Author's Note: Hello there! Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I have a really good excuse this time: I finished this story. Yes, it really is done- although it will take a while to rewrite and edit. We should be seeing fairly regular updates now. It's still hard to say how many chapters it will be because I think a couple of the long ones will be split in two. Speaking of long chapters, this one is HUGE. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 36 - Hydra

Hermione was right; it did take several days to pinpoint the location of Hydra. By then they had not only the coordinates, but also the time schedule that the window operated on. Every day the schedule was four hours later than the day before. At the next Order meeting Harry outlined their plans to go to Hydra on New Year's Eve. They wouldn't take the entire group; some still had to stay to help patrol Diagon Alley and the school. They also used that meeting to let the entire group in on Pansy's cooperation. They had the right to know if they were going to risk their lives on her information. It seemed the group was split in half on whether or not she was to be trusted, but as they didn't have many other leads to go on, most of them agreed that they had to take her information seriously.

Seriously, but cautiously, was what Hermione had said. She believed that they should send a very small group at first to check the place out. Harry wanted to take everyone and go storming in. He reasoned that they could take Laurent by surprise and finish this once and for all. They compromised on a group of ten. They could send people back or send for more once they got there and evaluated the situation.

Ginny had argued that as long as she was home, she wanted to be part of the Order and help out where she could. Mrs. Weasley had a fit when she suggested it. In the end, they reached another compromise with Ginny staying in Diagon Alley with Bill and George on patrol. She didn't really appreciate them trying to baby her, but understood that she wasn't going to get any closer to the action as long as her mum was around.

The group met in the field in back of the Burrow on New Years Eve. Harry was keeping Pansy close by, still unsure of how much she could be trusted. He wasn't about to let her out of his sight. Not today.

Hermione was the first to apparate. They had all done some practice runs using coordinates to apparate to a known location and everyone had managed to do it correctly, so assuming they had everything else worked out, there shouldn't be any problems getting everyone there. But Hermione wasn't taking chances. It was her project, so she insisted on testing it first.

"Wish me luck."

"You should just let me do it," Ron protested. She only gave him a stern look. They had been through that argument several times already.

"If I'm not back in five minutes, assume something went wrong."

"Don't take any chances. You see anything we're not prepared for, get out right away."

Pansy had said that the apparition point was a cave with a tunnel connecting it to the rest of the compound and there wasn't anyone guarding it. That alone was enough to worry them. It meant that there had to be something else they had missed or that Pansy didn't know. Hermione nodded at the warning, threw Harry's invisibility cloak over herself and a moment later they heard the pop indicating that she had left.

"Well, she didn't splinch herself," Draco commented.

The silence that followed as they waited for her was suffocating. Each of them wondering what was happening, none of them able to do anything about it. Thankfully, the wait wasn't long. She popped back right where she had been just a minute after she'd left. The invisibility cloak hanging over her arm.

"There's no one there. Nothing I noticed that should interfere, although the tunnel off of the cave looks longer than we thought. I ran some simple diagnostic spells, but didn't detect any other wards. You all know the coordinates. One at a time follow me."

And then she was gone again. Harry went next, taking Pansy with him.

It was an empty cave with rough walls, completely natural. A single torch hung on the wall, providing just enough light to see a tunnel that was much more finished. The walls there were smooth and manmade. Harry whispered the Lumos charm and began to move toward the passage as the others began arriving behind him. Draco had been next, with Ron right after him. So far their presence hadn't attracted any attention.

The tunnel was dark with no further torches to guide them. Harry could make out a faint light signifying the end of the path, but it was some way away. True to Pansy's description, he could hear the sound of water running over them.

"Stop!" Hermione hissed when they were barely twenty feet into the tunnel.

The entire group spun around to face her.

"We just entered an anti-apparition field."

"You didn't say anything about that," Draco said to Pansy.

"How would I know? I wasn't planning on needing an emergency escape route when I was here last."

"It's standard procedure to have this kind of protection," Harry reminded them.

"Yes," Hermione admitted. "And it's handy to control where people are entering from. But do you realize how long this tunnel is? When we were planning I didn't know how far we had to go. Assuming our only way out is that cave, it would be nearly impossible to get us all out if something goes wrong. If we're being chased, once they get us in this tunnel it will be like a target range for them. Nowhere to go or hide."

"So what do you want to do about it? Should we turn around? We're here now; we stay and take care of business. We might not get another good chance."

"We could send a smaller team in. Less likely to be detected, more likely to get out alive. If we have a small team we can scout the place then they can report back. We'll have more information for when we do want to get a larger team in and out."

Harry glanced around at the other faces. This is when he hated being their leader. His instincts told him to press on, but his conscious told him that if there was the smallest chance that Hermione was right then he could be sentencing them all to die. Pansy's face was the most interesting to notice. She was curious about his decision, but he saw no trace of fear in her eyes. He had to know the truth about her and this was his chance. If they went back home now he would spend the following days wondering if he was living with a spy.

"I'm continuing. I want someone to go back to the cave and two others to stay at different points of the tunnel. If something goes wrong then you'll have a good chance of making it out of the anti-apparition field in time. Also, you can stay hidden and take out anyone who comes in behind us. The rest of us will continue on and I'll station people to stand guard throughout. Pansy and I are going in."

"Why me?"

"Because without you, I wouldn't know my way around."

"I'm going with you," said Draco.

"I really think you should stay in the tunnel," Harry murmured. "I'll be back soon enough."

"I'm going with you," he repeated firmly.

"I promised your mother you wouldn't die for me."

"I guess you shouldn't have done that without asking me first."

"We don't have time for a lover's spat," Marlene said, coming forward. "The window is only an hour. We don't have a guarantee that we'll be able to even leave after that."

"Okay. Those who stay in the tunnel, make sure you're out by the end of our hour whether the rest of us are back or not. If there's an emergency get word to us via Patronus. But only if it's absolutely necessary." He paused. "If things go really wrong someone has to get a Patronus message to Minister Shacklebolt."

And with that, Harry continued forward. It was another two minutes of walking before he could make out anything in the light ahead. It appeared to be the entrance to a large chamber. A minute later he was proven right when they stepped into the room furnished with medieval-looking pieces. It was set up quite like a sitting room, but with two other tunnels attached to it.

"Which way?" he asked Pansy.

She pointed to the one on the right. "That way to the barracks. The other one goes to the War Room. That's likely where you'll find them."

"War room?"

"It's where they work on the new spells and weapons. The Potions lab is up there. Then there's the meeting room. It has a huge table. It's where they plan strategy. The prisoners are also held near there."

"They have prisoners?"

She shrugged. "Whoever they felt like taking. Sometimes muggles just for sport. The dungeons are right underneath the meeting room. There are other things beyond that, but I've never seen it."

Harry nodded and turned to the rest of the group. Only Ron, Hermione, Draco, Marlene and Dustin had come into the room. The other stayed throughout the tunnel, waiting for further instruction.

"Marlene and Dustin, use a disillusionment charm on yourselves. Stay here and stay hidden. Don't give yourselves away if someone comes through here. If we don't have any luck in the first tunnel we'll come back. The rest of you, come with me," he paused, making eye contact with Hermione, "if you're sure."

She nodded. Despite her earlier worries, she wasn't going to let her best friend and boyfriend go in without her. Harry instructed Ron, Hermione and Draco to do the disillusionment spell and pulled out his invisibility cloak for him and Pansy.

"Why don't I get to do the spell?"

"Because I want to be able to see you."

"You still don't trust me? After everything I've told you and all the danger I've put myself in you still don't trust me?" There was a genuine hurt in her voice that gave him a pang of guilt, but he shook it off. She had always been a bit of an actress.

"I'll trust you when we all make it out of here alive."

She scowled, but let him drape the cloak over them both.

"Do you have to stand so close, Potter?"

"Unless you want your feet exposed beneath the cloak. Come on guys."

They continued slowly down the first tunnel. It was even slower than before since their wands remained unlit to avoid detection. Harry kept a hand firmly around Pansy's arm. And then eventually the sound of their feet moving across the stone was not the only thing that cut through the silence. There were voices ahead. Angry voices.

"Father," Pansy muttered. "I think that's Laurent with him."

Sure enough, Harry could hear a very faint French accent in his voice. Not nearly as pronounced as Fleur's, but enough to give him away.

"Are they alone though?"

"They can't be the only ones here."

They continued until they met a thick wooden door. It was impossible to hear much through it, but Hermione came prepared. She passed out extendable ears to everyone.

Parkinson and Laurent were arguing over what to do with some prisoners. From the names they listed, Harry realized that they were families of Death Eaters who had given information to the Ministry.

"Let's just kill them and be done with it. The longer we keep them alive the more chance of them causing trouble."

"Relax Petruchio. No one will find them."

"Malfoy seemed confident that his son and Potter would."

Laurent laughed lightly. "No, Lucius believed that they would find this place, which is just fine. He wants to believe that his son isn't as worthless as he is."

Harry could hear Draco's increased breathing from somewhere to his left. He and Pansy crept closer to the door while he tried to figure out how they would get in without giving themselves away so quickly.

"Where's Moretti?" asked Parkinson worriedly. "The window has been open for twenty minutes. He should have been here by now."

"He's probably too drunk to report back right away."

"I don't like it. The wards were breeched right after the window opened. What if it's them?"

"Then we are ready for them," Laurent answered calmly. "You need to relax, friend."

"I'm going to check."

The foot steps came near the door, but then Laurent called him back.

"Moretti's people are supposed to check the apparition point while the window is open. I'm sure he has taken care of it. Even Italians can handle that. Come back and look at the maps with me. We will soon be able to bring down the wards wherever we choose."

"Not the school."

"No, but the Dark Lord was the one who had the obsession with controlling the school. I do not. The true power is in the Ministry. That is where we will strike."

There was a startled gasp and Parkinson's voice was even more panicked than it had been before.

"What's that?"

Harry could hear a smile in Laurent's voice. "I believe young Potter has paid us a visit."

Harry's heart sped up and Pansy was clutching his arm with impressive strength.

"You can come in now, Harry," he called out. "I thought you might stop by eventually. I have a charm on the door and you've stepped close enough to set it off now. Go ahead and come in and we'll have a chat about this whole mess."

Harry ducked out from under the cloak and handed Pansy her wand just in case.

"Stay under there for now. You all follow me in. He'll think I'm alone."

"Harry!" Draco hissed at him. But then he was silenced as Harry opened the door and walked inside the dimly lit room.

"So good to see you, Harry," Laurent greeted him. Neither he or Parkinson held their wands up. They both seemed quite relaxed, in fact. "Did you come all the way here alone?"

"Seemed safest for one person to investigate first. But people know where I am and how to get here. If I'm not back soon more will come to find me."

"Of course. Seems like a good plan you have. Did you happen to meet up with Moretti on the way in?"

"Stunned him," he lied. "He's back at the entrance."

Laurent nodded. Harry wasn't sure if he believed him or not.

"Harry, you're a smart boy and that is why I am prepared to make you an offer."

"I'm not interested."

Laurent rolled his eyes. "You should at least listen to it before you turn me down. I want to give you the option of giving up."

Harry laughed. "I don't exactly have that kind of reputation."

"No, but there is no way you can win. However, you can be a huge pain in my ass while I'm destroying you. And if I just kill you right now your friends will avenge you, fight harder. So I'm giving you the chance to walk away. You and your friends, the Weasleys, can leave. Go to America or wherever you need to be. You can take your precious boyfriend. I am sorry, I cannot allow his father to leave. If I fail to make an example of him then I will have all kinds of chaos in the ranks. Without you the rest is all quite simple. I take over the Ministry and your people continue their happy, normal lives."

"Yes, because we were all so happy before when Voldemort ran things here." They both flinched a little at the name.

"I am not a carbon copy of the Dark Lord. We shared certain goals and interests, but you will find that our styles are somewhat different."

Harry noticed Parkinson staring someplace past him and gripped his wand harder. He had a feeling that they had been found out.

"I'm not going to take any deal and allow you to take over."

"Very well, I suppose that means I shall have to kill you."

Harry fired off a stunning spell at him just as another one went past his head, aimed at Parkinson. Neither man made a move to defend themselves and a second later Harry understood why. Both spells hit an invisible barrier set up in front of them. There was some commotion toward the back of the room and Harry saw several men pouring out of a door way. They were firing off spells and Harry ducked behind the table, unable to defend against all of them.

"There's at least two of them invisible! Get them."

The next few minutes was a confusion of spells flying from and hitting thin air. Harry wasn't even sure where his team were and was cautious about firing dangerous spells that could hit one of them. Pansy ripped off the cloak, standing right in front of him.

"What the hell are you doing? Get down."

She smiled, raising her wand at him and it only took him milliseconds to understand. She set him up. His reflexes were much faster than hers though, and he disarmed her. Before he could get anything else out, her father had placed a shield around her. Knowing that there wasn't much he could do to break the shield, but unable to let her get away with anything, he launched himself on her. He didn't care about the rest of the fight or who might be aiming at him right now. He only cared that Pansy not get away.

She fell back onto the floor with a shocked expression. Her father was yelling obscenities at him, but dared not fire a hex with such a high chance of it hitting the wrong person. He didn't know what else went on in the rest of the room as he was only focused on choking the life out of Pansy. She screamed pathetically when he landed on her, but reached out and hit with all her might. The force behind the punch surprised him. There was just enough hesitation for her to be able to throw him off. Wandless, she had no choice but fight back physically. Proper etiquette had always told Harry never to hit a girl, but this case he believed was the exception and he pulled a fist back and swung at her.

On the other side of the room Draco had found his way to Laurent and they were hurling curses at each other. At some point their disillusionment spells had been deactivated and all three of them were visible once more. Laurent had obviously believed that Draco would be an easy target, but was finding that the young man was much quicker than he had thought. The verbal attacks began as a way to throw him off.

"I do hope your father sent my regards."

"Shut up you bastard!" Draco spat back, narrowly avoiding a jinx.

"Lucius hasn't taught you any manners. I would have thought that Narcissa could have taught you better than that."

"Don't you dare talk to me about her." He threw another curse toward Laurent, but it was easily deflected.

A moment later Marlene and Dustin appeared. Someone- probably Hermione- had the presence of mind to alert them of the situation.

"The others are on their way," Marlene shouted as she began dueling with a random Death Eater.

Parkinson had been distracted from his daughter's fight with Harry by Ron and seemed to not be fairing well against him. Without the shield charm around Pansy, Harry wanted to hex her, but was already engaged in a physical battle; neither one of them willing to let go of the other one long enough to point a wand. In their current position he would likely hit himself if he tried anything.

More of the Order arrived and communicated that others were apparating in right away. Harry barely noticed though as he struggled against Pansy. She was tougher than she looked and although Harry was winning the battle, letting his guard down for even a moment would give her the upper hand. He knocked her back onto the floor with force and she gasped, having hit her head. He used the moment to pin her down, straddling her waist and holding her shoulders down.

Pansy glanced down at the way Harry was sitting on her. "I didn't know you cared, Potter."

"Shut up, Pansy!"

"Oh, won't Draco be jealous!"

"I said shut up!"

And to accent his point, he grabbed her by the throat. Her hands were on his immediately. Somewhere, toward the back of his mind, a voice whispered that he was going too far, that he needed to stop. And he ignored it. A much stronger voice was in control. This one was angry and desperate and needed to survive. This one was someone Harry had never met.

"Get off me, Potter," she choked out.

"You are never going to come near me or my family again, you miserable bitch."

He was too strong to pull his hands off of her so she reached and dug her fingernails into the side of his neck, scratching has hard as she could. He tried to pull out of her reach, but lost the grip on her neck. She took a deep breath and grabbed the hand that held his wand, trying to pry it out of his fingers.

Draco was still dueling with Laurent when there was suddenly an explosion to his left that threw him to the ground.

"Death Eaters, regroup at station two," Laurent called over the chaos. Many of them began leaving through the back hall they had come through originally. Laurent looked down at Draco, smiling. "Send your mother my regards." And he didn't give Draco a chance to retaliate as he disappeared into the crowd.

Draco struggled to his feet, stunning as many Death Eaters as he could before they could escape. They were leaving quickly and then he saw why; there were aurors arriving. He looked around for Harry and the others. Parkinson had just sent Ron flying backwards and looked to where Pansy and Harry were struggling on the floor. He aimed his wand at Harry and Draco reacted instinctively, throwing a shield charm in front of Harry. Whatever the spell was, it was not going to be stopped so easily and the jet of orange light his Harry in the leg. He screamed, falling back onto the floor in agony. Pansy merely grinned and pushed herself out from under him. She scooped up her wand and ran after her father, who was already disappearing down the tunnel.

"Next time, Potter," she called without glancing back.

Draco started to make his way to Harry, but was distracted by Ron moaning on the floor near him. He didn't know what Parkinson hit him with, but his arm was bleeding freely and he didn't seem to be entirely awake. Harry looked to be fine. At least he was conscious. Ron, however, could be severely injured and Draco stopped to help him.

Harry grabbed his leg, where the curse had hit, but forced himself to stand. Blind fury drove him now and all his brain told him was that he had to stop Pansy from leaving. He ran, perhaps it was more limped, down the tunnel as fast as he could. He should have realized at once that he was being outrun, but he continued nonetheless.

"Get back here, you bitch!" The pain in his leg brought him back to the floor with a yelp and he couldn't do anything but watch her go. "You're going to pay for this! I swear if I have to spend the rest of my life hunting you I will watch you die!"

There were a few moments in which all he felt was his breath coming in huge gulps of rage. And then there was the sound of running footsteps and he looked up to see Hermione's worried face.

"Harry, what happened?"

"They got away."

"Yes, I got that. I meant your leg."

"Somebody should bloody well go after them!"

"They're gone There's a second apparition point. One of Laurent's people just told us."

Harry huffed and tried to drag himself to his feet and didn't seem to want Hermione's help. He took it grudgingly and they made their way back to the main room, passing a few aurors on the way. Dedalus and a few of the Aurors seemed to be injured. Draco had gotten Ron to wake up and was now taking a look at his arm. Everyone else was fine and looking around in disbelief at what had just happened. Their prisoners were already grouped together on the floor thanks to Marlene's quick thinking. Hermione helped him into a chair and tried to examine his leg, but he waived her off.

"Somebody send for Kingsley quick. In a few minutes we won't be able to get back inside here until late tonight."

"They already did and he's on his way," Hermione said soothingly.

Harry made an effort to catch Draco's eye when he finally looked up from Ron's injury. "You okay?"

"Never better. You?"

He nodded. "Pansy got away."

Draco hesitated. "We'll get her next time. Laurent's the important one anyway."

"Well he got away too."

"We should get you back to the house."

"I'm fine!" Harry answered somewhat harshly. "I'm not leaving until we get this figured out."

"There's nothing to figure out. We have people to question and it doesn't look like there's much to find here. They cleared it out, waiting for us to show up. I doubt they left behind any clues that won't be here after we patch your leg up."

"My leg is fine."

"Sure it is."

"Help Ron take the other injured to the Burrow."

Draco paused, waiting for Harry to say something more, but it was in vain.

"I'm good, I can stay," said Ron.

"No, you're going to go so your mum doesn't worry about you. Draco, take him."

He took several steps forward and crouched in front of Harry's chair. "Why me?" he whispered. "I want to stay with you."

"Because I asked you to. I can't… I'm not going to have this discussion with you right now. I'll see you at home. We'll meet back there after everything's over."

"You need me to look at your leg."

Harry smiled. "Stop worrying over me. You're as bad as Hermione. I'll be fine. I've had worse."

"It's not just your leg I'm worried about."

Harry's eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, but Draco didn't elaborate as he stood and faced the rest of the room.

"Okay, everyone! I need to get anyone who needs medical attention to come back to the apparition point with me."

"Minister Shacklebolt has arrived," someone called.

Harry groaned. If things had gone according to plan he could be handing the leader of the Death Eaters over to Kingsley right now. He pushed back the rage he felt at Pansy's betrayal and stood to go greet the aurors.

Kingsley was sympathetic, agreeing that they had to investigate, but also agreeing with Hermione's analysis that they should have sent in a smaller team. Most of the compound had been emptied, although it was obvious that it had been used by the Death Eaters until very recently. They next day would be spent questioning their captives and piecing together all that they had learned so far. Several hours later Kingsley finally had to order Harry to leave to get medical attention and he and Hermione apparated to Grimmauld Place.