Chapter 42

Draco had woken up from his state of unconsciousness and immediately knew where he was; home. When he had joined the Order, he had given up any thoughts about ever seeing this place again, at least until the war was over, yet here he was. Draco was confused at first, the Snatchers should have taken them straight to the Ministry, unless it wasn't Ministry officials they needed to see. The only reason they would be here was if they were being taken to Voldemort, meaning they must have been found out.

Draco quickly glanced over to a nearby pond on the property to check his reflection as he was marched forward. He didn't know what had transpired while he had been unconscious, and for all he knew his appearance had been restored. He let out a breath when he saw the black hair in his reflection.

His mother was the first person he had seen once they entered the house. She was paler and thinner from the last time he had seen her, and her age had begun to show on her previous youthful face. The war must have been hard on her, especially thinking that her only son was dead.

"Is it true? You have Potter?" his mother asked as her eyes skimmed Harry. She paid him little attention as she lightly moved Harry's hair out of the way to try and see his scar. Thankfully, Harry's face was still bruised and swollen just enough to make it hard to detect who he was. His scar was covered in dirt and sweat thus masking it. "What happened to his face?"

Greyback shook his head, "I don't know, Mrs Malfoy. It was like that when we found the four of them."

"Four?" his father asked sharply, stepping out of the shadows with his aunt Bellatrix. He hadn't realised that his aunt was staying in the home, but her presence made it bad news for them. With her here, it would be harder to even attempt an escape plan.

"That would make you Mr Weasley, and you Miss Granger," Lucius said, as he nodded at Hermione and Ron. Hermione turned her face away slightly, to avoid his father's scrutinizing gaze. "But who would you be?" his father asked, addressing Draco.

"Scorpius White," Draco said, attempting to keep his voice as level as possible. He felt his mother and father's eyes upon him and immediately saw a flicker of recognition in his mother's eyes. His father, however, remained emotionless.

"I see," his father said coolly.

"We want our payment," Scabior said raspily. "We brought in the Undesirables, now give us our money."

Bellatrix attempted to shoo them away, "Yes, you will be paid in time. Now we must present them to the Dark Lord."

"We would like our money now," Greyback said, intervening Bellatrix's attempt to get rid of the Snatchers.

"Soon," Bellatrix insisted, as she raised up her sleeve to reveal her dark mark. "I shall summon the Dark Lord first."

His father interrupted her by grabbing her wrist. "No, Bellatrix. This is my house, I shall summon him here. Therefore, it is upon my authority-"

"Your authority?" Bellatrix asked with an incredulous laugh. "It stopped being your authority the minute your wand was lost. Let go of me, Lucius."

"This has nothing to do with you," Lucius insisted. "You didn't capture the boy-"

"No, Mr Malfoy, it was us who did. So if you pardon me, it will be us who receives the gold," Greyback said, cutting into the conversation.

Hermione shot Draco a look of desperation. If Voldemort came now, then everything they had been striving for would be lost. There were at least four undestroyed Horcruxes, none of which any of them knew the whereabouts of.

"Gold?" Bellatrix said with a shriek. "You think I care about gold? I want the honour of brining the Dark Lord Potter, not something as meaningless as gold." Bellatrix ripped her arm away from Lucius and was about to place her wand to her forearm, before something stopped her. Her eyes widened as she nearly fell backwards. "Where did you get that?" Bellatrix said, in an alarmingly low voice, as she pointed to the sword that Scabior was currently holding.

"Found it in the tent," the Snatcher replied gruffly.

"Give it to me," she demanded.

"It's mine! I found it," Scabior said, as he held the sword away from her.

"I said give it to me!" she screamed out. "Stupefy."

Scabior fell to the ground, and when the others tried to protest, they received an equal treatment. None of them had stood a chance against his psychotic aunt, and they were all currently on the ground, except for Greyback, who kneeled at her feet in defeat.

Satisfied, Bellatrix turned her attention to the four prisoners. "Now, how did you get the sword?" She asked them, a look of both fury and fright plastered on her face.

"Does that even matter? We have Potter, just summon the Dark Lord," Lucius said, not at all understanding her sudden fascination.

"You don't understand the danger we're in! If we summon him here without knowing how they got the sword, he'll kill us all!" Bellatrix shouted at his father.

She paused for a moment, and Draco could see her cold calculating eyes think about how to proceed next.

"Take them all to the dungeons…all except for the Mudblood," she said, addressing his father, with a cruel smile flitting across her face.

Draco could guess where his aunt was going with her sudden plan, and in a hurry, he did not stop to think before screaming out, "NO!"

All of a sudden, her gaze fell upon him. "Scorpius White…how familiar you look. Well, seeing how insistent you are, I suppose I can allow you to join us," she said cruelly.

"No!" Hermione shouted out, but it was too late, Harry and Ron were already being ushered away, to the dungeons.

Bellatrix closed the doors to the drawing room, leaving only one Death Eater behind. She had sent his parents off to go contact Gringotts to inquire how her vault had been broken into, a task Draco could not understand why would be necessary. Draco knew his aunt loved having an audience as she tortured people. Instinctively, he turned to face the other Death Eater.

His eyes widened as he saw that it was none other than Blaise, the friend who swore that he would never join up willingly. He didn't know how he had managed not to notice his friend before.

Blaise was facing him, and Draco looked up to meet his eyes. He wanted to see if his friend recognised him, and wanted to know what Blaise would do if he did. However Blaise simply looked right through him, his eyes glazed over. As a person who had grown up around dark magic, Draco knew immediately that Blaise was under the Imperious curse and was not there under his own violation. If Draco got the chance, he would break his friend out of it; he owed him that much.

Bellatrix turned to face them. "Miss Granger, this can happen one of two ways. You can either tell me how you got the sword, or I'll torture you and your friend until you do."

"We found it," Hermione said quickly, trying to divert her attention from Draco. He knew that Hermione was worried that his aunt would figure it out.

Bellatrix scoffed. "Right, I suppose you just happened to stumble upon it? Tell me, how did you get if from my vault at Gingotts?"

"I didn't!" Hermione insisted. "I swear, we found it!"

Bellatrix looked bored, "Crucio," she said with a flick of her wand. "I can do this all day, Mudblood, so the sooner you tell me, the better."

Hermione's screams echoed over the entire Manor, and Draco felt something tear him apart.

"She's telling the truth," Draco shouted out. "Stop it!"

Bellatrix turned her attention to him. "Really? Why don't you tell me who you really are, White? I know that's not your real name, so spare us all, and reveal yourself."

"No," Draco said simply.

"No?" She repeated, in a disbelieving voice. "How dare you take that tone with me! Crucio!" she yelled out.

Draco felt his entire body quake with pain. Part of him was tempted to just give in and tell her everything. But he knew that it would do nothing. So instead he resisted.

When Bellatrix was satisfied, she removed the spell. "Now, let's try that again, shall we? Reveal yourself!"

"I won't!" Draco yelled out, however, he instantly knew something was wrong when she smiled at him.

"Won't…or can't?" she asked with a twisted grin. "By the look on the Mudblood's face, I'll have to go with the latter."

She cast a spell upon him, revealing the presence of the Imperious curse Hermione had placed upon him as a precaution.

"An Unforgiveable? Looks like someone has been rather naughty! Oh I love it when the Light breaks their code of conduct! Now, let's reveal who you really are, shall we? Finite Incantatem."

Draco felt the release from the curse and simultaneously, he knew that his appearance was being restored.

"Draco?" his aunt asked in shocked confusion. "You died on that tower! We all saw your body, and it was lifeless!"

"Yes, well the Order seems to have quite a number of tricks up their sleeves. They've kept me as prisoner all these months," Draco said quickly, formulating a cover story. Hermione had placed a defeated look upon her face, and Draco knew that she was playing along.

Blaise's eyes remained glazed over, but Draco could have sworn that his friend nearly broke out of the curse momentarily. Draco knew that he had to do something about it to change to the odds to his favour.

"Aunt Bella, I would like my wand back, if you please. It's been months since I've been able to wield it by my own violation," Draco said, returning a drawl to his voice. It had been months since he had spoken with superiority in his tone, but he had to sound as convincing as possible, so using his old habits would be best.

"Of course, Draco," she said with a grin. "Then you can punish this little mudblood bitch for all the hell she must have put you through." Bellatrix waved her wand and instantly procured Draco's wand.

Well now he had a weapon to get out of here, but somehow, he would need to break out Hermione, Harry, and Ron. He wasn't sure what Blaise would want to do, so he would leave that to his friend to figure out.

Draco turned his back to his aunt so she wouldn't see his wand movements. Pointing it at his friend, he silently cast the Finite Incantatem on his friend to remove the Imperious.

It was a good thing that Bellatrix's attention was currently focused completely on Hermione because when Blaise came out from under the spell, he was anything but subtle. Blaise looked at Draco, eyes filled with shock; whether it was because Draco was alive, or that he had lifted the spell from Blaise, Draco did not know. Draco silently shook his head at his old friend, to indicate that all will be revealed to him at a later time. However now, Draco needed to figure out just how he was planning on getting out of a room with one of the most dangerous witches blocking the exit.

To say Theo was surprised would be an understatement. After being in the dungeons for Salazaar knows how long with no visits, it was getting rather boring. But boring meant no pain, no torture, and no death for him, for which Theo did not complain. So when to doors to the dungeon opened, Theo felt his heart race with fear. He had finally begun to heal from the last torture session, but he didn't know how long he would be able to last this time.

But nobody came in to get him. Instead, two bodies got thrown down into the cellars. He knew that the newest guests were obviously alive, but he had no idea how badly they were injured.

"Harry? Ron?" Dean called out once he recognized the two.

"Dean?" Potter asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Snatchers. They caught us in the woods a few weeks ago; been here ever since," Dean said, instantly brightening up at the sight of his fellow Gryffindors.

"I'm glad to see you're alive, Harry," Luna's voice said softly, making Potter and Weasley aware of her presence.

"Not you too! How did they get you, Luna?" Harry asked her with a worried tone.

"Grabbed me off the train; probably because of my father's articles in support of you. Mr. Ollivander is in here too, as well as Theodore."

He felt the attention in the room shift to him. Potter looked unsure of him, and Weasley looked like he was trying really hard to hold back a retort, making him slightly constipated.

However neither boy said anything to him as a piercing female scream echoed off the walls of the dungeons.

"HERMIONE!" Weasley bellowed out, his voice bouncing off the dungeons.

"Shut up, Ron!" Potter snapped. "We need to think of a way to get out of here before Voldemort shows up. We need to be able to rescue Hermione and Draco as well."

Theo's mind snapped to attention as the second name was mentioned. Ignoring the light of a Deluminator or whatever Weasley had called it, filling the room, Theo turned his attention to the Chosen One.

"What did you mean, 'save Draco'?" Theo asked him sharply.

Potter looked hesitant, as if he realised that he had said something which he ought not to have said.

"You can trust him," Dean said. "He was with us in the forest, and he save our arses more times than we can count."

Potter seemed satisfied with his answer. In Theo's opinion, a bit too trusting of his friend's word, like a true Gryffindor. But Theo supposed that was one of the many things that separated the two of them.

"Draco joined the Order while we were in school," Potter started.

"Are you bloody shitting me?" Theo sputtered out. He had suspected that Draco had given in and gone to the Death Eaters, but he never once would have guessed that Draco had completely abandoned the system.

"We faked his death, to get him out alive," Potter finished. "He's been on the run with us for months."

Theo was furious. "The bloody arse. We were supposed to deal with it together, and instead he goes and joins the freaking Order, and doesn't even tell us? Selfish little prig. Wait until I give him a piece of my mind," Theo muttered.

Apparently that was not the reaction Potter and Weasley were expecting. But to hide the face, Potter began to rustle through his pockets, while Weasley turned his attention to the other prisoners.

"Help us! We're in the dungeons at Malfoy Manor, help us!" Potter yelled out at a glass shred on the ground. Had months on the run turned the boy insane? Theo hoped for all of their sakes that this was not the case.

"WHAT ELSE DID YOU TAKE FROM MY VAULT?" Bellatrix's voice yelled out in resonance. Theo couldn't hear Granger's response, but judging from the scream that ensued, Theo knew it wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Let's try this once more, shall we? How did you get into my vault to take that sword?" Bellatrix asked the girl.

"It's a fake! I swear, it's a fake," Granger cried out, her voice dripping with pain.

"It should be easy enough to check that," he heard Lucius say. Draco's father must have re-entered the room after leaving it briefly.

"Get the Goblin," Bellatrix commanded Lucius, and almost immediately Theo heard the footsteps approach them.

"Say it's a fake," he heard Potter urge Griphook. "Please! Don't tell them the truth."

The goblin said nothing as the doors opened and Lucius grabbed him from the cellar. Theo hoped for Granger's sake that Griphook would lie. Goblins were tricky, and rarely got involved in human business if it didn't benefit them.

There was a pop, almost like one from apparition, but one Theo knew to be from elf magic. He turned around to see Potter addressing the Malfoy's disowned elf.

"Dobby?" Potter asked, stunned.

"Dobby has come to save Harry Potter," The elf said happily.

"How did you get in here?" Potter asked him sharply. "Can you Disapperate in the cellar, Dobby?"

The house elf happily nodded his head, as his large ears waved slightly.

"And you can take others with you?" Potter asked once more, only to receive a similar response.

"Right then. Dobby, I want you take Dean, Luna, Mr. Ollivander, Griphook, and Nott with you, then come back for Ron, Hermione, Draco, and I."

"That doesn't work for me, Potter," Nott says. "Blaise is still here, under the Imperious curse, and I want to get him out of here as well. I'll go with you and help grab him."

"Then there will be too many people to get out! It will be six of us, and who knows if Dobby can manage to apparate that many people? This way we can split it near even. We'll grab Zabini and bring him with us."

"Not a chance!" Theo scoffed. "How do I know you won't just leave him? Besides, he won't trust you, hell, I'm not even sure that I do. But Blaise trusts me and it will make it easier to get him out."

Potter looked like he wanted to argue, but knew that time was ticking away, especially once he heard Granger let out another scream.

"Okay, Dobby, take the four of them to…Shell Cottage – Bill and Fleur's place. Can you manage to apparate the six of us?"

Dobby looked slightly worried, but his eager smile returned. "Dobby shall do his best, Harry Potter." The elf snapped his fingers, and the bonds against their skin immediately vanished. Dobby then gathered up Theo's cellmates, and with a pop, the five of them were gone.

"Did you hear that?" Bellatrix said above them. "Something's happening in the dungeons Wormtail, go and check on the prisoners."

Potter gestured for them to be silent as the stood by the door, waiting for Wormtail to come so that they could ambush him. Theo silently prayed that nothing would go wrong with their escape attempt, but knew that it would be a long shot for all of them to leave unscathed.

A/N: Hey guys! I wanted to take this moment to thank you all for your continuous support. I had originally planned to make the Malfoy Manor all in one chapter, but while writing it I knew that the only way it would be able to happen if it was rushed. So I decided it was better to split it up and do a better job.