* ~ The Eighth Year Universe Series ~ *
PART TWO

Last Call for Sin

Chapter 6: You're Gonna Bring Yourself Down

* ~ HOGWARTS CASTLE ~ *

By the time Neville got his band of merry men and women back to the Room of Requirement, there were a few injuries that needed tending to. In the end, they had escaped the Carrows by throwing a Peruvian darkness powder bomb into the middle of the corridor and making a dash for a secret passage. They had also had to cave that passageway in to escape, so they would have to rethink their route the next time they needed to get to the Dark Tower.

"Neville!" Hannah gasped when she saw a large gash in his arm.

Neville shook his head, "I'm fine; Gin can patch this up. Look over Ant and Michael; they both had the cruciatus curse used on them."

Hannah nodded and ran across the room to the two Ravenclaw boys. Neville sank down onto one of the moth-eaten sofas that had appeared in the room.

Ginny cast a healing charm on herself, then gave herself a shake. She met his eye, "Nev-"

Neville shook his head, "Luna first, her head is bleeding."

Ginny looked sceptical, but she patched Luna up first, then she sat down next to Neville and pried his blood-soaked cardigan away from the wound.

"You're becoming quite the general," Ginny said.

Neville grimaced as she cleaned out the wound, "Well, that can't happen again. If we hadn't escaped, what would have happened?"

"We'd all be in the tower," Ginny answered as she dabbed his wound.

"Exactly," Neville said, "The three of us somehow, we've become the leaders of this thing, which means that we can't all go out together like that again. Someone needs to stay here."

Ginny nodded, "You're in charge, but I agree with you."

"I'm not in charge," Neville said with a shake of his head, "Not by choice anyway."

"Maybe not," Ginny said as she began to stitch his arm together with magic, "But you're still good at it."

"It doesn't make me in charge," Neville said. He leant back against the sofa and gritted his teeth, "Can't you numb it?"

Ginny shook her head, "If I numb it and I hit a nerve, I won't know. If I hit a nerve when it isn't numb, you'll let me know about it, trust me."

Neville breathed out shakily, "I hope you don't hit a nerve then."

"I have a steady hand," Ginny promised.

"You should be a Healer."

"That's the plan, assuming I survive the war," Ginny said. She had finished sowing up the wound, so she cast a numbing charm on Neville's arm, and he sighed with relief.

She put her wand down and smiled at him, "I know I had the idea to bring everyone here, Neville, but now that we're here, you're in charge. People respect you, and they like you. They will follow you."

"People feel that way about you too," Neville assured her.

"It's different, though," Ginny said with a shrug, "I'm more abrasive, and I know that. I rub people up the wrong way, but you…you don't see the world in shades of grey. You see the bad, and all you want to do is fix it. You're just like Harry."

Neville shook his head and looked down, "No, I'm not as brave as Harry."

"Harry would say that he's not brave," Ginny said. She smiled sadly, "He would just say that he's good at surviving, and you are getting pretty good at that too."

Neville shrugged, "We're doing what we have to do to stay alive. Just like the Slytherins are. Although it was odd, working with them today."

Ginny nodded her agreement, "It's good to know that they can be our allies when we need them, though. The last thing we needed was to have more enemies in this place."

Neville laughed weakly, "Yeah, but it would be nice if they didn't run away next time. I mean, I don't know why I expected anything more from Malfoy, to be honest, but I thought Nott had more balls than that."

Ginny didn't laugh, "In all fairness, did you see the state of Pansy? If they can do that to one of their own, can you imagine what they will do to one of us if they catch us?"

"I don't really want to imagine it," Neville admitted, "But it just proves that I'm right. From now on, one of us stays here while the others are out. Are we agreed?"

"We are agreed," Ginny promised.

The first thing the girls had done when they realised that the bathroom was about to become their permanent residence was make it more homely. It wasn't the biggest bathroom in the world; it was slightly smaller than Myrtle's bathroom.

As such, they had converted the circular area surrounding the sinks into their living space. Daphne had sectioned off three zones, one for the boys, another for the girls and a third for the three younger girls that they had rescued from the Slytherin common room. Daphne's younger sister Astoria was in her sixth year and could not look more different to her sister if she tried. She had dark brown hair and bright blue eyes. Blaise's youngest sister Billie had just started at Hogwarts, so she was the baby of the group. Beatrice was older; she was in her fourth year. To give Astoria something to do and keep her out of trouble, Daphne tasked her with keeping the younger girls busy and safe.

The living quarters were sparse but bearable. Tracey had transfigured bits of junk from the bathroom and the broom cupboard across the hall into bunk beds. They had hung makeshift curtains up and placed silencing charms on the three areas to give each other some privacy.

On the other side of the circular area, there were a few sofas and a desk. Theo wanted a blackboard for elaborate escape plans and so that he could feel like an Auror commanding his bullpen. Draco had rolled his eyes and said that they weren't stealing a blackboard so that he could look cool.

Sadie had separated the row of toilet and showers cubicles with a wall. She had then stuck a sign up on each side, so it was clear that one side was for the boys and another was for the girls.

Pansy felt terrible because she hadn't helped much, but she had been recovering from severe blood loss and mild hypothermia, so they had forced her to remain in her bed while they renovated their new living quarters. It had been over a week since their daring rescue, and Pansy was finally beginning to look like herself again. She had colour back in her cheeks, and she wasn't exhausted after a trip to the toilet anymore.

"Do you think we're stupid?" She asked Draco as she lay close to him on his bunk bed one night.

Draco rolled onto his side to look at her, "Why would I think we're stupid?"

"For trying to help the light," Pansy whispered, "Should we have just kept our heads down to stay alive?"

"What's the point of staying alive if you have to live with a guilty conscience?" Draco asked, his eyes searching hers.

Pansy smiled and ran her hand down his arm. She paused when she reached the dark mark, and Draco flinched.

"What does he want of you now?"

"Not much yet," Draco replied. He sighed and looked up at the bottom of Theo's bunk, "But I live in fear that he will call me in for a favour."

Pansy closed the small gap between them as they lay together in the tiny bed, "I won't let that happen."

"You don't have power over the Dark Lord, Pans," Draco said gently. His hand rested on her cheek, his lips inches away from hers, "Just over me."

"I think you underestimate how much I love you, Draco Malfoy," Pansy returned softly, brushing her lips against his.

Draco smiled against her, "I love you, Pans, so much."

He kissed her then, but differently from usual. When he had kissed her before the Dark Tower, it was with trepidation. He always held back a little, but when Draco kissed her that time, he put everything he had into the kiss. He poured his heart and soul out for her to see. He kissed her like it was the last time his lips would ever touch hers. His hands roamed down her body; he slipped them under her top and traced the thin scars on her chest. Her breath caught in her throat as she broke the kiss and met his eye.

He didn't need to ask her if it was okay or if this was what she wanted. He could see it in her eyes, the lust, the love, the need for him to hold her. Draco rolled over and hovered above her for a moment, his eyes on hers, then he leant down and captured her lips once more.

She sucked in a breath, and Draco smiled against her lips. With a flick of his wrist, he pulled the makeshift curtains around his bottom bunk to give them some privacy. Then he whispered, "Silencio."

"Oh great," Theo muttered from the bunk above, "You're going to shag right underneath me? Disgusting!"

At this, Pansy laughed and pulled Draco down to her for a final time.

"We need to steal the sword of Gryffindor at some point," Ginny said to Neville in a whisper late one night.

Neville looked up from the knife that he was sharpening, "Gin, you know that chat we had about you saying things that make my head feel like it's going to explode?"

Ginny smiled. They were on guard duty together while the others slept. Over the last few weeks, their number had grown. It wasn't just members of the DA that they took in; it was their siblings or cousins. It was their friends, people that they cared about too much to leave behind when they disappeared into thin air.

As their number grew, the Room of Requirement became more like a youth hostel. It had started with bunk beds, then Seamus had made himself a hammock because he had always wanted to sleep in one, and it had launched a trend. It was a good thing because it freed up floor space, and the room didn't get any bigger, so that was vital.

In one corner of the room, a makeshift hospital wing had been set up. They seldom had the right supplies, which meant that Ginny and Hannah had to compromise and perform healing spells without the right pain potions or properly sterile equipment. Still, so far, nobody had died or had to have any limbs amputated, so they were treating that as a win. They had managed to sneak people in from the dungeons or their common rooms, but as the month wore on, they hadn't needed to return to the Dark Tower.

"Sorry," Ginny chuckled, "I'll explain. In the summer, Rufus Scrimgeour came to my house with Dumbledore's will. Dumbledore left stuff to Harry, Ron and Hermione. I guess there's a reason behind all of it but nothing that makes sense right now."

"Okay," Neville said.

"He left Hermione an old copy of "The Tales of Beedle the Bard", and he left Ron his deluminator." Ginny continued, "He left Harry the snitch he caught in his first ever Quidditch match and the sword of Gryffindor. But Scrimgeour said he couldn't have the sword because it was the property of Hogwarts and therefore not Dumbledore's to give away."

"Why would he leave him the sword of Gryffindor in his will?" Neville frowned.

"I don't know, but I feel like it's important," Ginny admitted.

"So let's say that we do manage to steal it," Neville said, "Theoretically, of course, because it involves breaking into Snape's office, which is just…suicide."

Ginny nodded her agreement.

"How do we get it to Harry once we have it?" Neville questioned.

"I don't know," Ginny admitted, "I don't think we need to do it right now, but we do need to think about the possibility. The other thing we need to do is get that old radio working."

"I agree with that," Neville said with a nod, "If we can tune into any pirate radio stations, we might stumble across gold."

"Fred and George were planning something called Potterwatch when they went on the run with Lee," Ginny said, looking at the sleeping students in the Room of Requirement absentmindedly, "I don't know exactly what they had planned, but they wanted to give people hope."

"And we could definitely use some of that right now," Neville said softly.

"Draco!"

Draco jumped up the moment Theo spun into their bathroom lair, "What is it?"

"Sadie," Theo said, his eyes were wide, and he was gasping for breath, "The Carrows caught her while she was sneaking out to the kitchen. I went to see what was taking so long, and I heard them talking."

"Where is she?" Tracey asked anxiously.

"The tower," Daphne replied darkly.

Theo could only nod.

"I heard Amycus," Theo said. He paused to catch his breath, "He said that maybe it would light a fire under Septimus's arse if his daughter was in danger."

"Bastards!" Daphne hissed.

Draco couldn't help but agree with her.

"They want Septimus to join their ranks," Daphne said. She shook her head, "I mean, of course, they do. He's an inventor. You know what the Dark Lord will be thinking, don't you?"

"That he can make weapons," Draco answered.

"Exactly!" Daphne exclaimed irritably, "So what do they do? They can't touch Sorenson because he's an Auror, a pureblooded Auror. So he's already on their side as far as they are concerned, so they go for Sadie instead."

"Do you think Septimus will turn?" Blaise asked curiously.

"I don't really care," Daphne admitted, "I just don't want Sadie to get caught up in their sick games."

"None of us do," Theo added.

"So, how are we going to get her out?" Draco asked. He clicked his fingers, and a piece of chalk began to draw on the blackboard behind him.

"I'm happy I convinced you to steal that for me," Theo said, watching the chalk map out the tower and all the secret passageways in the vicinity of it.

"It was one of your smarter ideas," Blaise admitted grudgingly.

Daphne nodded. She cocked her head at the drawing, "They've upped their security since last time."

Draco crossed his arms and turned to look at the board, "They learned from their mistakes. The caterwauling charm won't be so easily disabled, and there is more security on the sixth-floor corridor. Not to mention the difficult locking charms on the cell doors."

"Don't forget the trap doors on the stairs that will plunge us into the depths of the tower's dungeon," Blaise spoke up.

"How many floors is that?" Tracey queried.

"About six, so it's not survivable," Draco answered.

"It's simple," Theo said, drawing all attention to him.

"Is it?" Draco asked.

Theo nodded, "The caterwauling charm is on the entrance to the tower. If someone lands on the roof, then it won't set the charm off. The trap doors are easily avoidable if there is only one person on the staircase."

"No," Draco cut in before Theo could finish, "That is a suicide mission."

"What is?" Pansy asked. She couldn't read Theo's mind like Draco could.

Draco didn't answer; he just locked eyes with Theo, "You can't."

"I have to," Theo said, his gaze never wavering from Draco's, "And you know it."

"Theo," Draco looked at him for a long moment. He then sighed and relented, "Go."

Theo nodded and ran out of the room as quickly as he had run into it.

"What was that about?" Tracey asked irritably.

"Yes, please do fill in the people who can't read Theo's mind by staring at him soulfully," Blaise remarked sarcastically.

Draco looked over at the rest of his friends, "He's going in alone."

"But he'll never get them both out!" Pansy exclaimed.

"Exactly," Draco said quietly, "He's going to go in via the roof, which will set off the caterwauling charm. But it will give him enough time to get Sadie onto the staircase. Then he's going to trigger one of the trapdoors and lower her into the dungeon. From there, she will be able to get out into the dungeons near the Slytherin common room."

"But he won't have time to get out," Blaise realised.

Draco shook his head, "The Carrows will catch him."

"And if he's lucky, they will imprison him," Daphne said quietly, "If he's unlucky…"

"They'll kill him," Draco said.

Pansy stepped forward and hugged Draco. He shut his eyes and held her tightly.

"You got all that from looking into his eyes for a few seconds?" Tracey asked.

Draco shook his head and pressed a kiss against the top of Pansy's head, "No, he opened his mind up so that I could read his thoughts. We've been practising with Legilimency and Occlumency. If both parties are willing to open their minds, you can communicate without the incantation."

"So he's planning on killing himself to get her out?" Tracey asked angrily, "And we're all going to sit back and let him be all noble and do that?"

"Well, what do you suggest we do?" Draco asked irritably.

"Oh, I don't know! How about have his back?" Tracey remarked sarcastically.

"How, Tracey?" Draco asked bluntly.

"We take out the security on the sixth-floor corridor and fight the Carrows when they arrive," Tracey said simply, "That will buy Theo enough time to get out."

"It also puts all of us at risk," Draco pointed out.

"Who cares?" Tracey asked irritably, "It's Theo! We can't just leave him to-"

She cut herself off when Draco gripped his arm and cried out in pain.

"What's wrong?" Pansy asked.

Draco lifted his sleeve and looked down at his dark mark. It burned hotter than it ever had before, and he knew that he had to ignore it.

"They're calling me," Draco hissed.

"What happens if you don't go?" Daphne asked, her eyes lingering on the snake.

"It will burn like this for hours," Draco answered, "But it gives us the perfect opportunity to get Sadie out. If he is calling us, then the Carrows and Snape will be leaving the castle."

"Then we need to go and help Theo!" Pansy said.

"You are not going," Draco said firmly, "I put my foot down at that. You only managed to slip out of the tower yourself last night after your latest capture. You're not in any state to go on a rescue mission."

Pansy looked reluctant, but Daphne stepped forward and said, "Draco's right, you need to stay here, Pansy."

"Fine," Pansy agreed.

"And you can guard the door to the bathroom, but that's the furthest that you will go, Draco," Daphne added.

Draco opened his mouth to object.

"You're in pain, which makes you a liability," Daphne said.

Draco knew she was right, so he nodded, "I'll guard the bathroom door."

Daphne turned to Blaise and Tracey, "Come on, we need to help Theo."

By the time they put the plan into motion, it was evening. The Carrows had left less than an hour ago, and it was almost curfew which meant that the corridors were relatively empty. Theo landed on the roof as planned, but he had reinforcements on the sixth floor now.

He had hoped that Sadie wouldn't be in the top cell, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that it was empty. It took him at least ten minutes to break the lock on the door to the tower, and when he did, it set off the caterwauling charm.

Theo ran into the tower and blasted down the door of Sadie's cell, "Sadie!"

Sadie looked up. She looked exhausted and very ill, she was incredibly pale, and it seemed to take a lot of effort to lift her head.

"Theo," She whispered.

He hurried towards her and cut the ties that bound her. Like Neville had been in Defence Against the Dark Arts, she had been restrained upright to the wall.

Sadie collapsed into his arms and let out a whimper of pain.

"What did they do to you?" Theo asked. He was unable to hide the anger that laced his voice.

"Nothing," Sadie lied, "How did you get in here?"

"The Carrows are at a Death Eater meeting," Theo said. He helped Sadie to her feet, "And I flew onto the roof to get you, but I set off the caterwauling charm, so we don't have much time."

"Ah!" Sadie cried out when she put weight on her right leg.

"Is it broken?" Theo asked anxiously.

"I…" Sadie shook her head, "I don't know."

Without a second thought, Theo lifted Sadie into his arms and rushed down the spiral staircase as fast as he could. He knew where the trap doors were and made sure to avoid every single one of them.

Sadie clung to him tightly. She had complete faith in him. Sadie knew he would get her to safety; she knew he wouldn't fall into any of the traps. They had been friends for a long time, but at that moment, she had never trusted him more.

"Where's Pansy?" Sadie asked. She fought the urge to shut her eyes and let sleep take over her, but it was growing increasingly difficult.

"She got out last night, snuck out while the Carrows were doing the rounds," Theo explained when they reached the bottom of the narrow staircase.

At that point, Theo pressed his finger against Sadie's lips as they heard voices in the corridor. He acted quickly and pulled them both into a broom cupboard. He shut the door quietly and placed Sadie down on her good foot.

They were pressed very tightly together in the broom cupboard, and even in her exhausted state of mind, Sadie blushed slightly at the contact. They held their breath as the voices passed them on the stairs. The voices belonged to Crabbe and Goyle, who were patrolling the area in the Carrows absence. They must have noticed the lack of the security troll, and in a moment, they would discover that Sadie was gone too.

"Come on," Theo whispered. He opened the door and lifted Sadie effortlessly once more. They emerged onto the main sixth-floor corridor, and Theo saw Daphne waving them over from the entrance to the central tower.

Throughout their explorations as of late, they had discovered that the central tower doubled as a great shortcut. There were secret entrances and exits into it on almost every single floor. They darted into the tower and followed Daphne down it until they reached a fake window that opened out onto the second-floor corridor.

"There you are," Draco hissed from where he had been keeping watch outside the fake window. He knew that was how they would re-enter the second-floor corridor, "You took longer than expected."

"I think Sadie has broken something," Theo admitted, "She can't walk."

"Come on then," Draco said. He peered along the corridor then led the way towards the bathroom, "We need to get her back so Trace can look over her."

Theo nodded and smiled down reassuringly at Sadie, "Don't worry," he whispered, "We'll be back soon."

They rushed along the corridor and made their way through the locked door into the bathroom. Draco made sure that the door was locked behind them, and they waded through the flooded corridor.

"Sadie!" Daphne called out when they lay Sadie down in the bathroom. Her eyelids were very heavy, and her eyes were beginning to roll back into her head, "What happened?"

"She might have broken something," Theo answered, "I had to carry her here."

He knelt next to her as Tracey and Daphne began to cast diagnostic charms on their friend.

"You're safe now," He assured Sadie, placing a kiss on her cold cheek.

Sadie tried to look him in the eye, but the effort was too much. Her eyes rolled back into her head, and she lost consciousness.

Theo stayed by her side and watched anxiously as the girls gave her potions and performed healing charms on her. She had been tortured, which was why she was so weak. Her ankle was broken because they had bound her up so tightly and roughly.

After what felt like a lifetime, Tracey blew out a sigh of relief and said, "She's going to be okay."

Theo let out a breath that he hadn't even realised that he was holding. He nodded. Draco put his arm around his friend and said, "How is your arm?"

Theo looked down and frowned. His dark mark had been burning the entire time he had been with Sadie, but he hadn't even noticed. His skin was marked and burned; it was beginning to blister. He looked over at Draco and saw that his friend's arm was the same.

"I didn't…" Theo looked up at Draco, "I didn't even feel it."

Draco raised an eyebrow at the dark-haired boy, "Well, if that's not love, I don't know what is.

Theo usually denied it; he said that Sadie was just his friend. He made a smart arse remark about how he was the schools most eligible bachelor, but this time he just let his eyes linger on Sadie for longer than they should have done.

"She's going to be okay," Draco re-iterated.

Theo nodded again, "She's going to be okay."

The next day, Theo hovered close to Sadie while she lay in bed and recovered. He didn't want to constantly irritate her by being by her side, but he made sure to check in on her regularly, and he didn't let her out of bed unless she needed to go to the toilet.

The only exception was in the evening when Draco fiddled with the radio, and Tracey hit it with a blast of magic to get it to work. It was challenging to get the radio to pick up any signal due to the wards on the castle. The Death Eaters didn't want them to hear news from home, but for a wizard as skilled with ward-magic as Draco, it was relatively easy to hack the radio signal and reroute it. The hard part was guessing the password for the 'Potterwatch' broadcast, but most nights, they managed to get in. They didn't like how overly 'light-heavy it was, but it summarised events in the outside world, and more importantly, it reported any deaths.

Theo helped Sadie onto a sofa in the living area of the bathroom; he wrapped her up in a blanket as they all fell silent to listen to the broadcast together. They listened to the usual nonsense until they reached the segment about recent deaths, and thankfully, none of their families names were mentioned. But when they got onto news about the 'Chief Death Eater', that being Voldemort, a familiar name came up.

"And we are joined here today by Anaconda. We have heard in these past few hours that the Chief Death Eater has recruited another. The great mind that is Septimus Cauldwell has turned his expertise to the dark. What do you have to say about that Anaconda?"

The group of friends drew in a collective gasp at those words.

Theo put a supportive arm around Sadie as 'Anaconda' began to speak.

"That's Sorenson," Sadie whispered.

"I have heard it from a reputable source, Rapier, that Septimus only turned to the light under duress. His daughter is in her final year at Hogwarts, and she was held captive, tortured and threatened to twist his hand. He is not a strong man, not a fighter, but an inventor. He did what he felt he had to do for the sake of his daughter. No part of me believes that he ever wanted to join them."

Sadie gripped Theo tightly.

"Two Death Eaters arrived at his home and attacked his wife, then informed him of his daughter's imprisonment. I think it would be enough to turn any good man."

Sadie's eyes widened.

"And is his wife alive, Anaconda?"

"Yes, she is. An Auror was at the scene when the attack took place, and from what I heard, he killed one of the attackers, Rabastan Lestrange. The Auror in question is now on the run from the regime. I believe that he has plans to meet up with a section of Aurors who rebelled against the Ministry when the Chief Death Eater took over.

"That is good to know. Thank you for your report, Anaconda."

"Rabastan," Sadie said quietly.

"But he's your uncle," Daphne said.

"That means nothing," Sadie said, she nestled into Theo's embrace, "He always hated my mother. He wouldn't lose sleep over attacking his own sister."

"I didn't realise there was bad blood there, sorry, Sadie," Daphne said. She sat down on her friend's other side and put an arm over her.

Sadie nodded, "You know that my mother dated Draco's father when they were in school, right?"

Daphne nodded, and Sadie continued, "After they broke up, she was disowned for running away from her marriage contract to that thug Avery which turned my uncles against her. Then when she married an eccentric half-blood who had been in Ravenclaw and was an inventor with no respectable job…it was the final straw, I guess."

"It's not a bad thing to be distant from them," Draco said honestly, "At least this way, you didn't have to grow up with the Lestrange brothers and the sick three-way they have going on with my aunt."

Daphne made a face, "Gross."

"Yes, it is," Draco assured her.

Sadie sighed, "My father will go to Azkaban when this is over."

"No, he won't," Daphne said, "He was coerced into joining them Sadie, it's not his fault."

Sadie wanted to believe that, but as the war went on, she just grew more cynical. She sighed and got to her feet, "I'm going back to bed," she said quietly.

"Sadie-"

"Just leave me be," Sadie snapped, disappearing behind the curtain without another word.

* ~TBC ~ *