Harry looked down at the witch who'd put the school through so much trouble and felt his knuckles smarting from the feeling of her nose shattering under his fist. The entire Hall seemed to be in silent shock, breathless in their disbelief of what he'd just done.
And then of course, the silence was broken. The harbinger of chaos himself let loose an insane laugh, Peeves heaving on gasps of air that Harry didn't think the poltergeist really needed. Then, Peeves' expression darkened in an instant, and without warning, shot towards the nearest auror, picked the man up and threw him bodily out one of the large windows lining the Hall.
As the glass shattered and students screamed, the DA moved as one.
Hands were either up in an offensive stance or grabbing wands out of pockets, and all feet were moving towards the Ministry incursion on their school.
Harry spun and was quick to draw his own wand, throwing up shields and deflection charms wherever he was able, Ron and Hermione helping to both keep the aurors back and protect the students that didn't want to fight.
The aurors were slow to come out of their shock, but soon, of the near two dozen that Umbridge had brought into the school after capturing Danny, all of them became locked in combat with members of the DA. They may be highly trained wizards, but the DA had Harry and Danny for teachers, both of whom had actively been in multiple dangerous and life-threatening situations. The DA fought and the aurors struggled to keep them down.
Left, right and center Harry watched his friends and allies clash with full grown wizards, using both powerful spells or close-quarters combat to bring the Ministry forces down. Harry spotted Lee and Michael sniping aurors from behind an upturned table, Seamus and Dean helping Luna and Ginny keep the doors wide open so all the non-combative students could get out of danger, Cho and Tracy and Ernie were corralling all the younger students through, all of them either blasting opposing forces back with magic or throwing punches; screams, bruises, and blood became widespread with their efforts.
He quickly blocked a stunner from hitting Angelina, who had just used the stasis hex to stop an auror from running after the retreating students. He watched as Chloe charged forward, grabbing the temporarily motionless body and then suplex the man into the stone floor. Draco was petrifying and disarming while Neville was following up by kicking out knees and hitting nerve points to bring their opponents down screaming. Their two second years, Ella and Dennis, where zipping through the larger students and adults and either stunning or paralyzing or tripping their opponents, downing them with a whispered word and grins full of all the malicious glee a pair twelve year olds could muster.
The ghosts and Professors of Hogwarts were not to be left out of the chaos, either. What momentarily caught him by surprise was when he spotted Myrtle shrieking at the top of her lungs, and then diving at a nearby auror. While she still passed right through him, the auror stumbled back with a look of shock as if he'd had to fight to keep standing. His lips then turned a light shade of blue and he fell to his knees shivering, the other school ghosts doing much the same, their auras brighter and still tinged a bit green. Peeves, however, seemed to find much more enjoyment in simply flinging them all out the windows.
After recovering from his moment of shock at the ghosts' increased power, Harry ducked low enough to dodge the screaming form of a man blasted away from the dueling master, Professor Flitwick. Watching the few remaining fighters, Harry couldn't help but marvel at the contrast between Snape's wand movements that were fluid like an artful dance, while Sprout's and Sinistra's were viscous and precise. Both methods were extremely effective in decimating the remaining Ministry forces.
It should have ended there. Hogwarts victorious in protecting their own...
But, just as the furor died down, there was thunderous noise within the Entrance Hall... and then she appeared. Blood now smeared down her face from a broken nose, Umbridge stood in the open doors of the Hall, with at least another forty aurors behind her. Harry was thankful that Kingsley and Tonks didn't seem to be among the number, but tensed in anticipation all the same. Now that it was just the members of the DA, the Professors who'd fought with them and the ghosts left standing within the Hall, they were outnumbered.
"GET THEM!" Umbridge shrieked and then ducked aside to cower, useless without her wand.
The fight began again in earnest, shouted spells and curses sang through the air and magic collided in a bursts of color and energy. As some aurors were relieved of their wands, the DA gained an edge, ghosting forward and taking them all down with well practiced flips, punches and kicks.
Harry began to rush forward to join his own in the fight, but was suddenly pulled to the side, just barely missing a red jet of magic to the face. Hermione had pulled both he and Ron down behind an overturned table, sheltering them from the fight.
"Now's our chance Harry!" She hissed, with an urgent look towards the now open doorway leading to the Entrance Hall.
"Now? In the middle of this? What about our plan to leave later?" Ron asked.
Harry shook his head quickly, remembering what was really at stake.
"Hermione's right Ron." He said, refocusing on the real reason they'd needed a distraction. "I'm sorry, but the plan went pear shaped the minute Voldemort got his hands on Danny. The DA can take care of this, and we can't wait, we have to go now." Harry panted, keeping an eye on the chaos and gauging how difficult it would be for them to slip past the fight to get outside. He turned back to his friends and Ron gave a determined nod.
They rejoined the battle, slowly but surely making their way towards the open doorway. Hermione deftly blasted an auror away from a distracted Luna, Ron jammed an elbow into the side of one who'd been aiming at Ginny, and Harry disarmed a particularly angry man going after Neville and Draco's teamwork, and then kicked the back of his knees to bring the man to the ground, where he was swiftly dealt with by a passing Daphne.
They'd finally made it to the open doors, and sprinted through the Entrance Hall, determined to make it outside and into the forest without being-
"Stop right there!" -spotted.
They skidded to a halt and whirled to face their pursuer, wands held ready.
Only to come face to bloody face with a wandless toad. Harry growled in irritation. When was this woman going to learn?!
"Potter! I've had enough of this! Call off your little rebellion and hand over your wands! This is close to treason against the Ministry, and the punishment for this offense will be-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it already, We're just stupid kids, bow down to my superiority, blah blah." Ron rudely cuts Umbridge off, eyes rolling skyward.
"I'd personally like to see you try to enforce your ridiculous rules and regulations on us now." Hermione added, "As Harry and Danny has already demonstrated to the whole school, we don't need magic to stand up to you."
As Umbridge sputtered indignantly, Harry stepped forward and raised his wand.
"We're done putting up with you, and we are well past trying to reason with the Ministry. We're taking matters into our own hands now. So, stay out of our way. We need to save our friend." Harry glared darkly at the woman, and when Stupify was on the very edge of his tongue he had to stutter to a stop as the toad started to laugh.
Hysteric and insane, Umbridge had snapped, leveling crazed eyes and wide mouth stretched into a snarling grin at them. He only just barely stopped himself from stepping away from her in shock, but stood his ground, wand still raised and ready.
"Yes. Your friend." Umbridge giggled shrilly. "Had I known that that thing would show up this year and cause havoc, I wouldn't have sent those dementors after you this summer, Potter."
Hermione gasped sharply beside him, and he could practically feel Ron's jaw drop.
"No, I would have brought them here, chased it off, kept all of you in line! But you just had to survive, didn't you? Had to wriggle out of your punishment at the trial, and continue spewing your poisonous lies! I was the only one actually doing something to keep you silent!" Umbridge laughed again, eyes rolling and insane, "And if that wasn't enough, those creatures never returned after I sent them after you! No! They and all the rest abandoned the Ministry and Azkaban save for a small few! Oh! If only I could have brought them with me! If only I could have introduced them to that freak of nature! I'm sure they'd have been delighted to gift it with a ki-"
"STUPIFY!"
Red jets of light collided and slammed into the witch, cutting her off and lifting her easily into the air with the force of the multiple spells. Umbridge fell to the stone flagon floor with a resounding thud and did not get up after.
Harry would later wonder if she ever did.
His mind pounded with adrenaline, and then caught up to the fact that it wasn't just his, Ron and Hermione's simultaneous spells that silenced the toad. He looked quickly towards the doors leading to the Great Hall, and found Neville, Luna, Ginny and Draco standing tall and proud before the chaos behind them, their wands still pointing at Umbridge's motionless form.
"Merlin..." Ginny was the first to break the relative silence within the Entrance Hall, which seemed to shake all of them out of their shock.
"You lot alright?" Neville asked as he jogged over, casting a quick glance back into the Great Hall at the sounds of the battle held within.
"Yeah-"
"Where are you going? Are you leaving?" Draco cut Harry off, tone heavy with accusation.
As both Ron and Hermione spoke over one another to explain, Ginny and Neville's voices added to the confusion, and Harry couldn't hear a thing that was said as voices began to rise.
"Oi!" He shouted as loud as he dared to not attract any more attention from the Great Hall. It had the desired effect as everyone fell silent and their eyes pinned him in place. "There's no time for this. Danny's in danger, and we're going to the Ministry now to save him."
"But what about the pla-"
"The plan fell through, we can't wait a moment longer, we need to get to Danny, now!"
"But why? We can't just-"
"Voldemort!" Six flinches followed his shout, but he ignored them and continued, "Voldemort has Danny! They're at the Ministry right now, in the Department of Mysteries! And he knows that I know, that I'm coming to save him, so this is most certainly a trap! But we're going anyway, because that's the only thing we can do to help Danny! Now please, we need to go!"
Harry glared a them, panting from his outburst, daring them to not believe him, to call him crazy...
To call him a liar.
He was surprised when nothing of the sort happened. Ron and Hermione stood by his side, determined and ready. Neville and Ginny's expressions became steely and Luna gently smiled, but there was glint of sharpness in her eyes that Harry had never seen before. Draco shifted, grey eyes searching Harry's own. After a moment, the Slytherin crossed his arms and looked down at the lump of Umbridge still on the ground.
"I won't ask you how you're so sure, since time is of the essence; but I will ask this," Draco looked up again as he gripped his wand tightly, "How are we getting to the Ministry?"
"We?"
"Yes, 'we', don't think we're going to let you all go off on your own! Danny's our friend too!" Ginny said hotly.
Ron's expression shifted, a 'no' obviously on the tip of his tongue before Ginny cut him off harshly. "Go ahead and try to tell me it's too dangerous, Ron. I dare you."
The Weasley sibling glared at each other for a moment, before Ron let out a huffy breath beside him. "Looks like we're goin to need to convince a few more of Danny's friends to give us a ride, mate."
"Actually-"
"I thought we were Danny's friends?" Neville asked confused, inadvertently cutting Hermione off.
"Not us, silly, Ronald was talking about the thestrals." Luna said calmly, patting Neville's shoulder.
"That won't be fast enough." Draco cut in quickly.
"That's what I-"
"Then what do you think-"
"HEY!" Hermione's shout brought them all back to silence, and she took a steadying breath. "Thank you. I was about to bring this up with you two," she nodded to him and Ron, "before Umbridge caught us, but Draco's right, flying to London on thestrals will take far too long, especially since Voldy already has Danny." Draco stiffened in shock as Neville and Ginny let out incredulous laughs at the nickname.
Hermione ignored them and pressed on. "So I was going to suggest an alternative."
"An alternative? What other way could there be to the Ministry? We can't magic up a Portkey like Dumbledore!" Ron asked incredulously.
"No, but... we do know of a certain Ministry witch who's been spying through the school fires all year." All eyes drifted, landing on Umbrdge's fallen form only a little ways away from them.
"And we also know that she has the ability to summon a platoon of aurors at a moments notice, but those aurors didn't just spring into existence on the school grounds, they had to have come from the Ministry through-"
"The Floo." Harry said in awe, "Umbridge has a direct line to the Ministry."
Hermione nodded, expression quickly sobering as they all realized what they were surely walking into. But, trap or no trap, they had to try to help Danny.
Harry huffed a shaky breath, closing his eyes against his panic and fear for what could be happening to Danny and the dread that came with the thought that he was dragging his friends right into what they all knew would be a fight for their lives. He hated to bring them with him, into danger and whatever other horrors Voldemort had in store for them.
But... he knew his friends well enough that he was certain they would never let him go alone, either.
When Harry looked up again, he saw six people who were willing to do anything to help their friend; bloodless faces and white knuckled grips on their wands, but hands were steady and gazes even.
"Alright then." Harry said, turning towards the stairs, "Lets go."
.
.
Man, this was getting old. Getting captured and waking up chained and gagged in a little cell surrounded by adults with either intrigued or disgusted expressions had been... well... something...
He'd tried to escape of course. He didn't go on the run for months from one dumb government organization just to get caught by another, albeit magical, one.
He'd been close, so close to pushing past the shocks coming through those stupid heavy chains. So close to phasing through the strangely phase resistant metal. He'd apparently scared the people who were meant to be watching over him, because after a while... he got cold.
And that is what really made him pause, because ever since his core matured and he'd gotten used to controlling it, he'd never felt cold again. But this... this was a different sort of cold. This was an aching chill that made his teeth chatter against the metal gag and sent uncontrollable shivers running up and down his body. And then the cold went deeper, and then deeper still. Past the physical right into all the frigid emptiness of pain and regret and sorrow and fear that Danny had pushed down, down, down, deep enough that he could pretend it didn't exist anymore.
He doesn't know much of anything after the cold started, his mind was elsewhere, remembering what he'd wanted to forget. The only thing that reminded him that he wasn't reliving the darkest echoes of what his life used to be was hearing his own ragged breathing that seemed to echo back to him from just beyond his cell door.
Seconds, minutes, hours, days could have passed before he came back to himself, the cold strangling him finally easing before fading away.
And then of course, his cell door opened and the perfect sort of stress reliever just so happened to stroll in. The big bad of the magical community, Mr. High-and-Mighty god complex mixed with soul ripping immortality tendencies that made his skin crawl. He looked up, saw the bone white skin and red slit eyes, and then... then he saw the two slits where Voldy's nose should have been... and he lost it.
Of -freaking- course Harry had been telling the truth! Oh, this was golden, his poor, poor exhausted mind and still cold body ached at laughing so hard, but man... did he need this. Oh, he was going to have fun with this while he planned his escape, consequences be darned.
He hadn't expected the consequences to land on one of the masked dudes near the door.
The green of the Realms pulsed through the room as the sound of rushing magic nearly drowned out the sound of the man's body hitting the floor. Danny had been left speechless, all jokes and barbs and mirth sapped away in an instant, for he had felt the magic rip through the man's body, pushing his soul from the physical form and then shredding it until it no longer existed.
It was a death that not even he could could comprehend the implications of.
Now, Danny knew a lot about death. More than most, but- death was still such a wholly unknown and arcane entity that it's impossible for anyone to really understand, but there was one thing that Danny knew for certain.
The soul persists after death. A living being's life and self and everything they are- it lives after their body dies.
And Voldemort just destroyed this man's soul in one swift movement and two spoken words.
And Danny finally understood the danger of a man that could kill this way; stupid name and obviously-trying-to-be-scary face aside, this wasn't a joke anymore. He'd make sure to show this Lord of Darkness the consequences of using a death beyond death so readily.
...Right after he got out of these stupidchains!
He grumbled into his magically reconstructed and reattached muzzle, the metal cutting into the bridge of his nose and cheeks, and he ignored the little shocks, (bearable in some sick, desensitized kind of way, because the shocks didn't come anywhere close to whatever he'd been hit with out on the Hogwarts grounds).
He was roughly dragged through yet another echoey hallway after what he thought was a rickety elevator. He couldn't say for sure, since in addition to the death eater guys putting the muzzle back on, they'd blindfolded him as well. He'd heard a muttering of his eyes being too creepy or something and then he was blinded and then dragged who knows where.
He thinks Voldy may have split off from them at some point, but he heard the sound of others. The faint rumblings of voices of a lot of people that were surely nearby. He wondered how they were able to travel through what must be a populated area without being stopped. Surely, a group of masked weirdo's dragging a chained, gagged and blindfolded kid had to grab some attention, right?
Apparently not, as Danny could now only hear the flickering sound of fire, and the clipping of boots against a stone floor, his chains still clinking and jangling and annoying him to no end. The farther they dragged him, the stranger the energy around them began to feel. Where the heck where they taking him?
A door opened, closed, and then Danny was suddenly bombarded with the sounds of gentle chimes and clocks ticking, metal pinging against metal and an immediate sense of familiarity washed over him. Danny could almost imaging he was in Clockwork's lair in the Realms. There was even a faint sensation of the stream of time rippling as they walked through this new place. He wanted to stay there, wanted to just bask in the feeling of a familiar place even through he knew he'd never been here before. Unfortunately, he couldn't get what he wanted just now, as he was jabbed in his spine with the tip of a wand and he gasped in pain as he stumbled and was dragged further towards wherever these goons were taken him.
He wished he'd stayed put, because after another door... the whispers started.
Soft, and ethereal, and compounding on top of one another. Thousands upon millions of different voices muttering words that he couldn't understand and yet still made his muscles seize up, not wanting move any further. Not wanting to go anywhere near the whispers of unknown hoards that already surrounded him. He barely registered the death eaters shoving him forward again with harsh words and another jab in his back with a wand. The whispering only grew louder, clouding his head and making him stumble.
He was dragged further and further, until finally they stopped. He remained kneeling, shaking and gasping through the gag as the whispers, that the death eaters obviously couldn't hear, continued to deafen him. The death eaters were talking, adding more layers to the jumbled mess that he already couldn't hope to understand, but he did hear a new voice; a woman's voice, harsh and mocking.
After an eternity, or perhaps no time at all, Danny gasped as the cacophony of voices just... vanished. His ears ringing in the sudden silence, Danny shook his head to try and clear it, but stopped when the voices came back only to whisper a single phrase-
"ₒₙₑ ₒf dₑₛₜᵢₙy... Cₒₘₑ ₜₒ cₗₐᵢₘ yₒᵤᵣ fₐₜₑ..."
Danny bit back another gasp, as the voices fell silent once more. Harry... His friends had come for him. But how? Why?
He tensed up as he heard the distinctive voices of his friends, trying to be quiet in the now echoey room. The death eaters around him tensed after a moment, too, obviously now aware of the new arrivals. His ears still sensitive, he could hear the pounding heartbeats of those around him, but was confused when there were hisses of surprise and even confusion coming from a few of them. He jumped harshly as a strong hand with long fingernails dug into his collarbone, just below the iron collar clasped around his neck.
The hands' owner leaned close to his ear, and he shuddered at the proximity, as a woman whispered-
"Not a sound, filth. No reason to ruin the game before we've had our fun!"
Danny's breath caught as her nails dug deeper into the skin of his neck. She didn't let him go, and pushed him down lower to the ground as his friends voices came ever closer. He quieted his breathing, and held as still as possible. If he tried to warn his friends to stay away... they would do the exact opposite and come closer to try and save him.
He recognized their voices as they came closer, even if they were trying to whisper and keep quiet. There were seven of them, all risking their lives; Harry, Ron and Hermione leading the charge, Ginny and Draco were there too, whispering lowly to Neville and Luna. He could almost picture them together, crouching low and trying to keep out of sight while trying to find him. He heard them stop suddenly, and then there was a sudden, hushed ripple of whispered sighs coming from the room at large before his friends voices grew incredulous as they seemed to find something.
It must have been something important to the death eaters, because he felt them tense in anticipation, the woman's nails digging even deeper into his neck, breaking skin.
He bit back a hiss, and listened intently as the death eaters finally moved forward towards where he'd last heard his friends voices.
"Don't move Potter. Now turn around, nice and slow, and give that to me." The drawling voice of the pale blond man that had been with Voldy cut through the silence, and Danny couldn't do nothing as his friends gasped and their feet scraped the ground as they turned to face the threat.
Danny could feel the death eaters moving forward, revealing themselves and moving to surround his friends, but the woman with claws still piercing his neck kept him still and silent.
He wanted to scream. Wanted to move and help his friends who were in danger now because of him; because he wasn't fast enough or good enough to dodge a shot that felt like the portal opening up on him all over again. He had to help them, had to protect them, and keep them safe! He needed to-
Draco's quiet voice shocked him enough to quiet the tempest of thoughts threatening to drown him. With only one shaky word, everything froze.
"Father?"
.
.
Draco had been sure of so much before... before the Dark Lord had returned, his father had told him that the world worked a certain way and he hadn't questioned anything beyond that. He'd enjoyed it, that sense of fulfillment; thinking that he was providing the world with a service by reminding those that didn't know the proper way of the world that he was better. Better for being more knowledgable, more powerful, more... pure... better than them...
And then... The Dark Lord returned. Was 'invited' to stay at their manor, to hide and conceal his presence so that it'd be easier to enact his plan to remake the world... into something better.
He'd watched as his proud father knelt and kissed the hem of the Dark Lords robes, prostrating himself in his own home to a man that had just come from failing to murder a fourteen year old. Draco and his mother had done the same, surrendering themselves to be at the Dark Lord's side, offering him any service. He'd never been more confused, and... he'd never been more afraid. He'd watched not just his father get tortured into unconsciousness that night, but several others who'd angered the Dark Lord in some way or another. And those were the one's who'd survived.
Later that night, Draco would wonder what exactly Potter had seen, what had he survived? He didn't dare ask, for he knew it would the last thing he did before his death at the Dark Lord's hands, no matter that he was a loyal follower's son.
It should have been the best thing to happen to their family, the best thing to happen to their world, according to his father... so, he'd had to hide his confusion at why he was so miserable, exhausted and utterly terrified to say or do the wrong thing.
When he'd boarded the train to return to Hogwarts, he'd felt a sense of relief at being able to return to something familiar. He'd seen Potter at the station, a giant black dog at his side that could only have been the now recognizable animagus form of Sirius Black. He'd seen others, more adults surrounding Potter and his friends. Guards. He was reminded of the fact that Potter was a high priority target for the very people now staying in his home.
He pushed that thought and everything else troubling him deep down and returned to his usual game of taunting and belittling those who deserved it, getting a rise out of Potter and friends on the train had been a nice return to normalcy. But... as the school year began he noticed that Crabbe and Goyle weren't just listening to him anymore, but watching him. Observing him and judging his every action, every word. Pansy, and Zabini Blaise, too. Other death eater children, indoctrinated into their cause.
And just like that he was afraid again; afraid of saying or doing something wrong and getting punished for something he thought he'd been doing right for all his life.
But then... the rumors started. Whispers of a successful summoning. An unknown on Hogwarts grounds, throwing everyone off balance.
He'd watched carefully as a boy his own age was surrounded by ghosts at dinner after the announcement of his arrival, listened as the boy, Daniel Fenton, shied away from being lauded as the 'savior of the Infinite Realms,' and had to stop himself from shuddering at the familiarity of someone not being called by their own name, but by a title- Phantom.
His father had been quick to inform him that he was to do something about this new entity; this impossible muggle hybrid that would be staying at Hogwarts for some reason or other. He'd been quick to comply, he would show this freak that he was lower than the mud that resided on the bottom of the Black Lake. He'd planned on handling the interaction like always; insult those lower than him, and if they retaliated they were just living up to their savage and inhuman ways, and if they didn't they were cowards, running away from anything that could squash them down further.
That is not what happened... and Draco hadn't been able to get the interaction out of his head ever since.
Fenton took the school by storm and befriended students from all houses, just by answering questions and refusing to rise up to any charged questions about his status as a muggle or a hybrid and letting insults, subtle or not, slide easily off his back without batting an eye.
Before Draco knew it, he'd come to the conclusion that he... didn't hate Danny. It was preposterous, Danny was everything that he was taught to despise and more, but... Draco was there during the Quidditch game where Potter got hurt, had seen the faces of upper and lower years from all houses as they used muggle toys as projectiles in a fight that wasn't serious for once, had witnessed and been astonished as thestrals became visible to everyone and had discovered how gentle and kind they were.
He'd seen Daphne Greengrass, Tracy Davis, Miranda Sikes and Chloe Grey all convening and laughing and talking to Danny easily, and had made his decision.
It was difficult... the moment Potter, Weasley and Grnager stepped into the unused classroom late that night, he was reminded of everything he'd done to make their lives as difficult and miserable as possible, all in the name of his supposed superiority.
He hadn't expected them to all just... accept him so easily. It really was the last Knut needed to make a Galleon in his head. Harry and Ron and surprisingly, even Hermione had forgiven him and worked with him and became... his friends.
And for the first time in a while, he hadn't been afraid.
But, despite everything he'd done; going against his father's wishes, joining forces with Harry and defying the Dark Lord's wishes, learning from and interacting with those that had always been deemed below him; that all paled in comparison to this particular act of defiance.
"Father?"
He should have known, he should have realized. When Harry had said that the Dark Lord had gotten to Danny, he should have realized that that'd mean his father would be directly involved in whatever they were getting themselves into.
"Draco?"
He'd known that his acts of defiance against his father and the Dark Lord had reached his father's ears. He'd known that he would never be able to return home now that he had joined the side of the Light. He'd hoped against hope that one day he'd be able to face his parents and explain to them why he'd made this choice, why he'd gone against them and everything they'd ever taught him.
But as he looked into his stunned father's eyes, he watched and saw the very moment that it became impossible to reclaim any sense of familial bond with his father. He could tell right then and there, that no amount of explanations or pleas would help his father understand his choice. His eyes stung, but his resolve held firm.
He swallowed and then took a shaky breath, clutching his wand tighter. He felt the uneasy shifting of his new friends as his father's old ones surrounded them on all sides. When Harry sent him a worried glance as the silence stretched, he straightened his back and shifted closer to them, closing ranks.
He never wanted to go back, never wanted to return to what was once his normal. His new friends may be loud, and idiotic and brash (Gryffindors) but they were his. He refused to return to a life where he was too afraid to live.
"Where's Danny?" Harry spat beside him, wand held aloft and small glass sphere held tightly in his other hand. Draco looked anywhere but his father's exposed face and cold eyes, and watched the subtle shifts and tense shoulders of the masked death eaters surrounding them.
Ignoring Harry's question, his father stepped forward imperiously, hand outstretched with palm held upwards.
"Hand that over to me Potter, and we shall see about letting you see your... friend." Harry gripped the little sphere tightly and raised it to his chest, wand raised defensively and teeth bared in a snarl.
His father stopped his advance, and then asked, "Do you know what that is, Potter?" He nodded towards the glass orb in Harry's hand. "Obviously not, since you never came to retrieve it yourself. It's a prophesy... about the Dark Lord, and about you."
"About me?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Yes, Potter. Your destiny, the key to what your future holds lies in the palm of your hand."
"Wha-"
"Have you never asked yourself why you and your parents were attacked all those years ago? Why the Dark Lord set out to try and kill you in the first place?" Draco's heart fluttered wildly as he felt Harry stiffen in surprise. "The answers to those questions is there, Potter. You just need to give it to m-"
"Yeah? And you'll just give the answers after I hand this over to you?" Harry cut his father off abruptly, anger vibrating in every word. "If this prophesy is so important to my future, it's no wonder why Voldy wants it so badly."
Draco's heart nearly stopped as there were hisses and growls at the blatantly mocking nickname for the most feared wizard of the age. He knew Danny must have been behind it, and that thought almost made him laugh outright.
"You would dare to-"
"Why is everyone so surprised that I dare to do things they don't want me to? We're here for one thing, and one thing only; to rescue Danny. I couldn't care less about a prophesy that you or your Dark Lord wants. He deliberately showed me that you have Danny here, and we aren't leaving without him. So, Mr. Malfoy," Harry raised his wand to point at his fathers chest, and Draco raised his as well, aiming at the masked man in front of him. Longbottom beside him, did the same and he knew that both Weasleys, Lovegood and Granger were in sync with them. Their hands were steady and their expressions fierce as Harry growled, "Where is our friend?"
There was a moment of frigid silence before his stomach dropped at the sound of his Aunt's insane laughter. Longbottom jerked uneasily on his other side, but his wand held steady as it was redirected towards the dark shadows where the laughter was originating.
As if that were a signal, they were suddenly surrounded by all of the death eaters' laughter. Taunting and cruel, it echoed through the tall shelves of glass orbs and sent a shiver down his spine.
"Look at the ickle kiddies, throwing their lives away for a creature not fit to exist in this world." Aunt Bellatrix's scathing voice drifted from the shadows. "And even little Draco's come to say hello?"
She laughed again, and he tensed further, knuckles white from the death grip he now had on his wand.
"He's the one who must have shown you our little secret pathway through the Ministry, isn't he? Stayed out of sight and crept here like little mice?" Aunt Bellatrix crooned as they heard her moving through the darkness, an odd sound of metal clinking following her movement. "Naughty, naughty, nephew... The Dark Lord wanted bitty-baby Potter to come through the front door, you see. He's been waiting, ever so patiently..."
He heard Harry's breath hitch, and knew that they were all remembering the bodies littering the ground as they raced towards the Department of Mysteries, too worried about Danny to recognize how low their chances of survival had dwindled.
"He was going to kill your friends in front of you, Potter." Bellatrix continued softly, "The Dark Lord was going to destroy you, reveal himself to the stupid sheep running this world, and then come here to claim his true fate and the hybrid ghost as his very own weapon. A fate that is far beyond this filth's worth, I assure you."
There was a hiss of pain within the dark, and Draco could do nothing but gape in shock as his Aunt finally stepped into their line of sight, dragging Danny along beside her.
Danny was on his knees, his hands held behind his back. There was a dark metal collar around his neck, a muzzle clamping his mouth shut, and a blindfold hiding his eyes. Draco couldn't make out much else in the low light of their wands and the soft glow of the prophecies surrounding them, but his eyes trained onto the painful grip Aunt Bellatrix had on Danny's neck, thin lines of dark blood dripping down just below the collar where her fingernails dug into his skin, her other hand holding her wand tip to his temple.
Hermione gasped in horror, and the rest of them froze in shock.
Near fatal mistakes.
Curses flew at them en mass, and he was just barely able to throw up a shield charm with Harry's help, to deflect them. They moved as one as the mid-level curses rebounded and began shattering the glass prophesies around them, enveloping them all in the shimmering echoes of past prophets and their predictions. Curses and kicks both flew as they quickly ran towards where they'd last seen Danny. Ginny and Luna leading them forward as Neville and Ron brought up the rear, protecting them as they ran.
They pelted towards where they could hear Bellatrix's insane laughter, and the faint rattle of chains. Dodging the toppling shelves and slivers of glass that flew like shrapnel as prophesies where destroyed, he kept his eyes open, his heart hammered in his chest, splintering glass and shouting in his ears.
He spotted them to their immediate left... His aunt and his father dragging a struggling Danny towards a dark paneled door. His wand was raised and his spell cast before he'd even registered the sight before him.
His father toppled with a shout, and Neville Longbottom charged forward with a raging bellow and full-on tackled Bellatrix to the ground, her shrieks setting his ears ringing. Harry and Ron were quick to grab hold of Danny, and the girls covered their backs from the spells of the death eaters chasing them as he stormed forward to open the nearest door.
Harry and Ron jumped through disappearing into shrouded darkness, followed quickly by Hermione and Ginny. Luna leveled another shelf of prophecies with a well aimed Reducto before hopping across the threshold. He frantically looked towards Neville, who was pinning a snarling Bellatrix to the ground with his teeth bared and her wand held in his fist. In one swift motion, there was a snap of wood, a shriek of horror and a quick thud of a skull impacting the stone ground.
Neville jumped up off of his unconscious Aunt, and then rushed to his side. Without a second glance to those he once called family, Draco pulled Neville through the doorway, slamming the door shut behind them.