-Heal-
Disclaimer: Vot? Anuzzer von of zis?
Author's note: YES!!! I finally got the chance to upload this. Very sorry for the slow updates, cos I've just been through a gruelling round of exams, so I've been busy busy busy. I'll definitely upload more often now that the exams are over XD
Oh, and I'll probably be uploading really slowly beginning of November too cos I have an O level exam then (yes. The infamous O.W.L s. *rolls eyes*)
Actually, I'd probably update faster if I knew there were more people reading my fic *Hint Hint* Unfortunately, it is not the case; hence my painfully slow pace of writing.
~~~
Merlin's Eyeballs! What in the world was Neville Longbottom doing here?
Hermione rubbed her eyes. Though somewhat lacking in his previous chubbiness, the prisoner's sharp, somewhat mouse-like features had given him away. Paired with Hermione's keen powers of observation, it was unmistakeable. Either the prisoner before her was Neville Longbottom, or Neville had a long lost twin he never talked about. Hermione guessed it was the former.
Hermione shuffled as far out as she could to the unconscious prisoner. Tentatively, she tried to rouse him, but to no avail. She bit her lip in frustration. If only she had her wand or some medicines with her...
/ "Hermione." /
A husky, almost familiar voice reverberated within the dungeon.
"Wha -? Who's there?" Hermione whirled round, her dark eyes darting about the cell. But there wasn't a soul in sight, save for the masked guard outside the cell. Hermione blinked. What a time to have a bloody hallucination...
/ "Pssst! Hermione! Over here!" /
"What the..." Hermione felt her heart palpitating wildly against her chest. This time the voice seemed closer...almost as if it were right beside her...
Whoever it was, it sure didn't sound anything like a hallucination. As a matter of fact, it sounded like...
"Yoo-hoo, girl! Over here!" Hermione looked up with sudden realisation, eyes shining. The masked...no, unmasked guard leaning outside her cell grinned, his bubblegum pink hair sticking incongruously out of his dark Death Eater's hood. Or rather, HER Death Eater's hood.
"Tonks!! What in the world...how did you..." Words were tumbling out of Hermione's mouth out of their own accord. And they weren't making any sense. "A-and Neville... why is he..."
"Whoa whoa...I'll answer those later ok, girl? I have to get you outta this dump first..." The 'masked guard' tapped the lock with her wand, and then stepped gingerly into the dimly lit cell. "Horrid place this is..." Tonks muttered as she fiddled with Hermione's chains, which were evidently charm-proof. "... Not well-equipped enough for a torture chamber, if you ask me. Aha! There you go...can you walk all right?"
Hermione nodded vaguely, and then stood up. It felt unnaturally light without the extra weight of the chains, and her legs were numb from inaction. Cursing under her breath, she followed the pink-haired auror out of the cell stiffly, her knees feeling like a couple of un-oiled hinges squeaking from the lack of use.
"NOW can you tell me what's going on, Tonks?" Hermione said as they stepped out into the corridors, and dusted themselves off.
The pink-haired auror grinned, an action that looked oddly out of place with her current garb. "What else could be going on? We're rescuing you, kid!"
"Yes, I know but..."
"I impersonated a guard, dragged Neville in here to impersonate you later on when those buffoons- the real guards- awaken. He'll be fine...kid's got a wand with him. Didn't want to tell you it was me at first cos I needed to take care of the other guard. We managed to track you down cos Harry predicted this would happen, so he stationed us - or at least, what's left of us after that huge fight back at Gorgon Tower - all over Muggle London. He's a genius, that boy... " Tonks said all this very quickly, quick enough to rival even the undisputable queen of motor-mouths, Hermione herself. Hermione looked impressed.
"Yeah... impressive, ain't it? Neville's plan, you know."
"Neville!" Hermione's attention whirled back to the unconscious figure still in the cell. "Are you sure he's going to be all right?" She asked nervously, peering into the darkness.
"Look, he'll be fine...see, he's just pretendin'..." As if on cue, the figure leaning against the dungeon wall gave a thumbs up signal, then put it down again as though nothing had happened.
"Well...if you say so..."
"C'mon girl..." Tonks' face shifted and rearranged itself as though it were putty, until Hermione found herself face to face with the dull features of Gregory Goyle. Hermione suppressed a giggle as memories of Harry downing a certain foul-tasting potion came back. Then she frowned as memories of how it transformed her into a hairy...being came back. Ah, those bittersweet memories.
"C'mon girl...We've got some serious spy-work to do."
~~~
"Well well well...now why didn't we think to bring a map, then?" The vast grounds of the dungeon passageways met them as they left the prisoner's cell. The passageway, lined with statues of Gargoyles and burning torches, split into three others, and yet more passageways ran zigzag above them like a myriad of concrete snakes, looking just about as complicated as the moving stairways of Hogwarts.
"But how did you get in if you didn't know the way?" Hermione peered cautiously out of her Death Eater's hood, her dark robes hanging limply in huge folds and gathering in a heap at the ground, very much the way Dudley's clothes hung on Harry.
"Actually, we followed the guards in. Good Merlin, this place doesn't look half as huge from the outside..."
The two 'Death Eaters' looked round desperately for some signs of life they could follow out of the dungeons. An eerie silence greeted them, and the only signs of life were the spiders scuttling across the wispy white threads of their webs.
"Looks like we're on our own, Tonks."
"You mean Goyle. And I'm not so sure about the 'on our own' part." Tonks stiffened, dull, bead-like eyes looking searchingly about the room. She looked hard into the leftmost passageway, and then gestured for Hermione to follow her. "This way."
They walked on for what seemed like an eternity, their footsteps echoing down the corridor. Just when Hermione decided she'd about had enough of walking past rows and rows of gruesome gargoyles and burning torches, Tonks came to a sudden stop before her. Hermione stopped herself just in time from bumping into her. A wide, mahogany door framed in silver stood ominously before them, its handles carved aptly as twin serpents wrapped surreptitiously around two swords.
"Wait...there's someone inside..." Tonks reached inside her robes, pulling out an all too familiar-looking piece of flesh-coloured string. "Extendable Ears - new and improved version, gets past all doors, even the ones charmed with the Impertuble Charm," She explained, slipping it easily under the door, just enough so it wouldn't be seen.
"I thought we were looking for a way out." Hermione hissed, as Tonks offered her another Extendable Ear.
"What...you mean leave this place without a bit of snooping around?" Tonks looked incredulous. "Snooping around's the best chance we aurors' have got if we want to stop their dastardly plans." With that, Tonks dropped to her knees, her head slightly inclined towards the gap underneath the door. Sighing, Hermione followed suit. Snooping around wasn't exactly Hermione's specialty, but she had had experience in this sort of thing ...back in Hogwarts, that was.
The dark, sinister voice of a woman, no doubt the Bellatrix woman Hermione had seen earlier, drifted out of the room through the Extendable Ears.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh, my lord? He is your son, after all..."
The tone of the next voice was soft, soft as a cat's footsteps, but yet Hermione could hear every word as though it were whispered right into her ear. It was an imperious voice, one that commanded attention, even of those who despised it to the core. It was the voice of Lucius Malfoy.
"I hardly think so. He very nearly exposed our plans at the Gorgon Towers, Bellatrix. It was a crucial moment for us...if he hadn't made an entire fiasco out of it, we would have succeeded in our takeover of the Ministry by now...I should never have entrusted him on this mission..."
"But he has done a lot for you, my lord...the Gorgon Tower affair was just a tiny error on his part..."
"A tiny error that has brought consequences of a great magnitude, Bellatrix. Eight of our kind caught... five dead, six others missing. Thanks to that blundering moron..."
A loud swinging of a door, apparently from the other side of the room, interrupted their conversation. Hermione felt a strange twinge of relief when she heard Draco's cold, drawling voice from the room. She was beginning to think his father'd killed him, judging from the way he and the Bellatrix lady spoke.
"Father...how could you do this to me?"
"Do what, my son?" The tone accompanying this sentence was one of cold nonchalance, almost as if he could hardly be bothered to speak.
"You know very well what you did. I heard from Blaise Zabini...you're putting him in charge of the scrolls now, aren't you?" His tone still maintained its placidity - calm, like the sea before an imminent storm.
"So I am."
"But I was in charge of that. And the takeover of Hogwarts."
"Well...that was if you proved your ability in stealing the scrolls from the tower. Which you haven't, and I'm afraid you will have to bear the responsibility like a Malfoy would."
"By excluding me from all operations...demoting me to the lowest of ranks...after all I've done...that's just unfair, Father."
"Life's never fair, Draco. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't even be here, for your present status does not allow it. See him out, Bellatrix."
"I have every right to be here. Mother said..."
"Your mother is dead."
"...You were to treat me proper. But you never did, not after Mother's death. Not after you became so obsessed and absorbed with power..."
"Haven't I always been so?"
"I think you're bloody happy that Mother's dead. No one there to stop you from gallivanting off with other people's wives then, eh? I'm not as stupid as you think. You think you can manipulate me just because Mother's not here anymore...I've about had enough of being pushed around by..."
"You will not talk back to me like that, Draco."
"You and that...slut!"
Then there was a loud crash, accompanied with the sound of broken glass, at which Hermione gasped and flinched slightly. She and Tonks exchanged glances; both had not expected to hear such a heated argument between the father and the son.
"Impertinent fool...how dare you talk about your aunt like that..." The older Malfoy could no longer keep the edge out of his voice, his breathing now shallow and uneven.
"Go on...kill me...I know you can't wait to get rid of me... the way you couldn't wait for Mother to die..." Draco's voice trailed off, as though he were in too much pain to continue, but refused to make a sound for it would be a sign of weakness.
"Don't think I won't..."
"Will you two just shut up for a moment!" the dark, rasping voice of Bellatrix cut through the tense atmosphere like a cold sword, leaving an uncomfortable silence in its wake. Hermione stiffened. She exchanged worried glances with Tonks, who could do nothing but shrug her shoulders. It was too dangerous to speak now...let alone move away from their precarious positions.
"What is it?"
"I thought I heard something...Though I suppose they were just a couple of rats..." Hermione felt her stomach clench. She had to keep as still as she could...it as all right...she thought they were just rats...
"Rats?"
"Yes, I think it was just a couple of rats." Footsteps echoed from within the room, sounding closer and closer with every step. "A couple of eavesdropping rats, to be exact..."
"Relax...just act normal..." Before Tonks could even finish her sentence, the wide mahogany door was flung wide open, and Hermione found herself looking into a pair of dark eyes, seemingly shrouded in a purple mist...
~~~
~~~
My thanks go out to ILUVRONWEASLEY, some13, Cassie and Culf for reviewing chap 6! Reviewers will receive a... talking Draco Plushie! Complete with hair gel, Nimbus 2001 and sarcastic insults, one for every day of the year!! XD!! *Only available on the 30th of Feb. While stocks last. *
Disclaimer: Vot? Anuzzer von of zis?
Author's note: YES!!! I finally got the chance to upload this. Very sorry for the slow updates, cos I've just been through a gruelling round of exams, so I've been busy busy busy. I'll definitely upload more often now that the exams are over XD
Oh, and I'll probably be uploading really slowly beginning of November too cos I have an O level exam then (yes. The infamous O.W.L s. *rolls eyes*)
Actually, I'd probably update faster if I knew there were more people reading my fic *Hint Hint* Unfortunately, it is not the case; hence my painfully slow pace of writing.
~~~
Merlin's Eyeballs! What in the world was Neville Longbottom doing here?
Hermione rubbed her eyes. Though somewhat lacking in his previous chubbiness, the prisoner's sharp, somewhat mouse-like features had given him away. Paired with Hermione's keen powers of observation, it was unmistakeable. Either the prisoner before her was Neville Longbottom, or Neville had a long lost twin he never talked about. Hermione guessed it was the former.
Hermione shuffled as far out as she could to the unconscious prisoner. Tentatively, she tried to rouse him, but to no avail. She bit her lip in frustration. If only she had her wand or some medicines with her...
/ "Hermione." /
A husky, almost familiar voice reverberated within the dungeon.
"Wha -? Who's there?" Hermione whirled round, her dark eyes darting about the cell. But there wasn't a soul in sight, save for the masked guard outside the cell. Hermione blinked. What a time to have a bloody hallucination...
/ "Pssst! Hermione! Over here!" /
"What the..." Hermione felt her heart palpitating wildly against her chest. This time the voice seemed closer...almost as if it were right beside her...
Whoever it was, it sure didn't sound anything like a hallucination. As a matter of fact, it sounded like...
"Yoo-hoo, girl! Over here!" Hermione looked up with sudden realisation, eyes shining. The masked...no, unmasked guard leaning outside her cell grinned, his bubblegum pink hair sticking incongruously out of his dark Death Eater's hood. Or rather, HER Death Eater's hood.
"Tonks!! What in the world...how did you..." Words were tumbling out of Hermione's mouth out of their own accord. And they weren't making any sense. "A-and Neville... why is he..."
"Whoa whoa...I'll answer those later ok, girl? I have to get you outta this dump first..." The 'masked guard' tapped the lock with her wand, and then stepped gingerly into the dimly lit cell. "Horrid place this is..." Tonks muttered as she fiddled with Hermione's chains, which were evidently charm-proof. "... Not well-equipped enough for a torture chamber, if you ask me. Aha! There you go...can you walk all right?"
Hermione nodded vaguely, and then stood up. It felt unnaturally light without the extra weight of the chains, and her legs were numb from inaction. Cursing under her breath, she followed the pink-haired auror out of the cell stiffly, her knees feeling like a couple of un-oiled hinges squeaking from the lack of use.
"NOW can you tell me what's going on, Tonks?" Hermione said as they stepped out into the corridors, and dusted themselves off.
The pink-haired auror grinned, an action that looked oddly out of place with her current garb. "What else could be going on? We're rescuing you, kid!"
"Yes, I know but..."
"I impersonated a guard, dragged Neville in here to impersonate you later on when those buffoons- the real guards- awaken. He'll be fine...kid's got a wand with him. Didn't want to tell you it was me at first cos I needed to take care of the other guard. We managed to track you down cos Harry predicted this would happen, so he stationed us - or at least, what's left of us after that huge fight back at Gorgon Tower - all over Muggle London. He's a genius, that boy... " Tonks said all this very quickly, quick enough to rival even the undisputable queen of motor-mouths, Hermione herself. Hermione looked impressed.
"Yeah... impressive, ain't it? Neville's plan, you know."
"Neville!" Hermione's attention whirled back to the unconscious figure still in the cell. "Are you sure he's going to be all right?" She asked nervously, peering into the darkness.
"Look, he'll be fine...see, he's just pretendin'..." As if on cue, the figure leaning against the dungeon wall gave a thumbs up signal, then put it down again as though nothing had happened.
"Well...if you say so..."
"C'mon girl..." Tonks' face shifted and rearranged itself as though it were putty, until Hermione found herself face to face with the dull features of Gregory Goyle. Hermione suppressed a giggle as memories of Harry downing a certain foul-tasting potion came back. Then she frowned as memories of how it transformed her into a hairy...being came back. Ah, those bittersweet memories.
"C'mon girl...We've got some serious spy-work to do."
~~~
"Well well well...now why didn't we think to bring a map, then?" The vast grounds of the dungeon passageways met them as they left the prisoner's cell. The passageway, lined with statues of Gargoyles and burning torches, split into three others, and yet more passageways ran zigzag above them like a myriad of concrete snakes, looking just about as complicated as the moving stairways of Hogwarts.
"But how did you get in if you didn't know the way?" Hermione peered cautiously out of her Death Eater's hood, her dark robes hanging limply in huge folds and gathering in a heap at the ground, very much the way Dudley's clothes hung on Harry.
"Actually, we followed the guards in. Good Merlin, this place doesn't look half as huge from the outside..."
The two 'Death Eaters' looked round desperately for some signs of life they could follow out of the dungeons. An eerie silence greeted them, and the only signs of life were the spiders scuttling across the wispy white threads of their webs.
"Looks like we're on our own, Tonks."
"You mean Goyle. And I'm not so sure about the 'on our own' part." Tonks stiffened, dull, bead-like eyes looking searchingly about the room. She looked hard into the leftmost passageway, and then gestured for Hermione to follow her. "This way."
They walked on for what seemed like an eternity, their footsteps echoing down the corridor. Just when Hermione decided she'd about had enough of walking past rows and rows of gruesome gargoyles and burning torches, Tonks came to a sudden stop before her. Hermione stopped herself just in time from bumping into her. A wide, mahogany door framed in silver stood ominously before them, its handles carved aptly as twin serpents wrapped surreptitiously around two swords.
"Wait...there's someone inside..." Tonks reached inside her robes, pulling out an all too familiar-looking piece of flesh-coloured string. "Extendable Ears - new and improved version, gets past all doors, even the ones charmed with the Impertuble Charm," She explained, slipping it easily under the door, just enough so it wouldn't be seen.
"I thought we were looking for a way out." Hermione hissed, as Tonks offered her another Extendable Ear.
"What...you mean leave this place without a bit of snooping around?" Tonks looked incredulous. "Snooping around's the best chance we aurors' have got if we want to stop their dastardly plans." With that, Tonks dropped to her knees, her head slightly inclined towards the gap underneath the door. Sighing, Hermione followed suit. Snooping around wasn't exactly Hermione's specialty, but she had had experience in this sort of thing ...back in Hogwarts, that was.
The dark, sinister voice of a woman, no doubt the Bellatrix woman Hermione had seen earlier, drifted out of the room through the Extendable Ears.
"Don't you think that was a little harsh, my lord? He is your son, after all..."
The tone of the next voice was soft, soft as a cat's footsteps, but yet Hermione could hear every word as though it were whispered right into her ear. It was an imperious voice, one that commanded attention, even of those who despised it to the core. It was the voice of Lucius Malfoy.
"I hardly think so. He very nearly exposed our plans at the Gorgon Towers, Bellatrix. It was a crucial moment for us...if he hadn't made an entire fiasco out of it, we would have succeeded in our takeover of the Ministry by now...I should never have entrusted him on this mission..."
"But he has done a lot for you, my lord...the Gorgon Tower affair was just a tiny error on his part..."
"A tiny error that has brought consequences of a great magnitude, Bellatrix. Eight of our kind caught... five dead, six others missing. Thanks to that blundering moron..."
A loud swinging of a door, apparently from the other side of the room, interrupted their conversation. Hermione felt a strange twinge of relief when she heard Draco's cold, drawling voice from the room. She was beginning to think his father'd killed him, judging from the way he and the Bellatrix lady spoke.
"Father...how could you do this to me?"
"Do what, my son?" The tone accompanying this sentence was one of cold nonchalance, almost as if he could hardly be bothered to speak.
"You know very well what you did. I heard from Blaise Zabini...you're putting him in charge of the scrolls now, aren't you?" His tone still maintained its placidity - calm, like the sea before an imminent storm.
"So I am."
"But I was in charge of that. And the takeover of Hogwarts."
"Well...that was if you proved your ability in stealing the scrolls from the tower. Which you haven't, and I'm afraid you will have to bear the responsibility like a Malfoy would."
"By excluding me from all operations...demoting me to the lowest of ranks...after all I've done...that's just unfair, Father."
"Life's never fair, Draco. As a matter of fact, you shouldn't even be here, for your present status does not allow it. See him out, Bellatrix."
"I have every right to be here. Mother said..."
"Your mother is dead."
"...You were to treat me proper. But you never did, not after Mother's death. Not after you became so obsessed and absorbed with power..."
"Haven't I always been so?"
"I think you're bloody happy that Mother's dead. No one there to stop you from gallivanting off with other people's wives then, eh? I'm not as stupid as you think. You think you can manipulate me just because Mother's not here anymore...I've about had enough of being pushed around by..."
"You will not talk back to me like that, Draco."
"You and that...slut!"
Then there was a loud crash, accompanied with the sound of broken glass, at which Hermione gasped and flinched slightly. She and Tonks exchanged glances; both had not expected to hear such a heated argument between the father and the son.
"Impertinent fool...how dare you talk about your aunt like that..." The older Malfoy could no longer keep the edge out of his voice, his breathing now shallow and uneven.
"Go on...kill me...I know you can't wait to get rid of me... the way you couldn't wait for Mother to die..." Draco's voice trailed off, as though he were in too much pain to continue, but refused to make a sound for it would be a sign of weakness.
"Don't think I won't..."
"Will you two just shut up for a moment!" the dark, rasping voice of Bellatrix cut through the tense atmosphere like a cold sword, leaving an uncomfortable silence in its wake. Hermione stiffened. She exchanged worried glances with Tonks, who could do nothing but shrug her shoulders. It was too dangerous to speak now...let alone move away from their precarious positions.
"What is it?"
"I thought I heard something...Though I suppose they were just a couple of rats..." Hermione felt her stomach clench. She had to keep as still as she could...it as all right...she thought they were just rats...
"Rats?"
"Yes, I think it was just a couple of rats." Footsteps echoed from within the room, sounding closer and closer with every step. "A couple of eavesdropping rats, to be exact..."
"Relax...just act normal..." Before Tonks could even finish her sentence, the wide mahogany door was flung wide open, and Hermione found herself looking into a pair of dark eyes, seemingly shrouded in a purple mist...
~~~
~~~
My thanks go out to ILUVRONWEASLEY, some13, Cassie and Culf for reviewing chap 6! Reviewers will receive a... talking Draco Plushie! Complete with hair gel, Nimbus 2001 and sarcastic insults, one for every day of the year!! XD!! *Only available on the 30th of Feb. While stocks last. *