Chapter Twenty-Three:
The breath stopped in her throat, choking her as Ginny saw the giant snake, her head raised, fangs bared. A hand grasped her arm and the redhead let out a small shocked whimper. Grey eyes met hers, the question clear in them. But she simply shook her head and, blinking rapidly to dispel the image from her memory, focused once more on the task at hand. Draco stood where he was, silently regarding her for another moment, then turned with her to face the snake where it lay on the ground about a half dozen steps away, inside the cave chamber. From where they stood Nagini appeared to be unconscious. The snake was completely still, her eyes closed, but they were both extremely cautious as they slowly approached her.
Draco had explained the effects of the tranquilizer they had used in the special rifles, they had even watched several documentaries and other promotional videos he had purchased through the vet supply which demonstrated the drug’s effects on large animals. Even knowing all this, even believing everything he had said and shown her, the witch couldn’t help but wish they had been able to use the Draught of Living Death instead of these Muggle chemicals. Despite her fears and wishes she had known from the start that the use of anything made with magic was too much of a risk considering how little they knew about the strength and sensitivity of the anti-magic ward. But she still wished and she still feared. She also feared that she might have made some kind of mistake in calculating the dosages of either drug they were relying on today.
She felt her hands begin to tremble once more. They had steadied themselves out as soon as she’d begun sighting in on the snake with her gun, but without that to focus on, she lost the control she had gained over them. She tightened her grip on the rifle in an effort to still them, and pointedly stepped aside as Draco knelt down to remove the second drug from his bag. “I’ll keep watch,” she whispered, then quickly stepped towards the opening on the other side of the cave chamber and raised her gun back to the ready position.
She could feel his eyes on her for a moment, but she refused to look back at him. A moment later she heard him resume his movements and had to keep from sighing in relief at the fact that he wasn’t going to question her.
She continued to watch the opening as he quickly but carefully administered the medication that would chemically induce a coma in the giant snake. The shaking of her hands hadn’t been obvious, but he had seen her steadying them on her weapon and had a feeling that he knew what she’d been thinking to cause her to feel that nervous or fearful. As much as he trusted her and knew that she had painstakingly worked for several days to figure out the correct doses, the wizard found himself holding his breath as they worked to maneuver the animal into the bag for transport. It took every bit of strength they both had, combined, to carry Nagini out of the chamber and through the tunnel. They were using a specially structured bag to make it easier to carry it, but the snake was still exceptionally heavy and they were more than out of breath by the time they made it all the way back to the cave’s entrance shaft.
He desperately wanted to check the contents of the bag many times on the long walk to reassure himself that she hadn’t begun to wake up. He did his best, however, not to let his nerves show if for no other reason than it might slow them down. He wasn’t sure how long they had been in the cave so far, having forgotten to check his watch when they landed, but he didn’t want to push their luck by trying to remain any longer than necessary. And the only thing that was strictly necessary at that point was getting back to the shaft, getting out of the cave, and getting to the rendezvous point on time. It was with this in mind that Draco worked as quickly as he could to connect the bag securely to the extra winch line he had brought down with him when they had repelled into the cave.
Ginny took the opportunity to catch her breath while he took care of the bag, so tired from helping to carry the giant animal through the entire length of tunnel that she hadn’t even tried to argue when he’d waved her off the moment she’d gone to help him with the winch line. By the time the third line was secured, however, she had rested enough that she had no trouble convincing her body to move quickly to latch herself onto her own line. She could tell by the almost jerking motions he made in attaching his line that he was feeling the same urge to hurry. That sensation of urgency only increased as they ascended the shaft in tandem, their free hands linked on the bag dangling between them.
They were in so much of a hurry by the time they had made it back outside of the cave that witch and wizard both fumbled in removing their lines from their climbing harnesses. As many times as they had gone through this process during their training, it proved more difficult with their hearts racing in their chests and the unshakable fear that if they were going to be caught it was probably more likely for it to happen now than it had been at any point other than when they had first entered the cave and passed through the wards. The fact that the sky was beginning to grow dark as they exited the cave and the implication of how much time had passed did not help reduce their instinct to rush.
Draco consulted his watch as the redhead finally got free of her line and started working on disconnecting the bag. Their primary extraction time had passed nearly an hour before. Grey eyes fell shut on a pained exclamation and she immediately glanced his way with a fearful expression. He didn’t wait for her to ask the question, simply giving her the answer as he reached forward to help her with the bag.
“We missed our first pick up. We have about ten minutes to get to the rendezvous for our back-up extraction.”
She swallowed audibly and he knew he didn’t need to point out that if they didn’t make it to their secondary pick up, they were on their own to get far enough away from the cave system to safely transport themselves out magically without fear of the wards alerting the Death Eaters. They couldn’t afford to give Voldemort time to get on the offensive before the snake was taken care of for good. They had to make their secondary extraction. Their urgency was palpable as they struggled to once more carry the huge bag almost two kilometers away from the cave entrance to the area where they had been dropped off earlier that day. The roar of the plane’s engine was growing as they reached their destination. The sound spurred their steps, both of them knowing that if they weren’t ready for it when the plane flew by that they wouldn’t get another chance.
For the first time since he had proposed their exit plan, Ginny wasn’t scared by the idea. She was too busy rushing to get ready, too afraid that they would miss their window for the extraction. She and Draco both dropped the snake with only a vague regard for whether the jarring landing of the bag would wake the animal if it were not properly comatose. Nothing mattered as much as getting the equipment out of the bag they had left with their parachutes when they landed. The importance of their speed in getting ready overwhelmed all thought and left the witch so hyper focused on her task that she was aware of little else but the gear in her hands.
The wizard, on the other hand was overly aware of the sound of the approaching aircraft engine as he struggled to hook the bag containing Nagini into the extraction gear and watch her hooking up herself at the same time. Adrenaline was coursing through him more effectively then any Invigoration Draught as he completed his task and darted over to begin the next step of the process.
“What are you doing?” She forgot all about stealth as she shouted the question when she had hooked the final clip to her harness and looked up to see her partner opening the black case. The blond said nothing in response, only worked harder to finish what he was doing. “You’re not hooked in!”
He didn’t hear the shocked fear in her voice, he barely even heard her words over the roar of blood pounding in his ears combined with the increasing rumble of the plane. He simply continued to activate the automatic inflation of the large heavy duty balloon, thinking only that he had to get it into the air so that it had time to get high enough for the plane to grab it and use it to pick them up without landing. Or rather for the plane to pick up Ginny and the snake.
Draco Malfoy had been more than a little selfish his entire life, he had been raised to be as self important and greedy as his father and it had been a lesson he learned well. And for all that he had grown significantly as a person during his time with his Muggle relatives, he had never found himself in a situation where his own safety was lowest on his list of concerns. That had changed, however, in the instant that he had realized that any delay may spell disaster for the witch, the Order, and himself. Suddenly, unaccountably, getting his partner and their prize out of harm’s way was the sole focus of his thoughts. Those thoughts, and the fear that fueled them burst out of him as she reached for the straps of his harness.
He shoved her harshly aside and grabbed at the balloon. “We have to get it up before the plane gets too close,” he yelled.
Her response was a venomous look in his direction as she came towards him again and began to tug once more on his harness, getting it ready to attach to the balloon. He fought the urge to pull away for several tense seconds, knowing by the look on her face that any argument on his part would only increase the likelihood of them not being ready on time. Helping her get himself hooked up as quickly as possible so they could hopefully deploy the balloon before the plane arrived was their only hope, he knew it just by looking at her, but it was still a fight to convince his arms to release the balloon and help her. Even so, he managed it and after what felt like twenty minutes, he was firmly attached and ready to be picked up, but the balloon that would make it possible for them to be extracted by the plane while it was still in flight was far from its target altitude when the plane became visible on the horizon.
The seconds ticked by, each one that passed making his heart beat faster and harder in his chest until it felt like it would jump free of his ribcage, and still the balloon wasn’t high enough. Draco forced himself not to glance over at his partner, already picturing entirely too clearly the look of disbelief and fear on her face when their instructor had explained this particular extraction technique. Although it had seemed reasonable to him after it had been explained by the former special forces soldier who had used the technique more than once himself, he knew the redhead still felt very nervous about using this method. In that instant, Draco had to admit silently that he was experiencing a small case of nerves himself.
Before he could actually evaluate that feeling however, or wonder how overwhelming Ginny’s fear must be in that moment, the aircraft positioned itself just exactly right to intercept the balloon and by extension, them. The witch, wizard, and snake were jerked sharply off the ground and into the air a few seconds later. The blond tightened his muscles to keep his arms and legs crossed the way they had been shown, then tightened them still further as his partner let out a choked shriek when the thick rope they were attached to began to be towed rapidly behind the plane. He was tempted to try and look over at the redhead in the next few minutes as she fell silent once more but he kept his eyes tightly shut against the rushing wind.
Neither chose to remember with an clarity, the time between when they had been picked up and when they were standing once more on solid ground almost fifty kilometers from the caves with the plane a mere rumble of sound in the distance. For her part, Ginny studiously arranged their used gear while Draco examined his watch with far more concentration than necessary to determine how long they had until their portkey to Order Headquarters would activate. They could only keep themselves distracted for so long. The amount of time they managed was not even close to the amount of time that they needed to allow their heartbeats to settle to a rate that could be somewhat ignored.
With no other ready tasks to busy themselves with however, they finally turned to face one another. Their eyes locked immediately, neither saying a word, their thoughts still racing to catch up with the fact that they had just accomplished the nearly impossible goal they had been working towards for so many months. They had broken into one of the Dark Lord’s most important strongholds and stolen his prized pet which contained the final external portion of Voldemort’s soul. They had done it, and it appeared that they had gotten away with it. So far.
Draco broke his gaze from hers, his eyes dropping down to land on the large bumpy sack laying between them containing Nagini’s unmoving form. Brown followed grey and remained there for a long, slow heartbeat before being drawn back up where they met his once more. They still said nothing, neither able to express in words the many overwhelming thoughts and feelings beginning to spill in past the numbing shock that had shielded them from their doubts and fears and allowed them to complete their task. Yet there was too much to be contained and before they could wrangle their thoughts into enough order to express them verbally, their tumbling emotions took control of them both, the feelings of fear, excitement, and relief bursting out of them in the form of a sudden and enthusiastic kiss.
End Chapter Twenty-Three
Author's Note:
No, I did not make it up. LOL. The extraction technique described in this chapter is called the Skyhook and was first used in WWII (though it was a bit different then) and continued to be used by the special forces until 1996, at least in the US, I’m not sure about England or Australia but since the seventh book ended in ’98 I figured it was close enough that recently retired soldiers would have been trained in the technique.
The Skyhook was replaced when helicopters were capable of longer flights to reach isolated soldiers for ‘in flight pickup’ so to say. I chose not to have them lifted out by helicopter because it would be closer to the ground, louder, and slower. In the approximately five minutes that a ‘copter would be audible and visable I thought it too likely that and Death Eaters in the other end of the cave would be able to come out and investigate, see them, and know something might be wrong. Since there was a quicker and quieter option I figured Draco would have chosen that one, as ridiculous as the Skyhook sounds.
The breath stopped in her throat, choking her as Ginny saw the giant snake, her head raised, fangs bared. A hand grasped her arm and the redhead let out a small shocked whimper. Grey eyes met hers, the question clear in them. But she simply shook her head and, blinking rapidly to dispel the image from her memory, focused once more on the task at hand. Draco stood where he was, silently regarding her for another moment, then turned with her to face the snake where it lay on the ground about a half dozen steps away, inside the cave chamber. From where they stood Nagini appeared to be unconscious. The snake was completely still, her eyes closed, but they were both extremely cautious as they slowly approached her.
Draco had explained the effects of the tranquilizer they had used in the special rifles, they had even watched several documentaries and other promotional videos he had purchased through the vet supply which demonstrated the drug’s effects on large animals. Even knowing all this, even believing everything he had said and shown her, the witch couldn’t help but wish they had been able to use the Draught of Living Death instead of these Muggle chemicals. Despite her fears and wishes she had known from the start that the use of anything made with magic was too much of a risk considering how little they knew about the strength and sensitivity of the anti-magic ward. But she still wished and she still feared. She also feared that she might have made some kind of mistake in calculating the dosages of either drug they were relying on today.
She felt her hands begin to tremble once more. They had steadied themselves out as soon as she’d begun sighting in on the snake with her gun, but without that to focus on, she lost the control she had gained over them. She tightened her grip on the rifle in an effort to still them, and pointedly stepped aside as Draco knelt down to remove the second drug from his bag. “I’ll keep watch,” she whispered, then quickly stepped towards the opening on the other side of the cave chamber and raised her gun back to the ready position.
She could feel his eyes on her for a moment, but she refused to look back at him. A moment later she heard him resume his movements and had to keep from sighing in relief at the fact that he wasn’t going to question her.
She continued to watch the opening as he quickly but carefully administered the medication that would chemically induce a coma in the giant snake. The shaking of her hands hadn’t been obvious, but he had seen her steadying them on her weapon and had a feeling that he knew what she’d been thinking to cause her to feel that nervous or fearful. As much as he trusted her and knew that she had painstakingly worked for several days to figure out the correct doses, the wizard found himself holding his breath as they worked to maneuver the animal into the bag for transport. It took every bit of strength they both had, combined, to carry Nagini out of the chamber and through the tunnel. They were using a specially structured bag to make it easier to carry it, but the snake was still exceptionally heavy and they were more than out of breath by the time they made it all the way back to the cave’s entrance shaft.
He desperately wanted to check the contents of the bag many times on the long walk to reassure himself that she hadn’t begun to wake up. He did his best, however, not to let his nerves show if for no other reason than it might slow them down. He wasn’t sure how long they had been in the cave so far, having forgotten to check his watch when they landed, but he didn’t want to push their luck by trying to remain any longer than necessary. And the only thing that was strictly necessary at that point was getting back to the shaft, getting out of the cave, and getting to the rendezvous point on time. It was with this in mind that Draco worked as quickly as he could to connect the bag securely to the extra winch line he had brought down with him when they had repelled into the cave.
Ginny took the opportunity to catch her breath while he took care of the bag, so tired from helping to carry the giant animal through the entire length of tunnel that she hadn’t even tried to argue when he’d waved her off the moment she’d gone to help him with the winch line. By the time the third line was secured, however, she had rested enough that she had no trouble convincing her body to move quickly to latch herself onto her own line. She could tell by the almost jerking motions he made in attaching his line that he was feeling the same urge to hurry. That sensation of urgency only increased as they ascended the shaft in tandem, their free hands linked on the bag dangling between them.
They were in so much of a hurry by the time they had made it back outside of the cave that witch and wizard both fumbled in removing their lines from their climbing harnesses. As many times as they had gone through this process during their training, it proved more difficult with their hearts racing in their chests and the unshakable fear that if they were going to be caught it was probably more likely for it to happen now than it had been at any point other than when they had first entered the cave and passed through the wards. The fact that the sky was beginning to grow dark as they exited the cave and the implication of how much time had passed did not help reduce their instinct to rush.
Draco consulted his watch as the redhead finally got free of her line and started working on disconnecting the bag. Their primary extraction time had passed nearly an hour before. Grey eyes fell shut on a pained exclamation and she immediately glanced his way with a fearful expression. He didn’t wait for her to ask the question, simply giving her the answer as he reached forward to help her with the bag.
“We missed our first pick up. We have about ten minutes to get to the rendezvous for our back-up extraction.”
She swallowed audibly and he knew he didn’t need to point out that if they didn’t make it to their secondary pick up, they were on their own to get far enough away from the cave system to safely transport themselves out magically without fear of the wards alerting the Death Eaters. They couldn’t afford to give Voldemort time to get on the offensive before the snake was taken care of for good. They had to make their secondary extraction. Their urgency was palpable as they struggled to once more carry the huge bag almost two kilometers away from the cave entrance to the area where they had been dropped off earlier that day. The roar of the plane’s engine was growing as they reached their destination. The sound spurred their steps, both of them knowing that if they weren’t ready for it when the plane flew by that they wouldn’t get another chance.
For the first time since he had proposed their exit plan, Ginny wasn’t scared by the idea. She was too busy rushing to get ready, too afraid that they would miss their window for the extraction. She and Draco both dropped the snake with only a vague regard for whether the jarring landing of the bag would wake the animal if it were not properly comatose. Nothing mattered as much as getting the equipment out of the bag they had left with their parachutes when they landed. The importance of their speed in getting ready overwhelmed all thought and left the witch so hyper focused on her task that she was aware of little else but the gear in her hands.
The wizard, on the other hand was overly aware of the sound of the approaching aircraft engine as he struggled to hook the bag containing Nagini into the extraction gear and watch her hooking up herself at the same time. Adrenaline was coursing through him more effectively then any Invigoration Draught as he completed his task and darted over to begin the next step of the process.
“What are you doing?” She forgot all about stealth as she shouted the question when she had hooked the final clip to her harness and looked up to see her partner opening the black case. The blond said nothing in response, only worked harder to finish what he was doing. “You’re not hooked in!”
He didn’t hear the shocked fear in her voice, he barely even heard her words over the roar of blood pounding in his ears combined with the increasing rumble of the plane. He simply continued to activate the automatic inflation of the large heavy duty balloon, thinking only that he had to get it into the air so that it had time to get high enough for the plane to grab it and use it to pick them up without landing. Or rather for the plane to pick up Ginny and the snake.
Draco Malfoy had been more than a little selfish his entire life, he had been raised to be as self important and greedy as his father and it had been a lesson he learned well. And for all that he had grown significantly as a person during his time with his Muggle relatives, he had never found himself in a situation where his own safety was lowest on his list of concerns. That had changed, however, in the instant that he had realized that any delay may spell disaster for the witch, the Order, and himself. Suddenly, unaccountably, getting his partner and their prize out of harm’s way was the sole focus of his thoughts. Those thoughts, and the fear that fueled them burst out of him as she reached for the straps of his harness.
He shoved her harshly aside and grabbed at the balloon. “We have to get it up before the plane gets too close,” he yelled.
Her response was a venomous look in his direction as she came towards him again and began to tug once more on his harness, getting it ready to attach to the balloon. He fought the urge to pull away for several tense seconds, knowing by the look on her face that any argument on his part would only increase the likelihood of them not being ready on time. Helping her get himself hooked up as quickly as possible so they could hopefully deploy the balloon before the plane arrived was their only hope, he knew it just by looking at her, but it was still a fight to convince his arms to release the balloon and help her. Even so, he managed it and after what felt like twenty minutes, he was firmly attached and ready to be picked up, but the balloon that would make it possible for them to be extracted by the plane while it was still in flight was far from its target altitude when the plane became visible on the horizon.
The seconds ticked by, each one that passed making his heart beat faster and harder in his chest until it felt like it would jump free of his ribcage, and still the balloon wasn’t high enough. Draco forced himself not to glance over at his partner, already picturing entirely too clearly the look of disbelief and fear on her face when their instructor had explained this particular extraction technique. Although it had seemed reasonable to him after it had been explained by the former special forces soldier who had used the technique more than once himself, he knew the redhead still felt very nervous about using this method. In that instant, Draco had to admit silently that he was experiencing a small case of nerves himself.
Before he could actually evaluate that feeling however, or wonder how overwhelming Ginny’s fear must be in that moment, the aircraft positioned itself just exactly right to intercept the balloon and by extension, them. The witch, wizard, and snake were jerked sharply off the ground and into the air a few seconds later. The blond tightened his muscles to keep his arms and legs crossed the way they had been shown, then tightened them still further as his partner let out a choked shriek when the thick rope they were attached to began to be towed rapidly behind the plane. He was tempted to try and look over at the redhead in the next few minutes as she fell silent once more but he kept his eyes tightly shut against the rushing wind.
Neither chose to remember with an clarity, the time between when they had been picked up and when they were standing once more on solid ground almost fifty kilometers from the caves with the plane a mere rumble of sound in the distance. For her part, Ginny studiously arranged their used gear while Draco examined his watch with far more concentration than necessary to determine how long they had until their portkey to Order Headquarters would activate. They could only keep themselves distracted for so long. The amount of time they managed was not even close to the amount of time that they needed to allow their heartbeats to settle to a rate that could be somewhat ignored.
With no other ready tasks to busy themselves with however, they finally turned to face one another. Their eyes locked immediately, neither saying a word, their thoughts still racing to catch up with the fact that they had just accomplished the nearly impossible goal they had been working towards for so many months. They had broken into one of the Dark Lord’s most important strongholds and stolen his prized pet which contained the final external portion of Voldemort’s soul. They had done it, and it appeared that they had gotten away with it. So far.
Draco broke his gaze from hers, his eyes dropping down to land on the large bumpy sack laying between them containing Nagini’s unmoving form. Brown followed grey and remained there for a long, slow heartbeat before being drawn back up where they met his once more. They still said nothing, neither able to express in words the many overwhelming thoughts and feelings beginning to spill in past the numbing shock that had shielded them from their doubts and fears and allowed them to complete their task. Yet there was too much to be contained and before they could wrangle their thoughts into enough order to express them verbally, their tumbling emotions took control of them both, the feelings of fear, excitement, and relief bursting out of them in the form of a sudden and enthusiastic kiss.
End Chapter Twenty-Three
Author's Note:
No, I did not make it up. LOL. The extraction technique described in this chapter is called the Skyhook and was first used in WWII (though it was a bit different then) and continued to be used by the special forces until 1996, at least in the US, I’m not sure about England or Australia but since the seventh book ended in ’98 I figured it was close enough that recently retired soldiers would have been trained in the technique.
The Skyhook was replaced when helicopters were capable of longer flights to reach isolated soldiers for ‘in flight pickup’ so to say. I chose not to have them lifted out by helicopter because it would be closer to the ground, louder, and slower. In the approximately five minutes that a ‘copter would be audible and visable I thought it too likely that and Death Eaters in the other end of the cave would be able to come out and investigate, see them, and know something might be wrong. Since there was a quicker and quieter option I figured Draco would have chosen that one, as ridiculous as the Skyhook sounds.
Leave a Review