Chapter 83
Daphne.
Draco's heart lurched in terror.
He knew that whatever was coming would be directed at him. Just as he turned around to shield himself, Hermione barreled into him, slamming his back against the wall as a yellow streak of light shot by. Her hazel eyes gazed up at him in horror as the curse zoomed past them and towards Tonks' exposed back. Before either of them could shout a warning, his cousin turned around and swatted the hex right back at Daphne. The blast of light careened through the air, smacking her in the mask. Daphne clutched her throat, made some gurgling sounds, and staggered around before dropping to her knees and falling over.
Tonks sneered and disappeared around the corner.
"Daphne!" Blaise cried and raced down the hallway after her.
"What did she do!" Pansy covered her mouth and ran after him with Millie and Theo.
Draco blinked down at Hermione and swallowed, knowing he had narrowly missed death and that Daphne's hex was meant for him.
"That could have been you," Hermione whispered in a trembling voice, and leaned her head on his chest. His heart thundered against his ribcage, as did hers, and she fisted his jumper with a shaky exhale.
"She's dead!" Pansy bent over Daphne's body, pressing her forehead into her stomach and starting to sob. "She fucking killed her!"
Confused, Hermione creased her brow as she watched his friends kneel down and remove Daphne's mask. She turned up to him, eyes glassy with unshed tears. "But she tried to kill you."
Hermione didn't understand.
Draco sighed and closed his eyes as he thought of the friendships crumbling around him. He had killed Vince, he had turned on Greg, and he may as well have killed Daphne. Thinking back on happier times, he remembered her devious smile after successfully guilting his mum into serving them ice cream after locking themselves in the Manor dungeons.
He released a wry laugh at the memory. "She's still our friend."
They turned to watch as Blaise took her limp hand and raised it to his lips. Draco was reminded of Yasmine's warning that Daphne would betray them, and wondered where she was.
Heart still pounding in his chest, Draco stared at the petite brunette who had just saved his life for the third time that day and tightened his arms around her. The protective fire in Hermione's eyes warmed his heart and spread throughout his limbs. He would keep that memory of her with him.
"Are you two coming?" the Weasel called, ready to jog off with the other Order members. Draco warred with himself, wanting Hermione to stay with him here for a few more moments, but knowing he should let her go off with Weaselbee. If Voldemort's Army was surrendering in the courtyard, she wouldn't want to miss it.
After wiping away some blood and grime streaked across her face, he leaned down to press a light kiss on her forehead, letting his lips linger. "Go on," he whispered against her skin. "I need to be here."
They would have to part paths soon enough. There wasn't a future for them together, and it was best she head off with the Order. Hermione glanced forlornly after her friends running after Tonks, and creased her forehead in concern when she turned back to him.
"We should stay together," she insisted. "We don't know for sure if they're surrendering, and look what just happened."
"I'm going with Tonks, Hermione," the Weasel said, warily backing up a few steps.
Panic contorted her face as she realized she'd have to choose which of them to follow. He didn't want to put her in that situation, and chose for her. Swallowing the tears on the verge of falling as he listened to his friends' anguished cries, he forced out the words, "You'll be safe with them, and I'm not by myself."
Draco released her, and smacked her arse lightly to liven the mood so she wouldn't feel compelled to stay. Knowing he did the right thing, Draco climbed across the rubble over to Daphne's body before crouching down beside Pansy and Millie. Theo and Blaise knelt on the other side of her.
Not wanting to see Hermione leave, he didn't look back, and focused on his broken friends. The death was gruesome. Blood was still leaking out of Daphne's eyes, nose, mouth and ears. She would have cursed him with a painful death. Vince had tried to kill him too. So had his aunt. And yet, guilt gnawed at his gut. He missed them and their childhood antics. Daphne had been so happy when he helped her to finally get her broom in the air. Tears started to burn his eyes.
Why couldn't they grow up and grow old together too? Why couldn't their friendships survive? What was so compelling about the Dark Lord that Daphne and Vince would try to kill him? Shouldn't their friendships matter more?
He pressed his forehead into his palms, fisted his hair, and heaved a broken sob. Tracey. Vince. Daphne. They were all gone. He rubbed his face and a small, warm hand rested on the nape of his neck. He turned around to see Hermione standing behind him and his heart swelled with warmth.
She stayed.
She stayed just for him, and her eyes brimmed with tears as well. His friends glanced up at the intruder on their grief and she bit her lip, not knowing what to say in the awkward situation.
But she didn't have to say anything. She came to mourn with him, and that was enough. He pulled Hermione down to kneel beside him while they cried.
"Why?" Millie wailed. "Why did she do that?"
Hermione silently surveyed the anguished Slytherins before her. He pulled Pansy into his chest and she sobbed, wetting the fabric of his shirt. Millie put her arm around the both of them.
Blaise pressed Daphne's hand against his cheek again. Her nails were perfectly manicured and painted pink. Well-groomed and delicate, like any pure-blood debutante should be. He drew his gaze to her bloodied face and grimaced at what must have been an agonizing death.
"You should–"
Everyone looked at Hermione. Not unaffected by their sorrow, she had tears falling from her eyes too. She also lost her best friend today.
"I'm sorry," she amended gently, struggling to speak. "We've all lost people we care about, but you have to grieve later." She wiped her cheeks and cleared her throat nervously. "It may be almost over, but we don't know for sure; you don't want to lose anyone else. Please come."
Draco searched the faces of his grief-stricken friends for hints of protest. But it didn't look like they would argue.
Theo released an exhausted sigh. "Let's cover her face first."
"Not with the mask," Blaise added, wiping his eyes with the back of his wrist.
Draco surveyed the corpses strewn about the corridor. "Let's move her to the side."
Millie Scourgified the blood from Daphne's face, although small rivulets continued to flow out her ears. Silently dragging each other to their feet, Draco gently lifted Daphne's body and carried her to the side of the corridor. It was the best they could do. Daphne's body was tall and lithe, but he didn't have any difficulty moving her aside, and laid her down in a relative clean, out of the way area.
He wondered if Astoria knew how far gone her sister was.
After Pansy extended the fabric of Daphne's robe, she pulled it up over her face and turned to face Theo. He wiped the tears from Pansy's eyes with his thumb and Pansy leaned into his touch, squeezing her eyes shut to stem more tears.
"Did…" Millie sniffed, and her voice lilted upwards. "Did anyone see Greg?"
They looked around at each other in question and Draco spoke to the ground, ashamed. "I did." Everyone turned to him. He felt guilty, even though he knew he didn't do anything wrong. "He's safe near Binns' old classroom."
"What about Vince?" Pansy asked with a pleading expression.
Hermione laced her fingers in his and rubbed his knuckles with her thumb. His throat constricted, and his lungs burned with sorrow and shame. He couldn't speak.
"He was killed in the courtyard," Hermione replied for him. Draco squeezed her hand back in gratitude while his friends wiped their faces with their sleeves. "Let's go," she prodded them gently. "It might not be safe here."
Allowing her to pull him along, the group of Slytherins, and one Gryffindor, shuffled down the corridor towards the second floor balcony overlooking the courtyard.
"Draco!"
He turned around to see his mother running towards him, white-blond hair streaming behind her and his father at her heels. He drew her into a one-armed hug.
"I was so worried!" she cried, kissing him on his cheek. "We couldn't find you after you ran off!"
She pushed herself away, holding onto his shoulders and surveyed the somber expressions of his friends. Her eyes landed on Hermione and then down to where she held his hand, but said nothing. His father noticed as well, and sneered.
"Daphne died," he explained.
"Not Daphne! She was such a sweet little girl!" her face crumpled. "Her and her sister!"
Draco didn't have the heart to correct his mother's assumption, and no one else did either.
They approached the large opening of he balcony and he held his hand to block the sun from his eyes. Hermione perked up, visibly heartened to see so many of the Order, those that defected and her former professors from Hogwarts left standing. If she lost anyone else she was close to, he couldn't tell.
Once again, he had to appreciate his cousin's strategy.
As they joined the crowd, Draco stood on his tiptoes to try and see what was going on below, but too many people were blocking his view.
"Can you see?" Hermione glanced up nervously and he shook his head. All of a sudden, the Dark Lord's voice projected throughout the castle.
"I'VE DEFEATED HARRY POTTER! AND I CAN NOT BE KILLED!"
Draco's blood ran cold.
It wasn't possible! They destroyed all the Horcruxes! This was supposed to work!
Nervous rumblings amongst the Order slowly grew in volume but Tonks spoke out, "It doesn't matter. They're finished." The chatter quieted somewhat but everyone was still anxious.
Hermione looked perturbed, but not scared, and pushed through the crowd so she could see what was going on and he followed behind. The Dark Lord stood below among the ruins of the courtyard, a shell of his former, terrifying self. He was bent over and even from up above Draco could see his pallor was no longer pearly white, but a sickening grey. There were only two dozen Death Eaters left standing. All of them looked bloodied, beaten and demoralized. Some didn't even have wands thanks to the Order's wand-breaking guidance.
Draco exhaled. The Dark Lord was finished. Even if he was still alive, his army had gotten trounced. But he had already been beaten once and he came back and raised an army. He always comes back. Draco's heart jumped into his throat and he looked down at Hermione, unable to keep the panic out of his voice. "I thought you said he could die now!"
"He can!" Hermione insisted, and several members of the Order turned to listen. "No one attacked him! He just collapsed! Remember? He can die now; someone just has to do it. It doesn't even have to be the Killing Curse. Slice his sodding throat!"
She turned and pushed past him to descend the stairs, but Draco launched after her with surge of adrenaline that made his entire body tingle. He grabbed her upper arm and pulled her back.
"Not. You," he glowered down at her. "There's at least twenty of them down there and the Dark Lord, despite being weakened, is still a powerful wizard."
She glared back up at him and tried ineffectually to wriggle out of his iron grip. "It doesn't matter who it is, Draco. But someone has to."
"I'll do it."
Draco swiveled around to meet his father's icy stare and Hermione looked up in surprise. After a few tense moments, his father turned and walked swiftly down the steps towards the courtyard with his mother right behind him.
"Lucius, don't!" she pleaded.
"Wait!" Draco called out, "Father!" But Lucius ignored his cry and kept going.
Draco released Hermione's arm to follow his parents, and he heard her running after him.
"There's no reason to do it by yourself!" He reached out to take his father's elbow, but he pulled it away and proceeded towards the castle entrance.
Lucius stepped forward towards the edge of the chasm and abruptly stopped when he saw the Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, staring in horror at Potter's corpse and conversing amongst themselves. Potter's body was lying amidst the rubble in the middle of the courtyard where he was killed. Draco couldn't understand what they were so afraid of.
He and his mother joined his father to see what the remainder of the Dark Lord's army were so bothered by and Hermione slowly approached, taking Draco's hand.
Potter moved.
No, he was moving. His mother gasped when she saw.
"Oh my god," Hermione whispered, and she squeezed his hand, straining to get a better look. "Harry!" she cried out.
Suddenly Potter rolled over, grabbed his wand and pushed himself up to a standing position.
The Weasel give a whoop from somewhere up above and the entire Order released a deafening cry, screaming out Potter's name, clapping and stomping their feet, producing a thunder that shook the entire balcony above the entrance. Potter stood with a triumphant smile on his face, as if he knew something the rest of them didn't.
As if he already won.
Visibly weakened, the Dark Lord's mouth was agape as he stared back at Potter. He gazed up at the Order, taking in their superior numbers and the fact that they were still armed and capable of fighting. He surveyed the destroyed Courtyard in front of him, strewn with disembodied limbs and mangled corpses, crushed and torn apart from Brown's bombs.
"You're finished, Tom!" Potter called out, brandishing his wand. The Dark Lord looked back at him in a stupor. "Your Horcruxes are destroyed, that's why your magic is weak! Give up! Your army is defeated!"
Pushing Avery, who had helped him stand, to the side, the Dark Lord turned back to the remaining Death Eaters standing idly around him, unsure of what do. Draco had never seen the Dark Lord appear confused before. Or dare he say, helpless. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end and he felt nearly weightless at the thrill of the unknown.
The Dark Lord lost. He was defeated. But would he surrender?
Against all reason, the Dark Lord reared on Potter and raised his wand. "You can't defeat me!"
"No!" Hermione gasped and squeezed his hand. "We have to–"
"Leave it," Draco whispered back. "He's done."
The two wizards prepared to cry out their spells of choice, and he knew the Dark Lord was going to lose. Right here, right now. He could feel it in the air.
"Avada Kedavra!"
Hermione lurched forward and pulled her back.
"Expelliarmus!"
Everyone gasped as the green of Dark Lord's Killing Curse collided with the bright yellow of Potter's disarming spell in an explosion of energy. With a flash of light, the green curse backfired and pummeled the older wizard's chest. Instead of falling over lifeless, everyone watched in fascinated silence as his broken body froze while dried parchment-like pieces of his skin rippled in the breeze, slowly flaking off as his remains disintegrated into the wind.
The sun shone down on the mess of bodies in the destroyed courtyard. It was over. It was finally over.
Draco barely heard the triumphant screams of the Order because some curly haired Gryffindor pulled his face down, snogging him as if her life depended on it.
oooooooooooooooo
Draco and Hermione wandered towards the direction of the Great Hall, hanging back from the crowd with their fingers loosely intertwined. He was nervous, wondering which of his friends were injured. Or worse, like Vince and Daphne. He had been able to account for most of them though, and his parents came out unscathed as well. Thanks to Severus and McGonagall, all the Slytherin defectors had made it to safety and joined the Order sweeping the castle.
Just then, Draco saw Severus's figure receding quickly down the hallway and turn a corner. He knew it was unreasonable, but he couldn't help but feel betrayed by his godfather. He had so many questions, and as they bubbled to the surface one by one, he clenched his teeth and flexed his muscles until the pressure in his head made his skull ready to burst.
He paused and turned to Hermione. Her face was radiant despite the tears and exhausted slouch of her body. Potter was alive, Bellatrix and the Dark Lord were dead, and like Draco, she had been critical to ensuring the Order won right from the beginning. The victory was hers as much as Potter's or any of the other Order leaders, and she knew it.
Hermione hadn't really gotten a chance to speak with the savior-of-the-hour yet, he took a piece of fabric from her and ran off. She was also nervously searching for the Weasleys.
"I'll meet you in the Great Hall, I have to do something."
Her hand jerked reflexively, tightening around his, and he smiled from the knowledge that she didn't want to let him go.
"Just a few minutes, I'll come back."
Her brows furrowed in question. "Where are you going?"
He leaned down and brushed his lips against her forehead, inhaling the scent of her skin. Warm and feminine like herself, but also of smoke, blood and the war they won. "I'll tell you later," he said, twirling his fingers in the tendrils coming out of her braid.
"But–"
"I promise. Just a few minutes. I'll come right back. Go find Potter and your friends."
He strode off after Severus and glanced behind to see her gazing after him in puzzlement. Ignoring the happy cries and anguished moans as family and friends were reunited – or not – he quickly followed his godfather at a distance after silencing his footsteps. With a few turns, Draco realized that Severus was walking in the direction of the Headmaster's office. When they arrived in the hallway, Severus stopped.
Potter suddenly appeared after removing the shimmering blanket he took from Hermione, standing defiantly in front of the gargoyle staircase. He shifted his gaze over Severus' shoulder to Draco, and his ex-Potions professor turned around to meet his eyes. The two had unwittingly trapped him.
The sodding hero of the hour lifted his lips in a smirk.
Severus exhaled a long-suffering sigh as if the mere thought of being in their presence exhausted him.
"Very well," he drawled. "Come along."
He muttered the password and the two followed him up the staircase in silence. Draco met Potter's eyes and he lifted his eyebrows playfully as the sound of cement sliding along cement reverberated around them. Draco supposed coming back from the dead – again – would make anyone insufferable.
He was starting to empathize with Severus.
But even so, Potter was too happy. He must not have known that McGonagall died. Draco wondered who else the Order lost. He had been separated from everyone for most of the battle, and his stomach twisted in grief as he recalled slicing Vince's torso.
Tonks had killed Daphne, but Vince had died by his hand. How could he face his friends? Would they understand?
The three men reached the top of the staircase and he and Potter watched the Headmaster walk around his desk to sit. He waved a wand and two chairs skidded to a halt behind them, knocking their legs out and forcing them to sit.
After a few moments where no one said anything, Severus leaned back and clasped his hands on his chest. "Well?" he lifted an eyebrow. "What is it?"
Potter shrugged at Draco in question, and Draco turned back to Severus, unable to keep the irritation out of his voice, but they both started talking at once.
"Why did you kill Dumble–"
"–knew about the Horcruxes–"
"–used me to warn the Order–"
"–Patronus is a doe–"
"–sat by while Burbage–"
"–don't understand–"
"–torturing children at Hogwarts–"
"–killed Dumbledore and abandoned the Order–"
"–could've stopped the Carr–"
"–why didn't you–"
"–while I murdered them."
Severus lazily pointed his wand at the two of them and cast a Silencing Charm. Having heard Draco's last sentence, Potter turned to his green eyes to him in shock and Draco sneered back. It's easier to openly defy the Dark Lord. Potter would have statues erected in his honor while Draco and Severus sat in Azkaban.
Severus massaged his temples in annoyance.
"Now I remember why using the Killing Curse on myself was infinitely preferable than teaching one more Potions class with your two houses." He sighed and glanced above them in irritation. They turned around to see Dumbledore raise an eyebrow in his portrait.
Snape stared at the two of them, narrowing his eyes while he considered his next words. "I've always been a spy for the Order, even back during the First Wizarding War. If I wasn't, you wouldn't have been able to use Hogwarts from which to attack, had the Sword of Gryffindor at your disposal, or been warned of each impending raid. I should think that would have been obvious," he drawled at Potter.
At Severus' explanation, Potter started waving his hands, yelling a rebuttal but unable to make a sound thanks to the Silencing Charm. Draco smirked at the ineffectual outburst. His godfather rolled his eyes and Potter finally stopped.
"As you well know," his gaze shifted to Draco. "Surviving as a spy within the Dark Lord's army forces one to do terrible things." Draco felt Potter's stare on him and he dropped his eyes to the ground, recalling the tiny bodies of the children he murdered. "You must play along and even contaminate your own soul, waiting for the moment to strike."
Potter cracked his knuckles, impatient with this preamble, and Severus directed his next statement at him. "Few can appreciate the difficulties of that position, and the Order and all Muggle-borns would be dead if we hadn't."
Draco sneaked a side glance at Potter, and this time he cast his eyes to the ground.
"I killed Albus because he was already dying. Typical, idiotic Gryffindor," Snape glared up at the portrait. "He nearly killed himself destroying the Gaunt ring. I couldn't save him and only succeeded in delaying the inevitable. So he asked me to murder him so Draco wouldn't have to. By doing so, I solidified myself as the most trusted supporter of the Dark Lord, enabling me to aid the Order when it was critical."
Potter's shoulders sagged and he slouched in his chair.
Severus shifted his gaze back to Draco and he paused, almost looking nervous. "I'm sorry I couldn't save you from having to murder others, Draco. I know what it costs."
Draco appreciated the apology, but couldn't meet his eyes for fear he'd start crying again. He responded with a curt nod as the guilt from his sins closed around and made the air thick, choking him. He wished he didn't have to live with them.
"My Patronus," Severus extended his wand and Draco watched a graceful doe leap out and trot a circular path around them. After the three stared at the silvery display of magic until it dissolved, Severus glared back at Potter. "Was your mother's."
Potter sat up ramrod straight. Draco eyed him but didn't understand Severus' explanation. He thought a Patronus was singular and unique to the person who cast it.
The Headmaster shifted his black eyes back to Draco. "You're not the only Death Eater to fall in love with a Muggle-born witch."
Next chapter: Kingsley and Tonks.
Don't kill me, the final chapter count is 86. After I broke up a chapter into two parts a while back I wasn't sure if I would combine 83 and 84, and didn't want to make the chapter count change until I was certain.
