Chapter 14- Last Times

Draco woke up early the next morning, threw on some robes, and sat on his bed. He didn't know what to do anymore. There was too much that had to be done, too much that was going on. He didn't know whether or not he should tell Hermione about what he had to do. He didn't know how he was going to get to the others that were imprisoned in the house. He didn't know whether or not Potter was coming, or what he was going to do if he did.

And it was all too much to take.

"Draco?" Hermione's hesitant voice came from the doorway. "Can I come in?"

Draco, because his face was buried in his hands, let out a muffled groan, which Hermione took as a yes. She walked across the room and sat beside Draco on the bed. "Something's wrong."

He nodded.

"It's got to do with your Father, doesn't it?"

He nodded again.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Draco's head shook in his hands, Hermione could hear a muffled sob. She reached out and placed her warm palm on his back, and ran it up and down slowly. Strangely enough, it calmed Draco.

"Draco- what is it?" Hermione persisted.

Draco released his face from his hands and looked up at Hermione. His gray eyes were slightly bloodshot. "You said- you said Potter is coming?"

"Ninety percent sure." Hermione said. "Why?"

"It's- it's nothing." He choked.

"You keep asking me that question, though. There's something going on."

"I- no." Draco said. "No, there's not. Nothing. I just… nothing."

"You. Are. Lying." Hermione said.

Draco didn't answer for a full minute. "About Weasley and Lovegood and them. I have an idea."

Hermione decided to drop the subject of Draco's depression. This was far more important at the moment. "And?"

"We can get in there. The dungeons, I mean. I know how."

"And what are we supposed to do? Just barge in there and release them?"

"Well…"

"You aren't serious!"

"It wasn't a thoroughly thought-out plan. I only had the base idea done."

"Well… you can get in. And you won't get caught, right?"

"I doubt it. Knowing the Dark Lord, he was probably cocky and didn't bother to place any guards and such."

"You can't be sure, though."

"Of course not. But I was just thinking…"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Harry ran a grimy hand over his forehead, smearing a line of dirt across his face. He had just finished demolishing and hiding his whole shack- by hand.

After Hermione and Draco had left the night before, he had thought forever about whether or not he was going to turn himself in. And he had made a decision.

He had destroyed his whole house and prepared to leave to another shelter. He never stayed in one place for too long.

To pass the time as he walked (magic could be detected) he thought about Hermione and Draco. They made such an unlikely couple.

At school, Draco had been a bully. Although it was more of towards him, occasionally Ron. Draco never directed his insults towards Hermione unless it considered blood prejudice. But he still hurt her feelings badly, even causing her to cry once.

He honestly didn't want the two of them to be a couple, but he would try his best to respect it if they did. He shuddered, however, to think of what Ron's reaction would be. Draco's perfect face would probably be marred by a black eye in a matter of seconds.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Voldemort stood before a circle of hooded men, and one woman. The room was dark, as it always was in a Death Eater meeting. Candles provided what mere light there was.

"I am glad to see that non of you decided to… conveniently miss this evening's meeting."

The woman threw herself down at his feet. "Never my Lord! Never would I dare displease you!"

"Enough Bellatrix," Voldemort said sharply. "I have news." Bellatrix straightened up and walked back into her spot.

"As most of you already know, I was able to temporarily locate Potter and sent him a threat letter. And as I have recently gathered, he's coming soon."

A few Death Eaters shuffled around in surprise.

"Do I have proof? No. But I don't need it- I can feel it. I know he is coming, I can feel his tension, his worry. Perhaps it is some connection left from the horcrux that was within him. I don't know.

"So I call you here to tell you the plans for when he comes. I will take care of him. None of you shall touch him. At all. Potter is mine. I will, however, let you loose on anyone he manages to free. I know he will not come here to turn himself in, but to attempt to rescue his friends. You may have your fun with them, under one condition- you do not touch the Mudblood Granger. In case you did not know, she is Draco's little prize. But go ahead with the rest- torture like you never have before. The final war is coming." Voldemort sneered, then whipped his robes around, heading for the door. "You are dismissed."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Ronald Weasley gasped as the cement wall that he had clawed so desperately at for the last six months slowly disintegrated before his eyes.

His cell had been the only thing he had seen in so long. Longer than he could remember. Their walls had received his endless scratches with his rock, they had echoed his desperate screams for hours on end, they were the only thing between him and freedom.

And now one was disappearing.

He first thought was that he was hallucinating. He had been doing a lot of that lately- his most recent one was of Hermione. She had been holding him again, stroking his hair, whispering comforting words into his bruised ear. Then she had gone, leaving him shuddering and alone in his cold cell again.

But this time, he wasn't imagining things. As the wall gradually left, he could make out the thin figure of a girl with tattered, filthy red hair huddled on the floor.

Using the voice had abandoned over a month ago, he called out. "Ginny?"

The girl turned. Slowly, she stretched out of her fetal position, then looked at him, eyes wide in disbelief. Quickening her movement, she stood and took a step closer. "Ron?"

Ron ran towards her as fast as his toothpick-thin legs could go and tackled her in a hug. "Oh my God, Ginny, you're alive, you're alive, you're alive!" He could feel Ginny's bony hand clutching at his back. She was speechless.

Then, a weak voice came from behind them. "Ginevra? Ronald? Is that you?"

The siblings let go of each other and turned. It was Luna, still looking as dreamy as ever. "Luna!"

"Ginny? Ron?" They spun around yet again, and saw Neville.

Ginny nearly collapsed in amazement. "I- have I died? Are you all dead with me?"

"I highly doubt it. Normally, when you die, the Vispaltints will come and carry you away." Luna said in a matter-of-fact voice.

Ginny didn't even bother to ask what a Vispaltint was. Instead, she burst into tears and held her three friends close. "I can't believe this. It's been so long, and we're all here."

"Wait a moment," said Ron, releasing his sister. "Where's Hermione?"

Neville spoke up. "I think I heard her being released a couple weeks ago."

"You did?" Ginny exclaimed.

"I can't be sure. I hadn't been fed in a week at the time. I could've been imagining things."

"No, I think I heard it too!" Luna piped up. "Lucius took her."

"Lucius? Lucius Malfoy?" Ron said. "I wonder where she is now."

"I don't know. But right now, I just want to enjoy the fact that we are all still alive." Ginny said, and she slumped back onto the wall, out of breath.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"It's happening, Draco, I can feel it." Hermione said. She was leaning against his bedroom wall, staring ahead as Draco examined some maps of the Manor.

"What? What's happening?"

"I don't know. Something. You know, when you get that feeling- like a rush of adrenaline, sort of. Like something big is going to happen soon, but you don't know what it is."

Draco bit his lip. If only she knew that that something is her life. "Hermione?"

"Yeah?"

"I'm nearly done here. I already showed you our basic plan if Harry comes, and you've been yawning a lot. You've lost a lot of sleep lately. Why don't you go to bed early?"

Hermione responded by yawning. He had a point. "Alright then. G'night."

"Goodnight Hermione." Draco watched her back as she left, watched as her wavy hair bounced, as her arms swayed side to side. And he realized that this may be the last day that she ever walked. And it would be his fault.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A/N- Thanks so much for the reviews! Keep 'em coming! The button is watching you! (PS- Reviews encourage me to write. I'm not lying- I'm serious. And the next chapter is the biggest one yet of this fic. Hint hint.)