I acknowledge that I do not own any of the characters or ideas, except those of my own creation, and I give full credit to the true mastermind J. K. Rowling!

Without further ado I give you…
Chapter 11: The Lonely Victor

Ginny stood before the panel of wizened wizards and witches her heart throbbing against her chest almost painfully. In the corner of the room, hidden in shadow, she could just make out Mordred's figure and she could feel his eyes boring into her. Somehow his presence was calming, with every attempt he made to intimidate her she could feel her resolve strengthen, but this was of little consequence when she examined her current predicament. Dorian Noble sat close to the back of the room, his ever piercing gaze focussed entirely on his newest recruit.

'Ginevra Molly Weasley.' The witch closest to the front, who seemed to be conducting the interrogation, spoke again and Ginny had to restrain herself from rolling her eyes at the formality of her address. But there was also a little part of her that ached at the sound of her second name, only her mother every called her Ginevra Molly and only when she was really cross. 'You stand accused of breaking into the Trillian Cube, one of our most sacred relics, the penalty for such a violation is death.' She spoke in a weirdly calm manner with no indication of the gravity of what she was conveying.

'What?' Ginny blurted out, caught by surprise. In the stands above Dorian sat forward slightly, the echo of a smile playing about the corners of his mouth. 'You can't kill me.' There was a childish indignation in her tone which Ginny resented but did not have the control to restrain.

The witch showed no change in expression, merely leaning backwards in her seat and replying in the same detached manner. 'I think you'll find we can. And we will if you remain unwilling to cooperate.' Ginny looked disgustedly around the room but remained silent. 'What happened when you touched the relic?' There was another stretch of silence in which no one spoke or moved, then suddenly, with a quick flick of the head from the witch Mordred stepped out of the shadow and approached Ginny, flexing his wand.

Ginny swallowed discreetly, her eyes challenging him as he stood within arm's reach of her, he looked on impassively but she caught something in his gaze that she couldn't quite make out. Was it discomfort? Or perhaps a twisted form of pity? He slowly raised his wand to press it against her temple and the intention behind his actions became glaringly obvious. Ginny's sharp intake of breath echoed throughout the hall.

'This is sick,' she spat, working every muscle in her body to maintain composure. 'You have no right.'

'Actually,' Dorian's voice resounded from the back of the hall, piercing through Ginny's façade of bravery. 'We have every right, you accepted my offer to stay and you even underwent basic training from Mordred so for all intents and purposes you are one of us. And we have every right to discipline our members.'

In the impulse of the moment Ginny lashed out, her feet knocking Mordred backwards so that he lost balance for a moment, enough time to allow her to work her hands out of her bonds. She barely had time to draw a breath before Mordred was at her side once again, his arms parrying her well-aimed blows with ease and Ginny was reminded tauntingly of their first encounter; it strengthened her resolve not to be caught in the same trap again. She feinted to the left and then darted around Mordred, slamming her shoulder into his back so that he collapsed forward onto his hands and knees. The blow slowed him only for a split second and Ginny did not waste time, slipping her hand into the sleeve of his robes and deftly removing him wand. He sprung to his feet, grasping her throat in a chokehold but his eyes widened in surprise as he felt her pressing the tip of his wand into his spine. Check mate.

A gentle applause broke through the intense silence which had settled over the room in the few moments Ginny and Mordred had been locked in combat. Dorian stood alone in the stands, his face broken into a wide smile. It was only then that it occurred to Ginny that not one of the witches or wizards watching on had made any move to restrain her or aid Mordred. As she gazed around at the enraptured expressions of her peers she realised what a spectacle she had made of herself, this had been Dorian's intention from the start.

'Well done, Ginevra,' Dorian congratulated her as he descended the staircase towards her. She tightened her grip on Mordred's wand despite his relinquished grasp on her neck. 'Quite impressive, in fact.'

'Don't come any closer,' Ginny threatened, her stance poised to run.

Dorian paused condescendingly in his approach, cocking his head to one side almost in amusement. 'My dear child, you have bravely out witted one of my finest soldiers but even you cannot escape from all of us.' He paused and gazed upwards at the stands of witches and wizards all of whom seemed to be hanging on his every word with baited breath. 'We are quite resolved not to kill you as you are such a valuable asset, however we must insist on the knowledge you keep from us.'

'I didn't do anything,' Ginny said slowly, keeping one eye on Dorian and the other on Mordred's tense stance, 'I just touched the cube and it seemed to fold in on itself.'

'What did you see inside?' Dorian questioned calmly.

'A small vial,' Ginny replied still unsure, 'made of crystal, but there was nothing inside.'

'No,' Dorian acknowledged with an inclination of his head, 'I believe it has yet to be filled.'

Ginny looked up, brow furrowed at his words, 'Why did it open for me?' she demanded.

'That, my dear, is what we would like to know,' Dorian replied, his eyes studying her in a cruel manner. 'Take her away.'

Ginny was on the verge of scoffing at his command when she realised that she was no longer holding Mordred's wand, that it was in fact now pointed most directly at her chest. Mordred shot her a wink and his mouth was turned upwards in a smirk, he reached out to guide her towards the door but fell short at a resounding crack that seemed to come from above them. Every set of eyes in the room turned towards the ceiling as a small column of dust spiralled towards the floor.

…

'So,' Blaise said with the distant air of a joke, 'what happened?'

Draco rolled his eyes, here they were standing in a deserted underground tunnel which led to the headquarters of one of the wizarding world's most infamous alliances and Blaise wanted to take a trip down memory lane. But the map showed a long pathway leading up to the entrance which Draco estimated would take them another half an hour to reach so he obliged his friend with a reply.

'How do you mean?' he asked, eyes darting to the ceiling which was half caved in with moisture and moss.

'How did you get tangled up with the youngest Weasley girl?' Blaise threw his hands in the air defensively at the deathly glare Draco shot him. 'Hey, hey I'm not asking how you feel about it, just how it happened,' he defended himself, then with a sly look he added, '…you know that you fell for her.'

'Go to hell, Blaise,' Draco said with a gentle punch to the arm.

'Hey, if you're going to respond like that my mind's going to imagine it's a lot more serious than you let on,' Blaise teased, eyes watching Draco's wand warily.

'She saved my life,' Draco answered quietly, staring stonily ahead. 'First time we met I was doing a surveillance round of one of the Order's headquarters, except I was a little sloppy with covering all the angles.'

'Oh, yeah?' Blaise said with a teasing smirk, but he was listening intently all the same.

'They picked me up straight away and hauled me in,' Draco recounted with growing intensity, 'I thought they were going to kill me.' They both fell silent for a moment; their feet plunging into deeper water as they began a downward trek through the passageway.

…

'We should turn him into the ministry.' One of the tall redheads spat and Draco recognised George Weasley as he observed the heated discussion of his captors. He could feel the bloodied blow to his right eye and jaw grow hot and throb painfully but he kept his eyes well trained on each member present, hoping for an opportune moment or even a glimpse of his wand.

'No,' said Kingsley Shacklebolt, he was no less imperious or commanding than Draco had imagined and he felt his heart speed up. 'The ministry can't be trusted; we have to dispose of the spy ourselves.' They all looked to Draco who had been forced to his knees, hands magically bound behind his back.

The intensity of the moment was broken by a loud thumping against the staircase as someone descended the steps; Remus Lupin looked inquisitively and somewhat apprehensively towards the doorway. A moment later a girl with long, swinging red hair came into view her cheeks flushed and eyes widened with alarm as she took in Draco's form. He stared up at her challengingly, his eyes boring into hers, his mouth twisting ever so slightly at the corners and he could tell his vacancy scared her.

'Draco?' she whispered, her fingers curling tensely around the worn corners of her woolly cardigan. He was taken aback momentarily by her direct address and the vulnerability she openly conveyed; there was something so temptingly innocent about her that made him pause.

'Ginny get out of here.' The other red head twin, Fred, spoke this time but her eyes did not leave Draco's face to acknowledge him. Eventually she turned away from the room and ran quickly back up the stairs.

...

'So they didn't turn you over to the ministry then?' Blaise asked, watching his friend's impassive mask for any signs of slipping.

'No,' Draco responded quietly, 'they knew our forces had infiltrated it too far, they wanted to arrange an official meeting to decide my fate, but she got there first.' There was the smallest echo of a smile in his voice when he spoke.

…

'I wondered when you'd show up,' Draco said quietly, there was a gentle menace in his tone which did not go unmissed by Ginny. They had locked him up in a basement cell with enough protective charms and barriers to withhold ten of him. Somehow the youngest Weasley girl had slipped past their supervision and through the creaking trapdoor to the basement. She approached the cold bars of his cell tentatively but she was not without confidence.

'You knew I was coming?' she asked and he could hear that she was unnerved. He didn't look up to meet her inquisitive gaze. He sat, leaning up against the back wall of the cell, his face half hidden in shadow.

'Didn't you?' he asked her and for some reason it sounded like a dare to her, but there was a disinterest in his manner which spurred her on. 'Either you've gotten very brave since Hogwarts or even more stupid,' he paused a moment as if in contemplation, 'perhaps a little bit of both.' He spoke slowly and deliberately, annunciating each vowel as he was if reading poetry.

'I'm not a child anymore,' she said defiantly, propping a hand up on one hip in a gesture that was so distantly familiar Draco was suddenly overcome by the urge to laugh. When she next spoke there was such a seriousness and pathos in her tone that he was surprised. 'I want to help you.'

Draco let a small laugh slip from his lips, tilting his head slightly to get a better view of her. 'And that's the sentiment of an adult?'

She faltered for a moment before replying, 'I don't want them to kill you.'

She let out a gasp and stumbled backwards as he suddenly threw himself at the bars of the cell and blew a breath across her pale cheeks. 'What makes you think I want to be saved?'

'I don't care if you do or don't,' she replied and Draco was once again taken by surprised. 'I'm not here for you; I'm here because I don't think my family should be stained with your blood.'

'Some people deserve to die,' Draco challenged her quietly, his eyes watching her closely.

'Yes,' Ginny agreed a little shakily, 'but that is not for us to decide. We only get to decide what to do with the time that we have.'

Draco withdrew from the bars, sliding along the wall to a sitting position once more. 'Don't waste your time, darling,' he drawled softly.

…

'She convinced them to help me,' Draco continued, 'even enlisted Dumbledore's approval.' Blaise let out a low whistle. 'After that I couldn't keep away, I had to understand this girl who'd gone to such lengths to save me. At first I thought I could find a way to kill her or even corrupt her but before long my plans became focussed on keeping her alive. She was a mystery I could not solve.'

The tunnel came to a sudden end, blocked off by the remnants of a ceiling collapse; large mounds of stone and piping lay in front of the two.

'This is going to take hours to clear,' Blaise groaned, pulling his wand from its sheath and examining the damage morosely.

'We don't have hours,' Draco reminded him, 'Pansy will disarm their defences in exactly thirteen minutes and we only get one shot at this.'

'So what's your bright idea?' Blaise demanded a little moodily. 'We can't get around and there's no other way inside the complex.'

'We don't need to get around it,' Draco said suddenly, 'this is where we are meant to come to, Lumos.' He shone the light of his wand at the ceiling which revealed a rotted but intact trapdoor.

'Bingo,' Blaise breathed, slapping Draco on the back. 'Let's get this baby open.'

…

Five miles out, Pansy and Arrow hid in a shaded spot by the underground entrance they had blown open and watched Draco and Blaise disappear down nearly an hour ago.

Pansy flipped open the fog watch she had been toying with for the last forty five minutes, counting down each and every second. 'Five minutes,' she informed Arrow, 'those boys better be ready.'

'They will be,' Arrow said confidently, 'are you?' He watched her as she pulled open the map of the Rebel base and murmured a few words so that distinct passages shone gold and flickered.

Pansy shot him her sultriest smile, 'Boy,' she said with a wink, 'I was born ready.'

…

The court room was thrown into disarray as the first blocks of the caving ceiling fell to the ground and seemed to shake everything. In a flash Mordred was once again at Ginny's side, his arm grasping her waist to restrain her and his body positioned in front of her to defend her. Dorian was the only member of his ensemble who was able to remain completely impassive as they waited for the perpetrators to reveal themselves; the entourage of witches and wizards had jumped to their feet and many had attempted to apparate out of the room. There was a moment of silence as everyone choked back the sickening mixture of dust and fear, then a single rope spiralled to the ground from the large cavity in the marble ceiling.

Two figures dressed all in black slid to the ground, their faces covered by balaclavas, wands drawn ready for a fight. It was Dorian who stepped forward, shaking his head minutely at Mordred who had been signalling to have Ginny removed from the scene.

'Welcome,' he said, his manner as commanding as ever as though he had invited these intruders to break in. 'Surely you will put down your wands in the presence of friends.'

The two intruders stood resolutely not wavering in their stance and Dorian sighed audibly.

'We have come for Ginevra Weasley,' the taller of the two spoke, his voice muffled by the mask but distinctly familiar to Ginny who could barely breathe for anticipation.

'Yes,' Dorian acknowledged with a small side glance to where Ginny stood still protected and confined by his right hand man. 'Well I'm afraid I'm thoroughly indisposed to let her go.'

'She is not yours to keep,' the same intruder spoke again and Ginny was once again caught in a sense of inexplicable attachment to the concealed figure. 'We are prepared to fight for her release.'

Dorian smiled and Ginny was chilled by the suddenly thought that he had been expecting this all along and had some ulterior plan. 'Surely,' he continued with the air of someone spoiled for choice, 'you have more to offer than a brief altercation, in which you would surely lose?'

'We have nothing to offer your people,' the intruder maintained, bracing himself even more tensely in anticipation of an attack.

'Oh, I think you do,' Dorian contradicted with a little smile, his left hand gesturing briefly to placate the guards on either side of him. 'But I refuse to conduct negotiations until I am convinced of your identity.' Dorian nodded to Mordred whose hand snaked its way around Ginny's throat, not enough to choke her but enough that she felt the discomfort. The message was clear; reveal yourself or else…

'Let her go,' the trespasser spoke again, 'we will show ourselves.' He murmured a brief incantation and Mordred's grip relaxed as their disguise began to melt away.

'How you got past our security is a mystery to me, but at least now I know who I am dealing with,' Dorian said calmly as the outline of the intruders shimmered into focus.

A general cry of shock went up around the room and Ginny felt her heart jump into her throat as the identity of the trespassers became evident. Dorian smiled once more but it did not reach his eyes.

'Welcome to the Rebel Alliance,' he said in hushed tones as the intruders stared boldly back at him, unperturbed by their sudden lack of concealment. Dorian turned to face his congregation and lifted his arms, 'A thousand salutations,' he commanded, 'to the great Harry Potter and his runaway accomplice Ariadne Holmes.'

Harry's eyes shot to Ginny's disbelieving gaze as she faltered in her struggle against Mordred's constraint.

'And I know just what you can offer us,' Dorian whispered so that only the two imposters and Ginny could hear.

…

Draco's wand came up defensively as he heard the rhythmic slapping of feet against the watery floor of the tunnel and did not relax even as Pansy came into view. Her eyes were wide and her breathing somewhat erratic, as she reached for his arm.

'Draco you have to stop,' she cried, pulling him away from the entrance. 'You can't go up there.'

'What the hell has gotten into you, Pans?' Blaise demanded, his eyes flicking to the passageway as Arrow came sprinting around the corner.

'Why did you run?' Arrow demanded when he reached the other three, his eyes focussing at once on Blaise and Draco's bewildered expressions. 'One minute you're looking at the map, next you take off?'

'Someone else broke in,' Pansy said quickly and all three of them went still.

It was Draco who first broke the silence, 'How is that possible? You're the only one who could have broken the security,' he said, advancing towards Pansy in a hostile manner. Blaise and Arrow both shot each other meaningful looks, it was possible they'd been betrayed.

Pansy stood her ground not flinching at the dangerously low note in Draco's tone. 'I am,' she asserted, 'but once I broke the enchantments anyone could have gotten through, they don't break and hold for you alone.'

'That still means someone knew of our plan,' Blaise pointed out with narrowed eyes and Draco did not let up on his offensive stance.

Pansy shook her head briefly, 'Not necessarily, with a complex this big it's possible that a security failure would register for anyone with an eye on this place.'

Arrow swore loudly, 'So anyone could be in there right now?' But Pansy shook her head once more, it was easy enough to trace someone inside the complex and she knew exactly who had entered.

Draco's well trained instincts honed in immediately on her expression, 'Who?' he demanded coldly.

Pansy paused and took in a breath, 'Harry Potter,' she replied in an almost whisper, 'and Ariadne Holmes.'

It was Blaise who jerked backwards at the information, his face gone deathly white and Draco noted the way his wand trembled ever so slightly in his grasp.

'Potter?' Arrow demanded of Draco, 'Isn't he with your Order lot?'

'Yes,' Pansy answered for him, 'And the Holmes girl, she's a known Auror, it's not surprising he went to her for help, they say there are few who can rival her skill.'

'What do we do now?' Arrow voiced the question on everyone's mind and it was Draco, as usual, who answered.

'We take up a new base,' he replied neutrally, 'and monitor from there, we can't risk going in now, it might jeopardise the position of our allies already inside. I know where we can stay.'

...

Neville Longbottam knew it was going to be a long night when he opened the door that night to find Draco Malfoy and three compatriots huddled in his porch from the beating onslaught of rain and hail.

Hullo my faithful readers! Once again I apologise for the wait, I have no excuse; I am lazy. But nevertheless I hope you will leave me with a review and any predictions for the next chapter!