Disclaimer: In case you have been living in a cave on mars with your fingers in yours ears for the last ten years or so; JK Rowling owns Harry Potter and all terms and characters associated with the fandom. I only own the story, some characterisations and an occasional OC; I try to limit them as much as possible. Some lyrics may crop up now and then and will be attributed as appropriate.

Chapter 22 - We Are Free Men

"Well, the future spills its intangibles
An unknown set of variables
A path that spliten infinitely up ahead
So tell me what's the use to pick and choose
From what you should or shouldn't do?
That's time spent better sleeping in your bed
Or wide awake in a shopping mall, trying clothes on from off of the wall
Yeah, anything to entertain yourself
'Cause a costume can be comfortable
It can make you feel more beautiful
It can even make you look like someone else
But it's still you, so there's nothing you can do
Like a bad habit, the one you couldn't kick, there it always is
And it's nothing that no doctor's gonna fix "

Bright Eyes

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Blaise sneered at the skinny, lank haired boy, who was pointing his wand in his direction. "Nott, do you have some kind of sixth sense that tells you when you are the last person in the world that someone wants to see, just so you can show up?" He raised his wand, pointing at directly at Nott's chest.

"And to think that Victoria almost had me convinced that you could be trusted." Nott said. "Still, all that bullshit you fed Malfoy seemed a bit unnecessary, Zabini. I think we both know that she would never lower herself to sleeping with you."

A smirk grew across Blaise's lips. "Well this is interesting, Nott. Don't tell me you've got a little crush on dear, old, Frobisher."

Draco quirked his eyebrow, looking at the two men pointing their wands at one another, he paid close attention to the expression that Blaise was wearing, he knew that look. It was one Blaise was particularly fond of wearing when he was winding Draco up. If Blaise could keep Nott's attention locked on him for long enough, there was a chance that Draco could drawn his wand from his pocket and take Nott down. But first, he needed a distraction; he internally egged Blaise on as he quickly tried to think of something he could do.

"Fuck you, Zabini!" Nott said, now snarling at his former roommate.

"Sorry to tell you, Theodore." Blaise said. "But Frobisher took more than one ride on the Blaise Express, with a one-way ticket to Zabini's end!"

"You, lying bastard!" Nott shouted, lunging forward at Blaise.

Draco reached into his back pocket, he'd only have one chance at this, looking across the room at Hermione, he nodded to her before calling out. "Get down!" It seemed to work, his shout caused both Nott and Blaise to break their deadlocked glares and look at Draco. He quickly pulled his wand free from his trousers and pointed it squarely at Nott. "Avada Kedavra!" The spell was caste, a jet of green light shot from Draco's wand. Nott noticed too late, unable to dodge out of the way, it hit him in the middle of his chest. Draco watched as Nott's body fell forward, hitting Blaise and knocking them both to the floor.

Hermione could do nothing but exhale; her mouth fell open slightly at the sight of Draco firing an unforgivable curse at someone. A moment passed, the room had fallen silent, which was only broken when Hermione took a step forward and curled her fingers around Nott's wrist. She held her hand there for a moment before standing up and looking at Draco. "He's dead."

"Oh good!" Said Blaise, the sound of his slightly muffled voice causing both Draco and Hermione to look down. "I do so hate those, faulty, killing curses. Now, would someone mind helping me get this DEAD BODY off me?"

Draco bent down and grabbed Nott's arm, he pulled on it sharply, lifting some of the dead weight from Blaise so he could push up from the floor and get to his feet. "Thanks, mate." Blaise said. "Much appreciated." He looked down at Nott's body lying on the floor. "Think we could have his head mounted on the wall at home?"

"How can you joke about that?" Hermione said. "That's a person that's just been killed."

"When you have my mother, you learn to see the funny side of death." Blaise said, matter of factly. "You get used to finding dead bodies around the house, surprisingly quickly."

"Shut up, the both of you!" Draco said, shifting a glare between the two of them. "Herm... Granger, get Nott's wand. Then throw me my shirt, it's by the bed." He said, pointing.

Hermione nodded her head, bending down to pry the wand from the dead wizard's hand before going to retrieve Draco's shirt, to throw it to him.

"Have you gone mental?" Blaise said. "You're letting her arm herself?"

"Yes..." Draco began.

"Oh, good!" Blaise said. "I'm glad you're smart enough to recognise your mental instability."

"Blaise..." Draco looked at Blaise with a glare. "No, I've not gone mental. Yes, I'm letting her arm herself and NO, I don't want to hear thoughts, views or sarcastic comments from you about it, understand?" Draco said, giving his friend a harsh look. "I've done things your way, now we're going to do things my way." Draco looked down at the body on the floor, scratching the back of his head. "If it was anyone else but you, who got us into this mess, mate, I would have killed them already out of sheer annoyance."

"Me?" Blaise said, looking offended. "One simple thing, it's called a lock, mate, learn to use one..."

"Blaise..." Draco flashed him a warning.

"Alright, alright." Blaise said. "What are we going to do?"

"Can I suggest something?" Hermione said.

Blaise and Draco looked at each other, then gave her their full attention.

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Four hours later...

All Draco had to do was wait and it was killing him. He was fairly certain that by now, there were only two people left in the building, himself and his father. Hermione's plan had been simple but surprisingly sane. Draco couldn't admit to her how impressed he was by it; he simply nodded his head and told Blaise it was a very good way of getting them out of trouble.

Blaise had made a portkey to transport Nott's body out of he building unnoticed, he was to dispose of it somewhere it wouldn't likely be found for a very long time. Hermione had told him she didn't want to know the details; she found the whole situation of murder much too vulgar to talk about casually. Blaise was to tell the people in the resistance building that they had to abandon it, the ministry had enough information to locate it and a raid team would be arriving within a matter of hours.

Blaise would then return the ministry to gather the raid team together, to stage a 'rescue,' on Draco and Lucius. Blaise had complained, at first, of the plan's lack of ingenuity, there would be no glory in it. Until Hermione had pointed out that this way, the ministry would be happy with a successful raid and the resistance would not know either who killed Nott or that Blaise had been planning to betray them. All round, he would be safe.

Draco was unsettled, he had found himself disappointed when the building was evacuating and Hermione had told him that she wasn't going to stay with him. To cope with this uncomfortable feeling, he had spent the past half an hour, staring at his foot, his legs stretched out on the bed in the room that he had been left alone in. He kept telling himself that he hadn't really appreciated his foot over the years and it was a very interesting foot, much more interesting than thinking about Hermione.

He wasn't at all sure what the events of the past few days meant for him, but he had decided something; he wasn't going to stay in England. He wanted to do something with his life, not just file paper work in the ministry and make a load of blonde babies with foul tempers. Perhaps he and Blaise could go to the continent, he could maybe find a quidditch team that would let him play for them and Blaise could join the European Gobstones circuit, like he had always wanted to. They could both try to fulfil the dreams they had left behind when the Dark Lord had risen to power. Bugger what their parents thought about it, they could perform their 'pureblood obligations' when they'd had chance to have some sort of a life.

He knew he was also going to have to get Blaise some help, he wasn't sure if it was the stress of being given such a position of responsibility at a young age in the ministry, four years worth of constant firewhiskey abuse, a case of temporary insanity or a combination of all three. But it seemed like his friend had misplaced a few marbles when he had spouted out his cockamamie plan and there was no way that Draco would leave him like that. Even if all he needed was a holiday and a few weeks off the hard liquor, Draco was going to see that his Blaise got it.

Draco found that in spite of telling himself not too, his thoughts kept returning to that of the fate of the former Gryffindor. He wondered how far away she was from him at that moment, if she had joined the other members of the resistance and simply gone to another cell's building or whether she had made moves to leave the country. He had no idea if she had any money or not to fund any attempted escape, but he guessed someone in the resistance would probably help her out. She had Nott's wand now, he wasn't sure if would work properly for her, but it would be better than nothing.

He heard the sound of heavy footsteps and doors being blasted down the corridor, this could only mean one thing. Company was coming.

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"Alright Malfoy, for the last time; what happened?" Mulicber said, as he began pacing up and down the room.

"The yellow tree was thoroughly translating a book about perfectly carving the bread on a quidditch pitch." He said.

"That's it!" Mulicber said, throwing his arms up into the air with frustration. "I am sick of this gibberish!"

"Mulicber?" Draco said. "I think my father has had enough for one day, don't you? Clearly, you'll have to wait until the babbling beverage or whatever they used on him wears off. I think you should perhaps let my mother take him home where he can rest, I've already told you everything I know."

"Yes, because that was so helpful." Mulicber said. "Being locked in a room and left there until we stormed the building was extremely informative, that's going to really help us discover who the leaders of the cell are."

"I couldn't help it if they didn't deem me important enough to pump for information." Draco said, restraining himself from smiling.

"So they addled your father's brain instead so he couldn't tell us anything?" Mulicber said.

"It appears so."

"Fine!" Mulicber said. "Take him! I have given up caring; the Dark Lord will have to be satisfied with what we have."

"Come, Father." Draco said. Taking his fathers arm and pulling him to his feet, he opened the door to the interview room and exited, to the face of Draco's worried mother.

"Well?" Narcissa said. "Is everything ok? Can I take him home? I've been so worried, Draco."

Draco gave his mother a reassuring smile and nodded to her. "Yes, you can take him home Mother, although I think you should take him to St.Mungo's, he's a bit confused."

"Over my dead body!" Narcissa said. "The pair of you have been gone long enough, your father can go home and straight to bed and I will send for Doctor Gull."

"Alright, Mother, if that's what you think is best."

"What I think would be best Draco is for you to come home." She said, taking her husband's arm and starting to walk down the ministry corridor. "Ever since you moved out all I have done is worry and I've tried to treat you as a responsible adult, darling, but honestly! There were hardly any decent wards around the house, no wonder they were able to break in so easily. You'd be much safer at home. I also think you'd better off leaving this job, it's much too dangerous for a young boy like you and if you really must, there are many other ways you can serve the Dark Lord, other than putting yourself in danger all the time."

"Yes, mother." Draco said, nodding his head slightly. "Actually, when I had my debriefing I requested a leave of absence; I think I'll get it."

"Well that's excellent, Draco." His mother responded. "And you'll think about returning home?"

"I'm not sure yet, Mother." Draco said. "I think me and Blaise could use a holiday actually."

"You boys do look after each other." Narcissa said. "Although..." She paused, looking at her husband for a moment, before looking at her son. "Your father did have a little talk with you didn't he? About how close..."

Draco raised his hand, interrupting his mother; he started to shake his head. "Yes. He did, don't worry, Mother. You'll be a Grandmother one day. We're not that close, trust me."

Narcissa smiled, nodding her head with relief.

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Draco stepped out of the fireplace into his living room, happy that he was back in his own house. "Blaise?"

"Darling! You're back!" Blaise's voice sounded out from the hall, a few moments later, his figure appeared in the doorway. "I thought they'd keep you in longer than that." He said. "Listen..."

"No." Draco said, walking across the living room, trailing ash from the bottom of his shoes as he went. "No listening, no 'Honey, I'm home' crap and certainly no drinking. Just, upstairs, we're packing."

"Good-o, I do so love it when you give me random instructions." Blaise said. He started to smirk, till he saw the serious look that Draco was giving him and decided to just follow him upstairs instead of trying to make light of things.

Draco walked to his bedroom, with Blaise in tow, he went straight to his wardrobe and pulled a medium sized bag from the bottom and began to fill it with clothes, first from his wardrobe, then from his dresser.

"Can I ask what it is that you are actually doing?" Blaise said, looking curiously at Draco.

"I told you, packing." Draco said.

"Why are you packing?" Blaise said.

"Because, we're going away."

"We are?"

"Yes." Draco said. "Send an owl to the RPD, request a leave of absence. I don't care what it costs me to bribe Mulicber; I want the permission granted owls waiting for us in the morning."

"So, we're both going away?"

Draco sighed, then looked at his friend, pausing his packing for a moment. "Clearly, you are not listening."

"Well, clearly, you're not explaining." Blaise said.

"We're going to get away from here, Blaise." Draco said, resuming his packing. "We can actually make a start on having a life."

"And we're going to do this on holiday?"

"Blaise, if all you are going to do is stand there and..."

"Alright, I'm sorry." Blaise said. "What's brought all this on?"

"A number of things, your growing insanity being one of the main contributing factors." Draco said.

"My growing what?"

"Don't feign ignorance, it doesn't suit you." Draco said.

"OK, I'll admit, I've been a little stressed." Blaise began, only to be cut off by Draco.

"It's more than that and you know it." He said. "Look, don't argue with me Blaise. Just go owl Mulicber and imply something about me bribing him. Then you can start packing."

"So, if you're going away, what do you suggest I do?" Hermione said from the doorway of Draco's bedroom.

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Author's Notes:

And so now, I run...

I have decided, in my next story, no more doors. There will be no doors anywhere!

I think this is the penultimate chapter. I have an idea for one more cliff-hanger that would fit in very nicely with what I am planning on doing in the end, but I haven't decided yet. Basically, if all goes according to plan, then the next chapter will be the last one.

If you haven't reviewed so far yet (this means YOU 100 people who read but don't leave reviews) then this is the time to do it. Get your opinions in before the story ends.

There might be an epilogue. No promises.

Special thanks go to: allycat1186, Fantasygirl26, ImperfectSilver, snapefan2007, Jonathan J Strange, Writer of Mysteries and GiggleGinny.

A big apology goes to those who know for using the 'Blaise express' line, again. I'm sorry I just love that line; it's my favourite Blaise saying.

So, as usual, please R&R