Other side
Chapter 38
"Severus." Voldemort hissed and Snape bowed. I fought to catch his eye but he refused. "What makes you say this?"
"I know the boy, my Lord. I know him better than his own flesh and he did not bring you the Mudblood." I felt the air escape my body and fear rise inside me. I swallowed the rage creeping up my throat and braced myself for the worst.
"I believe that he is tied to her in a very dangerous way." Snape said coolly, staring at the ground and I hated him with every bit of my soul.
"Silence, Severus. You know nothing of what you do." My father snapped earning a distasteful look from Voldemort.
"Lucius, I know of your Uncle. You must understand the delicacy of the situation."
"I understand perfectly well. He'll do better without the little whore!" My father burst forward, wand outstretched, ready to curse the life out of my mate. With a loud snarl, I had snatched his wand from his hand and bared my teeth.
"Don't even think about it." I stood between the chair she sat in and my father, my chest held out and daring him to move. His eyes dug into mine but I refused to back down as I usually did.
"Lucius, Draco cannot be without-"
"Don't say it, Severus! I will not have my only blood tied to this…thing!"
"Silence!" The harsh voice pounded against my skull and I saw my father wince slightly. "Malfoy, step back." Like a kicked puppy, he skulked back to his place in the circle around us.
"My Lord," Snape said timidly, inching towards his high-backed chair. "The young Malfoy, in his blood is a long line of-" In a moment I had drew my wand and held it at Snape's throat. "Will you please let me finish?"
"No. He doesn't need to know." I sneered, my heart pounding in my ears.
"Yes, he does. Otherwise he will kill her." Snape finally caught my eye and it puzzled me. He kept glancing down at his pocket. I carefully stepped back and edged my way to Granger.
"Malfoy." She whispered; her eyes slightly red but I think she wiped them away. I motioned for her to stand and she did, trembling. Her knees nearly gave out and she braced herself against the chair for support.
"He is bound to Granger. If you should kill her, he will die as well." My lip curled in anger and she looked at me with worry.
Voldemort rose from his seat and crept past Snape to where we stood. She went ridged and I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from growling in the protective manner I did when I felt her fear.
His pale hand reached up to touch her face and I snatched his wrists with my fingers. They tightened around his bones as I hissed, "Don't touch her."
He cackled and pulled my hand off his wrists. "I will do as I please, Draco." He bent my arm back in a painful manner and I didn't drop my glare from his face. He placed his cold fingers against her face and turned it back and forth.
"Hm… fairly attractive for a Mudblood." He bared his teeth in a cruel smile. She seemed to have gained courage as she shoved him away from her and stepped back.
"I'm not afraid of you!" She shouted and he only continued to smile.
"Give it time, Mudblood, and you will." She was proud and noble and stupid. I fought my urge to lash out at Voldemort and I had to look away when he forced her against his ugly body. I ignored her struggling, staring at the broken tiles on the floor until she called for me.
My eyes went dark and when I opened them, Voldemort was on the floor with a large gash across his face and Granger was in my arms whimpering. He touched his face gingerly and laughed at the blood on his fingers whilst Pettigrew rushed to his side and fawned over him.
I turned my head up when there were voices from the hall where the dungeons resided.
"Hermione!" the small balls of light shifted in the dark and Snape cast me a look. Now I'm certainly not a mind reader but I knew what he was thinking. If Granger and I had any chance of getting out of here, it was going to be with the help of Potter and his friends.
I pointed my wand at Pettigrew and said, "Accio wand!" and Granger's wand flew from his pocket and into my hand. "Granger." She took it and I stood in front of her, thanking Merlin the only Death Eaters in the room were Voldemort, my father, Snape, and three others, myself excluded.
"'Mione." Ron Weasley breathed behind me and Potter pushed past me to face the rest of the room. Clearly, he was able to think quicker than the red head. Even his brothers, Fred and George were quicker than him for they were by Potter's side in a split second. They obviously examined their situation and went into attack mode. Ron quickly followed, wand drawn.
An instant later, I was cursing Crabbe's father with a Stupefy and pivoting to slug Pettigrew who kept attempting to hex me. "Piss off Wormtail!" I glanced up and fired a leg binding spell at Parkinson's father as he was mouthing a spell at Potter, feeling a slight pang of guilt as he hit the ground.
"Granger!" I was reminded of the girl I was suppose to be protecting and I found her between the Weasley twins, all three duelling my father and a very slow attacking Snape.
I had a flash of the training I had received over the years and I remembered how, when I observed my father, I recognized the different stances he took when he cast different spells. One in particular was the Crucio curse, which is exactly what he was about to do, and it was directly aimed at her. Without a second thought, I launched at my father and stood between the Gryffindors and my father and shouted, "Levicorpus!" My father was hauled into the air by his ankle, his spell crashing into the wall behind us, the stone crumbling slightly.
"Malfoy!" she gasped and I pulled her to my side. George and Fred paused to look at me and Snape didn't bother using it to his advantage. On the contrary he fished around in his pocket and pulled out a small vile from his pocket.
"Reducto!" I blasted at the chip in the wall and motioned the boys through it. "Potter! Weasley! Let's GO!" I pushed Hermione through the small hole in the wall into the Twins hands.
Weasley blasted a curse at Goyle's father and ran towards me, pausing and calling out, "Harry!"
I turned my attention to the-boy-who-lived and noted, with a small amount of satisfaction, that he couldn't handle Voldemort on his own. He was getting quite weak and was knocked back onto the ground.
"Shit. GO Weasel!" I shoved him back and sprinted towards the center of the room, leaping over the frozen body of Crabbe and pointing my wand at Voldemort.
"Draco, you fool." He hissed and aimed his wand at me, arrogantly.
"Fuck off." I snapped and shouted, "Sectumsempra!" A sharp blade flew from the tip of my wand and spiraled towards him. I turned and grabbed Potter's robes, hauling him to his feet and shoving him towards the nearest exit. "Move it, Potter!"
I cast my eyes back and deflected a curse from the now limping Voldemort. My spell had sliced quite a large chunk of his leg out and the blood pooled on the ground. He screamed in anger and began restoring his servants as I shoved Weasel and Potter out of the dark castle.
I spun around and caught the disapproving eyes of my father as I fired a restoring spell and a blocking spell on the wall where they resided.
"Malfoy, what are you-"
"Shut up and run!" I grabbed Hermione's arm and ran with her because, in all honesty, I only cared about her getting to safety. The others were behind us and we all picked up the speed when there was a loud booming behind us. We dived into a small brushed area and Granger pulled the small vile Snape had out from her pocket.
"He told me it was a port key." She said shakily. "He said it would get us a safe distance or at least enough of a head start."
Everyone placed their hands on it and the small tug behind my navel pulled me up and we came crashing down on a large dusty hill, the castle of Voldemort's far in the distance.
"In to the forest!" Harry ordered and we all charged in, wands lighting the way. I ignored the looks Weasley was shooting me and admired how lightly Fred and George whispered to each other jokingly, chuckling every now and then.
"This way," I pointed over to a particularly rough looking patch and Ronald scoffed.
"Why would we go through there? Let's go the easier way." He pointed over to the other direction and I shook my head.
"They would expect us to go that way because it's you lot. They don't expect us to go the dangerous way. Now c'mon."
I heaved myself over the large tree roots, not caring to look back, knowing they would follow. And they did, Ron looking quite sore, and Hermione looking quite angry.
"So…'Mione." I heard Potter whisper behind me. "You and Malfoy are … together?"
"Not entirely. It's a very long story, Harry. Let's just get home first."
We trudged on quietly for a while. I was expecting a confrontation at any moment and I was right in expecting one. We reached a clearing and Harry could finally be quiet no longer.
"Wait. How do we know you aren't leading us back to them?"
"Harry." Hermione tugged his sleeve exasperatedly. I cast her look and ignored him. I pressed on but he snagged my robes and pulled me back.
"No. What if he's just sending us in circles?" Potter's eyes stared into mine. I really didn't feel like explaining myself to him so I searched my brain for a reason.
Unable to come up with anything, I shrugged my shoulders and said, "Just going to have to trust me, Potter. I did save your ass back there didn't I?" his face dropped slightly and I knew he wasn't satisfied with my reasoning, but he'd take it for now.
"H-Harry?" One of the twins stammered, fumbling up towards us, looking panicked at the brush. It was shaking and snarling. "We have a little problem."
I caught the scent of dead animal and dirt just as a dark paw emerged from the brush. A snarling wolf followed along with three others, their teeth bared and drool dropping from their fangs.
"Granger. Get behind me." I forced her back and she objected.
"They're just dogs!" she howled, trying to scramble past me. "Don't hurt them!"
"They might be. But look at their eyes." I snapped, and the entire group looked.
"They're glossed over." Ronald whispered, confused.
"Imperius Curse." Potter explained and drew his wand. "Fred, George. Don't kill them if you can help it."
I held my wand out and in a swirl of robes; I blasted the first one back into the bushes. The others did the same but they weren't down for long. The dogs launched back at us and knocked me back, my wand flew from my hand and I held my arm against its throat to keep it from biting into my face.
"Stupefy!" Granger's voice sang through my ears and it leapt off me and tackled into her.
"No!" I spun onto my hands and knees and launched at it, clawing at its face to get my arms around its neck and with a harsh twist and snap, I broke its neck.
I heaved it off of her and helped her to her feet, glancing back to see the other three dogs were looking bewildered. Their eyes were clear now and they dashed off into the woods. Ron Weasley was holding his arm carefully to stop the blood flow.
"'Mione." He muttered and she rushed to his side, waving her wand over his injury with gentleness.
"We can't stay. We need to keep moving."
"Draco." Potter's voice made me tense up and I turned to look at him.
"What is it?" I tried to hide the bitterness in my voice. I had only intended to save Hermione but I saved him and Weasley too. I would never be welcome back in my own home because of what I've done.
He held out his hand, looking hopefully at me and after a moment, I took it and shook his hand.
"I'll be expecting an explanation when we get back to Hogwarts." He said, giving my hand a squeeze.
I nodded in understanding. "Let's go." I helped Hermione to her feet and we pushed past the brush and back into the forest.
"Wait." She stopped me and knelt down to root through the underbrush, pulling out a small white wolf and cradling it in her arms. I rolled my eyes and pulled her along.
We walked for a half hour before George spoke up, "Where are we anyways?"
"If I know my Dark Forest well enough, which I do, we are nearing a port key to my mansion. We can rest there for a moment, I'll have to gather a few things seeing as I won't be returning but then we must get going." They looked at me sceptically but nodded and we pressed on.
Okay! So not very funny but did you expect me to be cracking jokes at the dark lord? Bet the majority of you didn't see it coming as Snape did ya? I actually like this chapter and I pray you all do as well!