The lights were still dancing behind Hermione's eyes and she knew it might take hours or even days for her vision to go back to normal but there came a muttered word and suddenly she could see again. She opened her eyes to meet Ron's dazed ones and realized he could actually see her, for the invisibility cloak had fallen off unnoticed at some point during all the chaos.

A staccato of running footsteps sounded and a tousled looking older blonde man came racing into the room, skidding to a halt with a look of shock on his face at the sight of Draco.

"Hello father. Surprised to see me? Alive?" Draco's tone was polite disinterest cultivated to perfect civilized Malfoy-ness.

The elder Malfoy had gone an unattractive pasty color. "Where…where's the master?!"

Draco made a dismissive gesture with his hand. "Gone. It's just you and me."

Lucius' eyes flickered to Harry, ignoring Hermione and Ron.

Draco smirked. "And Harry. But he's just here to watch."

Lucius' eyes darted back across the room, scanning wildly. "Perhaps I was hasty before boy. You appear to have some promise." He was a pathetic little creature, always scrabbling to survive, and he was ready to do so now too.

Draco's eyes were calculating. "Let's see…should I revisit the sins to the son upon the father? Or could I do better?"

"Potter wouldn't let you! He's one of the good guys." Lucius blustered but he sounded desperate and he didn't really believe it. Not the way Harry was standing there with an impassive look on his face. Not the way he stood framed by frozen Death Eaters, blank incomprehensible looks on their faces.

"I could visit ten lifetimes of my own on you father and Potter wouldn't even flinch. He might help at that. You see, both of us have very strong morals regarding humans. But you're not exactly human. You…you're a monster."

"I'm your father! I protected you! I gave you the best money could offer! I made sure you always had everything you ever wanted!"

"Do you really believe that? Do you really think you can make me believe that? The game has been up for quite awhile father. And now it's the end. Potter?" Draco turned to his silent companion. It was a sign of how shaken the elder Malfoy was with current events that he did nothing with this seeming lack of attention directed at him.

"Taken care of."

"Good." And Draco Malfoy uttered another spell that Hermione did not know.

At first nothing seemed to happen but then Lucius suddenly sagged and collapsed to the ground, his face slack. His attention seemed to be focused inward to some spot inside himself that no one else could see. He didn't appear to like what he found there.

With another wave of his wand, Draco made his father disappear. "Shall I transport the Death Eaters straight to Azkaban?" he asked Harry.

Harry shrugged. "Good a place as any."

The frozen Death Eaters were abruptly unfrozen but had barely had a chance to blink before they were gone.

"You ready to go?" Harry asked.

Draco smirked. "I think you're forgetting something."

"What? Oh." Harry turned to Hermione and Ron, where they stood back against the wall still bewildered and generally out of their depths as they never had been before. "Catch."

Automatically Ron put up his hand and caught the wand that came soaring through the air to him. "My wand!"

"One of the guys down the hall had it one him. It was nice seeing you two again. You can tell Dumbledore that Voldemort's gone if you want."

"Harry!" She didn't know what she wanted to ask him, what she expected, what she wanted him to say. Ron was busy spluttering.

That familiar heart-stopping grin tugged at his face. "Bye guys." And just like that Ron and Hermione were alone.

Author's Notes: I realize now that what happened with Lucius might be a little confusing but I liked it vague so that Hermione and Ron wouldn't necessarily know what he did. Anyway, what he did to Lucius was sort of trap him in his own thoughts and make him see what's really in there. Not nice for a man who's done as much as Lucius has. Thanks for the great response to the last chapter-it really helped with the comment Draco said. Anyway, please review!