Um, well, this is not the longest chapter, but I did my best and I am happy with it. I'm really happy with it. Naturally, your reviews kept me going.
A warning, though: Any inconsistency is because I am an idiot and didn't pick up on it. I wrote this all yesterday and the next chapter needs to be typed. Oh boy, I am so dead... --;
Anyway. I hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thanks for all your support! If I'm lucky, I'll breech 50 reviews by the time this is over. I am so proud! -beams- You guys rock!
xX...Xx
Zacchia stopped her kicking and screaming as her father slumped over. Her eyes filled with tears as her eyes lingered on Draco, who was not moving.
"N-no..." she whispered. "No!"
"Yes!" the monster holding her said gleefully. "Finally, victory is—"
Zacchia winced as she was dropped to the ground. Snake-Face had completely frozen. Her eyes flicked over to her Daddy, who was still turned away. She instantly understood that both her parents were alive, somehow. She hoped Draco would recover, but turned to the men behind Snake-Face. She glared at them all.
"You hurt my parents! I hope you all DIE!"
Zacchia was shocked when she felt her magic rush around her, and then spread out towards the men. They were all screaming as they turned to run, and Zacchia gaped as, one by one, they burst into flames, or crumpled over dead. She heard her name being called, telling her to stop, but it was out of her control now. Her magic had seeped back into her, and it had already caused too much damage.
"Zacchia move!"
Zacchia had barely registered that it was her Daddy that had called out to her before she shrieked in terror as another explosion happened behind, throwing her forward. She scrambled out of the way and turned, eyes widening when she saw that Snake-Face had turned to dust. She screamed as a floaty thing rushed at her, but it exploded into flashes of black dots before it hit her.
Looking around at the destruction, Zacchia gulped as she saw an army of people she didn't recognize, all staring at her in mixtures of fear, shock and terror. She started sniffing as she saw her Daddy collapse once again, wand falling from his limp hand. She backed up when she realized that she was the only coherent person of her family standing.
"Zacchia, thank Merlin you're okay..." came the relieved voice of her Grandpa Severus. She flew towards him, causing people to gasp and back up. Zacchia ignored them as she clutched to Sev's robes and cried.
"Sevvie!" she wailed, scared and terrified. "I didn't do it! I swear it wasn't my fault and I tried to stop, I did, but—"
Zacchia suddenly slumped forwards in a dead faint, leaving Severus shocked and appalled.
xXUh-ohXx
Harry hadn't thought that he would ever have to fight Voldemort with the way things were going. Everything had been so peaceful, until their Christmas shopping. The first explosion had caught him off guard, but the second had thrown him and Zacchia forward. Harry had slipped into unconciousness for just a moment before he managed to drag himself back. He had sent one pleading look to Draco, a plan formulating in his mind as Voldemort bragged and laughed.
The hardest moment he would remember about the battle was letting Draco defend himself. He wanted to help, he really did, and the feeling only intensified as he heard Draco's body slump to the ground. He clenched his eyes shut as Zacchia started screaming. For her, he thought. For my family, I will defeat him.
Harry really tried to remember everything that Severus had ever told him about Occulumency as he focused his mind. He desperately wanted to penetrate Voldemort's shields without opening his eyes, without his wand, and without facing him. Technically, it was impossible, but Harry had never been held back by the impossible before.
And suddenly, very abruptly, he was in. He didn't know how he was in, but he was. He could clearly see threads that all connected themselves to one, giant pulsing thing. Hundreds upon hundreds of smaller threads glowed an angry red, each leading off to form a tight circle around the pulsing thing. Harry frowned as he touched one, a burning sensation rushing through his fingers.
"These are the links to the Death Eaters..." he said to himself. He knew he would have to break the links, but he would have to be careful. He knew that, to get to the core of Voldemort's mind, he would have to go through them. He didn't know what the others did, though. The differently colored ones he would avoid, for now.
Carefully, very carefully, he broke through the links one by one. Some were easier to snap than others, and the one that didn't burn him at all he assumed was the link to Severus. He could feel sweat run down his brow as he got closer. Why was Voldemort's mind like this, anyway?
"D-damn, I don't like this..." Harry muttered, breaking a particularly tough bond (he suspected Bellatrix). Finally, he reached the pulsing mass of whatever. He reached out a hand to touch it and screamed in pain. It hurt. It hurt more than anything he had ever felt, but suddenly, the pulsing mass disappeared and was replaced with images. Images of a young Tom Riddle in the orphanage, alone and glowering at the wall. Images of his father leaving, images of his first few days at Hogwarts, images that were generally unpleasant and that had obviously been locked away for a long, long time. Harry felt a stab of pity for the boy, but he remembered that it was Voldemort. Voldemort no longer had a heart to feel with, apparently. He felt no love for anyone.
"What are you doing, boy! Get out! Get out!"
Harry gaped as he suddenly found himself seeing memories of Dudley chasing him, of Sirius falling through the veil, of his uncle being generally unpleasant, of that time in----
"NO!" Harry exclaimed. "NO! Not that one!"
Harry forced himself to think of something happy, anything. The time he won the Quidditch cup, the first time he found out he was a wizard, Hagrid, Hermione, Ron, Hermione's son, Draco proposing to him, Zacchia, anything happy!
And suddenly, he heard an inhumane screech. Harry's eyes widened as he realized that the thought of the time Draco first kissed him, the first time that they shared a bed, their marriage, anything related to Draco was burning Voldemort's mind. Harry scrambled to dig up the freshest memories of Draco. The time they had told Zacchia she couldn't have a pet chicken and Draco was adorably worried that she hated him. The first Christmas they spent together. Their graduation, their marriage again, when Draco had panicked about Zacchia going to school. The time they had first made love.
"NOOOOO!"
Harry suddenly found himself outside and in his body again. He turned around abruptly and, gathering a burst of magic (like Zacchia was prone to do), he flung it at Voldemort's form. It exploded and Harry momentarily panicked when he didn't see Zacchia. He spotted her, her back turned and watching her own rush of magic float out and kill the Death Eaters that had joined him. He struggled to keep awake when he realized that he was slipping into unconsciousness again, but this time for longer. He managed to call out as Voldemort's soul rushed off.
"Zacchia move!"
He only had time to feel a rush of relief when Zacchia turned and dropped to the ground, and when Voldemort's soul exploded and dissipated into nothingness before he finally gave into the darkness.
xXHey, lookie, Harry's POV!Xx
"What is the meaning of this!" Severus exploded, turning sharply to stare at the Minister of Magic. Fudge had his wand still pointed at Zacchia's limp body, and seemed confident.
"That girl was possibly a threat. You saw what she did."
"She's f—king SIX YEARS OLD!" Severus said angrily. "You had no right to knock her out!"
"Hey!" an Auror yelled. "There are young babies here!" Severus picked Zacchia up and rushed over. "Do you know who—"
"Yeah," Severus said. "Get Draco and Harry to St. Mungos. Leave these four to me."
"That girl is coming in for questioning!" Fudge said. Severus turned to Dumbledore, who was looking grave.
"Severus, who is she?"
"My granddaughter," Severus snapped. "Please, Albus, she's only six years old..." He knew he was begging, but he couldn't help it. If they did anything to Zacchia, he'd never forgive himself.
"However true that may be, she killed over one hundred people. We need to find out why," Fudge said. Severus went to protest again, but reluctantly handed Zacchia over when Fudge pointed his wand at her again. He then bent down to tend to the triplets.
"Don't you worry guys," he whispered. "Your fathers and sister will be fine, you'll see. They're strong people." Kent whined and reached for Draco, who was being levitated away. "Come on Kent, you know he'll be fine. You're exactly like your Daddy, you know. Way too stubborn. Draco will be okay..."
Severus was pretty sure that the triplets heard the silent 'he'd better be' on the end of his statement. It went double for Harry; Severus didn't want to take care of four young children on his own, after all.
xX-Gulp-Xx
Albus Dumbledore, Severus decided, was no longer on his 'People not to Hate' list. He had begged and pleaded with him, with the staff, with the Aurors, with Fudge even, but they all agreed that Zacchia had to go in for questioning. Severus thought that it was insane, and he blamed Albus for it all. If Albus would have just said that she was innocent, he wouldn't be going gray early because of worry.
It had been two days, and Severus was trying to juggle lesson plans, the triplets, checking up on Harry and Draco, keeping Hermione and Ron updated about the two AND to visit Zacchia. It was hell, and he wasn't sure if he could manage it.
"Gwen... Winoa... Stop crying, please..." he whispered, laying his head on his desk and looking at their crib. The two eleven month olds were bawling and Kent was starting to sniffle. He didn't know what was wrong. He played with them, he changed them, they were fed three minutes ago, and he couldn't possibly be forgetting to clean them. He smiled when he remembered the scene that he had walked in on when Zacchia was small and bawling. He had walked in at the end of a lullaby where Harry and Draco (who had looked like he had also been crying) were singing.
He would try, but he couldn't sing.
Severus sighed and got up. He went over to the crib and silently lifted Gwen out. Her blonde hair was just touching her shoulders nicely now, but it needed a brush. Abruptly, he remembered Draco telling him something.
"If Gwen won't sleep, neither will Winoa, and when Winoa won't sleep, neither will Kent. To just... kill the chain, so to speak, you have to get to the cause. Gwen can't sleep without having her hair brushed, like I'm doing now. It's simple, really, but you need to be careful. Do you want to try?"
At the time, Severus had declined the offer to brush an 8 month old Gwen's hair, but now he realized that he should have. He summoned a brush and then gently sat down on the ground, Gwen sitting on his lap. She quieted when she saw the brush, her silver and green eyes sparkling with tears. She reached hesitantly for the brush and Severus let her feel the bristles. She smiled sadly, muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "Ah-ah", which he found could translate into Dada. He smiled at her.
"Yes, your father likes to brush your hair," Severus said. "He told me so. Now hold still so I can brush these blonde locks of yours."
Severus found that Gwen's hair was soft and silky, and surprisingly easy to brush through with the gentle strokes he was using. He brushed her hair until she yawned. He then put her back into the crib, where Winoa immediately reached out to tug on the locks. Kent pulled himself up and reached through the bars to him. Severus blinked. What did Harry say about Kent...?
"If they're all quiet, Winoa and Gwen will pull each other's hair and Kent will want to play. If he reaches for you, just ruffle his hair a bit and he'll probably smile and go to sleep happy. If not, play with them a little. Always works for me, anyway."
Severus didn't mind musing Kent's hair, which made the small child grin at him and lie down. Gwen and Winoa were already snuggled up together, and Winoa, obviously the more affectionate of the three, pulled Kent to her. Severus watched them sleep for a moment before he sank back down in his chair.
The moment of peace was broken immediately when he heard a knock at the door. He cursed softly and went to answer, already knowing that Albus was on the other side. He stepped aside to let the man in.
"What do you want, Headmaster?" he asked coldly. "And if you wake up the triplets, Merlin help me..."
"Severus, what did you mean that the girl--"
"Zacchia," Severus corrected.
"Zacchia. What did you mean when you said that she was your granddaughter. As far as I know, you do not have any offspring of your own..." Severus regarded the old man and decided that, after hiding this for 6 years right under his nose, it was time that Albus Dumbledore knew the story.
"Zacchia Potter-Malfoy is her full name," he said slowly. "She was conceived somewhere near the end of July and the beginning of August, which was when Harry was still prisoner to the Dark Lord." He could see that Albus was slowly catching on, but he continued anyway. "Draco and I found him giving birth in April, and we helped him through it. He then went to you and you gave him his own tower. We took care of her there.
"When the subject of what relation I had with Zacchia came up, Harry surprised me by connecting himself to me as a son-in-law, and Draco as my 'son', therefore Zacchia would be my granddaughter. When I told you that she really was innocent, it's because her power level is very, very high. When she saw Draco and Harry in the battle, unconscious, she most likely panicked and then her magic killed the remaining Death Eaters..."
"So, Zacchia is blood related to Harry?" Albus asked. "Why didn't Harry tell me?"
"Because he does not trust you," Severus said simply. "You have led him wrong far too many times for him to ever be comfortable with anyone again. It took him months before he brought Mrs. Granger-Weasley in on Zacchia. He trusts Draco and I with the lives of his children, and his own life, and so far, we have not let him down. I cannot say the same for you."
"Severus..."
"Get out, Headmaster," Severus demanded. "I have to watch my grandchildren."
Severus watched Albus leave dejectedly and he turned away, knowing that the old man was trying to get him to forgive him and trust him again. But Severus couldn't trust him again, not after he had let Zacchia be imprisoned. He doubted he would ever trust the man again.
Severus felt like crying when the triplets started crying again. As he walked into the room and they quieted down, he couldn't help but turn his eyes skywards.
"Please Harry, Draco, wake up... I can't do this alone..."
xXAw, poor Sev!Xx
So, Voldie is dead, Sev is handling the twins and no one will know if Draco and Harry and Zacchia will be alright until later! Bwaha! This story gets better, though. I, personally, liked the bubble that Harry had created for himself to live in. It'll come back... eventually.
Hey, I'm planning a sequel to this. Are any of you interested in seeing Zacchia in Hogwarts? I'm writing it anyway, but I just wanted to know. I hope it'll get as good a response as this. I love you all!
Next Update: Sunday. I know, I know, a week, but school has started, I'm graduating, and I need to focus on my studies. I still need to type up the rest of this, so I'm giving myself time to go over it all. Sorry about that! Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
REVIEW PLEASE!