Chapter Nine
Break the Rest
March 27th, 1998
"Hermione? Love?"
Sirius had transformed and was wiping the blood from his mouth, ignoring the pain still pulsing in his bones. He crawled up next to the witch, cradling her head gently in his hand, combing his fingers through her messy chestnut locks. Her eyes fluttered open, and he smiled, running his thumb along her cheek affectionately.
"Hermione? Can you say something?" he asked, needing to gauge her mental clarity.
She winced, the pain from the lingering Cruciatus Curse clearly still doing its damage. "Sirius? What happened?"
He followed her gaze around the room, to the bodies, the blood, and the faces of Narcissa and Draco Malfoy staring down at them. "You're safe," was all he was able to say in reply to her question as he exhaled shakily.
"Is she going to be all right?" Draco asked.
Sirius let out a resounding sigh of relief at the comical way her eyes widened in shock, likely over Draco's concerned tone of voice. "She'll be fine. She just needs rest and time to heal."
"You need to get her and the others out of here," Draco urged. "Quickly. I need to call the Dark Lord." He lifted the sleeve of his shirt, revealing the Dark Mark, but not touching it just yet.
Sirius looked up at the teen and growled. "Excuse me?"
"It's not what you think." Draco held up a hand to Sirius before he acted on the pent-up rage that his killing of Bellatrix had not released. "I'm on your side."
Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Bullshit."
"I've got Veritaserum in a safe if you want to test me," Draco offered.
Sirius stared at the boy for a long minute until he felt Hermione grasp his shirt tightly as another wave of pain washed over her body. He peered down at her with worry and then back up at the boy and Narcissa.
"Go," he said shortly, wondering if he had made the right call.
"Where are Harry and Ron?" Hermione rasped, throat clearly tender from screaming. "And did I hear right? Malfoy's on our side?"
"Possibly." Sirius rested her head back on the floor. "I'd pick you up, love, but you'll just be in more pain with every move. You need to stay there until it's safe to leave. Then we'll go somewhere you can heal properly." His eyes flickered to the word carved into her arm, and he growled.
"That won't heal, will it?" She blinked away a few straggling tears.
Sirius shook his head. "No, it'll scar. Her blade was cursed. I'm sorry."
"So am I," Narcissa whispered, kneeling down beside Hermione with a pillow in her hands, eyeing the girl curiously.
She looked at Sirius as she moved, showing that she was not going to touch the young witch without his permission. Apparently, she understood how protective he was over Hermione.
Sirius lifted Hermione's head to help Narcissa make her more comfortable.
"What do we do, Sirius?"
He turned his attention to his cousin. "Apparently, we wait for your son. Is he telling the truth?"
"I don't know," Narcissa confessed. "I was never allowed in the meetings. Draco always attended with Lucius. He's different around his father and the others. At home, here with just me, he's always been a kind boy. I was heartbroken when Lucius dragged him into the inner circle, branding him like that." A few tears escaped from her eyes. "I should have listened to you all those years ago."
"I've got it," Draco said as he entered the room once again.
Before he had a chance to reach Sirius, a voice shouted from behind him, "Expelliarmus!"
The wand flew out of Draco's grip, and he turned, scowling at Harry, who stood beside Ron. They both had wands in their hands aimed at the young blond, who held his hands up as a sign of surrender.
"You're making a mistake, Potter. Ask your godfather."
"Sirius?" Harry eyed him, keeping his wand trained on Draco. Sirius saw the moment Harry noticed Hermione on the floor, and he winced at the look of fear crossing the boy's face. Harry dropped his attention from his wandless rival and rushed to his friend's side. "Hermione!"
"It's okay, Harry. Listen to Sirius," she insisted.
"What's going on?"
Sirius clapped him on the back. "First, where's Wormtail?"
"Dead," Ron answered from behind them, his wand still aimed at Draco's face. "Tried to kill Harry until we reminded him of the life debt he owed. When Harry let him go, Pettigrew's silver hand turned, and he strangled himself to death."
Sirius did not know how to process the information. A man whom he had once considered a friend, a brother, was dead. But that same man was the reason for so much pain and evil: James and Lily's deaths, his twelve years lost to Azkaban, and Voldemort's return in the first place. No, Sirius would not mourn Wormtail.
"That's good, actually," Draco observed. "It'll help the story I need to create."
"What's he talking about?" Harry asked.
"If you'd tell your pet weasel to point his wand elsewhere, I'd be thrilled to inform you, Potter," Draco sniped. "This is Veritaserum. Pass it to Granger if you don't believe me; she can spot it, I'm sure."
Ron snatched the phial from Draco's grip and tossed it to Sirius, who handed it over to Hermione. The witch looked at it carefully, uncorking the top and sniffing it. "There's no smell."
Draco rolled his eyes. "Of course not, Granger. It has no smell."
"It's a trick." Ron scowled. "It's poison."
"Someone tell the weasel why that's moronic," Draco jeered.
"Because the Veritaserum isn't for us," Sirius explained. "It's for him."
"I'll take it, and you can wait and see if I die. Then one of you can take it to test and make sure I'm not lying," Draco offered, his jaw set tight, his eyes glaring at Ron. "Agreed? Honestly, we shouldn't be dawdling here."
"Give it to him," Harry said and watched as Sirius stood to hand the phial over.
Draco unstoppered the container and used the accompanying eyedropper to place a drop on his tongue. He clearly knew better than to use more. He might have been willing to prove his allegiance but it would be stupid to let the truth serum stay in his system long enough for his former rivals to take advantage of the situation.
"Only Black can ask questions," he insisted, handing the phial back.
"Now, one of us . . ." Harry muttered, snatching the phial from Sirius.
Hermione took it away from him and scowled at her friend. "Are you out of your mind? You're worth too much to risk."
Before anyone could stop her, Hermione placed one drop of the potion on her tongue. Sirius gaped at her, angry about the risk she had taken.
She waited a few seconds and then nodded. "All right, is someone going to ask me something?"
"What happened second year when you messed up the Polyjuice Potion?" Ron asked before anyone had a chance to think of a question to verify the potion.
Hermione turned and gave him the most heinous glare possible.
Harry immediately averted his gaze as he awaited the answer.
"The potion wasn't messed up," she said, the words flying out of her mouth against her will. All too familiar with the effects of Veritaserum, Sirius did not envy her. "But I accidentally took a cat hair instead of a human hair and ended up turning myself into a cat. You're dead to me, Ronald Weasley!"
"She turned into a cat?" Sirius chuckled, looking at Harry, who bobbed his head as he stifled his own laughter.
Ron snorted in amusement. "Well, it's really Veritaserum. She wouldn't willingly repeat that story to anyone outside the two of us."
"Why were you three brewing Polyjuice Potion in second year?" Draco asked, seeming eager to take what little advantage of the situation he could, knowing that Hermione was still under the influence of the Truth Serum.
"Because we thought that you either were or knew who the heir of Slytherin was, so Harry and Ron Polyjuiced themselves into Crabbe and Goyle and sneaked into the Slytherin common room to question you," Hermione blurted out and then immediately covered her mouth, eyes wide.
"And I'm the untrustworthy one?" Draco scoffed. "All right, Black, let's get this over with before it wears off. But at the end of this war, I've got some bloody questions of my own," he said, pointing to Hermione and Harry, purposely ignoring Ron who still kept his wand trained on him.
"All right, who holds your loyalty?" Sirius asked Draco.
"My mother," Draco said at once.
"Not Death Eaters?"
"No," Draco insisted.
"Are you a Death Eater?"
"Technically," he said through clenched teeth.
"You said you were on our side. How so?"
"At the end of fourth year, I was recruited as a spy because it was assumed that I would be pulled into the Death Eater ranks because of my father. Therefore, I was deemed a valuable asset," Draco explained. "I've been watching, passing information, and helping the Order ever since."
"Who recruited you?" Sirius asked.
"Severus Snape."
"Let me hex him!" Ron shouted angrily.
"Severus Snape is a bloody traitor!" Sirius growled. "He murdered Dumbledore!"
"No." Draco shook his head. "I don't know all the details, but I was told that Snape and Dumbledore had some arrangement. After I was instructed to kill Dumbledore myself, Snape took me aside and told me to fulfil the mission as completely as possible with the exception of actually killing Dumbledore. I was to disarm him and wait for Snape to show up. I didn't know he was going to kill him."
"He's telling the truth," Hermione said.
"Even if Snape did betray your precious Order, I haven't," Draco insisted.
"Prove it," Ron demanded.
"Prove it? I'm under Veritaserum, you fucking idiot."
"What have you done that can be counted as proof that your loyalty is still with the Order?" Harry asked.
Draco took a deep breath before turning his gaze on Hermione. "Your parents made it to Australia," he disclosed with a smug look on his face. Hermione gasped in response, her eyes widening; the wizards surrounding her glowered at Draco. "They weren't supposed to, for the record. Are we done now?"
"Let him go," Hermione ordered.
Ron scowled. "Hermione, you can't be serious!"
"Do it!" she snapped.
"What's the plan?" Harry asked.
"You lot take yourselves and my mother out of here. I'll grab Greyback from the other room and bring him in here," Draco said, pointing to Bellatrix's body. "She was mauled. The Dark Lord doesn't need to know by what or whom. I'll summon him once you're gone and tell him that Greyback and Scabior turned on us when Bellatrix refused to pay them. We fought, Snatchers died, but Potter escaped because Wormtail betrayed us." He looked to Sirius. "See? Works in our favour."
"And he'll believe you?" Hermione asked.
"I'm an excellent Occlumens," Draco boasted. "Which is why you're taking Mother with you. She's not."
"I'm not leaving without you," Narcissa insisted.
"I'm not asking." Draco glared at her. "You're a blood-traitor now, so you stay hidden no matter what." He turned to Sirius. "Keep her safe."
Sirius looked at the other body on the ground. "And your father?"
"Potter killed him," Draco explained. "He's already known to be quite effective at using Sectumsempra." Harry glared daggers at him in response, but Draco ignored him. "Take all the wands. Mother, give me yours."
"Why can't you just take back your own?" Harry asked, holding the wand in his own hand.
"Priori Incantatem," Draco explained. "If the Dark Lord suspects me at all, he'll check my wand and see that I was the one who killed Lucius. It's better if you disarmed me, killed my father, and I took my mother's wand as she escaped. Speaking of escaping, take Ollivander, the goblin, and the other two."
Ron and Harry shared a look.
"What?" Draco pressed.
"They're already gone," Ron said.
"Gone? How?"
"Dobby Disapparated them out," Harry revealed. "House-elves can Apparate in places where wizards can't."
"Dobby is pleased to help Harry Potter," a small voice called from above.
The group turned their collective gaze upward and spotted the elf hanging on the large chandelier. He smiled down, glancing briefly at the body of his former Master, and shook for a moment, his large ears flapping.
"Dobby? Can you Apparate this many people out of here?" Harry asked.
Dobby nodded, disappearing from the chandelier and reappearing on the floor in front of them all. He looked at Draco for a moment as if assessing the character of the boy before smiling at the result and reaching out for Harry's hand.
One by one, the group reached out for one another, physically connecting, leaving Narcissa to say a short goodbye to Draco.
Sirius lifted Hermione into his arms, ignoring the look of protest on her face. After an adjustment that was only difficult thanks to aching joints courtesy of Azkaban, he tucked one hand beneath her to grasp Harry's arm.
"I'll send a Patronus if I hear of any movement," Draco promised.
"You can make a Patronus?" Ron mocked. "What is it? A ferret?"
"Get out," Draco growled, and before Ron could say another word, Dobby Disapparated them all away from Malfoy Manor.
April 4th, 1998
The large group had been staying with Bill and Fleur for a week, and the small cottage was overly crowded. Three guest rooms had been set aside for the wounded: Griphook, Ollivander, and Hermione, who insisted that her room be shared with Luna. Dean, Ron, and Harry took refuge on the couch and floor of the sitting room.
Sirius had escorted Narcissa to Andromeda's house after sending a Patronus to Remus and Tonks, who he knew were living with her.
Being the Secret-Keeper for both Andromeda's home and his own, Remus had met Sirius outside the wards in order to allow them all inside. He had been reluctant to shelter Narcissa, but Sirius gave his word that his cousin would behave properly.
The two sisters were able to reconnect, though not before a good screaming match that made Sirius groan over his promise to keep Cissa in line. It was not until they each discovered the common trait of recently becoming widows that they fell into a puddle of tears in one another's arms. Andromeda had loved her husband, and she had been shunned by her entire family because of him, but he had been worth it to her. Narcissa had feared her husband, and she had lost her entire sense of self-worth because of him. However, for her, he had been worth it all just because of Draco.
Sirius put up a set of incredibly complicated wards around Andromeda's house to protect his cousins, enlisting Bill's help as a Curse-Breaker to test them just in case. Despite her incredibly distended midsection, Tonks took a turn at testing the wards since, as an Auror, she felt very qualified.
The women all took refuge in the kitchen to drink tea afterward, while Remus and Sirius vacated to the basement to share some firewhisky and update one another about the war.
"How are they?" Remus asked, setting his small glass down on a folding table that sat between the two crates he and Sirius were using as makeshift chairs.
Sirius looked up, exhausted. "You mean how is she?"
"I have a large enough heart to be concerned about the entirety of our side, Sirius."
"You knew, didn't you?" Sirius accused. "Malfoy Manor. Bellatrix."
Remus inclined his head.
"And you never told me." Sirius stood and began pacing around the room. "I could have stopped it. I was there. If I'd have known when and where we were going and what would have happened—"
"You couldn't have done anything more than you've already done!" Remus snapped in a harsher tone than he had intended, frowning when Sirius petulantly retook his seat. "She showed me in a Pensieve. When I noticed the scars, I confronted her. That's when she told me everything. We've talked about this before, Pads. She swore me to only reveal it all to you when the time was right, which she insisted wouldn't be for at least a decade. I took an Unbreakable Vow."
Sirius growled and knocked his glass to the floor with a violent sweep of his arm. "Why the fuck would she do that?"
"Because she protects those she loves. If she had stopped it from happening to her, then Bellatrix would have tortured you, or Harry, or Ron instead."
"I should have known," Sirius berated himself. "This whole time, my own fucking cousin." He growled again and put his head into his hands. "You remember what I told you happened at Narcissa's wedding? I've never seen her so—"
"Unhinged?" Remus offered.
Sirius almost laughed. Almost. "That's putting it lightly."
"Her hatred of Bellatrix wasn't about this moment you know. It had almost nothing to do with what happened to her at Malfoy Manor. Nothing to do with the curse or her arm. It was horrible, of course, don't misunderstand me," Remus said, putting up a defensive hand as Sirius glared at him. "She hated Bellatrix because of you. Because of the Department of Mysteries."
"She's started having nightmares," Sirius whispered, ignoring the guilt that continued to build in his chest. He did not want to know that she was always thinking about him instead of worrying about herself.
"She's always had nightmares," Remus countered.
"No." Sirius shook his head. "Hermione started having nightmares. This is the source. This is the beginning of them."
"Maybe that's why she swore me to secrecy."
"How's that?"
"She took care of us constantly," Remus said. "Always hovering over me, making sure I was healed and never alone. But she was always vulnerable at night. That gave us a chance to take care of her. You can't deny how that bonded us all together."
He reached down and picked up Sirius's fallen glass, setting it back on the table and reaching for the bottle of firewhisky to top off his friend's drink. He slid the glass across the small table and offered a consoling smile.
Sirius looked up, genuine anxiety in his eyes. "What happens if I can't keep her alive? Any of them?"
"That's the thing about time," Remus reflected, a faraway expression on his face. "It's a loop, you see. Every moment has already happened, we're just reliving it. The very fact that we still remember everything from years ago—that we remember her—means that she made it through this. The fact that she wasn't entirely broken must mean that it all turns out right in the end."
Sirius glared at him, annoyed. "I miss the pessimistic and stressed out Moony. How are you this calm with a pregnant wife ready to pop any second and a full moon in a week?"
Remus smirked, tilting his head to the side as he looked at Sirius. "The dosage of Calming Draught I've been on the past three months would put a normal wizard in a coma."
Sirius openly gaped at him, finally noticing Remus's eyes were hooded, and beneath the lids, his pupils were dilated. "You're high?"
Remus grinned and raised his glass to toast. "Cheers to werewolf metabolism, Pads."
April 13th, 1998
"So, what do you want to do with the rest?" Hermione asked, holding a bundle of wands in her hand. Her own had been returned to her, and she almost hated to hold it now, knowing that Lucius Malfoy had used it to cast the Cruciatus Curse on Sirius and nearly killed his own wife with it. But it was hers, and she forced herself to hold it affectionately, determined to use it to bring about enough good to counter the evil it had briefly caused.
Harry considered the bundle before nodding decisively. "Break them," he said and then barely dodged a hex thrown at him by Sirius, who was sparring with him in front of Shell Cottage.
"You sure you don't want to pick one from the bunch?" Ron asked Harry.
A small crowd had gathered on the front porch to watch as Harry continued trying to disarm Sirius. Draco's reasonably springy hawthorn wand obeyed him with ease as though it were his own. Sirius had lucked into finding his original wand among the others they had brought back with them from Malfoy Manor; it had likely been picked up by Snatchers picking through Godric's Hollow after Christmas.
"No, I need this wand," Harry insisted as he threw up a shield to block a Binding Curse that Sirius sent his way. "Ollivander said it's mine, at least for right now. Its allegiance changed the moment I disarmed Malfoy. The wand chooses the wizard. I can't explain it—Ow!" He grimaced at Sirius, who had grazed his leg with a mild Stinging Hex. "For the time being, I need this wand."
"And break the rest?" Hermione double-checked Harry's instructions.
"Yes, Hermione. Those wands belonged to Death Eaters and Snatchers. Break them and be done with it all."
"Gladly." Hermione handed the bundle to Ron, keeping one wand in her hands.
With a vengeful flutter in her chest, she snapped Bellatrix Lestrange's wand clean in half and then used her own wand to set the pieces on fire. Feeling a bit more reinvigorated, Hermione grabbed back for the bundle of wands and held it out to Dean and Luna, offering them each the opportunity to select one as their own, since their wands had been stolen and possibly destroyed upon their capture. Once they had chosen, she moved to snap the remaining wands all in one go.
"Wait!" Harry shouted. "Sirius! Pause! I have a better idea. Dobby!"
The small elf appeared with a loud crack, looking up at Harry Potter with a bright smile. "The Great Harry Potter calls for Dobby?" His tennis ball-sized eyes glanced around at the gathered crowd, giving them each a smile, his ears flapping as a soft breeze blew across the front porch.
"Dobby, I would like you to break these wands," Harry said, snatching the bundle from Hermione and handing it to the elf.
"Harry Potter wants . . ." Dobby's eyes doubled in size. He immediately began shaking his head. "No, no, no . . . elves are not to touch the wands of wizards. Mustn't, mustn't." He looked around the porch, nervously wringing his hands.
"Dobby, don't you dare hurt yourself," Harry cautioned the elf who began to shake. "Dobby, these wands did not belong to wizards. They belonged to weak men who abused magic. They weren't fit to be wizards. These wands are tainted with Dark Magic. They've hurt many people and creatures. They were used to capture and enslave. I think it only right that a free elf be the one to break them and put those evil deeds to rest."
Hermione smiled brightly, ignoring Sirius who was rolling his eyes behind his godson. Next to Hermione, Ron mirrored Sirius's actions. Luna looked pleased with the idea, while Dean, Bill, and Fleur all grinned, encouraging the little elf with their smiles.
"Come on, Dobby," Hermione urged. "You're better than those wizards."
"If Harry Potter insists," Dobby said, taking an extremely hesitant step toward the proffered bundle of finely carved wands, each with a different colour and core, but all with a history of violence and death. Very slowly, the little elf reached for one wand, a black wand made of elm that Hermione recognised as Scabior's, the Snatcher who had brought them to Malfoy Manor.
With initial reluctance, Dobby held the wand between his two small hands and clenched his eyes tightly shut, looking as though he was waiting for someone to hit him. When no one made a move, Dobby snapped the wand in half and opened eyes that now shone brightly in the setting sun. A smile crossed his face, and he let out a loud laugh of pure glee, jumping in the air and throwing the broken wand to the ground before stomping on it vigorously.
As though it were his new favourite game in the entire world, the elf eagerly reached back into the bundle of wands, snapping each one with enthusiasm, laughing and jumping as each one fell to the ground in an ever-growing pile. Hermione grinned delightedly at the scene, and once the bundle was gone, Dobby looked around eagerly as if he could find more if he just tried.
Harry laughed and held a hand out to him. "Thank you, Dobby. You've taken a great burden off my shoulders."
The elf beamed, taking Harry's hand. "Dobby is always happy to serve Harry Potter, sir."
