Disclaimer- I don't own Harry Potter.

Chapter 17- Stones in the Wall

"What?" Hermione said. "How?"

Draco traced his finger on a crack up the cement wall. Suddenly, his voice got more rushed and excited. "Yes! Yes, this is it!"

"What, Malfoy?" Ginny persisted.

He turned around, smiling. "When I was younger, and Father and Mother were out of the house, Blaise and I used to come down here and play. We would pretend we were Muggles that were imprisoned." He paused. "Never thought I really would be."

"Yes, so?" Ron said.

Draco glared. "So we discovered one time that if you remove a stone in the wall, way up there," he pointed to a spot about a yard and a half above his head, "the house elves in the kitchen can hear you. We used to use the little 'accidental' magic we had to levitate the rock down."

"But we don't have any more accidental magic." Hermione said forlornly.

"Well…" said Neville. "We could reach up there. Malfoy, you're strong enough to hold up one of us."

"So am I!" argued Ron.

"Weasley, lay down your pride. You've been deprived of a good meal for a year now- there's no meat on those arms any more." Draco said. Then he turned to Ginny. "Alright, get on."

She looked like she had tasted a lemon. "Do I have to?"

"Ginny, do you want to live or not?" Hermione said.

Ginny sighed. "Fine." She hesitantly climbed onto Draco's back and he stood up. She grasped the jagged rock on the wall and jerked it out, causing Draco to waver beneath her.

"Ahh!" she screamed. Slowly, she began to fall, only to be caught by Luna. "Thanks."

"Sure thing." Luna said.

"Well? Can they hear us?" Hermione said.

"I don't know," admitted Draco. "I think that before, guards used to levitate up there and there was some sort of a device so they could communicate with the cooks. But it was taken out and replaced with the rock."

Hermione gave him a surprised look.

"Hey! I do research on my house when I'm bored."

"Can we end the history lesson and just see if they can hear us?" Ron interrupted.

"Fine, fine." He looked up to the rock and called out. "Poky? Jinxle? Fallow? Can you hear me?"

There was silence. Hermione sighed and patted Draco's back. "That's alright, it was a good id-"

But she was interrupted by a small squeak. "Mast- Draco?"

They group brightened. Draco yelled back. "Poky?"

"Draco, Poky must go, Master Lucius says you are no longer my master. Poky must not listen to you."

Draco wrung his hands. He sent Hermione a desperate look. She racked her head, then something popped into her head.

"Poky?" she called. "Wait!"

"Who is this?" the house elf squeaked.

"Miss Hermione! Remember me?"

"Oh yes, Miss Hermione was nice."

"Listen, I am Draco's new girlfriend. We… might get married!" Both Draco and Ron gave her a surprised and incredulous look. She whispered to them: "It might make me her new master."

"You might be Draco's wife?" Poky called back.

"Yes. That makes me your new master, right?"

"Poky thinks so. Poky hopes so!"

"Okay then Poky- listen to me. I need you to come down here and help us escape. And if you happen to run into Harry Potter on the way here, take him to us, okay?"

"Oh yes, Poky will do anything to help Mistress win the war!"

"Hermione, you are pure genius." Neville said.

"Yeah," Draco said breathlessly. He hugged her close. "But just to make this clear, we're not getting married anytime soon."

"I know. Silly, we've only been dating for one day."

"Sorry to interrupt this lovefest, but we really do need to prepare some sort of plan. Harry might be coming, or we might be released." Ron said.

"You mean unleashed." Hermione said. "We'll be prisoners unleashed."

"Yeah," Ginny agreed with a grin. "Like monsters out of their cages. I'm tired of being scared and locked up and running away. Look where it got us." She waved a hand around the cell.

"I agree," said Neville. "We need to take a stand."

"This is such a cheesy movie moment," commented Draco.

"Maybe we could recruit some Crumple- Horned Snorkacks. They are quite vicious when provoked." Luna suggested.

"And Luna just ruined it." Draco said. Hermione laughed.

"Well? Ideas anyone?" Ron said.

"As I lived in it my whole life, I know that Manor quite well. I could guide us." Draco offered. "But if Potter comes, you know he'll want to walk straight up to the Dark Lord so they can have their whole epic final battle."

"And maybe that's what has to happen." Hermione said gently.

"Maybe."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Harry sneaked around the perimeter of the Manor, looking for an entrance. He was thankful for the thick shrubbery. Just as he was about to dart into another bush, he ran into something small, leathery, and quite bouncy.

"Akk! Don't kill Poky!" The thing covered its face as Harry jumped back in surprise.

Harry made a mental observance: Squeaky, small, large ears, avoids use of pronouns. "You must be a house elf!"

Poky uncovered her eyes, which instantly widened beyond belief. "You- you are Harry Potter!"

"Yes, yes, keep it down!" Harry whispered. "You mustn't tell your Masters I am here."

Poky shook her head furiously. "No, no, Poky would never do that. You see, I am going to see your friends. Mistress Hermione and Draco!"

"You are!" Harry exclaimed, unable to keep his voice down. "Where- where are they?"

"Dungeons." Poky hung her head. "Captured."

"And they communicated with you?"

"It is long story, Harry Potter. But we must get going. Mistress Hermione says that if Poky runs into Harry Potter then Poky must take him with her."

Harry nodded slowly. House elves were terrible liars, so he knew she was telling the truth. "Alright. Take me."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"When will he arrive?" Voldemort screamed. He whipped out his wand and pointed it at Lucius. "Crucio!"

Lucius's body fell to the ground of the living room and writhed in pain.

"Your nasty, filthy, betraying son, your pathetic sick wife, your little lies." Voldemort said, walking circles around Lucius. "Where is he?"

Lucius gasped for air. "I know not my Lord. He is… he is here. I do- do not lie."

"I give him two more hours. After that, you are finished Lucius!"

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Hermione gasped as the locks to their cage began to turn. Someone was coming, the iron bars that enclosed them were lifting.

"Is that-" Ginny said.

The bars shot up, revealing a hideously grimy Harry and a tiny house elf.

"-Harry?" she whispered. "Harry!" Harry shot towards her, awkwardly shy grin plastered on his face. He leaned down and kissed her, holding her close.

"Er, mate?" Ron said. "We've got places to go." Harry heard and released Ginny.

"Ron!" He grabbed him and pulled him into a hug, quickly letting go. "Mate, I've missed you so much."

"Same here. Being alone in a cell does strange things to your mind."

"Um, people?" Draco said. "We seriously have to get going before anyone hears us."

"Yeah," Hermione said. "Harry, I didn't want you to come, but I suppose it worked out for the better. Honestly, though, we must get going."

"D'you have a plan Harry?" Neville asked. Harry sheepishly shook his head.

"I was kind of hoping you all did."

"Well," Luna said. "I think we should get out of here first. Because then people won't be able to come and just pull that gate down and lock us all in."

The rest looked at her, just realizing this. "Right," said Harry. "Let's do that."

Once safely out of the cell, the six discussed a plan. "So," said Harry, "you probably won't like this idea, but it's the only way we'll be able to end this once and for all-"

"You want to go straight to Voldemort?" Draco interrupted.

"Actually, yes… wait. Did you guys already discuss this?"

"Sort of." Ginny admitted.

"Well… then you're okay with it?"

"Harry," Neville said. "There's no need to hide any longer, because we're going to have to face him in the end. There are no more horcruxes. We're all here. We might as well."

Ron gave an approving nod. "He's right, mate."

They all took a deep breath in, then let it out. This was it.

"Okay then. I suppose we should get going now." Harry said slowly.

"No we can't." Luna said. They all turned to her, confusing etched on their faces.

"Why not, Lovegood?" Draco asked.

"Because," she said simply, "We need all the help we can get, right? There are more people here."

"There are?" Hermione said. "Where?"

"Other cells. Look." Luna ran down the dreary dungeon corridors and shoved up some other bars. "Seamus!"

The others ran up and gasped. It was Seamus. Slowly, they opened the other cells, revealing Dean, Ernie, Cho, and a Ravenclaw named Lisa Turpin. They quickly explained what was going on, and they agreed to come with some reluctance.

"At least we have help." Hermione said.

"Yeah." Draco agreed. He leaned forward and kissed Hermione quickly. It was chaste, but sweet. "Just in case." He whispered in her ear.

The four new recruits opened their mouths, about to question the unlikely couple, but Ginny held up her hand. "It's a long story."

"And now's not the time." Harry said. "It's time to go."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

A/N- Okay, I'm sorry, this chapter sucked. Bad. Ugh! I hate myself for posting this, but I owe you all a chapter.

Excuse me if there are slow updates, but I have other stories/a life to take care of. (Okay, so my life consists of watching TV, but it's a life nevertheless!)

Review please!

~Potato