Chapter Twenty-Four
And So It Begins

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Hermione yelled at the top of her lungs, jumping on Lucius Malfoy's back and knocking him to the ground. She grabbed his head and bashed it on the hard, stone floor. She couldn't help Ginny; if she picked her up, she would be in too much pain. Only Harry knew the counter for the Bone Severing Hex, and he was too busy fighting about ten Death Eaters.

Hermione was covered with Malfoy's blood. She had to get a grip on herself or she would become a murderer, just like him.

Someone grabbed Hermione, who was now sobbing, and led her away from Lucius and Ginny. He handed Hermione her wand, and a broomstick, and led her into the room where she was locked in.

"Harry!" Hermione gasped between sobs. Harry's face was badly gnashed, and his robes bloody. He used his wand to separate the bricks covering the walls.

"Herm, you have to fly out of here. Go back to Grimmauld Place; tell them that Ebony is badly injured; I'll help Ginny. We need someone to handle the Death Eaters here. I'm sure that Ebony won't be the only one injured by the time they come to help. But Ivy will stay here until someone comes to help, so don't worry about her. You need to go now, Mione," Harry explained quickly as he adjusted the broomstick to fit Hermione.

"But, Harry! I hate flying! I, I'm scared!"

"Mione, you have to go! You're our last hope. Please!"

Harry looked at Hermione, and she could see the fear hidden behind his brave eyes. He was more frightened than she was. She nodded swiftly and mounted the broom. Letting out another quick sob, and wiping her eyes, she kissed Harry on the cheek and flew out into the darkness.

"My Lord…It's Malfoy. He's been badly injured. We need the others to come and help us, my Lord! We need-"

"SHUT UP AVERY! I decide what you need and what you don't need. Bring Malfoy and the Weasley girl to me. I'm sure that little Mud-blood bitch has escaped already. Potter wants to duel, obviously, and so he will get his wish. I understand that Draco and Theodore are battling the Mud-blood Bellum: bring her to me. I also need you to find my disgrace of a half-sister; she will die tonight also.

Ginny was lying on the stone-cold ground. Her body was just a pile of bones covered in muscle and flesh. She was bleeding everywhere and no one would help her. Hermione couldn't do anything without her wand, she knew, and Harry was battling the Death Eaters, of course…she wasn't making any sense. No one could help her. She had to just lay here and die, for she knew that would be her fate anyway…

"Skelamendo!" Harry yelled, pointing his wand at Ginny. Suddenly, Ginny felt as if she were a jigsaw puzzle being put back together. Her body was cooling down, and the blood was vanishing from her skin. She was about to pass out, when Harry picked her up and carried her down many stairs.

Ginny was dozing off when she saw an older woman screaming behind them.

"NOOOOOO! Harry, don't go down there! He's waiting!" Ivy panted as she chased Harry and Ginny down the long, dank, corridor. Harry turned around to see Avery chasing Ivy, while Draco had bound his father and Nott together, and was levitating them in the air.

Just as Ivy screamed the last word, she was struck with the Cruciatus Curse, and began writhing around on the floor.

Ginny had completely woken up now and leapt down from Harry's arms. Neither Draco nor Avery had seen her do this, and she used this to her advantage when she crept along the smooth brick wall. Avery was looking around, for her obviously.

"Where's the Weasley girl? Just hand her over, and…well I won't say no one will get hurt, because that would be lying! But maybe you won't suffer as much…swift, painless death is also-"

Ginny couldn't let him talk Harry down. She jumped out of the shadowy corner she was hidden in and hurdled onto Avery's back.

"Gerrof me! Draco, grab her or-BLOODY HELL! SHE BIT ME! THE LITTLE BITCH BIT ME!"

But it wasn't Ginny who had bitten Avery's right arm; it was Ivy.

"You two go on! I'll handle these two…I'm sure someone will be comin' with Eb's body soon enough, but yeh just keep goin'!"

Hesitating for just a moment, Harry and Ginny bound down the rest of the stairs until they came to a small, wooden door.

"You don't think he'd just be in there, do you? I mean, surely it will be difficult, getting to him I mean," Ginny asked, with a hint of anxiousness in her voice.

"I'm not sure…maybe that's what he wants us to think," Harry replied, and he slowly creaked the door open.

"HELP! HELP! HARRY…GINNY…THEY NEED HELP!" Hermione shouted at the top of her lungs as she burst through the door to Number Twelve.

Charlie, Bill, Lupin, Tonks, Fred, George, Ron, Luna, Cho and Dumbledore were seated in the drawing room, and immediately bolted for the front door when they heard Hermione come in.

Hermione was panting heavily, bent over with her hands on her knees. Cho summoned a water pitcher and a glass, and poured some for Hermione. Luna glided the nearest chair behind Hermione so she could just sit down.

"Hermione, what is it? Where are they? How did you get-?" Dumbledore interrupted Ron.

"Let her breath a minute. I'm sure she will tell us everything in a moment."

Hermione gulped down the water gratefully, and Tonks refilled her glass. After finishing the second glass rather quickly, Hermione wiped her mouth on her sleeve and took a deep breath.

"It was in Borgin and Burke's…I'm sure of that because when I was flying out of that dungeon I saw the sign out front. I don't know how I got in there, but I remember a withered hand when Wormtail was carrying me…I don't know how, but when I woke up again, I was in a circular dungeon room with no windows or doors. Ginny was leaning against it though, and she got me out. Then Lucius Malfoy came and started taunting us, and he disarmed Ginny, but she just said, "Accio wand" and it came back to her! Malfoy must've been scared because he ran away. Ginny chased after him, and the next thing I know, I hear what sounding like a thousand sticks being stepped on and broken. Ginny shrieked and when I went to see what happened, Ginny was bloody pile crumpled on the floor."

"The Bone Severing Hex!" Charlie and Bill gasped at the same time. Hermione nodded and Dumbledore motioned for her to continue.

"I started attacking Lucius, and I think I rendered him unconscious. Then Harry came and helped me up, and he gave me my wand and this broom. He opened up the wall for me and told me to fly here and tell you to send help. They could be doing anything by now, though. The battle may have started already."

"Welcome Potter, and I see that Avery was unsuccessful in killing you, Weasley. He'll die soon enough. But I'm sure Severus will be good enough to kill you," Voldemort hissed from some shadowy corner of the oddly shaped dungeon room.

Snape emerged from the corner nearest Harry and Ginny. But he looked so different. His skin was perhaps sallower than before. He freely showed the black Dark Mark burned into his right forearm, and his hair was no longer greasy, but sleek and shiny and almost as long as Dumbledore's.

Snape withdrew his wand and raised it as high as his nose. Harry and Ginny did the same, and when Snape opened his mouth to speak, his voice was even more bone chilling than they had remembered.

"Let it begin."