Chapter Twenty One The Rescue

"You've taken the Dark Mark, I don't trust you, Draco," Harry said and pointed his wand at his face. The boy looked terrible.

Draco nodded and said, "I understand. But it has been horrible; he is horrible." He moved closer and Harry could see fatigue, terror and hopelessness in the face. "I can't go on like this. You might as well kill me then leave me here."

Harry studied him and thought Draco probably deserved whatever he was living with. He wanted to go through the castle alone if he could and having him along would only put him in jeopardy.

Draco must have read his thoughts because he leaned in to whisper, "I can get you close to him."

"I know if you have a chance you will turn on me, Draco," Harry said. "You're a coward. You don't care about anyone but yourself."

"It's true," Draco admitted unexpectedly, his face now wet with tears. "I've been awful. But Potter, I can't stand it, I can't be around him. He's...he's not human anymore. Just since he's been here he's changed. He's more like...like the snake that hangs around him."

"Where is the snake," Harry asked suddenly interested in hearing the information Draco was giving away so freely.

"Outside now," Draco answered immediately. "It seems to want to be away from him more and more.

"Who else is here?"

Draco looked around him into the dark as if thinking very hard. "Pettigrew is somewhere, and Slughorn."

"Slughorn!" Harry gasped and felt his anger rise like bile. "Where is he?"

"I can show you," Draco said eagerly. "He's in the library. He's supposed to be doing something for ...for HIM."

"Who else is here?" Harry asked.

"A few house elves..."

"House elves?" Harry murmured and thought that was odd. He expected to hear about monsters, Dementors or other creatures who served the Dark Lord but not house elves.

"Kreacher comes from the Black family and Winky was Barty Crouch's old elf. Then there's Death Eaters who come and go. His guards are outside, Dementors and such." Draco stepped into the shadows. "Does this mean you'll let me help you?"

"What if it meant you had to deal with your father...to kill him?" Harry asked. "Could you do it?"

"Yes... ." he hesitated and then continued, "he's almost as bad." His voice was tremulous. "But he's at Azkaban and Aunt Bella is there too. Will you kill them too if they show up?"

Harry considered the figure in the dark and then turned to go. "I'll kill whoever gets in the way, that includes you," he said and wasn't sure he meant it although the words came out fairly easily.

There was a faint choked laugh and Harry swung around with his wand pointed at Draco's chest. "You want me to do your dirty work for you but you never want to put your neck on the line. There are no teachers around now, Draco. Snape is not here to protect you or rescue you. You can run to your father and he will put a boot in your backside and send you back because you decided you had to show off for his master and become a member of his little club.

"You got Dumbledore killed and everyone knows it now! You have no one and nothing left Draco except a lifetime of misery, probably in Azkaban when we clean the nest of...of filth out of it!" He'd almost run out of breath but his fury was unabated. "I have nothing left to lose, Draco. Voldemort has taken everything I have ever cared about from me. Do you think it has been easy for me?!" He pulled his arm back as if to cast the spell and Draco turned his face away and closed his eyes. "You are no good to me, so stay out of my face, or I will do it Draco, I will kill you!"

"I'll take care of him, Harry," a different voice intruded upon the dark.

"Ron!"

Ron stepped out of the dark his wand also pointed at Draco. "I can't be much help to you, Harry but I can make sure this scum doesn't get in the way."

A soft mewling sound came from Draco. He had his back to the wall and slid to the floor in utter defeat. Ron and Harry stood over him and looked at one another for a moment.

"You know what I have to do?" Harry asked without expecting an answer.

Ron nodded. "Yeah. I wish you had an army at your back Harry but I think you might have a better chance this way." They stood in silence again. "Harry, I want to thank you for trying to rescue us in Azkaban, for coming for us, even though..." He couldn't finish the sentence; couldn't say they had left friends, in particular Ginny and Hermione behind and that they were most likely dead. Harry quickly turned again to leave. "Be careful, mate!" Ron whispered after him.

Harry walked along the lonely corridors with only the voice of his mother sounding in is ears; the words from her diary leading the way, giving him courage.

The sky was suddenly filled with very bright light and the different colors of various spells as if a war were being fought in the heavens above by angelic warlords. It seemed to Lupin as he looked up through the blur that there had to be dozens of witches and wizards floating overhead.

Well if the spiders don't get us then they will, were his thoughts as he dropped to his knees and then killed over in a dead faint.

Twenty minutes later he woke and saw a familiar face staring down at him. It was Hermione and laying next to him propped up on a pillow was Snape. They were still laying in the wooded area on Azkaban island but they were surrounded by other familiar figures; McGonagall, Scrimgeour, Mad-Eye Moody to name a few. Lupin turned his head slightly as he felt her touch and managed a smile when he saw Tonks and behind her Ginny and Molly Weasley, who was holding on to her daughter, sparkling tears like diamonds still wet on her face.

"Lay still Remus, you are badly injured," Hermione said gently while stirring a cauldron over a fire nearby and leaning over to test it. She had Snape and Remus on each side of her tending to them both.

"Nightshade..." Snape murmured watching her with his beetle-black eyes brightened by the firelight. "I threw nightshade on him. The remedy..."

"I know the antidote, Professor," Hermione interrupted, concentrating on the potion she was de-concocting. She stopped Remus from speaking by holding a spoonful of the substance to his mouth.

"P'haps...I should check that," Snape managed and then his head fell back against the pillow.

Hermione ignored him and continued to laden the slightly sweet substance into Remus' mouth.

"How long do you think this will take, Miss Granger?" Scrimgeour asked as wizards stepped up to him and whispered in his ear and then disappeared. "...yes, yes make sure the prison is empty. Find Malfoy and Lestrange, or their bodies. I'll be along shortly," he said to one of them. His yellow eyes gleamed in the light and it was clear he was angry. "We can send for a healer, Miss Granger, if you need assistance."

"The potion will take care of the nightshade poisoning, Minister. Remus will feel better soon," Hermione said and turned to Snape. "Professor Snape has scratches from the scarlet trumpet on his hands and face, plus a bad wound on his head. I can fix the wound," she said and waved the wand around his head like wrapping it in a bandage. He managed to suffer the pain without making a noise or grimacing and stared at her in fascination as if he had never seen her before. "I'll need to find the..."

Snape interrupted her and they spoke simultaneously, "Ragwort plant", "Ragwort plant", she echoed him and then continued, "to make a potion for the Scarlet Trumpet poisoning. It has to be mixed with Brachia fern roots. Professor McGonagall can you help with that? It is like a mushroom and will grow in rotted wood. It is a fern with yellow spots," she said in an efficient manner as she continued to examine Snape for other wounds. He lay still an allowed it and Lupin watched from his position at his side, not yet recovered himself.

The old woman disappeared from the small circle of light while Tonks told their story of escape from the island.

"We found the brooms you left behind and it was a matter of getting to the mainland. The others were already there," she held Remus' hand and smiled slightly. "Scrimgeour

was prepared to launch an attack against the prison to stop our executions. They were gathering together when we arrived."

Remus sat up gingerly and allowed his head to clear. He felt himself regaining strength.

"We've got to get to Hogwarts," Hermione put in. "Mr. Weasley and his family teleported to Hogwarts from the prison, along with Harry. And Harry did what we all knew he would do; he went off to the castle to find Voldemort." Someone handed her a plant. She looked at it, looked once at Snape who nodded almost imperceptibly and then she dropped it into a clean cauldron all the while talking and pulling things from a bag at her side. "Ron went after him." She glanced at Remus and then turned back Snape. "You've got to help them."

"Help me up, Tonks,' Remus said and received a hand from not only Tonks but Ginny who had stood silently by her side.

"They are all alone, Mr. Lupin," Ginny said and stepped into the light. "He doesn't stand a chance unless all of the Horcruxes are destroyed. Even then he has to fight his way into the castle. There's no telling what he'll run into. We have to get there! Dad's gone back with a few others. But they won't go into Hogwarts until they know what to do. They're waiting for your orders." She looked like her mother, her mouth a grim line, her eyes sparkling with intensity.

There was a roar overhead and a sudden conflagration up in the dark sky which lit the ground below. It was Molly Weasley who spoke, "It's alright. Charlie came back from Romania and he's got others with him. They'll take care of that dragon." Lupin looked into her face illuminated by the fire. She looked angry and determined. "Ginny is right. We have to do something and we have to do it tonight before he hurts other innocent people."

Remus understood they were all feeling the effects of coming too close to death by execution. They were all angry and out for blood.

He started to speak and then paused to stare up into the starry night. He then looked down at the man still laying on the ground, ""Severus, when Hermione is finished tending your wounds do you think you can find the fifth Horcrux and destroy it?"

Snape turned his eyes from Hermione to him and nodded slightly. He was still fighting the effects of the Scarlet Trumpet and was in a great deal of pain. Pustules and blisters covered one side of his face and his eye, the same covered his hands. It would mark him the rest of his life. He never had been good looking and it would make his face a horror to behold. He seemed to know this and once again turned to Hermione who was applying the healing salve she had created to his face with her finger tips. Their faces were very close together and she didn't flinch.

Remus nodded and turned to Scrimgeour who was staring at him. Lupin paused for a moment and then said, "Are you going to arrest, Snape?" They all turned to stare at him.

The man shook his great mane of hair and said quietly, "Professor McGonagal and Miss Granger have told me what we face." He stared down at Snape. "I will take care of business here Lupin if you want to go to Hogwarts. Take as many as you need to help you." He glanced at the wizards and witches who were suddenly appearing in the small circle of light created by a half dozen wands and the small fire under the cauldron. The circle included most of the Order of the Phoenix, those that were left, and there were many Aurors from the Ministry. "I understand you are their leader," Scrimgeour finished. "I will do what you ask me to do."

He said the last with a look that was hard to interpret. Remus wasn't sure if the Minister believed a werewolf could be a leader, or if he intended to go along and betray them later. "Am I to believe there will be no repercussions after this is done? If it can be done at all!" Remus asked sternly. He was all too aware of how they had been treated by the Ministry who had agreed to their execution. "Everyone will be exonerated?"

Scrimgeour nodded.

"You let things get a little too far out of hand, Rufus," Lupin growled at the man in disgust and then looked down at Snape again. "Alright then, I'll leave. We believe Malfoy is either dead or badly injured. He attempted to destroy a Horcrux, the Dark Lord's Horcrux." He looked up again at Scrimgeour, studying him. "It should be easy to gain access to the prison now. There is a house elf by the name of Dobby who helped us. Make sure he is safe and released."

Lupin turned to Tonks and accepted a broom from her. "Will you ride with me?" he asked. "When we get to the mainland we can apparate. I hope we aren't too late."

"I'm coming, too," Fred Weasley said.

"Me, too," George repeated. Others began to step up until there were at least twenty.

"I'm coming with you," Ginny said with determination and pulled away from her mother. This time Lupin nodded reluctantly. He turned again to Snape. "Are you sure the two of you can handle it?" He glanced at Hermione who was still tending the wounds. Snape slowly rose to his elbows without looking at Lupin, answered, "Yes. I believe Miss Granger and I can handle it."

Remus threw a leg over the broom and waited until he felt Tonks hands pressed around his middle. "Hermione, you've done a fine job of using field medicine. Thanks."

She stared up at him and he could see the tears that had traced a pattern on her sooty face.

"Just save them if you can. That's all I ask. They are my best friends and I don't think I can stand it if they...are...are hurt." She turned away and her hair dropped down so that her face was no longer visible. Lupin saw something that almost made him lose his grip. Snape's hand reached out and touched hers in a gesture of sympathy. She reached for it and gripped it hard.

Lupin lifted off into the night sky followed by a dozen people.

Harry reached into his sack and pulled the map from it again. He was on the second floor standing in the dim light of the moon. His fingers touched the round metal object at the bottom. it was the coin Hermione had given him when he was teaching the other students in secret. It had been a means to let the others know when he would schedule training times. Now, he pulled it out and suddenly felt it grow warm in his the palm of his hand. It could only mean one thing, Hermione was calling on the D.A, Dumbledore's Army.

She's alive! he thought and grinned. The hand with the coin went to his heart. Ron's alive and Hermione is still alive. That's good, that's good, he thought and slipped the coin into his pocket.