Author's Note: OK, there is no excuse on my part for updating so late. It is about four months since the last update and I don't know what to tell you. I had writer's block for a while, and then started work on a couple of other stories. It all spiralled and I neglected this fic and you. Anyway, the other night I sat down and finally attacked the last two chapters with a vengeance. I have to admit, I'm a little disappointed with this chapter. I had wanted a huge explosive scene but it just didn't work out like that. It's a pity because I really feel that in the gap of four months, my writing has improved somewhat, but I don't think this chapter is very exhibitive (is that a word?) of that.
So many people reviewed and I want to thank you all. Individual stuff is at the bottom. And now… the actual story…
Ooh, actually, before that, I need to tell you – I have made a change to chapter 8. It is very minor, but important to the plot all the same, and just to avoid confusion I recommend a quick skim of the chapter. Thanks.
Rating: R for this chapter (one bad word…)
Chapter 9It was a couple. An elderly couple.
For a few seconds, Harry was convinced that he must be having a very strange, very twisted dream. Then his mind adjusted, and he considered the possibility that he was hallucinating. That's it, he thought. I'm still with Voldemort, or something, and the Cruciatus Curse is making me hallucinate. He heard a gasp, and an "Oh my God," from Hermione's direction, and came crashing back to reality.
The couple were familiar – the man had pure white hair, a full head of it, and sharp, grey eyes. Draco's eyes. Not Draco's father, surely? His grandfather, perhaps. The woman's hair had once been darker, Harry could see, but now it was mostly grey, and long, pulled back into a plait. Her eyes were a warm chocolate brown. Their hands were entwined.
Suddenly, Harry knew with an unsettling certainty that these two people were, in fact, Draco and Hermione. But…
"How?" Hermione breathed.
"We're not allowed to say," the woman replied.
"There's a lot we're not allowed to say," said the man, "so perhaps we'd better tell you what we are allowed to say, and save you the trouble of asking a lot of questions."
"You know who we are, don't you?" asked the woman.
All of them nodded – there were far too many similarities between the two couples, young and old, to remain oblivious to the truth. "We can help you get out of here, but there's something you need to do, and you need to do it now."
"What is it?" asked Draco.
The woman produced two identical capped vials from her pocket. They appeared to contain a pale blue liquid. She turned to the man. "Shut the door, would you?"
He complied, and she handed the vials over to Draco and Hermione. "Drink this."
Draco glanced at Hermione. They looked highly suspicious. "What is it?"
"It's a potion," the man replied. "It… well, it'll break your bond."
Draco immediately grabbed Hermione's hand. "No."
"You have to."
"We don't."
"You do."
"Don't you fucking tell us what to do!"
The man stepped forward. "Do you have any idea what you both are? What you could be? If you don't break the bond now, Voldemort will kill you both and use the resulting energy to kill all the Muggle-borns and halfbloods within 500 miles of here, at least."
"But you have to break it together," said the woman. "I'll explain later; we haven't got the time now."
Draco's jaw tightened. "I won't do it. We won't do it."
"Not even if it would save thousands of lives?"
They said nothing for a while. Then Hermione whispered something in Draco's ear, and he seemed to agree, albeit reluctantly. They uncapped the vials.
"You have to do it at exactly the same time, OK?" said the woman.
Draco looked at Hermione. "On three. One… two…." On three, they downed the potion in one go and instantly grimaced. Mere seconds later, they cried out in pain. Hermione stared at Draco. "I can feel it breaking," she whispered.
"Me too."
Harry watched, afraid, as they squeezed each other's hands. The pain distorted their expressions – he'd never seen anything like it. Ginny, standing next to him, gasped suddenly and pointed. He looked up, and gasped as well. Forming between Draco and Hermione, along the length of their bodies, were several very thin white strands. They were getting thicker and more visible as they watched, arching every so often with a crackle of electricity. The thicker they got, the more pain they seemed to put Draco and Hermione through. Slowly, very slowly, each strand blended with another, and another, until there was just one singular link of power between them. Then each end detached itself from their bodies, curling in midair like an abnormally large caterpillar to become a ball of light.
It looked, Harry thought, not entirely unlike what Professor Lupin saw when he faced a boggart.
Quick as a flash, the woman produced a glass jar which appeared to suck the orb into it and sealed automatically. She shrank it and gave it to Hermione. "You did the right thing."
Draco was studying his older counterpart with a mixture of suspicion and acceptance. "Care to explain what this is all about?"
"Your bond is… was… similar to that involved in a Muggle scientific concept. Harry knows what I'm talking about, don't you? Hermione, too. It's called nuclear fission."
Harry remembered a very vague lesson years ago about atoms. He'd been more interested in playing with the little Play-Doh models.
The man continued. "Muggles believe – correctly, I might add – that everything is made up of atoms. If you split the centre of these atoms, you get an immense amount of energy, powerful enough to destroy large areas of land and thousands of people. It's the same with Draco and Hermione."
"We're an atom?" Draco asked, confused.
"No – you're like an atom in the sense that your bond, if broken, reacts in the same way as when the nucleus of an atom is split in half. The difference is that when humans used that technique to make a bomb, they had to set of a chain reaction involving millions of atoms, whereas your bond itself already possesses the power of one of those bombs. Voldemort planned to kill you, together, in a room similar to this, so that he could harness the energy as we have just done. Had you broken the bond in a normal room, you would have triggered the explosion."
"And this jar…" Hermione trailed off, holding it up and examining it closely.
"Is like a mini-version of this room." The woman finished.
"So what you're saying," said Harry, replaying the whole thing over in his head and feeling overwhelmed, "is that you have effectively just split millions of atoms at once. That… thing… in the jar is a bomb, and so if the jar is opened-"
"-you'll set it off. Please don't."
Hermione looked helpless. "What the hell are we supposed to do with it, then? Because I'm telling you now, there is no way I'm carrying a bomb around for the rest of my life. No way. Not a chance in hell. Over my dead-"
"Yes," said Draco with a pained expression. "We get the point."
The woman stared at the jar, transfixed. "What you're holding… that's pure, raw energy. You don't keep it. You use it."
"Use it?" Hermione eyed the jar doubtfully.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but you were planning on breaking out of here, right?"
"I'm not looking for justification or reasons," Hermione snapped. "I'm looking for a 'how to' explanation. Are you sure you're me?"
The woman's shoulder's slumped. I'm sorry. I know this doesn't make a lot of sense, and I know we've just made you give up something very precious to you, but you have to understand: this has happened to us, too. We're not changing history, here; we're making it."
"So in other words… you're following a set of instructions?" asked Hermione, looking slightly more at ease.
"Exactly."
Hermione frowned, and shook her head. "But surely you're breaking the rules by showing yourselves to us? I mean, now I know that I'll live to be… how old are you, anyway?"
The woman' eyebrow shot up. "Never ask a lady her age."
A snort from Hermione. "You're no lady."
The other eyebrow joined its partner. "Speak for yourself, my dear."
"Oh, but I am."
"Ahem," said Harry, "sorry to interrupt, but shouldn't we be escaping right now?"
"You're absolutely right," said the man. "Let's go."
And just like that, they did. The door slid open with a simple wave of the man's hand – seeing their looks of confusion, he just grinned and remarked cryptically, "It's wonderful when one is in control of one's own faculties."
Draco gaped and stated in no uncertain terms that he had never spoken like that, ever.
They descended the stairs to find the corridor full of frozen Death Eaters. "It's a bit like a more permanent version of the Impedimenta," the woman explained, "but you put the spell on the corridor, instead. That way, when someone enters, they can only get a few steps along before the Impedimenta kicks in. Useful, don't you think? With a few adjustments, you can set it to affect only Death Eaters."
Harry found it a bit unnerving to be walking right past some of the same people who'd been taking him to see Voldemort only half an hour ago – people who wanted him dead. They came to a set of stone steps that looked identical to the ones they'd just descended, and Harry felt a jolt of joy as he realised that this must be where everyone else – the older Weasleys and Lupin – had been imprisoned.
"We'll get them," said the man. "Stay here and keep watch."
They vanished up the steps. Harry looked over at Hermione and Draco, who were both looking pale and drawn. Draco, whether he realised it or not, was rubbing small comforting circles on Hermione's back. She was biting her lip and staring absently at the frozen Death Eaters. Harry himself was finding it a bit creepy, hanging around these living portraits of evil. They were like sculptures, he thought, the only difference being that these sculptures might suddenly jerk to life at any second. He hopped from foot to foot nervously, silently praying for the older couple to hurry up.
"Well, well, well…"
They all whirled around. Voldemort was standing mere metres away, an amused expression on his face. Harry heard Ginny whimper behind him, and remembered that it was only himself, Hermione and Draco who had ever seen Voldemort in person – it must have been quite a shock for the Weasleys. He was aware of Hermione and Draco slowly stepping forward to flank him, and was grateful for their support. He tried to keep his face expressionless, but he needed to ask Hermione and Draco what to do, and he wasn't sure how to do it without drawing attention to himself.
Voldemort waved a hand regally, and all of a sudden, the Death Eaters began to move again. They took a few purposeful steps forwards, then stopped looked around, and seemed to realise what had happened. A few of them prostrated themselves in front of Voldemort, and the rest moved to surround Harry and his friends menacingly. Great, Harry thought. Bloody perfect.
"Going somewhere?" Voldemort asked. "I should think not. Now, kindly return to your chamber before I have your pathetic red-headed friends executed."
Harry, mind racing but failing to come up with a plan, looked over at Hermione to try and work out what she was planning to do. As it turned out, whatever Hermione might have been planning was irrelevant because at that very moment, the older Draco and Hermione came down the stairs accompanied by the older Weasleys and Remus Lupin. The second they saw the strange tableau in front of them, the woman tried to push the others back up the stairs, and the man hissed, "Go, go!"
But Voldemort, looking even more amused, said, "Of course. I did suspect you would attempt something like this – why else would I investigate personally? But it's a little late for atonement, thought, don't you think?"
Harry was confused, and he wasn't the only one. I will not ask, I will not ask… "What are you talking about, you old fart?"
Almost at once, he felt a head-splitting blow delivered to the back of his head by one of the Death Eaters – Draco caught Harry's arm before he fell to the floor. Voldemort sneered. "Sometimes I think you want me to kill you. Tell me, Boy Who Lived – do you think these two-" he gestured to the older couple, "-are your allies? Your friends?"
Harry glanced at the couple in question. "What?"
"Tell them the truth, Protectors. Tell them everything – who came back in time only to walk right into my welcoming arms? Who broke the wards on that wretched little shack of a house? Who broke the wards on your place in New York? Who gave this ridiculous little group of people to me on a silver platter?"
Everyone stared at the older couple in horror. "Is it true?" asked Hermione, stricken.
The pair looked at each other. "Yes," said the man, "but we were under the Imperius curse, I swear."
Harry relaxed slightly. He believed them, but the sense of unease still remained as he observed the smug expression on Voldemort's face. "We were under the Imperius curse," he mocked in a silly voice. "Yes, they were, but shouldn't they have been able to resist it? Perhaps they were tempted by the lure of my incredible power. It wouldn't be the first time. So tell me – do you still feel safe? Able to trust them? Or, for that matter, their younger counterparts?"
Immediately Harry knew what Voldemort was trying to do. If he could drive a wedge between them all, he'd have them conquered in seconds. Well, it wasn't going to work, not if Harry could help it….
But whatever Harry might have done, it was pre-empted by the older Hermione and Draco, who simultaneously raised their arms and yelled something Harry didn't catch. Voldemort was flung backwards, but quickly leapt up again. The Death Eaters began to surge inwards. The woman shouted, "Stupefy!" at the top of her voice, while the man appeared to be replacing the long-range version of the Impedimenta on the corridor. Voldemort deflected the woman's Stun easily, but he hadn't banked on one thing – brute force. Arthur Weasley and Remus Lupin flung themselves at the ugly, snake-like man before them and tackled him to the ground. The Death Eaters, frozen, did nothing.
Everyone looked on in horror, fearing that the worst would happen, and sure enough Voldemort pulled out his wand. "Avada Ke-" he began, but then the younger Hermione yelled, "Expelliarmus!" and Voldemort's wand flew through the air. She snapped it brutally across her knee, a strange expression on her face that Harry had never seen before. He didn't have time to examine it, though; he was very nearly trampled as Bill and Charlie Weasley rushed to join the fray.
Hermione was studying her little bruise-map on her arm. Her older counterpart peered at it closely and said, "The exit's not far. We can all make it if we run."
"We'll have to put more of that charm on the corridors," said the man. "The question is, how to get those four out of here-" he gestured to the three Weasleys and Lupin, who were all viciously attacking the Dark Lord, "-without giving him a chance to recover and come after us."
The woman glanced at the small, glowing jar that Hermione was clutching. She nodded. "It's a good opportunity for them to learn to channel it."
Draco wandered over to stand next to Hermione. "What are we doing?"
The man came to stand behind him; the woman followed suit with Hermione. "We can pin Voldemort down using this energy, but the channelling process is very difficult; we're dealing with huge amounts of energy here. What you need to do is this…"
Draco and Hermione's hands joined, the jar beneath them. They closed their eyes, and what followed was something that Harry would never be able to fully put into words. Instead of moving out of the jar, the energy moved up through their hands and into their bodies, invading their every cell until Harry was positive that they were glowing. They spoke; quiet, hushed words of an ancient magic dating back to the first Protectors. Except that Harry could see their words. Not the letters, but the words. They danced amidst the blood and violence, weaving their way into the writhing scrum.
Arthur, Bill, Charlie and Remus sprang away from Voldemort, who was very clearly being pinned to the floor by a pure white sheet of light.
Every single one of them was entranced by this odd sight, and would have remained so, but the older couple yelled, "Come on!" and began to run down the corridor. Shaken, they followed, occasionally colliding with the frozen Death Eaters. Draco was clutching Hermione's hand as if he would never let go.
If anyone tried to stop them, Harry didn't notice. Sometimes he heard a curse yelled up ahead and saw a flash of light; several seconds later he'd run past a fallen Death Eater.
Then, all at once, they were outside in the cool, fresh air still running. It was dark, but Harry could see the shadows of trees not far away. When he glanced back, the only thing that indicated the presence of a building was a faint shimmer. "Stop," the man panted, leaning over and breathing deeply. "Bloody arthritis," he muttered.
"You'll have to do it again," said the woman.
"Channel the energy?" asked Hermione. "But wh-? Oh…"
She shared a worried glance with Draco, and they both looked at Harry. "It's prophesised that… that Harry kills Voldemort. If we do this, we're destroying that, and we don't know what they will mean."
Then Harry, before he knew what he was doing, said, "So let me do this with you."
"Can he?" Draco asked the older version of himself, who shrugged and said, "I don't see why not."
Draco and Hermione adopted their stance as before, only this time Harry's hand rested atop theirs. He looked at Hermione to ask her what he had to say, but was surprised to feel his mouth opening and a language he had never known coming out. He could feel the energy filling him, flowing out in his words, and was almost overcome by the power. Destroy, he heard a voice say inside his head. Destroy… everything!
But then something very odd happened. He was ready to destroy the world with the energy, but he heard something… a faint whisper…
Just the building, Potter. No need to go overboard.
He grinned. Draco, this is frankly disturbing, having you in my head.
Hey, said a new voice - Hermione. Let's not forget the token female, OK? I'm blowing up this building, too.
Yes, we know you are, darling, Draco's dry tones were the same through any medium – vocal chords or telepathy. So let's get this show on the road.
The energy swelled, surrounding the building like a great tidal wave. And then, before Harry realised what was happening, the tidal wave crashed down over the building and it was gone, destroyed by the sheer power of a split bond. A blast of hot, fast air rushed past them – the shockwave – making them stagger slightly.
Cool, Harry thought. Oh, well – see you afterwards, you two.
He removed his hand from the jar and tried not to feel too disappointed when he realised he could no longer hear Draco and Hermione in his head.
A faint voice from behind asked, "Is it over?"
Over… Harry was only just beginning to appreciate the meaning of that word. "Yeah, Ginny." He grinned. "It's over."
Author's Notes: You know, I had an idea while typing this up. I typed the words 'frozen Death Eaters' so many times that I started to imagine them as a kind of ice-cream. So if there's anyone out there in the ice-cream business – that's your next money-making venture: Death Eaters on sticks.
Now – wonderful reviewers:
Chi (you said such lovely things. Thank you!), RinoaOHeartilly (I'm not that evil! Hope you're still interested in this fic four months later, and not regretting the name change), Twisted Silver Dagger (I love you! You constantly find the only good stuff there is in my story and point it out, ignoring the bad stuff. Please come back!), Nina and dark star (thanks!), TDKgirl (sorry for the wait), Erica G. (don't we all…), crissy (ooh, I could have done that, too. Dammit.), SlytherinDaggers (your review really struck a chord with me – I kept remembering it whenever I was stuck), Kou Shun'u (your reviews always make me grin – thanks!), lucy, jelly jelly bean and AndinaOfRivendell (sorry – I know I'm bunching people together, but I need to conserve space. Thanks to all three of you for your kind words – you're lovely.), Katherine5 (I was kind of alternating between Fly Me To The Moon and Mack the Knife when I wrote that chapter, although I don't think Frank's version of Mack the Knife is as good as Bobby Darin's! So, yeah, it probably was Fly Me To The Moon, which is a great song. Thanks for asking!), jenny (hope you enjoyed it), angelc1415, bunny, and tiffany2321 (e-mails on the way!), Nina (you didn't leave your e-mail address! So I couldn't send one, but I hope you find this chapter anyway.), Meg, purpleballerynna, jeannette, Aurora and Purple WinD (thank you all so much! Hope this chapter entertains you.)
The last chapter will be up very soon. In the meantime… well, you know what I'd like, right?