Chapter Seven
The trio, plus one, arrived at a little wooden shack; it was a dusty place with cobwebs over most of the surfaces. The only source of light was from the moon through a little window that was opaqued by grim.
"Err… Malfoy," Harry looked about worried, "I thought your manor was a bit… how to put this… bigger."
"It is." Draco glared at Harry, "This is not the manor. The Malfoy Manor has just about as many wards on it as Hogwarts; one of those wards is the anti-apparition ward."
"So this is?" Ron asked hesitantly.
"The apparition point for the Manor," Draco rolled his eyes at Ron's stupidity, "there are brooms in that cupboard, and we can fly up to the Manor in about ten minutes."
"What do you mean fly?" Hermione asked nervously.
"Flying, you know, you sit on a broom and off you go." Draco looked at his wife, "Don't tell me you're afraid of flying."
"I'm not afraid of flying; it's the sitting on a little bit of stick a long way from the ground with nothing to stop you falling that is the problem." Hermione tried to explain, to rationalise her fear. "It's the falling and the hitting the ground that bothers me."
"Well you are going to have to get over your fear because there is no other way of doing this." Draco pulled open the cupboard and handed everyone a Nimbus from the collection.
"What about that car, the limo we used to get here the first time." Hermione asked, "If that got in without flying then surely we can do the same now; can't we?"
"The limo does fly, you just didn't happen to notice it." Draco shook his head at his wife.
"What about floo powder?" Hermione asked hopefully, "We could apparate to Ron's and floo to the Manor from there!"
"Do you know how easily my father could trace that when he gets back from his holiday?" Draco asked, "All he'd need to do is look at the floo records and he'd know something was up. No, we need to fly."
"But…" Hermione looked about the little room as if it held the answer to her problem.
"Hermione, just get on the broom," Draco insisted. "It'll be fine."
Hermione stared at the offending bit of wood. The boys waited for her to move for about two minutes before Draco became frustrated. "Oh, for Merlin's sake!" He grabbed Hermione by the wrist and dragged her out of the shack. Without letting her hand go he mounted his broom and pulled Hermione on so that she was sitting side-saddle in front of him. Then, before she could complain, he kicked off.
Harry and Ron dashed out of the house and looked up at the two people as they rose higher, Hermione's scream ringing shrilly in the night air. They both quickly mounted their brooms and kicked off, following Draco's lead.
It took the expected ten minutes before they came in sight of the manor. Both Harry and Ron were in awe of the place; it was so large and looked so evil. Harry made a mental note to ask Draco how he could stand living in such an evil-looking place.
Finally they touched down on the ground. Hermione was by now very quiet and pale; she seemed to be having trouble letting go of Draco. Draco walked up the front steps with one comforting arm around his wife, he pushed open the door and all four of the Hogwarts students entered the Malfoy Manor.
They stood in the entrance foyer for several minutes for two reasons: one, so they could work out where to start searching and two, so Hermione could have the opportunity to let go of Draco.
"Where should we start looking?" Ron asked, "The secret chamber under the drawing room?"
"Yeah," Draco nodded, "that would probably be the best place to start, other than that we would have to search the dungeons and I for one would like to put that off for as long as possible."
Draco then led the group off in the direction of the drawing room, but after about five meters he stopped.
"What is it?" Hermione asked, worried that something had happened.
Draco turned around and looked straight at Ron with a confused expression plastered on his face. "How do you know about the secret chamber?"
"Err…" Ron was stumped; he looked from Harry to Hermione for support and found none. "You must have mentioned it some time."
"I most certainly did not." Draco looked aghast at the very idea. "I would never do something so stupid as to tell you about that chamber."
"Then how could I possibly know?" asked Ron, hoping that this would be the end of the questions.
Draco sneered at Weasley and continued the journey into the labyrinth of corridors stopping only when they had finally reached the drawing room. The room was one of the more pleasant in the manor with its Victorian-style settee and elegant black grand piano. A card table was set up down one end, the deck quietly shuffling itself. There was also a large rug adorned with pictures of Dragons flying around the edge of a forest.
Draco moved over to the rug and when a black dragon flew over the corner he was standing at, he tapped it twice with his wand and muttered a password under his breath. Nothing happened. The other three people looked at Draco, expecting an explanation, which he delivered by smirking. He lifted the corner of the rug and there beneath it was a stairwell leading downwards.
"Shall we?" He asked, tilting his head to the side.
Harry nodded his head and the group slowly descended the stairs; all of them drew their wands and whispered "Lumos." They walked down the stairs for about twenty metres before they came to a door that was slightly ajar.
Draco reached out to push it open when Harry clutched his forehead in pain and bit his lip to stop himself from screaming out.
"What is it?" Draco asked puzzled.
"He's here." Harry's voice was barely above a whisper, but all three of his companions heard.
Draco still looked puzzled, not having much experience with Harry's scar, for obvious reasons. Hermione noticed his confusion and put him out of his misery, "Harry's scar can sense Voldemort, when he is angry or close."
Draco struggled to hear Hermione as she too had opted to speak barely at a whisper, but what little colour there was in his normally pale face drained at her words.
"Let get out of here," Ron suggested and began to back up the stairs way from the door.
The others quickly followed, not wanting to have a confrontation with the Dark Lord just yet. They reached the top of the staircase, all of them glad that they had spent so much time wondering the castle avoiding teachers, they made so little noise. They made it out of the trapdoor and Draco was just putting it back in place when the door to the drawing room opened and Malfoy senior walked in with half a dozen other Death Eaters.
"Oh, bugger" Hermione heard Ron mutter under his breath.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Lucius smirked. Hermione was interested to note that the smirk held a lot more malice than Draco's ever did.
"Father," Draco nodded his head by way of acknowledgement, "I didn't expect to see you here."
"But I expected to see you here." Lucius scowled. "I would have hoped, however, that you wouldn't be quite this easy to manipulate."
"Pardon?" Draco asked surprised.
Just then the floor, or rather the trapdoor, opened and a figure in a hooded cloak appeared from beneath the rug, "The Dark Lord wants you to bring them down now."
Harry raised his wand in defence and his friends followed his lead. The Death Eaters merely laughed as four of them pointed their wands at the group of students and yelled, "Expelliarmus". All four wands were ripped from their owners hands and landed, deftly caught in the outstretched hand of Lucius Malfoy.
"Now, children," His voice sounded cold and emotionless. "down we go."
Hermione was the first to move, mainly because one of the Death Eaters, having gotten impatient, grabbed her and began to pull her into the stairwell. Draco went next with two Death Eaters trying to restrain him from attacking the Death Eater that had Hermione with his bare hands. Harry and Ron were both grabbed at the same time.
The chamber under the drawing room ended up being fairly unimpressive. The cold stone walls were lined with shelves covered with Dark Arts artefacts; there were several larger objects standing on the floor. The whole room was very dark and it was difficult to see much through the gloom.
The four students were forced to their knees and shackles conjured to hold them in place. Long chains, punched cruelly into the floor's stone surface, were shackled onto each person's arms and they were forced to stay kneeling, ligaments stretching in pain as the cold iron cuffs glued them to the floor. Now they knelt in a line as a creature from the shadows of the room advanced on them.
"So good to see you again," the voice of the creature spoke, "Harry Potter."
The blood in Harry's face drained as the creature he faced in his nightmares came into the minimal lighting. Voldemort's thin frame was as pale as the day he rose from the cauldron. The red eyes seemed to glow with twisted delight as they looked down upon the boy who had caused him so many setbacks: the boy who was now at his mercy.
"I knew you'd come, Potter." Voldemort's face twisted into a mutated smile. There were Death Eaters still entering the chamber; there were so many of them.
"How?" Harry asked, trying to bide some time.
"Because I knew that Draco here," he gestured to the blonde boy shackled to the ground, "would bring you."
"What?" Draco cried, "I didn't…"
"Lucius, quieten the boy." Voldemort grimaced at the sound of Draco's indignation.
"With pleasure my Lord." Lucius stepped forward and pointed his wand at his son, "Silencio."
'Well that wasn't so bad.' Draco thought, he'd been expecting…
"Crucio!" Lucius yelled.
Draco's face twisted in agony as he tried to scream out in pain, but no sound passed his lips; it was if a thousand blades of fire had been plunged into his flesh. He fell to the ground; the shackles didn't prevent him from doing that.
"Stop it!" Hermione cried as she watched Draco writhe on the stone floor.
"Stupefy" a random Death Eater cried out and Hermione fell forward onto the stone, hitting her head rather hard against the concrete as she did so.
Ron looked like he was about to begin to protest as well but fortunately for him Harry caught his eye and gave him a quick shake of the head.
"Anyway," the Dark Lord continued as though nothing had happened, "I realised years ago that this boy had no wish to join with me. Rather disappointing; I expected more from the child. So I set to work devising a plan that, should all else fail, would bring you to me.
"Suffice to say, it was an ingenious plan. All I had to do was force him into your trust, or at least the trust of one of your friends. Then lure him here. Lucius came up with the idea of having him marry the mudblood whelp. Then it was a matter of having the boy make her love him, it turns out that he did that without any prompting.
"But we still had to lure you to the Manor; the orb came in very handy for that. I had hoped that it would kill you before we even had to face each other, but I knew that to rely on that would be folly: you have such dumb luck. So information was placed into Draco's hands to help you trace the source of the orb back here. Genius, really." The Dark Lord smiled his twisted evil smile.
"So this was all a set up?" Harry asked, feeling really stupid for having fallen for this plot.
The look on Voldemort's face told Harry all that he needed to know: this was all one big set up and they had all played right into the Dark Lords hands.
"Now, Mr. Potter, how would you like to die?" The Death Eaters that lined the room chortled at Voldemort's words; Harry, however, remained silent looking up at the Dark Lord with sarcastic disbelief written across his face.
"Has no one told you to answer your superiors when they ask you a question?" Voldemort clucked, "Always needing a lesson taught to you. Very well, Imperio."
Harry was prepared for the spell; I mean really, could Voldemort be any more predictable? Being prepared, Harry quickly fought off the little voice in his head that was telling him to answer the question.
"Oh dear, Voldemort, hasn't anyone taught you that that spell doesn't work on me?" Harry asked, "Well, looks like you are the one in need of a lesson here."
Voldemort's twisted smile fell from his face, "Don't be insolent, boy! Perhaps a different method of teaching is required to get the message across. Crucio!"
Pain ripped through Harry's body, he slumped to the floor like Draco had done just moments before. Harry fought hard to stop himself from squirming under the influence of the curse, but there was so much pain.
Finally it stopped.
"Do answer the question," Voldemort pointed his wand at Harry's heart, "how would you like to die?"
"I'd like to die of old age, asleep in by bed." Harry replied, "But for now I'll just fight you to your death." The shackles fell from around Harry's wrists and he quickly stood up.
"We shall see, Mr. Potter, let's begin."
"Wait, don't I get my wand?" Harry asked desperately.
"Now what made you think that I was going to fight fair?" The laughter of the Death Eaters sounded around the room.
Harry began to back away from the Dark Lord, his footfall echoing in the chamber.
"Now we shall see what the famous Harry Potter is made of!" Voldemort drew his hand back and cried out, "Avada Kedavra!"
A moment earlier, Harry's hands had wrapped around the shoulders of a Death Eater and, with amazing strength for someone his size, he pulled the Death Eater in front of himself. Now the aforementioned Death Eater was lying on the ground dead. The still living Death Eaters had stopped laughing.
"Brat!" Voldemort hissed in anger, "You shall pay for that!"
"You mean in a way other than death?" Harry mocked the Dark Lord, "Because you already have me down for that."
"Crucio!"
Again Harry was too quick for him, using his seeker reflexes he pulled another of Voldemort's lackeys in between him and the unforgivable curse. The man screamed in pain but his torment was short as the curse was quickly lifted.
"Do you think that you could all refrain from getting in the way of the fight?" Voldemort's voice hissed with irritation as he berated his Death Eaters.
The Death Eaters shifted nervously in their places and those closest to Harry backed away to leave the Dark Lord more room to fight.
Voldemort fired a jet of acid-green light at Harry that barely missed the raven-haired boy. The bolt of light instead hit yet another Death Eater who crumpled to the ground with a blood-curdling scream.
"Get out!" Voldemort commanded. Most of the Death Eaters quickly moved to the exit and began filing out, not wanting to become casualties in the intense battle that was sure to follow. Lucius Malfoy, however, did not make any move to leave.
"My Lord," Malfoy's voice was the closest to pleading anyone had ever heard it, and that isn't saying much, "surely you can permit me to stay? This is a defining moment, your victory is nigh. My Lord, I wish to be here for this momentous occasion."
"Lucius, I gave you an order, now obey it."
"Yes, my Lord," Lucius bowed his head and took two reluctant steps towards the exit, "perhaps I should stay, just in case…"
The Dark Lord narrowed his eyes, "I am Lord Voldemort! I can take care of an unarmed child."
Lucius nodded his head, not wanting to anger the powerful wizard any further. He could understand that the Dark Lord found no threat in a pale, thin, unarmed boy that was at least a third of the age of the powerful wizard. Harry Potter or not, the Dark Lord was still far superior to the child.
On the way to the door Lucius noticed that several of his precious artefacts had been broken when the Death Eaters had left the room.
'Probably that rat, Wormtail.' Lucius thought, not bothering to consider that it had been a stupid idea to have a meeting in his precious secret chamber with all his trinkets. His pondering caused him a moment of distraction and he walked rather close to where Ron knelt in his bonds. Ron, noticing this, reached out with his hands and managed to wrap them around Malfoy's legs.
Surprisingly, Lucius was unprepared for the attack and fell rather gracelessly to the ground; the wands he had stashed in his clock pocket earlier scatted across the stone floor.
"You meddlesome child!" Voldemort's rage focused upon the red-head. "Multum Humus!" A flick of his wand accompanied the incantation and a brown energy ball flew straight at Ron.
It exploded upon impact and Ron quickly found himself covered in thick, gooey mud. Ron's eyes went wide with panic as the mud began to move as if it were alive. It seeped up his chest,snaked its way around his neck and made its way towards his nose and mouth.
"Ron!" Harry yelled as he rushed to his friend's side; the wands that would have been really handy right about now were left scattered across the floor. Harry desperately scraped at the mud, trying to keep Ron's airways clear, desperate to save his friend's life.
Voldemort's mirthless laugh echoed around the dark room, the noise bouncing eerily off the cold stone walls and ceiling.
"Stop that!" Lucius threw a spell at Harry and sent the boy flying across the room and into Voldemort, knocking them both to the ground.
"Oh crap!' Lucius ran from the room, silently hoping that Harry would be able to defeat Voldemort simply so that he would be able to escape the Dark Lord's wrath for his blunder.
The mud encasing Ron began to solidify, trapping the boy completely inside.
Harry pushed himself up on his aching limbs; a wand lay on the damp stone only a few metres in front of him. He scrambled forward and grabbed it, turning around just in time to see the enraged Dark Lord rise in an altogether monstrously fluid motion.
Harry stumbled a little, horrified that the older wizard could move so quickly. Grabbing this opportunity Voldemort raised his wand and pointed it straight at Harry, "Gravtus!"
Pain flared up in Harry's abdomen and he nearly crumpled back down to the floor from the severity of it. He glanced around the room searching for something, though he didn't know what. Harry's eyes rested for a second on the brown pile of goop that used to be his best friend. Finding inspiration in the site, Harry clenched his jaw and stood back up straight to once again face the creature that killed his parents.
Now standing approximately five metres apart, wands at the ready, Harry and the Dark Lord continued with the fight. A series of fireballs erupted from Harry's wand, scattering randomly in Voldemort's direction but all of them missed their intended target, shattering, instead of the Dark Lord, artefacts that lined the chambers walls.
A ghostly sound began to reverberate around the chamber and the artefacts began to wail eerily as they spread a haunting fog thickly across the floor.
The Dark Lord hissed with satisfaction, "That's not your wand, Potter; give it up now and let me kill you." The hiss that fell from his undoubtedly forked tongue was not English but Harry recognised it instantly.
"No!" Harry replied in kind. (AN: That means he also spoke Parseltongue.)
The sound had barely escaped Harry's lips when a skeletal being at least eight feet tall emerged from Voldemort's wand and charged at the raven boy.
The creature, biped in form, slashed out with an axe, forcing Harry to roll to the side to keep his head. Acting on instinct, Harry muttered a curse that blew apart the demon. Small bits of bone shot in very direction, fortunately not hitting anybody in the process. The mist around the last place the creature stood began to turn a nasty purple and Harry made a mental note to stay away from it.
Voldemort scowled at his enemy's small victory, but took advantage of Harry's position and quickly cast his next spell. "Quasso."
Harry screamed out in pain as a bone in his right leg cleanly snapped in two. The wand flew from his hand with a muttered word from Voldemort. Now, completely wandless and unable to stand, Harry dragged himself further away from the advancing Dark Lord.
Voldemort had a thin smile on his face as he slowly advanced on the boy who had been a thorn in his side for sixteen years.
Across the other side of the room, Draco watched the scene with trepidation: Voldemort was about to kill the Order's best chance of winning the war. More importantly, Voldemort was about to kill Draco's best chance of getting out of this room alive.
He couldn't watch.
Draco turned his head away and saw the still form of Hermione, lying unconscious on the damp stone. A trickle of blood slowly making its way across the floor, the origin of which seemed to be her head.
Concern and bitterness welled up inside Draco and he once again had to turn his face. This time he looked beyond Hermione to a solidified pile of mud. The death trap that encased an innocent, or close to innocent, young man.
Draco felt useless; there were so many people about to die and he, Draco Malfoy, couldn't do a damn thing about it.
Draco turned his head again in anger… and spotted it.
Lying on the ground a short way in front of him lay Harry's wand.
If only he could reach it…
"I have waited so long for this, Potter." Voldemort's red eyes seemed to glow with the impending victory.
Harry stared defiantly into those scarlet slits; if this was to be his final moment in this world then he would make sure he stared death in the face, and with a bit of luck he'd be able to tell it to sod off.
Draco quickly dismissed the idea of using his hands to reach the really, really, really important length of wood. He kicked off his shoe and reached out with his now bare foot. With a skill learnt from years of being too lazy to bend over to pick things up, Draco managed to wrap his toes around the thin stick.
He had it!
Now to get it to Potter.
"Oy, Scarhead!" Draco yelled across at Potter. (AN: A friend pointed out to me that Draco was silenced, well now that Lucius has run off, let's pretend the curse wore off. K?)
With all the concentration he could muster in his post-Crucio state, Draco threw the wand (yes, with his foot) to Harry.
To be honest Draco was amazed that Harry was able to catch it. 'How did I ever manage to do that?'
On the other side of the room Harry was able to wrap his hands around his wand.
Voldemort called out another deathly spell; he hadn't noticed.
Without thinking Harry cast the strongest shield spell that he knew.
Once again the two "brother" wands found themselves fighting. Once again something strange happened.
A black-looking portal ripped open at the side of the room and a strong wind ripped through the chamber as though the vortex was trying to pull things in. Harry watched, stunned, as Voldemort was, for want of a better word, sucked towards the portal.
Harry suddenly had a strange feeling that this portal was similar to the one that his godfather had fallen through just over a year and a bit ago. He could hear the same voices, whispers on the other side.
The winds picked up and the Dark Lord Voldemort was pulled into the portal. It closed, somewhat contentedly, after him.
The room became deathly silent.
"That's it?" Draco asked.
"That's what?" Harry didn't even turn around to look at Draco; he didn't want to ever move his leg a millimetre.
"That's the final downfall of the Dark Lord?"
"Guess so." Harry replied.
"Bit pathetic if you ask me." Draco sounded bored.
"That's why no one asked you."
"Do you think you could drag yourself over here and help us?" Draco asked, hating that it was Potter his was asking, "And by us I mean me, of course."
"Of course, but unless you haven't noticed I happen to have a broken leg." The-Boy-Who-Only-Just-Defeated-Voldemort turned his head and gave Draco a reproachful look. His gaze shifted slightly and he looked at the mud mound.
"Ron!" Harry cried out; he'd only just remembered. He scrambled over to the mud and tried to break it off; he didn't have much luck and soon slumped down against the rock-like substance and hugged his friend through the dirt. A pained expression graced Harry's face, whether it was from seeing his friend like that or because of the pain in his leg, Draco couldn't tell.
Harry looked at the lump in his arms through tear-blurred eyes; the only part of the statue that still resembled Ron was the little nose that stuck out through the caked mud.
Tears rolled down Harry's cheeks, "Ron…" he sobbed.
"Mmmmm…" the mud replied.
Harry's head jerked up, pulling back from the statue. "Ron?"
"Mmmmm!"
"Thank god you're alive!" Harry threw his arms around the mud statue and hugged it tight as he could. (AN: You didn't really think I could kill him do you? He's my friend's favourite character and she'd hate me if I killed him off. :P)
"Mmmm, mmmm!"
"You just hang in there, mate; I'll have you out in a sec." Harry pulled back and with his wand he reduced the dried mud to a small pile of rubble.
Ron collapsed into a relieved heap. "Thanks," he managed to sigh as he attacked the itch on his nose, "You have no idea how great it is to be out of that gunk."
"What are you complaining about, Weasel? Mud packs are great for one's skin." a voice to their right drawled.
"Yeah, you would know, wouldn't you?" Ron retorted.
"I don't need use a mud pack; my skin is perfect as is."
Harry glared at the two boys. "Let's just wake up Hermione and get the hell out of here."
Ron walked off to collect the wands that were scattered about the room as Harry sat still not wanting to irritate his leg.
"Think you could get me out of these shackles, Potter?" Draco asked.
"Wait for Ron to come back." Harry replied, his face was pale from the pain.
Draco was forced to wait several minutes for Ron to find all the wands in the thick fog that still clung to the floor. The red-head made his way back to the group much more slowly than Draco would have liked.
Ron sorted his wand out from the others and pointed it at Hermione. "Enervate."
Hermione's eyes fluttered open; slowly her world came into focus. She could now see Ron standing over her, breaking off the shackles that held her to the floor.
"What happened?" She asked weakly.
"Voldemort's gone," Harry smiled victoriously, "and we're getting out of here."
"What do you mean gone?"
"Dead, or at least I think he is. Sucked into a portal." Harry replied.
"And we're all alive?"
"Obviously!" Draco rolled his eyes, "Now will someone get me the hell out of these infernal chains!"
Hermione crawled over to Harry; her head spun too much to stand.
"You'd better let me splint that leg." Hermione held out her hand for her wand and, once Ron had given it to her, performed a binding spell on Harry's leg.
An invisible, or rather magical, splint straightened Harry's leg and now held it firmly in place.
"Thanks." Harry's voice was momentarily very weak from the sudden pain.
"Hello! Still chained down here!" Draco rattled the shackles around in an effort to emphasise his point.
"Leave him." Ron smiled jokingly.
"Ron!" Hermione glared.
"What?"
Hermione refused to answer; instead she crawled through the mist, over to her husband.
"Finally. It's about time that someone started paying attention to me…" Draco was cut off from his little rant by Hermione's lips placed over his.
"Oh, great Merlin! If you two intend to stay married we so need to set out some ground rules." Ronald held up his hands to block the site, "For starters, no kissing in front of Harry and me."
Hermione pulled back from Draco, leaving him in a slightly happy, dazed state. "Really, Ron, you are so immature."
"Come on, let's get out of here." Harry leant upon Ron for support and the made their way out of the room and up the stairs to the drawing room. Hermione ran back for Draco when Harry and Ron realised that they needed him to leave and Hermione realised that they'd left him behind.
Ten minutes later found the four standing in front of a large fireplace. There was some dilemma as to where to go.
"Why can't we just go home?" Harry asked, "The only thing wrong with any of us is I have a broken leg, but I'm sure that Moony or one of the other adults could fix that."
"Harry! Don't you remember what happened to you last time someone without medical training tried to mend one of your bones?" Hermione glared at her friend, "You need to see a proper Mediwitch or wizard. We really ought to floo to St. Margo's."
"I don't want to make a big fuss. It'll be bad enough when the rest of the world finds out about Voldemort, but I want to hold that off as long as possible and preferably not be confined to a public place when it happens."
"For goodness' sakes, Potter, listen to Hermione: you need that leg fixed by a professional. Not to mention that the rest of us should be checked out to make sure nothing else is wrong. If you can suggest somewhere we can go for that kind of medical treatment I'd like to hear about it."
"What abut Hogwarts?" Ron suggested.
"Ron, you're a genius!" Harry beamed at his friend.
Hermione looked miffed, "I wouldn't say that. When you think about it, it does make sense. But it's the most obvious answer."
"Yeah, but it took someone with Ron's clear-minded thinking to see it." Harry beamed at his friend.
"Or his simplistic mind." Draco smirked earning him a thwack from Hermione.
"So we just floo to Hogwarts and with a bit of luck Madam Promfrey will be able to send us back in time for breakfast." Ron smiled.