Chapter 14

Chapter 14

-Sneaky Slytherins, and Cunning Plans-

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"Draco, I see you made it out. I was sure you could. You are a Malfoy after all. I see you even managed to exceed my expectations. You've brought us Harry Potter. I truly am impressed."

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Draco schooled his features into the familiar Malfoy mask. "Thank you Father. I managed to seduce Potter into accepting me into his little group. It worked perfectly. Gryffindors are so trusting," Draco smirked.

Lucius looked over at his son. "Seduction is a dangerous game to play, Draco. Make sure you don't get caught in its web. I wouldn't want to see you do anything unfortuate."

"Of course not Father."

Draco looked over at the Slytherin girl who had been his friend for as long as he could remember. "I'm afraid the potion is starting to affect Pansy rather badly. We'll need to get her the antidote soon." Draco was trying to stay cold and unaffected as he watched Pansy fight the poison inside her. His father would see any emotion as a weakness.

"You bastard Draco," Harry yelled feeling betrayed to his very soul. "You never changed at all did you?" he laughed derisively. "More fool me then, for expecting anything else from a Slytherin."

"What Potter? You didn't actually think I meant it, did you? All that crap about love and emotion. Acting so Hufflepuffish was making me sick." He pulled Pansy to her feet and held her elbow to tightly that his fingers were cutting off the circulation in her arm.

"How could you?" Harry asked softly. His hands curled into fists, and Theo grabbed hold of him before he could move. "How could you?!" he yelled.

Draco's hand twitched and something flickered in his eyes. Stiffening, before it was noticed, he stood even straighter, and moved his hand, so it was on a different place on Pansy's arm.

Pansy turned and looked at the Gryffindors and gave them a superior smile. "I've, - We've –," Pansy stumbled over the words. "Been on the Dark Lord's side all along. He'll reward us greatly for the information we're going to give him," she forced out the words of loyalty, when every part of her being screamed that everyone was out to get her. "I know you're just trying- "Draco's hand tightened around her elbow in warning. She took a few deep breaths and go hold of herself. Only a little bit longer she thought. She only had to hold everything together a little bit longer, before they'd give her the antidote. Lucius didn't seem to be any hurry however, and she bit her tongue to keep quiet. She was worried that if she said anything else she'd start bringing Lucius and Draco's loyalties into question, and that would be a very bad thing, a very bad thing indeed.

Hermione watched the whole encounter with some curiosity. If one simply watched everything unfold, it seemed like an emotionless confrontation between them and the Slytherins, but if she looked closely, looking for a deeper meaning into everything that happened, she saw there was more to it than met the eye. Draco wasn't as impassive as he tried to appear, and Harry's words had clearly affected him. Draco tightened his lips and clamped down on any emotion when he saw that Harry was still swearing at him. Theo was holding Harry in a tight grip. It was the only thing keeping him from running forward and punching Draco.

With a flick of his wand, Lucius flung a stunning spell at all three of them. Coldly he pulled Draco's wand out of his pocket, and handed it over to him. The two of them levitated the Gryffindors back toward the Manor.

They woke up in Lucius' dungeon. Seamus and Susan were lying in the back, one tied, and the other slumped just like they were when they crossed the wards. Harry didn't think Lucius bothered to stun them. Hermione walked over to Susan. Her eyes were closed, and she was taking short shallow breaths. Hermione placed two fingers against her wrist, and checked her pulse. It was erratic, and Hermione was worried. Seamus didn't seem to be much better, but Hermione didn't quite dare to get close enough and check.

She stood and turned to Harry. "They don't have much longer. We need to get out of here."

Harry grabbed the bars and rattled them hard. Letting it go, he pushed himself away, and gave the door a careless wave. "I'm open to any suggestions that will get us out of here."

"It won't be long before we're like that," said Theo unhappily as his eyes wandered over to Susan and Seamus. "I think the reason we've lasted this long is because we were the least affected."

"Easy for you to say," said Harry somewhat snarkily. "It didn't affect you at all."

"That we know of," he returned.

A door opened at the end of the hall, and they stopped talking.

"Potter," said Lucius coldly. "You seem to have the devil's own luck. The Dark Lord wants you kept alive until he can kill you himself. You'll be meeting him tonight. In his place I would have killed you as soon as possible, but he wants the honor of killing the famous Harry Potter falling solely to him. I won't bother giving you the antidote, since you won't live long enough to need it." Lucius gestured toward Hermione and Theo. "He also wanted those two kept alive. He seems to think that they'll be good for leverage. You are the savior after all. Anything to keep your friends safe. What an idealistic attitude. In case you don't think we wouldn't do it, I'm going to show you that we're serious. Those two don't look like they'll last long anyway." He motioned toward Susan, and Seamus.

Lucius raised his wand, and was halfway through the spell when Harry jumped in front of them mid-cast. Lucius swung his wand up quickly, and the ceiling cracked where the spell hit. "You don't think that will actually stop me do you?" he asked. With a second wave of his wand he cast petrificus totalis on Harry and levitated him off to the side. Harry was laying there frozen, unable to move when heard the door at the end of the hall open once more.

"Father?" called a voice from down the corridor. "I've been looking for you. Pansy is feeling better, and would like to talk to you. He stood with his arms down in front of him, letting his sleeves slide down and hide his hands.

"How could you do this to Harry?! We believed in you!" screamed Hermione. One corner of her mouth twitched up momentarily in a nearly invisible smile, but Draco caught it. Opening his eyes wide he pulled his arm away with a yank. "Don't touch me Mudblood," he sneered, and he quickly glanced over at Harry. It seemed that Hermione understood that deception was necessary, but Harry did not.

Lucius looked irritated by the interruption. "What does she want?"

"I'm not sure, Father, but she said she wanted to speak to you directly."

Lucius walked up the stairs while Draco followed. Pansy was lying on the bed in Draco's room. She was propped up on a pile of silk covered pillows, still feeling the effects of the antidote. Lucius walked in to the room and closed the door behind him, effectively shutting Draco out.

"You wanted to see me?" he asked.

Once Lucius had walked away, Hermione opened her hands. Draco had slipped her a handful of potion vials during their exchange.

Pansy swallowed nervously when Lucius walked into the room. Straightening her shoulders, she said, "I'm sorry to pull you away from your work. I wanted to ask if you could mention me to our Lord. I'd like to him in his quest. I know that he doesn't ask women to join him often, and that's why I was hoping you'd intercede for me. I also want to make sure our world is free of filthy scum like that mudblood girl"

"I can see you'll make a good addition to the Malfoy family." Lucius laughed. "I'll tell the Dark Lord of your desire to join him." He left the room in a swirl of robes that would have made Severus Snape proud.

Pansy sagged, and sighed in relief.

When Draco had suggested this mad plan it had taken a lot of convincing to make her go along with it. There were too many things that could go wrong. If he thought she was lying, she didn't have any doubts that he's kill her on the spot.

Lucius didn't go straight back down to the dungeon after his talk with Pansy. Instead he headed to his study, and made a firecall to the Parkinson household. A house elf answered it, and was speedily instructed to get the man of the house.

"Parkinson, I was just talking to your daughter," he said when the man's head appeared in his fireplace. "She tells me that she wants to become a Death Eater so she can keep an eye on my son. Did you know about this?"

"Are you sure it was Pansy who said that? My daughter isn't interested in politics or intrigue; she only wants to live the life of a pampered housewife. Much in the way my wife does. They're two of a kind I have to say." Parkinson sighed.

"I had thought there was something odd about the request," said Lucius, quietly tapping his lips with one finger.

"What's going on?" asked Parkinson. "Is she under imperious, or polyjuice?"

"I'll get back to you when I know more," said Lucius.

"My daughter will be alright won't she..?" Parkinson was asking. Lucius closed the floo on him mid sentence.

It was time to talk to his son; Lucius thought and exited his study.

Down in the dungeon Hermione was pouring potion down everyone's throat like it was the last drop of water in a desert. Harry's situation made his more complicated than most. "Do you think he'll be able to swallow it?" Theo asked.

"We're going to have to try anyway. None of us can take the spell off" Hermione looked over at him. "You lift him up just a bit, and I'll try to get the potion down him. If I can keep it from dribbling out the sides of his mouth, we should be ok."

Theo lifted him up, and tilted his head slightly, so he wouldn't choke. Hermione held his lips around the vial and slowly poured it down his throat. When it was gone, Hermione closed her eyes tightly and prayed that it had worked.

The petrificus spell started wearing off as Harry's innate magic returned. He sat up and saw Hermione sitting against the wall next to Theo. Susan and Seamus still seemed a bit groggy, but they were starting to get up as well.

"Do you think there's a way out?" asked Harry when he saw that everyone was nearly back to normal.

"Give Sue and Seam another minute and we'll try." Susan was looking a bit green, and Seamus was gasping at the realization of what had happened.

"Hermione, I'm sooooo sorry," he apologized over and over. "I can't believe I did those things. I was so horrible. I should be put in Azkaban." Seamus was so distraught that despite everything they had been through, Hermione went over to comfort him. He thought back to his stay on the island and paled drastically. "I think I killed Lavender," he whispered.

No one knew what to say to that.

Back up in Draco's bedroom he had joined Pansy on the edge of the bed.

"I don't think he bought it Dray," she said, looking at him nervously. "I'll kill you if something goes wrong."

"If something goes wrong, then you'll have to get in line," smirked Draco.

"How can you take all this so lightly?"

"What makes you think I'm taking it lightly?" Draco asked. "Now come on, we need to get going." He grabbed her hand and started to pull her downstairs.

They snuck down quietly. "The second step from the bottom squeaks," whispered Draco, when they reached the bottom half of the magnificent spiral staircase. On the way to the dungeon they head voices coming from Lucius' study. They couldn't make out any words and knew better than to sneak closer. Draco started to walk on by as carefully as he could when Pansy gasped.

"He's talking to my father. I recognize his voice."

"Are you sure?" asked Draco.

"Yes, I'm positive. I can't make out the words, but it's definitely him. We better hurry."

They made their way down even more carefully than before. They looked around every corner and listened through every doorway.

"Alohamora!" said Harry rattling the door in its frame. Swinging around to bang his fist against the stone wall to his left, Harry spit out a stream of curses.

"Language, Potter." A voice said from the darkness. "Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?"

Pansy stepped out in front of the cell.

"I wouldn't know now would I, Parkinson?" Harry spat angrily.

"Oh please," she said dramatically. "Get over yourself. Do you think you're the only one here who had a shitty childhood?"

Draco stepped forward. He had been standing in the darkness behind her. "As amusing as this all is, we really need to get going."

"You bastard!" Harry said angrily, and pulled Draco toward the cell by his robes. His face banged against the bars, and he winced.

"Harry…" he said quietly.

"Don't call me that," hissed Harry. "You have no right. Now, if you're done viewing the results of your hard work, get lost."

Harry pushed Draco away harshly, and he nearly fell.

Harry's magic started to crackle in the air around him, for the first time since before they were kidnapped.

Concerned, Hermione stepped up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't," she whispered into his ear. "He got us the antidote. He saved us all. He's been on our side all along."

"Don't tell me you believe that Herm. How can you trust him after everything he's done? I can't believe you'd fall for that trick again."

"I didn't fall for it again," said Hermione, who was starting to get angry. "It was never a trick in the first place."

"But…"

"He gave us the antidote!" hissed Hermione. "He saved our lives! If he hadn't acted the way he had all of us would be stuck in here, with no antidote, no hope, and no chance for escape.

Harry thought about what Hermione was saying, and realized she was right. All six of them would have been in that cell if Draco hadn't done what he did. "Sorry Draco," he said, meaning every word. "I'm sorry I didn't believe in you, and I'm sorry I was such a prat. I thought you betrayed me, and I wanted to make sure you were hurting as much as I was."

"It's ok Harry," said Draco, and a warm feeling burst inside him. "Now let's get you out of here."

"How?" asked Theo. "I thought that only your father had the keys."

Draco held them up and they clinked together. Choosing the right one he unlocked the doors. "They were hanging on a hook by the dungeon stairs," he said pointing into a darkened part of the room. "What kind of idiot leaves their keys out where just anyone can find them?"

"What kind of idiot indeed…" said Lucius as he appeared behind them.

Pansy and Draco were the only ones who had their wands. Pansy quickly shepherded everyone up the stairs, and into the hallway. Draco brought up the rear, firing a stunning spell at his father.

"Oh I am so screwed," he thought as they quickly made their way upstairs.

"This way," he said, leading them to the entrance. "Follow me, don't stop, and for god's sake don't touch anything!" he shouted as Susan reached toward a crystal vase sitting on a table. It had been made to be a container for magical energy, and it pulled the magic from anyone who dared touch it. With the correct spells the owner could add the magical energy in it to his own, but if he tried to remove it before the vase was full then it would take his magic, despite any protective spells.

They had made it to the entryway when Harry grabbed his forehead and fell to his knees.

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