The weeks continued to pass with little progress. Hermione was nearly fully healed from her experience, though she would have the scars from Bellatrix's knife for the rest of her life. Draco was beginning to do better at last, and could move around carefully. As April came to an end Fleur pronounced him almost as good as new, and declared that he would be able to travel again within a few weeks.

One evening they were just sitting down to a steak and kidney pie made by Kreacher when there was a frantic knocking on the door. Bill leapt up and walked cautiously towards it.

"Who's there?" Bill called.

"Remus Lupin." A voice answered from the other side. "I have exciting news!"

Bill pulled the door open with a smile. "Remus! It's good to see you!"

"Lupin!" Harry exclaimed as he came around the corner. His former professor turned to look at him, an elated smile spread across his face.

"Harry, there you are!" he exclaimed. "I have exciting news!"
"Sit down and 'ave some supper, Remus," Fleur interrupted. "It was just made by Kreacher."

Harry pulled out a chair across from Lupin. "What's your news?"
"Tonks!" Lupin exclaimed. "She had the baby! A beautiful little boy!" His smile grew even wider. "He's an animagus, like his mother. His hair started changing even before I left. Who knows what it'll be by the time I get back!"

Harry felt a grin spread across his face. He had forgotten that Tonks was pregnant. "Congratulations!" he shouted. "What's his name?"

"Teddy,' Lupin said proudly. "We named him after his grandfather."

Harry nodded, remembering Ted Tonks. He glanced at Draco beside him. "I guess that you have a new cousin!" Draco smiled and nodded. He looked better than Harry had seen him in months.

"Harry, Draco, I have a question for you," Lupin said. Harry looked up from his plate. "Will you be his godfathers?"

"Of course!" Harry blurted. "We would love to be!" He glanced at Draco, who was suddenly frozen, his fork lifted halfway to his mouth.

"Er," Draco stuttered. Hermione gently placed her hand on his arm, bringing him out of his trance. "Yes! Of course, I would love to be his godfather! I can't wait until I get to meet him!" A wide grin broke out across his face.

"That's fantastic," Lupin exclaimed as he dug heartily into his pie. "Tonks will be happy to hear that." He looked up and smiled at Draco, his mouth full. "She's so happy to have you for a cousin. There's no one better we could ever pick to care for our son."

Harry smiled.


They planned their next move weeks in advance. So, on the day when Draco demonstrated that he could move freely without wincing in pain, they were already packed and ready to leave.

They sat around the dinner table that evening gazing awkwardly at their plates. Bill cleared his throat.

"What's wrong?"

Harry stared at his plate."We're leaving," he muttered. Tonight." He felt Bill and Fleur staring at him.

"Tonight?" Fleur asked incredulously.

"Draco is healed, and I've been better for ages," Hermione said. Bill and Fleur turned to look at her.

"We can't wait forever," Ron added. "We're seriously thankful that you let us stay here. We wouldn't have made it this far without you. But we have to keep going."

Bill sighed as he looked around the table. "I can see that there's no talking you out of this. We always knew you would leave eventually." He held his hand up to stop Fleur from interrupting. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Get the Order ready," Draco said. He shook his head at Harry's accusing glare. "There's a fight coming soon. We need their help."

Bill nodded. "I'll call an emergency meeting right away."

Fleur stared at Harry. "Be careful," she whispered. She set her fork down and reached out to hug him. "You are so brave."

Harry pulled away and cleared his throat " Well, we have to get going." He pushed back his chair and stood up. The others followed.

"Thanks so much Bill," Ron said, "Tell mum hi for me."

"Thank you for all your help," Hermione said to Fleur. "I hope we'll see you soon."

Harry grabbed onto Kreacher's hand. The others joined on. "All right," Harry said, "Just like we talked about." With a crack they disappeared, leaving Bill and Fleur alone in their kitchen.

The next thing that Harry saw was the inside of a dank, dark bathroom. Draco blinked and looked around.

"Where are we?"

"Girl's bathroom," Ron answered.

"I managed to work that out for myself," Draco said sarcastically. "What are we doing in a girl's bathroom?"

"It's the entrance to the Chamber of Secrets," Harry said. He turned to Kreacher. "Go back to Bill and Fleur's house. It's not safe here." Kreacher looked like he was going to argue, but at a stern glance from Harry he turned and disappeared.

Draco stared at Harry. "All that time when the Chamber was opened, it was in a girl's bathroom? How did you find it?"

"We spent half of second year brewing Polyjuice Potion in here," Ron asid.

"Not half the year. It was one month," Hermione clarified. She grinned at Draco. "We never told you about that did we?"
Draco shook his head. "You made Polyjuice in second year? In a bathroom?"

Harry smirked. "And then we stole hair from Crabbe and Goyle and questioned you about Slytherin's monster."

A look of understanding spread slowly across Draco's shocked face. "At Christmas, right? You forgot to take off your glasses!"

Harry nodded. "I thought you were the one letting the monster out. Sorry about that by the way."

Draco chuckled. "Why do the professors even like you? I was a stuck up git, but I never broke rules like you three!"

Harry's smirk widened. "Just another advantage of being the Chosen One." Hermione smacked him.

"Come on, let's get going," Ron said, clearly struggling to suppress a smile.

Harry nodded and stepped forward. He stared at the tiny snake on the side of a tap. "Open," he hissed. The large pipe slid open.

"The Chamber is down here," Harry said. He slid into the pipe and fell down. He landed at the bottom and moved out of the way as Ron, Hermione, and finally Draco emerged.

Harry walked across the bones that littered the hallway and squeezed through a crack in the part of the tunnel that Professor Lockhart had collapsed years earlier. He stood in front of the large door and hissed. It swung open.

The basilisk lay sprawled across the floor, a stain from its own blood surrounding its massive head. Harry stepped around to its mouth.

"Fawkes blinded it," he said. "You don't need to worry about it's eyes."

Draco stared at the corpse in amazement. "How did you kill it?"

"The sword of Gryffindor. I stabbed it through the mouth."

Hermione gasped. "The sword of Gryffindor! I can't believe we didn't think of that!" She wrung her hands as she stared at Harry. "It's goblin-made. We could have used it to destroy the Horcruxes!"

Ron looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Goblin-made weapons take in only that which makes them stronger…" Draco mused.

"It would have taken in the Basilisk venom," Hermione explained.

"Remind me of that next time we're destroying Horcruxes," Harry grunted. He reached into the mouth of the beast and pulled on a fang.

With a jerk the fang came free of the Basilisk's mouth. Ron stepped up and yanked a second one out. Hermione pulled the Horcruxes from her bag and laid them on the floor. "Who's going to destroy them?" she asked. Ron and Draco looked at Harry.

"No," Harry shook his head. "I think you should do it." He handed his fang to Draco. "The cup was with your family. Make it right." He looked at Ron. "You should do the locket."

Ron nodded. "How do I open it?"

"I'll speak to it in Parseltongue. But be ready, these things are going to fight back. The journal almost killed me. And Ginny."

"I'm ready," Ron declared, gripping the fang tightly. Harry hissed to the locket and it popped open.

A great eye emerged and darted around, searching the room. It landed on Ron. With a puff of smoke it transformed into Mr. and Mrs. Weasley. A flash of green light appeared and hit them. They fell to the ground, dead. The image changed to Bill, then Charlie, then Fred and George. They were all laying on the ground, dead.

"They will all die," a deep voice hissed as the image changed to Ginny, staring blankly as she fell to the ground. "Starting with the mudblood." Ginny was replaced by Hermione, lying on the floor, blood trickling from her mouth.

A roar echoed around the chamber as Ron raised the fang above his head. He plunged it down into the locket.

There was a crack as the eye disappeared. Ron fell to the ground, gasping and still clutching the fang. Hermione rushed to him.

"It's gone," she assured him. "You killed it."

Harry turned to Draco. "Are you ready?" Draco, his face drained of colour, nodded.

"I'm right here with you," Harry assured.

"So are we," Hermione said. She dragged Ron to his feet and moved closer to Draco. "I know you're strong enough for this."

Draco clutched the fang harder and walked towards the cup.

The air exploded. The Dark Mark hung above them. There was a cackle as Bellatrix appeared, followed by Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy, their wands pointed at Draco's heart.

"You were always such a disappointment to the Malfoy name," Lucius drawled. "Couldn't even do better than a mudblood in school. What a disgrace."
"You will never amount to anything," Bellatrix hissed. "Just a poor, sad little boy."

"I'm ashamed that I ever called you my son," Narcissa intoned. "You're no child of mine."

"Stab it, Draco," Ron urged. "You have to kill it!"

Draco turned around, his face curiously blank. He had moved the fang to his left hand, and was holding his arm out in front of him. Slowly he rolled up his sleeve to expose the Dark Mark beneath. His hand hovered above it.

"Draco!" Harry exclaimed. He darted forward to pull Draco's hand away from the Mark. He gazed into the boy's grey eyes. "You have to kill it."

Draco started at Harry's touch. He looked down at his arm and took a deep breath before turning back around.

"I'm free from you," he whispered. He raised the fang high and stabbed it into the cup. With a puff of smoke his family disappeared. The Dark Mark above them burst into pieces and rained down as it vanished.

Draco collapsed, his head in his hands.