"I haven't got any options! I've got to do it! He'll kill me! He'll kill my whole family!" ~Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

"Why—are—there—so—many—bloody—stairs?" moaned Ron, bracing the chubby hands of his Death Eater host on his knees.

Ginny cast her brother a contemptuous look. "Really, Ron, we've only been climbing for about ten minutes," she said, although her words came out a little breathless.

Hermione had to admit, she hadn't expected Azkaban to be quite this similar to a Muggle fairytale dungeon. Not a single elevator to be seen, the only way to reach any level was the stairs. She suspected Ron had it worse off than the rest of them, as the redheaded man he had transformed into had a lot of extra weight to carry around.

"Both of you, be quiet," she said, although the words were halfhearted. While they were in these bodies, they had no need to be extremely cautious, as long as they didn't say anything that would reveal them for who they really were.

"What?" protested Ron. "I'm tired! Can't we take a break?"

"No," Ginny snapped. "We've got a limited amount of time to get this done. Your fat bottom has already slowed us down enough."

Ron fixed her with a glower that made him look so much like himself that it worried Hermione a little.

"Maybe we should put our masks back on," she suggested.

"No way. I'm already sweating to death in my robes, and I'd fall back down the stairs with this thing strapped to my face," Ginny said, dangling the mask by her fingertip in disgust.

"Let's just go," huffed Ron, beginning to recover. "Do you have any idea what floor Neville—?"

Hermione shushed him. "We're Death Eaters," she reminded him in a low voice. "We aren't looking for Neville, remember? We're patrolling."

At last, they reached the top of the staircase. Ron nearly crumpled to the ground in relief. While they caught their breath, Hermione glanced around the stone chamber they had emerged into. A lone window looked out over the ocean, and she was surprised to see just how high up they had gotten. "Where would they be keeping him?" she murmured, half to herself.

"Maybe we should ask someone," Ginny said.

"Ask someone what?"

The voice made their heads whip around. Another Death Eater stood in the doorway at the other side of the room. His wand was in his hand, but he was not pointing it at them. He didn't sound or look threatening in the least. Hermione forced herself to breathe. He had no idea he was not talking to his fellow Death Eaters.

"Oh…nothing," Hermione spluttered when she realized that neither Ron nor Ginny were planning on saying anything.

The eyes beneath the Death Eater's mask flickered to the other two. Both Ron and Ginny wore expressions of shock, which Hermione could not puzzle out. "Stairs beat you again, Pince?" said the Death Eater, sounding highly amused. And that's when Hermione understood. That voice. She knew it from somewhere, though she could not quite grasp exactly who it belonged to…

Ron figured it out first. He gaped at the Death Eater and after a few moments managed to spit out, "Malfoy?"

The Death Eater reached up and removed his mask, and Hermione was certain she looked as stunned as the others. Sure enough, there was Draco Malfoy, wearing his usual expression of contempt, looking at Ron as if he had just discovered something unpleasant on the sole of his shoe.

"Of course it's me, Pince," he snapped. "Who were you expecting, Albus Dumbledore?"

Hermione forced her face into an expression of indifference. It was bad enough that Ron was still staring like he'd just seen the devil incarnate; at least Ginny had managed to compose herself as well.

Hermione took a step closer and studied Malfoy more closely. Like many of the people she'd once known, she had not seen Malfoy since the day Harry…since the day Voldemort won. There was a startling difference to the Malfoy she had known and despised. He had always been pale, but now his complexion had reached the point of looking gray. He was thinner than was healthy and his eyes had a dull look to them. She could see the point of his wand twitching back and forth as his hand shook slightly.

She wondered if being posted at Azkaban had put too much stress on Malfoy…or perhaps the pressure of being a Death Eater in general. It wasn't surprising that he was still a strong Voldemort supporter. If he had been a Death Eater in his days at Hogwarts, why not now? But she still couldn't help feeling shocked at seeing him here.

"What are the three of you doing here, anyway?" Malfoy's pale eyes darted around them suspiciously.

"Just letting Pince catch his breath," said Ginny briskly, and Hermione sent a silent thank you to her. "Then we're off to patrol the corridors."

"Again? I thought you were just let off duty. Weren't you going to stop in at Hogsmeade or something?"

"We were," Hermione cut in. Her own gravelly voice startled her; she still wasn't used to this body. "But then we were given orders to stick around for another hour."

Malfoy grunted. "Bloody regulators. They think they can treat us like filthy dogs. One day we'll be the ones in charge, and they'll be sorry." He cast a glance at Hermione. "Although you have quite a bit of influence already, Rodd. I'd say you're on your way to the top."

Unsure of what else to say that wouldn't be dooming, Hermione just grunted.

Ron finally seemed to be recovering from his shock, wrenching his dazed stare away from Malfoy. Hermione wondered how many memories were flowing through his head as he looked at his old enemy.

"We were just headed up to the prisoners ward," said Ginny, keeping her face stoic.

Malfoy raised a derisive eyebrow. "The prisoners are scattered everywhere, Knash," he said with a hint of his old sneer in his voice. "I don't know what you're babbling about wards."

To her credit, Ginny's expression didn't change. "All right, I suppose I'll let you in on the secret," she said with a large amount of annoyance. "We were given direct orders to take a Neville Longbottom for questioning."

Hermione stared at Ginny, then at Malfoy, holding her breath for his response. That was an incredibly risky thing to say. It did make Ginny sound as if she knew what she was doing, but if she got her facts wrong…

For a moment Hermione could have sworn she saw a flicker of suspicion in Malfoy's eyes, but then he just said, "Longbottom again? I swear some people cannot get it through their thick heads that he refuses to utter a single peep. Even under the Cruciatus Curse, he doesn't break." He grunted. "I have to give him a little credit for that, I suppose."

"You might as well come with us," added Hermione on a wild impulse.

Malfoy gave her a strange look, so Ginny came to the rescue again. "This old brain never remembers where each prisoner is kept," she grunted, tapping her temple. "Better to have a young mind to lead the way."

Malfoy looked like he wanted to protest, but then he just sighed, turned on his heel, and said, "It's this way."

Hermione exchanged a look with Ginny and Ron, trying to stifle her excitement. Now they had conveniently gotten a guide. Maybe, just maybe, they could get out of here smoothly.

Ron, who still looked stunned and who hadn't uttered a single word throughout their conversation with Malfoy, trailed at the back of the group. Hermione had to frequently stop herself from glancing back at him to make sure he was still there.

Malfoy drawled on and on while he led them through the stone corridors and up still more staircases, all of which were infested with dementors, but luckily Malfoy's Patronus kept them at bay. Hermione listened at first, but it didn't take long for her to realize that he was mostly boasting about things she didn't understand, or had no interest in, so she began to tune him out.

Until a name caught her attention in his unending talk.

"—and old Lovegood finally came around, thanks to me," Malfoy said, sounding rather proud of himself. "I had a little help, but it was mostly me who—"

"Did you say Lovegood?" Hermione interrupted. "As in…"

"Xenophilius, yes," said Malfoy. He gave a short little bark of laughter. "All I had to do was threaten his daughter and he didn't hesitate to join us."

"Oh, right, he has a daughter," said Hermione, striving to sound casual. "What was her name again? Luna?"

"More like Loony," said Malfoy scornfully. "I went to school with that lunatic. She joined Potter's band of misfit friends and suddenly considered herself a hero. Just like him." Hermione couldn't identify the emotions in Malfoy's voice as he spoke about Harry. Did he still hate him, even though he was no longer among them?

"What happened to the daughter?" Ron cut in, finally making himself useful.

"Dunno," said Malfoy impassively. "She ran off after we let her go. Probably went and holed herself up in that little shack of hers. When it came to lifestyles, hers was poorest only second to the Weasleys." Then he laughed, though it lacked the malice that had once showed in his every word and action back in their Hogwarts days.

Hermione saw Ginny and Ron bristle out of the corner of her eye, but thankfully they didn't say anything.

"Right, here we are," said Malfoy, coming to a stop at the beginning of a long, dim corridor that looked much the same as the others, except it was lined with cramped cells. "Longbottom is somewhere along here."

Hermione strode past him without another word, scanning the right side of the corridor and trusting the other two to look on the left. She tried not to look too closely at the other prisoners inside, for their frightening, ragged appearances both made her heart ache with sadness and her skin tingle with fear.

Her heart was pounding in her chest and her fingers were beginning to tremble. There was nothing she wanted more than finding Neville, but suddenly she dreaded of what she would see in that little cell. She still remembered the way Sirius had looked after Azkaban—sunken and sallow, haunted and dark. When she thought of Neville, she still thought of the clumsy, round-cheeked, sheepish boy she had come to love and respect. She knew she would not find that boy here.

"You guys," said Ginny's voice softly from near the end of the row of cells on the left side. The strained sound of her voice made Hermione pause and look toward her. She was standing in front of the bars of one of the cells, staring inside with her Death Eater host's broad shoulders slumped as if weighed down by something heavy.

Hermione slowly approached her side, wishing she were somewhere else, anywhere else. Ron came up on her other side and the three of them gazed into the cell together, which had a tiny plaque above it that read, Neville Longbottom.

It was a tiny, cramped space with a small bench that also must have served as a bed. Seated on it was a thin, frail-looking man who had his head bowed toward the ground so that his shaggy hair covered his face. Everything about the prisoner, from his hunched shoulders to the motionlessness about him, screamed defeated.

Hermione took a step closer and wrapped her hands around the bars. "Neville?" she whispered.

He raised his head at the sound of his name and Hermione stifled a gasp. It was like looking into the face of Sirius Black. His face was pale, almost yellowish, his eyes sunken in and lined with deep shadows. His once chubby cheeks were now gaunt and the light in his eyes was gone. He looked at her blankly as if staring straight through her.

"Neville, it's me," she said, forgetting that she wasn't in her own body.

"Hermione," Ginny murmured in a warning tone.

"What are the three of you gawking at?" Malfoy demanded, striding over. He peered into the cell with them. "All right, Longbottom?" Hermione hated the contempt in his voice. "These three say they're here to take you for more interrogation."

Neville's face darkened and his eyes flickered around the four of them, as if sizing them up. It made Hermione's heart ache to see the haunted look on his face.

"You have keys?" Ginny asked Malfoy, and he stared at her as if she were crazy.

"All you have to do is hold your Mark up to the bars and they'll open," he said as if it were obvious—and Hermione supposed that it should have been for their Death Eater bodies.

"Right, forgot" Ginny mumbled, pulling up the sleeve of her cloak to reveal a disconcertingly hairy arm that was branded with the Dark Mark, which she held up to the bars. They slid into the ceiling with a soft clanging sound.

"Come on, Nev—er, Longbottom," said Ron, stepping hesitantly inside and wrapping a hand around his arm. Neville got stoically to his feet and allowed himself to be led out of the cell.

"I might just want to watch this 'interrogation,'" Malfoy sneered, eyeing Neville disdainfully.

That was when Hermione noticed that Ginny's greasy hair was starting to turn red again.

"Get back to work," she barked at Malfoy, surprised by the harshness of her voice.

Malfoy's snide smile instantly slipped into a sulky expression. "I haven't got anything better to do," he protested.

She saw Ron's eyes widen as he looked at her, and she realized with a sickening feeling that she must be staring to change back as well.

"We have to go," she said, taking Neville by his other arm and hurrying him down the corridor, leaving Malfoy to stare after them in confusion.

"I won't talk," said Neville stonily.

"It's all right, Nev, you don't have to," Ron whispered. Neville gave him a bewildered look.

"We're here to rescue you," Ginny added from just behind him.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"It's us, Neville," Hermione told him quietly.

Neville turned his head and looked at her closely. She wondered how much of her normal face was beginning to show through her Death Eater façade, but apparently it was enough. His eyes widened. "Hermione?" he breathed.

She beamed at him.

"We have to get out now," Ron muttered as they took a sharp turn and saw the staircase they had climbed for what seemed like forever just up ahead.

Hermione was just about to breathe a sigh of relief when a dark shape swirled out of nowhere, moving into their path. She didn't think, she just acted. "Expecto Patronum!" she cried, the low timbre of her voice growing higher as her old voice returned.

Her otter wriggled out of her wand and swam lazily around in the air. Hermione stared at it in confusion for a moment. Why wasn't it attacking the dementor? Then her eyes fell upon the obstacle in their path and she felt her stomach plummet.

It wasn't a dementor. It was Malfoy-he must have taken a secret corridor to intercept them. And he was watching her otter with a look of shock on his face.

"But Rodd, your Patronus is a crocodile," he said incredulously. His eyes slowly came to rest on her face. "The otter belongs to…" She felt her beard retract into her face and knew it was all over as she watched his eyes narrow. "Granger," he snarled, reaching for his wand.

But Ginny beat him to it. "Petrificus Totalus!" she bellowed, and Malfoy let out a yell as he tumbled to the ground, stiff as a board.

The damage had been done. There were shouts coming from down the corridor, men that had been alerted by the sound of Malfoy's loud cry. Hermione spun around and her eyes widened in horror as she saw at least seven or eight Death Eaters racing toward them, wands out, and behind them a sea of dementors.

Hermione turned to the others and shouted, "Run!"

I hope you're enjoying the story so far! Don't forget to review, it makes my day!