Thanks to those who read, and an even bigger thanks to the people who reviewed! I really appreciate the feedback and love to hear your thoughts.

Here's chapter nine! I hope it's action-packed enough for you.

Chapter Nine

Schism

Malik raced through the crowd as fast as he could. He was drawing attention, but he figured that raising a few eyebrows was the lesser of two evils – the bigger issue being that whole problem of getting caught.

He weaved around, searching wildly. Earlier, he thought he'd seen Ryou get into an elevator.

But where did he go? Malik didn't know a thing about how many floors or locations this weird Ministry of Magic may have had. Getting lost was synonymous with getting dead fast.

He managed to make his way to an elevator before anyone had seemed to have been notified about him.

"Nice to see you again, M…arcus."

"Department of Mysteries."

Malik whirled, and Amos Diggory was standing there in the elevator with him, a grim expression on his face.

"What are you doing?" Malik asked. If there was a response he didn't hear it, because the elevator suddenly shot backwards (why backwards?) and down.

Suddenly it stopped, and the doors opened to an empty hall.

"I'm helping you," Amos Diggory said simply, and gestured forward. "Now, come."

They ran out into the hall, Malik following Diggory like some kind of aimless puppy. He hated depending on people. He hated not knowing if this was going to end up getting him captured by Death Eaters. He hated not knowing where Ryou and Malfoy were.

He just had to trust that they could take care of themselves.

Amos Diggory led him through a strange, dark hallway. They were slow at first, keeping to the walls and hoping that the area was relatively deserted. It was – for now, at least. When they took off running again, Malik couldn't help but note the eerie way that their shadows played along the stone in the green lighting.

The colour that was cast along the walls made him think of the spell that had wounded him.

"We're in the Department of Mysteries," Amos informed him breathlessly. He was clearly a man unused to running from things. Definitely not someone fit for Malik's current line of work.

"Draco mentioned it," Malik said with a nod, throwing all codename caution to the wind and biting defeat – there was no use in pretending, anymore. Amos clearly knew who they were.

"They hold the trials just past here," Amos acknowledged, wrenching open a rather large door that led into a very strange place. "And it's rather deserted, so it makes a hiding place."

Malik's jaw dropped in shocked fascination.

This place was, in no uncertain terms, a mess. It was an enormous junkyard of shattered glass and ruined shelving, all piled atop one another in a disturbingly interesting heap.

"Harry Potter and his friends," Amos explained, "fought the Dark Lord here two years ago. This was the battle that precipitated the Ministry's acknowledgement of the Dark Lord's return."

"Which was also about the point when he infiltrated it," Malik inferred. "Am I right?"

Amos grimaced, sadness passing over his face. "Indeed, you are." He snapped out of his reverie quickly, grabbing Malik by the wrist and hauling him off to the side. "Let's go. Through here – I doubt they'll come for us here. We can wait out until the search is called off and then the three of you can be apparated away."

Malik let the man drag him towards another doorway. He still didn't understand why this wizard was helping him – he owed him nothing. Malik didn't believe in altruism. There had to be something behind this. Was Amos more involved in this Order of the Phoenix resistance force than Malik had originally believed?

Then again: he didn't know what to believe about these wizards, anymore. Had he ever?

They exploded through the door, and Malik's stomach dropped through his toes when he realized that there was no floor to greet them. He flailed wildly as he plummeted to the ground, preparing for an agonizing, most-likely debilitating landing-

-But his body stopped inches from the floor, suspended there for a few seconds, before he dropped firmly to the ground on his hands and knees. Amos was already stumbling up to his feet, reaching to help Malik up.

Malik was barely onto his knees when he had to wrench Amos back to the ground as a spell whizzed over their heads. He coiled, ready to fight, the only thought in his mind being: Well, it clearly wasn't the hiding place we thought it'd be.

Until a familiar voice rang out: "Malik!"

Malik saw Ryou push past an unfamiliar red-haired man and run towards them, stopping in front of Malik to help him up.

"Mr. Diggory!" the stranger exclaimed in surprise, replacing his wand into his coat pocket and rushing to the other man's aid, offering to help Amos to his feet.

Malik stood, brushing dirt from his clothes. When he ran his sleeve across his forehead, more make-up came off. He scowled at the stain.

"Got yourself caught, eh?"

Malik turned his scowl upwards to where Draco was smirking, arms crossed, opposite to him. "Shut up, Malfoy."

"Malik," Ryou said, "this is Percy Weasley. He…helped us get here."

"Older brother of the ginger kid running around with the notorious Harry Potter, I assume," Malik commented, before offering Percy his hand. "Malik Ishtar."

Percy took his hand and shook it. "Pleasure," he greeted, though Malik wasn't entirely certain if he meant it, with that frown on his face.

"My turn to introduce a helper, then," Malik said. "This is-"

"-Amos Diggory," Draco interrupted, "the father of Cedric, the Hufflepuff who was killed by the Dark Lord during the Triwizard Tournament three years ago. I remember you."

Amos' face turned grim. "I also remember you, Draco Malfoy, regardless of your colouring changes. Your father is a Death Eater…" his expression went from grim to almost hateful in a second, "…and you were also partially responsible for the murder of Albus Dumbledore."

Draco looked stricken, and both Ryou and Malik turned to face him with expressions of surprise.

"You helped kill Hogwarts' last headmaster?" Ryou asked quietly.

Draco's stricken expression went pained, then stony, then wry. "It was my initiation as a Death Eater. The Dark Lord instructed that that be the only way he allowed me to serve alongside my father."

Draco looked as if he were expecting a lashing. Instead, Malik clapped a hand onto the blonde-turned-brunette's shoulder in silence.

Draco met Malik's eyes, seeing a certain sympathy there that made the wizard realize: these two were, in more ways than he'd initially thought, just like him. They had made bad decisions in their pasts - or in Ryou's case, forced into bad situations - and they knew how he felt. They knew what it felt like to be demonized even while trying to right their wrongs.

And if the pitying expression on Percy's face was any indication, he felt something similar.

"I'm sorry," Malfoy choked, the words fighting through all of his pride and denial, through his façade, and out his mouth. "I apologize for the decision I made to be there. I should have stopped it before Professor Snape had to make the decision for me." He raised his head to Amos, locking eyes. "I won't apologize, however, for choosing to be here, now. You'll just have to deal with that."

"I don't think we have time for revelations," Malik said before Amos could make any sort of response. "We need to get out of here."

"We can apparate you out," Percy said. "A common place, perhaps…"

"We'd all have to know the place," Amos said, "in our mind's eye."

"Of course," Draco muttered, crossing his arms. "This is futile. If you two come with us, you'll become accomplices. You'll be targeted."

"They saw me," Amos said. When he made eye contact with Draco, the gaze lingered with a strange air of forgiveness. He offered the teen a tentative, very tired smile.

"So you're already implicated," Percy said. He paused, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose. Then, after a moment of rather tense silence, he straightened. "I don't have a choice. I have to get you to Shell Cottage."

Shell Cottage…?

Draco's eyes widened. "You're helping us," he said. It wasn't a question: it was a breathless statement of fact.

He couldn't quite believe it.

Percy looked a bit like he couldn't quite believe it, either. "Yes," he said after a moment.

"The hell is that thing?"

Ryou turned around, following Malik's line of sight. In the centre of the room was a huge, stone arch. A translucent curtain billowed inside the arch, even though there was no wind in the room to move it.

"It's been here the entire time," Ryou murmured, almost as if he wasn't entirely sure if he was asking or stating a fact.

Percy looked grimly backwards. "Stay away from it," he warned. "We don't know where one goes when they pass through the curtain – but we think it's…to the other side."

"Other…?" Malik narrowed his eyes at it. "You mean the Afterlife?"

Percy nodded. "A friend of my family's, a man named Sirius, went through that curtain two years ago. He's gone."

Ryou stared at the curtain, walking towards it and stopping a few metres away. "Strange…" he murmured, his hand winding into his shirt, just above his heart.

Malik glanced towards his friend. He knew what Ryou meant with that look – there was something off-putting about the curtain. It was something that seemed almost familiar. He really didn't like the way that Ryou was still edging towards it, though. If someone passed through it and died, then Ryou really needed to move backwards before Malik dragged him back by his hair.

Draco's eyebrows shot up. "Wait. Sirius Black?" he guffawed. "That man was a criminal and a murderer. You were harboring him?"

Percy looked shocked for a moment before his expression faded into one of understanding. "You know Wormtail, don't you? Doesn't your family know the story?"

"I know that he's alive, but…" Draco's expression morphed into a very dark scowl. "Clearly I was misled. Was he innocent? Just out of curiosity, of course."

Percy's lips thinned. "My family thought so. I still feel that…he was a criminal. He did things the wrong way." Percy lifted his eyes, and there was wisdom there. "But don't we all?"

Draco chuckled under his breath.

Percy snapped out of his philosophical reverie and pulled his wand from his coat pocket. "Okay, that's enough of that. We can work out the discrepancies in our various opinions at a later date. We have to go now."

"Pity you're not actually leaving, then."

All of them spun to the door from which Malik and Amos had come. In that doorway stood Bellatrix Lestrange in all of her wild-eyed, wild-haired, crazy-grin glory. She was enveloped in a cloud of darkness that shot down to the floor, where she reappeared at their level, wand in hand.

"It appears that silly little Draco is inspiring would-be traitors everywhere," Bellatrix sneered, opening her arms in a gesture that mocked him. "You're growing disgustingly similar to the Potter boy."

Draco snarled something nasty under his breath, clenching his fists. When Percy raised his arm, Bellatrix pointed her own weapon his way.

"Ah, ah," she said. "I'm not in a particularly fun mood right now, dear, so I'd suggest not pulling your wand on a lady. I'm a bit of a stickler for manners."

"What manners, you crazy bitch?" Malik snapped.

Bellatrix turned her eyes onto the Egyptian. "Little Hermione Granger learned her place as she screamed underneath me. Mudbloods and muggles like you should keep silent."

Draco's eyes widened. Granger? When had Bellatrix had a run-in with Granger?

Percy's eyes steeled. "I suppose that means we should assume that they've been captured." He turned his gaze to Malik, Ryou, and Draco. "That's it, then."

But Draco was watching Bellatrix.

"Yes, we have them," she cackled, but a shadow passed over her eyes. Draco caught it. If there was one thing that he knew about Bellatrix Lestrange it was that her true feelings always showed in her eyes. She was crazy and sadistic, for sure, but she always expressed with her eyes. What came out of her mouth and showed on her face was usually a lie, but her eyes seemed to betray the truth.

Draco smiled. "She's lying," he declared.

Bellatrix's eyes widened.

Bingo.

In that moment, three more dark shadows appeared beside her, revealing men dressed in black cloaks and skeletal masks. The Death Eaters.

Bellatrix's expression instantly changed from psychotic glee to murderous rage. "Lies are subjective, little Draco. Death Eaters! We take Lucius' boy and the ex-slaves alive! Crucio!"

The spell hit Amos Diggory before the man could even as much as twitch. He screamed in pain, dropping to the ground and curling in on himself.

"Expelliarmus!" Percy shouted, knocking Bellatrix's wand from her hand. She shrieked wordlessly in response, scrambling for her weapon. It sparked the battle, kicking Bellatrix's cronies into action.

Two of the men vanished into the blackness again, reappearing in other places. One immediately engaged in battle with Draco, the other shot spells at Ryou. Malik ran towards his comrade, hand over his throbbing stomach, and hoped that he could do something to help. He didn't trust his Shadow Magic right now – not with all of the other magic coursing through his wound.

"You belong in the ground, you traitor!" Bellatrix screamed, diving for her wand. She caught it just as Draco's spell – cast from the opposite direction - flew past her. She stumbled to her feet and whirled toward Percy. "Crucio!"

"Protego!" Percy roared, a translucent shield appearing in the path of the spell, and the red beam ricocheted off into the far wall.

Amos Diggory tried to struggle to his feet, but was clearly out of the fight. His arms shook as he pushed onto his knees, sweat dripping down his face.

Malik reached down to his deck to help, to do something, but another Death Eater threw a curse at him and he dropped, rolling awkwardly towards the steps leading up to the arch.

Malik caught a glimpse of Ryou, who was on the platform with a card in his hand. One of the Death Eaters squared off with Ryou, raising his wand as Ryou summoned his monster, a beam of light extending from the card as Ryou's Patrician of Darkness appeared in front of him.

The Death Eater cast the killing curse at Ryou's monster. Ryou's face didn't even twitch as he raised his arm – the Patrician of Darkness' arm rising in the same gesture, being Ryou's servile puppet – and the Patrician caught the spell. Ryou threw his arm outwards toward the Death Eater that was approaching Malik, and the spell shot out of the Patrician's hand and hit the man in the side, knocking him dead to the floor.

Ryou's Patrician of Darkness flickered in-and-out visibility for a moment. Ryou looked nervous before he closed his eyes and pointed the card at the monster again. Malik could feel the Shadow Magic radiating through him, and, strangely, the arch in the centre of the room's "aura" seemed to react along with him. Ryou opened his eyes again, brown swirling with a reddish hue. The Patrician's form returned to being fully corporeal, and it shuddered visibly with the power Ryou had channeled into it.

Malik stumbled up to his feet. That was not a good sign. Either they were having some serious trouble still using their magic – which seemed the most likely scenario – or there was that dangerous possibility that Ryou was losing control of his Shadow Magic.

With the issues he'd seen going on between Bakura, Ryou, and their struggle to maintain equilibrium between them, he didn't want to imagine the possibility that things were getting worse.

The Death Eater cast the killing curse again at Ryou – because these guys didn't seem to ever learn – and Ryou deflected it back at him, effectively silencing a second man for the day. The Patrician of Darkness turned to Ryou, its eye wide and surprised, before it exploded into shadow and disappeared completely.

Malik ran towards Ryou, who looked decidedly more haggard than he had before he'd summoned the monster. He swayed a bit on his feet, but Malik clapped a hand hard onto his shoulder and steadied the both of them.

"What happened?" Malik panted to Ryou, staring at Percy locked in combat with Bellatrix as Draco fought off the last Death Eater. "I thought we were kill-on-command."

Ryou swallowed, eyes rolling a bit, before he regained his composure. Malik saw that he still looked sickly, still looked like there was something wrong, but grilling him about that could wait. At the time, they had a whole lot more to worry about.

There was a shout as Percy fell, hit by the torture curse, and writhed on the ground, his wand clattering to the ground a few of inches away from him.

More Death Eaters appeared in that instant, at least five of them, and the men circled the three.

"Petrificus Totalus!" One shouted, and Draco immediately froze, his body rigidly falling to hit the ground with a sharp crack.

Malik made to grab one of his concealed knives, but he felt hands roughly binding his arms behind his back and another hand taking a fistful of hair and forcing him down to his knees. He struggled against the man's strength, catching a glimpse of Ryou in much the same situation. A third man had grabbed Amos, forcing him onto unsteady legs and bringing him towards where they were holding Ryou and Malik.

Bellatrix snapped her wand away from Percy, whose screaming instantly cut off with the removal of the spell. He moaned, but the sound turned into a cry when Bellatrix slammed her boot onto his head, holding him down.

"Did you really think," she asked softly, her voice a hiss as she knelt down, her skirts rustling, and ran her wand along the length of Percy's face, "that you all could manage to escape us for long? Percy Weasley has been under our watch for a long, long time. You could have chosen no worse a confidant."

"Why haven't you killed us, huh?" Malik spat out, catching Bellatrix's attention. He really did want to know. Last they'd heard, or according to Ryou, at least, there'd been a death warrant on their heads. "What changed?"

Bellatrix's lips curled back. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she purred, her voice like velvet.

Ryou's head snapped up and suddenly it was Bakura. "Don't answer a question with a question," he seethed, "it's not good manners."

"Oh," Bellatrix sneered, "I'll show you exactly what-"

"Bellatrix!"

All of them whirled at the new voice. Malik's eyes widened. No way.

Lucius Malfoy stood there, looking especially haggard and unshaven. His eyes were tired, but there was also a fear there, one that magnified the moment he cast eyes on his son. And, very instantly, Malik understood Lucius' presence…because he remembered seeing that look before. He saw it on Rishid the day that Marik overtook him back during Battle City.

"Ah, so Lucius has come to get his son," Bellatrix said, stepping off of Percy. "He ought to get a real spanking for he's done," she sneered, turning her expression to Draco. "You can take him, Lucius. I'll deal with the others."

Percy began reaching for his wand, his hand just out of Bellatrix's sight behind her skirts. Malik glanced up to the Death Eater holding him, but the man hadn't seemed to have noticed anything.

Lucius stepped toward Bellatrix. "You took my wife, Bellatrix," Lucius said, his eyes tight. "I was not going to let you take my son."

Bellatrix had the humanity to look a little hurt by Lucius' statement. "I did not take her," she protested in an even voice. "She took herself. But she won't die, Lucius. The Dark Lord understands the strength of a mother's bond with her child – he will not make that mistake a second time."

"You put too much faith in our Dark Lord," Lucius sneered coldly, making Malik's eyebrows rise. Those were mutinous words coming from the blonde man's mouth. He'd thought Lucius Malfoy was a hard-core supporter. Clearly, Malik had been mistaken.

"And you, Lucius…you have too little," she seethed, her eyes going dark with the force of Lucius' implication.

"…Rennervate!"

The spell hit Draco, and the wizard's body instantly sprung back into animation. He rolled onto his stomach and up to his knees, gritting his teeth and hissing through them at the pain from his initial fall that exploded up through his nerves like wildfire.

Bellatrix spun, her skirts flying as she realized where the spell had come from. "You…!" Bellatrix screamed at Percy, who was still on the ground. She raised her wand and he went to cover his face.

"Petrificus Totalus!"

The spell shot from Lucius Malfoy's wand and slammed straight into Bellatrix. Her head had snapped toward Lucius the instant the words came from his mouth, and when the spell hit her, her expression was frozen into one of shocked, hateful betrayal. Her body fell backwards, hitting the stone floor with a crack.

All was silent in the large, stone room. The other Death Eaters stared at Lucius with varying sensation of shock, none of them able to comprehend the occurrence with words or action.

So Malik took action for them.

He jerked his head backwards, slamming it into the face of the Death Eater holding him. The man yelped with pain, stumbling backwards and losing grip on Malik as he reached to cover his injured face. Bakura took the cue and turned to the side, slamming the full force of his shoulder into the chest of his captor, knocking the wind out of the man and giving him enough sway to break his arms free and then punch the man hard in the temple. The man dropped like a rock; successfully out-of-commission.

"Stupefy!" Percy shouted, hitting the Death Eater holding Amos Diggory. The man's hands snapped away from Diggory's wrists and he stumbled backwards. The moment he hit the ground, Bakura pulled his leg up and slammed the heel of his boot onto the crown of the man's head. Lucius Malfoy winced, clearly recalling experiencing a similar fate at the hands of Malik back at the mansion.

"B-Back off or I'll kill your son, Lucius!" a Death Eater shouted, moving towards Draco.

"Avada Kedavra," Draco's father hissed, pointing his wand at the Death Eater as Draco was still struggling onto his feet. It hit the man in the chest and knocked him dead to the floor.

Bakura turned on the last man standing, but the Death Eater backed away and vanished, most likely to report to the Dark Lord or one of his other superiors.

Lucius Malfoy stormed towards Draco, his blue dress-cape billowing behind him. He grabbed Draco roughly by the arm and hauled him to his feet before turning to the others.

"Where are you going?" he demanded, glancing around.

Percy managed to get himself onto his feet, brushing the dirt from his own clothes. "Like I plan on selling my family out to you, Lucius," he sneered. Clearly, the two of them weren't on great terms.

"Is it safe?" Lucius pressed, and the nature of that question seemed to shock Percy into open-mouthed silence. Frustrated with the lack of response, Lucius shoved Draco forward and toward the rest of them with a look of disgust.

Draco turned back to his father with confusion and shock written all over his face. "Father, what-?" he choked out, his mouth snapping shut and his jaw clenching when he couldn't find the words.

"You have gotten yourself into a mess I cannot fix," Lucius snapped at him, and Draco winced, looking visibly chastised. "So do your mother and I a favour and don't get yourself killed, understood?"

Draco's mouth flapped silently for a few moments, as if he couldn't figure out how to turn his voice back on. Eventually he just settled for whispering: "Mother is still alive?"

"Of course she is," Lucius groused. "Bellatrix may be the Dark Lord's lapdog, but she would not kill her sister." An expression of near-empathy crossed his eyes when he glanced back at the black-haired woman frozen on the ground, her arm still pointed straight up in the air, wand extended.

Draco's body physically sagged with the force of his relief. "Good," was all he managed; though Malik could tell that there was a whole lot more than 'good' swirling in his eyes. The guy looked about moved to tears, if Draco Malfoy even knew how to cry.

"I am going to take Narcissa and the both of us are going into hiding," Lucius informed them. "I would advise, Draco, that you do the same…however I feel that you have grown less attentive to my guidance, these days." His expression turned grim.

Draco looked a bit sheepish. Malik had to wonder where all of his resistance had gone. Back at his mansion, Draco had stood up to his father with strength that had been impressive. Right now, he seemed a bit like a pet that had been caught chewing furniture, or something.

Lucius raised his eyes to Malik and Bakura respectively. "Value his life," he instructed, his voice flat and emotionless. "He is still my son, his betrayal notwithstanding."

Malik liked to think that, in that moment, when he looked right back at Lucius, he could see the real pain of a father letting his son go. He could tell that Lucius wanted the best for Malfoy, even if that "best" was gained through questionable, even immoral, means.

And that, Malik thought, was something he could respect.

Malik nodded to Lucius, who offered a curt tip of his head, blonde spilling over his shoulders. He cast a last sharp glance at Draco, whose head snapped away, before he vanished – apparated away.

Draco gritted his teeth, but there was softness in his eyes. "My mother's alive," he murmured.

Percy glanced to where Bellatrix was still lying frozen. "We have to go," he said, the urgency clear in his tone of voice.

"Can we use our Shadow Magic?" Malik asked Bakura, hoping that Bakura caught the question of: is your connection to the Shadow Realm still having problems?

Bakura definitely got the message, if the sharp, single jerk of his head was any indication. "No. Even here, the other magic is too strong for us to chance transporting five people. Someone could get lost in the Shadow Realm – I'd recommend against it."

"We should apparate," Percy said, "but that may prove difficult with our numbers." His brow furrowed, and then he sighed. "I have a port key."

Draco's jaw dropped. "You had a port key to Potter's location this entire-?"

"I doubt that Harry is there," Percy snapped. "Hermione and my brother aren't stupid enough to take him somewhere so…familiar."

"To whom?" Draco pressed, an eyebrow raised.

"To my family," Percy answered shortly before casting a very deliberate glance towards the still-frozen Death Eater woman on the floor.

"What's a port key?" Malik asked, frustrated that they had apparently forgotten that neither Malik nor Bakura were wizards.

Percy reached his hand into his pocket, removing an object wrapped gently in cloth. "It's an object – can be anything, really – that is used to transport someone from one location to another. It is our most effective mode of transporting multiple people."

"Is it dangerous?" Bakura queried.

Draco shook his head. "No. They're generally open to public use as long as they're authorized," he glanced at the object still covered in cloth. "However, I am willing to bet that this one is not."

Percy's brows rose. "Of course not," he said, as if it were the clearest fact in the world. He carefully uncovered the object, revealing it to all of them. "Though a port key can be about any object, this one just so happens to actually be a key."

Amos stepped forward. "We should move quickly," he said, sounding wheezy and tired. He seemed to have even developed a slight limp from the agony of his earlier attack.

Percy held the key outward. "We all grab it on three. Ready?"

They all stepped towards him, forming a small circle around Percy's outstretched hand.

"One…two…three."

End Chapter