"Is everything in place?" Voldemort asked, coming down the main stairs into the entrance hall in Hogwarts.
"Yes, the concealment charm in the Great Hall is in place. And I've set the wards so that two minutes after Hermione drops them a new one goes up preventing anyone leaving the school grounds." Draco said, from his place by the doors leading into the Great Hall.
Voldemort headed to where Draco was standing and peered into the large room, it looked deserted. Voldemort nodded happily, the charm was perfect. Until it was lifted you wouldn't be able to see that the Order members he was holding as prisoners were chained around the room ready to witness Potter's demise.
"Very good, and everyone is waiting nearby for my signal?" Voldemort checked.
"Yes, but all the classrooms have the same spell as the Great Hall. If Potter or anyone else looks into them all they'll see is a deserted room." Draco said, anxious to get the night over with.
"They should be here soon, it's already dark." Voldemort noted, looking out of the window at the night sky.
"We better get ready then." Draco said as the two men headed into the Great Hall to await the arrival of the remaining members of The Order.
"Hermione, are you ready?" Harry asked.
The entire group was gathered beside the boundary line for Hogwarts, waiting for Hermione to drop the wards and allow them access to the property.
Hermione took a deep breath to steady her nerves. "Yes." She nodded raising her wand.
Hermione carefully lifted the wards, her heart hammering in her chest. She was extremely nervous about what she was doing, while she knew she was doing what was best for her and Draco she felt sorry for the likes of Charlie who had done nothing wrong and had been a huge support for the last week.
"They're down." Hermione said.
The group hurried over the boundary line and ran to the edge of the forbidden forest. Their plan was to sneak round the edge of the forest, hiding in the shadows until it was safe to break free and head to the school.
Slowly walking around the edge of the forest, Hermione felt a magical presence wash over her and surround the property. Quickly checking the others, she realised no one else had noticed the presence of the spell activating. Hermione was pretty sure the ward was to make sure no one left the school grounds, her fate was sealed there was no going back now. Although Hermione was smart enough to realise her fate was actually sealed the moment she asked to join The Dark Lord. From that moment on it was simple, either she delivered Harry to Voldemort or Draco wouldn't survive.
"One at a time, make your way to the castle." Harry said, as they arrived at the spot where the forest was closest to the castle. "Lee, you go first."
Once they were sure the coast was clear, Lee ran for the castle, hiding in the shadows of the old building when he arrived. One by one they made their way to the castle, Ginny went next followed by Luna then Charlie. Hermione, Ron and Harry brought up the rear of the group.
With Harry in the lead, the group edged their way around the castle towards one of the doors in the back of the building. Harry had decided it was safer to enter the building via the back rather than use the front door.
"It's locked." Harry whispered, after trying for several minutes to open the door.
"Surely you know how to unlock a door." Lee whispered, unimpressed with Harry.
"I've tried it, it's not working." Harry whispered back.
"Blast it open." Ron suggested.
"No." Hermione said as loud as she dared. "There may not be many, but there is still a few Death Eaters on the premises. They'll hear if we blast the door down."
"Hermione's right, let's try another door." Charlie said, looking around to make sure their whispered conversation hadn't given them away.
Harry agreed with Charlie and the group carried on making their way around the building, trying all the doors they came to.
"Why the hell are they all locked?" Ron huffed, as they tried and failed to open yet another door.
"There's only a few Death Eaters here, I suppose it's safer to just have the one door open." Hermione said, beginning to think Voldemort was shepherding them towards the main doors.
"But which one? We've been looking for over half an hour." Ginny muttered, unimpressed with circling the building looking for an entrance.
"The front door would be the obvious answer." Luna said, making a rare contribution to the conversation.
"Let's just walk in the front door, that won't cause suspicion." Ron muttered, shooting dirty looks at the blonde girl.
"I think Luna might be right." Harry conceded, he had been wondering about the main entrance for a while but he was reluctant to use it.
"There's one more door, round the corner. If that's locked I think we might have to consider trying the front door." Charlie said.
Agreeing, the group headed for the last door, unsurprisingly it was also locked. Reluctantly Harry started leading everyone to the corner of the building that led round to the front of the castle.
Reaching the corner, Harry stopped and poked his head around the side of the building checking the coast was clear.
"I'll go and see if the door's unlocked." Harry told the others, before sneaking round the corner and heading towards the large front doors.
Harry reached the doors and carefully pushed, causing the heavy door to open with a loud creak. Harry quickly grabbed the door to stop the noise, opening it just enough so everyone could squeeze through. Turning back towards the corner he nodded to Charlie who had his head sticking around the side of the building waiting for a response from Harry.
Charlie turned to the others and nodded, together the group hurried to the front doors and slipped inside the school.
"Are you alright?" Hermione whispered to Harry, he was standing unmoving looking around the entrance hall in bewilderment.
"It looks the same." He whispered so quietly Hermione barely heard him.
"What do you mean?" She asked, the rest of the group were now paying attention to the pair's conversation.
"I expected it to look different, darker." Harry said, looking at the familiar surroundings. "But it doesn't, it looks exactly like last time I was here."
Ginny gave Harry's arm a squeeze, knowing he was thinking about his final few days in the school he had considered his home, the days after Dumbledore's death.
Hermione felt incredibly guilty as she watched Harry. She wished there was some way to save him as well as Draco, but Hermione was realistic enough to know that wasn't an option.
"We should get going." Ron said, totally oblivious to the whereabouts of Harry's thoughts.
"Yes, we should." Harry said, shaking his head to regain his focus. "Is everyone clear on their plans?"
"Yes." The others chorused in response.
"Gin, you can remember your Parseltongue, can't you?" He asked the redhead.
"Yes, I've been practising." Ginny smiled.
"Okay, let's go." Harry said, leading the group to the stairs.
As Harry led the group of escaped Order members up the stairs none of them noticed the three sets of eyes watching them. One red pair and one grey pair watched them from the doorway of the Great Hall while a smaller black pair watched from their position on the floor, next to the other two pair of eyes.
Voldemort waited until he was sure Potter and his friends were out of sight before he turned to Draco.
"Secure the door."
Draco stepped out of the shadows in the doorway and headed to the front doors that were still standing slightly ajar. Casting a quick silencing spell so the squeaking noise of the door closing wouldn't be heard by Potter, Draco closed the doors and locked them magically. There was now no escape for Potter and his friends, all the doors and windows in the school were magically sealed and even if someone managed to leave the castle they couldn't get past the ward he had erected earlier.
"Are we still waiting for their return or shall we go to them?" Draco asked. "We know where the Weasley girl's headed, and she won't be alone."
"No we'll wait for them to come back. Going into the Chamber of Secrets won't help them." Voldemort grinned.
"Why? Surely you didn't go down and remove the basilisk fangs." Draco knew all about the significance of the basilisk fangs, a long time ago Voldemort had explained about his Horcrux's and how they could be destroyed.
"No, but having a fang won't do them any good if they've got nothing to use it on." Voldemort said.
"You removed the Diadem." Draco said, understanding where Voldemort had disappeared to upon arrival at the castle.
"Yes, I thought I'd keep it safe." Voldemort smirked, pulling the Diadem from his robes and twirling it in his hands.
"So we wait."
"We wait." Voldemort nodded. "Nagini, keep watch and let us know when they're coming back." He said, to the snake that was slithering around his feet.
As Nagini slithered into the hallway to keep watch from the shadows, Voldemort and Draco settled back into The Great Hall, the concealment charm hiding their presence.
"Ron, are you having any luck?" Harry shouted across the Room of Requirement.
"No, but it's hard with one arm in a sling." Ron grumbled, rifling through another box.
"How about you, Hermione?" Harry shouted in the direction that Hermione had headed in.
Hermione who was currently scouring a dusty corner of the room, rolled her eyes at Harry's stupid question, if anyone had found the Diadem they would have mentioned it. "No, but there's a lot of junk in here."
The trio had been looking for the Diadem for over half an hour without any success. When they had entered the room, Harry had went straight to the bust where Ginny had described seeing the diadem. When it wasn't there, Harry immediately assumed the worst until Ron pointed out that Ginny had seen it over five years ago, it was possible it had been moved or had fallen somewhere. Harry had immediately relaxed at Ron's reasoning and set the three of them searching the crowded room.
Even though Hermione was searching the room, she felt that Harry's initial reaction on the missing Diadem was spot on. There was no way The Dark Lord would leave his Horcrux lying around when he knew Harry would be entering the building.
After ten more minutes of useless searching, the three met in the centre of the room to discuss their next move.
"It's not here, he's obviously moved it." Harry said, dejected.
"You don't know that, Harry." Ron said, looking around the large room. "We haven't even looked through half the room, it's too big and messy for three people to search properly."
"Maybe we should call for the others." Harry conceded, to Ron's point. "I'll send my patronus to get them."
"No Harry." Hermione grabbed Harry's arm as he raised his wand. "What if one of the Death Eaters sees your patronus running about."
"I never thought of that." Harry said, relived Hermione had stopped him casting the spell.
"I think we actually need to go back to the Great Hall and get the others." Hermione suggested, wondering when The Dark Lord would make his move.
"Me and Ron will go, you stay here." Harry said. "You can keep looking."
Hermione wondered whether she should agree to stay here or head down to the Great Hall with Harry and Ron, she didn't want Voldemort to think she had hidden away from the final confrontation.
"No, we all stay together, it's not safe to leave Hermione on her own." Ron insisted, solving Hermione's dilemma.
"Fine, let's go. We're wasting time." Harry said, heading towards the door.
"Where are they? They've been gone for nearly an hour." Ginny said, pacing the floor anxiously.
Ginny, Luna, Charlie and Lee had been back from the Chamber of Secrets for twenty minutes and were currently sitting in the Great Hall, unaware that the rest of the Order were concealed in the room. They were also unaware of Voldemort and Draco watching them from beside the doors.
"Gin, sit down and stop making a noise." Charlie hissed, getting annoyed by his younger sister.
Ginny reluctantly sat down next to her brother, but she continued to mutter under her breath.
The sound of the doors opening, caused all four people sitting in the hall to turn and point their wands at the doors. They relaxed when Harry entered the room, followed by Ron and Hermione.
"At last. We've got the fang." Lee said, holding up the basilisk fang in his hand.
"That's great, but we don't have the Diadem." Harry sighed.
"Why not?" Ginny demanded, unimpressed the other group had returned empty handed.
"The room's huge Gin." Ron snarled, not liking his sister's attitude.
As the other's argued over the lack of Diadem, Hermione covertly looked around the Great Hall. When she entered the room, she had felt Draco's presence, he was in the room somewhere. If Draco was in the room it probably meant that Voldemort was also in the room.
Hermione felt the nerves flow through her body, it was starting. Her new allegiance was about to be revealed, she only hoped both her and Draco came through the night unscathed.
"Come on, if we all look maybe we can find it." Harry told the assembled group, turning towards the doors.
A shadow suddenly appeared in front of the doors, stopping the group in their tracks.
"I think this is what you're looking for." Voldemort said, stepping forward and revealing his presence.