Harry rolled to his right, spinning and drawing his wand as he did so, intent on engaging the threat that had cast the Unforgiveable. His mind caught up with his reflexes an instant later, the pained screams of his captive indicating that Harry had not been the target. His eyes swept the part of the room that he could see and he immediately focused on her. Tears were streaming from the brown eyes that he had known for years but her wand held steady in her hand as she continued to hold Draco under the curse. As he stood and started walking toward her he noticed two concerned-looking blonds come from around one of the nearby junk piles, wands in hand ready to meet an opponent. Seeing what was taking place caused their stances to ease, and they reached her just as Harry did. His hand come up and gently wrapped around hers that was holding her wand, slowly pressing it down to her side. His actions snapped her focus and it seemed as if she did not quite recognize him for a second.

Harry knew the instant she'd realized what she'd done, as her wand dropped from unfeeling fingers as she began to shake. Harry just moved closer, wrapping her tightly in his arms as she began to scream out her pain, anguish, and frustration into his shoulder. Neville and Luna, wands now away, quickly moved over and enveloped the pair of them, lending their love and support to their obviously hurting friend. After a moment another set of arms came around the group, the head of bushy brown hair blocking the last of Harry's vision as Hermione tucked herself in close to the other four.

{-}

"Hey guys, have you seen Harry and Hermione?" Ginny asked as she walked up to Luna and Neville in the Library. "They disappeared right after dinner, and I know that you two have been spending a lot of time with them."

Neville looked up from his Transfiguration homework to take in his Yule Ball date from 2 years prior. Those intervening years had been kind to her, as evidenced by the interest in her amongst the males of Hogwarts. While still willowy and lithe she had developed in all the right places, and her fair complexion combined with her fiery red hair presented quite an appealing package. Neville still preferred Luna, of course, but he would be a fool not to admit that Ginny had grown even more attractive as the years passed. Ron's death, however, had left its mark on her; worry lines now almost constantly creased her brow and there was an expression somewhere between rage and resignation almost constantly on her face. Perhaps worst was that she had seemed to lose much of her spirit; where before Ginny could be counted on to liven up any room and be unafraid to speak her mind on any topic, since the first of March she'd been reserved, blending into the background so much that Neville didn't think he'd actually spoken more than 5 or 6 sentences to her since then. He mentally shook himself and responded to the question. "They didn't mention anything to me, but more than likely they're in the Room of Requirement. That's where we've been spending most of our time."

"Do you think we can go find them? Dad wanted me to check with Harry about something he'd written him, and Mum was wondering if Hermione was going to be spending any time at the Burrow over the break."

Neville looked over at his girlfriend, who nodded and began putting up her books and papers. "Sure, Ginny, just let us get our stuff together." A few minutes later the trio left the Library and made their way up to the tapestry opposite the entrance to the Room. Seeing a door already in place Ginny made her way to it, while both Neville and Luna took a moment to contemplate why it wasn't the door to the War Room like they were expecting.

Throwing open the door, all three were momentarily stunned by what the Room had created. It was literally a cathedral of rubbish, piled into huge stacks throughout the massive space with narrow pathways winding in between the mountains. Looking toward the other two, all Luna could do was shrug. "No idea, but they must have a good reason for being in here. Let's split up and see if we can find them. If you do, shoot up green sparks." Plan made, they each took a path into the unknown looking for their wayward friends, wands in hand since they had no idea what they might find in their journeys.

Ginny wasn't sure how long she had been looking, or how many twists and turns her route had taken, when she heard voices coming from not too far away. She tried to focus on them, hitting a couple of dead ends before coming part way around a corner to find Harry standing over a bound-to-a-chair Draco Malfoy. He crouched in front of the Slytherin and Ginny listened as Harry spoke.

"Tell me about the bottle of mead that killed Ron."

Ginny held her gasp at the question and felt her anger spike higher than it ever had before as Draco put on his most evil smile and answered Harry's query. As the blond kept talking her emotions grew more and more; Draco was bragging – BRAGGING! – about the fact that he'd had a hand in killing her brother, and was doing his best to provoke Harry with his comments, and her tears fell for the boy she loved, both as a brother and as more, as he was forced to listen to this vitriol. When Draco mentioned 'those red-headed peasants' she felt her grip on her wand tighten almost painfully. When Ginny heard the depraved and disgusting things that Draco wanted to do to Hermione that hand came up, the yew and dragon heartstring wand centering itself on the bound teen. Anger and hatred flowed through her like never before, and in that moment she had never wanted to cause a living thing pain more than she did Draco Malfoy. As the two boys stared at each other, the incantation flowed from her lips like an inevitable flood, every negative emotion she'd experienced in the last four weeks powering the spell that flew from her wand.

"Crucio."

Ginny watched in a sort of detached, horrified fascination as the haughty sneer instantly left Draco's visage, replaced by a look of shock and agony. She observed how the veins in his forehead and neck became distinct as the muscles underneath them tightened, how his entire body locked up before it began to shake as if movement would alleviate the sensations flowing through him from Ginny's curse. Tears fell from his eyes and snot from his nose, but it was his screams that caught her interest the most. Torture. Pain. Fear. Helplessness. All were encased in his cries.

All of the things that she'd been feeling since this fucker had killed Ron.

She had no idea how long she kept him under her wand before she felt a hand gently take hers. As both hands lowered, the volume in the room decreased, and in the absence of the subject of her focus she once again became aware of the world around her. She turned her head to the side and saw Harry standing there; when had he moved? She blinked a few times, trying to line up her recollections with the current state of things, and as the implications of what she'd done slammed into her she dropped her wand in horror. Shock began to settle in as another emotion began to override all of the other negativity that she'd been internalizing.

Shame. Bone-deep, unescapable shame at having cast an Unforgivable Curse on a helpless victim.

She began to shake, but just as she felt that her legs were about to give out she felt Harry pull her into him, one hand wrapping around her waist while the other took its place on the back of her neck. She tried to yell, to ask him how he could bear to touch her after what she'd just done, but all that came out were sobs. She offered no resistance as he gently guided her head to his shoulder, and like a ring buoy thrown to a drowning person she latched onto him like he was the only thing that would keep her alive through the storm she had just entered. After a few moments she felt two more bodies press close, long hair tickling the side of her face on one side as strong arms from a tall frame embraced her from the other. A short time later a last set of arms encased the group, and in that moment she knew that, somehow, she would be okay. Her friends still loved her and would not abandon her to her sadness, fear, and guilt. They would help her back out into the light of day, and she would be stronger for it.

If only everyone shared those same sentiments.

"You blood traitor whore," Draco wheezed out as he finally caught his breath. "I'll make sure they throw you in the deepest, darkest hole in Azkaban they can, at least until the Dark Lord rules over all. Then maybe we'll come get you and you can share Granger's fate. Not even your dear beloved Potter will be able to save you now."

Harry slowly released Ginny into the arms of the others before turning to Malfoy. "Are you sure about that, Draco?" he asked simply as his wand appeared in his hand. "Maybe we should test both your theory and your handiwork, hmm? Petrificus Totalus." As the Slytherin's body once again locked up, this time under the effect of the Body-Bind, Harry released the ropes and Levitated him out of the chair. The others watched, unsure of what the plan was, as Harry grabbed Draco by his hair and began pulling him down one of the paths. Looking at each other, all equally clueless, they had no choice but to follow if they wanted to know what was going on.

They trailed Harry and his human cargo for many minutes as he was obviously looking for something specific. Twisting and turning through the flotsam of centuries, the black-haired Gryffindor finally found what he was searching for. He'd seen this particular one once or twice over the years, and vaguely remembered its twin sitting in Borgin and Burkes when they'd followed Draco there at the end of Summer. Harry yanked hard on Draco's now disheveled hair, pulling a solid clump out entirely as he set the other teen twirling unceremoniously in place as the Levitation Charm remained active. While Draco was spinning like a top, which would probably have been nauseating with the speed Harry had spun him had he not been Petrified, Harry threw open the doors on the Vanishing Cabinet before turning back to Draco. He stopped the other boy's spinning before manipulating him until he was floating relatively upright. Harry brought him low enough so that he could once again stare at his hated rival as he began speaking. "Since you said 'I've been trying to repair it' instead of 'I have repaired it,' I'm guessing you're not quite done with your task just yet. Which works out for me, though not so much for you." Harry pushed Draco slightly, and he began drifting toward the entrance to the Cabinet. "I know what you're thinking. 'You stupid half-blood bastard,'" Harry began in the most mocking impression of Draco he could manage, "'I already told you that Montague figured out how to get out of this thing. All I have to do is wait for the Petrificus Totalus to wear off and I can Apparate out, and then I'll make sure you all die painful deaths.'" Harry then continued in his normal voice. "Good plan. Three problems with it, though. One," Harry's off hand came up to Malfoy's eye level, "I have your wand. I don't know if you remember this from lessons, but it's very hard to Apparate without a wand. Only a few people can manage it." Harry's own wand went into his pocket before both hands took hold of Draco's, and with a quick jerk hawthorn and unicorn hair alike were both snapped jaggedly in two. Harry tossed the two pieces in opposite directions among the rest of the rubbish and re-drew is own wand. "Oops. Second, even if you had a wand, I remember those Apparition lessons quite well. Specifically, I remember that you are utter shite at Apparating. Desperate situations can make people capable of amazing things, however; hell, I've lived a few of those instances myself. So even without a wand, and even sucking at Apparating, given the situation you may be able to pull it off.

"Therefore, we come to Problem Three. Something I learned from one of our many illustrious Defense professors and have recently had the chance to revisit. Something guaranteed to make sure that you stay trapped in Limbo in the object of your planned eventual triumph until . . . well, until whatever happens to you happens. Maybe you'll starve. Maybe there's a finite amount of oxygen and you'll suffocate. Or, if I'm very very lucky, maybe you'll just stay stuck forever and go slowly insane, wondering how you and your superior breeding were ever bested by a half-blood, a Mudblood, a blood traitor, a loony, and a Squib. But I'm digressing. Yes, Problem Three. Hermione is so much better than me at this – I suppose that's true for a great many things – but since I'm not going for precision here I think I'll manage." Harry maneuvered Draco until he was just about to enter the Vanishing Cabinet before taking a step back and bringing his wand up to aim between Draco's eyes. "Goodbye, Draco Malfoy. When you finally get to Hell say hi to Bellatrix for me - provided you remember your own name. Obliviate."

As Draco's eyes glossed over, Harry pushed him the rest of the way into the Cabinet and quickly shut the doors. "Accio rope" he called out, and a length of hemp arrived from somewhere amongst the rubble. Harry quickly wrapped it around the knobs of the Cabinet's doors, effectively locking them shut. Not yet content, he then stepped back and began forming a sarcophagus of heavy objects around the device. Once complete, he turned back to the other four people in the Room, all of whom were looking at him in befuddlement. "I have no idea how these things actually work. Sure, I probably blasted Draco's memories back to the mid-80s somewhere, but if one Cabinet is destroyed would he pop out of the other one? This one should be fairly safe here, so even if the other one is destroyed he won't be getting out of it." He stopped speaking as the others continued staring. "What?"

"That . . . that was . . ." Hermione began.

Harry looked a bit crestfallen. "Deranged? Evil? Excessive? Uncalled for?"

"Bloody brilliant," Neville commented.

"Very clever," Luna added.

"Better than he deserved," Ginny replied.

"Smart and decisive. And kinda sexy as hell," Hermione finished as she walked up to Harry and kissed him.

He wrapped his arm around her as he looked back at his friends. "You don't think I went too far?"

"Harry," Neville began. "I'm not exactly sure what took place before I got there, but if it was bad enough for Ginny to be able to cast an Unforgivable I'm going to guess it was pretty bad."

Ginny chimed in. "He admitted to having a hand in killing Ron, and how he was going to get off on watching the rest of us die. And then the stuff he said about Hermione . . ." The redhead cringed.

"Before that he'd admitted to repeatedly raping Madame Rosmerta while she was under the Imperius Curse, and having Rosmerta give Katie that necklace that put her in St. Mungo's," Hermione added.

"So yeah, you won't see me crying any tears over Draco Malfoy."

Harry smiled. "Thanks, Nev." He quickly glanced over the others. "Alright, one problem. I already said that I'd kill Malfoy if I found out he had anything to do with Ron, so when he turns up missing I'm going to be the prime suspect. The way I see it, we can handle this in two ways. One, we can take a series of Unbreakable Vows with each other not to reveal anything about this to anyone else. Alternatively, Hermione and I can take the Vow with each other before she Obliviates the rest of you."

The other three pondered a moment before Luna, the Ravenclaw, noticed a flaw in his plan. "Harry, we'll notice that we lost time, and we'll get suspicious. How do we avoid that?"

"Well . . ." Harry began nervously, starting to blush as his hand raked through his hair. "I was thinking that I could say I asked Hermione to Obliviate you after you guys came to the Room and . . . kinda . . . sorta . . . caught us having sex."

"What!?"

"Sorry, love, it's the best I could come up with on the fly."

"That's actually not bad," Neville said. "I can't see any of us disagreeing to be Obliviated in order to . . . uhhh, protect your guys' modesty. So it would seem plausible and reasonable. And even if we suspected the truth, we wouldn't be able to tell anyone."

Harry looked at the troubled expression on Ginny's face. "Gin?"

"I'll take the Vow," she answered quickly. "After the Diary, I really don't like the idea of anyone or anything messing with my head. Plus I want . . . I need, to remember what I did to Draco."

"Are you sure, Ginny?" Hermione asked.

The redhead nodded. "I think that should always be with me. That I'm . . . capable of that, so that I can make sure it never happens again. Plus, I'd be lying if there wasn't a small part of me that needs to know what happened to Ron, and that his death was avenged."

Harry nodded. "I've never told anyone this, but when I chased Bellatrix at the Ministry last year I cast it on her briefly. So I know what you mean, Gin." If he was expecting accusatory expressions from his friends for his revelation he was incorrect; no negativity was being laid at either his or Ginny's feet for what they had been capable of under such duress.

Hermione's eyes were shooting left and right quickly, a surefire sign to Harry that she was formulating and tweaking a plan. She looked down at the floor and found what she was looking for, right where Harry had nonchalantly discarded it. "Actually, I think we should all take the Vow. I have an idea, but I'm going to need some help with it."

{-}

"Draco, where have you been?" Pansy Parkinson asked as she saw the blond step into the compartment. "Aside from a few random sightings, no one has seen you for days."

"And I thought you weren't going home for Easter," Crabbe added.

Draco brushed Pansy off when she tried to take his arm as he sat down. "I've been working on something. And I need to head home to grab a few things to help me finish it."

"Why not just have them owled to you?" Pansy asked.

The Slytherin looked around before answering quietly. "They aren't things you want to put through owl post. It'll be hard enough sneaking them past that useless Squib Filch on the way back into the castle."

"Is this for the Dark Lord?" she whispered.

His sneer was as strong as she'd ever seen it as he leaned back. "Do you really expect me to answer that. I've been busy, and I have business to attend to. Let it go."

"But Draco –"

"For Merlin's sake," he cried, grabbing his pack and heading for the door. "I'm going to go find someplace to make this trip in peace." The door slammed shut loudly behind him as he departed.

"Nice going, Parkinson," Goyle jibed.

"Well, excuse me for being concerned about him," she retorted hotly. "He's been acting strangely all year, and then he just up and disappears for 3 days. And did you see how his robes were just hanging off him? He's must have lost at least a stone since term started."

"Those Second Years said they saw him Saturday morning," Crabbe responded.

"Yes, hurrying toward a seemingly abandoned hallway," Pansy answered. "And Greengrass said she saw him come back into the dorm late that night while she was up studying. What has he been up to?" she wondered to the room. She hoped she'd be able to catch him before he got off the train in London, if only to apologize for riling him. Even if he wouldn't tell them what was going on she knew he had a lot on his mind, and that the weight of whatever he was working on was slowly but surely taking its toll.

{-}

About 20 minutes after Draco's unceremonious exit from the compartment with Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle, Neville Longbottom entered the compartment being shared by the other surviving members of the team that had gone to the Ministry the previous June. His robes once again fit the way they were supposed to, his restored frame larger than the one he had temporarily adopted. He settled down on the bench next to Luna, who wrapped her arms around him as Hermione shot a Muffliato at the door. "Any trouble?" she asked quietly once the charm was in place.

"I don't think so," he replied. "It seemed like they bought it."

"Good," she said back. "That wasn't what I had originally intended that Polyjuice for, but it should throw people off the scent when 'Draco' doesn't come back from the hols."

Harry nodded. Hermione's plan to have it appear as if Draco ran off during the break, seemingly to avoid Voldemort's wrath for his failure to deliver the Cabinet – or even better, that Voldemort had done something to him for his failure to kill Dumbledore - should divert attention away from any of them having a hand in the boy's disappearance. They hoped.

Harry himself was . . . amused wasn't the right word . . . perhaps intrigued . . . by how none of them were experiencing any particular remorse for what had been done to Draco. For Harry himself it was a major step toward fulfilling his promises, and he wasn't about to apologize for what he'd done any more than he was for killing Bellatrix. He'd vowed he would figure out who sent the bottle, he'd get a confession out of them, and then he'd make them pay; promise fulfilled. And even if that weren't the case Draco had already been well on his way to following in his father's demented footsteps; he'd freely said those disgusting things about Hermione, and he'd admitted to already taking the Dark Mark at sixteen. That wasn't really a road someone came back from. Dumbledore might like to use Snape as an example that it was possible, but Harry wasn't convinced Snape was moving toward the light as much as getting revenge on the man who killed Lily Potter. For as much as Harry hated the man he could at least understand and respect that.

It just further reinforced what a bastard the fledgling Death Eater had been that the others shook the incident off almost as easily; Ginny's comment of his fate being better than he deserved reinforced that belief, and they all didn't need to think too much deeper into it than that. Regardless, Harry couldn't afford to expend any more focus on Draco, as there was a lot to pack into the two weeks away from Hogwarts. He had a 'consulting meeting' (read 'photo op') with the Minister of Magic on Thursday, and that was also when Hermione and Tonks were going to implement their plan to get the locket back from Umbridge. Harry smiled at being reminded of Tonks's comments to him when they'd seen her in Hogsmeade on the way to the train. Apparently she was looking forward to crossing wands with the two teens, but that almost paled in comparison to how especially enthusiastic Tonks was to stick it to Delores; he wasn't sure what history the two women had but knowing them both it wasn't hard to imagine there being bad blood between them.

They'd destroy the Horcrux over the weekend using the Sword of Gryffindor, which Harry had (with difficulty) gotten from Dumbledore before having Kreacher take it to Grimmauld Place for safe keeping. The following Monday Harry would again pull double duty, with the Weasleys claim over half of the Lestrange vault preceding his meeting with Manager Krek regarding the return of the Sword and the possibility of the goblins' entry into the war with the services of the Kaluresh. Caleb's lessons were a bit vague on what exactly that order did, but there was no doubt from the war mage's memories that they were an effective ally to have in situations such as this. Harry figured he'd learn more when . . . well, if, since it wasn't by any means a sure thing that the goblins would help . . . he met the mysterious group.

And in between all of that Harry hoped to decompress a bit. While he would be staying mostly at Grimmauld he was looking forward to spending some time at the Burrow. He'd still been on edge when they'd spent the afternoon after the events of Ron's funeral there and so was looking forward to seeing everyone without that hanging over their heads. He would also be putting in some face time at Hermione's house, working toward reinforcing his relationship with her parents. They'd had an enjoyable few days together after the initial . . . disagreement . . . between Harry and Henry, and he wanted to continue building on that. He'd also see Remus and Tonks, and Neville and Luna were going to be 'evaluated' by the older couple as well, so he'd get to spend time with pretty much everyone in the world he cared about over the next two weeks. That, more than any progress toward defeating Voldemort they may have made or would make in the near future, helped to settle Harry's mind while the Hogwarts Express steamed South, the Scottish countryside giving way to the English countryside as Harry relished the time with Hermione and his other friends.

A/N: This is one of the shortest chapters I've ever published, but it didn't seem right to progress through into the break when what happened here happened here; I felt the events needed to stand on their own.

In the original plans for this story it was Hermione who cast the Unforgivable at Draco, as some of you guessed in your reviews. The above scenario popped into my head while I was driving to the store one day and I thought it worked out better than what I had already written; it gave Ginny some closure and re-introduced her into the rest of the OOTP Ministry gang, while giving Harry what I think is a better excuse for what he did to Draco than had been in the original draft. And so Hermione's foray into the Dark Side was sacrificed upon the Altar of Rewrites. Perhaps we will re-examine her Dark Lady status at a later date.

As always, thanks for your favorites, follows, views, and reviews. ZS 2/1/20