A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long, I was having a writers block. You see I started writing this at school. When I got home, I never felt like writing anymore, and what I wrote at school couldn't be used without much more work being done then I felt like doing. Then I started writing here. But I lost the document and had to start over, changing a whole lot of the plot and sequence of events. But then I found this one, and finally finished it. Here it is!
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except, perhaps, the unusual spelling of "Lucius" before I started getting it right.
Ron
Malfoy grabbed both of our collars and pulled us away from the door. As soon as we were safely out of sight, we began asking questions that no one knew the answer too.
"How did they get in there?" Malfoy asked
"Did the apperate?"
"You can't apperate on school grounds."
"Well, what are they doing in there?" Malfoy questioned.
"Wasn't that your dad, Malfoy?"
"Yes, it was. And he's wondering what his beloved son is doing with theses two worms." We all turned to see Lucius Malfoy standing in the door way.
"Oh, shit," I swore. Three more Death Eaters appeared grabbed us.
"Get off of me!" Hermione screamed with no avail. The Death Eater just chuckled and moved one of his hands lower.
"Don't touch her!" Malfoy and I screamed at the same time.
"Chain them up inside!" The other Malfoy ordered. "All of them." Soon enough we were all chained to a wall inside. "Well, well, well. I do think that it is strange that my son tried to save you all. I can't imagine why he did such a stupid thing."
I looked at Malfoy. He had tried to save us. Maybe he's not so evil as I once thought.
Then I noticed that he was looking at Hermione, the scum bag.
"You held out on me, father. You never told me there was a meeting place that is under Hogwarts."
"There's not. We are somewhere under the Forbidden Forrest, to be exact. The passage way is for our young Death Eaters who cannot apparate to get here. I assume you found it, though I would like to know how." We were all silent. I didn't want to reveal Hermione and my relationship problems, and I'm sure Hermione didn't want him to know either.
"Father, let them go. They are of no use to you." Was Malfoy really asking him to spare us?
"Ah, yes. Well, I think they are." Lucius Malfoy walked over to me, staring me straight in the eye. "These are Harry Potter's two best friends."
"Do you really believe that after a year without seeing them, Potter is going to come running back here to save them?"
"Yes, son, I do. If it was you, I wouldn't of course. You would stab even your own family in the back. But Potter has something you will never have. Well more then one thing, but the one that is on topic would be that he cares about people."
"I care."
Both Hermione and I watched this discussion with a keen interest. Both of us had no idea that Malfoy was talked to this way at home. But it still didn't clear him from all that he had done to us.
"Do you?" Mr. Malfoy asked.
"Yes. About my friends. The people who care about me. People who wouldn't tie me up and insult me when I disobeyed them."
"You don't care about anyone," Lucius Malfoy said snidely. "I never showed you care or tenderness, therefore you wouldn't, or couldn't, show it."
"I can." Malfoy (Draco, that is) had a determined look in his eye that I had never seen before.
"I doubt it. But, whatever you choose to believe, you are free to believe. I need to go plot now. I will be back, and it is very likely that one of you will not survive my return." Mr. Malfoy turned, his robes billowing out behind him.
"We should have ran," Hermione said quietly.
"Thanks for the helpful comment," I snapped. "What are we going to do, now?"
"Sit. Wait," Malfoy said curtly.
"Wait for what? For your father to kill us?" I asked.
"Not all of us. One of us," he said.
"Great. Hope it's you," I told him, grumpily.
"Will you two stop bickering?" Hermione hissed, when Lucius Malfoy came back.
"We have come to the conclusion, that these two "friends of Potter's" could be used as more then a hostage. They could be used as Death Eaters."
Both Hermione and I gasped.
"Of course," he continued. "Both of you will not share the same fortune, for the reason that killing you would be so much fun. And then there is the question of you, Draco. What to do with my betraying son? I don't want to kill you, although you do deserve it. Then it came to us: Why not make it a little competition?"
I gulped, not sure what would happen. But I knew one thing: This is serious.
"So, we decided that the mudblood would be a much better candidate.
Hermione
I gasped. "No," I murmured, tears coming to my eyes.
Lucius Malfoy didn't seem to notice. "After all, she was the brains behind that whole basilisk incident a three years ago. So that leave the two boys." Lucius Malfoy sent us a look of pure joy, like he couldn't wait to tell us how we would be killing each other. "We will portkey them to Denver, or someplace, and the will make the journey to Malfoy Manor. If you don't show up, the mudblood will die."
He paused here, as if he wasn't going to say anything more. I couldn't process much anymore. Ron or Draco would die. DIE! I couldn't take it if Ron died. He had been my friend for so long, I couldn't imagine life without him. But Draco, I couldn't' stand to see him gone. Not after I just found my feelings for him.
"What will happen once we reach the manor, father?" Draco spit out this last word with such hate that I couldn't imagine.
"Isn't it obvious? One of you will die."
"Yes, but which one?" Draco asked with even more fire in his voice.
"The one that she chooses." Malfoy pointed at me.
"What?" I exclaimed. I could never choose between them. Which one will live and which one will die is a question that I should never have to answer.
"Oh, don't worry, my dear." Malfoy walked up to me and started to tug on a strand of hair that had fallen loose. I spit in his face. He stood back and wiped the spittle from his cheek and smirked. "That will be the last time you do that." The he continued what he was saying. "I would never put such strain on you emotionally. You will decide whether the first one to enter will die, or the last one. And you will decide as soon as they leave. If you choose the last, the then last one in will die. If you choose the first, then the first one in will die. And that will be how they depart this life."
Guess work. I would be shooting a gun, blindfolded, knowing that someone I love would die. I turned my face and sobbed.
What happened next went in a blur. The portkey took away the two people I cared so much about. Malfoy cut my chains and I fell to the ground, my hands over my face, bawling for all that I was worth.
I couldn't take this. I couldn't do this. I couldn't kill people I care about and become a Death Eater. I couldn't.
I don't know how it happened, but I looked up and I was no longer in that horrible room. Now, I was in a dungeon. A cold hard dungeon with chains on the wall. I cried some more.
"Hermione," said a voice.
"Who's there?" I looked around, but saw no one. "Who's there?" I said with more feeling.
"Hermione, it's me."
"Who are you?"
"Me." This was getting a tad redundant. "Hermione, don't you know my voice."
And for the first time, I listened. I played the sound patterns that had once been so familiar to me over in my head. The voice that had said my name three times in the last thirty seconds, I had once begged to say my name once. The voice that I had loved.
"Harry."
Draco
I smirked when the Death Eaters left. I smirked and then I laughed. I laughed. "Oh, this is rich!"
"I hardly think this is a funny situation," Weasley said.
"But it is, it is," he said, still chuckling.
"How so?"
"My father once opened up to me, in a moment of weakness. He told me about his curse."
"I bet that was you."
"Shut up! I'm telling you a family secret!"
"Forgive me if I was rude, but ONE OF US IS GOING TO DIE!"
I started laughing again. I only stopped because he looked like he was going to hit me again. "Listen." I took a deep breath. "My father has a curse on him. He can't lie!" I started to snicker again.
Weasley gave me a look that told me he thought I was nutters. "I think you've had a little to much excitement."
"No, no, no." I calmed myself. "Even in vague statements, he can't lie. Therefore, I have a plan." I couldn't help giggling.
"Oh, good God! Just tell me what the bloody plan is!"
"Ok, basically, my father said that will be how we die."
"Yes, I remember that."
"But he can't lie!" I yelled again, trying not to laugh.
"You don't make any sense, Malfoy!"
"Yes, I do. If we break the way that it happens. If we do something else, then my father won't be able to kill us."
"Are you suggesting that we leave Hermione there?"
"No! I lo...err... like Hermione. I want her safe and not killing people as much as you do. My plan is that we both walk into the room together."
"What?" Weasley exclaimed.
"There's no first; there's no last. Therefore, my father can't kill either of us!" I really roared this time, letting loose all abandon at this hilarious time. Weasley joined me for once, both of us feeling as though a wait had been lifted off of our shoulders.
A/N: This one is not a cliffhangerish as the others. Except for the whole Harry thing. Review please.
