Harry was fuming as he sat shackled to a stone wall, not even sure where he was. Logic dictated he was at Malfoy Manor and the dark had him, but he had no idea how they'd gotten their hands on him. The last thing he remembered was reaching the cottage where they'd had Malfoy, and getting ready to enter the property. Next thing he knew he was waking up in a stone cell, shackled to a wall. Ron and Hermione were nowhere to be seen, and all he could assume was that they'd also been captured and were being held separately. He just didn't know how the dark had gotten hold of them, or how they'd even known where to find them. Unless of course Sirius had talked, and the information had come from him.
"No," Harry whispered, not wanting to believe the information had come from his godfather. He knew the only way Sirius would have said anything was if he was forced into it. Harry knew it would take a lot of forcing to get him to talk, and he hated to think about the state Sirius must be in if he had talked.
Harry was still contemplating what sort of state Sirius was in when the door to the room he was being held in started to open. Jumping to his feet, Harry stood with his back towards the wall. He knew he couldn't do anything with magic to hurt whoever was coming into the room as the shackles he was in seemed to sap his magic, but he wasn't opposed to physically hurting his captors. Harry held his breath as the door continued to open, and he snarled slightly when Draco entered the room, looking fresh and unbothered by his own kidnapping experience.
"You," Harry hissed, glaring at the blond. He was now thinking that Draco had gotten loose between their visits, and he was responsible for their capture.
"Is that any way to greet an old friend, Potter?" Draco chuckled as he entered the room.
Harry didn't answer as he watched with wide eyes as Lucius and Narcissa followed their son into the room. Behind him was a tall wizard with dark hair and glowing red eyes. Harry gaped at the wizard who was clearly Voldemort, amazed by how normal he looked. Upon his return, which Harry had witnessed, Voldemort had been pale, bald and slightly deformed, but now he looked like a normal wizard.
"I see you like the new me, Potter," Voldemort cackled. "The last time you saw me I was still recovering."
"And hiding," Harry spat, refusing to let Voldemort think he was scared of him. "Is that why your Death Eaters haven't seen you? You've been waiting until you looked more like a real human."
"What makes you think my Death Eaters haven't seen me?" Voldemort asked, cocking his head to one side. Slowly a smile crept over his face as he realised what Harry was talking about. "Ah Severus. You believed him when he said he hadn't seen me since the day of my return. I hate to break it to you, Harry, but it was all lies. Severus has seen me hundreds of times, as have my other followers."
"I knew he couldn't be trusted," Harry snarled.
"He's not the only one," a familiar voice called from the doorway.
Harry frowned in confusion as Hermione strolled into the room. She certainly didn't look like a prisoner, and she'd even been changed. Gone were her shapeless and boring clothes and in their place was a pair of tight black trousers and a clingy emerald green top. Her hair had been released from its ponytail and it fell over her shoulders in soft, slightly damp waves.
"Hermione?" He whispered, still confused as to what was happening.
"Haven't you gotten it yet, Harry?" Hermione asked with a cold laugh. "I'm the reason you're here. I caught you and sent you back for my father to deal with."
"Father?" Harry whispered, his eyes flicking towards Lucius.
"Not me," Lucius said with a laugh. "Although, I do expect to have the honour of being her father-in-law one day, and I do love her like a daughter."
"You and Malfoy," Harry spat, turning back to Hermione.
"Yes, Draco and I are together," Hermione confirmed with a grin. "And just in case you haven't yet worked it out, my father is The Dark Lord."
"No." Harry shook his head, not believing what he was hearing.
"Yes," Hermione replied. "If it's any consolation, things weren't supposed to end this way, Harry. None of this would be happening if you, Ron and Sirius hadn't taken Draco. You've really brought all of this on yourself."
"You won't break me," Harry said defiantly. "I will survive and the Order will save me."
"But the Order don't know where you are, Harry," Hermione pointed out. "And even if they did, they would be too late. There's going to be no mercy, Harry. You might not die today, but you will die very soon."
"You won't win," Harry said in a firm voice, even though he was terrified.
"We already have," Draco replied with a smirk. "With your death the Order will crumble and the dark will take control."
Harry opened his mouth to protest and argue that the rest of the Order would continue to fight, with or without him, but he didn't get anything out before he was hit by a strong blast of the Cruciatius curse from Voldemort's wand. Instead of words of protest, a cry came from Harry's lips as his knees gave out under the impact of the curse.
Hermione and Draco watched with glee as Harry yelled in agony under Voldemort's torture. Physically, Harry looked unhurt but Hermione knew he would be in agony inside. If his screams were anything to go by, he was certainly in plenty of pain.
"Would anyone else like a go?" Voldemort asked, lifting the curse as Harry gasped for breath on the floor.
"Who don't you go first," Hermione said, nudging at her boyfriend.
"Don't mind if I do," Draco replied with a grin as he raised his returned wand in his hands. "Crucio!"
Harry let out a loud squeal of pain as Draco's curse hit him before he'd even had a chance to recover from Voldemort's efforts. Draco put every ounce of his anger and long term hatred of Harry into powering his curse, and he was rewarded with Harry's screams of agony. However, holding the curse with such intensity was hard work and Draco had to stop sooner than he would have liked.
"Don't worry Draco, it'll be easier to maintain the curse with more practise," Voldemort said, seeing the disappointment on the blond's face. "Hermione, do you fancy a whirl?"
"Just you try and stop me," Hermione replied as she stepped forward. "I've wanted to do this a long time, Harry. Crucio!"
Harry's cries of pain seemed even louder as he was hit for the third time. Like Draco, Hermione used her anger and her natural darkness to fuel the curse she was throwing at Harry. Hermione was pleased she managed to inflict plenty of pain before she too found the curse too hard to hold and she was also forced to stop.
Hermione had barely moved away from Harry before Lucius was taking her place, and Harry found himself hit with a fourth curse. Like Voldemort, Lucius could hold the curse for quite a while and by the time he was finished, Harry was a sobbing mess on the floor. Surprisingly, Narcissa insisted on having her go once her husband was finished, and both Hermione and Draco were taken back by the force of her curse.
"Whoa, mother," Draco whistled.
"I am a dark witch, Draco," Narcissa replied with an elegant shrug. "I know how to cast a dark curse."
"And it was most impressive," Lucius said, shooting his wife a flirtatious smirk. "Very sexy."
Hermione rolled her eyes at the Malfoys as she turned back to her father. "Is that it for now?"
"Not quite," Voldemort said with a sigh. "I do believe I told you about my theory that I created a Horcrux when I killed the Potters."
"You did," Hermione confirmed with a nod. "You believe there's a one in Harry."
"I do," Voldemort said. "I had been hoping to find a way to remove it without destroying it, but we don't have time for that now. I only know of one way of destroying it."
"And what's that?" Draco asked.
"This," Voldemort replied, raising his wand and pointing it at Harry. "Avada Kedavra."
"Daddy," Hermione cried as the jet of emerald green light left her father's wand and hit Harry squarely in the back.
"I thought you didn't want him dead yet," Draco remarked.
"I don't," Voldemort answered, looking nervously at Harry. "I want Dumbledore to witness his death. If I'm right, I've merely destroyed the Horcrux inside him."
"And if you're wrong?" Hermione questioned.
"Then Potter's been dealt with," Voldemort replied with a shrug. "Why don't we move on and visit Potter on the way back."
"I think we should visit Black next," Lucius suggested. "I don't think he's got much more in him."
Lucius was proved right as they moved into the next room where Sirius was lying, bloody, bruised and suffering after hours of torture. Given his weakened state, Draco chose not to use the Cruciatius curse on Sirius, instead he settled on delivering a few swift kicks to the older wizard. By the time Draco had finished, Sirius was virtually unconscious and with a live victim waiting in Ron, Voldemort decided to put Sirius out of his misery with a quick killing curse.
"I'm looking forward to dealing with the Weasel," Draco said as they got ready to enter the final room.
"Me too," Hermione replied. It hadn't been too hard pretending to be Harry's friend, but there had been times it had been a real struggle acting as though she liked Ron.
"Do you want to lead this time, Hermione?" Voldemort asked his daughter.
"I'd love to," Hermione answered with a grin as she pushed open the door to Ron's cell.
Unlike Harry, Ron didn't look half as surprised to see her. In fact he looked more disappointed than shocked to see her entering the room with her family.
"It was you," Ron whispered, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "I tried to tell myself I was wrong. But it had to be you. You were the only one who could have stunned Harry."
"It was me," Hermione replied. "It's just a shame you didn't work out I was untrustworthy earlier. Instead you led me right to Draco so I could save him."
"We should have killed him when we had the chance," Ron muttered.
"You're many things Weasley, a killer isn't one of them," Draco said. "You don't know what it's like to be truly dark."
"No, I don't," Ron replied. "I'm not a monster."
"Monsters we may be, but you've only yourselves to blame for the predicament you find yourselves in," Hermione countered. "You're going to get what you deserve, Ron. You kidnapped the man I loved, so now you're going to pay."
Ron let out a bark of humourless laughter when Hermione referred to Draco as the man she loved, but his laughter turned to screams of agony as Hermione hit him with the Cruciatius Curse. After her earlier practice with Harry, she felt as though the curse had more power in it, and she was able to hold it for longer. By the time she did release the curse, Ron was already panting with pain.
"Now that was better," Hermione said with a malicious grin. "You should try it, Draco."
"I intend to," Draco said. "Crucio!"
Like Hermione, Draco felt the added power to his second try of the Cruciatius curse. He was also able to hold it for longer, and he felt much more satisfied when he dropped the curse and left Ron practically crying on the floor.
Not that Ron got any respite as both Lucius and Narcissa punished him for being party to their son's kidnapping, before Voldemort took his turn. After five rounds of torture, Ron was in bad shape and blood was seeping from his mouth from where he'd bitten through his tongue. After a group decision to end things and start planning for the final battle, Ron was put out of his misery by a blast of green light from Voldemort's wand.
"Let's check on Potter," Voldemort said. "We need to know if he's still alive before we start planning our next move."
Fortunately, Harry had survived the curse Voldemort had thrown at him, although he was in a pretty bad way. Voldemort and Lucius checked he wasn't going to die of his injuries in the night before heading upstairs to begin making plans for dealing with the rest of the Order. It took a couple of hours to sort a plan of action, and leaving Voldemort and Lucius to make the final arrangements, Draco and Hermione headed back to his room for the night. Hermione did have her own room in the manor, but she'd rarely used it since she and Draco had started their sexual relationship.
"It's good to have you back," Hermione said as she snuggled down in bed with Draco. "You may have only been gone a few days, but they were the longest days of my life. I never want to have to go through that again."
"You won't have to," Draco replied, pressing a kiss to the top of Hermione's head. "We'll be taking out the Order in a few days' time, and after that we're going to be in charge. Nothing can come between us again."
"Do you really think we can take out the Order?" Hermione asked.
"Maybe not all of them," Draco conceded. "But all we need to do is kill Dumbledore. As your father said, with him and Potter gone the Order are toothless. They'll have no leader, no golden boy, and they'll know just how you got into their numbers and destroyed them from the inside. The might try and rebel, but it won't come to anything."
"I hope you're right," Hermione said. "It would be nice to think that all this is coming to an end."
"It would," Draco agreed softly as the couple lapsed into silence and within minutes they were asleep in each other's arms, looking forward to the day the dark finally won the war and gained control of the wizarding world.