They were playing a game of Exploding Snap, trying to ignore the permanent chill that permeated the air of Malfoy Manor despite the warmer winds associated with Easter Break when a loud, harsh buzz made everyone in the room jump.
"Someone's at the gate," Lucius Malfoy looked up from where he was reading the Daily Prophet. Dawn still felt a stir of shock whenever she looked at Draco's father. He'd grown gaunt compared to when she last saw him before school had started, and the circles beneath his eyes seemed to be in permanent shadow. She hadn't asked what fears kept him up at night, nor what Voldemort had forced him to endure while they had been at Hogwarts. She didn't want to know, and he didn't wish to tell.
Narcissa got up swiftly to tap the enchanted artifact with her wand. Immediately, the buzzing stopped.
"State your purpose," she said in a cold, clear voice.
A garbled stream of voices came out of the artifact before sharpening into one clear, terrifying statement. "We've got Potter!" A man's voice roared out. "We've captured Harry Potter!"
Dawn dropped her card and the deck they'd been building exploded in front of them, but she barely registered the heat. She'd somehow gotten to her feet, but her head felt alarmingly light, as if all the blood had disappeared, leaving her empty. Harry?
Narcissa looked at Lucius swiftly in shock before tapping the artifact again. Some distance away, a muffled creaking sound told them the heavy, iron gate that guarded the manor was swinging open slowly.
"But…" the word escaped Dawn's lips, but the Malfoys had already leaped into action.
"Clear those up," Lucius told Draco sharply, pointing at the mess of burned cards. "Dawn, go to your room."
"Over my dead body," she hissed, her wand clenched in her hands.
Lucius bore down on her, his gray eyes narrowed in rage. "I know the reason why you are here, Dawn Potter," he said in a low, hard voice. "The real reason you're here. And I've done my best to protect you from the Dark Lord - why do you think Narcissa and I look so beaten? But I will not let you endanger my family so severely by attempting to free -"
He could not finish, however, for harsh pounding sounded from the entrance hall.
Narcissa opened the double doors. "What is this?" Her voice was commanding and cold.
"We're here to see He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named!" a low, rasping voice snarled. Dawn's thundering heart froze in horror as she recognized his tone.
"Who are you?"
"You know me! Fenrir Greyback!" The resentment was clear in the werewolf's voice. "We've caught Harry Potter!"
There was a shuffling sound and a grunt of pain, followed by a moment of silence so intense that Dawn felt as if her gut had tied itself into irreversible knots.
"Bring them in," Narcissa said.
As if those three words had been the signal, Draco and Lucius moved at the same time. Lucius pointed his wand, unlocking a small, wooden door that Dawn had never noticed before, while Draco suddenly seized Dawn by the arms, a hand descending over her mouth to muffle her outraged yell.
"No! Let me go!" She tried to twist out of her grip, but Draco was surprisingly strong, his arms and hands unyielding like iron as he dragged her through the door Lucius had unlocked.
"I'm so sorry," he said as he dragged her deeper into dusty room. "But stay here while we… while we deal with your brother. It's not what you think it is… father built this place for.. Nevermind. Just don't waste your breath trying to scream. The silencing charms extend into here." Then before Dawn could recover and get to her feet, he stepped back quickly and shut the door behind him with a thud.
Dawn felt an indescribable rage well up inside of her as she looked at the closed door from where she lay sprawled on the cold floor. Rage and despair. It felt as if the last pillars of her trust had been knocked to the ground. Was there anyone left in this world who wouldn't betray her?
The black tidal wave threatened to consume her, but something stopped her from throwing herself against the door. Getting slowly to her feet, she looked around the room. Light caught her eye. A window? She rushed over, and to her utter delight, she saw the full view of the Malfoy drawing room before her.
I'm looking out from the eyes of one of the portraits, she realized.
Draco was standing in front of a tangle of at least five people tied together by magic, flanked on either side by the werewolf and four other Snatchers. Behind him, Lucius and Narcissa seemed to be waiting with bated breath. "Well, Draco?" Dawn heard Lucius's voice as if he were standing right next to her. "Is it Harry Potter?"
Dawn pressed herself against the glass separating her and the others. Draco was looking unwillingly at the boy kneeling at his feet. Something had caused the boy's face to swell into a distorted, stretched, and shiny pinkness. He looked nothing like Harry. Not Harry, Dawn pleaded. His black hair was so long it almost reached his shoulders, and there was a shadow of a beard around his jaw. Not Harry.
"I can't - I can't be sure," said Draco. He was standing stiff, his voice tight. But his eyes flicked to the side of the room, straight at where Dawn was watching, as if he knew she was there. She froze at the fear in his eyes. It's him, his expression told her.
"What did you do to him?" Lucius asked Greyback. "How did he get into this state?"
"That wasn't us," the werewolf growled. "We found him like this."
"It looks like a Stinging Jinx to me," Lucius mused, also looking at Harry.
"We had better be certain, Lucius," Narcissa said from where she stood beside the fireplace. "They say that this is his" - she was looking closely at a wand in her hands - "but it does not resemble Ollivander's description… If we are mistaken, if we call the Dark Lord here for nothing… Remember what he did to Rowle and Dolohov?"
Draco flinched visibly at the reminder, but Dawn barely noticed. She was staring at the rest of the captured people in horror. On Harry's other side, Hermione and Ron were tied up, their familiar faces too easily recognizable. No, it can't be. If they were here, then that meant that the boy with the swollen face was Harry…
She backed away from the window just as she heard Bellatrix's high voice ask, "What's going on, Cissy?" Dawn backed away until she could hear no more. She didn't want to hear anymore. She had to get Harry out. She had to get Harry out before Voldemort came.
That was when she finally noticed that this room wasn't so much a room. It was a tunnel. The far end of the room stretched on and on into darkness, the only light coming from the window to the drawing room. What had Draco said? It's not what you think it is… my father built it for… for what?
She looked back at the strange, enchanted window. Why was there a room in the Malfoy Manor that was made clearly to spy on the drawing room? The drawing room was where all the important Death Eater meetings were held. Had Lucius built this before or after the rise of Voldemort?
Suddenly a breeze brushed against the back of Dawn's neck. She whirled around to squint down the darkness of the long tunnel. Voices… she could have sworn she heard voices. Where did that tunnel lead?
The silencing charms extend into here.
There was only one place she was aware of having silencing charms in the manor. And that was the dungeons.
She was already running before she finished formulating the thought. She ran down the long, dry, winding tunnel, her wand held before her to illuminate the way. Draco and Lucius had locked her in here for a reason. But what was she supposed do once in the dungeons?
Dawn burst out from the darkness of the tunnel into the flickering light of fire. Torches illuminated the heavy cellar door, though their light did not touch the cool shadows behind the iron bars of the door. On Dawn's other side, stairs led up into more light. A way out. But...
She turned to face the cellar, raising her wand a little higher in an attempt to peer deeper through the bars. "Hello?" she asked hesitantly, her voice echoing slightly against the marble stone walls.
Silence. Nobody responded.
"Hello? Mr. Ollivander? Anyone?"
A pause, then a faint rustling sound came from within the cell.
"Who's there?" a man's voice rasped.
Dawn squinted to see Ollivander standing warily to the side of the cell. "It's me, Dawn Potter. Listen, Harry's been captured -"
A sudden loud rattle and thud of the door being kicked open halted her words. Dawn ran back into the shadows of the tunnel she'd come from and hid behind a dusty shelf just as the first drawn-out scream sounded directly above them.
"Hermione! Hermione!" It was Ron's voice, coming just several meters away.
"Reckon she'll let me have a bit of the girl once she's finished with her?" came Fenrir Greyback's horrid, crooning growl. "I'd say I'll get a bite of two, wouldn't you, ginger?"
His terrible laughter was punctuated by a loud clang as the door to the prison was slammed shut and locked. The screaming began above once more.
"HERMIONE! HERMIONE" Ron sounded frenzied and desperate, almost drowning out the second voice that stopped Dawn's heart.
"Be quiet! Shut up, Ron, we need to work out a way to untie ourselves -"
Dawn sank to her knees at the sound of her brother's voice. It was Harry. He'd gotten captured after everything that had been given up to ensure he would succeed.
"Harry?" It was Luna's voice. Dawn had almost forgotten she'd been caught. "Oh no, it is you, Harry. I didn't want you to be caught!"
"Luna?"
"Luna!" It was Harry, and for some reason his voice sounded hopeful. "How long have you been here? Do you know if my sister is here at the manor? Is Shadow -"
The terrible screaming started again, and this time Bellatrix's shouting could be heard as well.
"Where did you get this sword? You got this from my vault you lying, filthy mudblood! Did you take anything else from my vault? What else did you take from my vault?"
Ron started pounding his fist against the door. "HERMIONE! HERMIONE!"
Dawn scrambled for the crystal pendant she had hidden beneath her shirt around her neck. It was her last connection with the Order. Use it only in the gravest emergencies, Snape had said. And use it wisely. You can only use it once.
Dawn ripped it off her neck and crushed the pendant beneath her feet. A white mist was released from the shattered pieces, congealing together into a vague form of Severus Snape.
"I need help," she told Snape without preamble as Hermione's screaming intensified. "Harry's caught. Send help to Malfoy Manor dungeons -"
"It's a f-fake!" Hermione's sobs echoed from above. "It isn't the real sword! It's a copy, just a copy!"
"- just get them out of the Manor. They haven't got their wands, they can't disapparate so I can't -"
"But we can find out easily!" It was Lucius. "Draco, fetch the goblin, he can tell us whether or not the sword is real."
Dawn faltered and whirled around as the door to the dungeons clanged open again.
"Just send help!" she hissed to the smoky figure before slashing her wand through it to dissolve it. She rose to her feet slowly, wand clenched in her hands as Draco descended the steps.
"Stand back," Draco's voice was commanding and devoid of emotion. "Line up against the back wall. Don't try anything or I will kill you."
Even as he reached the bottom of the stairs, Dawn slipped out from the shadows and planted herself between him and the dungeon doors. Reflexively, Draco's wand whipped up to point at her chest, but he froze when he recognized her.
"Let me pass," he said in a low voice.
Dawn didn't move. "I don't have the keys to the dungeon."
"Shadow?" Harry's voice was muffled from behind the dungeon door, but she did not turn. She held Draco's dark gaze unflinchingly. His eyes told her he knew what she was going to do, and he did not like it. But all the same, he gave the slightest of nods.
Dawn moved aside and let him pass.
Draco put his hand on the lock of the dungeon door and it swung inwards. The light from his wand flooded into the dungeons, and for the first time in months, Dawn saw her brother.
Harry's familiar eyes met hers and widened in utter shock at her ragged appearance. She looked away.
Draco seized the goblin cowering in the corner and dragged him out. As he passed her, his hand briefly closed around hers, and then he was gone, hauling the goblin up the stairs.
Leaving the door wide open behind him.
Dawn stood in the open doorway, looking at the beaten forms of her friends and family. Ron, Harry, Luna, Ollivander, and Dean - who must've been caught just then as well - all looked back at her, fearfully, hopefully, warily.
"Everyone out," she said in a cold, quiet voice.
Ron opened his mouth to say something, but then Hermione's screams changed his mind. They all ducked past her and out the door without any questions.
At the top of the stairs, Draco slammed the door leading to the cellars shut just as a loud cracking sound made all of them flinch.
"Dob -" Ron's voice choked off abruptly as Harry hit him on the arm. The ginger clapped his hands over his mouth, eyes wide with terror at his mistake. Standing in the middle of the room was Dobby the house elf.
Snape was clever.
Dawn whirled into action. "Dobby, take all of them and disapparate them out of here. Now."
"No, we're not leaving without Hermione," Harry whispered fiercely.
"You need to leave now," Dawn grounded out. "I don't care about all the others, you're the one that must not be here -"
"We're not leaving without Hermione!" Ron's expression was so fierce that Dawn gave up arguing.
"Fine, Dobby take Luna and the others to -"
"- Bill and Fleur's Shell Cottage on the outskirts of Tinsworth," Ron interjected.
"And come back here immediately to take Harry and Ron out as well, understood?"
Dobby nodded his head vigorously. "I understand, Shadow Potter!"
"We can't just leave you here -" Dean started to object.
"Leave. Now." Dawn growled.
Dobby caught hold of all their outstretched hands and with a mighty crack they disappeared.
"What was that?" Bellatrix's voice sliced through the air. "What was that from the dungeons? Wormtail, go check on the prisoners."
The same moment, Harry staggered and crumpled to the ground, hands clutching his forehead.
"Harry!"
"She's called You-Know-Who!" her brother's voice was strangled in pain. "He's coming right now!"
The door to the dungeons opened and Wormtail ran down the steps just as Harry dragged himself upright. Fast as lightning, Dawn's wand came down. "Stupefy"
Wormtail crashed down to the ground and Dawn plucked his wand from his frozen hands, tossing it to Ron. "Go!"
They ran up the stairs without a second thought. Dawn made to follow, but a wheeze from Wormtail made her pause. Was that blood pooling beneath his head?
"Expelliarmus!" Ron roared from above. "Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"
Dawn dropped to her knees besides Wormtail. The blood on the ground vanished, and suddenly his silver hand was closed around her throat, choking the life out of her.
She lurched back, but his grip was impossibly strong. Gasping for breath that wouldn't come she tried to scream, but nothing came out. She thrashed in his grip, her fists flailing wildly in desperation even as a she dimly heard Bellatrix yell, "STOP OR SHE DIES!"
"Stupefy! Relashio! Petrificus Totalus!" Dawn tried to yell the incantations, but her windpipe was crushed and none of the words escaped. As the world flashed black and red around her, the last vestiges of her desperate energy seemed to explode out of her. "Avada Kedavra!"
Green light exploded from her wand tip and hit Wormtail square in the middle of his forehead. Immediately, the strength in the silver hand disappeared and Dawn gasped, shoving his limp body off her as she heaved and retched.
She was still shuddering and panting when a loud crash from above made the whole manor shake, followed by a screech, "Dobby!"
But she barely registered the noise, for she had caught sight of Wormtail's lifeless body. His eyes were still wide open, blank and staring, his mouth slightly agape and his expression frozen in horror. Just like Natalie's had been
No. No, no, no.
Dawn backed away, staring at her shaking hands. No. Not another one.
Then Draco was there, shaking her shoulders urgently. His face was cut and bloodied. "Dawn, we must go. The Dark Lord will be here any second but Potter's just escaped and father told us to get out of the house of he'll punish us all -"
His voice faltered when he saw Wormtail.
"I killed him," Dawn said in horror. "I killed him."
Draco shook himself and dragged Dawn to her feet. "We must go," he repeated.
The darkness compressed around them as he disapparated, pulling her along with him. The last thing Dawn heard was a high pitched, inhuman scream of pure rage as Lord Voldemort beheld the devastation above.
S
"What happened?"
Draco looked up from his steaming cup of tea just as Daphne sat down besides him on the front steps of the Greengrass Manor. She was clutching her own mug, not quite hiding the shakiness in her hands.
The Greengrasses had asked no questions when he and Dawn had appeared on their doorsteps, haunted, bloody, and haggard. While Daphne's parents were Voldemort-sympathisers, they hadn't openly joined his cause either, disliking the violence and fear that constantly surrounded the Death Eaters. They had taken one look at Draco and Dawn and understood the situation. Even now, Daphne's mother and sister were making dinner to accommodate the extra guests.
"How is she?" Draco asked, avoiding Daphne's question.
"As far as I can tell, she's physically alright, no injuries. But mentally… she won't look me in the eye. She hasn't answered any of my questions, besides repeating over and over, 'I killed him'." Daphne let that sink in, pinning Draco under her sharp gaze. "Draco, what happened?"
Draco stared at the snow that was falling thickly from the sky, coating the Greengrass garden in a thin layer of white powder. The night was dark and clear, the stars above them cold and distant.
"Potter was caught," he said at last.
Daphne clapped her hands over her mouth to muffle an exclamation of horror. Hastily, Draco said, "He escaped."
It was in that moment, watching relief wash over Daphne's expression, that he realized how completely and utterly he no longer believed in the Dark Lord's side. The two of them sat there, both proud Slytherins to the heart, but neither felt anything but relief at the thought of Harry Potter's escape.
"So why did you guys have to run?"
"She killed Peter Pettigrew." The words tasted like dread. He'd seen the toll it had taken on Dawn when she had killed the muggle girl. What would another death cause? "And the Dark Lord was on the way when Potter escaped. My parents wanted us to escape his wrath."
Daphne buried her face in her hands. The two of them sat in silence, listening to the faint rustling of the leaves as snow fell on them. There was nothing to say, nothing that could be said that would properly convey the emptiness of the future. Draco took out a wand from his pocket and looked at it, feeling as if it were draining the warmth from his hands. It was Peter Pettigrew's wand. He'd lost his own when Potter wrested it from him during the battle in the drawing room. The wand clattered to the ground; he almost threw it. The memory of seizing it from the cold, dead fingers of its former master in order to apparate Dawn and himself out of the manor made him want to throw up.
When Daphne raised her head, she looked older, exhausted.
"When will the war end?" she asked hopelessly.
Draco looked away from the blood-stained wand and shrugged at the falling snow. "When one of them has won."
"Will you be able to return to Hogwarts? Or your manor?"
"I think so. We didn't really do anything wrong - no one knows how Pettigrew died. My father will most likely claim he'd sent us away prior to when Potter was captured." Draco rubbed his neck. "We'll just have to wait for a message from my parents."
"You're welcome to stay here for the rest of the break, my parents definitely would not object." Daphne paused, glancing back at her manor. "But I don't know… what to say to her, how to comfort her."
"What do you say to a person who's just murdered someone else? That's a question I still don't know how to answer," said Draco tiredly.
He stayed out on the front steps of the Greengrass Manor long after Daphne left. It wasn't until Astoria Greengrass came out with his dinner that he realized his hands had been frozen numb, and that the mug he'd been holding was shattered on the ground around Pettigrew's wand from where it'd fallen through his stiff fingers.
"I'm so sorry about this," he said in slight bewilderment. "I'll clean it up -"
"It's okay," Astoria said gently, "I'll do it. You should go back inside or you'll freeze to death."
"Thank you," he mumbled. Delicately, he picked up Pettigrew's wand and stowed it back in his pocket before taking the plate of food from Astoria and walking inside.
When he'd finished his dinner, he found Astoria hovering uncertainly by the kitchen door, holding another plate of food. "Hello, what is it?" he asked her, trying to look moderately friendly.
"Could you give this to Dawn?" Astoria asked timidly. "She's not responding to any of us. She's locked the door to the guest room, but we didn't want to intrude and forcefully open the door."
Draco got to his feet immediately. "Of course. Thank you, Astoria."
Upstairs, Daphne was standing outside a closed, wooden door, imploring Dawn to come out and eat. "Dawn, just open the door and let me give you the food -"
"Daphne." She looked up at Draco's commanding tone. "It's okay, let me."
Daphne huffed and left, leaving him standing alone in the hallway. He didn't even bother wasting his breath trying to talk to her through the door. This had happened during the first month after Natalie's death, and he knew she wouldn't open the door to anyone willingly.
"Alohomora," he said quietly and the door unlocked with a click.
Dawn was lying on the bed, her back to the door. He put the plate down on the bedside table and walked to the other side of the bed so that he could see her face. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was even, but he knew she wasn't asleep. Dried tear tracks trailed down her cheeks, and her face was so pale that her lips and lashes stood starkly in contrast.
He knelt until his face was level with hers. "Shadow."
Dawn stirred at the mention of the name, her expression clenching into pain. He reached out and laid his hand over hers, which was clenched into a fist. She flinched and tried to pull away, but he held fast.
"Shadow, look at me."
Unwillingly, she opened her eyes. Her eyes were pale and drained of life, as if she had cried so much the green had faded out.
"Tell me what happened."
She didn't speak for the longest time. She just stared at his chest, watching his steady breathing, unwilling to meet his gaze. Finally, she said, "He was strangling me."
"You did what you had to. Anyone would've fought to live."
"He's dead, Draco," she said dully. "He's dead and I killed him."
"You lived. Your brother lived. Your friends lived. I'd say it was a pretty fair trade."
At his words, her eyes sharpened and focused into a deadly rage. "We should never trade in lives, Draco!"
He almost smiled at the return of the vivid, piercing green. Without thinking, he climbed into the bed beside her. She let out a muffled exclamation of surprise and tried to shift away, but he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her against his chest.
"Sleep, Shadow. Dinner can wait."
He held her until the tension slowly left her body and she relaxed against him. He lay awake all night, watching over her, listening to her breathe.
It was the most beautiful sound in the world.
S
Dawn was in the middle of Herbology when something burned in her pocket.
"Ouch!" She dropped her shear in surprise and Daphne dove to catch it before it could fall to the ground and accidentally impale one of their feet.
"Are you okay?" Blaise frowned from where he and Draco were wrestling with their pot of Venemos Tentacula. His momentary distraction allowed the Tentacula to snake around his neck and he leaped back with a yelp of surprise.
Dawn reached into her pocket and pulled out the culprit. It was an old galleon, but the moment she held the warm metal in her hand, she realized it was the galleon that Neville had given her and Draco when they first joined the DA.
Daphne reemerged with the shear in one hand and the writhing pot in the other. "If you wanted to use that to pay insurance for any potential life damages you might've just caused me, you might not have enough," she said, goggles slightly askew.
"Something from my pocket burned me." At the edge of her vision, she felt Draco raise his head to look at her, but she didn't acknowledge his silent question. She glanced at the side of the fake galleon where the bank numbers should've been and blanched visibly.
"Dawn?" Draco asked in alarm.
"I'm fine." She shoved the galleon back into her pockets and refastened her goggles on her face. Daphne handed her the shear, having not noticed her expression. Fortunately, before Draco could question her further, Professor Sprout swept by to treat the pricks of blood on Blaise's neck, ending all further discussion.
He found her later though. He always found her. After they'd returned to Hogwarts from the Christmas break, she'd tried her best to isolate herself, but Draco knew every hiding place she sought. He didn't let her hide, didn't let her abandon herself. She'd screamed at him, ignored him, cried in front of him, but he'd still stubbornly stood there. "Yes, my family has suffered because of you, but distancing yourself won't help. Believe me, I've tried."
His gray-silver eyes had made her fall to her knees. The past had hovered like an unspoken ghost between them - the pain, the betrayal, all because he'd tried to protect her. In the end she had still fallen. She'd still become a killer, a weapon, a broken vessel. Distancing yourself won't help.
Lucius and Narcissa hadn't allowed them to come home. Draco didn't tell her what their messages entailed, but she could imagine the horrible punishments they were suffering in place of them. The entire Malfoy and Lestrange family had been shunned after they'd let Harry Potter escape from right between their fingertips. The other Death Eaters had avoided them like the plague.
And it was all her fault.
"Dawn?"
She did not move from where she sat, her legs dangling over the edge of the Astronomy Tower as she stared out at the still-beautiful grounds of her most precious home. It was almost curfew. Almost time.
Draco sat down beside her and held out something in his hands. She looked down. It was his galleon, with the same ominous message inscribed into the enchanted metal.
Harry is back. We fight tonight. RR at midnight.
She stared at the coin a bit longer before dragging her gaze back up to meet those silver, metallic eyes. Harry is back.
"Will you go to the Room of Requirement tonight?" Draco asked.
Her voice stretched weakly, feeble and uncertain as a newborn bird. "I don't know."
He didn't ask her why. He never had to, because he always understood. Understood her shame, her guilt, her feeling of sin and unworthiness. He understood exactly how darkness could stain a soul.
"Your brother will want to see you. You are still his sister, Dawn. You are still a Potter." His voice was gentle, yet there was a second layer folded beneath his words. He was a Malfoy. He would always still be a Malfoy.
"You go," she said abruptly. "I'm not going. I'm going to alert McGonagall." And Snape.
"Me?" A sneer ghosted through Draco's face for a brief moment, so achingly familiar that Dawn couldn't help but smile slightly. It was a friend she had not seen in decades. "You know what they think about Slytherins and Malfoys. Neville may have forgiven me, but the others have not yet."
"Well, it's about time they did," Dawn said shortly. "I'll come right after I talk to McGonagall."
Draco eyed her suspiciously. "Promise me you'll come?"
She held his eyes. It was a rare shade of silver. "Always."
S
Draco strode down the hall, not bothering to keep quiet. He was Head Boy after all, even though the Carrows despised him. The name Malfoy might be worthless on both sides of the war, but he still held power in these halls.
Not a soul dared to stir as he traversed the silent castle. The moonlight was watery, the shadows shy. Everything seemed to be in an uneasy slumber. Not even the portraits shuffled in their frames.
Once on the seventh floor, he checked to make sure no one had followed him before stepping swiftly into the unnoticeable broom closet in the corner. He squeezed through the tiny space of the room, ducking to avoid scraping his head against the cobwebbed ceiling as he faced the blank wall to the right. He closed his eyes and paced three times.
The familiar door appeared for him, but he didn't knock. His appearance at the hideout of the DA were rare - only when he needed to help another student escape the wrath of the Carrows, and that was usually in the dead of night, when most of the DA were asleep. He'd never actually met all of them. He didn't want to.
Voices came from the other side of the door, excitement spilling out from the cracks between the heavy oak.
He raised his fist and hammered hard twice.
Instantly the voices fell silent. He could almost feel the tension buffet towards him as he braced himself against the two heavy doors and pushed it open. All the fireplaces in the room were lit, and all eyes fell on the lone figure. It was a massive crowd of people. Their shadows flickered strangely, and their expressions froze into one. More than one reached for their wand.
And right in the middle of the crowd stood the boy who'd once been Draco's archenemy.
They stared at each other, neither moving. Draco could almost feel the other boy's thoughts. They emanated from him in waves. Whose side is he on? Where is Shadow?
It was Neville that broke the crystalline silence. "Malfoy! You came!" His bruised and battered face broke into a smile.
"Against my better judgement," Draco replied tersely, looking around at the rest of the people. It wasn't just the students that'd been targeted by the Carrows. Ginny Weasley was there, as were her twin brothers. Hogwarts alumni were there. Luna Lovegood. Dean Thomas. Outlaws. People who'd been in his dungeon over Christmas.
"Where's Dawn?" Neville asked with a frown.
"On her way." I hope.
"Could someone please explain to me why a Malfoy is allowed here?" Dean gripped his wand particularly hard as he glared at Draco. "Last I saw him, Luna and I were in his dungeon!"
It took all of Draco's willpower not to reach for his own wand as well.
"Malfoy has been helping the DA," Neville tried to explain. "He and Dawn have been working together to keep the prefects from going too far and they've been saving a lot of Carrow-victims a lot of pain."
"Well, they clearly haven't been trying hard enough have they," Dean snarled, pointing to Seamus Finnigan's face, which was swollen and cut beyond recognition
"They can't save everyone -"
"I bet you just stood by just like how you stood by when You-Know-Who tortured Ollivander," Dean hurled his words at Draco. "We begged, begged for you and Dawn to come, but you never came!"
"Dean -"
"Did you say say Dawn is here too?" A new voice interrupted them.
Draco tensed even further. The last time he'd had heard that voice, it had been screaming in agony in his own home. The people shifted to look at Hermione Granger who stood between Harry and Ron. She looked at Draco warily, but without fear.
"Yeah, she's Head Girl with Malfoy. She's on her way." It was Neville who answered, who was still standing a little protectively in front of Draco. Some detached, amused part of himself smirked at the irony of the situation. A Longbottom defending a Malfoy. The world had turned upside down.
"Malfoy's Head Boy?" came Ron's incredulous voice. Draco met the ginger's heated glare and knew that Ron was thinking the exact same thing, looking between him and Neville.
That was another bizarre thing, him and Weasley sharing the same thought.
A slow, curling rage was waking inside him.
"Yes I am, Weasley," he said with a slight sneer. "Problem?"
The redhead's hands clenched into fists. "Careful, Malfoy, your daddy isn't here to protect you."
"Yeah?" Draco spat, suddenly furious. "Do you know why he isn't here? Do you know why?" He gripped Pettigrew's wand so tightly sparks shot out from the end. "Because he's being flayed alive for saving your sorry skins!"
Stunned silence met his words for a few heartbeats. Ron's face was lost somewhere between a sneer and confusion.
"What do you mean?" asked Harry, frowning. "Your father didn't try to help us -"
"Peter Pettigrew died," Draco spat. His glare swept across the crowd to land on Dean Thomas's confused face. "And my father took the blame."
Hermione paled. "Is he… is he…"
"No," Draco turned away, bitterness coating his mouth. "He's alive."
"We didn't kill Pettigrew," Harry said shortly.
"Yeah, don't blame us for your father's problems, Malfoy," Ron said angrily.
Draco stared at the three of them in speechless rage. They didn't know. How could they not know how much Dawn was suffering because of them?
"Anyways, where is Shadow?" Harry asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.
Draco punched him in the face.
The crack of Harry's nose was followed by an angry roar from Ron as he lunged forward to tackle Draco, only to be dragged back by Hermione.
"No! Stop! We have to stay focused!" she said shrilly.
"Your sister," Draco snarled, seizing Harry by the collar of his shirt. Blood was pouring from the other boy's nose. "Do you have any idea what your sister has sacrificed for you?"
Harry twisted out of Draco's grip and faced him, wand in hand, but did not jinx him. "What do you mean?"
"Your sister's become a killer!" Draco bellowed. "She's become a killer because of you!"
His words filled the room. Everyone seemed to freeze. Harry stared at Draco in shock. Behind him, Hermione and Ron wore identical horrified expressions.
"What do you mean… what do you mean a killer?"
"Twice, Potter, twice," Draco snarled in the other boy's face, shaking with the effort to not kill him again. "She's killed twice to protect you, and you're here... just standing there…" Rage closed up his throat, the words burning in his throat.
"No…" Harry breathed, disbelieving. "No, you're lying…" His green eyes, so much like his sister's, couldn't seem to look at Draco's. "Her soul…"
At that moment, the double oak doors were pushed open with an ominous thud. Everyone turned to see Dawn standing there, silhouetted in the doorway.
Draco heard Harry's breath hitch at the sight of his sister's thin, haunted face. He knew that Harry could read the truth there. He let go of the dark-haired boy's shirt.
"I'm here," Dawn said, face unreadable. Her cold glance swept the crowd of silent people and rested on her brother, whose nose was still bleeding, his shirt yanked awry. "What's the plan?"
S
The battle passed in fragments.
After the Death Eaters arrived, Dawn didn't think very much. She just fought for her life.
Harry's plan had been simple. Defend the school and evacuate the students while he, Ron, and Hermione sought Ravenclaw's Diadem.
Dawn didn't know what the diadem was for, nor had she asked. She had a suspicion, but she really didn't want to know.
"Shadow," Harry had hugged her before he left. It had felt strange, as if she were hugging someone she'd known in the past, but no longer did. "Stay alive. Please. And… thank you. For everything."
Then he had followed Luna out of the doors.
"Are you okay?" Draco had pulled her to the side after everyone had dispersed to go rouse the other students. He always seemed to know when she felt like it was a little hard to breathe.
There was something wrong with her. "I can't… feel… anymore."
"What do you mean?" his eyebrows had scrunched together.
"I didn't feel anything, seeing Harry. No joy, no relief. Just… nothing."
He'd been worried, she could tell. But he hadn't been able to say anything before Neville had burst back into the empty Room of Requirement and told them he needed help with the Slytherins.
And then the battle had started.
"Where's your brother?" She remembered Draco yelling at her at one brief pause between life and death.
"Still looking for the diadem, I think," Dawn had yelled back.
"Well he's taking too bloody long!" was all Draco had managed to say before the battle engulfed them again.
At one point, she'd found herself fighting besides Fred Weasley, who'd flashed her a grin and said, "Hasta luego, Dawn!" before running after a Death Eater, leaving her with a funny feeling that she wouldn't see him again later.
Now she was back with Draco, trying to fend off the new wave of Death Eaters. She managed to dodge a death curse by inches and was about to fire back when she saw red hair flying towards them.
"Snape's dead!" Ginny yelled even as a stunning spell exploded in the spot she'd been in just seconds before. She ran through the din towards Dawn and Draco. "Voldemort killed him -"
"Ginny, watch out!"
Dawn lunged forward and knocked the other girl flat on the ground, just as a curse sailed over their heads.
"Be more careful," she growled at the flattened ginger. She raised her head just in time to see Draco's face morph to horror.
"Dawn!"
His panicked shout was the last thing he heard before the world went black.
S
Draco woke from his fitful dozing with a start, bashing the back of his head into Neville's chest, who was standing behind him.
"Ow!" The other boy jumped back, rubbing his violated sternum.
"Oh sorry, Longbottom," Draco said, rubbing his eyes. "What were you doing all up close like that?"
"I wanted to check on her," Neville said, nodding to Dawn, who was lying on the makeshift bed Draco sat beside, eyes closed, face smooth.
Draco rubbed his face. "Madam Pomfrey said it'd take a while for the spell to wear off."
"Doesn't it take years for a death-sleep spell to wear off?"
"She had an antidote of some sort. Said it would shorten the effects to a couple hours."
"I just don't get why anyone would fling a death-sleep spell around in the middle of a battlefield." Neville sat.
"I think they was trying to get one of the giants, but missed and got Dawn instead." Draco looked down at her still figure. If he didn't see the faint rise and fall of her chest, he would have thought she was dead. The very thought made his gut clench.
"Did anything happen while I was asleep?" he asked Neville, shaking the feeling off.
The boy shook his head. "No. Nothing since the… announcement."
Draco winced at the memory. Voldemort's voice had grated against the insides of his head, almost making him keel over in fear before he realized that everyone could hear it too. They'd been given one hour to gather their dead.
He'd also given Harry one hour to surrender himself before he killed the rest of his friends.
"Where's Potter?" he asked sharply.
Neville looked up. "Last I saw him he was there… with the Weasleys…"
Draco followed his glance. Most people were resting or helping the wounded, but the clump of flaming red hair mainly held vacant eyes and tear-stained faces. Fred Weasley was dead. So was Ted Tonks and Remus Lupin.
He pushed himself to his feet, gave Dawn one last glance, then strode over to the Weasley family. Bill Weasley looked up, his scarred face catching the faint rays of the rising sun. Draco braced himself for a jinx or a curse or a yell, but Bill Weasley just looked up at him with listless expectation, his eyes red with grief and exhaustion. All around him, his family was scattered on the floor. Arthur Weasley was holding his wife, rocking her back and forth as she stared at Fred's lifeless body. Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all curled together, all of them looking like they'd cried themselves to sleep.
Harry was nowhere to be seen.
"Where's Potter?" Draco asked, his voice breaking roughly over their silent grief.
Bill blinked. Mr. Weasley looked up. "What?"
Draco cleared his throat, a little nervously. "Where's Potter?" he repeated.
A haze seemed to clear from both Bill and his father's face. Mrs. Weasley sat up as well. They looked over to where Hermione and Ron were sleeping and a terrible realization dawned upon their face when they saw the empty spot that should've held Harry.
"No…" Bill said in horror, leaping to his feet, but Draco was already shouting.
"Everyone listen up!" he yelled. "Has anyone seen Harry Potter -"
Suddenly, a terrible, piercing pain gripped his head, choking off his words. A new voice filled the air, this one high-pitched, and dripping with cold-malice.
"Harry Potter is dead. He was killed as he ran away, trying to save himself while you lay down your lives for him. We bring you his body as proof that your hero is gone."
Draco and Neville stared at each other in disbelief, then ran out of the Great Hall.
"The battle is won," Voldemort continued. "You have lost half of your fighters. My Death Eaters outnumber you, and the Boy Who Lived is finished. There must be no more war. Anyone who continues to resist, man, woman, or child, will be slaughtered, as will every member of their family. Come out of the castle now, kneel before me, and you shall be spared. Your parents and children, your brothers and sisters will live and be forgiven, and you will join me in the new world we shall build together."
Screams of anguish exploded around Draco at the sight of the limp, lifeless figure dangling in the arms of a chained, sobbing Hagrid, who stood surrounded by an endless sea of Death Eaters. Draco felt his entire being go numb as he stared at the broken body of Harry Potter. Potter couldn't be dead. He couldn't comprehend a dead Potter. A part of him had grown to live in spiteful opposition of the Boy Who Lived; he couldn't be dead. Not now. Not after everything.
Around him, the despair and rage increased in crescendo as the fighters of Hogwarts hurled their defiance against the oncoming Death Eaters. Draco said nothing though. He could see his parents near the edge of the Death Eaters, scanning the crowds desperately. The moment his mother's eyes locked onto his, he felt his fist clench involuntarily. She looked so haggard, and his father looked like he'd been beaten and left to waste away. Even as he watched though, Narcissa's eyes flicked to where Hagrid stood with Harry's body, then back to Draco, and shook her head slightly.
He frowned and looked away, feeling a burning sensation deep in his throat. There was nothing he could do. They were beaten. Potter was dead.
Then he stood abruptly, a thought dawning his mind. Roughly, he pushed through the crowd back towards the Great Hall. When he was free of the throng, he sprinted, even as a powerful bang silenced the people.
Ignoring Voldemort's horrible voice behind him, he pushed into the castle and ran towards where Dawn still lay peacefully on her back. He needed to get her out of her before the Death Eaters broke in. The Dark Lord would play with her mind until she went insane.
Outside, the crowd had started yelling again, but the double doors muffled the sound. Draco stood there staring down at Dawn's peaceful face, surrounded by the dead and the almost-dead, almost drowning in the muted silence and deathly stillness. He knew she would hate him for not allowing her to die with the fighters of Hogwarts, for making her live when the rest of her friends would be dead.
But if there was even a slight chance she'd forgive him…
Outside, the yells had turned into screams of terror. Swiftly, Draco bent to lift Dawn up, but the moment he touched her, her smooth, even breathing broke into a rasping gasp and she sat up, her green eyes wide open with shock.
"Dawn!" Draco jumped back to avoid being hit by her head.
"What happened?" she asked, breathing hard.
"You got hit, but it wasn't fatal." Draco spoke quickly, pulling Dawn's wand from his pocket and throwing it to her. "Listen, we need to go."
"What do you mean? What's happening? Where's Harry -"
At that moment, the screams outside the doors got louder. Dawn stared at the double doors, then at Draco. Her gaze swept over the rows of the dead and injured, piecing things together.
"Dawn-"
She leaped to her feet and sprinted towards the mayhem.
"No! Dawn!" Draco lunged to stop her, but she was too fast. With a curse, he scrambled after her.
A horrible sight hit him the moment he pushed outside. Voldemort stood laughing over a boy's thrashing figure as it burned in front of him, the Sorting Hat yanked all the way over the victim's head. Then he recognized the convulsing body.
It was Neville Longbottom.
"NO!"
Dawn's scream twisted something inside Draco. He'd never heard a more terrible noise in his life, so raw anguish, so raw rage. She had pushed herself to the front of the crowd, and at the sight of her brother's body, she fell to her knees with a thud.
The Dark Lord looked over. His blood-red eyes smiled in cruel delight when he saw Dawn's broken form, knelt on all fours before him,.
"Dearest Dawn," he said with a cold, deadly silkiness. "How nice of you to join us."
The sound of his voice seemed to shatter something inside Dawn. Her eyes jerked from Harry's ragged body to look into slits of red death, and Draco saw everything left inside her consolidate into one, unyielding, burning look of pain and rage.
Then everything seemed to happen at once .
An army of centaurs exploded from the Forbidden Forest, their war cries and arrows punching through the air and scattering the Death Eaters. At the same time, Hagrid's half-brother giant lumbered into view and bellowed something, causing Voldemort's giants to roar back and charge, while the skies erupted with ear-piercing shrieks as a herd of hippogriffs descended upon Voldemort's army.
Meanwhile, an unbelievable blast of magic exploded in the middle of the devastated rubble yard, knocking almost everyone from their feet. It took several seconds for Draco to realize it had come from Dawn, who let out a fierce shriek of rage and ran straight for Voldemort, just as Neville broke free of the body-bind curse, yanked the burning hat off his head and pulled out a… sword?
The air exploded with spells as both sides attacked. Draco threw himself to the ground as a Death Eater hurled a killing curse at him. He leaped to his feet and threw a stunning spell behind him, but the Death Eater had been crushed underfoot by a careless giant. Humans everywhere, Death Eater or defenders of Hogwarts alike, were being buffeted into the castle as chaos reigned.
Draco ran, fighting, dodging as he looked desperately for Dawn. Somehow, the house-elves had gotten themselves involved, and they swarmed all over the Death Eaters even as they tried to flood into the castle.
A spell blasted the wall beside him and he hurled one back without looking, running and shoving his way towards the Great Hall.
He had just found her, in the middle of it all, hurling curse after curse at Voldemort himself with Kingsley and McGonagall by her side when a fierce shout turned all heads.
"NOT MY DAUGHTER, YOU BITCH!"
At Mrs. Weasley's cry, Dawn faltered in surprise, and in that moment, Voldemort struck.
"Dawn!" Draco's desperate yell hadn't even left his throat when the blast hurled Dawn, Kingsley, and McGonagall backwards, the same moment Bellatrix fell under Mrs. Weasley's wand. Voldemort turned, hatred and fury in his eyes as he bore down on Dawn's crumpled, unmoving form when -
"Protego!" A new voice shouted.
The entire hall froze when Harry Potter appeared between Voldemort and his sister.
Huh?
The shouts of shock and cheers of delight were stifled abruptly as Voldemort and Harry began circling each other.
"I don't want anyone else to try and help," said Harry loudly, his voice carrying across the dead silence. "It's got to be like this. It's got to be me."
Voldemort hissed.
"Potter doesn't mean that," he said, red eyes gleaming. "That's not how he works, does it? Who are you going to use as your shield today?"
At his words, Draco jolted into action, remembering exactly who Harry was shielding. He ducked past the hundreds of onlookers that surrounded the Harry and Voldemort, weaving through them until he was kneeling besides Dawn's unconscious form.
He shook her roughly, heart in his throat. She didn't stir, blood trickling from a gash on her forehead. He pressed his ear to her chest, hoping… praying…
There.
The faint thump of her heart made him weak with relief. She was alive.
With a glance at Voldemort and Harry, who were still circling each other and talking, Draco took out Pettigrew's wand.
"Renervate."
Dawn's breath deepened and she opened her eyes.
The greenness of them almost made Draco cry.
"The true master of the Elder Wand was Draco Malfoy."
He looked up at the sound of his name. Huh? The thought repeated stupidly in his head.
"But what does it matter?" Voldemort's whispered carried across the entire hall. "Even if you are right, Potter, it makes no difference to you and me. You no longer have the phoenix wand: We duel on skill alone… and after I have killed you, I can attend to Draco Malfoy…"
Draco felt his blood run cold. What?
"But you're too late," said Harry. "You've missed your chance. I got there first. I overpowered Draco weeks ago and took this wand from him."
Harry twitched the wand in his hand, and Draco recognized the familiar hawthorn with a rush of elation and trepidation.
"So it all comes down to this, doesn't it?" Harry said softly. "Does the wand in your hand know its last master was disarmed? Because if it does… I am the true master of the Elder Wand."
Draco had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. He'd only heard of the Elder Wand once, in a bedtime story with his mother when he was a child. But before he could contemplate why they were talking about folklore and pinning it on him, both raised their wands.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"Expelliarmus!"
And the hall exploded in one final blast of gold.