Chapter 9
Author's Note: Sorry, everyone, if you all are terrified of me now, about Draco and whatnot, but it had to happen sometime, and it's just the way I wrote it. But here's the next chapter, and I hope you all like it this time. *Sniffles* I only got three reviews from you all this chapter, please, please review for me. Otherwise, I doubt I'll post much more…
Marron04: Here is the final diagnosis, Draco is…well, you'll just have to read it! I'm glad you love my story! Thank you for your great reviews, and please continue to review, I love it.
Margaleit: Sorry to confuse you about Draco, but thank you, it was an attempt at twistiness. Hope you like this chapter, and thank you for the review!
Hermione Weasley: I'm so happy about your review, thank you, I think it's awesome that you're Portugese! About Augery, you are absolutely right, and you will see why later in the story. J8st give Draco a chance, especially after this chapter, he won't let you down! Have fun reading!
Disclaimer: I'm so glad I don't own this; otherwise millions of people would be waiting for me to write the next Harry Potter book and I would be very much under pressure, I do, however, wish that I owned the blood of Warner Brothers. I will, so help me Godric!
Chapter 9: A Reconciling Rescue…
The heavy red curtain is pulled away unsteadily, to show a dark, damp cell, and the shocked expressions of three former friends sends fear to the audience's spines. What has happened? It begins here…
Malfoy stood there for a moment, silently. If possible, his hair seemed lighter than usual. His face was as pale as a ghost, and his gray eyes were wide in what seemed to be shock. Ron suddenly lunged forward at him, easily pinning him to the wall. Malfoy dropped all the things he was holding, and succumbed to Ron's attack. Hermione retrieved their wands, and pointed hers at Malfoy.
"We have to get out," he muttered, "Now. We can go. Everything's done."
They both stared at him for a moment, "What do you mean, 'everything'?" Hermione asked, her voice no more than a whisper.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. I, I, I g-got scared. But our plan. I've figured it out, I know where Harry is." At this, Hermione gasped in shock, and she heard a sharp intake of breath by Ron, too. She saw him tighten his grip on Malfoy's robes, and furrowed his brow angrily.
"Why should we trust you?" he said, looking him up and down like a piece of dirt. The way he used to look at Malfoy when they were in school. He looked terrified, back at him. There was something more to that, than just Ron's rage at him.
"I, I, I b-brought y-your wands b-back," he said miserably, trying to loosen Ron's hand with one of his, and pointing at Hermione's wand, which was pointed straight back at him, with the other. Ron looked back at Hermione warily, as if asking her if he should let go. Hermione hesitated, but nodded. So Ron let him crumple to the ground, and stood back, next to Hermione, his arms crossed.
"Alright then," he said, as if he was testing Malfoy, "where is he?"
"In his room," was Malfoy's quiet answer.
"What do you mean, in his room?" Hermione asked, looking at Malfoy curiously.
"O, I-I, I'll explain l-later if I have to. The portkey is leaving soon!" He picked up the brick, and held it out to them, shakily. Ron and Hermione instinctively took out their wands, to be ready, and touched the brick. They stood there for a few moments, looking at each other apprehensively, nothing happening. Ron was just opening his mouth to say something, when they were pulled away with all of their belongings, a familiar tugging at each of their navels.
The three of them ended up in a very small room, with a door on the right and one on the left. There were the sounds of voices coming from the left room, so they hastily dodged through the right door. Once they were out of the Malfoy Manor, Draco and Hermione began to run towards the outside gate. It was very dark outside, Hermione noticed, as they ran.
"Wait, please! Wait!" Ron called from far behind them; he was trying to keep up with being dizzy; his head was wounded, she had almost forgotten. Hermione halted, and ran back to help him. Draco hesitated, and then turned back also.
The two of them acted as Ron's crutches, and as soon as they got outside of the gates, they Apparated back to Snape's house. They had to drag Ron inside; he had lost consciousness when he had Apparated. He had used too much of his remaining strength. They laid him on the couch, gently, and Draco went to go get the Professor.
"What happened? Accio! I had to contact Dumbledore, do you know what time it is? Accio! Well?" He looked more pale and sallow than ever, his greasy black hair flew everywhere as he talked to them, while mixing different ingredients he was summoning into the room. "It's three in the morning." Draco said guiltily, glancing at his watch.
"Yes. Three," Snape replied, his dark eyes full of rage and worry. Draco now looked down at his feet, his expression the same as it had been when he came to rescue them from his own trap: shocked, and fearful.
"It's my fault, Professor," Draco finally said, daring to look up. "When we arrived, the Dark L-lord was there, I mean, V-Voldemort. You know I wasn't lying, but I just, I panicked sir! And I turned them over. I thought he was going to kill me. I'm so sorry," he said, turning to Hermione, and holding out his hands. "I didn't mean to hurt you, or follow him. I turned away from being a Death Eater, really. It's just, he was right there, and he's so powerful, so terrible." He shut his eyes tightly in regret.
When Draco had said this, Snape's head shot up from trying to mend Ron's wound and he ennervated him angrily. As he shoved a cup of freshly brewed potion into Ron's weary hand, it appeared he was about to say something, but Draco cut him off. "But I found him! I found out where Harry is, and we don't even have to worry…about- about my father, or Crabbe or Goyle anymore."
"What do you mean by that?" Ron asked, his brow furrowed, and he drank down the potion, a sour expression on his face. He didn't seem quite ready to accept what Draco had to say.
"I slipped Veritaserum into their goblets when I was pouring their wine. I must confess, sir, I took it from you." Snape looked ready to pounce, but Ron made a hurt noise to stop him. Maybe he'll give Draco a chance after all, Hermione thought, raising her eyebrows ever so slightly. So far, the story checked out. She remembered hearing him pour the wine into their glasses when he had first walked into the room.
Draco was speaking monotonously. He had that sort of sound in his voice ever since he had gotten them out of the cell. "After you two were taken away to the cell, we returned to the meeting room, and they congratulated me on my good work. I was already feeling bad about it, so I asked the Dark Lord, Voldemort, how he had possibly created such a grand plan. -"
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…Flashback…
Draco gulped, he might as well do it now. "I must ask, sir, how did you do it? It was wonderful, sir. The capture of Harry Potter!"
Voldemort took a sip of wine from his goblet, and laughed coldly. "It wasn't easy. But I remembered; that hideous spell that kept me from finding the Potters for all that time, could turn itself against them, and work for me instead. Oh, they will be quite surprised when I finally tell them he was in his bedroom the whole time. And they've searched the house over and over!" He cackled again, and looked at Draco, but his evil grin suddenly fell, and he noticed the others around the table looked at their Dark Lord in confusion.
"You mangy little betrayer! You- kill him! Kill his friends, too! It was all a plan, a plan to get me, but it won't work, oh no," he said, standing, looking at Draco Malfoy in bitter contempt and rage. "I'm going to sort this out, and I want them dead before I get back! No one will conquer Lord Voldemort!" He pulled on his cloak, with the help of Lucius Malfoy, and stormed out of the room.
Immediately Draco backed away toward another door, fearing for his life, but more for Ron and Hermione. They were worth so much more than he was.
Lucius rounded on him.
"My son, I never thought you would go this far. I've told you again and again to obey me, or this was what would happen. But you have never listened. Now I can't take back my word, it's his command. And I agree with him, you should have never betrayed us," Lucius took a tight hold on his son's collar, and lifted him into the air. They were all pointing their wands at him, saying the words. "No!" Draco had tried to say. He struggled and kicked him as hard as possible, and having got his father in the stomach, Lucius turned to clutch his gut and let go of Draco; Draco crumpled to the floor under his father's weight.
When they had cast the curse, Draco had stopped his father from completing it, but Crabbe and Goyle had still finished it, and the curse (Unforgivable, as usually the case was with Death Eaters) hit Lucius, killing him before he even fell. Draco's breath had caught in his chest. His Father was dead. And now the others were advancing on him, seeming not to care what had happened. He slid out from under Lucius's dead weight, and tried to open the door, but it was locked. He didn't have any time to cast the spell to open it before they got him, so he turned back around to face them.
Crabbe had been first to attack, and Draco had blocked it well, but then Goyle started fighting without his wand, punching him, slamming him against the wall, they both laughed cruelly. Draco couldn't take any more. He held up his wand with a free hand, and employed his former Death Eater skills to defend himself, and he murdered his opponents. They hadn't cared about his father, though. And he was angry, very angry. And now Crabbe and Goyle lay dead, next to his Father, slain by his own hand. Shaking, his wand fell to the floor with a loud clatter, and Draco fell against the wall, and sank to his knees.
He crawled over to his father, and cradled the dead body in his arms. "I'm so sorry," he said, hugging the cold man, "I'm so sorry." Tears, things he very rarely let show, now streamed down his face, as he sat stunned, looking at his Father.
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…End Flashback…
"I buried all three of them outside in the family cemetery, before cleaning myself up and going to get you," Draco finished, sitting down heavily on the couch and putting his head in his hands.
Hermione looked at him with pity, and kneeled down beside him, rubbing his back in a sisterly way. "It's alright," she said, her own eyes stinging unwantedly. "You saved us, didn't you? It was, they, they just, oh Draco, don't worry. It will all be alright."
"You did the only thing your instinct would let you do, and in my mind it was right. Just think, they wouldn't have just killed all of us, but as many more as Voldemort would have wanted them to. You were only defending yourself," Ron added, trying to make Draco feel better, but his own words sounded blunt and unemotional to him.
They fell silent for a moment, and Snape looked seriously at the man who was undone, sitting on the couch with helplessness so evident in him. He stood up and left abruptly. An owl needed to be sent to Dumbledore. Hermione spoke now, finally asking something that had been clawing at her since they escaped from the Manor.
"What did you mean, when you said that Harry was in his room?"
Draco looked at her, half sadly, half almost amused. "Do you remember when we went to Harry's house, to search for hints as to where he was?"
"Of course. We got to the one room that was really clean, and we found the first lead. The letter."
"Exactly. It was the beginning and the end. It was the same place. He could see us! He could have been sitting right next to us, and he couldn't do anything to divulge the secret. The solution is that he's in his room. So, the reason it was so clean, is because he could clean it, live comfortably in it, but not whenever anyone was there, or watching."
"So that's it? That's the answer?"
"Yes."
"Well, then? What are we waiting for? We have to go get Harry! We've found him! And then we can find Ginny, too! Come on, let's go!" Ron stood up quickly, but swayed and grabbed the arm of a chair near him, so as to steady himself.
"Not yet, Ron!" Hermione said, making Ron sit back down. "Your head won't be better for another hour!"
"And you can wait?" He said, pleading to her.
"Hardly. But if you don't want to be unconscious again, and a mangled wound, I suggest we try to wait!"
"Fine, 'Mione. Have it your way. As always." He crossed his arms over his chest and began to tap his foot impatiently, looking at his watch every seven seconds.
Snape surprisingly made tea for them, and they carefully discussed what had happened at Malfoy Manor. Ron's tea was shaking while he held it, causing a continual clinking noise.
~Evyfleur
