21. The last stand
Theodore Nott slipped through the dark gardens of the abandoned mansion with only some moonlight to guide him. He didn't dare light a Lumos for fear of attracting attention. He noticed the open window on his first tour around the house and decided it would make as good an entrance as any.
A quick glance inside showed a bound up and Stunned man he immediately recognised as the American who had tried to induce him to play Zach Smith in some out of the way place, to give the impression the man had simply left home to travel on a whim.
He sent another Stunner to the man without hesitation before heaving himself up on the windowsill and into the room. He crept into the hallway and listened intently, but all he could hear was the beating of his own heart.
He tried to calm down, forced himself to inhale slowly and exhale even slower, until a vague noise upstairs caught his attention.
He made his way upstairs, careful not to make a sound. One door immediately drew his attention. It pulsed with a vague, black aura, reminiscent of some of the doors his father had enchanted to keep him out when he was a child. He'd become very good at recognising the spells after almost losing his fingers once. When he was older, he'd become equally skilled at dismantling those spells, and his experience came in handy now.
A moment later, the door no longer pulsed menacingly, and he crept closer, still careful not to make a sound, and listened. He heard Ginny's voice, slightly muffled by the door, saying, "No really, Smith, it's about time I get rid of you. A dead body I can easily bury, but a live one needs food, water and safekeeping. Keeping you fed and guarded has taken up too many of my resources already."
Fear gripped his heart and made time stand still. He could hardly think, had almost forgotten he was holding a wand, only one thought running through his head louder and louder and louder. If she's about to kill Smith, who knows what she has done to Hermione?
It seemed to take forever before he could gather himself enough to push the door open and enter, wand drawn and curses and spells ready to be fired off, though in reality it took no more than one deep breath.
Ginny looked up with an almost diabolical grin. "Nott," she said, almost sweetly, "How kind of you to join us."
He was momentarily taken aback by her strange manner, long enough, to his everlasting shame, for her to disarm him with a quick, wordless spell, and a moment later he lay, bound and slightly bruised, between Hermione and Zach Smith, who seemed, luckily quite alive.
"So this is the cavalry?" Ginny said with a snort. "How… quaint."
Theodore refused to pay her any attention, turning towards Hermione instead. "Are you okay?" he muttered under his breath. She merely nodded, her eyes still trained on Ginny's wand. "You shouldn't have come," she said between gritted teeth.
Ginny laughed again. "Oh, but yes, Hermione, of course he should have come to your rescue. Is that not what knights in shining armour are for?" She raised a challenging eyebrow, but neither of her targets reacted to the jeer.
"Of course, usually they are a bit more successful," she continued, after a short silence. "I must say, I know my brother was hardly worth your notice, but I did think this one was a bit more competent. But then, you never liked feeling outdone, did you, Hermione? Always had to be best at everything."
Hermione's lips twitched, as if she was suppressing a smile, but she didn't speak.
"I would never stand such incompetence from my agents. I mean, just look at Dennis Creevey. He couldn't keep his mouth shut, trusting that I'd get him out safely, no, he had to talk. He gave up too much information and he was punished accordingly."
Her gleaming brown eyes focused on Theodore with malicious glee. "Shall I show you how I punished him?"
She didn't wait for an answer this time, just pointed her wand and muttered, "Crucio."
The pain was almost unbearable. Thousands of knives slicing through his skin and muscles, bones twisted out of sockets, needles pressing into his brain with persistence, all his organs trembling under the strain. His vision went white and he knew he had bitten his tongue when his mouth filled with blood. But though he couldn't stop the tears falling from his eyes, he refused to scream. He'd suffered from the Cruciatus enough times to know he had hardly reached his limit yet.
"Stop! Ginny, stop! How can you do this? Stop it!"
Hermione's screams almost made it worse for Theodore, but he tried to gain strength from them, tried to hold on to the only sliver of his brain that kept him sane: the knowledge that she cared for him.
Then, suddenly, it stopped and his body drooped limply on the floor, as if it was entirely liquid. The aftermath of the Cruciatus was almost as bad as the curse itself. His muscles strained to stretch, to pull together, his organs tried to find their place in his body, all his bones seemed to ache at the same time, but still he didn't say a word.
"Why would you do that?"
Hermione yelled the words into Ginny's face, but Ginny merely laughed at her, amused by her distress.
"Because I can, Hermione," she said, as if it was obvious. "Just because I can. Shall I show you what else I can do?"
Hermione shook her head. "You're mad," she said, more to herself than to Ginny. "Absolutely stark raving mad."
Ginny heard and laughed again. "Don't blame me," she said lightly, "Blame the idiots who taught me torture could be fun. But no, the Carrows never were brought to justice, were they? And the teachers who stood by and let it all happen never were punished for that, were they?"
Hermione didn't quite know what to say to that, but then her attention was caught by two figures appearing in the still open doorway. She couldn't hide her shock, and Ginny turned to follow her gaze.
Ginny recognised the two men and welcomed them with a big smile.
"Simon! So glad you're okay," she said, looking up at the big American with something close to adoration. He nodded at her, then glared at Theodore and Hermione.
"You let those two beat you?" Terry Boot said with a grin. "I thought you were made of better stuff than that, Carruthers."
Ginny turned back towards her three prisoners. "Time to get serious."
The toothy smile did nothing to reassure Hermione but she managed to hide her discomfort.
"Why don't you take Smith here outside." Ginny winked at the American and gestured at Zach. "You know where to leave him."
The big American nodded and grabbed Smith by the arm, dragging him out of the room as if he weighed nothing. Terry Boot stared after them for just a moment, but then focused on Ginny, who was asking him questions.
"Any news on Potter? And what has my idiot brother been up to? Did they find Malfoy yet?"
He shook his head slowly. "Malfoy's still at large and Weasley won't say where he's hidden Potter." His eyes moved to Hermione. "Doesn't she know? She's the one who came for him at the hospital."
Ginny shook her head impatiently. "Can't tell me," she bit out. "Fidelius, I think, or something similar. Isn't there any such record you could check?"
Boot shrugged helplessly. "It's Potter," he said, almost apologetically, "You know he gets special treatment everywhere. I'm sure he managed the Fidelius without registering it."
Ginny was about to ask more, but footsteps on the landing announced the return of Simon Carruthers, without Zach Smith.
Theodore cursed softly under his breath and Hermione let out a sob of frustration. They'd come so close.
"That was quick," Ginny said with obvious approval.
Carruthers shrugged and leaned against the wall next to the doorway. There was something about his stance that reminded Hermione of someone… someone she'd seen recently. But who could it be? She tried to think while Ginny talked on a little bit more.
"We'll need to act quickly," she began. "Potter will get worried now she's disappeared."
"Could use her as bait," Boot suggested.
Ginny's whole face lit up and she turned to face her prisoners again, clapping her hands together excitedly. "Oh that truly is a brilliant idea," she said. "Harry will come running to save you, and we can wait for him. It will be perfect!" She was so elated that she didn't notice Carruthers had drawn his wand. Her focus was entirely on Hermione. "Now I just need to decide whether I keep you alive or not. I do like to play, I have to admit. And I like the idea of wiping that superior smile off your face and see you quiver with fear at the sight of me."
She also didn't notice that Terry Boot had carefully moved around her, so he was on the other side of her from Carruthers. A Carruthers, Hermione noticed, whose pale blue eyes were turning suspiciously green. She quickly focused her attention on Ginny to avoid giving anything away.
"I shall like breaking you. Maybe I'll even keep you around after Harry's dead."
Ginny opened her mouth to say something else, but she was hit by two spells at the same time, a forceful Stunner that slammed her off her feet and an equally strong Incarcerous that enveloped her in any number of ropes until she was tied up tightly. A moment later, Boot kneeled at Hermione's side and began to dissolve the ropes, and Carruthers with the suspiciously green eyes did the same for Theodore. Both men began to groan and morph into their true forms.
Draco helped Hermione up and dusted her off with a wave of his wand.
"Hermione, so glad you're okay," Harry said, and a moment later she had wrapped her arms around him, feeling her heart slow down for the first time since storming out of Theodore's library.
Theodore.
She let go of Harry and turned towards him, looking up at him shamefacedly. Draco had just finished healing his mouth.
"I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry."
They stared at each other, momentarily dumbstruck, then a shy smile blossomed on Hermione's face. She reached out to wipe a trickle of blood of his cheek and her hand lingered there until his hand came up to hold hers.
"Touching as this reunion is," came the unsympathetic drawl of Draco Malfoy, "We really should hurry and get this dangerous criminal to the Ministry and get the fuck out of here."
Hermione dropped her hand as if burned and turned to glare at Draco, who shrugged unconcernedly. "Just a suggestion."
"You're such a prat." Hermione wanted to say more, but, to her utter horror, the tightly bound figure behind Draco began to move, and before she could shout a warning, they were all hit by a wave of magic.
It was impossible to move. Hermione could barely even breathe through the onslaught of magic, let alone throw up a protective shield. Her eyes darted towards Draco, the only person she could could see besides Ginny, and in his eyes she saw the same confusion and shock that she felt. She tried to communicate with her eyes, moving them left and right to indicate Harry and Theodore. Draco's look of incomprehension turned into one of understanding, then he cast his eyes down in a gesture of defeat. Ginny rose up from the floor, the ropes falling off her body like rags. Her whole body seemed to be pulsing with magic, radiating such power it almost took Hermione's breath away. She'd never considered Ginny to be that powerful.
Ginny laughed, an amused, almost disdainful laugh.
"Did you really think it would be that easy to take down the Valkyrie?"
Her voice was shrill and so unlike her own, her cloak billowing around her in the storm of her magic breaking her free, and for the first time Hermione had to admit to herself she looked like a true Valkyrie, just like the Norse mythical figures who choose among those who die on the battlefield who is worthy of entering Valhalla.
Hermione pushed the thought away. Her fingers twitched. It took a moment for her to realise that she could move, just a little. She tried to hold as still as the others, convinced that they had received the full brunt of Ginny's spell and were immobile. She guessed Malfoy had perhaps shielded her, and that was why the spell wore off so quickly. He didn't look like he could move yet, but he had seen her fingers move and his eyes had snapped up to her face, wondering, pleading, almost.
When Ginny had wrenched his wand out of hand, Draco had felt more vulnerable than he ever had. He couldn't even see the Weaselette, she was standing behind him, and his only weapon, his trusted wand, was now gone. He couldn't move, couldn't see anything but the faces of Hermione, Theodore and Harry frozen in horror. But then Hermione's fingers had twitched and he knew, with a certainty and faith in her powers that he didn't know he possessed, that she would get them out of this mess and put that annoying redheard with her shrill voice in her place once and for all. Oh sweet Merlin, please have a plan, Granger.
Theodore cursed and cursed and cursed. He knew they shouldn't have let their guard down. He should have known. He recognised the spell as soon as it hit him, but since the Weaselette had his wand, he couldn't protect himself against it. It turned people into living statues, unable to move until the spell was lifted - or until they died. It had been a favourite muggle torturing method of his ancestors, though one needed a lot of patience. In one of his father's more unsavoury books, he'd read that on average, it took a muggle about three days to die. The desperation in their eyes shone brighter and brighter the more their life force drained out of them. He'd been sick after reading that particular chapter. And that bloody woman just kept nagging on about her love for Potter and that it was all his fault anyway. If only they'd been faster. If only they'd gotten away.
Harry was still reeling from the discovery that Draco and Theodore had been right. He only realised some part of him had been hoping that they were wrong, had still believed Ginny to be innocent, when he felt that hope wither and die at the sight of his ex-girlfriend training her wand at three defenseless prisoners. He'd gotten Smith to safety, at least. Fliss would take care of him until he was well enough to raise the alarm. If only they could keep Ginny talking until the Aurors arrived.
Ginny was triumphant. She held the wands of all her prisoners. She had beaten them all, snotty Theodore Nott, boyfriend-stealing Draco Malfoy, superior Hermione Granger, and, best of all, her cheating, good-for-nothing ex, Harry Potter. Harry Potter, who was staring at her as if he couldn't believe his eyes. Harry Potter, who was at her mercy. Life had never been so good.
But before she could sneer at them all some more, the wands flew out of her pockets and Hermione Granger - bloody Hermione Granger - had a wand trained at her. Ginny was quick to grab the only wand she'd retained, Hermione's wand, the one she had secured in her wand holster. They circled each other like two lionesses in a cage.
"Did you really think," Hermione began, speaking in that irritating soft but penetrating whisper she had mastered at Hogwarts, "that you could fool me? That you could make me believe that Theodore was the Valkyrie? Oh Ginny… I'm the brightest witch of our age, you said so yourself. You should have known better."
"What? How? You didn't…" Ginny spluttered, almost incoherent with rage.
Hermione laughed without taking her eyes off Ginny. "Of course I knew. Did you really think Theodore had followed me here because he happened to have a tracker on me? I sent him a Patronus to tell him where to find me when you were prowling around the other side of the house. I knew then that you were Valkyrie. I wasn't sure for a long time, but I knew it the moment Theodore's wards rejected me. Did you think I didn't notice the tracker you'd slipped into my pocket?"
Ginny took a deep breath and sent a silent, bright red curse towards Hermione, which she deflected easily.
"Honestly, once I was onto you, I couldn't quite believe I hadn't seen it before. I wasn't very sure about the reasons, I'll admit that, but I knew it had to do with Harry, and if there was one person in the world with a massive grudge against him, it's you. Did you think I had forgotten that dung-slinging in the newspapers after your break-up? You're transparent as glass, Ginny Weasley. Your brain will never be a match for mine."
Hermione knew she was taking a risk. She knew how powerful and vindictive Ginny could be when angered, but she also remembered that her aim became sloppy when the rage took over and that was what she counted on.
Ginny's reaction was entirely as she had hoped. She foamed with rage, magic shimmering angry purple on her skin, making her look even more other-worldly than before, and the curses that she threw at Hermione, though forceful, became easier and easier to avoid.
Hermione knew a simple Stunner and Incarcerous wouldn't be enough to hold her, it hadn't been before, but she remembered another spell. A spell another Weasley had once taught her, one summer long ago in Romania. She sent two spell sin quick succession to distract her.
"Lutra ignis. Stupefy." Ginny blocked the Stunner quite easily, but she had more trouble with the flaming otter that danced towards her, circling around her and playfully nipping at her cloak and robes, setting them on fire.
Hermione moved a little sideways to attack from a different angle and threw all her energy in the next battery of spells.
"Contineo. Praepedio praecantationem. Expelliarmus."
A moment later, she held her own wand, the wood warming to her touch as if it recognised in her an old friend. She tucked away the spare wand and used her trusted Vine to lift the paralysing spell off the men. They fell to their knees with the sudden return of gravity pulling on their muscles. Theodore got up first, making his way to Hermione in a few steps and hugging her so tight she almost couldn't breathe. He kissed her head, her cheeks, her nose, her eyelids, every inch of skin he could reach, before his lips pressed against hers in a desperate kiss.
"Thought we were doomed," he muttered between kisses. "Thought I'd lost you."
Hermione responded eagerly to the kiss, her arms entwining around his neck and her whole body moulding against hers, as if they were two pieces of a puzzle, fitting perfectly together.
"Oh Theodore," she murmured, kissing a line from his mouth to his ear and nipping lightly at his earlobe, "You really should have more faith in me."