Hi! This was supposed to be updated last week, but we had internet issues (again). Nonetheless, I do hope you enjoy it! Thank you again if you are still reading. The reviews are definitely not as fruitful as before, but again, I can't really blame you *sad* With that being said, if you have reviewed, thank you more so! I am super excited to finish this story and work on some new ideas I've had for a while now. Anyway, enough said, enjoy!

I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's work, solely the plot to this story.


Bellatrix cackled as the body of Ron Weasley twisted this way and that. He didn't scream as much as she would have liked. Trying to be brave, no doubt. What an idiot. Bravery was useless when death was imminent.

"How does it feel now, blood traitor? What's that you say? You want some more? Well alright then!"

He bent at an impossible angle, and she could see the way he clenched his eyes shut and muted his cries.

Beside him the slumped figure of his redhead sister starting to move, albeit slightly. She grinned, focusing her attention on her instead. The boy dropped to the ground, unmoving and without a sound.

"And just where do you think you're going, brat? Huh! Imperio!"

As if a marionette, the Weasley girl was lifted upright, standing now, eyes only barely opened and wand arm extended towards her nearly unconscious brother. They widened when she realized what Bellatrix was making her do.

"N-no …"

"Yes, yes! Wouldn't it be fun to kill your own brother? I think so!"

The girl was shaking now, trying and failing to fight the curse. Her arm lifted above her head, mouth forcibly wording very decipherable words: "Avad—"

"I thought it might be you making all this noise down here. Bellatrix, quit playing around and finish them off already."

Bellatrix' attention whirled towards the new voice. Ginny dropped heavily onto the ground.

"Rookwood? How the bloody—"

"Relax, dearest. I mean you no harm. I simply came to make you a proposition."

Bellatrix huffed impatiently. "The last time I heard that I ended up serving Lucy. Now if you would leave me, I have some brats to torture—"

"What if I told you dear Lucius is part of the entrée?"

Bellatrix gave a start. "Exactly what do you mean?

"What I mean, is that we all know Lucius Malfoy is no Dark Lord. And although the virus is certainly an… interesting idea, he does not have nearly sufficient, how shall I put it … mental capacities, to achieve what it is we really want."

"And what is it, Augustus, that we want?"

Rookwood gave a sinister grin, taking a step closer to the crazed witch and ruthlessly invading any sense of personal space. "Power, of course."

A slow smile spread across her face. "I'm listening."


A newfound strength was building inside him, and Draco used it to hold back Hermione. As soon as Harry Potter and Blaise had entered the scene, she'd all but flown towards the impregnable barrier.

"Harry!"

He'd caught her around the waist, effectively stopping her as soon as their eyes met. "Granger, no. You know we can't."

Wonder if she would have done the same for me …

Oh my gods. Really, now is not the time to be jealous—

I'm not jealous of Potter!

He refused to think about it. He was the one saving them, after all. Or at least Hermione. And for that he was grateful. If she could get out of here, then things would be ok.

Since when do we not care about our own arse?

Shut it.

He felt Hermione whimper as his father sent yet another sort of barrier their way. Impulsively, he pulled her closer. "Don't worry. He'll win. He always does."

Hermione squeezed his hand harder.


Lucius dodged just as Harry's spell flew towards him. He didn't, however, do so without sending a non-verbal spell back at his enemy.

Harry didn't move quickly enough.

"Harry!" Hermione was calling for him, and the sound of her voice brought about a huge sense of relief. She was alive. But then he heard—

"Granger, no. You know we can't."

Malfoy is with her? Locked up? Harry barely had time to wonder this unexpected turn of events.

"Silence!" Lucius suddenly bellowed, directing a blast towards their imprisonment. A barrier seemed to surround their already confined setting, and Harry could no longer hear Hermione. He noticed with some confusion how Malfoy was hovering over her in an almost protective stance. And Hermione, she was… well it almost looked as if she was …

Later. At least she's alive …

A bright blue beam of light skimmed his side and Harry was quick and up and rolling away, his left arm bleeding where Lucius' curse had hit him. He feinted right, barely missing the onslaught of spells that followed his every step. Rubble began to fall from random places in the ceiling, sending a plume of dust into the air. Lucius, of course, remained unharmed.

Harry muttered a higher level shield charm. Though meant to protect from magic, it would also temporarily protect him against anything physical. Namely, big and jagged rocks falling from this cave-like prison hell.

While he moved, Harry took mental notes. It was a bit scary how natural his observations and dueling seemed to come to him. Years of experience, unfortunately. What he noticed primarily was that Lucius moved like a tempest, destroying everything in his path to get to him. Although his spells were undoubtedly lethal, Harry immediately recognized the other's weakness in this tactic: Lucius was reckless. And impatient.

Nonetheless, he had no choice but to keep moving, skirting, dodging, hurdling, and rolling away just to stay alive. He was vaguely aware of Blaise yelling something at him.

'I'm a little busy here!' He felt like hollering back. Instead, he dared a quick glance towards where they'd seen a very unconscious Narcissa Malfoy and immediately understood.

The rocks were falling relentlessly and Blaise was struggling to keep them both out from under the avalanche.

Man, Mrs. Malfoy must really be out if he can't wake her …

"Confringo!"

Harry veered out of the way. "Reducto!"

More rubble. This time skimming his opponent's shoulder. Lucius cursed aloud. Harry immediately threw another spell.

"Stupefy!"

This time, his aim was spot on. Lucius reeled backwards, crashing into the wall behind him.

Harry made to move, but suddenly found that he couldn't. "What the—" His feet were stuck to the ground. Befuddled, he tried a number of unsticking spells. Nothing worked. And worse yet, it seemed his spell hadn't been as accurate as he thought.

Lucius was laughing. "How amusing. The great Harry Potter doesn't even know the counter-curse to such a simple spell. Speaking of which, crucio!"

Harry dropped on all fours. He could feel the whir of the Unforgiveable race past his head. Then he heard someone cry out behind him.

Shit, Blaise!

Lucius was up already, striding towards him with a slight limp, wand out and sneering.

Harry grit his teeth. "Petrificus Totalus! Immobulus! Imperio!"

Lucius smacked each curse away with a flick of his wand, grinning madly. He gestured almost lazily. "Silencio."

Harry felt his vocal chords close up, and realization hit him instantly. He couldn't vocalize any spells, and his nonverbal magic was not as strong as he would have liked it to be. Panic settled into his heart. This was not supposed to happen like this. He couldn't die. Not yet. But he could see no way out of this. Not unless Dumbledore somehow magically—

"Confundus!"


Hermione gasped as Lucius neared her friend. Her fingers dug into Draco's palm and he could feel the fear reverberating off her body.

"Wait, calm down, Granger. Look."

She turned her head in different directions. Draco hadn't pointed for fear his father might glance up and see what Hermione was now looking at. When she caught sight of him, she gave a small cry of relief.

"Yes, yes! Draco, he confounded your father! Things are going to be ok!"

Draco allowed himself a small smirk. "And here you thought Potter was going to save the day. I knew it was just sheer luck on his side."

"I just hope …no! Oh good, Harry stopped him from killing him."

Draco sighed. "And we're back to wonder boy saving the day."

"Jealous?"

Draco could feel his adrenaline dwindling, and he allowed himself to lean slightly on her smaller frame. "Most definitely. I'm stuck in here with you and he gets Blaise."

Hermione shook her head. "Looks like I'm not the only hopeful one. You sound more like your prat self already." She sighed. "I never thought I'd see the day when a Slytherin and a Gryffindor would work together. And my name is Hermione, we've been through this."

Draco let out a hoarse laugh, one that hurt his already injured physique. He ended up coughing instead. "You're impossible."

Hermione gave him a tired smile. "You're one to talk. But seriously, look at them."

Draco did, eyebrow rising slightly when Harry immediately took Blaise' extended hand.

"It just …" Hermione started, glancing away suddenly, "it just gives me hope that...things are possible. Maybe even after all this."

Draco glanced at where she'd quickly looked away from. Their hands were still clenched together. He frowned. There were still so many things left unsaid, left silent, but he held tight anyway. "Maybe … Hermione."


Lucius, having turned his attention towards Harry, looked up in surprise as Blaise' spell hit him straight in the chest. A look of utter bewilderment crossed his features, followed by a blank stare.

Blaise took the moment to rush over to Harry. "Finite Incantatem."

Harry blinked. "I can talk again!"

Blaise rolled his eyes and bent down to inspect Harry's still-stuck feet. "Brilliant observation, Potter. Now move so I can undo this."

Harry frowned but did as told while Blaise muttered the counter-curse. Once free, he wordlessly took the other's proffered hand and stood up. They both drew their wands as they faced a very confused-looking Lucius Malfoy.

"Nice job, Zabini. And…thanks."

"You can butter me up later, Potter. We have some shit to murder. Avada—"

Harry suddenly grabbed a hold of Blaise' wand arm. "Wait. We should let the Ministry deal with him. Or Dumbledore."

The darker teen gave the other an incredulous look. "Seriously? This piece of crap not only tried to murder his wife but—"

Harry paled and looked back to where Narcissa had been.

"She's stable," Blaise continued impatiently, "and out of harm's way. I pulled her a bit farther into the tunnel. Our friends, however—"

"Hermione!" Harry threw Lucius one more look, sent a quick binding charm, and raced towards the barrier that separated Hermione and Draco from himself. As soon as he came within arm's length however—

"Potter, stop!"

Harry, without really knowing why he paid him any attention, halted. "Wha…" He faltered. On the other side, Hermione was shaking her head back and forth.

Blaise joined him. "If I know Lucius Malfoy, and trust me, I do, we can't get through this wall. And neither can they. There's an Impenetrable curse on this cell."

Hermione was nodding her head now. Harry was still somewhat confused with how close Malfoy stood to his best friend. On another note, however, although he couldn't hear Hermione, she could still hear them. And she was agreeing with Blaise.

"So," Harry spoke, eyes on his best friend, "we need Lucius Malfoy to let them out."

"Which is a good thing I didn't kill him, I guess."

"Don't you mean it's a good thing I told you not to kill him?"

Blaise shrugged. "Whatever."

Harry ignored him and stood as close to the barrier as he could. "Hermione, we'll figure something out, I promise. You ok?"

Hermione smiled, however, instead of a yes or no nod, she was suddenly pointing frantically behind them. Malfoy was doing the same. Before Harry could prepare himself, he felt himself being shoved carelessly to the side.

"Move, Potter!"

It happened too fast, with too short of a warning. Harry slid towards an adjoining stone wall, wand fumbling out of his grasp. And Blaise was …

"No, no, shit, no, no, no!"

Blaise lay beneath a pile of stone.

"But how—"

"You really think that Confundus charm had that long of an impact on me? I don't even need a wand, you stupid boy. I am the new and improved Dark Lord, and you cannot defeat me!"

Lucius bellowed his next curse. "Avada Kadavra!"


Review-replies:

Alex- Hello again person who has still not gotten a username *taps foot impatiently* But I guess it's not too bad, I wouldn't have any anonymous reviews otherwise. I'm actually pretty sad about that, I only got seven reviews this last chapter :( among which only one was anonymous. What is this world coming to! Glad you like the suspense, although personally I think I topped it with this chapter *Draco smirk* Speaking of my Draco, I was thinking of having him give little notes of his own in my author's notes. I know it's a bit cliché, but speaking through him is sooo much fun! It's like…I don't know, my pseudo-other half or something haha. And I'm not worried about the flame, not one bit. Just be wary of my dousing aguamenti! And a Huber craft? You know, you should invest in a tardis instead, it's much more inconspicuous and it can time travel! But anyway, just saying … goodbye sir? Ah, so still under the impression I'm a dude, hehe, or maybe I am ;) Cheers to another review! And see what you think next! Much love, tookkia (by the way, the xoxo always reminds me of nacho libre when he's reading that letter, haha, hilarious!)

Review please :)