With Darkness There'll Be Light

Ten - Breaking Down, Breaking Out

So this is odd

A painful realization
That all has gone wrong

And nobody cares at all

Hermione's eyes flipped open and she surveyed the deadened room once more. Ginny was fast asleep, her breathing regular and slow. Or maybe she was in a coma, it was hard to tell since Hermione wasn't a doctor in any sense.

All she knew was that they had to get out soon, or they wouldn't get out alive at all.

It was painful for Hermione to watch one of her best friends slowly die right in front of her…especially when there was nothing she could do about it.

She prayed that someone would be there soon. When she heard scuffling footsteps at the door a little while later, her heart leapt and she crawled over, her ear pushed against the cold stone.

"Hermione," came a whispered female voice, "Hermione, I'm going to get you out of here."

"GEMMA!?" Hermione cried, then lowered her voice for fear of being heard, "Gemma, you have to get us out of here. Ginny's really ill…"

"Step back from the door, Hermione," Gemma said forcefully, waiting to hear Hermione do as she was told. When Hermione gave her the go-ahead, a blast sent the stone door flying into the room. When it landed, Ginny jumped to her feet, cowering against Hermione, who tried her best to sooth her.

Gemma stepped over the door, rubble crushing beneath it. "Come on. We have to get out of here. I think I hear someone coming!"

Hermione listened but didn't hear anything. "Gemma, are you okay?"

"Of course I am!" Gemma yelled, her eyes flashing angrily. She seemed to be quite overly dramatic. "Come on!" She took Ginny and Hermione's hands and pulled them from the awful little room.

Outside the room wasn't much better. All Hermione could see, wherever she looked, was darkness and stone. They were in a narrow passageway, that possibly led up…there was a slight inclination almost as if the room they'd been in had been settled upon a very shallow hole. "Can you light your wand?"

"No!" snapped Gemma, "I mean, no. We don't want to risk being seen."

Hermione didn't seem to like the way Gemma was acting, but she didn't try and stop her. She was finally free, she might as well wait until they got outside before she asked Gemma if she'd suddenly turned into someone quite unlike her normal self. Desperation does crazy things to people.

The only sound as the three girls walked up the passageway were Gemma's shoes clicking on the stone floor and the padding of Hermione and Ginny's bare feet. Ginny was falling in and out of consciousness, having to be held up by Hermione and Gemma on each side. Things were getting worse for her.

'Draco,' thought Hermione, 'where is Draco?'

And the ringing from this empty sound

Is deafening and keeping you from sleep

And breathing is a foreign task

And thinking's just too much to ask

"Hermione," whispered Draco, stopping short and looking to his right. "Harry…I just…"

"You heard her in your head, didn't you," stated Harry evenly. Ron, Fred, George and Seamus all exchanged weird glances.

Draco looked confused, that much Harry could see in the dark. "Yeah, but how did you---"

"Where is she?" Harry cut him off.

Draco pointed to his right and looked down, "I'm only guessing…I don't really know. I think it descends…we better watch our step."


"It's probably a trap," said Fred cautiously. "Shouldn't we…you know…check it out first?"

"How?" Ron demanded, "We're running out of time! We can't stay in this freaking maze forever."

George put a calm hand on his younger brother's shoulder, "Ron. It'll be okay."

Ron shook him off, "It's not going to be okay, George. It's never going to be okay."

Draco sighed heavily, Harry looked forlorn and weary, Seamus looked near to tears.

"I'll go," Fred offered suddenly, "If it is a trap, at least it'll just be me who gets caught. Wait five minutes, if I don't give you a signal that it's okay…leave me and go on."

"We're not leaving you and going on!" George cried angrily in desperation.

Fred looked at Harry square in the eye, telling him without words that there was no other choice. Harry nodded, "Okay," he said to Fred, who began to slowly walk down the dark hallway.

After five minutes, there was no sound in the miniscule corridor. It was getting colder by the second, as if they'd suddenly fallen into the Arctic. Draco shivered, "We should move on."

George shuddered, "No. No, we can't."

Harry put a hand on George's shoulder, "He'll be okay, but we have to go on and make sure Hermione and Ginny are okay. That's our priority. You can go after Fred if you want…the rest of us have to go look for them." Harry gave him a helpless half-smile and began walking in the other direction.

Ron embraced his brother very briefly before following Harry with Draco and Seamus. George decided in a split second where he'd be going. He jumped down the tunnel his brother had taken and disappeared from sight.

Seamus, Ron, Harry and Draco had been walking for at least twenty minutes when Draco finally gave up. His heart was beating faster than ever before in his life, his palms were sweaty and he wanted nothing more than to curl up and die.


"There's some sort of depression spell on this place," Draco breathed, inhaling sharply and deliberately. "I can't fight it anymore." Draco slid to the ground, clutching his knees to his chest and resting his head on his knees. The stance of defeat.

"Draco," said Harry sternly. "Get up. Let's go."

Ron and Seamus looked ready to collapse. "I'm going ahead," said Ron suddenly, his eyes flicking over Draco's limp body.

"I'm going with him," stated Seamus firmly, his jaw set.

Harry could do nothing but let them go. They crept out of sight and he slid to the ground beside Draco.

"Drac…" Draco looked up, his gray eyes clouded over with tears. His mouth was set in a frown and his forehead was ceased with worry. "I know you love her, Drac. You can't just let her die. I love her too, in a different way. And I'm NOT going to let her die."

Draco took a shuddering breath, "I don't know if I can make it, Harry. I feel so weak."

"We all do," Harry assured him, "But we're holding in there…and you have to, too. I can't do this without you."

Draco chuckled sarcastically, "Yeah. Right."

"She needs you," Harry said forcefully. "WE need you. I am not going to just leave you here…but we have to keep moving. It's been significantly too easy so far…I'm worried about that." He looked around worriedly. "Let's keep going. Let's find Ginny and Hermione. It's what we came to do. I know you're not a quitter."

Draco looked up sharply, "I am not quitter, Potter."

"I know," Harry said softly, tugging on Draco's arm, trying to push him up. It didn't work. "Draco. Please." Harry stood up, glancing around. He looked down at Draco, "If you stay here and die, you'll never be able to tell her how you feel."

"I love her," Draco said, shrugging hopelessly, "I can't even explain why."

"You don't have to," said Harry, hauling Draco to a standing position. "Follow closely behind me." Harry took off down the corridor, listening intently for footsteps that didn't belong to he or Draco.

Draco, his head not really where it should be, followed Harry closely. He felt detached from his surroundings, but he was trying very hard to push through the fog that was obscuring his brain.

This is incredible, starving, insatiable

Yes this is love for the first time

Well you'd like to think that you were invincible

Yeah, well, weren't we all once

Before we felt loss for the first time

This is the last time

Suddenly, as if someone had just flicked on a light switch, the cavern illuminated, filling with orangey light so bright that both Draco and Harry had to shield their eyes. They soon heard footsteps running towards them; Fred and George literally ran into them soon after.

Harry, knocked off balance, shouted out; Draco steadied him and then looked to Fred and George. "What was down there?"

Fred and George were both panting, their eyes alive with glinting horror, "Voldemort. Voldemort was down there." George clutched his heart, "He was in this room…he's…he's at full power. In full form. It was---it was awful."

"Was he alone?" Draco demanded.


Fred nodded, "There was no one with him. We ran back up because we didn't want to get caught. There was only one little room down there and it was his. Hermione and Ginny weren't there."

"So he is here. Just as I suspected," Harry muttered, squinting at the orange light. "He probably knows we are too. We have to find Ron and Seamus."

"We're right here," said Ron, limping up to them, Seamus holding onto him with one hand. They had just emerged from somewhere behind Draco and Harry.

Neither Draco nor Harry had realized there was anything behind them but stone.

"This freaking place is filled with crossing paths," said Seamus, shaking his head in disgust. "There's no way we'll ever find them in here."

"It's hopeless," agreed Fred, leaning against the wall behind him and putting his hand in front of his eyes, to ease the glare.

"What's up there?" Ron asked suddenly, pointing to the light.


"I dunno," answered Draco slowly, "But we should find out."

"I'm not sure I want to," George said, backing away slightly.

"Forget this," snapped Draco, sighing heavily. "HERMIONE!!!!!!!"

"DRACO!" Harry yelled, "That was so bloody stupid! You just freaking gave them a tracking device on us."

"It's not as if they didn't already know we were here," replied Draco irately.

Harry surveyed him, processing his thoughts. Finally, he nodded slowly. "You're right."

"HERMIONE! GINNY!" Ron yelled, hobbling past Harry and Draco and towards the orange light.

"RON!!!!!!!" Came a very distant, but strong reply. "DRACO!"

Draco and Ron looked at each other for a brief moment before taking off at a run down the hall.

Harry looked petrified, "Ron! Get back here! Draco!"

"BLOODY HELL!" Seamus screamed, taking off after them. Harry looked at Fred and George, who were both very pale with fright.


"We better follow them," muttered Harry, before darting off into the orange light.

After a few feet, the orange light dissipated and revealed such a sight that Harry dropped to his knees and put a hand over his mouth. Fred and George collided with him, falling to the ground from the impact.

Draco sat on the ground, horrified, next to a very frightened Ron and an extremely twitchy Seamus.

"Hermione," murmured Draco feverishly, "Hermione…"

Towering above all of them, on a large stone wall was a circular glass contraption which looked like a Muggle television. It was showing a scene…a scene that was anything but happy. The orange light had been coming from it, it seemed. The replying voice, the one that sounded like Hermione's…no one was sure where that came from.

On the screen above them, that's what was frightening.

Gemma, wearing a long black cloak which was rolled up at the sleeves revealing the Dark Mark embedded on her skin, was harshly dragging a limp Ginny and a very obviously stupefied Hermione into the forest just outside where they sat. They'd passed that small forest on their way inside the building. It's where they'd left Gemma and Justin beforehand. Suddenly, Gemma dropped Ginny and released the binding spell on Hermione. The ropes slithered from Hermione's wrists and legs like snakes.

Gemma grinned maliciously and raised her wand at Hermione and Ginny. "Aveda Kedavra."

The scene vanished into a cloud of green smoke. Now that the glass was no longer of importance, the fellowship could clearly see where they sat.

Draco gasped loudly.

All around the room stood several hundred Death Eaters, all with their wands drawn. They were surrounded.

Each and every wand was pointed at the fellowship.

There was no way out.