A/N Hello there! Um so first off I wanna say sorry cuz this chapter is sorta short. But in my defense apush is kicking my butt, so yeah. My head is like completely full 24/7 and mmmmmmmm. Staring at my computer screen gives me a headache. Because it's like the only thing I get to look at all day. Yayyyyy. Anywayyy. Newspaper is pretty fun. I get to talk to people over the fun AHHHHHH. Introverts worst nightmare *cries*. Andddddd lets see. I drink too much coffee. Like so much coffee. I really love coffee. And it's actually kind of late on a Friday night and I'm just you know, editing and writing some nice author notes. Everything is such an angst fest right now XD. I can't wait for things in this fic to take a happier direction. So we just see from the kids point of view this time, no Snape sorry. But he'll be back next chapter. I think that's all. Please review! I know I say this every time but just a few words of encouragement make me so happy! Thanks for reading and please please please review!

Shout out to KK for being an awesome reviewer! Love ya :)

Chapter 23

Draco

Everyone was screaming. Except him, he was beyond screaming. Harry had just been dropped in the boiling purple sludge, he was being boiled alive.

"Finally, Harry Potter is gone forever." Voldemort spread his arms wide as if he was welcoming someone into them. "This world has ended, it is time for the new one to begin with me as your leader."

Next to him Hermione vomited onto the ground, Lyra was a sickly gray color, her eyes standing stark against her skin. And Ginny-Lupin was struggling against a magical choke hold Bellatrix had him (her?) in. Draco searched for Snape through the chaos of Voldemort preaching, Hermione vomiting, and Harry being boiled. He was nowhere to be found, Draco felt a knot of anxiety form in his stomach. He couldn't lose Harry and Snape. Not both of them.

"Bow down before your-" Voldemort broke off when he caught the Death Eater's collective gasps. He whipped around towards the cauldron.

It had been subtly bubbling before, now it was overflowing, the sludge turned to foam. It was a deep red, spilling over the edges and heading Voldemort's way. He quickly stepped back.

Draco's breath caught in his throat as a figure rose from the foam. Holy shit.

"I'm not that easy to kill Tom." Harry said, and tumbled out of the cauldron. Snape appeared out of nowhere, right behind Voldemort. He flicked out his wand, but before he could perform a spell Voldemort apparated out of the room.

The already chaotic room became ten times more so. Bellatrix abandoned now just Lupin, and made a move for Snape. Hermione elbowed her momentarily distracted Death Eater in the face and Draco followed her lead. Both of them tackled the one holding Lyra and Hermione made a wild motion for her to escape. Lyra took one look between the Death Eaters and Harry and ran the other direction. Smart girl.

"You go too." Draco said quickly.

"No! I'm a Gryffindor, remember?" she said. Both of them had a brief second to survey the scene before them before the Death Eaters pointed their wands in their direction.

"Oh no." Hermione muttered. Draco let his thoughts race wildly. They needed to get out of here with everyone. Preferably alive.

"Zig zag around the room!" Draco voiced, turning to Hermione. She gave him a brief glance before she did as he said. He ran between the Death Eaters, trying to make them really dizzy.

"Go!" Snape yelled through the turmoil.

"I'm-" Before he could say a word Snape tossed him an object and without thinking he caught it. He stared down at the quill in horror, a gasp like sound escaped from him as he felt himself begin to spin away from them all.

Ginny

"Mum." She repeated for what felt like the hundredth time. "Mum we really should go back-"

"Don't you start with that again Ginerva Weasley." Her mother breathed. Ginny rolled her eyes, though it burned to do so.

"Then we should get out of here."
"We're supposed to wait for the others." Molly pulled back to look at her. If they came back.

"Uh, mum. Earlier there were these people here." She started.

"Don't be silly, this town is abandoned." Mum said, turning her head back and forth to prove her point.

"No it's not." Ginny snapped, crossing her arms and glaring at her.

"There's no need to be cross." Molly glared back at her. "You should be grateful Professor Lupin rescued you."

"But I left them!" she yelled.

"They would have wanted you to get out of there!" she shot back.

"You don't-" Understand. That's what she had been planning to say before someone wrapped their hands around her mother's neck.

Ginny screamed and made a move towards her, but another pair of hands held her back.

"I told you!" She choked.

"Who are you?" asked Molly, ignoring Ginny.

"They don't talk." Ginny said, struggling to get out of her captors grasp. The woman holding Molly was tall, with long black hair hanging in front of her face. Molly twisted around, looking for proof in the woman's face. She stared stoically back at her.

"Well then." Molly said breathlessly.

"I think they're supposed to hold us here until Death Eaters can come and get us." Ginny replied.

"But no one-"

"Yes, but they're all probably busy dealing with whatever is going on down there."

"Of course."

Ginny opened her mouth to ask exactly who the hell was holding her, when Lyra of all people came rocketing out of a house.

"Oh my freaking goodness there is so much weird shit going on! And oh my God, why are these people holding you!" Lyra ran up to the person holding Ginny and nudged them out of the way. The man holding Ginny fell as if he was a statue.
"Wow that is so weird. Omg is that your mum! Hi! I'm Lyra." She went and nudged them out of the way too.

"That is so cool!" Lyra said. She grinned at Ginny.

"Lyra-" Ginny opened her mouth to ask how the hell was she here in the first place, when the lady lying on the ground reached out a hand and grabbed Lyra's ankle. She screamed and did her best to kick them off, Ginny ran over to help with Molly, but a jet of green light got there first. Ginny's heart stuttered in her chest. She barely knew Lyra, but the others sure seemed to know her pretty damn well. And now she was dead, in a matter of moments her existence wiped from the earth.

Draco

He whipped his head around, taking in the familiar town. Damn. Of course he ended up being back here. He heard a scream come from down the street he was standing along, he hurried over to see what the noise was.

"Ginny run!" Molly Weasley was yelling at her daughter. Lyra was lying on the ground completely still. Bellatrix was standing over Lyra, that bright, crazed look glistening in her eyes.

Ginny looked to Draco, her eyes wide with fear.

Bellatrix had yet to see Draco standing right behind her, so he frantically motioned for Ginny to make a run for him. She subtly jerked a finger in her mother's direction and he resisted the urge to tear out his hair in frustration. Bloody Gryffindors.

"I'm going to-" None of them ever got to hear what Bellatrix was going to do because Draco ran up from behind her and wrapped his hand around her neck. Now who was the Gryffindor. He kicked his knee into the small of her back, but she twisted and held her wand to his throat. Shit.

"It's the filthy blood traitor." She whispered in his ear. Oh yeah. He'd nearly forgotten about that.

"You know your daddy went behind all of our backs and made sure you didn't feel any pain when you got that chopped off." She drew a hand down the stump where his arm had been.

"So the Dark lord made him kill your mummy!" She laughed, sounding nearly as insane as Voldemort. Draco would've fallen to his knees if Bellatrix hadn't yanked him up by his hair. He gasped and caught a glimpse of Ginny looking desperately from him to her mum. He tried to breath around the rock in his chest. He was never going to see his mum again. And his father...if he wasn't already dead he surely would be soon. He realized he'd never told either of them that he loved them. He would've screamed if Bellatrix wasn't pressing a knife down on his vocal cords.

Ginny

This had really turned to a very big mess. Draco looked like he was about to die, and Lyra was dead, her mum was trying to get her to run, though she was not going anywhere. Because Draco was her friend, and the rest of her friends were still down there with Voldemort. Great. This sucked. It sucked so much! Merlin. Why did Voldemort have to go ruining everything?

"Ginny." Mum gritted.

"I'm not going!" She hissed back. "We have to help him!"

"No we don't he's a De-"

"He is not mum! Jeez!" Ginny made a wild motion to Draco where Bellatrix was still hissing in his ear.

Molly opened her mouth to retort but Ginny ignored her and reached into her mother's robes where she knew she kept her wand. Molly made a noise of protest, but it was too late.

"Accio Draco." Draco went flying out of Bellatrix's grasp and collided with Ginny, knocking her over.

"Umph." she said, trying to get up from the ground. Molly wrenched the wand out of Ginny's grasp and touched both her and Draco. Bellatrix already had her wand pointed at them, but they apparated away. Not out of the village, just a few streets down, inside a house.

"Mum! There are people here!" Ginny said.

"I'm sure they will be perfectly willing to help us out." Molly said stiffly.

"Like those guys who were choke holding us earlier?"

"I'm sure they're not all like that-"

"Oh my Draco your arm!" Ginny gasped, she put a hand on him. "What happened?"

"Uh, my father sort of cut it off but-oh shit." Draco pointed behind Ginny and Molly, both of them turned to see what he was pointing at.

Two people were standing in the doorway, completely silent.

"I told you." Ginny whispered. Molly stunned both of them, then shut the door with magic. After a deafening moment of silence, twin knocks at the door made the three of them practically jump out of their skin.

"Oh my…" Molly said, putting a hand to her mouth.

"We have to go back for Harry and-" Draco started.

"YES!" Ginny thrust her arms in the air. "I know! We have to go back down there. For Harry. And I guess Snape can come with us when we get out."

"No." Molly said firmly. "We're supposed to wait here for-"

"To hell with waiting!" Ginny yelled.

"Ginny!" Her mother admonished.

"Don't Ginny me! Our friends are going to die if we don't do something!"

"I mean they might not, because Snape and Lupin are there-"

"Shut up Draco."

"I'm just saying-I mean we should still try and rescue them." He said quickly, catching the look on her face.

"Right, so-"

"No. We are going to wait here for everyone." Molly repeated.

Both of them ignored her.

"We need to find a way to get down there." Ginny said.

"Where even is there?" Draco asked.

"Ginny."

"I dunno...maybe there's like a secret passageway in one of these houses or something." She said.

"Ginny." They continued to ignore Molly.

"But Bellatr-"

"GINNY!" Her mum shook her with rather alarming force.
"We're trying to-shit. That's creepy." Two people were staring at them from the window, unblinking and not a sound coming from them.

Harry

So Voldemort was gone again. That was good. He disappeared without a crack and for a split second all of the Death Eater's stopped in confusion. Snape used the moment to thrust a crumpled scarf into his hand, he yanked Hermione next to him and Lupin joined them with a brisk motion. After a sickening spinning movement he blinked in the sunlight of the same village from earlier.

"Damn. I think I just saw Bellatrix." Hermione said, shaking Harry. He wanted to tell her there was no need to shake him, he could hear her just fine, but he was too distracted by what she had said. Bellatrix. The woman who had killed Sirius. Maybe he could kill her.

"What?" Snape asked.

"Bellatrix." Hermione repeated. "I saw her. Now." She said it slowly, as if repeating it for a child.

Snape muttered something under his breath while Lupin asked her,

"Where?"

"She disappeared around that corner." Hermione said, pointing left.

"Molly and Ginny are supposed to be here." Lupin said, running an agitated hand through his hair.

"What happened to your arm?" Hermione asked Snape. I chopped it off because Voldemort told me to.

"Something. Try a locating spell." Snape said without looking at either of them. Harry felt a sour feeling run down his throat and suppressed a shiver. Lupin did as Snape said, and all of them watched in anticipation as the wand spun in his palm. After a few agonizing seconds it stopped in the palm of his hand. North.
"Oh! Here's a prize!" Cooed Bellatrix's voice. Couldn't she just leave them alone for a few seconds so they could grab the others and run? Snape and Lupin drew their wands and Harry and Hermione moved closer to each other.

"Oh my God." Hermione was muttering under her breath. Harry found he couldn't find words to express just how he was feeling. Bellatrix was silent. He wondered if she was watching them from somewhere. Lupin pointed in the same direction as the wand. The four of them shuffled in that direction, heads whipping around every few seconds searching for Bellatrix. They'd just passed a street and were continuing their way down the street, when Harry stopped dead in his tracks. Down the street there was a motionless body. Brown curls found out around her, eyes open but unseeing. They seemed to stare straight into him. Unknowingly a sound wretched itself from his throat and Bellatrix appeared behind them.

A/N So Lyra's dead. How's everyone doing? So this isn't relevant to fanfiction at all but has anyone listened to folklore? I'm actually obsessed. XD. If you haven't yet you totally should because it is AMAZING! ANNDDDDDDD. That's all. BYEEEE. Stay safe and wash yo hands!