Chapter 23

Fear gripped Kingsley as he replayed Hermione's message in his mind once more. Even though she, Harry and Draco had fought against Death Eaters, a mere few hours ago, he still couldn't help but be worried about them taking on Lucius Malfoy alone. Lucius was known to be one of the best duelers in the world. His sadistic demeanor only made his attacks worse for his victims.

"Dawlish, Williamson, you're coming with me." Kingsley ordered as Hermione's patronus finally disappeared. "Malfoy Manor, now!"

The three top aurors ran out of the hall towards the safest apparition point, gave each a brief nod before disapparating. The appeared with a loud pop, just outside the Manor gates, and was instantly greeted by the sound of Hermione's agonizing screams.

Draco was struggling to get back up from the floor after his father had hit him with the crucio curse. He needed to do something smart now because his father was casting the same spell on Hermione while staring directly at Draco. A glance at his unconscious mother made his heart drop more. He hoped that she was at least alive. Draco gripped his wand tightly as his energy and mind slowly began to clear and return to normalcy.

"Are you ready to duel me like a man, boy!?" Lucius shouted.

"I've been a man since I was 14 years old, you just never noticed." Draco retorted. "Just like how you never noticed that your own son...your own flesh and blood...had been spying on you and working for the side of light since he first started Hogwarts. Have you asked yourself yet how you could be so foolish for believing that I was your protege? When all along, I've been best friends with Harry Potter and in love with a muggle!"

"Defodio!" Lucius casted, turning his wand to Draco and leaving Hermione collapsed on the floor, writhing in pain.

Draco quickly casted a protego around himself before throwing an offensive spell of his own at his father. They battled each other for what seemed like forever as Hermione slowly regained her senses once more. She gripped her wand tightly and stood up, prepared to attack Lucius once more with her own spells, but Draco glanced at her, shaking his head quickly.

"My mom, Hermione! Get her out of here!" Draco ordered while blocking another curse from his father.

Hermione wanted to help, but she knew that Narcissa's survival was vital to Draco. He did everything...all his spying...all his enduring of Voldemort and his father...all of it...for his entire life...had been for his mother's survival. Without any further thought, Hermione rushed over to Narcissa and casted a quick diagnostic spell. She was relieved to find that other than a few bruises, Narcissa was alive and well. Just unconscious. She gripped the woman's hand and quickly apparated them both to Grimmauld Place.

"Hermione!" Sirius greeted before rushing over to Narcissa himself. "What happened?"

"She's fine. I've got to get back to Draco before his father kills him." Hermione said quickly.

"No! Hermione you can't be - " Sirius snapped but Hermione apparated away before he could finish his thought.

The scene had changed drastically once she returned to the manor. Draco was now tied up and pinned against the wall from an incarcerous curse while Lucius was nowhere to be seen. Hermione rushed over to Draco, trying to pull the gag out of his mouth. Once he was finally free to speak, he began shaking his head at her.

"Leave! Now! He's waiting for you!" Draco rushed out.

"By all means, son, don't make her leave just yet." Lucius smirked as he re-entered the room, pointing his wand directly at Hermione. "Miss Granger, I have a question for you. A simple one really. Will you follow my instructions or shall I torture my son until you give in?"

Hermione's eyes widen as she quickly understood the implications of what he was saying. If she didn't obey him, he would hurt Draco. The problem was...he could ask her to do anything. Not knowing if she could even follow his instructions was a problem for her.

"Don't listen to him, Hermione!" Draco pleaded with her as he glared menacingly at his father.

Lucius waved his hand quickly at Draco, causing another rope to wrap around his mouth, silencing him. He placed his full attention on Hermione, leering at her in a way that was making her immensely uncomfortable.

"I could always cast an imperio on you." Lucius suggested as he twirled his wand between his fingers.

Conjuring up all the Gryffindor courage she could muster, she quickly raised her wand to Lucius, casting a defensive spell. Unfortunately, the skilled dueler laughed and with a wave of his hand, the spell bounced off of him.

"You really think Voldemort was the most powerful wizard in the world?" Lucius seethed as he stepped closer to Hermione, constantly deflating all of her spells as she backed up away from him. "The only thing that fool knew how to do was make fucking horcruxes. No, I am the most powerful wizard in the world!"

He quickly cast a body binding spell on Hermione, causing her to stand straight and stare at him with her own terrified eyes. No matter how much she tried, Hermione couldn't break free of the spell. A warm sensation began to pass through her body, causing her to feel even more uncomfortable. The worst part was...the heat was increasing to an unbearable rate. She was feeling as if she was being suffocated.

"Can you bear it?" Lucius smirked. "It's my own little twist on the Petrificus Totalus spell."

Draco growled angrily as he noticed the painful look in Hermione's eyes. He needed to do something, but what? He was tied to a wall, his options was limited. But seeing the woman, he loved the most in this messed up world, being tortured by his own father was instilling something in him that he had never felt before. It was growing inside him...a surge of power that was almost mind-consuming.

Lucius pulled his eyes away from Hermione for a second to glance back at his son. Draco had become unusually quiet and now he knew why. He remembered that confused look. He was 17 himself when he saw that look reflected on his own face.

"No…" Lucius whispered. "It supposed to skip a generation!"

A flash a blue light erupted from Draco, as his binds snapped. He dropped to the floor, landing on his feet, as the power surging through him caused him to finally use wandless magic for the first time. It was the type of magic that was rare to many witches and wizards. The most powerful ones, especially those from pureblood families, were able to use it after a lot of practice. Draco, feeling the power of his magic, glared at his father before wandlessly casting a spell to throw him against the wall and pin him there.

Once Lucius was pinned, the spell on Hermione broke, freeing her of the unbearable pain she had just endured. She collapsed on the floor, breathing heavily as her body began to slowly cool down from the incurred heat.

"Draco…" she said softly as she lifted her head to see that Draco was wandlessly choking his father. "He...he needs to go to Azkaban…"

"Azkaban is too good for him." Draco stated in a deep dark voice that Hermione had never heard before. It should have frightened her, but to her surprise, it didn't.

The sound of doors being thrown open echoed around them as Kingsley, Dawlish, Williamson, Harry and even Luna arrived to the scene. Everyone was stunned in silence as they watched Lucius Malfoy being held up against the wall and seemingly choking to death. Kingsley was the first to jump into action. He slowly stepped over to Draco, who was glaring intently at Lucius with his fists clenched, and placed a gently hand on his shoulder.

"Let him pay for his sins, Draco...in Azkaban." Kingsley said softly.

But Draco didn't budge. Kingsley glanced back at Hermione, who was still curled up on the floor, breathing heavily. She took a deep breath, nodded to Kingsley and slowly rose to her feet, walking over to Draco. She placed herself in front of him and wrapped her arms around his waist, pressing her head to his chest.

"Come back...Draco...come back to me now." she whispered loud enough for only him to hear.

Her voice, somehow, reached the back of Draco's mind, pulling him out of his concentrated state. He breathed out a long breath as the power he felt quickly began to dissipate. He lowered his eyes to Hermione as his father tumbled to the floor in a heap. Kingsley and Dawlish jumped into action, binding Lucius and taking hold of his wand.

"Hermione…" Draco choked out as tears began to fall from his eyes.

"It's over, my love. For us...it's now over." She said soothingly as she tightened her hold on him.

"I need...I can't be in this...house...anymore." Draco mumbled as he allowed Hermione to pull him away from the room.

"Hermione." Kingsley called out. "We're going to need a formal explanation for what happened here."

"Yes, but not today." Hermione stated as she gripped Draco's hand and apparated them to her parents house.

She couldn't look around at the familiar place for too long. She couldn't stop to remember some of her fond memories or wonder about her parents at the moment. She needed to take care of Draco first. She pulled him into the house and gasped as she quickly realised that her house had been trashed completely.

"So they did come." Hermione breathed out.

"Yes." Draco nodded, glancing around the house weakly. "They did it a week after your parents left. I didn't know how to tell you. Your parents are safe though. That...I made sure of."

Hermione nodded her head and helped him up the stairs to the bedrooms. She placed him to lean against the wall as she pulled out her wand and began to fix her room, returning it to normal before helping Draco to the bed. She covered him with a blanket and sat on the edge of the bed, watching his eyes slowly droop close as he gave into his sleep. She knew that him using wandless magic had taken a lot out of him. He looked so drained and weak that she wasn't sure what she could do to help him besides ensuring that he got some much needed rest.

Once he was breathing normally while sleeping, she got up and walked around the house, taking in all the damage that had been done to her home. Using her wand, she quickly fixed everything that was pretty easy to fix, and within an hour, all the bedrooms were livable once more. She went to the fireplace to complete her final task. She activated it and pulled out some floo powder from her trusty satchel, throwing it in and calling out her destination.

She stepped out of the fireplace into a silent Grimmauld Place. The lights had been dimmed. She made her way into the kitchen since it seemed to be fully lit. She saw Narcissa and Sirius sitting across from each other, each silent and nursing a cup of tea. There seemed to be no animosity between the two, which Hermione was grateful for.

She stepped into the room, meeting Sirius' eyes before turning slowly to face Narcissa. She was grateful then that her pseudo-mother seemed to be more than alright. Narcissa stood up, gracefully at first, before running over to Hermione and engulfing her in a tight hug that was rather unbecoming for a pureblood witch.

"Thank the Gods that you are alright my dear." Narcissa whispered into her ear.

"Are you feeling better?" Hermione wondered. "Lucius didn't harm you...too much?"

"Thankfully, no." she smiled gratefully at Hermione. "You and Draco arrived just before he could do any real damage. Is Draco with you?"

"No." Hermione said softly. "Some things happened at the Manor after we saved you. He's at my parents old house...resting."

"What happened?" Narcissa demanded.

"I think he tapped into some rare power that gave him the ability to fully use wandless magic." Hermione explained.

Sirius slowly rose from his chair as Hermione words were spoken. He knew what Hermione was speaking of. It was the kind of power that even the Black family line possessed. Draco being both of Black and Malfoy descent meant that he was more powerful that anyone would have imagined. But, that level of power was very draining, not only on the users magic but also on the users life force.

"You need to get Severus to Draco." Sirius ordered as Narcissa stood motionless in a sort of daze. "Draco's life depends upon it!"

A/N

Happy New Year everyone! I'm glad that many of you are still liking the story. Let me know your thoughts on this chapter! See you all soon!