Happy New Year Everyone! I wish you all the best for 2014!

Gosh... how long has it been? Six months? More? I'm really sorry for not updating this story and I don't really have an explanation. Life simply got in the way.

I hope you can forgive me! I try to get back into the story... but sadly I can't promise that I will update quickly. My schedule is just too full for my own liking...

Well, the Chapter is unbeta-ed just like all the others. Beware of stupid mistakes. And also, I'm sorry that I'm unable to post a longer chapter. My Muse is taking her time in coming back and I didn't want to make you wait any longer.

Please Enjoy!

'How the hell did everything go downhill so quickly?!' Harry asked himself and angrily shot another blood-boiling curse at one of the Death Eaters.

Not even five minutes after they had managed to break through the wards and enter Voldemort's hideout, they had found themselves surrounded by around fifty Death Eaters. Harry shook his head. He did not even know that Voldemort had that many people who blindly followed him...

The raven frowned a little and ignored the cutting-curse that had been aimed at his neck and only grazed his cheek. The burning rage and despair he had felt at Grimauld Place after learning of Hermione's capture, had disappeared for the time being and had been replaced by cold fury and a deadly calmness. A very dangerous combination which everybody who crossed his path soon realized.

Harry watched with detached interest as a Death Eater collapsed, screaming in pain when one of Harry's curses hit him square in the chest. He knew he would feel guilty later on but at the moment he could not bring himself to feel pity for the man. The others around the screaming Death Eater had stopped their attacks and despite the masks it was clear that they looked at their... comrade with shock. After a few seconds the writhing black-robed figure stopped moving – obviously unconscious or even dead.

While the Death Eaters were still stunned that a light wizard had probably killed one of their own, Harry quickly looked around and noticed that only his friends, Charlie and Tonks were still near him while the others had spread over the room.

Sirius and Bill had just disappeared into one of the corridors on the right-hand side with five Death Eaters hot on their heels and a large group of ten Death Eaters had encircled Dumbledore and McGonagall – obviously deeming them to be the most dangerous.

'They're separating us...' Harry thought and apparently he was not the only one to come to this late realization, as his friends and the other two exchanged glances whenever possible and drew closer to each other with each curse or hex they cast at the enemies.

Another realization hit him shortly afterwards when he stood back-to-back with Neville and looked around. They had no way of communication if – no when – they would get separated... a giant flaw in their plan.

"Harry!" called Ron and made him snap back to reality. The red-head rolled out of the way of a green jet of light and came to a panting halt next to him. "We should try to get in deeper as well!"

He was pointing to the left where Harry caught a glimpse of Kingsley and the Twins disappearing into one of the many corridors.

The raven nodded and cast a strong shield around himself while the others build a protective ring around him so that he could look at the map Selwyn had gotten his hands on. He knew that they just had to wing it, for nobody had a clue where Hermione was kept, but it did not hurt to know where they were going.

Despite the shield, he still ducked when one of the four Death Eaters around them fired a curse at them. He couldn't help but smirk when he and his nearest comrade suddenly were drawn together and bound by ropes that obviously cut deep into their flesh.

He looked up from the map and smirked at Neville who had bound them and now bit his lip.

"I can't believe we're wasting our time with these idiots!" Draco scoffed and looked at the bound Death Eaters with contempt. "They're just cannon-fodder."

Harry nodded without looking at the blond and stashed the map of the hideout back into his pocket. "Yeah, but I bet Voldemort has already summoned his Inner Circle... let's hope that we don't run into them..."

"Where d'you think you're going?" Charlie grunted and finally joined their little group, directly followed by Tonks. "Don't you dare to run off on your own! That stunt you kids pulled in the ministry was enough!"

The dragon-handler and the young Auror managed to disarm and stun the two remaining Death Eaters encircling their group and when Harry was sure that nobody would attack them for the time being, he started walking into the dark corridor and lit his wand.

...HPHPHP...

Hermione clenched her teeth when another wave of pain hit her. Every muscle in her body felt like it was on fire!

Once again.

Her voice had turned raspy by now and her screams had turned to gasps. Then the pain suddenly stopped and she went limp with a pained whimper.

"Ooooh, was that too much for the little girly?" cackled Bellatrix Lestrange with glee and roughly pushed her wand against Hermione's neck.

The young witch coughed and kept her eyes tightly shut. She had been able to resist screaming for the first hour, but sometime during the last half-an-hour she had no longer managed to stop the noises of pain from leaving her mouth. Being subjected to such immense amounts of pain over and over again had made every inch of her body hyper-sensitive. Despite the fact that the former Azkaban inmate was taunting her now, she was terribly glad for the precious time it gave her to catch her breath.

She knew that she had at least two or three broken ribs due to a strong kick against her chest and her analytical mind supplied her with several reasons for the increasing pain in her chest and for why breathing had become more and more difficult over the last half-an-hour.

'Simple exhaustion and stress, a rather fast-acting magical infection or... a pierced lung due to one of my ribs...' She certainly hoped it was not the latter.

Hermione had tuned out Bellatrix rambling and took another shuddering breath. She was sure she had broken her left wrist by struggling against the chains binding her and a few cuts littered her body. She probably had a nice black eye as well...

Leaving out the already determined harm to her body, Hermione had lost count of how many times the madwoman above her had used the Cruciatus-curse. The brunette silently thanked every deity there was for her Occlumency-shields which prevented her from going mad.

Bellatrix was talking... probably once more asking her who the Secret Keeper of Black Manor was. She opened her eyes a little bit when the wand on her throat disappeared and saw that the former member of the Black-family was now pacing in front of her.

...HPHPHP...

Ten different corridors – five of them having been dead-ends... and five medium-sized rooms. And what had they found so far? Of course: Nothing!

Harry was on the edge. And so were his five companions.

There was no trace of Hermione and strangely enough there were no Death Eaters either. That alone was something which made the hairs on the back of the raven-haired wizard's neck stand to an end. The around fifty Death Eaters in the Entrance Hall of the hideout could by no means have been all of Voldemort's lackeys that were lingering around. For that they had been able to beat or lose them with far too much ease.

Harry sighed and rubbed his eyes. He was ready to tear the whole place apart by now!

They were more running than walking through another long corridor right now with Tonks and Harry at the front, Draco and Ron in the middle and Neville and Charlie building up the rear.

"There's a light at the end of the tunnel," said Charlie quietly and when Harry turned his head and gave him a deadpan look, he grinned wryly at his own words. "Maybe we're lucky this time."

"I hope so..." answered Neville and his voice was laced with worry. "It's been three hours already..."

"Wait, all the other rooms were dark, why would-"

Draco's sentence was interrupted by a blinding explosion and a loud rumbling noise. The five of them simultaneously looked up. With another loud rumble a large part of the ceiling came crashing down on them.

Harry did not know who it was, but he managed to grab someone's arm and dive out of the way just in time to avoid getting squished by a large wooden beam and a giant rock. He hissed in pain when something sharp left a large gash on his shoulder and quickly cast a 'Protego' on himself and the person he had pulled down with him.

He blinked when he could no longer hear anything falling down on them and coughed a little when a cloud of dust invaded his lungs as he inhaled.

"Urgh... is everyone all right?" Tonks asked from next to Harry and he realized that it had been her he had pulled out of the way with him.

"Crucio!"

Harry immediately sprung to his feet when he heard the dreaded curse being uttered and tried to catch a glimpse of the caster when a jet of light whizzed past his head. The dust made it very hard to see and his eyes narrowed.

Tonks, who did have the same reaction as him leaned towards his ear. "Two of them at two o'clock. A third one at twelve. This one's injured... broken arm from what I can see. The other two are slightly turned away from us – facing the left wall."

Harry hid his surprise at these words and did not ask Tonks how she was able to see the Death Eaters when he himself could not. He heard shuffling not far behind him and a small cough which indicated that someone was trying to stand up.

"You take the injured one and then help me with the other two if necessary," Tonks ordered and her tone left no room for argument which further surprised Harry.

He closed his eyes when another Cruciatus shot past him and decided to make use of his Shadow Phoenix abilities once more by hiding himself in the shadows and attacking the Death Eater from behind. It was not really an honourable way of fighting but Harry had long decided that when fighting against someone who wanted to kill him, attacking from the shadows and using every trick available was what suited him the most. He had absolutely no qualms in doing so.

A tingling sensation spread over his body and when he opened his eyes once more, he was standing directly behind the unsuspecting Death Eater. He flicked his wrist and his wand appeared in his hand as a smirk made its way to his face. Out of the corner of his eyes he could see Tonks suddenly appear next to the other two after she had disillusioned herself.

"Cru-"

"My, my... is that curse really all you brain-dead lackeys know?" he asked quietly and rammed his wand into the man's back who simply gasped and fell down.

When he was on the floor he started twitching uncontrollably and a pair of shocked yellow-ish eyes gleamed through the mask when the Death Eater looked up at him.

"P-potter! Y-you c-" he hissed before a gurgling sound cut him of and the man curled himself into a ball.

Harry stared down at him without blinking and was a little disgusted with himself that he felt absolutely no pity for the screaming wizard that was twitching at his feet. 'Kill or be killed, huh?' he thought grimly when the screaming and twitching slowly died down and looked over at Tonks.

She had just kneeled one of the Death Eaters directly into his family jewels before slamming his face into the wall next to her.

The man slid down and stayed down in a heap of black robes.

"Sectumsempra!" called the remaining Death Eater and his voice was slightly high-pitched with what Harry guessed was panic at seeing his two companions beaten so easily.

Tonks, however had none of it. With no trace of the usually stumbling metamorphmagus left, she elegantly dove out of the way, stupefied, gagged and bound the Death Eater with seemingly practised ease.

"Well..." Harry said and blinked a little. Now he knew, why the young witch had become Captain of her own squad of Aurors at her young age.

She gave him a thumbs-up and then the raven looked around himself in search for the rest of their little group. Draco was currently dusting himself off and looking at Ron with a slightly amused expression on his face.

The redhead groaned and crawled out from under a small mountain of rubble with a flickering magical barrier erected around him. "Thank Merlin for the portable Runic barriers Hermione made before we left Hogwarts..."

Harry chuckled and waved a hand into the direction of the three fallen Death Eaters. "Yeah, thanks for the help - not. By the way: You two all right?"

Ron gave him a sheepish smile and nodded.

"I think I sprained my ankle," muttered Draco and sighed a little uncomfortably while testing if his ankle would hinder his movements in any way.

Harry looked around and dread settled into his stomach when he could see neither Charlie nor Neville anywhere. Tonks seemed to have come to the same realization and was carefully looking at the rubble which was now blocking their way back.

"Getting rid of that is going to take a while..." Ron murmured and tapped giant stones with his wand and took a closer look at it when nothing happened. "And... there are runes on them..."

"Be silent!" Tonks snapped and Ron, Draco and Harry looked at each other in surprise at the sharp voice of the normally cheery metamorphmagus. "I think... Neville? Charlie? Are you okay?!" Tonks called through the wall of rubble.

Silence...

The suddenly you could hear stones grinding against each other and then finally there was an answer.

"Yeah... we're on the other side," came the muffled reply. It was Neville. "Charlie managed to get me away in time!"

A small cough was heard and then the dragon-handler answered: "The stones can't be vanished or moved with magic! Continue this way, we'll search for another route."

"Well... then let's go," said Tonks while peering into the dark tunnel a few metres away from them. A little louder she said: "We'd better be more careful next time... that was something that shouldn't have happened to begin with." Then the metamorphmagus shook her head. "C'mon, let's go. We're probably going to meet some of Voldemort's Inner Circle soon."

Harry sighed and then turned to look at Draco who had crossed his arms.

"I hope you don't let your daddy kill you or decide to help him," Harry said coldly.

"Harry! It's not the time for things like that!" Tonks snapped at him but he ignored her.

"It's exactly the right time for that!" He was determined to get rid of the tension between them and the uncertainty he felt if he had to fight alongside the blond once more.

The two stared at each other for what seemed like ages and then Draco turned his head away in shame. "No... definitely not. I... I don't know what I was thinking."

Harry held his gaze when the blond looked back at him and then pointedly looked over to one of the fallen Death Eaters. "I don't care much for your excuses at the moment, but answer me one question: Can I count on you to have my back, no matter who attacks?"

The determination in those silver eyes could clearly be seen and Harry smiled inwardly when Draco gave a barely noticeable nod. "You can. I'd rather see my fa-... Lucius in Azkaban than death... but I won't let that affect me in a fight." He coughed a little. "We're here to rescue Hermione and nobody's going to prevent that. Not even..."

He shrugged and did not finish the sentence but it was clear what he meant and Harry nodded with a tiny smile on his face. "Thanks Draco. After this is all over, we sit down and talk, all right?"

"Yeah."

Harry looked back at Tonks and Ron who where looking relieved and then as if by an unknown signal they started moving forwards with Tonks automatically taking the lead and Harry walking last.

"Y'know... that explosion was no coincidence," Ron said quietly when they had left the empty but illuminated room behind them.

"You don't say weasel?!" replied Draco with mock surprise and poked the redhead in front of him in the back. "I bet those three Death Eaters had nothing to do with it, though."

Ron ignored the jab at his last-name and simply chuckled a little. Harry rolled his eyes. Those two could never seem to stop annoying each other. They reached another large room and Tonks and Ron positioned themselves directly into the middle of the room to aid either Draco or Harry, who both had moved in opposite directions to get a look at the two doors.

Even before he had reached it, Harry stopped and stared at a large glowing rune that had suddenly appeared on the wood.

He did not even have time to curse when a blinding flash lit up the room and suddenly an ear-splitting explosion made the whole area vibrate. He crouched down and protected his head as good as he could.

"WATCH OUT!"

Ron and Tonks looked up at his warning and Harry saw their eyes widen before their forms disappeared in a cloud of dust.

'What's it with the ceiling falling on our heads today?!' shot through Harry's head while he jumped back to his feet after making sure that nothing else came crashing down on him.

He whirled around in search for the person who must have activated the runes and scowled.

"Ardeo!" he yelled angrily when he spotted the single black-robed figure hiding behind some rubble with his wand raised to the ceiling. The Death Eater screamed in anguish when black flames engulfed his whole body while Draco, who had hurried over to him from the other side of the room, started to blow the dust out of the way with a strong gust of wind.

Harry turned around and tried to see if everyone was all right but could not see anything.

"RON? TONKS?"

...HPHPHP...

"Mrs Lestrange, the Dark Lord wants you by his side immediately," the man said smoothly and stepped into the room with a sneer on his face.

"Who are you?!" the spoken to madwoman asked and jabbed her wand in his direction.

The red-haired and pale man clicked his tongue. "Alexiel Selwyn... at your service."

The female Death Eater's eyes narrowed and then she nodded. "I've heard of you... you're the lapdog for hire that only works for those pure of blood."

Selwyn sneered at Bellatrix but kept his voice carefully controlled. "I'd prefer the term spy and assassin, thank you very much." His eyes narrowed and he clicked his tongue. "Mrs. Lestrange, the Dark Lord does not like to be kept waiting as you may know. I'm here to relieve you of your duty."

Hermione felt his eyes on her and looked up at the red-haired man. He was regarding her with steely eyes and a small sneer on his face. She took a deep breath and pressed her back as far into the wall as possible as if it would swallow her if she applied enough pressure.

Bellatrix was one thing... that madwoman knew how to inflict pain upon a person, but a man... a man had so many more possibilities of torture, so many more horrid ways of breaking someone...

Hermione clenched her eyes shut before the rising panic could overwhelm her. She heard footsteps and then suddenly nothing. She blinked and nearly got a heart-attack when she saw the man crouching in front of her.

"Miss Granger, please calm down. Help is on the way," the man said softly and her eyes snapped to his face.

The cold look had disappeared and had been replaced with a mildly concerned one that sent a jolt of surprise down her spine.

"Wh-what?"

"I'm not sure if Harry has talked to you about me, as mentioned before, my name is Alexiel Selwyn and I'm a... well... a friend of Harry you could say."

Now that the pain of the constant Cruciatus curses had lessened, she tried to ignore her violently trembling limbs and think more clearly.

"V-vampire..." she whispered and nodded slightly while staring into the man's dark eyes. "You're the vampire Harry mentioned a-around Christmas."

Selwyn gave her a quick smile which gave her a glimpse of his sharp fangs. "I'm afraid I can't stay long. I was supposed to stay in Black Manor but an owl arrived with a small letter requiring my presence here. I was supposed to send Bellatrix to the Dark Lord and then leave for a task in Knockturn Alley."

Her eyes travelled down to his forearm and saw that it was unmarked. "An owl? How? You don't have the Dark Mark and yet... you're working for Voldemort?"

Selwyn sighed. "I'm a spy and assassin. Technically I work for those who pay the most. In this case, however, I'm acting for the Order and I will do so as long as the threat of the Dark Lord is still there. For all the promises of equality he makes to the vampires, he is only planning to enslave my race and I am not one of those foolish enough to believe him."

"If you don't stay here... who... who's going to come next?" asked the brunette and bit her lip.

The look in the vampire's eyes changed once more and dread settled in her stomach when she realized it was something akin to pity. He rummaged through his pockets and held a vial in front of her face instead of answering. "It's a pain-relieving potion."

Hermione stared at him in disbelief. Supposed friend or not. Was the man actually thinking she would drink a potion that someone offered her while she was chained down in Voldemort's hideout?

The red-haired vampire smirked. "Very good. You're just as perceptive as your boyfriend." His eyes wandered around and spotted her wand. Hope rose in Hermione as he placed the vial on the ground in front of her and walked over to fetch it.

"I recommend to keep it hidden as long as possible and wait for the right moment. As far as I know... the ones taking over for Bellatrix are Avery Junior and Greyback."

Hermione felt as if the blood in her veins had turned to ice when she heard the last name and a small whimper unintentionally left her lips as the chains around her wrists snapped and enabled her to grab her wand, which she of course did.

The vampire held the vial in front of her once more. "Feel free to analyse it now."

Hermione did so and cast every spell she knew in rapid succession. When not a single one of them showed any indication of the potion having been tampered with, she hurriedly grabbed it and downed the contents in one go.

Immediately the pain coursing through her body turned into a dull throb – however, the shaking of her limbs did not disappear.

She stared at Selwyn, who had his eyes closed and saw his nostrils flare a little. "I'm sorry that I can't take you out of here myself but they're nearly here and I can't afford to be seen with you as apparation is impossible. Just hold for another few minutes... I expect help will be here soon. I try to find someone on my way out, but no promises."

When the heavy door shut with an audible click, Hermione stared at the chains that were still fastened around her ankles and decided on just loosening them enough for her to slip out when the right moment came. With another wave of her wand she vanished the chains that had been around her wrists. If they were not there, they could not bind her with them...

She then slipped her wand into the back-pocket of her thin jeans and stared at the closed door.

Then Hermione heard footsteps from the other side.

...HPHPHP...

Ignoring the screams and not bothering to lift the dark burning curse off the Death Eater when they ceased, Harry sprinted over to his fallen friend and saw with relief that he was moving.

Tonks had apparently managed to jump out of the way in time and Harry saw her grabbing her head in pain. The metamorphmagus groggily staggered into view and reached the mob of red hair even sooner than Harry.

However, Harry's heart nearly stopped when he saw Ron stuck under a large wooden beam. The redhead had a deep gash on his cheek and was holding his left leg that was completely buried under the wood.

Ron groaned when Harry placed a hand on his shoulder and let his head fall down to his chest. "W-who was that?" he muttered through clenched teeth.

"Don't know. He's dead," replied Harry curtly when the screams abruptly ceased and gestured for Draco to lift the beam up with a spell while Tonks was busy looking around for other Death Eaters.

With joined effort they managed to get Ron out from under the heavy material and Harry winced at the strange angle the red-head's leg showed.

"It's crushed…" Ron coughed and hissed in pain when Harry pulled him in a sitting position. "Why's it always my leg?!"

"Tough luck, mate," Harry replied and hesitated.

It was definitely too risky to try and heal Ron's leg here and now, so Harry simply settled for holding a pain-reliever to his friend's mouth. Ron eagerly gulped it down. He definitely could not fight any longer and should get looked at by Madam Pomfrey as soon as possible.

"It's all clear," Tonks said them before anybody could say anything else. She bit her lip and looked at Ron's leg. "You need to go to Pomfrey. I'm sorry, but we cannot afford to take you with us. You'd be a dead-weight."

Ron looked at his crushed leg with a grimace and nodded. Harry was exchanging a look with Tonks who frowned and then nodded before turning Draco.

"Draco, I need you to go and bring Ron back to the Manor."

"Wha-?"

"She's right," said Harry.

"And leave you here? Are you nuts?!" Draco snapped angrily.

"It was one of Dumbledore's orders to get the injured to Pomfrey immediately!" Harry replied in an equal tone of voice. "We'll be fine!"

"I won't g-"

"Draco," said Tonks forcefully and for the first time sounded like the Auror-Captain she was instead of the bubbly and clumsy witch. "Don't question my orders. You're good, but I'm the one who has the most experience here. It's the only right way to continue. We've already lost enough time with those two explosions … and can't afford to argue."

Harry noted that her gaze had turned steely, but understanding. "Furthermore, despite your promise, there's no guarantee that you won't freeze up should Malfoy come into view. And freezing up in cases like this usually means you or somebody else dies."

Draco paled and opened his mouth to protest once more while Ron sighed softly and shook his head. "C'mon. No offence, but she's right."

"I..." Draco looked down at Ron who was apparently fighting to stay awake and then gave a curt nod. "Be careful," he said to Harry and gave him a long look. He then turned to Tonks. "I'll come back as soon as I can, now that I've been here I can probably flash."

With that the blond quickly looked around if somebody was there and changed into his golden Phoenix animagus form. Harry heard him through their mind-link when he ordered Ron to grab one of his tail-feathers and then they both disappeared in a flash of light.

Harry rose to his feet when Tonks slowly started walking over to the last intact door of the room. He coughed and she stopped.

"You do know, that I'm not at full strength, do you?" he asked her quietly and she nodded.

"Yes, I can see that your arm's still troubling you and that you're having small difficulties with controlling your magic," replied Tonks seriously and healed a small gash on her brow before the blood could run into her eye. "However, you've already faced Voldemort several times and came out alive. So I think you'll be okay."

Harry took a deep breath and nodded. It was really a strange experience to see the clumsy witch that serious. Despite their current predicament, Harry had to smile a little. 'Must be a Black-thing...'

They both could still hear the distinct sounds of fighting and knew that they had gotten pretty deep into the labyrinth which represented Voldemort's hideout. Harry took the slightly singed parchment with the map out of his pocket and tried to make out where exactly they were… without much success. Their flight from the twenty Death Eaters had made them lose track of where they had been running.

"This one's locked," Tonks said quietly when Harry reached her and noticed her standing in front of a large and heavy door.

Now that Harry was able to take a closer look at her, he saw that she was bleeding in several places and favouring her left shoulder – she must have injured it on the impact after the ceiling had come crashing down. He narrowed his eyes when she cast a simple 'Alohomora' and the door did not budge.

"To hell with that!" he then spat and gently but decidedly pushed Tonks away from the door– his patience finally having run out.

He had enough of this! He just wanted to get Hermione and then get out of here as quickly as possible before anyone got killed!

When he blasted it open with his wand, he started chewing on his lip but stopped immediately when he noticed the metallic taste of blood. Another long corridor branching off in various directions lay before him. The first turn was only around two metres away from him and he tried to determine if it could already be the one to the next room.

"Great..." Tonks murmured and noticed the map in Harry's hand. "I know I'm the one that's supposed to know where we are – being an Auror and all – but any idea?"

Harry shook his head. "Nope. I didn't really pay attention to where we were running after the fourth corridor."

He stopped walking when a tingle ran down his back and the two remaining fighters looked at each other, both knowing that they had chosen the right way.

Tonks bit her lip. "Let's hope a few other Order members manage to come here... we just stepped into an anti-apparation zone."

He nodded, took a deep breath while sending a prayer to all the gods he could think of in hope that this time they were in the right place and started walking.

Well... leave a Review, yes? I'm not really sure what to think about the chapter myself as it has been so long since I posted something. I guess there are some silly mistakes in it though... :-P

Shadow Phoenix of Slytherin