Disclaimer: Harry Potter is the brainchild of Ms Rowling, I bet she has his birth certificate and all. Wouldn't want to contest that.
A/N: Thank you so much to my lovely readers and reviewers, I love you people. To Lisa: Cliffhangers are awesome tools to get people to read the next chapter ;) so I hope you're still hanging around! Haha. Anyway to everyone, here's a heads up - there're only 2 more chapters left! That is, if I can write them within the limits I've set for a chapter ;) I can't believe it's ending already! And that last Horcrux is still present! How can that be?
It's a shorter-than-usual chapter, but pretty intense. Read on, and enjoy!
P.S. Anyone who still remembers and likes Animorphs, I've got a new oneshot out, check out the profile page! (:
"Good evening, everyone." The head of the dark figure bowed a little, as if to begin a show. Hermione instinctively backed into Draco and clutched at his robe sleeve. That didn't help his mounting fury upon meeting with the Dark Lord. He no longer had any reverence for this creature; instead, he only had a deep, burning hatred. Yet there was an overwhelming instinct to lower his head, like all Death Eaters did.
I'm no longer a Death Eater!
As if on cue, the mark on his arm burnt like never before. He gritted his teeth.
"Well, well, let me see..."
Draco could feel the deadly gaze penetrate him. "Hello, Draco."
The sound of that voice made him choke; it was so repulsive.
"And my favourite, of course." The voice laughed, chillingly. "Harry Potter."
Draco could see that Harry wasn't feeling very friendly either; his fists were clenched just like Draco's. But unlike the murderous rage that was overtaking Draco, Harry appeared to be a lot calmer.
Ron was the first to brandish his wand. He was terrified, incredibly terrified, but the red was winning over white on his face; he wasn't about to let Voldemort kill his best friend. Hermione pointed her shaking arm straight at Voldemort as well, and Ginny promptly followed, even though one of her hands remained tugging at the edge of Harry's robes.
"Does it hurt?" Voldemort raised his bony fingers to lift his hood away from his face, exposing the dehumanised features surrounded by pale, white skin. His eyes were trained on Draco, piercing, deadly, and worst of all, gloating.
"Shut. Up." Draco grimaced as another wave of pain shot through him.
"Stop it..." Hermione realised what was going on, and quickly stood in front of Draco, whose arm was now too weak to push her back. She glared at Voldemort, her wand never leaving its target. "Stop it!"
"The Mudblood..." Voldemort almost spat, but he paused before smirking. "Why, Draco, I see you've become rather friendly with her. Even with Potter." He eyed Harry with a thin smile. "I never would have thought so highly of your capabilities. If only you were on my side now..."
"Spare us the crap," Draco hissed. "You will die sooner or later!"
"You have yet to destroy my last Horcrux, Draco." Voldemort's voice became a little less delicate. "Although I must say I'm very impressed by your exploits so far. Even though they came at a price..."
Draco was reminded of his mother, and then Snape, and his blood boiled.
"It's here, isn't it?" Harry whispered, eyes narrowing. "It's here somewhere... if not, you wouldn't have appeared. You're here to defend it."
"Yes, yes, you are not a fool, Harry, you should know what had summoned me here..." Voldemort laughed the chilling laugh again, and suddenly light dawned upon Harry. His eyes trailed to his mother's tombstone from where he had been repelled from, and something caught in his throat.
No... it can't be...
"No..." he whispered aloud, feeling completely repulsed. "NO!"
"Why yes, Harry, that is my last Horcrux," said Voldemort, sneering . "Now that you have killed my dear Bellatrix, then I suppose I'll have to defend this personally, yes? Apparently, a piece of my soul was reflected off you and into her body, when I attempted to curse you. How – intriguing. So... if you want to kill me, then you'll have to destroy your mother's body. How perfect, isn't it? Go on, I know you hate me to the core, you despise me to the bones. Not just your parents, there was Sirius Black too, wasn't there?" And Harry's eyes flashed with anger and agony. "There will be more if you don't kill me now. But if you can't bring yourself to do it... I'll see if you'll let precious Draco do the dirty work for you..."
"NO!" Harry bellowed, as Draco's head instinctively swung towards him. The Slytherin's eyes were burning with rage and a consuming desire that Harry could tell what it was. "No, Malfoy, don't – you – dare."
"Your mother is already dead!" spat Draco, furiously. "We have to kill him!"
"Draco, it's his mother's body!" Hermione gasped. "You can't just destroy it like that!"
"It's our only chance of getting rid of this murderer!" Draco jabbed a finger at Voldemort, heat blazing through him. "I WANT HIM DEAD!"
"If it was your mother, would you do it?" Harry burst out, raging. "Would you?"
Draco turned his gleaming silver eyes towards Harry. "She'll know what is best."
Harry narrowed his eyes. "It was a mistake bringing you here."
"Harry!" Hermione was torn between the both of them. "Draco, remember what I said? I said don't become him. Don't become that filthy murderer!"
"I'm trying to GET RID of that filthy murderer!" Draco exploded, his eyes glittering with all the hatred and rage within.
"To think I believed you could actually change..." Harry whispered, coldly. "You're a Death Eater through and through!"
"Harry!" screamed Hermione.
"This is getting boring!" Voldemort announced, throwing his hands up exaggeratedly. "If Harry is so reluctant, why don't you just get on with it, Draco? Why, you should be more than willing to do this. Think of your parents... Lucius, that sad, sad fool..."
Draco snarled, his grey eyes turning to steel circles.
Please... please...
"You'll have to get past me first." Harry stood between his mother's grave and Draco, his voice low and dangerous.
"And me!" Ron stood beside his best friend, his eyes daring Draco to make a move.
Please... It was Lucius' voice, over and over again. His father.
Please take care of your mother. Snape's quiet, but urgent voice. A plea.
The Dark Lord... I believed him, Draco, I believed him completely! His mother's hysterical cries.
"This is stupid!" Hermione was desperate. "He's playing around with all of you! He could easily kill all of you!"
"Rather perceptive, Mudblood, but this is called giving them a choice," Voldemort replied, smirking.
Hermione shot him a look of disbelief and hate.
Ginny didn't have to say a word; she stepped up next to her brother, her eyes equally fiery.
Draco turned to Hermione, his eyes challenging hers.
"Don't you dare make me choose," Hermione whispered, in a low voice. "Don't you do this, Draco Malfoy. I will hate you for it."
"Seems like you've already made your choice," Draco replied, coldly. Hermione felt a stab of pain in her as she retreated slightly, her face contorting into disgust. "You know what he has done to my parents. What he has done to Snape. He even killed your parents!" He swung back to Harry, his wand aiming at him. "I WANT HIM DEAD!" He swung the wand wildly towards Voldemort. "DEAD!"
"You know you can't destroy me like that, Draco." Voldemort put on a bored expression. "If you don't decide in ten seconds, I'll take things into my own hands. So let's start... ten..."
Draco stepped up to wield his wand at Lily's grave. Instinctively, Harry growled and stepped forward too, completely blocking the grave from view.
"Nine..."
Wands outstretched, pointing at one another.
"Eight..."
Draco's cold grey eyes. Harry's defiant green ones.
"Seven..."
"Don't..." Hermione was pleading.
"Six..."
A guttural noise erupted from Draco's throat.
"Five..."
Harry's eyes narrowed.
"Four..."
"IMPEDI – "
"EXPELLI – "
Suddenly, both Harry and Draco found themselves immobilised for a split second. Then they were knocked backwards into the dirt, hard. Draco hit his head on the ground, and groaned with the sharp pain. Along with the waves of agony that was rolling off his arm, now his head was buzzing. Then he noticed that something was wrong.
"Hermione?" He spun around, then he stared at Harry, who was scrambling upwards to look around, yelling. "Ron? Ginny?"
"You..." Draco realised his mistake, as Voldemort began to laugh once again, the booming, chilling laughter. "You despicable..."
"I have never been known for playing fair," Voldemort mused, his slit-like eyes edging upwards. "Strange that both of you distrust each other more than you distrust me..."
But Harry was not looking at Voldemort. He was staring behind Draco, upwards. Slowly, Draco turned to follow his gaze. Above him, suspended, were the three immobilised figures of Hermione, Ron and Ginny. Eyes wide open, hands outstretched with wands, frozen still. Draco could see that Hermione's eyes were still pleading with him, even in that immobilised state.
I promised I would do anything to protect you.
His breath billowed out, in gasps.
"You inhumane..." Harry's face was contorted with despair.
"They were really in the way," said Voldemort. "Irrelevant."
Draco wished he was an Advanced Animagus just like Wentervale, so that he could turn into a dragon and devour Voldemort at that very instant.
"So now with the rest out of play, it's really down to the two of you," said Voldemort, as he walked behind Lily's grave. Harry flinched upon seeing his nemesis so close to his mother's body, trying his best to ignore thoughts of a part of Voldemort's spirit being beneath the soil. "You see, I can offer you something, Harry. A way out of not destroying your mother's body. You can do something else for me, and I promise I will remove the Horcrux from her."
"I don't believe you!" Harry stared at him, disgusted. "You're going to make me do something dirty, I know it!"
"That was such a pathetic offer." Draco sneered, his fiery gaze locked on Voldemort. "Remove the Horcrux? Why if you could, you could do it right now and disappear out of sight!"
"And lose my chance to destroy at least one of you?" Voldemort smirked. "No, I don't think so. You see, it works this way. I know he was not going to hurt you. He only wanted to disarm you. Oh, that precious Disarming Charm, Harry, as always. The one that resulted in the Priori Incantatem effect the last time."
His slit-like eyes became even more devilish, more savage, as they turned to Harry. "Draco was going to Stun you. But I can guarantee you he can do a lot more when he's provoked... after all, he was in my academy of Dark Arts." Voldemort laughed, looking back at Draco. "So Harry can choose to let you destroy his mother's body, or he can choose to destroy you instead."
Draco's eyes flickered. "What?"
"Yes, you heard me, Harry Potter." Voldemort pronounced the name almost lovingly, that it was excruciatingly sickening. "Kill Draco Malfoy, or your mother's body."
Draco couldn't believe his ears. Voldemort was a lot more twisted than he had given him credit for. He was throwing in morality, friendship and love, and twisting it all into some morbid knot that had placed Harry and Draco at opposite ends. Yes, they had both been at loggerheads since the first year, and had dug a deeper hole between them when Draco had become a Death Eater and Harry being protected by Albus Dumbledore, the man Draco was supposed to kill. But Hermione – she had changed everything. She had made them see that both were equally determined to rid the world of Voldemort, with the fire of vengeance burning in them like an insane demon. And both of them were just as determined to protect Hermione.
Hermione will want me to trust you.
Yet here Voldemort was, throwing everything into chaos again, and driving the wedge deeper between them. He was playing at Harry's growing distrust for Draco, and Draco's reckless desire to get rid of him once and for all.
Potter, don't be foolish... And his gaze travelled to Lily Potter's grave. You have to sacrifice...
Harry definitely looked hesitant. He had seen what Draco was willing to do earlier on, and since it was a definite no to destroying his mother's body, he would have to stop Draco from doing it. The blond Slytherin was already eyeing the tombstone with a desperate carnal hunger, as if he was ready to obliterate it with his wand. There was no way the both of them could destroy the Horcrux without hurting Lily Potter. The only hope he had of preserving his mother's body was the deal Voldemort had offered. Or was it? What if he did destroy Malfoy? He couldn't trust Voldemort to keep his word. His eyes travelled upwards to his three immobilised friends. Hermione – she wouldn't forgive him.
Would she even be alive to forgive him?
"Potter, this is ridiculous, you – NOOO!"
Suddenly, there was a burst of green light, and Harry just flopped to the ground like a ragdoll. The green light receded into Voldemort's wand. Draco stared in horror at the still body of Harry, his eyes staring lifelessly ahead.
No, no...
"Such interesting children..." came the bone-chilling sneer. "He had to take such a long time to consider..."
"But at long last..." Voldemort's voice strengthened and began to echo around the graveyard – dark, sinister and with a tinge of morbid delight. "I have defied the prophecy... I have defied the prophecy!"
Draco could not take his eyes away from Harry. You can't die... bloody Potter, you can't die NOW!
Then the wild fire burst out again to consume him.
"What have you done?" Draco screamed, thrusting his wand towards Voldemort, wild terror and rage now throttling his entire body.
Without a word, Voldemort flicked his own wand, and Draco was sent sprawling at the far end of the graveyard.
"Come on, little Draco." He sneered. "Fight me. I want to see if you are really worthy to be one of my minions, or if you are just as useless as Harry Potter with only one trademark spell! You know, I thought I'd never live to see the day a Malfoy, a pureblood, would align himself with the likes of blood traitors and a mudblood, much less my greatest enemy of all. But I will live beyond this day, little Draco, I can assure you."
He was advancing towards Draco, a dark silhouette against the dim surroundings. Night was approaching, and the last of the skylights was disappearing.
Draco scrambled upwards and leapt behind a tombstone just as a deadly green light shot towards where he had doubled over seconds over. Now, the adrenaline rush in him was completely insane.
Run! Run! Run!
From behind the next tombstone, he threw a spell. But he could not aim. He was the prey – vulnerable, exposed, helpless. Only able to run.Run!
"Run some more, Draco!" crowed Voldemort. "Let's see how long this little game of ours can last!"
"You bastard..." Draco rolled over to the next stone, as the previous few stones were blasted to pieces. Voldemort was doing open war on the graves. Draco thought he could almost hear the pitiful wails and moans of souls being roused from their sleep. Or did they even live there, beneath the soil? He knew only one thing – Voldemort's soul was down there. One-seventh of it. But Voldemort didn't care about having to overtly protect it anymore – now, Draco was less than willing to destroy Harry's mother's body after his earlier decision had led to the boy wonder's death, and really – how was he ever going to escape Voldemort?
Father... Mother... I'll join you all soon... but not without trying to kill that son of a...
Another blast!
WHAM! A boulder slammed into him, forcing him to roll over to the side, in pain. It was sheer panic, rage and agony, all at once, and it was clouding his vision, his ability to think. All he knew was that death was imminent.
"Draco..." drawled Voldemort. "Where are you?"
He knew. He was coming.
Draco's eyes rolled upwards for a moment, the pain wrecking his body.
He saw the three figures in the sky. Immobilised. Even in the dark, he knew who was Hermione. She had been on the extreme right.
"That's right, Draco. Crawl out. Crawl out like a baby. It's like a rebirth, to die at my hands."
He didn't know he had enough strength to crawl out all the way, and push himself to stand upright, albeit swaying. He could hardly see, but Voldemort must have been standing in front of him. It felt like it, it sounded like it. His right arm was swollen with the impact of the stone boulder, and his left arm was completely numb from the intense jolts issuing from the Dark Mark.
Personal vengeance. It's not just mine...
He could remember the expressions on each of his fellow yearmates' faces.
It's everyone's personal hunt for revenge.
He could remember Corrinne Whitemayer mocking him. Family of killers... aren't you supposed to be part of them?
He could reach into his pocket and press the DA coin. Get Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, and even Corrinne Whitemayer if she was conscious. They would be more than willing to rid the world of this power-crazed monster.
I was really proud of you.
For what? For being part of a family of killers? No, it was Hermione. It was Hermione telling him, "Just two more, Draco, just two more."
Now, there was only one.
No. He couldn't. He couldn't get the rest here. Lucius had condemned Whitemayer's parents to insanity; Bellatrix had done so to Longbottom's. He couldn't wish this on their children. Everybody had a vendetta. But he had to fulfill his first.
Dumbledore once said...
It was Potter's voice.
Dumbledore once said – the power I had over Voldemort – is love.
Love. It was what had drawn him to crawl to where Hermione was and stand in front of her, facing Voldemort. It was what was giving him strength now. He had no scar on his forehead, he had no way of bringing the love he had within him and forcing it on Voldemort. But it was all he had now. His love for her. Maybe, maybe by sheer dumb luck, it would wither him.
And there was that slight hope, when he saw Voldemort stumble a bit while approaching him.
"You underestimated me," whispered Draco, although he wasn't sure if his words were being carried away by the wind that blew past and made him shiver. "Potter. All of us."
"Yes, yes, I underestimated many people." Voldemort stopped walking, and spread his arms wide. "Wentervale, that conniving traitor. Even your father, that fool. He could have become so powerful, working for me, but no, he had to give it all up."
"He gave it up for us," Draco rasped. "His family."
And it was only then that Draco realised how much he loved his father. Regardless of the endless torturous sessions that he had to endure to learn duelling, academics, grooming, Quidditch... the way Lucius seemed to have a cold look on his face all the time while subjecting his son to all these... Draco would never forget the look of pride on Lucius' face when he brought back stellar results, or everytime his father stood up for him.
The wrong way... they chose the wrong way, the wrong person to entrust the family's future in...
His mother came to mind, and he could feel wetness in his eyes. But no, he would not cry. He would not cry in front of this heartless murderer. It would make no sense to Voldemort. Did Wentervale feel the same way, when his life was seeping out of him – what he felt towards Voldemort for killing his wife and child? The same kind of helpless – strength? Or Snape, when the truth was revealed that he was working for Dumbledore?
All had died to protect the ones they loved. Snape, too. Even though he hadn't said who, Draco knew it had to be the case. He wouldn't have risked his life that way just for Dumbledore.
I promised I would do anything to protect you.
Her warm brown eyes. Her bushy brown curls. Her righteous indignation. Her lips.
No... Suddenly the strength in him intensified. It was no longer about drawing strength from Hermione. It was drawing strength from himself.No... I will not let you take another loved one away. I will not let you take Hermione.
The wind was cold, but his body felt like a furnace as he summoned all his strength to raise his wand at Voldemort, who all but chuckled.
"Any last words, Draco?"
It wasn't withering him. Potter's defence against Voldemort was not working for him. But it was blooming within him, Draco Malfoy. Blooming like a fresh, red rose. Brilliant. Bloody.
Draco's lips quivered. I love you, Hermione.
Then he struck!
But the jet of green light flying towards him was faster.