CHAPTER XIX

"Ron…"

Ron grumbled and batted at whatever was holding his shoulder.

"…Ron, wake up your family's here," said a quiet voice.

He rolled over, exhaling.

"What?" he asked sleepily. He knew there was something he was supposed to be worried about but he couldn't quite remember what. In a matter of seconds, the fog of sleep cleared and he everything came gushing back. Ron coughed and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

"What time is it?" he asked, then frowned, looking up at Hermione. "Why are you in the boys dormitory?"

Hermione blushed slightly but propped her hands on her hips.

"Grow up Ron," she glared at him. "And hurry up, I told you, your family is here. It's six o'clock, you took a long nap."

Ron rubbed his eyes. Six.

"Five days," he said.

"Five days what?" she asked.

"It's been five days," he said unhappily. "It's almost Christmas."

Hermione looked at him sadly. She bent over and kissed his cheek.

"I know," she whispered, then straightened, and because there was nothing else she could say, made her way back down to the common room. Standing, Ron sighed heavily, and followed her.

***

Snape gritted his teeth and gripped his arm, where a white hot pain had flared suddenly. He was being called. He grabbed his wand and dissaparated immediately, appearing at the feet of his master.

"Severus," came a hiss.

"My Lord," he said, bowing.

"I have a job for you Severus," said Voldemort. "You will make me a potion."

"Of course, my Lord," replied Severus.

"It has no name, I devised it myself."

Voldemort began to list off ingredients. As he listened, Snape's first reaction was confusion, which promptly turned to horror. A love potion? he'd thought incredulously at first, but then his master had mentioned bark of the copula tree, whose fibers were used to make magical rope, because it's natural magic was to create a strong bond between two things, combined with turpific essence, which corrupted any magic it was combined with. Snape stared at the stones to hide his fear. This was no potion to meddle with, and he had a good guess as to what it was going to be used for. He was ordered to begin immediately and cringed, knowing that this particular combination of ingredients unfortunately would take very little time to become an effective potion.

***

Draco was torn between gratitude to Voldemort for removing him from the bad treatment of his father and hatred of his new master for fulfilling the same role his father had been in. He was beginning to seriously regret ever having made the decision to become a deatheater, although he would never have admitted it to anyone, much less himself. Despite his upbringing Draco was beginning to understand to force that drove people to do good or heroic things. Of course, he was completely unaware of this miniscule tranformation in him. That was the way Draco's mind worked. One half fought hard to maintain what he had been taught while the half that knew to think for itself was generally beaten back. He shrugged to himself, strapping his dagger to his waist. This life was better this way, he told himself.

***

Harry watched anxiously as two deatheaters entered the room in which Ginny was being kept. She lay on the cot, staring at the ceiling, but jumped off when they came in. One grabbed her arm.

"He wants to see you," he growled.

She struggled, a glimmer of fear in her eyes, but then they changed abruptly.

"Let me go!" she shouted vainly, bravely. One of them grabbed her hair, and she yelled. There was a snap, and a little silver necklace she was wearing was flung to the ground, sparkling in the torchlight. It skittered over the stones, and fell through a crack in the floor. No one noticed, as there was a loud howl from one deatheater who's hand Ginny had sunk her teeth into. The other one picked her up roughly from behind and tossed her towards the door, where she fell in a little heap, sniffling. Harry felt his heart wrench. He leaped forward intent on saving her there and then, regardless the consequences of being caught, only to find his feet bound to the stone floor by some invisible force. He threw himself against the barrier vainly. His desperation mounted as the two deatheaters bore Ginny roughly down the stone tunnel, Ginny kicking and screaming like a small child, more to irritate her escorts that out of fear. One of them pulled out his wand, and something red began to glow at it's tip. Harry knew what was about to happen, but before he could think about it, the world dissolved. Harry sat up abruptly, his coat falling from his chest, his breath coming in heaving gasps. He looked around frantically, to find himself in the same chamber he had slept in for the night after finding his way inside Azkaban. The dream had seemed incredibly real. Harry put his head in his hands, thinking. If the dream was real, he needed to find Ginny before something bad happened to her, but he had no idea where to go. From his birds eye view, Azkaban was apparently huge, and he was pretty sure he was down somewhere at the very bottom. It could take him forever. Better get started, he thought. He stood up, picking he coat up from the floor. Something jingled as he put it on. Harry frowned,. He reached into the front one curiously, feeling something cold and a thin against his fingers. He drew it out, lifting it up to the sparse moonlight coming through a small hole in the wall. It was a simple silver locket hanging from a chain. It looked familiar, gleaming as it swung to and fro in the beam of light. This triggered something in Harry's memory.

There was a snap, and a little silver necklace she was wearing was flung to the ground, sparkling in the torchlight.

This was the necklace in his dream, the one Ginny had lost! But how on earth had it come to rest in his pocket? Had someone put it there? And why? Harry looked at the necklace again, having a sudden idea. Ginny wore this often, it came in contact with her often. Perfect, he thought. He could use this as a focus, something that would lead him straight to her. He held the locket in his palm and muttered a spell.

***

Ginny continued to struggle right up to the point where she was thrown at Voldemort's feet. She was shaking with anger and a fear, which was understandable, considering she was only several feet a way from the most dreaded wizard of all time. A skeletal hand extended into her range of view and gripped her chin, pulling her to her feet, so that she stared directly into his horrifying face.

"Pretty," he murmured, in a disinterested tone of voice. "I can see why he cares for you."

Ginny looked at him with disgust.

"Pity it will kill him," said Voldemort, looking anything but regretful. He was looking particularly gleeful in fact.

Good greif, he's pratically drooling, thought Ginny, wondering how she was managing to be sarcastic at a time like this.

"What do you mean?" she asked slowly, bile rising in her throat. She wanted to spit on him for having such a smugly superior look on his face. Suddenly Ginny wasn't remotely fearful. She knew this man, better that one would think. He had told her his secrets. Things about himself before he had become what he was now. The fact that he did not know who she was gave her strength.

Voldemort laughed. The several deatheaters present shuddered.

"Severus!" Voldemort's voice rang across the room.

Severus Snape emerged from behind a few other men. Ginny stared at him in alarm. Snape?

"Where is my potion Severus?" asked Voldemort.

"Almost ready my lord, an hour or so."

Voldemort laughed again, reminding Ginny of nails on a chalkboard. She winced.

"Good" he whispered, turning back to Ginny.

"Severus is making you a potion," he told her. "It's my own variation of a love potion."

Terrible images filled Ginny's mind, of being forced to fall in love with some horrible deatheater, of being raped and mistreated and finally killed, of never seeing her family again. Some of these thoughts must have registered on her face. Voldemort smiled cruelly.

"It does not function as a regular love potion would, because you are already in love with the person towards whom its effects it will be directed."

Ginny was confused. She didn't want to know what was going to happen next.

"Do you know what the uses for copula bark are, Miss Weasley?" he asked in a false professor voice.

Ginny nodded slowly, not wanting to speak.

"And the turpific mushroom?"

Another nod.

Ginny, was naturally good with potions. She could see where this was going, and the thought filled her with dread. He was going to solidify the bond between her and Harry (hence the copula bark), that would channel their emotions for eachother directly, love feelings specifically.

Voldemort observed this young woman with satisfaction. He knew that she was beginning to understand.

"You wonder about the purpose of the turpific essence," he stated.

Ginny lifted her gaze to his face, eyes wide with confusion, mouth slighlty open, in contemplation.

"It is a poison of course, but not a physical one. I believe Dumbledore once said that Harry was saved when he was a baby by the love his mother had left branded in his skin. Emotions often do create a bond it's true. But Dumbledore is a fool. He thinks love will conquer all," he gave a low chuckly, "but I am going to prove him wrong."

Ginny stared at him, wondering where this was leading.

"When you drink the potion," he said, "and you will drink it, the turpific will begin to take affect. It will infiltrate your system, corrupt your emotions, and anyone bonded to you will feel the effects of your thoughts towards them."

Ginny closed her eyes, she wanted to block out his voice.

"No," she whispered.

Voldemort smiled cruelly.

"Oh yes. Every time you think of him, it will kill him a little more, because this is not a poison that can be drawn from the system or countered with an antidote. After all, it is merely your emotions that are doing the damage."

Ginny's eyes filled. This wasn't happening.

"Dumbledore was wrong," stated Voldemort again, looking immensely pleased. "Love did not save Harry Potter. It killed him."

Then he looked at Ginny again, admiring her beautiful face coldly.

"It will kill you too, when it has finished its work," he told her.

***

Harry watched with apprehension as he listened to what Voldemort was telling Ginny. He had performed a spell on her locket, to reveal her location, and now he was watching what was happening through the little cloud in the air that had been created when the spell took effect. When he was certain that the important part of the conversation was over, he waved his wand and the cloud disappeared. He needed to get to Ginny before they gave her the potion. Harry hoped Snape would take as long as humanly possible. He transformed into his shadowcat form, and disappeared, galloping through walls at a furious pace.

***

Severus was stalling. If he could, he would find a way to not brew this potion at all, but that seemed out of the question. Where the hell was Harry. He must have gotten lost. Damn, thought Severus, there's going to be trouble if he doesn't hurry up. He stirred the cauldron slowly. Peter Pettigrew came up to watch, his beady little eyes shifting nervously. There was sweat on his upper lip. Pettigrew always looked like he was going to pee his pants. It was a reflex after spending so many years with so many menacing deatheaters. Severus saw his chance. He picked up the bottle of essence of turpific and balanced it delicately on the edge of the cauldron, just as Pettigrew reached the same edge. Sure enough, there was a tinkle and a crash, and down went the vial, the smell of poisonous mushrooms filling the room. Snape roared, and backhanded Pettigrew.

"Damn you Pettigrew!" he shouted, "You've just cost us another goodness knows how many hours of work!"

Inside he was cheering.

"What's this?" came a dangerous hiss from across the room. The dark lord drifted over, his eyes glowing red. He kicked a piece of broken glass, nostrils flaring as the smell reached them.

"Lucius!" he barked, "Get yourself down to Knockturn alley and find us some more."

Malfoy bowed looking less than pleased.

"You have ten minutes," added Voldemort.

Malfoy swept angrily out of the room.

Severus waved his wand, cleaning up the mess.

"Pettigrew," hissed Voldemort. "Crucio."

***

Ginny closed her eyes, thanking Pettigrew fervently for being so clumsy. It bought her a little more time. Although she didn't know exactly how that helped her considering her hands were bound and she didn't know of any close exits.

***

Harry ran faster, judging by what he'd seen, it would take him a while to get where he was going. Azkaban was a ridiculous maze of corridors and tunnels that usually had very few doors. You had to run to the very end of one and go from there, no shortcuts. Even in shadowcat form, there was only so far you could go before hitting a dead end. He ploughed on.

***

Lucius Malfoy stalked angrily down the cobbled street of Knockturn alley, his black hood up. Theifs and crooks eyed him apprehensively, knowing full well what that black cloak meant. He was not a messenger or errand runner, thought Lucius righteously. He was a high ranking deatheater, this was a job for someone like Draco, who was new. He stepped into the doorway of a brothel, and murmured something to the scarcely dressed woman who opened the door and was eyeing him suggestively. Her face fell when she heard what he said though. She turned, and marched off down a hall, where she led him to another doorway. She pounded on it, then stood aside when it opened, revealing another store not accessible from the street that sold illegal substances.

***

Draco entered the room where the rest of the deatheaters were, seeing Ginny Weasly, barefooted and still wearing her figure flattering Yule ball gown. He had been informed of the plan a little earlier by the Dark Lord himself, and was called to watch. Draco's heart was thumping strangly. He couldn't tell why. He looked at his old potions master stirring the cauldron, and then back at Weasley. He felt almost worried. Get a hold of yourself, he told himself angrily.

***

Severus resisted looking regretful when Lucius appeared twenty minutes later holding the desired vial of essence of turpific, and an extra. They were taking no chances this time. Severus sighed. There was no getting out of it. He accepted the small bottle from the other man, ignoring him, and uncorked it. He emptied the contents into the cauldron and stirred slowly. He nodded to his master; it was ready. Severus put out the flame, and watched, his face deceptively impassive as Ginny was dragged over, struggling violently. This was bad.

***

Harry burst through the wall to the throne room, skidding to a halt to find the room filled with black-cloaked people. Luckily no one was too close and all of their backs were turned. He looked around himself to find, to his dismay, that he stood just beneath a row a lit torches, banishing all shadow from his side of the room. He was standing in plain view, and something felt wrong. His eyes scanned the backs of all the figures in the room, seeing that Ginny was being dragged over to a cauldron where Snape stood. He had to move quickly, his eyes finished their tour of the room, promptly finding the source of his uneasiness. Not everyone had their backs turned. No, of all people, Draco Malfoy, who stood in the corner near him, and a little apart from everyone else, was staring wide eyed at the strange sight before him.

***

Draco wondered if he was going insane. A huge black cat had just rocketed through the back wall. And now it was looking straight at him. Draco looked around, wondering if anyone else could see it. No one was watching. He looked back at the beast, wondering if he should shout, or get someone. He opened his mouth, but then snapped it shut again. The animal was bearing its teeth, and moving his head from side to side, a movement that looked uncannily like it was shaking its head as if to forbid him. He stared at it in confusion, and his eyes narrowed. It had startlingly emerald eyes. Familiar emerald eyes. And then it did something impossible.

***

Harry froze as Malfoy opened his mouth to shout. No! He thought. He should his head vigorously. Malfoy's eyes widened, and he stared in confusion, which changed to suspicious look. To hell with it, thought Harry, I'll transform and knock him out before he says anything. Harry changed. Malfoy's eyes widened even more, and his jaw dropped.

***

Draco looked around frantically. Why isn't anyone turning around? He thought desperately, but then his mental tone of voice changed. Why wasn't he shouting by now? He wondered about himself. Harry, a few meters away, was wondering the same thing. Draco turned and looked at Harry again, feeling torn. This was the boy he hated, he should be jumping on the chance to get him caught. But Draco knew it would be more than caught. It would be killed. For the first time in his life Draco was forming conclusions for himself. He found that he wasn't thrilled at the concept of the Dark Lord taking over the world despite all his misconstrued impressions of power and all that he'd known. For the second time in his life, Draco came to a conclusion on his own. He turned to Harry, nodded, then made his way into the group of deatheaters.

***

Harry watched apprehensively as Malfoy headed towards the deatheaters. Damn, he's going to get help. This was the last thing he needed. He tensed, ready to spring into action. Time was running out. Snape was putting something in a bowl that looked as though is was for Ginny, Harry was ready to sprint across the room to save her, knowing he had no escape plan. But on the contrary, Malfoy did not speak to the first person he came to, but walked past many of them, weaving his way through the crowd to the other end of the room. Harry sighed in relief, using the several spare seconds to rack his brain for something that would save his ass. He felt a cold pressure against his throat, mistaking it for anxiety until he realized it was a physical feeling. His hand flew to his neck, where he felt a leather rope and a small, smooth surface. The talisman! Merlin had told him it was designed to be forgotten about until it was needed!

"That'll activate when hold it in one hand and state your destination. It's an elfish talisman, it'll get you out of sticky situations when you least expect it…"

A shout rang out across the room. Harry closed his eyes. That was Malfoy's voice; he was finished.

"My Lord!" came the voice from opposite him. He could not see his classmate, too many people in that way. Everyone's attention was fixed on the wall farthest away from him.

"My Lord!" shouted Malfoy again, "Someone is over here!"

There was a roar of voices as everyone rushed to where he stood. Leaving Harry a clear path to Ginny, where she was being held only by Snape. Voldemort, standing on the elevated platform near his throne, had his attention fixed on Malfoy. Harry couldn't belief his senses. Malfoy was creating a diversion. He wasted no time, he sprinted in human form, knowing he would need his spare two hands and not paws to clasp the talisman and grab Ginny.

***

Snape and Ginny both saw a man with black hair and green eyes sprinting towards them at the same time. Snape shoved Ginny in his direction and kicked hard at the cauldron of acid green liquid, sending it and its contents flying, chucked the bowl he was holding into the crowd of deatheaters and fired a few unforgivables to start a free-for-all. The more chaos, the less chance Voldemort would have of reaching Harry before he escaped. Snape hoped Harry had a plan, because he sure as hell didn't.

***

Ginny scrambled to her feet weakly and ran towards Harry. He was clasping something around his neck and beckoning to her. It all happened as if in slow motion. Harry reached out his hand and wrapped his arm around her waist as soon as he could. Several curses whizzed by his ears and he knew that they knew he was here. He saw the green light just in time, and did something incredibly stupid. He hugged Ginny tightly to his chest, and swung her directly out of the line of fire, so his back faced the killing curse hurtling towards him. It hit him like a steam engine, there were several almighty CRACKS on impact. Through a haze of pane, nausea and adrenalin, Harry released Ginny and found his wand. He used the very last of any strength he possessed on one last spell, then pressed the talisman into Ginny's hand. "Hogwarts grounds," he whispered pointing his wand at her. There was a gigantic explosion and Harry slipped from her desperate grasp, feeling a huge sense of relief knowing Ginny was safe, before he expelled one last breath.

***

The re was a huge blast of light as Ginny disappeared that left everyone momentarily blinded. Severus blinked several times. He was standing in the middle of the throng of deatheaters, right next to Draco Malfoy. Everyone stopped firing curses, staring at a sight on the floor. There was a hiss. Severus looked at what they were staring at, and felt as though he had been socked in the stomach. The wind went out of him, he could not breath, and his eyes misted over. The hope Severus had been clinging to for the past ten years left his body in seconds. The Dark Lord walked to Harry's body. He kicked it, then bent, and pressed his fingers to the cold flesh under Harry's chin. He began to laugh, terribly, sickeningly, wringing the dead boy's neck and shaking him, spittle clinging to his chin. He looked terrifying. He looked completely insane. Finally, at length, the laughing stopped, the silence broken periodically by small, mad chuckles. He lifted his head, red eyes gleaming, the smile fading from his face

"Severus," came a dangerous whisper, which traveled nevertheless through the entire room. Everyone knew what is meant, and they were all so petrified by his previous display that they backed away. Voldemort took no notice.

"Draco you have been in my service less than forty-eight hours and already I smell TREATCHERY!" the last word ended in a bellow. Voldemort let out a long, incoherent roar. Several deatheaters fell to the ground, unconscious, having received a blast of raw magic emitted by the Dark Lord in his rapid change of emotion.

Draco and Severus turned back-to-back, wands extended at the deatheaters circling them menacingly.

"Can you apparate boy?" asked Severus in a whispered in a cracked voice

"Yes," replied Draco, not being insolent, for once in his life, his own throat seemed obstructed by something.

"Take this ring," Severys extended his extra one, it would allow them to breach Hogwarts wards, "and apparate to Dumbledore's office now, there is no stopping Him anymore."

Snape dissapparated, and Draco did what he was told, and followed.