Never Say Never
Chapter 25 – The Escapade Part I
Disclaimer: None of the characters in my story belong to me, they belong to J.K Rowling, but I own the plot, and the names Daniela and Marc Lestrange. =)
On finding that he had in fact denounced the Dark Lord, Snape urged Draco to go to Hermione's room and take her back to his room, as he had already arranged for a diversion to take Voldemort away from His guardianship over Hermione.
Draco obeyed and within moments he was sneaking quietly through the maze of dark and dank corridors in the manor with a cat-like grace. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the neglect and putridity that the corridors emitted; no longer blinded by the Disillusion.
As he emerged on the hallway near Hermione's room, he couldn't help but try to find the place in the wallpaper [not filled with sweet smelling roses, but rather filled with holes and god knows what else], which opened onto the passageway where Snape had found him. But to his disappointment, he realized that it was a pointless exercise because he didn't have his wand to open it.
Making his way to Hermione's door, he pressed his ear against the wood and tried to detect the sound of Voldemort or His supporters in the room, but was relieved to find that it seemed to be completely silent. He could only hope that Voldemort had already been fooled by the distraction that Snape had provided.
He took a deep breath and tried to open the door, but realized that it had been magically locked. He racked his brain trying to think about what to do and then thought that maybe he should try the impossible.
"Alohomora!"
Hermione's POV
I stretched languidly and woke up with a smile on my face, I felt so warm and toasty and utterly content with myself. But the unpleasant circumstances in which I remembered myself becoming unconscious in the first place soon surfaced in my mind.
I hastily sat up and looked at my surroundings and I was relieved to find that I was in my room and that it was already dark outside; the night was already here. I thought back and remembered that I had woken up once during my rest and had found my room filled with Death Eaters all quarrelling with each other and Voldemort in the thick of it all screaming at them.
After that I had fallen back into unconsciousness and I knew that I hadn't had a dreamless sleep for sure… there were the dreams of life after escaping from here, there were dreams of Draco… and dreams of my parents…
I shook my head in an effort to clear my mind. I needed to get to Draco and ask him about the plan that Snape had to get us out of here, and how to get back to Hogwarts etc. I was just about to get out of my bed when my white door burst open with Draco's voice crying "Alohomora!"
Sure enough, his platinum blond head soon appeared, and the broad grin he gave me made me feel even warmer inside and I soon realized in shock that he didn't have his wand with him.
"Draco!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him, "Did you just perform Wandless Magic?!"
"Well, yes! Of course I did." He replied slyly, returning my embrace, "Don't you dare underestimate me, Hermione."
"I… I never knew you could do that!" I cried in half exasperation, half amazement.
"Neither did I, actually. But I thought that since I was Voldemort's heir, I could do anything." He responded arrogantly, though by the smile tugging at his lips I knew he was joking.
"Wow. I am so impressed…" I said a little breathlessly, then I asked, "Where is Voldemort, by the way?"
His expression changed then and his sunny expression soon faded back into his former cold, emotionless mask. He then related to me what had happened since I had fallen unconscious and I listened in awe.
"Tonight?!" I said vehemently, when he told me that Snape had arranged for us to leave soon.
"That was exactly my reaction…but just wait. I have some more urgent things to tell you." He responded calmly, "Voldemort knows exactly what's going on around here…He knows that Snape is part of the Light side and that we're planning to leave."
I gasped in horror, but Draco waved that aside and continued on.
"That's not the point. Snape says that regardless of the situation, we're going to leave here tonight at midnight because its our only chance. Anyway, I followed some Death Eaters into a secret passageway outside your room and I heard some stuff…but I also felt the Black Star burn. I didn't obey His call because I wanted to hear more things. I ended up fainting from the pain of it, and Snape found me in the passage an hour ago."
"Oh god, Draco. Are you feeling alright now?" I exclaimed worriedly. He brushed my hand away from his face gently and I saw that he was impatient to go on.
"Well, then he took me to his room and he told me that he was going to create a diversion to get Voldemort out of here so that I could fetch you back to my room." There was a pause as he took a deep breath, "And then, he told me to do something that opened up my eyes to the truth."
I looked quizzically at him and he looked intently back at me.
"Hermione, tell me, do you have any faith in Voldemort?" he asked firmly.
I gave him a look of complete disbelief. Why the hell was he asking me that question?! Didn't he already know what I would reply?!
"I need an answer now. This is very important." He prompted.
"Of course not! I thought that you would already know that!" I cried out angrily. Did he think that I was really on the Dark side?!
"Calm down. I need you to focus on the thought that you don't have faith in Voldemort." He said steadily. I gave him a strange look, but complied with his request.
As I did so, I watched in shock as the elaborate furnishings in my room vanished and were replaced with desolation. The beautiful room was no more; my warm quilt was just a filthy blanket, my mattress hard and thin, the armchair was only a broken stool, my cushions and pillows nothing more than pieces of rock. The room was now dark and several cobwebs hung in the corners.
My robes were ragged and torn, and I looked in panic at Draco.
"What did you do to me?!" I asked frantically.
"I opened up your eyes to Voldemort's deceit." He said simply, "Or rather, I took off the Disillusionment Charm placed over everyone in this manor. Apparently, the charm keeps His supporters loyal, and is bewitched to fulfil each person's desires. What I mean is that this room is what it is because you wanted it to be like that, not because of His thoughtfulness."
I gazed for a moment still stunned from this new piece of knowledge. I slowly recovered and spoke haltingly to Draco.
"When do we leave?" I asked.
"Now is probably a good time. It leaves us about 20 minutes to get to my room." He replied, gently helping me up from the musty mattress and its blankets.
"Alright." I mumbled.
As we began to get out of the room, something suddenly caught my eye. The photo album was still on the now dilapidated table and it bore no sign of the Disillusionment Charm; it was still as elegant looking as ever and the silver script still glistened.
"Draco…" I murmured, and he followed my gaze to the album and his eyes narrowed at the sight of it.
"What is it, Hermione? Have you looked at it?" he asked suspiciously.
"Yes I have. It's my family photo album and there's photos in there…though it stops only after a few pages." I suddenly sounded wistful, and I'm sure Draco heard it in my voice too.
"Well, I think that we should just ignore it – "
But as he said those words, the very photo album suddenly illuminated and it flipped open by itself, and the pages ruffled until it came to a blank page where new photos materialized as we watched on in shock.
"What do you think now, Draco?" I asked breathlessly. He just looked at me, awestruck.
"I think…that we should take a look." He stammered, and taking my hand in his, we walked back together to the photo album.
We looked at the first photo, and I saw that it was my parents, smiling and waving up at us. The next photo was of my parents too, but with a baby crying, held in Daniela's arms.
"You were a fat baby, Hermione." Commented Draco, and I gave him a Look, which shut him up.
We moved on to the next page and I saw with shock, that it was a photo of the flashback that I had had as we crossed the bridge to the Lemon Grove this morning. Someone had taken a photo of Voldemort talking to my father at the bridge.
The photo on the opposite page was equally shocking; it was of the room which I had seen in my last vision, where my father had fought off the Magical Enforcement Officer whilst holding me, except it was now…
"That's your room, Mione." Draco remarked, raising an eyebrow at me. I looked back at him, my eyes wide. I couldn't believe that I didn't realize that the room was the room I was standing in now…
I ignored Draco and flicked to the next page, which was of us, in our Hogwarts robes, and it was my turn to raise an eyebrow at Draco, he shrugged and nodded at the next page which depicted two Black Stars on two hands.
"Is this a slide show of your life or what?!" exclaimed Draco, he looked as puzzled as I was but nevertheless, we turned to the next page.
It showed Draco and I being confronted by Voldemort, and we were cowering in fear in a corner while He was cackling. I looked fearfully at Draco and whispered,
"Do you think that this is the future?" I asked. He didn't have an answer for me. He just kept on looking at the next photo.
It showed us holding a baby, in the same pose as Daniela and Marc had held me in the previous photograph; but we weren't smiling, we had bags under our eyes, our frames were skeletal, and we looked undernourished. But most of all, we looked defeated.
"Wh-why is there a photo of us like that?…" I asked in a stutter.
"Because that is your future if you choose to defy the Dark Lord." Answered a voice from behind us, and both Draco and me jumped at hearing it. Then we turned around.
I gasped in astonishment; it was my father, Marc Lestrange. Our eyes met and he gently smiled at me, studying me from head to toe. Then he stepped forward and pulled me into a hug.
"Oh, Hermione…it has been so long since we've seen you. We have missed you so much, that our hearts ache at the thought that you had been taken away from us, and made to live with Muggles, as a Muggle, never knowing your true heritage…" he said with much emotion in his voice.
"How did you get here?" was all I could manage to get out. It confused me; I thought that he was supposed to be in Azkaban.
"Oh, I am actually still in Azkaban, technically, but spiritually, I am here, with you." He replied astutely.
I looked and sure enough, his outline wasn't solid, but rather fuzzy; just as Harry had described Tom Riddle to have looked in the Chamber of Secrets. I guessed that he had been preserved in the photo album all this time. I still gazed at him wonderingly.
"Where is Daniela Lestrange?" asked Draco quietly. Marc – well my father's eyes swiveled to where Draco stood and he eyed him for a moment, before nodding, as though giving him his approval.
"Oh, Daniela will be here soon enough. She has to wait until the Dementors finish feeding her before attempting to appear here, because they can sense when a soul has departed." Answered Marc smoothly.
"Doesn't a soul departing mean that the person is dead?" I asked curiously.
"No! Well, perhaps for Muggles, but for us, it is not so. We have used Dark magic to come here." He seemed to be enjoying his time here, and neither Draco nor I felt compelled to stop questioning him.
"Why are you still sane, Lestrange? Isn't being locked up in Azkaban for such a long time meant to have some sort of an effect on you?" asked Draco furtively.
"Draco, you must understand that it is not as easy as you think it is to break us powerful Dark wizards down…we are kept alive and sane simply by the thought of the Dark Lord." Marc replied in a matter of fact tone.
Before I could ask him another question, Daniela Lestrange had appeared before us, and was smiling at me too. Her eyes housed motherly affection and I saw tears welling up in her eyes and she too, came forward to embrace me.
"Hermione. It has been too long since we last saw each other, my love." She choked out, before she began to cry freely. I hugged her back, but I didn't know what to say back to her. Was I supposed to say, 'Yes, mother, it has been too long' when I couldn't even remember them at all?
Daniela suddenly broke the embrace and stepped back to get a good look at me, and upon inspection, a fresh wave of tears came gushing out as she smiled fondly at me.
"You have grown into such a beautiful young woman, Hermione. It pains me to know that I wasn't there for any part of it. You do know that if I had the choice for it to be different, you know I would've chosen to be with you." She whispered, clasping my hand in hers, "You know I would've given anything to spend my life raising you." I nodded tearfully in response.
Though she was my mother, I felt as though I didn't know her, and that it was a stranger speaking all these lines. But as I heard her speak them, I heard the sincerity and heart-felt emotion in her words, and to my shock, tears were sliding down my cheeks too.
"Don't cry, dearest. Mother is here now." She said with a smile and she wiped my tears away. I smiled back at her, wanting to cherish this moment when I had finally met my real parents. I didn't object to her calling herself my mother, but I didn't acknowledge it either.
I was aware that Draco was observing the scene in front of him but I had no idea as what was going through his mind. I was anxious to sneak a glance at him, but when I did, I saw that he had a calm, collected expression on his face, which betrayed nothing.
Suddenly Marc spoke again, coming to put a comforting arm around Daniela's shoulder.
"We have finally been reunited, though I had hoped that the circumstances could've been different. But we are here for a reason, and that reason is to give you some guidance about the choice you are about to be given." He said plainly. Now Draco's attention had been captured, and he listened attentively.
"Hermione, it has come to our attention that you are seeking to throw your destiny away to run back to the fool, Dumbledore's side." Continued Marc shrewdly, Draco and I listened with indifference, "Do you think that it is a wise idea to forsake what the Fates have already planned for you? You are going to be the most powerful witch in Wizarding history! How can you throw away something like that?!"
"Does it matter whether or not I am at Voldemort's side?" I coolly asked. My parents seemed taken aback but Daniela was the first to recover her composure.
"No…well it is obviously more preferable to be at His side, as you are His heir, and if you do stay, then you will be in control of the world, my dear, after you help the Dark Lord regain His power." She said sternly.
"Don't listen to a word they say, Hermione." Muttered Draco in my ear. I turned at gave him a strange glance, replying in an undertone,
"They're my parents Draco. I have to listen to them."
"Who listens to their parents these days, Hermione?! Look at those Weasel Twins!" hissed Draco.
"But I still owe it to them." I answered quickly.
"You don't owe them anything. You wouldn't be stuck in this whole business if it weren't for Voldemort, you wouldn't even have been born, most likely. They only did it to please their master, and that's all that matters." He murmured, alluding me to the raw truth.
Daniela cut into my train of thought and this time she spoke in a less stern voice.
"Hermione, what we are trying to say is that you should stay on the Dark side because it is your destiny, and that if you had been raised by us, and not those Muggles, then you wouldn't need to choose between Light and Dark. We are your true parents, and whatever those crackpot Muggle lovers at your school tell you, your heritage is far superior to most of the Wizarding world, even among the purebloods, and most certainly the Mudbloods."
I winced at the sound of the word 'Mudblood', but Daniela continued on, pleading with me.
"Please, for our sake, and your own, stay with the Dark Lord, and one day we can be a family again. We promise." She finished, looking tenderly at me.
I was emotionally spent, I was so shaken that I didn't know how to reply to this plea…on one hand, there was Dumbledore and Light and Harry, Ron and Hogwarts, and on the other there was Voldemort and…my parents and …Draco? No. Draco would be with me, whichever side I chose, I reassured myself.
Then suddenly I saw my decision clearly; it was as though all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. I had to choose Light, simply because that was my life; who was I trying to be, staying on the Dark side?! I, Hermione Granger, simply wasn't a Dark witch, and never would be! How stupid it was of me to even think that I was Dark.
I remembered what Harry had said to me when he had spoken to Dumbledore about why Voldemort had said that they were really similar, and he had found out that Voldemort had transferred a part of himself into Harry on the night of the curse.
He had said that he was in Gryffindor, and not Slytherin because of who he was what his character was like. It didn't matter that he was a Parselmouth, or resourceful or as Slytherin-like as a wizard could be; what mattered was what was on the inside, not the abilities.
So now I knew that even though I had been born into the Dark society, that I was destined to be the most powerful witch in Wizarding history because of the Dark Lord, I also knew that it didn't matter because I wasn't Dark. Not at all.
I smiled in triumph at my parents and at Draco in reaching a final decision about all this Light and Dark business. I momentarily debated the idea of hurting them in the process of what I was about to do to them, but then realized that Dark magic should help keep them alive anyway.
"Mother, father, I have reached a decision about all this." I stated evenly, and they beamed at me calling them my parents, and encouraged me to go on, "But I'm afraid I'm not a family type of girl, or a Dark one…so I'm sorry. I know that I'm not that type of person on the inside, and its up to me to choose my destiny, not you. So I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you. It's been a pleasure to meet you both, and I'm sure we'll meet again, but for now, take care and good bye."
I smiled one last time at my parents before looking at the photo album, and muttering under my breath, "Incendio". The photo album burst into flame, and my parents vanished. Tears flowed openly down my face as they did so, and I turned to Draco with a tearstreaked face.
"God, Hermione…that was a bit harsh…I mean its one thing to completely denounce them, and its another to make them burn." He pointed out with a smirk on his face.
"I've calculated that they won't die, because of the Dark magic in the bond, but it leaves us free to go now." I said in a strangled voice.
"Don't worry about it Hermione. You did the right thing. You didn't let them get the better of you. And, you performed Wandless Magic!" We grinned at each other, then he pulled me close to him, and I relaxed for a moment, finding great comfort in his embrace. We just stood there for a moment, in my dark dungeon-like room, in its run-down state, holding each other.
"I think we should go now. Its probably past midnight already, and Snape is already waiting for us." I said reluctantly, pulling back from the hug.
"It's midnight now. If we hurry, we can make it."
We quickly left my room, and we were on our way to Draco's room, but we had barely even turned out of the corridor which my room had been on when we heard something that made us think twice.
To be Continued…
Hey everyone,
Yeah, the usual sorry for the such a long delay in between updates, its all school's fault. But now, at least I have the plot for the next chapter or two, and it'll be faster to update. Stay tuned for Part II =)
Thanks so much for supporting me you all, and I hope that you'll continue to do so =) Now, I have to do some shout outs to my beautiful reviewers,
PurrtyFlirty – thanks for your support…for Draco =P
Brandi – What I meant by the 'Disillusion' is that He placed an enchantment on them to make them think that everything was really beautiful and grand and all that, but in reality it was really revolting and stuff. Its kinda a symbol of how he manipulates people to his advantage. Thanks for your review!
Cherry – thanks for the encouragement!
Meg – Oh, so it isn't the same person? I'm sorry for that… lol =P Thanks for the review, and its ok that you didn't get to review the other chapter.
Ellie – I'm glad you decided to express your opinion on that, I'm sorry about it seeming as though its another one of those, 'omg I'm in love with her overnight' stories, but I think what I tried to do was to make him kinda be foreign to idea of love, well, true love because he had never really loved anyway before, and he didn't know what he was feeling for Hermione. Thanks for the criticism.
Regina-terrae – thanks for your encouragement, I'm glad you like it =)
Little Witch – You think its awesome? Well, gee…thanks =)
Windswept Phoenix – Lol, its kinda short-lived telepathy right? Haha, thanks but I dun need anymore help for the bold/italics stuff =)
pRePsMuStDiE22 – whoa, is my story that important to you?! =S um…wow, I'm really flattered…oh yeah, and I'm sorry there's not much romance yet. Just wait! =) thanks for the review.
Cheers and happy reading,
psychohart