"First order of business: FIND DRACO MALFOY. That pointy-faced git can tell us how to get to Malfoy Manor," said Harry.
Neville, Harry, and Ron searched the throughout the school, but to their surprise, Draco Malfoy was not there. They cornered Blaise Zabini in an abandoned hallway instead.
"Where is Malfoy Manor?!" yelled Ron, pointing his wand in Zabini's face.
"What?" asked Blaise, thoroughly perplexed. "Why do you, of all people, want to know?"
"BECAUSE VOLDEMORT IS THERE AND HE KIDNAPPED MY SISTER AND MY FRIEND, YOU GIT!"
"Ask Draco. He knows better than I do."
"He's not here, we looked everywhere!"
"Oh.. he must be at the Manor..." breathed Blaise, his face becoming deathly pale. "Draco's in trouble."
"Where is it?"
"I'll tell you if you let me come with you."
"What? Why?"
"Draco and I swore to protect each other if there came a time when Voldemort wanted us to join him. Neither of us want to be Death Eaters, but if Draco's at the Manor, Voldemort must want him to do something."
"Fine. Now tell us where Malfoy Manor is."
Blaise, Harry, Ron, and Neville ran to the library, where Blaise pulled out a map of rural England and marked a patch of supposed wasteland with a red x.
"Malfoy Manor is unplottable, but the grounds are huge. We'll spot it from a mile away in the air. You are planning to fly, aren't you?"
"Yes, we are. It's going to be a long ride. Get some food and clothes and meet us on top of the North Tower with your broomstick in half an hour," commanded a stressed Harry.
"Will do," Blaise replied, running toward the broom shed.
At the Manor, Hermione and Ginny were ushered through the wrought-iron gates by Igor Karkaroff, who had taken their wands and pointed his at their backs.
"I cannot believe Karkaroff was able to convince Madam Maxime to let us come to 'Durmstrang' to see Harry, Neville, and Ron! We should have been more careful. We walked into a trap!" Hermione hissed angrily.
"Let's try to memorize the way in so we'll know the way out," whispered Ginny. "And let's be more careful from here on out."
The odd trio approached the polished front doors of Malfoy Manor, which opened at a whispered password from Karkaroff. They stepped in. The house was grand, decorated in green, black, and silver Slytherin banners. There were portraits of blonde Malfoy ancestors covering the walls. They all glared down at Ginny and Hermione as they passed.
"My descendants!" Ginny heard Augustus Malfoy mutter. "Bringing Mudblood filth into the house!"
They were taken through several twists and turns of green and black halls, decorated with expensive vases and, they could only assume, Dark Magic objects. Karkaroff finally brought them to a large dining hall, where Nagini occupied the head of the table. Ginny and Hermione gasped in fear, seeing her long fangs. Lucius Malfoy was at her left, and a crazy-looking grinning lady dressed in all black was at her right.
"Where's Voldemort?" hissed Ginny.
"Remember, Ginny, he doesn't have a body. He's probably in one of the inside rooms," replied Hermione quietly.
As they whispered, McNair, Buckbeak's executioner and suspected (now confirmed) Death Eater walked in with an insane smile on his face.
"My Lord," murmured Lucius and the lady in sync.
"Oh my God," whispered Ginny, feeling sick. "You-know-who took McNair's body."
McNair, no, Voldemort sat at the head of the table, winding Nagini around his shoulders and arms.
"They are here, my lord," said the dark-haired woman.
"Call the boy," responded Voldemort.
The dark-haired woman threw her head back and laughed maniacally. "DRACO!" she shrieked.
"Yes, Aunt Bellatrix?"asked a pale, frightened Draco Malfoy, entering the dining hall.
"Take the prisoners to the dungeons, and keep their wands!"
Draco's mouth opened in shock as he recognized Hermione and Ginny.
"NOW, boy!" yelled Lucius. "Unless you want another Crucio!"
Draco Malfoy approached Karkaroff, taking the girls' wands and jabbing his own into Hermione's back. He walked them down to the dungeons, staying silent and guiding them with jabs from his wand.
As they walked, Hermione desperately tried to remember where she had heard the name "Bellatrix" before. She cast her mind back into her extracurricular reading, and recalled reading her name on a list of Death Eaters who were sent to Azkaban. This could only mean that Fudge had managed to cover up a breakout!
As Hermione thought, they had been walking. The two prisoners and their guard had somehow reached a dark, cavernous dungeon. She could only hope that Ginny had been paying more attention to their route. Upon seeing the inside of the dungeon, which was filled with magical torture instruments, Ginny burst into tears and the blood rushed out of Hermione's face. What horrors were in store for them?
As Draco locked the witches in and turned to leave, Ginny suddenly called out to him. "What's going to happen to us? You can't just leave us here! What are they going to do to us?" she shrieked.
Malfoy whirled around, shocked at her violent outburst. "I don't know," he whispered. "I don't know. I'm sorry." His face was pale and stressed.
"You can't leave us here!" yelled Hermione, echoing Ginny.
"Shh..they'll hear you," cautioned Draco, looking up the stairs fearfully, "then they'll send someone to quiet you down. And that won't be pleasant."
"Help us," whispered Ginny. "I don't want to die here."
Draco looked up the stairs again, and turned back to Hermione and Ginny decisively. He began to whisper in a low, urgent tone. "I don't know why they've brought you here. My guess is that they want to get Potter and Longbottom here somehow. I'll give you your wands back, but you can't let anyone know you have them. No magic until you're outside the dungeons, or the detection alarms will go off. I'll leave this door locked, but keep the spare key." He dropped their wands and the dungeon key in through the bars of the door. With that, he spun on his heel and left.
"Thank you," whispered a shocked Ginny at his retreating form.
The cold night air whipped around the boys' faces as they rode their brooms toward Malfoy Manor, Harry and Neville sharing and Blaise and Ron riding alone. Unexpectedly, Neville struck up a conversation with Blaise.
" So, Zabini, how are you and Malfoy so close? I thought there was no loyalty in Slytherin-" Neville clapped a hand over his mouth, remembering too late that Blaise probably did not remember Hogwarts. But he was wrong.
"You remember Hogwarts too?" asked a surprised Blaise. "I thought it was just me and Draco. Interesting."
"Malfoy remembers?" interjected Ron. "If he recognizes Hermione and Ginny, will he help them? He hates muggle-borns and us Weasleys."
"He was raised that way. So was I. But we're not stupid. We realized a long time ago that blood is immaterial, and even if it wasn't, purebloods couldn't inbreed forever. He'll do as much as he can to help Granger and your sister. By the way, did you know Voldemort's actually a half-blood? Draco overheard Lucius assuring him that his mother's witch side overpowered his father's muggle side. That makes him a hypocrite as well as an evil maniac. And as for your question, Longbottom, Draco and I have known each other since we were four."
"Why are you being so open with us?" asked Harry.
"Because we need to trust each other to pull this off," responded Blaise gravely.
Severus Snape threw powder in Malfoy's floo after seeing Karkaroff bring Hermione Granger and Ginevra Weasley to the Manor. He had to let Dumbledore know of this immediately.
Hermione paced the dark, damp dungeon floor. "What could we do to protect ourselves?" she asked Ginny. "Malfoy said no magic.."
"We could set a muggle trap!" said Ginny, brightening up.
"You know how to set muggle traps?"
"Yeah, Fred and George taught me how when I was little. What can we use?"
"Wouldn't Lucius have taken out anything that could be used to set a trap?"
"Hermione, these old pureblood families wouldn't even think of making a trap without magic. That's one of the disadvantages to growing up with magic, you never learn to do things another way."
"Hmm, well then we have all these delightful torture devices..."
"We won't need them. I found a coil of rope, and a simple tripwire will do! The intruder will fall down, and the floor is so spiky and gravelly that they'll probably be out cold. And we can tie them up."
"And they won't see the rope because it's so dark in here. You're a genius, Ginny!"
Over the course of the rest of the journey, the other boys filled Blaise in on recent events, including the note from Voldemort. After some discussion, they decided to enter with Blaise as an aspiring Death Eater who had supposedly shown them the way to the Manor because Voldemort wanted them there, and the other three boys as disarmed prisoners. They had transfigured wood from some trees into fake wands, which Blaise would be carrying as Harry, Ron, and Neville's wands.
The boys landed on the sweeping lawn of the Manor and began to make their way toward the gate, Blaise with his wand trained on the backs of the other three.
Ginny and Hermione heard footsteps coming down the stairs in the dungeon. They waited in the shadows with coils of rope in their arms, ready to tie up the Death Eater. They heard a yell of surprise as the intruder fell, and too late, they realized it was Draco Malfoy.
Luckily, they managed to catch him before he fell. "My God," said Draco. "I didn't realize we left that much rope down here. Clever of you two, to use a muggle tripwire."
"What do they want us for?" asked Hermione.
"That's what I came to tell you. Voldemort has assembled all his horcruxes except one, which Potter apparently destroyed in second year. A horcrux is an object in which one stores part of their soul through murder, it's very dark magic." Draco's face turned pale as he spoke. "He's going to perform an ancient ritual to enhance his power and increase the protection on his horcruxes. The ritual requires the- the blood of his enemies, which is why he wanted Potter and Longbottom here, and the life of a pureblood, given willingly. Bellatrix suggested he use you, Weasley, and threaten to torture Granger unless you sacrificed yourself. But he was opposed to using a blood traitor, as he put it. So my father, he- he offered Voldemort my life instead. And once the ritual is over, he is planning to test his new powers on you, to torture and kill you."
"Now we're all in the same boat, aren't we?" asked Hermione. "Let's get out of here, and fast."
"One question, though, Draco. Why are you doing this? I thought you hated blood-traitors and muggleborns," said Ginny.
"It's a long story, involving me, Blaise, and some admittedly shocking revelations about Voldemort's hypocrisy and pureblood inbreeding. Let's just say I understand why you lot detest the Death Eaters so much. Anyway, my father's blocked all the floos except the one in his office, and the secret entrances and exits are clogged with Death Eaters coming to see the ritual, so we're going to have to leave through one of the doors. I hope you two can duel."