Chapter 49 - The Battle Begins

Of the three people who witnessed their passionate reunion, it was only Harry himself who was aware of the reasons for it being so, and even he was surprised to see them so clearly attached to each other. He had known that they were a couple, of course, but to see them together...it was something else. For Ron and Pansy, on the other hand, it was an absolute shock, and each reacted in ways both different yet similar to one another.

"Get away from him, you filthy mudblood!" Pansy yelled, quite forgetting for the moment that Draco was—clearly—no longer hers in any way, if he had ever been. After all, he was kissing Hermione clearly of his own free will, and, right before the two had connected, had looked like a man dying of thirst who had just seen water. Hermione was that to him—and Pansy had never even been close. Not that that made any difference to the jealous Slytherin however, who now had yet another reason for hating Hermione Granger.

Fortunately, Ron held her back, shocked and hurt and angry though he was as well. "Just what do you think you're doing, Malfoy?" he growled, his voice low and his blue eyes blazing.

Hermione pulled back but kept her hold on Draco, realizing only now that this was the first time that Ron had been made privy to the truth as well. And oh, what bad timing it was! Sooner or later, he had to be hurt, perhaps, but why now, why this way? It was too late to take it back though.

"Ron," she began. "He's...we're..."

"Yeah. I can see that." Ron was still occupied keeping ahold of Pansy, otherwise there was no telling what he would have done at that point. He was clenching his wand so hard that his knuckles were turning white. "How long has this been going on?"

Unlike Hermione, who was looking at Ron like a bomb about to go off, and Harry, who was looking back and forth between his two friends worriedly, Draco himself was perfectly calm, his arms still around Hermione in a manner that could only be called possessive.

"It's always been him, hasn't it?" Ron asked suddenly, looking sullen and...defeated. "All this time, I thought you and Harry...but it's always been Malfoy, hasn't it?"

Draco clenched his jaw as he realized that now, too late after years of Hermione pining after Ron, he finally liked her back. If he himself hadn't stepped into the picture, even now Hermione and Ron might be...

The thought pissed him off and revived some of that hatred of Ron Weasley that, ever since the first day of school when the redhead had become friends with Harry Potter instead of him, had been building up. Sure, now they were allies, but if Ron said or did anything to hurt Hermione at this point, then Draco had no qualms about hexing him or worst for it.

"We don't need to justify anything to you, Weasley," he said, his voice low. "And now isn't the time to talk about it."

"Bullocks!" Ron snarled. "We could die today, Malfoy! If not now, then when?!" His glare softened as he turned to look at Hermione. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Hermione frowned. "You wouldn't have accepted it Ron. You're proving as much right now."

"How can I when it's him?" Ron asked. "He's been an arse to me for years, Hermione, but he's been even worse than that to you! I can't even count the number of times he's called you a mudbl—well, you know, or how many times he's belittled you and took away any pride you might have in being better than he is!" He turned back to Draco. "And she is better than you are, Malfoy. You don't deserve her."

Hermione was just about to retort something back, but then Draco spoke up first.

"I agree, Weasley."

This brought everyone up short, including Pansy, who was now staring in shock at Draco rather than looking like she wanted crucio Hermione then and there.

"Draco..." Hermione murmured.

"It's true and we both know it," Draco said.

Hermione shook her head. "I know nothing of the sort. You're not who you once were, Draco. We've been over and over this. You've saved my life and Harry's several times and have risked absolutely everything to help us, even going against your family!" She sighed. "Why won't you ever see that you are good enough for me? You're..." She looked deep into his eyes. "You're perfect."

Draco smiled. "For you, I want to be. But I'll still be broken, Hermione. Neither of us can change the past."

"Then we won't try to change it," Hermione promised, cupping his face in her hands. "All we can do is try to move past it. Together, Draco."

Harry coughed awkwardly. "Er, not to ruin the moment or anything, but honestly, you two, now's not the time."

Hermione sighed, letting go of Draco at last and standing up. "He's right," she said. "We need to get moving. Voldemort's on his way here and now that the diadem has been..." She looked towards Harry. "It hasn't, hasn't it?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah. And he knows."

Pansy glared back and forth between them. "What the hell are you twits talking about?" she snarled.

"Speaking of which," Ron said, still looking pretty broken up and doing everything he could not to look at either Draco or Hermione, "what're we going to do with her?"

"Best thing would be to put her under a sleeping spell or something until this is over with," Draco said, ignoring looking at Pansy as well. "Or maybe lock her in one of the dungeons beneath the school." He glanced at Harry and Hermione, both of who were looking at him like he suggested they murder Pansy or something. He shrugged. "She's not on our side and at this rate will only cause trouble."

"I agree, but Draco, the school's about to become a battleground and wherever we leave her, especially unarmed, she's in danger," Harry sighed. "And much as she's not an ally, she is a student just like us and there's no telling what Voldemort's army will do once they get here."

"And not to mention all the other monsters like Dementors and worse that he's got with him," Ron begrudgingly admitted. Then, he turned to face Pansy. "Look, it's four against one right now, so if you make any false moves, we will just put you to sleep and then leave you alone, alright?"

Pansy slumped against him, looking defeated. "You're all going to die anyway today," she said in a low voice. "What's it matter to me when or how that happens." Then, specifically, she turned to look at Harry. "I hope the Dark Lord gets his hands on you, Potter. Once you die, then all of this ends."

It sounded more like a threat than any of them liked, but at this point, none of them were interested in keeping Pansy with them longer than they needed to. As soon as Ron let Pansy go, she backed away from them, and then ran off, unarmed, to parts unknown.

Now rid of her, Draco moved on to the next line of business, and took out the Bloody Baron's sheath. "I managed to get some basilisk venom on his, so it should work for destroying the cup," he said. "You have it with you, I'm guessing?"

Hermione nodded, just about to reach into her bag. "Yes, I—"

"HARRY!"

It was Neville Longbottom who, along with Luna, was running towards them from the stairwell.

"Neville, what is it?" Harry asked, ignoring the shocked look of Neville once he saw that Draco was with them. On instinct, he had also raised his wand towards Draco, but if Draco felt at all threatened, by him, he didn't show it.

"T-the army of death eaters is here," Neville explained, clenching his wand tightly. "McGonagall and members of the order set up a barrier to guard the schools perimeters, but..." He gulped. "It's worse than we thought, Harry. Voldemort's got dragons fighting for him."

"What?! Are you serious?" Ron exclaimed, knowing better than any of them how dangerous dragons were, thanks to his brother Charlie's research. "How the hell did he manage that?!"

Luna shrugged. "Who can say, Ron?" she said, sounding as eerily calm and dreamy as always. "We counted five flying overhead and two are water dragons. The merpeople have their hands full keeping them away from their city. I'd say escape by water isn't a choice now."

"Escape of any kind isn't a choice," Ron said, stepping forward. "What members of the order are out there now? My parents, my brothers...?"

Luna nodded. "Yes, they're all here. Kingsley, Lupin, Tonks, everyone. I saw Fred and George heading towards the bridge from up on the battlements a while back."

Ron grit his teeth. "I've got to go help them!" he growled, charging forward. "Come on, you lot!"

"Wait, Ron, there's more!" Neville yelled after him, turning around. Then, facing Harry, he said in a low voice the most serious he'd ever been: "Voldemort sent out a message, Harry. He wants the school to surrender."

Harry looked grim. "McGonagall would never do that."

Neville shook his head. "No, she wouldn't, but that's not all. He wants..."

And yet, even as he hesitated to say it, Hermione knew what followed.

"He wants us to turn Harry over to him as well, doesn't he?" she confirmed.

Neville paled, but his nod confirmed everything. That was Voldemort's deal, his terms as they now stood: he wanted to end this, once and for all, and he was withholding the worst of his violence right now only because he wanted his enemies to surrender in defeat rather than in death.

Or, in Harry's case, it would be both, wrapped up practically like a gift if they willingly handed him over.

It was a betrayal that no one considered seriously even for a minute.

"We need to destroy him first," Draco said, looking towards Hermione again. "We're running out of time."

Hurriedly, she took out the cup, only to drop it at the last second as it suddenly burned unbearably hot in her hand.

"Hermione!"

Looking down, Hermione already had second-degree burns on her palm, and the smell of burning flesh hung in the air. The cup, no doubt sensing that it was about to be destroyed just as the locket had been, was now making its final attempt to protect itself. No one could get near it without suffering the same fate.

Hermione ignored the tears pouring down her cheeks, as well as the stinging pain in her hand, and cast Draco a desperate look. "Do it!" she exclaimed.

Draco plunged the sheath down to smash it on the cup, but the cup seemed to have rolled away of its own volition, just out of reach. The sheath hit its mark on the ground instead, but the cup remained unharmed. Draco tried again once, twice, and then by the third time tried casting an immobility spell to hold it steady. But either because it was a horcrux and therefore immune to most spells or because the cup technically already was an immobile object, this didn't work. Instead, it quickly became apparent that unless someone willingly held down the cup themselves, there was no destroying it.

Draco sensed that Hermione, despite being in pain and suffering the burns once already, was willing to volunteer to do it. Harry as well no doubt felt that the responsibility was his. Draco wasn't about to let either of them hurt themselves though.

"I'll do it," he said, cutting off either of them saying anything. He held out the sheath. "One of you will have to use this." But neither Harry nor Hermione moved forward to accept it. Much as Draco was touched to think they didn't want him hurting himself either, now wasn't the time to hesitate.

"Draco..."

"Whenever you're ready," Luna of all people said, accepting the sheath from his hand. Out of anyone present, it was no exaggeration to say that all her friends were surprised that she had stepped forward.

"Wait!" Hermione cried.

But it was already too late. So quickly it was almost as though they had timed it, Draco reached out and held the cup in his hands while Luna held the sheath and then brought it down on the cup, the sharpness of the end of the sheath, combined with basilisk venom, enough to practically crack the cup in two, leaving Draco holding the pieces.

He yelled out in pain and agony as not only the burning sensation of the cup, but practically the cursed evil itself seared through the flesh and muscle of his hands, in a pain so sharp and exquisite that he couldn't compare it to anything he had ever felt before in his life. Was this what others felt when they were being crucioed, or was this worse?

It was the Dark Lord's magic, so maybe it was worse.

That was the last rational thought Draco had before blacked out from the impact of the pain.

If they hadn't witnessed it, they wouldn't have believed it. Hermione still couldn't believe it, even though the image of Draco in pain, of Draco's hands in such a painful, near-skeletal state, would surely never leave her brain.

As soon as he had lost consciousness, everyone, Ron included, rush to his side. Luna was standing the closest to him, and it was fortunate that she had fast reflexes enough to drop the sheath and catch Draco before his head hit the ground. Ron had stepped up to help her support him, meanwhile Neville and Hermione worked together to do what they could for his hands. Hermione used every spell she could think of to help numb the pain and also keep Draco from waking up while they tended to his wounds, and meanwhile Neville had the rummage of her bag to come up with stored herbs and other potions that he knew would work well together as a healing salve.

However, no matter what they tried to do for him, it appeared that the most that was possible was to keep infection from spreading, as pus had already begun to form and, worse yet, Draco was breaking out in a fever. And, was Hermione just imagining it, or had his pallor become more pronounced?!

"Merlin, what did it do to you?!" Hermione muttered in panic, wiping up the beads of sweat from his brow. Then, to her friends, she said, "We need to get him to Madame Pomfrey! There's nothing else we can do here!"

Neville nodded grimly, recognizing that it was beyond their abilities. Harry had his wand out already, so he cast a levitation spell over Draco, and together the friends raced through the halls towards the infirmary with the unconscious Slytherin.

"How do we know she'll really help him?" Ron called, running alongside Hermione.

Hermione panted heavily, unsure if Ron was asking out of concern or out of spite. At this point though, it didn't matter—she just wanted Draco to be out of danger!

Suddenly, as they were crossing the corridor to get to the stairs which would lead them to the infirmary, a rumble almost like an earthquake shook the castle to its very foundations, and they all stopped running to listen. A sound so eerily familiar, bringing back particular nightmares for Harry from his fourth year during the Triwizard Tournament, sounded overhead, frightening all of them as well it should.

Dragons.

"He's making his move," Neville said.

"What?! Then what was his earlier message for?!" Ron demanded.

"Some one must have done something to provoke him from our side," Luna remarked casually.

Harry winced. "I think we just did. What we just destroyed was a piece of his soul, after all. He felt it. He knows." And then, a light of realization came over his face. "He's getting panicked now. There must only be maybe one horcrux left if he's reacting this way. One more...the snake. Nagini."

Everyone turned to look at him in shock.

"How do you know?" Hermione whispered at last, as this hadn't been something that they'd ever talked about before. Dumbledore had once brought it up as a hunch, and Harry had shared this with them months ago, but until now they'd all discredited it since the horcruxes so far had been objects, not living things. Was it possible to cross over that line as well—to put part of one's soul into another living thing?!

They would all know a whole other level of fear if that was the case.

Harry winced. "It's all he's thinking about now. Over and over again, ever since Draco and Luna destroyed the cup a few minutes ago, there've been two images going through my head. I didn't even realize they weren't mine at first, but they're the same: my face, and Nagini."

Ron scowled. "Of course he's thinking of you if he bloody wants to murder you!" he snarled. "But the snake...? The hell, if he actually did—"

"It's all we've got to go on," Harry insisted. "Nagini is the last horcrux, I'm sure of it."

"And how do you propose we will it, eh?" Ron asked, as they finally, by unspoken agreement, began to move towards the infirmary again. "He keeps the bloody thing with him all the time, so unless you think he'll hand it over—"

"Sooner or later we'll have to face him, Ron," Hermione said, who looked like she'd like nothing better as her gaze darted to Draco once more. "We'll come up with a plan once we get Draco to the infirmary, alright? Until then—"

But whatever she was about to say next was lost as louder noises filled the air.

Among them, the ever-louder and ever-nearer chorus of dragons preparing to attack, the yells and cries of death eaters and allies alike outside...

...and, nearest of all, the all-too familiar cackle of a certain werewolf as he approached them with a dozen Dementors at his back.

A/N: And thus, another chapter closes with a cliffhanger! Whew!

Okay, so full disclosure on this: this was a hard chapter to write. I guess a lot of you can already tell this, seeing as it took me a month to write, eh? And it's also a chapter that went through quite a few edits in terms of content, because a) I originally wanted to make it longer but a lot of what I ended up writing was too much filler for when the action stakes were so high, and b) because I really wanted to be original here and add in fanfiction touches to the story. The basic elements of what Rowling writes as per the conclusions of Voldemort and Harry's confrontations and whatnot will be the same, so I won't have to go over those, but otherwise, with destroying the other horcruxes and how the Battle of Hogwarts takes place, I really wanted to be original.

For anyone out there who ever wants to write a fanfic in J.K. Rowlings's world and keep original events in her timeline intact while at the same time putting in your own: Good. Luck. It's a tricky slope to climb, believe me.

Anyway, what you've just read is what I ended up with, and I hope you like it. Please do let me know via reviews what you think, and for you silent fans or new fans out there, please do follow and favourite as well.

Here's hoping that the next chapter doesn't take as long to write, but in any case, we're moving along slowly but surely. Hope you enjoy!~