OoOoO Chapter 11 - Meeting Malfoy OoOoO
"You're alive," Harry breathed out in surprise and awe.
Harry's eyes couldn't get any wider. Hermione. It was Hermione. Alive. Completely alive and breathing in front of him. She was actually there.
Hermione's eyebrows were scrunched together on her forehead and her confused frown turned predatorial at Harry's reaction. "You know my name," she said it like it was an accusation.
Harry nodded automatically. "Yes," and then Harry remembered the bars around him. Not Hermione. Not his, at least. "—and er… no. Not really, I guess… Sort of."
Hermione leaned away from the bars of her own cage like Harry could reach through them and grab her. "No, I saw your face. You already know of me." Her face was pulled back into the shadows, but her voice wavered with a hint of fear. "Did you follow me here? To finish me off? To ask where the others are?" she asked.
"What?" Harry asked, colored with surprise. Others? "No. No! I just… it's complicated," Harry said, mentally cursing himself at his reaction to her. "… but I know you… not from here." Yes, Harry, brilliant, he thought to himself. Wonderfully put. That didn't sound weird at all.
"Not from here?" Hermione echoed sarcastically. "You know who I am but from a different place? America? Egypt? Keep files at your ministry that tell you everything about us? Is that how you know my name?"
Harry shook his head rapidly. "No, that's not what I meant." This was not the way he had foreseen this conversation going. "I know a…" Aw hell. "…a different you." Because that made sense.
Harry clenched his teeth together and any sort of friendliness from Hermione's face fell. Harry was going to have to tell her. He sighed. She was a complete muggle here. No magical experience.
His Hermione didn't think it was possible. This Hermione wasn't even going to understand—ah Godric, Harry sighed through his nose and went ahead anyway. "You're not going to believe this—"
"—no, I won't," Hermione agreed darkly.
Harry plowed forwards despite her words. "—but I know you from a different world. A parallel world. Like this, but also really different," Harry said. He pointed at her, and Hermione jumped like she expected herself to catch fire. Harry immediately lowered his hands and put them in his lap.
"A parallel world?" Hermione asked dryly. "That's the best you've got?" Harry didn't think that question was meant for him to answer, so he remained silent. "God, your ministry really doesn't know how to teach you all to lie very well do they?"
"It's not a lie," Harry argued.
Hermione shook her head and started to turn from him like she was done with their conversation. Harry doubted that he would be given this chance to talk to her again if she turned from him now. "Wait!" he called desperately, his voice quiet and sincere. "I can prove it to you."
Hermione froze, and slowly, her head turned to look behind her at Harry. "Can you?"
Harry nodded, but his insides squirmed. Could he? This was a completely different Hermione. A different person, different experiences. Everything that made her Hermione to him wasn't there. What could he know about her that was truly her here?
"Your middle name," Harry blurted out. "It's Jean. Hermione Jean Granger."
Hermione turned her back to him. "You could have found that on a birth certificate, that isn't something newsworthy."
Harry swallowed. "But your middle name was supposed to be Jane, after your father's mother. The lady at the desk got the name mixed up after you were born, and by the time your parents had seen it, they hadn't really minded. The name seemed to 'just fit you'," Harry repeated the words Harry had heard Hermione use when she had told them this story over the summer break of his fourth year, sometime after the Quidditch World Cup.
Hermione was silent and unmoving behind her bars, and Harry continued on, desperate to grab onto any random fact about her that he knew.
"You don't like heights," he stated. "You'll go somewhere with a deep drop off if you have to, but you down like the thought of falling, so you avoid fast-moving things that could send you to the ground."
"That sounds like common sense," Hermione stated without emotion.
Harry smiled, grateful she was at least still listening to him. "You'd be surprised," he said, thinking about her dislike of brooms. "And you love books. Any book that has real pages and a bendy spine, whether it's three hundred years old, or right off the press, you love reading and learning more than doing … I dunno, girly things like dying your hair or something. It's your favorite thing to do, to read. You love learning about anything you can get your hands on. Anything."
Hermione was silent again.
"You don't like too sweet things. You can't stand maple sugar sweets, and you'd like salty or sour over milk chocolate anytime," Harry said. Hermione had the slightest turn in her head towards him, and Harry continued on, his thoughts coming easier to him now that he knew she wasn't just going to completely block him out.
"You don't believe in anything that can predict the future. You think it's rubbish," Harry smiled. "You wouldn't believe in magic unless you saw it, because your logic dominated, and you really really hate it when adults lie to you because they're supposed to be someone you can rely on." Harry fell silent, letting Hermione take the next step. She didn't move.
He was immensely relieved when Hermione finally turned to look at him from her side of the cage after a few drawn-out moments and look at him with penetrating eyes. Better to be scrutinized than ignored, he figured.
"That's right," she said with narrowing eyes at him. "And wrong."
Damn. He figured not everything would line up exactly, but he had hoped more than just her intelligence would transfer from his world to this. Harry didn't say anything but kept his eyes on her.
"I do love reading. Much better than a computer when you can feel the pages, and I do love the less sugary sweets." Hermione shifted the blanket tighter around herself. "And your right about my middle name, my parents did accept Jean because they thought it fit me better, and yes, I do hate looking down from a tall building." Harry grinned. "—But, you're wrong about lying adults. I don't hate it when they lie, I accept it." Harry's face fell.
That didn't sound pleasant in the least. Her eyes stared back at him emotionless and solid. "Adults have been lying to me since I was eleven, after my parents were murdered. They lied when they told me someone would look after me, when my parents would be taken care of, when there was nothing they could do for me. Your ministry lied to me when they would help find the murderers," she stated.
"I'm sorry," was all Harry could say. And he was. Even though it wasn't his Hermione, she was still her, the brightest witch of his age, but restricted from becoming one of the greatest people Harry knew.
"Don't," Hermione smiled with a sour expression. "Just don't." She looked away with a shake of her head, stopped for a moment, and then stared at Harry with a new look of comprehension. "So a different world?"
Harry sighed and leaned his head against the bars behind him. "Yeah. Completely insane right?"
"A bit."
Harry grinned again and let his body relax as much as it could against the bars.
"Why are you here?" Harry heard Hermione asked after a couple of minutes of comfortable silence.
"Came to rescue friends. Going exactly how I thought it would to be honest."
Hermione scoffed lightly. "I'm sure, but I meant was what are you doing here, as in this world. How did you get here? Why did you leave your old world? You know a lot about me- Were we, I don't know, good friends in yours?"
Harry studied Hermione from his side. "You're one of my closest friends there."
Her eyebrows raised. "Friends with a wizard? That must be some world you lived in."
Harry wrapped his own blanket around him more securely. "You're a witch in mine. You went to Hogwarts at eleven. You were in my year, the same house even, and you were one of the greatest Wizarding minds of our generation."
Hermione looked surprised. "Your ministry let me go to Hogwarts?"
Harry nodded. "It's a different world. Different outcomes of the war."
"The light and dark you talked about earlier," Hermione nodded along to the conversation.
Well, this Hermione and his were different. Harry nodded back. "Exactly. In mine, the Dark Lord was defeated for a period of time, just enough to let muggle-borns and half-bloods come back to school to get the education they needed for the magic they had."
"Who killed him in your world, this Dark Lord?"
"Voldemort?" Harry asked. "A child. Well, I say child, but I mean—"
"Don't say his NAME!" someone from the opposite side of Harry's cage whispered venomously. Surprised at their interruption, and silently cursing himself for his own stupidity, Harry twisted around to the sound of the voice.
"Who are you?" Harry asked, lowering his voice in case anyone else in the entire room around them heard him.
"You spoke his name! You spoke the Dark Lord's name, you insolent little brat. You spoke his name. You dare—"
"Yes, I dare," Harry cut off the scratchy tone of an unused voice. "I dare to use the name of the cowardly serpent, but you didn't answer me. Who are you?"
"A face you might know from your other world," the voice wheezed.
Harry felt his face draining of color. Wonderful, grand timing Harry, he thought to himself. Tell her all your secrets in the middle of jail surrounded by a ton of other people. Who else had heard him? How much had this person heard? All of it? Most of it?
"Who are you?"
The voice laughed, sounding choked and sick. "You look like James Potter, do you know? I knew him when he was your age. Tall, but never as tall as Sirius. Remus was about the same height, I remember, and you have his hair," the voice said and Harry's insides dropped from his stomach and hid in a hole a hundred meters beneath his feet. There was no way. "But I know he has only three children now, and you don't look like Jonathan."
"You know what Jonathan looks like Wormtail?" Harry spit out at the shadow beyond his eyes.
"I do," he said. Hands covered in dirt and grime grabbed at the bars separating them and Harry watched as Peter's face came slowly into the dim light of his cell. Eyes sunken into his skull, blond scraggy hair all but gone from his head, and dull skin seeming to have turned to an odd color of yellow wax, Wormtail revealed himself and Harry stared at him unmoved. "I remember all of their faces. Including Harry's."
Harry grimaced. "Harry's dead. You led Voldemort to him."
Peter winced at the Dark Lord's name. "Not if he returned from another world as you have. You'd be his age. You have your father's face, Harry Potter. Harry James Potter," Wormtail started to laugh again, his voice cracking from disuse. "Come to destroy the Dark Lord from your world? Come to fulfill the prophecy? Send mudbloods back into Hogwarts?"
Harry glowered at the older man. "Someone has to."
"And you would do it? Hmm?" Peter giggled, his eyes widening behind the bars madly. "Would you Potter? Destroy the greatest wizard of this generation?" Peter smiled widely and laughed with a gaping mouth, showing rotten teeth and a discolored tongue. "Would you save the world, Harry? Harry. Save the Light? Save the serpents reputation, would you? Would you! Would you, would you, would you?" Peter threw back his head and laughed at his own genius and Harry cringed back in horror.
Wormtail was insane. Completely insane.
Harry shook his head. "What did they do to you?"
"DO?" Peter stared at Harry and cut off his laughs. "Do to me? They made me. Insane as He himself! Turning and turning I am a proper dark wizard now. No more bad thoughts. Turning and turning."
"Oh my god," Hermione whispered. "They drove him mad."
"Mad," Peter echoed with a nod. "Not mad but happy he says. No guilt now. All gone from me like baby Harry. Little baby Harry. Such soft hair he had. Such eyes. So like hers. Not round and small like a rat's but big like a doe and bright like Slytherines robes. Bye-bye Baby Harry. Bye-bye. Bye." Peters eyes closed and he wrapped his hands around himself, rocking back and forth on the ground. "Bye-bye baby Harry. Bye-bye," he repeated over and over again. "Bye-bye."
"He—" Hermione started to say with horror in his voice.
A door somewhere in the dark slammed open and a bright light in the far corner to Harry's left illuminated a portion of the room. "What's going on here!" a young voice yelled.
"Baby! Baby! Baby Harry!" Peter crowed. "BABY BABY BABY!"
"Peter!" the voice yelled. "Shut it or I'll remove another toe!"
"BABY HARRY! He COMES, Baby Harry returns! He RETURNS," he yelled.
Harry heard choruses of groans and sighs from people unseen around him in cages. Like they were used to it. "Peter I'm warning you—"
"BABY!"
"That's it." Whoever opened the door, the door out Harry noticed came farther into the room and lit the end of their wand. They came from the door and walked forwards until a boy of about fourteen with white-blond hair was standing in front of Peter's cage with a wand extended and a sneer firmly planted across his face. "Peter," he drawled.
"The child returns to kill the Dark Lord! Back, back and turning back and turning. He comes and defiles the Dark Lords' name. He comes! Returns," Wormtail cried. "Back!"
The young boy grimaced at Wormtail, disgusted, but listening to his rants with an open ear. "Who said words against the Dark Lord? Who?"
"Little Harry. So small and green. Eyes of his mother and destined to fulfill a prophecy. Beware he returns to the Dark Lord's enemies. He returns!"
The blond boy squinted darkly at Peter. "Who is Ha—"
"Baby returned!" Wormtail screamed, and the boy stunned him with a small flick of his wand, shaking his head annoyed.
"Can't even form a proper sentence," the boy sneered and put his wand away.
Harry looked at the boy closely. Blonde hair. Young. High cheekbones. Grey eyes. Almost the spitting image of Lucius Malfoy. "Rogan," Harry said out loud, putting the pieces together. This must be Draco's younger brother.
The boy stopped and turned to Harry with a ticked-up blond eyebrow. "Something to say blood-traitor?"
Well, the apple didn't fall far then here either. That made it easier then. "Only how pretty your hair is Malfoy," Harry grinned.
A scowl replaced the boy's otherwise smooth face. "What?" he hissed.
"Your hair. It's very pretty for an heir of the Malfoy family. Tell me, does Voldemort have dress codes for you all? Only have your hair a certain length before—"
Rogan pulled his wand from his robes and pointed them directly at Harry. "You dare say his name? Who are you, a filthy muggle loving—"
"Yes, I dare," Harry rolled his eyes. "More importantly, I'm looking for some friends of mine; you might know them. One was a blonde girl with hair almost as pretty as yours, and another girl with bright red hair. They might have come through here last night. Ring any bells?"
Rogan raised his wand higher at Harry, meant to be threatening. "Quiet prisoner or I'll add another scar to the one on your head."
Rogan moved to the front of Harry's cell and pointed his wand down at him. Harry looked up at Rogan with his best 'annoy-Snape-until-he-curses-you' grin. Rogan was within Harry's arm reach. "Well, that would be something. I'd almost be impressed if you did—"
"You're still talking blood-traitor," Rogan said, coming so close to the bars that his forehead almost touched the metal.
Harry continued on talking as if Rogan had not. "—Seeing as you don't have a wand."
Rogan's eyebrows came together in confusion. "Don't have a—"
Harry lashed out before Rogan could finish his sentence. He grabbed the back of Rogan's knee and yanked him towards the front of the bars while reaching forwards and pulling the front of his robes down so that the upper part of his body slammed against the metal bars. Rogan's face smashed down on the metal, and Harry's hand slid upwards, capturing Rogan's wand and twisting it from its previous owner's stunned fingertips.
The wand warmed under his fingertips, and Harry pointed it at a thrashing Rogan. The younger boy opened his mouth like he was about to scream for help, and Harry acted on instinct. "Stupify," he whispered.
A flash of light, and then Rogan was falling backward to the ground unconscious.
Harry stood up from the ground. His shoulder ached, and he expected that he had torn the skin again. When he got back, he doubted Madam Pomfrey was going to be a happy witch. He let the blanket around his shoulders fall to the ground, and pointed the wand to the lock on the outside of his cell. "Alohomora!" Harry called, and watched gratefully as the gate unlocked itself and the metal door swung outwards. "Thank Merlin," he said breathing out.
He walked out of his cell and turned to Hermione's with a grin. "See? Told you, all part of the plan."
Hermione didn't look impressed. "Beating a fourteen-year-old was part of the plan? Congratulations, your plan sucks."
Harry shook his head, looking sorrowful. "And here I was about to release you."
Hermione got up from the floor, blanket still around her. "Will you just walk away?"
Hermione was looking at him seriously, and Harry dropped the grin. What kind of question was that? "No," Harry stated and unlocked her door as well. "Come on, I'm going to get us out of here."
"And your friends?" Hermione asked, stepping out of her cell and coming to stand beside Harry.
"Everyone."
"How?" Hermione asked looking at him seriously.
Harry glanced up at the lights above their heads. "Get the lights on for one, to see where we are and then move from there. Any ideas?"
Hermione stared up at the lights with calculating eyes. "Some."
Harry was by what he thought must be the front door. "No electricity here. We'll have to open the cages one by one."
"Will that be a problem?" Hermione asked, coming up behind him.
"It will be if we are actually in Azkaban."
"You know what you want to do?"
Harry didn't actually, not really. "Just follow my lead."
"Oh brilliant."
Harry unlocked another door with a twist of his new wand. The two people waiting for him to open the door just inside reached for him as they got out, and smiled very broken and tired smiles in thanks. Harry nodded back to the pair and nodded silently behind him where he had all the other prisoners he'd released go. "Follow the stag. He'll lead you to a line of other people. Stay there, and stay silent. If you want to keep breathing tomorrow, stay as unnoticeable as possible." The two people nodded, their eyes wide and serious at him, and Harry nodded back, letting them go so he could start on the last cage in the building. He'd rescued more than he thought we could have, but none of them were the people he wanted to save. Maybe he'd been wrong and Ginny and Luna had been sent somewhere else. What if he had to go back to Hogwarts and Jonathan without the girls?
Harry looked inside and saw another two people standing in the far side of the cage. "Hullo," Harry said, trying to sound unthreatening. "My name's Harry, and I'm here to help you."
"This'll be the second time," a familiar voice said stepping away from the corner shadows. Her long red hair swayed behind her, and though she had been missing for nearly a day, Harry thought she still looked better than most people would had they been in her shoes.
"Ginny," Harry breathed a smile at her, relieved.
She nodded back at him, a hint of a grin as well. "Harry Potter."
Harry motioned for her to come forwards. "Just Harry here actually."
"A 'just Harry'?" Luna asked coming up from behind Ginny and following her out of the cage. "I didn't know there was more than just you. Are there two?" Luna stared at him as she passed, and Harry got the feeling she was asking more than he understood.
"Er… no?" He said moving back for them. "Well—"
"Then one Harry Potter must be you as well," she smiled. "Right Ginny?" she turned to look at the redhead.
Ginny looked to Luna and searched her face before glancing back at Harry. "Eh, yeah."
"Coming?" Luna asked, leading them back to the other prisoners Harry had helped escape.
Ginny followed after Luna, and Harry walked with Ginny, watching the shadows he passed for anyone he might have missed. "How long were you here?" Harry asked her.
"In the cage? Not long. We were moved there after we woke up about a day ago," Ginny answered, watching the cages as well. They walked past Wormtail's and they both deliberately looked away. He wouldn't be leaving with the others, and Harry doubted any of the others minded if he was left unconscious in his cell. Rogan laid unconscious in Harry's old cage, tied up and gaged. No one looked twice his way either.
"So you've been here the whole time?" Harry asked. "They hadn't moved you here after being somewhere else?"
"No. Just here," Ginny glanced up at him. "Why?"
Harry frowned. "Trying to guess why they took you."
"They take everyone who goes against them," Ginny dismissed with a grimace.
Harry figured that was probably true here, but it didn't make sense as to why she was still alive then. "But in Hogsmead, Death Eaters wanted all of the children they had captured. Not dead, and none of the adults. Just children. Why? And why not kill you right out to make a point if he really wants to punish the order or the Light side?"
Ginny's eyes hardened in the small light offered. "I… I don't know. Why not kill us?"
Harry sighed and rose the tip of his wand higher in the air when they came upon the last two people in the line of escaped prisoners. "Here, stay at the back. I'll try and get wands, but until then, look out for the ones who can't protect themselves."
Luna turned her head at Harry. "The muggles," she stated.
"Yes, the muggles here. I don't know how many there are here, but don't let anyone fall behind. Everyone leaves here."
"You sure you can offer that?" Ginny asked turning from him and heading towards the back of the line. Luna's face didn't change except for a small raised eyebrow, and Harry walked towards the front.
"No. I don't." But he was already this far, so who was he kidding if he wasn't going to get them all out? All he needed to do was—"No," Harry said, coming to a stop. It couldn't be that easy. Could it?
Holding his wand out and thinking of Hogwarts, he waited for the twist in his stomach and the pop in his ears with a ready stance. He thought harder of Hogwarts and where to land, but nothing happened, and Harry didn't move.
He opened his eyes and continued forwards. So, then, not that easy. There were anti-apparation spells, and probably anti-porkey spells as well. He would have to get out of the boundaries of wherever he was to get them all out together in a portkey. Wonderful, but it wasn't like he hadn't been expecting that.
Harry made it to the front where Hermione was waiting with the first of the ex-prisoners. Altogether, Harry had seen how many had been in the cage here and he counted twenty-six people in front of him. Twenty-six people that now relied on him to get them out alive.
Harry brought his hands together. "Right," he said with a clap. "You want to make it to the outside, you're going to need to keep close to the ground, keep quiet, and keep up. If you don't—" Harry thought about what to say, and then shrugged at the stares pointed his way. "—you'll probably die."
Harry heard Hermione scoff beneath her breath. It wasn't the most graceful of speeches, Harry knew, but looking at the serious gazes back at him, he thought it had done the trick. "Ready?" Harry asked. He turned before someone could answer him because Merlin he wasn't even ready. "Alright," Harry whispered to himself, grabbing the edge of the front door. "Go."
He pulled and opened the door as quietly as he could. The door lead to a well-lit room with wine bottles hanging from shelves, and a table with magic playing cards shuffling themselves in the middle. Hermione came up behind Harry. "There are two seats. One was the blonde. Where's the other?"
Harry looked around the empty room. That was a very good question. Where was the other? "Stay towards the shadows, and keep your eyes open."
Hermione glanced over at him and Harry looked back at her with a straight face. Harry thought it had been good advice for her. Her face showed that she didn't think so. "Don't tell me what to do, wizard."
Hermione turned to go back to where she had been, but Harry grabbed at the back of her hand, stopping Hermione where she stood.
"Don't," Harry said, keeping her hand warm in his for a second before dropping it. He didn't know why he'd grabbed her, but he knew he didn't want her getting too far away from him. Some part in the back of Harry's mind reminded him that this wasn't his best friend, but a witch hunter who's probably killed someone like him before. The other part of his brain didn't care. He wasn't going to let her just leave. "I just don't want you getting blasted through the walls," Harry said, meeting her eyes squarely.
Hermione looked back at him with very serious eyes. "I know how to protect myself."
And Harry didn't doubt it for a second.
He could practically see the gears turning in her head, probably thinking of ways she could take him down. She might not have a wand, but that didn't mean that she couldn't hurt him if she wanted to. "I know you can," Harry answered. Harry motioned for the group to come forwards. "Come on, let's get them out of here."
"There's that voice again, telling me what to do."
Hermione didn't sound angry, so Harry grinned as he opened the wooden door out of the wine-filled room. "Let's go," he whispered behind him. "Quietly."
Hermione huffed softly but followed him out.
It was a long chamber that he had walked out into. Dark stone lined the floor and walls, and the only source of light was the enormous cracked windows that were spaced throughout them. Sunshine on both sides looking in. It was more of a relief than anything. "We're not in Azkaban," Harry whispered relieved.
"Any idea where we are?" Hermione asked at his heels.
"No idea." Harry walked forwards, glancing out the windows. Nice stone walls with very clean windows. Not a place to hold prisoners all day.
There were Death Eaters outside. Patrolling or just going for a walk, Harry didn't know, but he knew he didn't want them seeing him. Harry ducked beneath the windows, keeping himself low to the ground. He looked back at the group behind him. "There are Death Eaters outside. Keep yourself out of their line of sight." He turned back around and kept moving forwards.
Harry slowly made it to the other side of the long hallway without being spotted. Hermione was right behind him, only a breath after he'd stepped away and walked towards a thick wooden door that seemed to be his exit. Harry was still looking at the door when Hermione came up beside him quietly. "They're taking too long."
Harry frowned and looked behind him at the twenty-five other people. Hermione was right, they weren't even halfway across yet, taking their time and treading softly.
"If we don't hurry, they'll notice that we're gone," Hermione whispered.
"I know," Harry said watching the prisoners move closer.
"How long until the blonde wakes up?"
Harry frowned deeper. Rogan. He'd nearly forgotten. "Shortly." Hermione pinched her lips together, and Harry moved to the edges of the window. "Hurry up!" he whispered at them fiercely. Some of them looked up with wide eyes. They were trying, he knew, but it wasn't fast enough. "We have to keep moving!"
"Some are hurt!" Ginny whispered back at him from behind the lines with bright eyes.
Harry stomped on the urge to shrug. "Quickly!" he said. Did she not see how little time they had? Rogan was surely awake by now, and he could only be missing for so long.
It took another three minutes for them all to get across. Harry already had the next door open. "Come on," he ordered and led them out.
There were hallways, and rooms, foyers, and sitting areas, but as Harry began to get himself deeper and deeper into the maze of rooms, the less sure he became of where he was going. Green colors followed him with every room, and black furniture sat in every available space. Expensive. Top rate magical fixtures. Death Eaters wouldn't keep fourteen-year-olds in a place like Azkaban. They'd be somewhere familiar. Somewhere like a school, or…
"I think I know where we are," Harry said, stopping for Hermione.
Hermione sagged against a wall closest to him. "Wonderful. Could you find its front door?"
Harry looked around the room he had stopped in, filled with magical paintings that seemed to be asleep, and turned to let the people behind him catch up. "I don't think we can leave through its front doors."
"Why not?"
"If we're where I think we are," Harry started, feeling a sinking stone fall through his middle, "then we won't even make it to the front door."
Hermione's gaze was locked onto his face, searching his expression with a parting mouth. She turned behind her to make sure no one was behind her, then stepped closer to Harry, and dropped her voice to a whisper. "Where are we?" she asked, looking up at him.
Harry looked over at the rows of paintings that seemed to all be related to each other like a family tree. All had blonde hair and very sharp facial features that seemed to cut the canvas they slept on. All the same family, sitting proudly framed on walls, bearing their family name high on the walls. Harry found that it looked very typical for a family of old purists. He looked back to Hermione who was still very close to him. Ginny and others followed in behind Hermione and Harry made eye contact with her before looking back at Hermione. "The Malfoy Manor."
Hermione didn't look as deeply disturbed as Harry felt, but Ginny gasped, and some of the other prisoners who Harry thought to have Wizarding blood hunched in on themselves and muttered to one another. Hermione watched everyone's reactions. "Who are the Malfoys?"
"A dark Wizarding family."
"A 'pure blood'?" Hermione asked seriously.
"Yeah. Come on, let's go through another door."
Harry started to close the door and Hermione stared around him into the paintings room. "Why? What's wrong with—"
Too fast for Harry to stop, an old painting that looked as old as Hogwarts opened his eyes and immediately eyed Hermione like he could smell a person without a wand in his presence. His face frowned, and Harry stumbled back, trying to get out his eyesight. He was too late he realized because in the next moment because the painting started screaming at the top of his lungs. "MUD BLOODS LOOSE IN THE HOUSE. BLOOD TRAITORS AND MUGGLES IN THE HOUSE OF MALFOY. MUDBLOODS AND TRAITORS!"
Harry slammed the door shut and grabbed Hermione's arm. He opened the door adjacent to him and sprinted through the rooms ahead of him with Hermione following in his hand. The screams of the painting followed him and instead of getting quieter as he ran farther, it seemed to follow him and get louder with his every step. He saw Ginny's red hair flash in the side of his vision, and heard the thunderous pounding of escaped prisoners at his feet. They were all following him, and now the house definitely knew they were gone.
He needed to get them outside. Get a portkey.
Harry passed into another hallway with huge windows on each side. Green fields were on both sides around him with a scattering of dark woods beyond it, and no Death Eaters were patrolling through them. Harry figured they must be inside the house by now, looking for all of them. Harry pointed to the window with his wand. Reducto, he thought, and the glass shattered to the ground.
He jumped over the shards and lifted himself over to the grass on the other side. He turned to everyone behind him and stared at their wide eyes. Wordless magic. Right. They probably wouldn't like that too much considering where they were. Oh well. Harry motioned them forward fiercely. "Come on! We haven't got all day!"
Hermione was the first to come forwards, and she bypassed his helping hands, jumping over the broken window swiftly and landing beside him with controlled moves. Harry tried not to be too surprised at her and turned to the rest of the mix of muggles and wizards. With her next to him, both Harry and Hermione helped people jump over the glass and wooden frame of the window to the grassy area around them as fast as they could. Luna was last, and when she crossed over with Harry's hand on her hip and Hermione's hand her other, the back doors of the hallway were thrown open and wooden splinters flew through the air.
Harry figured his good luck this far had had a good run.
Harry reached down and picked a stone off the ground. He pointed his wand at it and thought Portus to himself. He thought of Hogwarts and its green grassy hills. Of its giant wooden front door. He pulled his wand away and tossed the stone to Ginny who was staring at him like she was waiting for his word. "It's a portkey. You know what that is right?"
Ginny nodded at him and tightened her hand around the stone like it was a lifeline, which considering, probably was.
Harry lowered his head towards her. "Then you know how it works. Get them all together in the trees. You have forty-five seconds," he said quickly. "Alright? Now run." Ginny was frozen beside him and the people around him turned to him. "Run!" he ordered, pointing to the woods behind him. "RUN!" Hermione didn't move and Harry stared her straight in the face. "You too. I don't have time to protect you."
"Don't tell—"
"Magic Hermione. You can't fight that from here. Run. All of you, RUN NOW. GO!" he blasted a window closest to them with a wave of his hand. Hermione watched the window fall, and she kept his eyes with hers for a split moment.
"We're not done," she promised, threatened. And then she was pulling the hand of someone with a twisted ankle to hobble faster away from him. Like a gun in a muggle movie going off in a foot race, those that had followed him ran to the woods after Hermione.
Harry didn't turn to watch them run. He looked back to the opened doors and watched as hooded and normal-looking wizards and witches started filing through the door with their wands high in the air. Harry threw a stream of blasting charms through the broken window. Stone cracked, and someone screamed on the other side.
They needed time to run as far as they could. Out of the line of spells. They didn't have enough wands to make it far with that many people, and Harry hoped that in that time, they could outrun the boundary line of anti-apparation and portkey lines. He looked over the edge of the broken window and falling pieces of stone and wood. Death Eaters and open-faced wizards were looking through the debris with squinted eyes, looking for him. Harry stood up from his place and pointed his wand at them.
They hadn't seen him yet, so Harry decided to give them a little clue.
"Tell Voldemort I'm looking for him. And that I know his secrets," Harry said calmly and tipped his wand downwards. Heads turned to him and Harry grinned. Protego Maximus.
A blast of white magic flew from his wand and expanded outwards at the Death Eaters like a moving brick wall. The rest of the windows shattered around the dark wizards and witches and the force of the blast blew them off their feet and through to the other side of the hallway, landing on glass and broken wooden ends.
But Harry wasn't done. He'd seen the inside of the Malfoy Manor and he wanted the Manor destroyed. No more luxury for the Dark Lord. No more grand paintings of nobility. No safe haven for the Dark Wizards that followed Voldemort. He wanted this place turned to nothing left but rubble. He pointed his wand at the dazed Death Eaters and grimaced. And he had an idea on how to accomplish that. Not that it was a very smart one at that.
The last time he'd seen the spell he as about to use, Crab and Goyle had died. He'd destroyed the diadem with it, but it was also uncontrollable. He'd seen the remains of that hidden room a month later when his curiosity got the best of him, and it wasn't something he wanted to witness again. Harry's eyes narrowed at the thought of the Dungeon.
But Malfoy Manor had to burn.
It might even help the Order somewhere down the road. It'd definitely tick the Dark Lord off. So with a focused mind, he held his wand limply in his hand and muttered, "Spiritus Ignis," into the afternoon light. Fiendfyre. His wand warmed under his hand, the wood lighting up like a muggle torch, and sending small licks of flame into the air. Before Harry could wonder if it had worked, a stream of exploding fire burst through the tip of his wand and expanded up and out like a tsunami of unimaginable heat. It was a hundred times the power of a muggle flamethrower, Harry had thought to himself. It was growing, with each second, and it didn't stop. It grew and expanded without remorse, covering the green grass, the white walls, the impeccable stone archways, and rooftops. It swirled and soared, and when Harry looked up, he realized that the fire had taken a shape.
A phoenix.
Harry pulled his wand upwards and the flame cut off with his magic, leaving the bird to jump from the ground and soar over the house, landing in the roof and crying into the air with a shrill call. Its flames devoured everything it touched and the heat melted everything it the phoenix's close radius. The Manor was aflame and Harry grinned to himself. And if Tom's diary was still in the Malfoy Manor like it had been in Harry's world, then Voldemort had just lost a horcrux, and Harry had won today. It made his grin turn into a full-fledged smile.
Harry turned and started sprinting.
He had, what? Twenty seconds? Fifteen until the others would be able to take the portkey? Even less?
He made it to the edges of the forest when he felt the first curse pass beside him.
He ducked behind trees and followed the lead of trampled grass to see his group of escaped prisoners holding onto a red-haired woman in the middle. Ginny had her eyes closed and the stone cupped in both of her hands. It was starting to glow a bright blue.
So even less time than he had originally thought. More like five seconds.
A curse passed his hair and burnt the edge of a fly strand. Harry jerked away and turned to the mob behind him. That had been just a little too close for comfort. But Ginny and the others weren't all gone yet.
"Here, I'm over here!" he shouted to get the attention of the attackers. "Oi! Voldemort!" he yelled. "Voldemort, Voldemort, Voldy-Oldy-Odly-Mort! VOOOOLLLLDEMORT! Over here, I'm – oh Merlin." Harry flattened himself to the ground. Dozens of multicolored spells passed over his body. Curses rebounded from the trees and landed around him. Harry twisted on the ground and rolled as the curses bounced from the trees to the ground. He pushed himself to his feet and ran in the opposite direction of Hermione, Ginny, Luna, and the rest of the escaped prisoners.
"Come on and get me you great baggy pieces of—"
A blast or fire and roaring winds exploded from the right of Harry, lifting stone, dirt, and trees into the air. Harry was blown off his feet and shot across the air. He crashed against the base of a very hard, very large, tree stump. His wand fell from his hand as he fell to the ground, his lungs stopped functioning as his eyes crossed, and his glasses shattered on impact. Really need to get something done about that.
He rolled on instinct to his knees and forced his lungs to jump-start to life. He gasped in and huffed out air out like a panting dog, trying to remember how to properly breathe. Through his pain, he heard the soft footfalls of a single person walking slowly towards him.
Harry looked up, but only saw splintered glass and various magnified images of blond hair. A man. He must have been tall though, to make Harry look that far up. Long white hair. Down to his shoulders. Not as long as Lucius Malfoy's hair though. So who—
"Away! I will deal with him. Start searches in all the surrounding cities. Now!" someone shouted. A cruel voice that sounded as if it had never been touched by love. However, the aristocratic lilt sounded familiar. Almost like—
"Saying the Dark Lord's name is an offense punishable by a kiss from a dementor," the smooth, familiar voice of Draco Malfoy said almost conversationally. "I knew blood-traitors were stupid, but I didn't realize that they were all as mentally unstable as you."
"What can I say?" Harry grinned, looking up and tasting blood in his teeth. "I'm special."
The blonde wizard's tick of a smile creased his face. "Or insane."
Harry knew his wand had fallen to the ground at some point. Behind him? Harry shrugged, his arm wound bleeding again. "Probably a little bit of both to be honest."
"Where are the prisoners?" Draco drawled.
By now? After all that? "Long gone."
Draco knelt beside him and Harry felt the edge of a wand at the underside of his jaw. "For your sake, I'd hope not. Where?"
"Not here."
"Fine."
After that, all Harry felt was pain. Hot, fire-consuming, and mind-breaking pain. Thousands of needles digging into his bones, his blood boiling in his skin, and dry air carving out his lungs. He didn't know if he screamed, for all he could feel was the agony of existing.
Like a rubber band being pulled back, the pain was suddenly gone and it left Harry gasping on the ground and his stomach rolling. "Where. Are. The prisoners?" Malfoy asked again, his face close to Harry's and his voice hard as steel.
Harry had collapsed when Draco had Crucioed him. He was lying face-first on the ground, hands on either side of his face, holding himself up, but he could feel a sharp point digging into his thigh beneath him. A stick perhaps. Or a wand.
"We left one behind," Harry gasped, reaching downwards. "He's still there, probably chatting with your brother over fish and chi—"
The pain came again.
This time Harry did scream. He knew he was because he could feel his vocal cords shredding themselves like an echo in his ears. He didn't count how long it went for, but when the pain finally stopped, Harry felt like at least three years had been shaved off his life.
"How do you know of my brother?" Draco raised his voice.
"He's sitting next to Wormtail," Harry coughed, turning himself over to he was lying on his back and Draco was kneeling over him with his wand nearly on his nose. Harry grinned. "He's still alive." Or was. Harry couldn't be too sure now that the entirety of Malfoy Manor was burning in the background, Rogan left at the base of it.
"Lucky for you," Draco growled. If Harry could see him, he would have sworn he look relieved.
"Obviously not lucky enough. I've still got your ugly mug in my face," Harry wheezed.
Draco raised the wand and touched it against Harry's nose. "Where did you send the prisoners to?"
Harry smirked at him and kept his lungs moving. He was afraid if he stopped thinking about making his lungs work, they wouldn't again for him. He didn't know how badly he looked, but he could feel his shoulder screaming at him, and blood running down his face. "In a galaxy far far away."
Draco didn't get the muggle reference and scowled in disgust. "Fine. We'll see if you're so smart without your—"
A large rock came catapulting from the side of Harry's vision in the trees and crashed against the side of Draco's skull. His head snapped to the side, and his body crumpled. Blood fell from Draco's temple on the ground, staining his blond hair.
Harry stared up in amazement and surprise at where Draco had kneeled over him just a moment ago. How—
Someone ran up and Harry squinted at a closely shaven head with bright eyes. "I thought I told you to run," Harry said lightly.
Hermione scoffed. "Right. Like I'd let you tell me what to do."
Harry stared at her for a moment and then choked out a laugh. "Right."
Hermione reached down and pulled on Harry's arms until he was sitting upright and she kneeled in front of him where Draco had been not a minute before. "Are you alright? I saw the fire, and heard what he… are you okay?"
"I'll live," he answered breathlessly, his body trembling, "but we have to get out of the anti-apparation boundaries before Draco gets back up."
Hermione looked at the blonde. "You know him?"
"Sort of." He grabbed Draco's fallen wand, pointed it at his glasses, and repaired them so he could see again. He blinked when the glass pulled itself together and Hermione squinted at the product like she was categorizing the information in her mind for later.
"Alright, where's the anti- whatever you called it?"
Harry pointed farther up the hill where the trees got a little thicker. "There. Far enough from the house to come and go without a lot of magic needed."
Hermione nodded with him. "Alright. Ready?"
Harry swallowed and forced his legs to work for him. "Yeah. Let's just go." Before he turned to leave, Harry looked back at Draco for the first time properly.
The young wizard was wearing expensive clothes. Much more expensive than he'd ever seen on his worlds Draco, and had rings of gold on most fingers. His hair was longer, modeled after his father, and his eyes seemed sunken in more, making his face a whole lot older. He didn't look like a child. Draco looked like someone who didn't like the world they were living in and had given up.
Harry squinted harder when a shiny piece of metal at his neck caught his attention. A necklace? Harry kneeled over him and grabbed at the silver chain with a growing foreknowing.
No way in Merlin.
He skimmed the necklace down to the front and found a locket. A great big, ugly-looking, green locket with an 'S' on the front.
"Shit," he said.
"What?" Hermione asked, coming beside him.
Harry broke the necklace from around Draco's neck and put it in his pocket. "We'll be needing this later," he told her. Harry felt a sort of gross calm fall over him when the necklace touched his pockets, and he tossed his head to the side to shake out the feeling of the necklace whispering in his ear.
"Alright," Hermione said slowly. "So do we leave him here?"
"Well, we're not taking him with us," Harry grinned at her and got to his feet. Hermione put an arm around his waist to help him up.
"Fine with me." Hermione half pulled half carried him up the hill, their steps getting faster and faster as Harry got more and more nervous of the unconscious blond behind him. "Here?" Hermione asked, coming to a stop at the top of the hill.
"Yeah. Alright. Hold on tightly to my—"
A flash of green passed by Harry and Harry pulled Hermione to the ground faster than he thought his mind was capable of moving. The curse flew over Hermione's head by a centimeter and passed into a tree behind her. Harry looked down the hill and saw Draco standing up with a wand poised for fighting. Somehow, he must have found his brother's wand that Harry had been using.
Harry cast a stunner, but Draco blocked it with a wave. Harry threw another, but was waved away again. Harry knew what was going to happen before Draco lifted his wand, but he still didn't move away when Draco looked him right in the eye from down the hill and whispered something. The Killing Curse shot up straight to Harry, and Harry twisted away from its path, pushing Hermione behind him.
The curse passed him, and Harry pointed his wand at Draco, and several thoughts passed through his head. This wasn't his Draco. Not the one from his world. Where a young wizard was trapped in circumstances he couldn't get away from. Here, Draco was the 'Dragon Prince'. A man who had completely accepted what he was and what he wanted to do. Who had already murdered, and would again without thought in the future.
When Harry looked into his grey eyes, he only saw hate. Hate for him. Hate for Hermione. Maybe hate for what he was himself. But hate all the same.
You can't even say the word. Remus's words echoed in his head. How did you manage to finish it the first time, never mind doing it all again for another round?
Harry felt a grimace cover his face. He'd never truly killed anyone before, but he doubted he could ever match the hate that was lighting the insides of the oldest Malfoy's eyes across from him. Doubted he could ever find hate that powerful in his own eyes except for his meetings with Voldemort.
It made Harry's grimace deepen and his eyes flash when he saw Draco starting to reach his wand back for another Killing Curse, grey eyes strained murderously on Hermione. Harry didn't have to give himself a pep talk when his wand was up and the words were falling over his tongue in, "Avada Kedavra." A flash of green light left Harry's wand, and a dark feeling passed over Harry's face as the anger of Draco's wand pointed at Hermione vaporized into a satisfied feeling of assurance and safety.
The spell hit true, but Harry didn't watch long enough for the blond's head to hit the ground.
He grabbed Hermione's hand, felt a tingle pass over his spine, and apparated away back to Hogwarts.
Harry didn't see Rogan running forwards from the cover of the trees to his brother's body, screaming, and flashing off accidental magic like fireworks on a holiday.
UP NEXT: A Horcrux gets slayed
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~Missmusicluver