A/N: OOOoOOo My first flame! Teehee. Well, "predicatble" or not, here's the next chapter:

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XXIV ; Fight For Me

She coughed and dusted off her cloak as she tumbled out of the fireplace in a dark room. Dust lay everywhere, and the room was barely furnished. It was also abandoned, and Hermione could hear or see no signs of battle at all. She was sure this was where everyone was. This was where Lucius had found them, wasn't it?

As silently as she could, she moved towards the doorway, and snuck out, looking carefully over her shoulders to ensure she was alone. When she continued down the hallways and saw nothing but dust and abandoned rooms, a chilly sense of dread settled in the pit of her stomach. Something wasn't right. Everyone should have been there. She had to go back.

Hermione turned around to head back towards the room with the fireplace, when she suddenly heard a chilling laughter echo unpleasantly through the hallway.

"Oh, this was too easy," came a voice — it was calm, but there was an undertone of glee, and it sent shivers of dread through her.

She could have hit herself in exasperation. She had done exactly what everyone had warned her not to. Sirius was going to kill her again once they met in the afterlife. Talk about history repeating itself. On instinct she pulled her wand out, ready to strike. She swallowed, as she watched the tall, blond figure tower over her, and she whimpered unwillingly when he yanked her wand out of hand and pushed her into a nearby room she hadn't seen earlier before she even had the chance to utter a single word. She hadn't had time to cast any spells at him, and she cursed herself for her idiocy.

"Oh Merlin, no," a voice cried, and she turned to find Draco standing by the tiny window of the room. He looked crestfallen and ruffled from battle, and her eyes nearly welled with tears.

"Erm, Malfoy," she greeted in a stern voice, but Lucius just laughed again.

"Give it up, Mudblood," he said harshly. "I'm onto your whole charade."

"Charade…" she repeated dimly, trying to stall while not giving anything away.

"I know my son is a traitorous bastard, who has been ratting me out to your lousy gang of blood traitors," Lucius boomed, and she felt as if she shrunk under his presence.

"Fucking hell, Hermione, why didn't you stay where you were?" he cried desperately, throwing his arms out.

"Because, idiot son, she's just as stupidly courageous as you are," his father said coolly. "She's a Gryffindor, always known for their dim-witted bravery. When she got a message from her beloved Potter that you were in danger, she came running at once."

"I'm sorry," she cried in frustration. "I don't know what came over me."

"Isn't this a pleasant surprise," Lucius suddenly said, turning towards her.

"What... pleasant surprise?" she asked, swallowing heavily.

"Seems like we're visited by a third person," he grinned maliciously, and she remembered his life force skill. Confused, she turned around, looking for the other visitor.

"What are you on about, there's no one here," she said in confusion, and Draco seemed just as bewildered by the comment.

Lucius roared with laughter, and an unpleasant expression of menacing glee fell across his face.

"How can this get any better?" he asked in a cheerful voice. "She doesn't know yet. I get to bring the happy news."

"Will you stop talking in code?" she cried, her anger rising dangerously.

"Feisty," Lucius commented in amusement.

"Look, Father, these games you're playing are rather dull," Draco stated in a cold voice, and Hermione noticed that he was working on closing the distance between them.

"You're right. I should just bring the delightful news." He smirked. "You see... it seems I get to kill two people today. One grown one... and one whose life hasn't even begun yet."

Hermione felt herself freeze in dread. No. He was lying. There was no way. She would've known. She was a healer, there was no way she could've overlooked such a thing.

"You're lying," she said, but her voice sounded breathless and panicked.

"I'm afraid not my dear," he said in a condescending tone. "You're a Healer, check for yourself."

Her breath caught in her throat, and Draco was still looking at them in confusion, and she rolled her eyes in exasperation at his slowness.

"You disappoint me son," Lucius said. "Well, in addition to the traitorous behaviour, obviously."

"Really."

"Your Mudblood girlfriend has caught on long before you."

"Well, I'm sorry I'm not following your damn code language," Draco bellowed, and his father smirked evilly.

"She's carrying."

Draco's mouth snapped shut at that, and he wheeled around towards Hermione who looked more panicked than ever.

"I'm not pregnant," she said as defiantly as she could. First of all because she couldn't believe she actually was, but second of all... if she was, he had an ever bigger reason to kill her on the spot.

"I say it again," Lucius said coolly, and threw her wand back at her. "You're a Healer; Merlin knows how they even let you be that in the first place. You know what to do."

She swallowed, and debated whether or not she wanted to know. Her eyes met Draco's, who were eyeing her with a violent desperation at that point. As her emotions took over, she turned around with her back to the guys and pointed her wand against her stomach.

"Good girl." Lucius laughed, and she closed her eyes in pain, wondering why she had put herself in this situation.

Hermione mutter the spell as the tip of her wand rested against her stomach, and she knew the answer would be there when she opened her eyes. She braced herself, and opened them slowly, resting her glance on the tip of her wand. Her mouth grew instantly dry when she caught the sight of the faint, light red glow at the tip of her wand. She muttered the counter spell, stumbling a bit over the words, and took a deep breath before turning around again.

"Not pregnant," she announced as she turned around again, looking straight at Lucius with a defiant expression.

"Oh, my dear, stubborn Mudblood." He laughed. "You cannot lie to me."

She felt her palms begin to sweat, and her gaze wavered just the tiniest bit.

"I can feel the third life force. Clearly."

"It's probably just Harry spying in the hallway," she dismissed, waving her hand against the opening.

"Nice try," he commented. "Tell her, Draco."

She looked at him uncertainly, and he looked stricken with horror.

"The life force of a fully developed human being and a foetus is distinctively different," he muttered, giving her a penetrating glance.

Hermione swallowed heavily, and knew she was painted in a corner. She could see the smirk on Lucius's face grow wider, and she knew it was time for a different approach.

"Fine," she cried. "It turns out I'm pregnant. Happy now, Lucius?"

Draco closed his eyes at that, and she could see him breathing heavily even from several feet away.

"Very much so." He smirked. "You see, not only will I get to kill the Mudblood who befouled our great name, but also the dirty blooded consequence. It must be my lucky day."

"So you have no issue killing a Malfoy?" she asked harshly, gathering strength. "Because you know this baby is just as much his as it is mine."

"It's no longer a Malfoy when the blood is not pure."

"Too bad for you that genes don't work quite that way," she bit back. "It's part Draco and part me, no matter how much you try to justify your plans to kill your own granddaughter."

"It's a girl as well. Dirty blooded and the weaker sex. Aren't welucky?"

Hermione felt her blood boil, and voices in her head yelled at her for having put her baby in danger, even if she hadn't known. If only she had stayed where she was supposed to stay.

"So you're going to kill your own flesh and blood?" she shrieked, feeling the desperation kick in when her strategy was far from working.

"Not only am I going to kill…" he smirked. "I'm going to kill it with pleasure."

"Father…" Draco said in a pained voice, standing with his arms limply at his side looking completely lost.

"What? You don't want it, do you? It's a creature more than anything," Lucius spat.

"Yes, I bloody well want it. It's my child!" Draco yelled, and his father seemed momentarily taken aback.

"All the more fun to make you watch," he said, taking a threatening step closer. "So, give each other a kiss goodbye."

Hermione raised her eyebrow at that, and crossed her arms over her chest, while Draco looked more bewildered than anything.

"Do it," Lucius said threateningly. "It's your last chance."

She felt her lips quiver at that, knowing that he was not going to let her go. He didn't care that she was carrying his granddaughter; to him the baby was nothing but the spawn of a Mudblood. She looked up to see Draco coming to a halt next to her, and they stood close enough to see the tears forming in each other's eyes. Her arms fell from her chest, hung limply by her side, and the feeling of defeat overwhelmed her. She closed her eyes when his hand came to rest on her cheek, and she leaned a bit against it, wondering how long it would be until next time. His lips closed over hers triggering so many conflicting emotions that they nearly knocked her over. She answered him almost desperately, knowing that this was torture. She knew why Lucius had done this. Kissing him when she knew it might be the last time was excruciating. She didn't want to let go, but she knew she had to at some point.

"Ah, that was sweet," Lucius said dryly. "It is, indeed, a pity that you're not a real witch."

She blocked him out, focusing every fibre of herself on their lips locked together, desperate to stay that way forever. Her cheeks were wet with tears now, but she didn't care. She felt numb.

"That's enough," he commanded.

Hermione felt panic rise in her chest as they slowly parted, and she looked up into Draco's face with so much frustration. She studied every inch of his features, hoping they would always be clear in her mind wherever it was she was going.

"Move away from her," Lucius' voice boomed.

"I can't," Draco cried back, as he gripped her desperately and held on so tight that it nearly hurt.

"Step away," his father bellowed, holding his wand out in front of him, pointing straight at her.

She stuck her chin out and looked at him defiantly. There was no way she was going just like that. She had a wand, she was an accomplished witch. No one should be expected to just stand here and take this. When she noticed that Lucius's attention fell towards his son, who clutched her tightly around the waist, she decided to take advantage in a matter of seconds, and raised her wand in front of her. Without delaying she shot a spell right in his chest, and he staggered backwards, hitting the wall in the process.

Hermione had hoped this would give them the upper hand, but Lucius was back on his feet in seconds. His face was now screwed up in a furious expression, and she knew he was not going to fool around much before trying to end her life. She turned to Draco, and pushed him resolutely away. He cried in indignation as he fell to the floor several feet from her.

"You're not going down with me," she hissed, and took a better hold of her wand again.

She noticed that Draco had never once gripped for his, and knew he must have lost it or had it taken away somehow. That made her even more determined to do this. As jets of light started flying from Lucius's wand, she dodged them as best she could, blocking the ones she knew how to block, and jumping away from the rest. She tried hitting him back, but he was always too fast. To her frustration, she just couldn't hit him.

Hermione knew Draco was just waiting for the right moment to sacrifice himself, and it worried her. She tried to keep away from him as much as possible, not giving him the chance to step between them. When she stepped to the left to get further away from Draco, she knew she had gone the wrong way. A searing, excruciating pain filled her entire body as the Crucio hit, and the laughter that rang in her ears made no matters better. Finally, the horrible pain that shut everything else out ceased, and her cries came to a halt. She hadn't even realised she was yelling. But she knew she had to get up, or she would have it again. Gathering every bit of her strength, she stumbled up and flung herself out of the way just as the next Crucio hit the exact spot she had been in.

But she wasn't out of danger. The Crucio had left her weaker and it was harder to coordinate her feet. When his next spell came charging, she didn't know if she could get out of the way. She saw it approaching, a dark red jet of light, but she had no idea how to get away. Just as she prepared for whatever spell it was to hit her mercilessly, he had flung himself in front of her. Cold dread seared through her as she heard it hit him and he fell to the ground in front of her with a sickening thud. Her eyes widened as she watched him twitch on the ground, and she had no idea what spell had hit him.

"I was waiting for that," Lucius stated viciously. "Now it's a clear path."

She saw him raise his wand, and knew this was it. Thinking as quickly as she could, she threw her own wand up and cast the most powerful spell she knew. Her jet of black light emitted from her wand just at the same time as his green light came towards her. The two spells collided mid air, and both of them divided into several more beams, burning holes in either side of the room.

Hermione was breathing heavily, not knowing how many times she could manage to divert his Avada Kedavras. She needed something to finish him off, before he finished her off. Within milliseconds she had searched her brain, as she watched him laugh at her attempts to throw him off balance. It was at that moment she knew what to do. She mixed a tiny reflection spell into the spell she had cast at him previously, and begged to God that it would work as she thought. She had never been too talented at merging spells, but it had to work. There was no other option.

Lucius raised his wand again, but she threw her spell a bit before his this time. Her jet-black light had reached halfway across the room before hisAvada Kedavraemitted from his wand. She watched in horror, not knowing what to do if this failed. The two spells collided again, but this time the beams did not go to either side as previously. Her reflection spell worked. The green light flung back the way it had come. She saw his face turn stunned and eventually horrified before it hit him straight in the chest. He fell backwards, his head crashing against the wall as he did so.

She knew he was dead. Relief ran through her at that moment, and she sank to the floor as she breathed heavily. She was alive. Yes, she had killed his father, but at least she was alive. After a few moments of getting her breath back, she remembered the man in front of her, and she moved him onto his back. Running her wand carefully over him, she noticed he was still breathing, but definitely not conscious. She made sure he wasn't bleeding, and checked for anything she could without any more equipment than her wand. It made it difficult that she didn't know the spell, but knew he would be fine once she got him back to the house.

Leaving him on the floor, she turned the wand to her stomach, checking if the little baby in there hadn't suffered from the Crucio. Everything seemed to be fine and she sighed in relief, not quite understanding just how lucky she had been. At that exact moment she looked up at the sound of footsteps, and it dawned on her that his followers could very well be around. But the ones who came running through the door were the entire Order, Harry being in the lead.

"Hermione. Thank God," he cried, looking completely horrified. "How could you just run off like that when we told you to stay where you were? Molly is beside herself with worry and guilt."

"I'm so sorry," she said remorsefully, pulling her hand through her hair. "The note..."

"Yeah, I've seen the note," Harry spat. "How could you even think I would send you such a note? That I would worry you so much that you'd feel compelled to come out of hiding?"

"I wasn't thinking straight," she cried back, and followed Ginny with her eyes as the Weasley walked up to Lucius Malfoy. "He's dead."

Everyone's heads snapped up at that, and they all turned to find Lucius Malfoy lying sprawled on the wooden floor, his head resting at an odd angle because of the meeting with the wall.

"He had to kill his father?" Tonks asked breathlessly.

"I killed him," Hermione said flatly, and wrapped her hand protectively around Draco's waist.

"You killed him?" Fred gaped, not able to look away from the body.

"I managed to merge a reflection spell with the Tamula. His Avada Kedavra got reflected right back into his chest," she explained emotionlessly and made a vague hand gesture towards the lifeless man.

The entire Order seemed to be entirely baffled by that, but Hermione was too overwhelmed to feel anything in particular.

"Sorry we didn't come sooner," Ginny said quietly. "He diverted us. We've been battling his followers miles away from here. Mum said the Floo to the Manor closed the moment you went through, so she couldn't follow you. And she had no way of getting to us until we all came back to the Headquarters."

"It's alright," Hermione assured her. "It worked out anyway."

"How is he?" Remus asked, apparently the first one to notice Draco's body on the floor under her grip. Everyone else's eyes fell to the floor, and their expressions grew horrified.

"He's unconscious, but he seems to be mostly unharmed. Lucius never wanted him dead."

"That makes sense, I guess. It is his son."

Hermione swallowed, not telling them how he had no troubles with ending the life of his unborn grandchild. Instead, she scrambled up from the floor, and levitated Draco's limp body carefully off the ground. Not meeting the eyes of the Order members, she went up to the lifeless body and searched his robes with trembling hands until she found Draco's wand. The knowledge that she had killed this man made her feel queasy.

"Do we have to Apparate?" she asked as she straightened up and ripped her eyes away from him.

"We can open the Floo from this side, since it was closed from this end," McGonagall told her, and everyone piled out of the room, leaving behind nothing but dust and a deceased Malfoy.

When she was the first one to step out of the fire in Grimmauld Place, she was run down by Molly who hugged her so fiercely she could swear one of her ribs broke.

"You insolent child," Molly cried. "Why couldn't you just stay behind?"

"I'm really sorry, Molly. I shouldn't have run off," Hermione replied genuinely.

"At least you're alright." The older lady sighed, and gave her a last big hug, before letting her go. Several others began piling out of the fireplace, but Molly's attention fell to the levitating Draco. She gave a horrified yelp, but Hermione patted her arm comfortingly.

"He's not badly hurt," she told the older lady now at the brink of tears.

"Are you sure?"

"As sure as I can be, but I'll take him upstairs and check thoroughly," she replied.

She brought the levitating Draco up to an abandoned bedroom where she was joined by Ginny, ready to help. They performed a number of checks, making sure he wasn't badly damaged.

"How did things go with the followers?" Hermione asked after having worked in silence for a long while.

"Surprisingly well. A few cuts and bruises on some of us, but none of us are badly hurt, and most of the enemies were captured or killed," Ginny told her. "Those who weren't captured or killed were never that into his new plan anyway. You could tell from the way they battled."

"I'm so relieved everyone has gotten out of this alright," Hermione breathed, almost too overwhelmed to get it into her head.

"I know. It's been tough."

"We can go home,. Hermione grinned, doing a little dance next to the bed, and Ginny laughed heartily.

"Oh man, we have so many things we need to do now," she exclaimed.

"Like going to the theatre..."

"Going shopping!"

"The Burrow family dinners."

"Well, I've been attending those for years."

"I haven't, but I definitely will now. I'm done hiding."

Ginny smiled at that, before straightening up. She looked down on the sleeping figure on the bed, looking a bit puzzled.

"He seems to be completely fine."

"Yeah. I think Lucius just wanted him out of the way for a while," Hermione pondered. "He'll probably wake up in a few hours."

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A/N: UGH yeah, totally artistic freedom with the whole merging spells ordeal. I'm sorry, but at least no one died, right:P I'm trying to focus on the positive :P

Birdsong4 Bah, I know. But the thing is Molly didn't think she would actually go, she was just trying to calm her down, I guess. But you are right; it would have been much more believable if she had stunned Molly. Unfortunately, my imagination limits me sometimes -.- or... all the time :P

I just decided to reply here since I can't send you a PM and all. Hehe.

Anyway, thanks for all reviews and reads, and we still have 4 chapters and an epilogue to go. Woo.