A/N: I'm pretty sure there's only going to be two chapters after this one, so it's nearly finished, guys! I'm really hoping to have it done by the end of September *fingers crossed*

Anyway, enjoy!

ELEVEN

If Draco Malfoy had had any expectations of his rescue trip, it would not have been that Ginny Weasley would transform into some sort of bird person and rip through the Death Eaters like they were putty. Granted, they had only run into ten or so of his father's friends, but Weasley hadn't even slowed down. She had killed Bellatrix Lestrange without even breaking a sweat, for merlin's sake. Perhaps Potter wasn't the Chosen One after all, maybe they could just sic Weasley on the Dark Lord and be done with it. Maybe some time when Draco wasn't with her though, just in case.

He glanced away from his work with the wards for a second to sneak a peek at the girl in question. She was standing facing away from him, her back strangely hunched and her hands (now ending in lethal looking claws rather than fingers) held slightly out from her sides. She looked like she was about to pounce.

"The wards, Malfoy," Potter muttered beside him, "We can worry about Ginny's murderous streak later." Draco was surprised at how little venom was in the other boy's voice, but then Potter hadn't been able to keep his glee to himself ever since Bellatrix had been killed. Draco snorted to himself; the Gryffindor Golden Boy could barely stand up and that was with adrenaline coursing through him, but Potter was still bloody giddy.

A few muttered words and a prod of his wand later and they were through. Draco grabbed Potter and turned to let Ginny know that they were home free, only to find himself face to face with two Dark Lords. They were sweeping towards the edge of the grounds, about fifty death eaters at their backs.

"It worked," Draco whispered. His legs started to shake and he stumbled backwards; this only served to make the Dark Lord looking his way smile. The other was focused on Ginny, who was almost quivering with what looked like rage. She had moved nearer to Draco since he last looked and her face was turned slightly towards his; it was twisted into an angry snarl that a human face should not have been able to make. Neither should a bird's, for that matter.

"You will not leave here alive," both Voldemorts hissed, still advancing on them. "You cannot leave the wards without my permission. You will die here."

"Actually," Potter said, grabbing hold of Draco's arm and looking meaningfully at Ginny, "You might be a bit wrong about that, Tom."

Draco registered what Potter meant as soon as Weasley threw herself at them. Well, almost as soon. There was a blind second of panic in which he thought she had turned on them and he was about to die, but he wouldn't be mentioning that. Ever. She hit into them with more force than should have been possible for a girl of her size and the Dark Lords could do nothing but scream with rage as the three of them passed through the wards and apparated away.

As if the Malfoy's would ever create wards around their house that didn't have a secret backdoor. One which only a pureblood Malfoy could use, of course.

"Where the fuck are we?" Pansy asked, looking around the run down warehouse in disgust. There were gaps in the roof and the walls were made of metal and rusting. Pansy wasn't sure she had ever set foot anywhere quite so… horrible before in her life. Not that it could bring her mood down at all, of course, because Ginny had been rescued and wasn't dead. Pansy wasn't sure at this moment that she could ever be unhappy again. Yes, she was well aware that that was a feeling that would soon leave her but that didn't mean that she couldn't enjoy it whilst it lasted.

She had been busily sitting in the library at Hogwarts, searching in vain for something that would allow her access through another family's blood wards when Ginny had appeared out of nowhere and insisted that Pansy come with her. Pansy had been so relieved that Ginny was alright that she had agreed before even bothering to check that it really was Ginny. She wasn't a Slytherin for nothing though, and a few silent charms aimed at the redhead's back took care of the identity issue. They had snuck through the corridors, stopping off at the dungeons where they found Hermione, Ron and Neville in a shouting match with Professor Snape. Loony Lovegood had been watching the fight, and they had all insisted on coming along. Though Ginny had not yet bothered to tell them where exactly it was that they were coming along to. Until now, that is.

"Abandoned warehouse. Wales, I think," She told them, clicking her neck. She looked like shit, Pansy was quick to note. Her usually flyaway red hair was falling lankly around her shoulders and she had veritable suitcases underneath her eyes. She looked small and frail. And somewhat covered in blood.

"Harry!" Hermione shrieked, running towards the boy in question, Ron not far behind her. Harry looked up wearily as they approached, but he managed a smile and didn't wince too much when they hugged him. Pansy took that as a good sign.

"Mr Malfoy," Snape drawled with no small amount, "I had assumed you were dead."

"Malfoy?"

"Malfoy?"

"I'll fucking kill him!"

This last came from Ron who then made a wild run at the brown haired boy who had, until Snape's words, been attempting to blend into the background. Unfortunately for him, Malfoy's just weren't made to blend. A gust of wind and rain lashed into Ron, knocking him to the ground and everybody turned to stare at Ginny.

"If anybody was going to kill him for what he did, Ronald, it would be me. He rescued me and Harry. Leave him the fuck alone." Ron spluttered for a minute, but then Luna stepped forward and pulled him away, across the warehouse, to calm down for a few minutes.

"Why is he here?" Draco asked Ginny, "He'll bring them to us in minutes!"

It was a mark of just how tired Ginny was that she didn't immediately realize who he was talking about.

"What, Ron? I know he's noisy but…"

"Not your idiot brother," Pansy rolled her eyes fondly, "Professor Snape. Remember how everyone but you lot thinks he's a Death Eater? And remember how you lot all seem to forget that and act like it's perfectly normal for him to be working with the good guys?"

"Oh," Ginny said. "Uh, Malfoy, spy, spy, Malfoy. Now that introductions are done, can I get some sleep?"

Draco blinked once, then twice. And then the look of panic appeared on his face again.

"No, but it doesn't matter if he's a spy or not, he's still bring them straight to our doorstep!" He spluttered, staring wildly around as though he expected Death Eaters to appear any second.

"Professor Snape is not going to tell anybody we're here, Malfoy, he's on our side," Hermione snapped.

"Well, he's on our side," Harry muttered, "Not so sure which side you're on, Malfoy."

"It's not that!" Draco protested, ignoring Harry, "There are trackers in the Dark Mark, for Merlin's sake! You have to leave!"

This was news to everybody. Even Ron and Luna drifted back to the group, though Ron still looked mutinous. Pansy narrowed her eyes at Draco. Last thing she knew, he had the mark himself. It wasn't exactly something you could hide when you ended up in the states of undress that she had seen him in. Draco saw her look and tugged his sleeve up.

"I cut it off," he told her, baring his mutilated forearm for all to see. Snape went white.

"Find a knife," he snapped at the group in general.

Draco was in a state of disbelief. Severe disbelief. As if it hadn't been enough that he, murderer of the great Albus Dumbledore, had just saved Ginny Weasley and Harry Potter. As if it hadn't been enough that the Dark Lord had found a way to duplicate himself. As if it hadn't been enough that Pansy Parkinson was not only on the side of the light, but it seemed she had engineered her very own side in the war and was somewhat in love with the Weasley girl to boot. (Draco could not say why he knew that this last point was true, only that Pansy had never looked at him like that, and they had been fucking for years.) As if all of this had not been enough for one day.

But no, apparently it wasn't enough for his godfather, who, it turned out, was not one of the Dark Lord's most trustworthy servants after all. No, he was a spy and was now asking Draco to cut his Dark Mark off. Draco wanted nothing more than to go back to his room above the dingy pub he worked in and sleep. Sleep for long enough that all of this seemed like a dream. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like that was an option any more.

"He's angry," Potter suddenly ground out through clenched teeth, "Really angry. I think he's found Bellatrix." He was slumped against Granger, clutching his head. Draco remembered hearing something about Potter doing this in Divination once, but he had never thought that it really worked. He had assumed that it was Dumbledore's Golden Boy being Snape's Attention Seeking Brat again.

"Bellatrix? What happened to that bitch?" It was Longbottom who spoke, but Draco had to stare hard at the boy to be certain of that. Where was the meek, clumsy boy from school? This boy had more in common with Ginny Weasley on a killing spree than the bumbling idiot from Potions. Speaking of Ginny Weasley…

"I killed her," she grinned, looking every bit as demented as she probably was.

"If you do not stop talking and find me a knife, then we will all be dead and it will be rather hard to celebrate Weasley's murderous streak," Snape spat out, glaring around at the group.

"Why don't you just use magic?" Pansy asked, voicing Draco's own thoughts. Snape glared at her, his sneer more pronounced than usual.

"I used magic to cut my skin once before, I have no intention of ever repeating it." Draco blinked, staring at his godfather in a new light. Did that mean what he thought it meant…? But no, there could be a hundred reasons for those words and jumping to conclusions would not be appreciated by the snarling head of Slytherin house.

It was Luna who eventually came forward with a knife, which she had evidently been carrying in her bag. Draco didn't question that for more than a second- it was Loony Lovegood, after all. And then all that was left was for Draco to watch his godfather mutilate himself- all on Draco's orders, of course.

It was perhaps two days later when everybody in the group felt up to talking. They all knew that they didn't have a moment to lose, of course, they knew that the two Voldemort's were likely out there killing and creating chaos as they sat around their abandoned warehouse playing chess or sleeping or practicing spells. So they felt guilty about it (bar Draco, who had too much else to feel guilty about to let a little thing like this bother him, and Luna, who was just strange that way), but that did not stop them doing it.

Truth was, they needed the time to rest. Though they didn't quite realize it at the time, both Ginny and Harry had come awfully close to dying in those cells. And the rest, well, intense worry can really take it out of a person, and whilst they all knew that they should still be worried they couldn't quite bring themselves to do so. Their friends were safe (for now) and they were together. Sometimes, that was all you could ask for.

And if Ron and Hermione avoided Draco like the plague, and Snape avoided everybody like they were students and he was an irritable Potions master, and Ginny and Pansy avoided everybody who wasn't Ginny or Pansy, well then nobody mentioned it.

Ginny was the one to start the conversation. After her initial adrenaline rush had worn off, she had begun to realize exactly what she had done. She had killed about ten people (she felt even worse that she did not know the exact number- one kill blurred into another in her mind), most of them with her bare hands. And it had felt right. Like she was made so that these people could die. Rationally, she knew that this wasn't her- it was the Thunderbird lurking in her blood that thought these killings were justice, but Ginny Weasley was rarely rational at the best of times, let alone when this amount of stress and pressure was mounted on her shoulders.

"We need to end this soon," she said once the group had assembled, hugging her knees to her chest and keeping her eyes downcast. Pansy sat to her right, close enough that their feet could touch, whilst Harry was to her right. It had only taken one night's rest before Ginny's power was at the level at which it seemed to hypnotize Harry, but now he was back to staring at the redhead almost constantly. If Ginny found it annoying or unnerving she hadn't mentioned it to anybody, and so it became yet another of those things that were simply left uncommented upon.

"As much as I agree, Miss Weasley, I can't help but wonder if we have the means to finish this, soon or otherwise," Snape drawled, but it lacked his usual venom. Two days out from under the Dark Lord's thumb had done him a world of good. He had even cracked a smile when Harry reported that Voldemort had cursed Wormtail in his anger at losing his pet Potions master.

"Of course we have the means, we just have to figure out how to use them," Pansy said, her eyes flickering almost imperceptibly towards Ginny.

"Use me, you mean," Ginny said, flashing a smile at Pansy to let her know that there were no hard feelings. She wasn't stupid, and whilst she would prefer to have nothing to do with this entire war, she was well aware that her input could give them the advantage when it came down to it.

"I'm worried about mum and dad," Ron blurted out suddenly. "I mean, they must've figured out that we're all together, after we all disappeared at the same time, and what if they go after our families, thinking that we're with them?"

"Your mother and father are both very capable, Mr Weasley, they are more than able to look after themselves. Besides, if the Dark Lord has realized that I am with you, and I am sure her has, then he knows me well enough to know that I would not be idiot enough to hide out in your parent's shed."

Ron shut up, though Ginny was almost certain that it was more the shock of Snape's almost kind (for him) reassurance than the actual words.

"Do we even know why Voldemort went after your blood?" Hermione asked, "I mean, he needed Harry's beforehand, but why Ginny? Was it because of the Thunderbird? But I can't see that making any sense, and how would he even know about that?"

Ron looked pointedly at Draco, who scowled back.

"I didn't even know about it until I got here, Weasley," he snapped.

"I have sort of a theory about that, actually," Harry said, dragging his eyes away from Ginny and ignoring Ron and Draco. "The diary from second year. It was Riddle's old school diary, had like… a part of him in it. Dumbledore said… well, Dumbledore said it was a horcrux. I think that because me and Ginny used it that maybe part of him got… left on us? Like traces of him in our blood or something. It's the only common factor between us, really."

"Huh," Ginny grunted, "That actually makes sense."

"You don't need to sound so surprised," Harry grinned.

"So, does anybody have any idea what we're going to do?" Neville asked. To everyone's surprise, it was again Harry who answered.

"I, um, sort of have a theory about that as well."

Minerva McGonagall shivered as the Scottish winter wind howled around her. The top of the Astronomy tower was not the warmest place to be, but then again it was not warmth that she wanted right now. Or should I say, it was not warmth that she needed. It happened very rarely in her life, and so she always found that she was entirely unequipped to dealing with it when a situation arose in which she did not know what to do.

She always knew what to do. Usually, it was simple- if a student has done wrong, punish them. If they have done well, reward them. If a staff member has annoyed you, let them know it with a frosty glare. If a former classmate has gone evil and begun to kill all of your friends, you stand against him. But this…

Professor Dumbledore was dead, killed by the hand of a student. The student in question (she refused to even think his name) had disappeared, presumed to be by Voldemort's side. Professor Snape was missing- whether to join Voldemort or because he opposed him, she did not know. Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley had been kidnapped, and because of them the upper years in Hogwarts were completely decimated. And now some of the few older students she had left had gone as well, to Merlin knows where.

And it fell on her shoulders to pick up the pieces. To comfort the younger students whose friends, family members and mentors had been discovered to be Death Eaters. Dead Death Eaters at that. To listen to Molly Weasley sob because her two youngest children had disappeared. To field questions from the press and the ministry and all sorts of other people who expected her to know everything. To try and hold a school together with no support. Merlin, Minerva was finding it difficult enough to hold herself together these days, so how was she supposed to be able to help any of these people?

"Come back," she whispered into the night sky, "Come back and help me."