When he finally managed to do so, he felt more than heard her let out a deep breath as she raised her rifle and took aim. His heart pounded once, twice, three times in his chest as her finger moved off the guard and onto the trigger. He focused on the snake, mentally willing it not to move. There was a soft pop as the tranquilizer dart was released, then an almost inaudible noise as the projectile embedded itself in the back of the snake’s neck, just under her skull. The two partners ducked back into the tunnel out of sight before the sound of movement began to echo in the chamber.
He pictured the snake whipping her head around, looking one way and then the other, trying to get a look at the back of her neck to see what had caused the pinch she had just felt. Shuffling continued only yards away from where they hid, eyes wide, brown and grey connected as they both held themselves absolutely still, barely daring to breath. Neither was sure how long it took for all sound of movement to cease as every second felt about an hour long as they waited, then waited a little longer in the silence, wanting to be sure that the snake was asleep before they moved into the open. Eventually, they began inching slowly, carefully, cautiously back to the edge of the tunnel and leaned out just far enough to look into the chamber . They didn’t have to look very far, Nagini was only about a yard away, her head facing the tunnel where Draco and Ginny stood.
End Chapter Twenty-Two
She hadn’t slept more than five hours the night before, and even those had been broken up by several dreams that had left her feeling cold and out of breath even though she couldn’t remember any piece of them. That fact that she couldn’t remember was both comforting and terrifying. The redhead was sure, given how she had woken from each dream, that she didn’t want to know what she had seen in her mind in those slumbering moments, but at the same time she was afraid that they had been surfacing memories from the diary that they would need to get out of this alive. Maybe they should have waited for more than the two days it had taken for them to iron out the logistics and get everything set up after the last of their lessons ended. Maybe, but as Ginny’s eyes met Draco’s over the improvised seats of the empty aircraft, she knew it was too late to turn back. They were on their way to the cave and they would either be back on the plane with a giant venomous snake or they would most likely never see the airplane, or anyone else, ever again.
With that cheerful thought, the witch felt her heart drop several meters towards her feet and decided to concentrate on something, anything, else. The pile of gear in front of her offered the best option and she began to shift it around pointlessly until Draco received a signal from the pilot and began going through his own gear. His actions were much more focused than hers had been however, as he started putting it on. She began to do the same with a deep breath and before she knew it, they were both fully suited up and ready to go. In the moments it took the door to open and them to make their way towards it, the redhead couldn’t help noting that even with as many times as they had practiced with more weight than they were currently wearing, right now it felt heavier than it ever had. Of course, maybe it was just her stomach that felt so heavy, she conceded as it knotted up inside her.
For his part, Draco didn’t notice any change in the weight of his gear, real or imagined, but his heart rate was a different story. As steady as he had felt up to this point, he couldn’t deny that his heart began to hammer in his chest as they reached the open door of the plane. The wizard almost asked the pilot to circle once around the area but he knew that it would be more to give his heart time to slow than to afford them any extra recon so he shoved the urge aside and instead shifted his gaze from the open door to the brown eyes of the witch beside him. She didn’t have to say anything for him to know that her nerves were starting to get the best of her too.
Ginny struggled to keep the knot of her stomach from dropping all the way into her heels as she maneuvered against the force of the rushing wind to get into position. One hand had a death grip on a storage tie attached to the wall of the plane by the door, the redhead not sure how she was going to be able to force herself to pry it free when it came time. She didn’t get the chance to really contemplate that however, when her gaze met Draco’s an instant later and she knew that the wait was over. It was time to go. The second that they held each other’s gaze felt almost endless. Even so, it took no more than a slow heartbeat after the pilot switched on the light above the door to signal they were over the correct coordinates for Draco Malfoy and Ginny Weasley to exchange a single decisive nod, step up to the door and jump, one after the other.
It was as if the wind rushing past her face wiped her mind completely clear, not a single discernible thought passing through her head on the way down. One minute she was jumping from an airplane higher above the ground than she had once thought it possible to be even with a broom, and the next she was feeling the jolt of her landing in every joint and finding her feet running to a stop on a barren field of brown grass. The fact that she couldn’t even remember having pulled the cord on her chute threatened to give her a moment of panic, but the redhead focused on searching out her partner before it had a chance.
She found him quickly, already wrapping up his chute only a few yards to her left and she hurried to get her own together and off. By the time they had both removed the heavy parachute, the blond was indicating a large group of scrub brush in which they could stash the landing gear. Ginny nodded again wordlessly. Although they had never specifically agreed to it, neither had spoken a word to each other since they had boarded the plane and she wasn’t sure she was comfortable breaking the silence.
Draco wasn’t bothered by that in the least instead feeling almost as if it would suddenly broadcast their position like a distress beacon if they spoke aloud. It was a ridiculous idea, but going along with it afforded him some degree of calm so he went with it and after checking the compass and GPS unit on his wrist, gestured in the direction of the caves. Ginny fell into step beside him, mentally reviewing all the charts and maps they had poured over during their preparations, assuring herself that they had the right coordinates. Even so, she found herself letting out a breath of relief when they spotted the cave about ten minutes later.
The blond felt the corners of his mouth tilt up just the slightest amount at the sound of her sigh, the expression seeming to push away the numbing sensation that had, up to that point, covered him from head to toe. It was as if a tinge of color bled back into a world which had been turning grey around him over the last few hours. He fought to keep the change from distracting him as he and Ginny slowed their steps before they reached the edge of the cave shaft. The last few dozen meters they crossed to their destination were some of the most nerve wracking moments of his life, his shoulders tensed in expectation of some kind of alarm or defensive spell striking them down. He knew, intellectually, that any magic would have interacted with the anti-magic wards in a negative way, unbalancing one or the other and so would not have been used this close to the cave entrance but he couldn’t completely suppress the fear.
Either she could see his apprehension on his face, or she was preoccupied with her own fears, because Ginny stood motionless, staring at the shaft for several seconds before she seemed to shake herself and kneel close to the edge to begin pulling her equipment out of her bag. The movement jarred him from his own thoughts and it was barely a second after she had unzipped her pack that he was on his knees doing the same. Both worked on autopilot, their movements smooth from innumerable practices as they set up the three battery powered winches, making sure they were securely anchored in the ground and to a large boulder nearby. The silence hung between them for the duration of the process until they had both connected the end of the winch lines to their repelling harnesses.
The partners were standing on the edge, leaning back, and about to take the step back needed to begin their descent when suddenly her left hand shot out to grab hold of his right. Steel grey eyes snapped to hers, a question clear in them, but though she finally broke the silence, she kept her explanation short and her voice quiet.
“For the wards.”
Her words seemed to echo between them for a moment before he nodded and returned his gaze to the space in front of him, open air that would soon be the rock face of the shaft. Brown eyes shifted in the same direction as they each took a deep breath, and with a tight squeeze of their joined hands, stepped back and began to make their way straight down into the cave. They hadn’t gone more than a few steps before a strange breeze chilled their backs. He was almost sure that she could feel his heart pounding through her grip on his hand at the feeling when he glanced over and noticed that the breeze, though strong enough to feel, didn’t shift a single of the red strands swinging in the air behind her.
He knew she had noticed the same irregularity when her nails actually began to dig into his skin. Ginny didn’t seem to notice her reaction, focusing instead on maintaining a steady and even pace as they repelled further and further into the dim shaft until their feet hit the ground exactly at the same time. Draco felt the unexpected urge to smile at her in either relief or celebration of their small but notable success, but she beat him to it, shooting him a tight but genuine smile. He rolled his eyes at her expression, giving in and smiling himself when she responded with a mock glare.
“Come on,” he said in a whisper, unhooking himself from his winch line and the line from the spare winch while she detached herself from her own. Before they turned to make their way down the tunnel deeper into the cave, he caught her giving a worried look to the spare line, which hopefully would soon be connected to a sack carrying a comatose Nagini. He’d felt a similar concern when he’d attached the line to his harness and without further thought he reached out and took ahold of her hand once more. “For the wards,” he stated softly with a weak grin.
Ginny’s expression lightened slightly at his blatant lie and she walked along at his side without hesitation, the two continuing on at a cautious but steady pace for an unknown amount of time. It felt to the witch and wizard as if their hike through the tunnel dragged on for nearly half an hour before they reached a sudden and unexpected maze of tunnels splitting off from the one they were in. The partners came to a halt at the sight, their breathing loud in the silence for several long moments until Draco spoke.
“What the bloody hell...” Grey met brown and she tensed as if he had slapped her at the almost accusatory tone.
“Well, it’s not like I see a friggin’ movie in my head, is it?” she snapped.
His eyes closed while he took a deep breath, then reopened to meet her gaze once more. “I know you don’t, okay. Let’s just take a sec here. Maybe if you look around you might remember something.”
Ginny nodded slowly, muttering a quiet ‘sorry’. The blond waved off her apology, knowing his own nerves had gotten the best of him too, but she had already started to turn slowly in a circle to look at each new tunnel in turn.
The minutes ticked by, her frustration growing more and more obvious until she grabbed at her hair with a silent scream. She closed her eyes, picturing every memory she had of the cave. She could see the shaft, the first tunnel, even the larger chamber that held Nagini clearly, but she couldn’t see any other tunnels, certainly not the maze of tunnels now facing them. With another deep breath she opened her eyes and made a final turn, staring hard at every tunnel, then swiftly lifted her arm to point at one ahead and to the right. “That one.”
“You remembered?” he asked in a relieved tone, though it was more a statement than a question. To his surprise she shook her head.
“No. I can’t see it, I don’t remember anything about these tunnels. I just have a feeling that we go through that one.” She tensed in preparation of his reaction but he stayed silent for so long she finally spoke up herself. “Well? What do you think, which way should we go?”
He merely shrugged, though his calm tone was belied by the nervous look on his face. “Hell if I know. Your guess is better than mine.”
He started towards the tunnel she had indicated but before he got there, she pulled back on his arm. “Wait, are you sure we should go that way, what if I’m wrong, I don’t actually remember anything.”
He put a hand on each of her shoulders below the straps of her pack, grey eyes watching her bite her lip. “You’ve been right so far, yeah? I mean, haven’t there been times you’ve just known things, just had a feeling based on something you know but can’t remember?” She nodded hesitantly, thinking about times when she’d known an answer on an exam though she’d never have been able to cite her source if asked where the information had come from. “So who says you can’t know something he did even without his specific memory about it?”
After a couple more deep breaths, she simply nodded again, this time with a little more certainty, and turned towards the new tunnel. She was almost a meter into the tunnel before she realized that she was holding his hand again. Ginny thought perhaps she should let go if for no other reason than they didn’t know when they would need to bring out the tranquilizer rifles strapped securely to their backs. She continued on, hand in hand with Draco, however, for at least another couple of meters before a slight noise coming from ahead of them caused them both to stop in their tracks.
In wordless agreement, they took off their packs, unstrapped their rifles, replaced their packs and crept cautiously ahead, guns at the ready. They covered the remaining length of the tunnel in countless heart pounding minutes. By the time that they had reached the opening to a larger chamber, both of them had to concentrate on keeping their hands steady on their weapons. Draco swallowed audibly and she tensed beside him as they both glanced ever so carefully around the edges of the opening closest to them.
The snake was coiled up about ten yards away, its head facing the far wall of the cavern where a small opening could just be seen where the wall curved away to the left. Two thoughts rushed simultaneously through his mind, first that the other opening appeared to lead further into the cave, and that with the snake watching it so intensely that it was highly possible that Voldemort himself or his Death Eaters were somewhere through that opening. Would someone be coming through that opening soon, was it the snake’s feeding time and that was why she was watching so closely? Draco shook his head slightly, trying his best to dislodge that thought process before it went any further so he could concentrate on the situation at hand. They were here to get Nagini and that was what they were going to do. Wasting time worrying about what-ifs would not help them complete their mission.
Apparently Ginny’s thoughts had traveled on a similar track because she was just pulling her gaze from the opening with a determined expression when he looked over to meet her eyes. With a series of silent and subtle hand gestures their sniper instructor had taught them, they analyzed the possibilities of taking the shot. Draco wanted it. His finger twitched more than once, eager to shift back off the guard to settle on the trigger. He wanted the shot. He wanted to push the redhead back so that if something went wrong she might have a chance to escape back into the tunnel unseen.
He knew, however, that Ginny had done remarkably well in their weapons training and was just as capable of making the shot as he was, if not more so. He knew that she had a familiarity with the animal because of the transplanted memories and while it was unlikely that they would help in this situation it was still possible, and any advantage was worth it right now. He also knew that she was in a marginally better position to sight in on the target and that if he moved at all, even the few steps needed to get a better view that it might make enough noise to alert the snake to their presence. It simply made more sense for her to take the shot, yet it still took him a few moments to convince himself to give her the gesture to go ahead.
When he finally managed to do so, he felt more than heard her let out a deep breath as she raised her rifle and took aim. His heart pounded once, twice, three times in his chest as her finger moved off the guard and onto the trigger. He focused on the snake, mentally willing it not to move. There was a soft pop as the tranquilizer dart was released, then an almost inaudible noise as the projectile embedded itself in the back of the snake’s neck, just under her skull. The two partners ducked back into the tunnel out of sight before the sound of movement began to echo in the chamber.
He pictured the snake whipping her head around, looking one way and then the other, trying to get a look at the back of her neck to see what had caused the pinch she had just felt. Shuffling continued only yards away from where they hid, eyes wide, brown and grey connected as they both held themselves absolutely still, barely daring to breath. Neither was sure how long it took for all sound of movement to cease as every second felt about an hour long as they waited, then waited a little longer in the silence, wanting to be sure that the snake was asleep before they moved into the open. Eventually, they began inching slowly, carefully, cautiously back to the edge of the tunnel and leaned out just far enough to look into the chamber . They didn’t have to look very far, Nagini was only about a yard away, her head facing the tunnel where Draco and Ginny stood.
End Chapter Twenty-Two
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