Disclaimer- I'm sick of these. I don't own Harry Potter. I do, however, own JK Rowling and am currently holding her hostage. Not. I don't own her either!
A/N- Sorry for the slow update! And thank you to meandthedoctor, for reminding me that they needed wands. You saved me BIG time! Now enjoy!
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Chapter 18- A Battle To Be Fought
"Um, Harry?" Luna's musical voice interrupted Harry's "hero" moment once again. He looked rather exasperated.
"Yes, Luna?"
"We can't leave yet."
The others groaned slightly. "What is it now, Luna?" Ginny said. "Are there more people here? Do we need to recruit more house elves? Are there too many Wrackspurts?"
Luna looked slightly hurt. "No. It's just that we can't fight yet. We don't have wands."
"I am so stupid." Harry said. "Does anyone here have wands?" The others forlornly shook their heads.
"Nice plan you put together here, Potter," said Draco.
"Shut up."
"Um?" Poky spoke up. "Poky can help."
Hermione knelt down and looked the house elf in the eyes. "Do you know where we can get wands?"
"Yes- but they won't be yours."
"That's alright." Neville said. "We'll take what we have."
Poky nodded and ran down the hallway. She reached up on a shelf and pulled down about a dozen wands. "Master isn't careful about where he puts the wands of people he's killed. Master says there's no way anyone can escape from here anyway."
Ron snorted. "So much for that."
"Yes, well, everyone pick a wand then. Hurry- we are seriously close to being caught." Harry instructed. Everyone scurried to pick out a wand. Hermione found an oak wand that was much too long for her liking, but would have to do. Draco gasped when he saw it.
"That's my mother's wand."
Hermione's eyes widened and she immediately dropped it. "Oh, I'm sorry, here, I'll take another." She scurried to pick a different one.
"No," Draco picked it back up and shoved it into her hand. "If anyone should use it, it should be you."
Hermione nodded, promising herself that nothing would happen to that wand.
"Okay. Can we finally go now?" Harry asked. "Everyone's set. We all are ready? We have wands, we've released all the other prisoners, everyone's gone to the bathroom?" The others nodded solemnly, despite his little joke.
"Okay." And they swung the dungeon door open, squinting in the brightness of the light that they hadn't seen in so long.
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"Lucius, your time is wasting away." Voldemort was pacing now, bored to death in the Manor.
Lucius was huddled in a corner of the room. "Master, will you let me check the dungeons- just once?"
Voldemort turned to him, eyes flashing bright red. "He is not there Lucius! There is no way… no way." His pride in his plans and the security of the house was getting the better of him.
"But Master…"
"Silencio." Voldemort lazily flicked his wand, stifling Lucius's speech. "I will not stand for this nonsense. He has not released the prisoners."
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"Where do we go first?" Cho's whisper could barely be heard as they crept through the halls.
Harry looked at Draco expectantly. They were leading the way, Hermione and Ron behind them, and the rest trailing behind. Draco was leading them through a hall that Hermione hadn't seen before. It was old, the wallpaper peeling and dust raising with every step they took.
"This hall leads to the portrait room. That's where some of the less famous Death Eaters would wait whenever they came over." Draco said as he led them into a musty tunnel. "It would be the perfect place to start- we can kill them off them quickly, and our use of magic will alert the others. Then we can start the… the real battle."
There was no response to this until Dean Thomas spoke up, addressing Harry. "Harry- are you sure… are you sure…"
Don't say it, don't say it. Hermione begged silently in her head.
"… are you sure he can be trusted?"
And he said it. Hermione closed her eyes as Draco spun around, wand raised. He brought the tip to Dean's throat and hissed. Dean looked like a cornered rabbit. "Listen, Thomas. I want you to shut your bloody mouth. I am not a Death Eater, I am not going to kill you." There was irony in this statement, because he looked as if he was going to kill him at that very moment.
Hermione raised a gentle hand and enveloped it over Draco's, lowering his wand. "Dean, you have to trust him. He's not going to get us killed." Dean nodded slowly and gulped.
"Er- if that's settled, I'd like to keep going." Harry said.
"Of course." And Draco kept walking as if nothing had happened.
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"Hey- do you hear that?" Fenrir Greyback's voice was raspy and echoed in the large, dark room. The other Death Eaters in the room were playing Rock- a game that involved using a levitation charm to whiz rocks around the room, attempting to hit whoever was 'It'.
"No." Yaxley said as he swept the rock across the room in one swift movement, causing it to nearly decapitate Selwyn.
"Hey! I'll be doing the head removal here." Mulciber said with a twisted grin.
"There! There it is again." Greyback insisted.
"What the hell is it?" Travers asked, dodging the rock.
"It's pounding inside the walls- like footsteps."
Yaxley waved a hand carelessly. "Aw, that's just your twisted werewolf mind."
"It's not." Greyback growled. "There is someone coming. I can smell it."
Yaxley grinned. "Werewolf!" he sang.
Just as Greyback was about to insist again, there was a loud pounding on one of the walls, causing an enormous crack to erupt from the floor up.
"Dammit, I told you!" Greyback shouted. There was another forceful pound, and another crack. The Death Eaters raised their wands to the wall, ready for whatever was coming through. The rock lay forgotten.
With one final pound, the wall bore a giant hole, and rubble flew everywhere. Out of the hole stepped nine figures- Cho Chang, Lisa Turpin, Dean Thomas, Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley, Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, and finally, Draco Malfoy.
When the dust finally cleared, the Death Eaters seemed to realize who stood before them.
"There's- there's no way." Mulciber whispered. "No way…"
"Oh, there's a way. And we found it." Draco raised his wand. "Stupefy!"
Mulciber crumpled to the ground in a heap. This seemed to alert the other Death Eaters into action.
"Confringo!" Greyback yelled, pointing his wand at the group. They scattered, and the wall behind them burst into flames. Ron and Hermione went to face Yaxley, Neville and Luna approached Sewlyn, Cho went to finish off Mulciber, and Dean and Lisa stayed to battle off Greyback. No one noticed when Draco disappeared.
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Voldemort felt a sharp jolt. "Magic. Someone used magic."
Lucius tried to say something, but he could only mouth the words. Rolling his eyes, Voldemort lifted the charm.
Lucius cleared his throat. "It was only their games, my Lord."
Voldemort gave his head a sharp shake. "No, it wasn't. It was a stunning spell… and a blasting curse. They are dueling."
"I am sure it was just them getting carried away with their Rock game, my Lord."
"Perhaps," Voldemort leaned back into his armchair. "Perhaps."
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"You'll know when they come then?" Draco's wand illuminated the space between their faces.
Harry nodded, crouching further into his alcove in the wall.
"Okay then- I have to go fight. Bye."
"Bye." Draco moved to leave when Harry grabbed his arm from behind.
"Malfoy?"
"Yeah?"
"Good luck."
The barest flick of a grin passed across Draco's face. "You too, Potter."
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Yaxley sneered at the young witch and wizard before him. Hermione couldn't help but notice that his sneer was nothing like Draco's- it was full of hatred, taunting, and the willingness to kill. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? The Mudblood and the ginger sidekicks."
"Confundo!" Ron shouted. Yaxley easily blocked it.
"This is a war, child. It's attempts like that caused you to lose the last one. Silly little harmless curses. Why don't we try something more harmful? Crucio!"
Ron dropped to the ground, face twisted in anguish. He moaned loudly, arms and legs twitching like an injured bug. Yaxley grinned evilly and moved to curse again. He didn't even notice when Hermione sprinted behind him.
"Cruci-"
"Diffindo!" Hermione shrieked. She immediately turned around. She didn't want to see the terrible rip as Yaxley's arm was severed from his body. All she heard was a scream of pain as he fell to the ground.
"Hermione?" Ron was gasping for breath. "That was awesome."
"Thanks." She said as she ran off to help Luna and Neville.
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Voldemort abrubtly stood. "Lucius- we are going to the portrait room. Call the others."
"My Lord?"
"Unforgivable curses. This is no petty argument they are having. Why have none of them called me?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that they must have escaped, and started a battle. Now call the others, tell them to fight!"
Lucius nodded. Within one minute, he had before him Bellatrix, Rabasten, Rodolphus, Nott, Rowle, Dolohov, Crabbe, Goyle, Alecto, and Amycus.
"Good." Voldemort said. "Do we all have wands?"
The nodded.
"Then let us go fight."
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Cho was the first to fall. They all turned to watch as she crumpled to the ground with a shriek. No one checked to see if she was fine, however, they were more focused on who had casted the spell. It was a leering Bellatrix Lestrange.
They all scattered, frightened somewhat by the onslaught of the new Death Eaters brought into the battle. No one was focused on who was where, everyone was scurrying around, throwing and dodging various spells. It was strange, though- still no one noticed the absence of a very crucial Harry and Voldemort.
Hermione vied desperately for a single glimpse of Draco in the battle. She was relieved to at least see he was alive.
Draco skimmed the crowd, trying to find Hermione. He managed to see her wild mane of bushy hair when a man got in his way. He was surprised and rather scared when he found himself before his father.
Lucius didn't want to face what was to come. But he knew it was inevitable. "Draco." He greeted.
"Father."
"I am no father of yours. You disgust me."
"You can't kill me. You don't have it in you."
Lucius spat. "Filth. I can do what I want."
"You're a coward. Like I am- was." He corrected. "You can't kill me."
"Avada-"
"Avada Kedavra." A low, calm voice said from behind Lucius. Draco watched in terror as his father fell, lifeless. Standing behind him was a horror- stricken Ron.
"Weasley?" Draco whispered.
"I- I'm sorry, he was just about to-"
"It's… alright, I suppose." Draco said with a gulp. "He was going to kill me."
"I'm sorry mate."
Draco nodded and then fled. There was no time to mourn- there was a battle to fight.
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Hermione cast a couple of stunning spells, hoping that one of them would hit someone. A single tear fell down her face. It was chaos in the room. No one could be seen, heard. It was just yelling and screaming and blasts of light.
Harry was still hiding- he was waiting for Voldemort. And Voldemort was nowhere to be seen. Little did everyone know that he was waiting for Harry to show up himself.
"Neville!" Hermione shouted. She was glad to see a face she recognized.
Neville ran to the corner, up to her."Yeah?"
"Do you know how many are left?"
"Cho's down, I haven't seen Luna since we began. Ginny's casted a disillusionment charm. She broke her ankle, and she's trying to heal it."
"Thanks."
"Sure." Neville ran off again. Hermione was about to go as well when she was stopped by a hand with disgustingly dirty fingernails.
"Trying to escape the battle, now are we?" Greyback's taunting voice came from above her. He licked his lips hungrily. "Now, we can't have that."
Hermione backed against the wall. She groped her back pocket for her wand, but Greyback pushed her farther.
"Let's have some fun, shall we?" He ran a sharp fingernail down her trembling cheek, giving her a small cut. "I'd love to see some of that mud blood."
"Oh, no you don't." Draco's cold voice brought relief to Hermione. "Furnuculus!"
Greyback yelped as his face broke out into boils. He leapt away from Hermione and turned on Draco. Hermione was about to cast another spell when Draco waved her away. "Go- Weasley needs your help! She's stuck in a corner, Bellatrix is-"
He was cut off, however, by a swipe of Greyback's claw. He barely dodged it. Hermione sent him a thankful glance and ran off to help Ginny, with the comforting knowledge that Draco could take care of himself. She couldn't stay with him just because she loved him.
After all, there was a battle to be fought.
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A/N- Phew! ~Wipes brow~ That was hard! I thought I should stop it after I reached over 2,000 words. It's been awhile, I owed you that much. Um, well, nothing much to say, other than the fact that updates will be slower due to the fact I have more people waiting on my other stories. I come to this one whenever I get tired of humor.
I'm posting this on all my fics: If you have a fic that you would like me to review and give feedback on, just tell me in a review! Just make sure it's Dramione. :) In the review, give me the title and what kind of feedback you want. Thanks!
~Potato