Author's Note: I have my last final this Friday. YAY! I simply cannot wait. It is extremely exciting for me. Can't wait to be home with nothing to worry about… although I am now worrying a bit about Meant to Be. I feel like I'm running out of steam with that story (haven't looked at it for a while). Darn.

Chapter 97

I follow Draco toward the large house. Blaise and Greengrass are both to my left, but I can't see them anymore—we cast the Disillusionment Charms just after arriving.

Draco pauses. "On three, we cross. One, two, three."

He steps forward, and I move with him—the reason for this is so that we can fool the wards into detecting the entry of only one person. When the guards see Draco, they'll think he came alone.

Draco sprints toward the building, and I follow as quietly as possible. I can hear Blaise or Greengrass' footsteps right beside mine.

Then Nott Sr. appears from within the house, and Draco stops running to block a curse from him. I stop running and move off to the side to stay out of reach of the battle. A warm hand wraps around mine, and I recognize it as Blaise's.

As Draco blasts his way into the house, two more Death Eaters appear.

"Grab Daphne," Blaise hisses from somewhere to my left.

I reach out, groping for her, and come into contact with her arm. She stiffens, then lifts her hand up to grip mine. I squeeze Blaise's hand once—we should minimize our speech to avoid detection.

He leads us into the house, and we flatten against the far wall, skirting the fight. I watch as Draco defends himself against the three Death Eaters. Nott Sr. is by far the most skilled, but the other two aren't exactly untalented either. I feel worry begin to take root in my stomach, but I can't screw up our plan at this point.

Please, Draco, be careful.

Then we enter a hallway, and Draco's out of sight. We make several turns, and it's clear the Blaise knows exactly where he's going—I don't remember this being in the map, but I didn't have a lot of time to look it over.

Then we stop in a hallway, and I see two Death Eaters standing guard by a door, presumably the one that leads to Nott's bedroom.

I release Greengrass' hand and draw my wand, pointing it at one of the Death Eaters.

Stupefy!

The Death Eater crumples to the ground, and his partner spins in our direction just in time for another jet of red light, one that was fired from my right, to hit him in the face.

Blaise appears to my left and lets go of my hand. Greengrass and I both lift the charms on ourselves as we head toward the door. Blaise throws it open, and all three of us enter.

"What are you doing here?" Nott asks.

"Fetching you, you dolt. Come on," Blaise says.

"I can't leave this room."

"Can't? What do you mean, can't?" Blaise asks.

"I mean exactly what I said," Nott says.

"Why not?" Greengrass asks.

"They took my mother. My father gave her up. If I leave this room, they'll kill her."

"Who's in charge, now?" I ask.

"Bellatrix."

Blaise frowns. "Any idea where your mother might be?"

"Best guess? The Malfoy Manor, I suppose. The place is secure, and Bellatrix can guard it herself."

"We can't force him to leave, then," Greengrass says.

"We could rescue his mother," I say.

Nott stares at me. "Are you daft?"

"No. We should be able to do it," I say.

"If Bellatrix herself is there…" Blaise begins.

"They want me, in order to catch Draco. Am I right?" I say, looking at Nott. "I'd be the perfect distraction."

"No," Blaise says immediately. "You're not—"

"I won't go myself, Blaise. Just listen."

He sighs but obeys.

"Draco has stock Polyjuice Potion at his house. We can add a hair from my head and give it to one of the guards we just knocked out in the hall. Then we could—"

"Are you suggesting that we put them under the Imperius Curse?" Blaise says.

"No. I was thinking more along the lines of wiping his memories and planting false ones."

Nott sighs. "So you want to distract them. Well, say it works. How will you get her out? You need to be a Death Eater to open any of our cells."

"You're coming with us," I say.

He shakes his head. "If I leave this room—"

"Who's going to know?" Greengrass points out. "We've already subdued the two guards who could tell Bellatrix, and Draco's got the others busy. Come with us."

Blaise nods his agreement. "We should go."

"Go to the outskirts of the Malfoy Manor, near the entrance," I say. "I'll meet you."

"Hermione, don't—" Blaise begins.

"We can't take Nott into Draco's house, but we need Polyjuice Potion. I'll grab Draco, and we'll go back to get it."

"But—"

"We don't have time, Blaise. Just let her go," Greengrass says. "I'll get one of the guards from the hallway."

"Hermione, be careful," Blaise says as Greengrass leaves the room.

"Everyone's always telling me that. Do I really come off as such a reckless person?"

Blaise smiles, but it looks a bit forced. "See you soon," he says.

Greengrass returns with the guard and grabs Nott's arm. He holds out his hand for Blaise.

"Good luck," I say to the three of them.

"You, too," Greengrass says.

Then they Disapparate, and I exit the room.

In the hallway, I conjure ropes to bind the other Death Eater and take his wand away. Then I move back through the house, mirroring the path that we took to get here, and finally reach a spot where I have a view of the fight going on in the entrance hall.

Draco is dueling Nott Sr. mostly, paying less attention to the other two. As I lift my wand to help, two Killing Curses fly from the end of Draco's wand in quick succession, striking the two "lesser" Death Eaters with deadly accuracy.

But in that moment, an Impediment Jinx from the elder Nott strikes Draco in the chest, and chains wrap around him. Draco Vanishes the chains instantly, but Nott Sr. has already reached Draco and is pointing his wand right at Draco's neck.

I fire a Stunning Spell at Nott, who stiffens and then slumps to the ground.

Draco sidesteps the body and looks over at me.

"Now who's the damsel in distress?" I say, smiling.

"Thank you, dashing prince," he quips. "Where are the others?"

"Nott said that we had to save his mother—your aunt took her to make sure that he wouldn't be going anywhere. We're going back to your place for Polyjuice Potion," I say.

He frowns, and I snatch his hand to lead him out of the house. It'd be best to finish all this business as quickly as possible.

"Who's going to be turning into whom, then?" Draco asks as I lead him toward the boundary.

"We knocked out a Death Eater. He'll become me to keep your aunt distracted so that we can hopefully snatch Mrs. Nott and get out of there," I reply.

Draco's quiet for a few beats.

Then he asks, "Who came up with this idea? You or Blaise?"

"Why couldn't it have been Nott or Greengrass?"

"It reeks of your way of thinking," Draco says as we reach the boundary.

I Disapparate, taking Draco with me. We appear in his living room, and he tells me to wait while he finds the potion in his kitchen—he knows his potion stores much better than I do, so I let him.

"Where are we meeting them?" he asks when he emerges about a minute later.

"I told them to go near the entrance."

He nods. "All right."

I pull a few strands of hair from my head. Draco opens the bottle, and I drop them inside. He caps the bottle again and takes my hand again.

"Draco, can you please stay here?"

He shakes his head. "I know the place best. I know exactly where… where she'd keep her prisoner."

I sigh, and Draco squeezes my hand.

"Ready?" he asks.

I lean up and kiss him once, twice. "Almost," I murmur against his lips before kissing him a third time.

He's smiling at me as I back away.

"Let's make this quick," he says.

I nod, and we Disapparate again. We appear outside the gates of the Manor, and Draco quickly leads me behind a small grove of trees.

"We already put Memory Charms on him," Blaise reports.

I'm almost surprised that Draco knew exactly where to find the others, but then I remember that Draco and Blaise practically grew up together. Of course he would know where Blaise would take Greengrass, Nott, and our decoy.

"Do you have the potion?" Blaise asks.

Draco passes the bottle to his friend, and together they force the guard to drink it. For safety, Blaise casts a Silencing Charm on him so that he won't be able to speak and ruin the illusion. Greengrass removes his wand to prevent him from Disapparating or lifting the charm to explain his condition—they may have altered his memory, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

"All right," Draco says. "We should probably maintain a chain, just to keep us all together. Blaise, keep a hold on our fake Hermione over there."

"As soon as anyone notices us, I'll lift the Charm on her—him. Got it," Blaise says.

"Come on, then."

Draco takes my hand, and I reach out for Nott's. He holds hands with Greengrass, whose other hand holds Blaise's. Maintaining Disillusionment Charms, we enter the Manor grounds—the wards don't detect us because we're all attached to Draco.

We manage to reach the Manor undetected, but in order to enter the building, we'll have to make some noise. Draco throws open the doors, and all of us rush inside. Three masked Death Eaters notice the sound and come toward the entrance.

Suddenly, a duplicate of myself appears and, bewildered, races out of the Manor. The Death Eaters chase "her" outside.

We stay still for a moment before Draco starts moving again, leading us through the Manor quickly and silently. It seems eerily empty, and I wonder if it's always like this. The last time I was here, I only really saw the interior of one room…

Avoiding those memories, I follow him down a flight of steps to a door. He opens it soundlessly, and we walk down some more stairs until we're in a corridor with steel doors set in the walls on either side. Clearly, we're in the dungeons.

Fenrir Greyback is standing in the hall when we enter, and he looks at the door warily, drawing his wand.

"Who's there?" he demands.

He prowls toward the foot of the stairs carefully, and I can see that he's inhaling deeply, trying to discern our identities by our scent. Thankfully, our combined scent should be enough to confuse him.

A Stunning Spell hits him in the chest, and I can tell it's from Draco, up front. I release Nott's hand to fire another, and two more immediately follow. The werewolf had remained standing after Draco's Stunning Spell, but the next three knock him off his feet, and he falls heavily to the ground.

We hurry down the hall, checking the cells for Mrs. Nott.

Then a huge flood of water sprays down the hallway, and all of us are drenched, dripping wet. I look in the direction of the spray and see that Bellatrix is standing in the doorway.

"Well, well, well," she says, smiling maniacally. "What have we here?"

I realize that she'll be able to tell where we are from the sound of water dripping from our clothing and quickly cast a silent Drying Charm on myself. I can tell that the others have thought of that as well because all of the dripping stops almost instantaneously.

A cell door just a bit farther down the hallway from me swings open, and Bellatrix lifts her wand, pointing toward it. I immediately leap to the entrance of the cell, hoping to block whoever it was that opened the door.

A blue jet of light is deflected by my charm, and the witch's eyes narrow.

"Granger is here," she says quietly, mostly to herself. Then she says, "Draco? Are you hiding here? There's an Anti-Disapparition Jinx all around the grounds. You won't be able to leave."

As she finishes speaking, Bellatrix moves onto the first step and shuts the door, sealing it behind her.

Then a large hand—I recognize it as Draco's from the smooth feel of his skin and the firmness of his grip—grabs onto mine and pulls me into the open cell.

Inside, I see a middle-aged woman leaning heavily on Nott, who is now visible. Blaise and Greengrass make themselves visible, and I follow suit, lifting the Disillusionment Charm on myself.

"What do we do?" I mouth.

The others shake their heads at me, looking worried.

I notice that Draco's still under a Disillusionment Charm and frown, looking around. Bellatrix's heels clack loudly against the ground as she moves closer, and I grip my wand tightly, preparing to face her.

"I'm over here."

That's Draco's voice.

And he's clearly outside the cell.

My eyes widen, and I move for the door, but Blaise snatches my arm and holds me back.

"We need to stop meeting like this, dear Draco," I hear Bellatrix say as her footsteps stop.

Naree appears with a loud crack that echoes through the dungeons, and outside, Bellatrix takes two steps toward our cell. But there's a crashing sound, and then flashes of light can be seen outside, indicative of a duel.

"Everyone hold hands," Naree whispers, taking my hand. "Master has ordered Naree to take you all back to safety."

When did he do that?

But before I can voice my question or break Naree's grip on my hand, it's already happening—Blaise, who still has a firm grip on my arm, takes Greengrass' hand. She in turn gets a hold of Nott, who's still supporting his mother's weight.

Then we've Disapparated, and the next thing I see is the Forbidden Forest.

"Naree, go back for him. Now," I say.

"Master told Naree to wait until he was called for."

"Why?" I demand.

"Naree does not question orders."

"Just go! Do you want him to die?" I say.

The elf shakes his head, eyes wide as he considers disobeying his master. He seems to trust me, and I hope that it's enough for him to go back for Draco—now. Then he nods his head once, quickly, and Disapparates.

Thank goodness.

We enter the Hogwarts boundary, but Nott stops at the edge, remembering just in time that he won't be able to cross.

"Mate, I'll take your mother to the hospital wing," Blaise says, turning back and taking Mrs. Nott's weight.

"No, I'll do it," Greengrass says. "You should convince McGonagall to let Theo come onto the grounds."

Blaise allows Greengrass to take Mrs. Nott from him. "Go to the Hog's Head," he says to Nott. "You should find an operating fireplace to use there."

Nott nods and Disapparates.

Then Blaise taps my shoulder. "Come on. We'll go talk to McGonagall or Shacklebolt together."

I turn away from the boundary reluctantly, wishing that I could have gone to help Naree retrieve Draco. But going with the elf would likely slow him down or distract him… and besides, house-elves are quick. He could be in and out of that dungeon in seconds.

We hurry toward the castle, and Justin Finch-Fletchley appears as we get close to Greengrass and Mrs. Nott.

"Help them up to the hospital wing," I tell him.

"But—" he begins.

"Just do it, mate," Blaise says, hardly slowing his pace.

"There's hardly any room left up there," Justin says. "Madam Pomfrey—"

"She'll make more room if she needs it," Blaise says.

We continue rapidly up toward the castle. I suppose there really isn't too much of an emergency going on, but it's best if we get Nott to safety—onto the grounds—as soon as possible, since he's become a turncoat, like Draco.

"I have a bad feeling that Shacklebolt might not let him in," Blaise says as we enter the castle.

"Then we'll talk to McGonagall," I say. "And if she won't let him in, Harry definitely will."

Blaise nods and starts up the staircase. "Right. Come on, then."

I follow him up, praying that Naree has reached Draco and that they're safely at his cottage by now…

Author's Note: So, about whether or not to warn you guys ahead of time, I have counted up your reviews (hahaha it was almost like voting!), and 20 wanted either to know how many were left, or to at least get a warning at the end, while 8 wanted a surprise. The rest either didn't specify or just said they didn't want the story to end (which is uber sweet… I don't want it to end either!).

I suppose I'll surprise you guys when I'm at the second to last chapter, how about that? I'll say UNO! And you'll know there's one more left :P (if you guys have never played the card game Uno before, then that will probably make no sense).