Note: I just wanted to mention that Snape is not really Draco's father, of course. Lucius Malfoy is. Draco is just starting to think of Snape as his father because Snape is the one man who truly seems to love him. Awww…sweet, no? There seemed to be some confusion about that so I thought I would clear it up. Thanks for reviewing everyone! Also, this chapter is fairly intense and even I'm surprised with the direction it took. I think I just opened it up for book 3, which is good unless everyone's sick of it. lol

Draco Malfoy Promises To Be A Good Boy This Year

Chapter Nineteen

The Sacrifice

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I ran with Hermione until I felt as if my chest was going to burst. We ran through the long dark passageway until we came to a rusty iron gate. I let go of Hermione's hand and hoisted Nathaniel who was slipping from my grasp. "Harry, push open the gate! Hurry!" Terror had finally stricken us all. What if the headmaster of all evil wouldn't let us go even now?

"I'm trying, you prat!" Harry yelled. He and Ron and Ginny banged on the gate until it burst free and we all went plummeting through it, panting. "We did it! We're out!" We all collapsed on the ground, clutching our chests. We hadn't run so long and so fast in all our lives. Ron clutched Ginny into a hug and we all just breathed.

Once recovered, I turned back toward the iron gate, an agonized howl forming in my throat. "Professor! Professor!" I looked at the others who were watching me sadly. "He..He was the only one who really loved me."

Ginny ran to me and threw her arms around me. "I love you, Draco."

"We all do," added Hermione. "Even the boys. We'll look after you now. You're not alone." She and the boys drifted over to me too and we all held each other, terrified and clueless as to where to go from there.

Ron looked around at the barren landscape. "I suppose we had better try to find some broomsticks to fly home. Do you think the Floo Network works here?"

"I doubt it, since we have to cross the water." Harry shook his head.

I was still staring towards the gate. There was someone coming from inside the depths. "Tom, is that you?" I called.

But it wasn't Tom. It was Snape. "Professor Snape!" I screamed, running towards the gate. Before he could even reach the exit, I had run back inside and had thrown myself on him. He lifted me several inches from the ground in a hug.

"Come on, my boy. Let's go home." He started pushing me towards the exit.

I looked up at him happily. "But how did you do it? Where is Tom? Is he behind you?"

He looked down at me. "Tom Riddle is staying here. He gave up his soul to free me. He said he wanted me to be with you."

"But…he reformed himself." I paused and turned to look back into the confines of the school. "We can't just leave him there! He's nearly powerless and afraid."

Snape looked nervous. "We have to go now, Draco. We can't worry about him."

Suddenly, Tom was there behind us, leaning against one of the stone walls. "He's right Draco. Just go. I deserve to stay here."

"No you don't! Not forever. You can be a good boy, Tom. I know you can. Just step forward and take my hand."

"Draco!" Snape hissed. "Don't you do this!"

Before he could stop me, I shoved Snape out of the open gate with all my strength and took off at a sprint back into the school. Snape stumbled and fell out of the gate as I grabbed Tom's hand and turned to run with him towards the exit. Tom dragged his feet a bit, but as his adrenaline took over he ran with me with all his might.

Snape held out his hand. "Draco, NO!!"

There was no time for Snape or the others to make a move. Tom and I plummeted out of the gate at the same time and there was an explosion of light. The voice we had heard in the library thundered forth, but with ten times the force and anger of earlier. "YOU HAVE DECEIVED ME, SEVERUS! I WILL HAVE MY SOUL!"

Black ribbons of light burst out of the hallway behind us and flew around my body and Tom's. They bound around our hands and our legs and our necks. They started to pull the two of us back towards the school. Tom and I let out terrified screams and tried to struggle, but we couldn't resist the pull of the bonds of light.

Snape ran towards me and grabbed me around the waist. In a flash my other friends had thrown all of their weight onto Tom and me. Tom and I screamed in terror and thrashed. "Draco, wrap your arms around my neck!" Snape yelled. I did so and he started to pull me from the confines of the black ribbons of light.

"THIS WILL NOT DO! YOU WILL NOT DECEIVE ME AGAIN!" The voice of the headmaster rumbled all around us.

The ribbons tightened and I felt blood dripping from my ears and my nose and mouth. Every bit of breath in my body was being squeezed out of me. I could see Tom out of the corner of my eye, blood spilling from his ears too from the intense pressure of being squeezed. He was gagging and trying his best to breathe.

Ginny was shrieking. Nathaniel was crying 'Da! Da!' over and over again as he clung to one of my feet. My tongue started to protrude from my mouth. Any minute I expected to be completely suffocated. In the next moment, as I forced my eyes open, I saw the black ribbons engulf Snape, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. They lost their grip on us and dropped to the ground in a wave of red.

"Oh God, they're bleeding! They're bleeeeding!" I screamed. If I hadn't been so panic stricken I might have noticed that it was my own blood in my eyes, but to me it looked as if my friends, the people I loved, were all dying.

Ginny was the only one who was still free, besides Nathaniel who was cowering nearby. She caught my eye and walked towards me steadily. She spoke to me, choking over her tears. "My child will have his father." My beautiful little sprite walked right up to me and pressed herself fully against my body. She rubbed her arms over my own and the black ribbons moved to her delicate hands and off of mine. To my absolute horror, the other ribbons of light moved from the others and attached themselves to her too as if she were a delectable sweet that they couldn't live without. The ribbons lifted her, her hair and robes whipping in the strong suction that surrounded the gateway to the Black School. I managed to look into her tear-filled and terrified eyes once more before she was completely wrapped in the ribbons so that not an inch of her could be seen. Her wrapped figure was sucked into the dark hallway and away.

Tom and I fell forward as the iron gates slammed shut behind us. Snape immediately ran to me and upon conjuring a handkerchief, started to wipe the hot blood from my face. I was staring at the iron gate with no expression on my face. Snape was shaking visibly. He tried to lift me under my arms, but I was like dead weight. "Draco, can you hear me, boy? Speak to me."

I just sat. I stared. I sat more. Snape turned to the others and touched them on their heads. I could hear crying behind me from Hermione, but the boys were quiet, probably from sheer shock. I could hear Snape saying to them, "This isn't over. Don't cry. We're not done here."

As he was talking to them, I slowly reached one hand into my Black School robes and pulled out my trusty wand. Ginny had tried this just the year before under Voldermort's spell and I was going to follow her example. I pointed it right at the middle of my forehead. I thought for an instant that my corpse would bear a lightning shaped scar on its forehead just like Harry's. Only this time I would not survive as he did. "Avada Kedavra." The green light shot out of my wand and I closed my eyes against it.

"EXPELLIARMUS!!" Snape screamed and my wand was whipped out of my hand. The green light was diverted and it skimmed the top of my hair. The force from it cut the top of my head and more blood dripped down my face. I clapped my hand over my fresh cut and turned to look at Snape with hatred.

"Damn you!" I shrieked, tears starting to stream down my face.

Snape glared at me. "Selfish! You would leave this little boy all alone?"

I kept screaming obscenities at him, Ginny's name tearing from my lips in between insults. Eventually, Snape pointed his wand at me and muttered, "Stupify." I saw stars for an instant and then nothing.

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