A Hundred Storms
Chapter Twenty-Two: Heads Will Roll
Off, off with your head
Dance, dance 'til you're dead
Heads will roll, heads will roll
Heads will roll on the floor
-Heads Will Roll, by Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs
Draco's blasting spell hit the thing right where Hermione would guess its chest to be, but instead of blasting it aside the spell cut the spirit right through the middle, severing it into to equally large and independently moving pieces.
"Oh," Hermione said quietly.
"Fuck," Draco said louder.
Draco grabbed Hermione around the waist from behind and swung her around to pin her against the wall. He turned his back to her and fixed his body between hers and the two rapidly approaching pieces of the Maliceptor. Draco was quickly going through his mental list of spells, charms, curses, and other means of defense, but was wary to try anything that might cause the deranged Poltergeist to split again.
Hermione was more proactive. She slipped her wand around his back and muttered "Impedimenta!" at the figure on the left.
"Granger! What the hell!" Draco hissed.
"Look, it worked," Hermione pointed at the figure. The Impediment Jinx did not stop the Maliceptor entirely, but it was coming at them from down the corridor at a much slower pace. The high-pitched whistling from earlier had turned into a hissing, like large snakes getting ready to strike. Draco quickly cast the jinx on the other one and then turned to Hermione.
"Make a run for it?" He asked.
Hermione shook her head, "They're too fast, we need-"
"Hermione?" Harry's voice interrupted her. "Are you done killing one another out here?" To Hermione's horror she saw Harry opened the portrait and looked out to the corridor. Unfortunately the way the frame swung out blocked the set of poltergeists completely from Harry's view.
Hermione wiggled her way out from behind Draco and stepped out from behind the pillar and into her friend's line of sight.
"Harry, look out!" Hermione called as the Maliceptor was right upon him,
"What?" Harry looked down the side of the hall where he had a full view, seeing nothing.
"The Maliceptor, Harry!" Hermione screeched and whipped two more spells at the figures almost right on top of Harry. "The Maliceptor is out here, get back in the common room!"
"Grab something heavy!" Draco called over top of Hermione.
Harry nodded, bewildered, and the portrait closed before the Maliceptor could rip it off of it's hinges.
Hermione turned on Draco. "Grab something heavy?" She demanded. "Now he'll be back out here risking his neck, too!"
"That's the idea, Granger," Draco said impatiently. "Didn't we already establish neither of us has anything on them to get rid of this thing again?"
Hermione bit her lip. So this was Slytherin thinking in action. She turned to the Maliceptors, both of whom were now past the common room door and about twenty feet away from their hiding place. Hermione's eyes widened when she saw the portrait creep open ever so carefully, and Harry's head popped out the side, along with Neville and Blaise.
"Looks like we have backup," Hermione whispered to Draco.
The two halves of the Maliceptor where almost on top of them now. Hermione tore her gaze from the spirit to the three boys that were now quietly crawling out of the common room. Harry was carrying one of the ancient tomes Hermione had been reading in the common room one night while Neville and Blaise were both armed with fire pokers. The book probably weighed more than the two wrought iron devices put together but Hermione still stared in mute horror as the three finally pounced on the two barely-corporal forms in front of them.
With a cry Harry managed to jump and land the enormous hardback book- right through the head of his half of the Maliceptor.
"What the hell is Potter carrying?" Draco looked at Hermione but she was too fixated on her friend to notice him. The Maliceptor seemed to acknowledge Harry's presence, but when the spirit swung it's only limb at Harry the arm went right through him.
Harry had braced himself for the impact, but only gasped in shock when the misty arm passed through his abdomen. Harry shot a bewildered look first at Neville and then at Hermione. Before Hermione could call out to him, Neville took his own iron and threw it at the second Maliceptor. The outcome was the same and the heavy object passed right through it's target and landed right at Hermione's feet. Hermione swiftly scooped up the iron rod and held it as she would a bat.
"Granger!" Draco shouted right beside her. "Get back here!"
"The others can't hit it," Hermione retorted. "Looks like we're on our own."
"Bloody Gryffindors," Draco swore under his breath. "Zabini, here!"
Blaise nodded and threw his own iron poker like a javelin through the first Maliceptor Harry could not harm. Draco waited for it to land a foot away and then snatched it up from the ground and hurried to Hermione's side. The two Maliceptors refocused on Hermione and Draco and started towards them, gliding as one.
"This was supposed to be a quiet year," he said to her, almost conversationally. "Keep my nose clean, mum says. Stay out of trouble, the ministry says. Be on your best behavior and nothing will happen to you."
"Now really isn't the best time, Malfoy," Hermione said under her breath. "Ready?"
"Ready. Three?"
"One...two..."
"THREE!" Hermione and Draco split apart like they had been practicing for this very moment all their lives, Hermione taking the right while Draco took the left. They both raised their weapons and simultaneously swung from their respective stances, striking the two pieces of the approaching enemy from either side and crashing it into itself. As it happened before, the impact between the iron rods colliding with the Maliceptor forced an explosion of barely-visible ghostly dust that erupted in the middle of the corridor, seeming to coat everything in a ten-foot radius.
Except it coated nothing. In the blink of an eye the pieces vanished, and she and Draco were left panting in the hallway, while Harry, Neville, and Blaise looked on in shock.
Harry seemed to regain his head first. "Hermione," he said slowly. "You didn't tell us how...aggressive this thing was."
"I didn't want to worry you," Hermione said.
"Worry us?" Harry demanded. "Hermione, that thing could have killed you, killed you both! You would have murdered me in my sleep if I kept this from you, and you're off trying to fight it yourself?"
Hermione lifted her chin just a little. "It's unpredictable, Harry. We haven't figured out what makes it tick just yet. Would you give up Auror training indefinitely just to follow me around Hogwarts everywhere I go?"
"Absolutely!" Harry replied, stunned she would even need to ask. "Hermione, this is serious!"
"And so am I," Hermione said sternly. "You can't put your career on hold just because I have a small poltergeist problem."
Harry's jaw dropped and he quickly crossed the distance between them. "I can't believe you think that's even an issue," he said softly once he was right in front of her. "You put your entire life on hold for me last year, my career is absolutely nothing compared to that."
The others looked on while Hermione's shoulders slumped just a little. "Look," she said. "There's something about whatever is causing this that is focused directly on Malfoy and I," She looked at Draco, who simply stared at them in stoney silence. Hermione sighed. "You can't even touch it, Harry. We're just going to have to be more diligent about carrying something we can use to fend off an attack if it comes."
"You can't live out the rest of the school year like this," Harry argued reasonably. "This was supposed to be your do-over. You shouldn't have to keep looking over your shoulder. You know that's no way to live."
Hermione smiled. "Don't worry," she said again. "The potion will be done in just a few more days. That should point us directly to who is behind this."
"And what if that doesn't work?" Harry demanded.
"Then I'll think of something else," Hermione replied shortly.
"That's not good enough, Hermione," Harry retorted. "You're in real danger here."
Hermione sighed. "I know, but I don't have any options right now."
"We should focus on who in conjuring it," Neville chimed in.
"That's what I'm trying to do," Hermione said patiently. "That's what the potion is for."
"What if whoever is causing it is not a student?" Neville countered. "What if they are not in the castle?"
Hermione shook her head. "No, we know whoever is causing this is in the castle, but considering how, well, malicious the Maliceptor is...I just can't see how it can be a student's emotions causing it. The attack is too precise. If it was something feeling off the energy of a child it should have been able to hurt Harry. It couldn't, so that leads me to believe Malfoy and I are being targeted specifically."
"You don't have anything in common," Blaise pointed out, looking at his former housemate.
"War," Neville said calmly. "They both fought in it."
"Draco was really more of a bystander, you know," Blaise said evenly, turning his gaze to Neville.
Neville barked out a bitter laugh. "Right, acting as an accomplice to Dumbledore's murder is really just standing by."
"That's enough, Neville," Harry warned as Blaise, Hermione, and Draco all tensed. "You know the real story, stop dredging the past."
"Well, what do you expect?" Neville said angrily. "Something dangerous is stalking them, Hermione has been attacked several times and he's always around. They're fighting constantly and after the Maliceptor shows up. What does that tell you?"
It looked like Draco was about to pull out his wand, but a small gasp from Hermione caught everyone's attention.
"Hermione?" Harry asked gently.
"The Maliceptor never attacks while we're fighting," Hermione said to no one in particular. She seemed to be thinking out loud. "In fact, the only time it really made an appearance was when we were finally being civil...coming back from the owlry the first time it showed up, we had come to some sort of agreement...of sorts. It was the first time we didn't blow up at one another. Since then it has only appeared when we were not fighting."
"Well," Harry said slowly. "That's something, I suppose. What does it mean?"
"Sound like sorcery," Blaise said quietly. "It's the only option that makes a margin of sense, I just cannot understand what sense it makes."
"That statement does not make sense," Neville grumbled. He then looked at Draco. "Is there anyone still running around that might have this kind of knowledge?"
"What are you looking at me for?" Draco demanded.
"Well," Neville said with mock contempt. "Who among us here was up close and personal with all Deatheaters?"
"Neville, stop it," Hermione said dangerously.
Neville looked between Hermione and Draco, and then finally at Harry. "Someone has to say it, why not me?" He asked. "He's bound to know of a few people who got off scot-free. He did."
"Neville!" Hermione shouted, her rage written clearly on her face. Her hands were tiny balls at her side, shaking with fury.
"Neville," Harry warned.
"No," Neville said stubbornly. "No, he-" Neville glared at Draco. "He received nothing more than a slap on the wrist. His aunt tortured my parents to insanity, he orchestrated Dumbledore's murder, why does no one else see that he is obviously the guilty party?"
"Because it is not obvious to the intelligent individuals currently present," Hermione gritted through her teeth.
Draco looked at Hermione with an unreadable expression, and then turned to look directly at Neville.
"I didn't know that," he said, holding Neville's gaze. "About your parents."
"Like hell," Neville cut him off.
"I didn't know!" Draco said louder. The four others were starting at him now. "I didn't know my aunt growing up. I knew about her, but nothing about what she did. Why should I? That woman I met was insane. I know nothing else about her, she-"
"Neville," Hermione interjected gently. "Malfoy, Draco, was just a baby in a pram. He was just like all of us when Bellatrix hurt your parents. How can you blame him for something he was too young to stop? Then and now?"
Neville glared at Hermione mutinously. "Why, Hermione?" He asked angrily. "Why are you defending him?"
Hermione opened her mouth, then closed it without a sound. Harry stepped away from her and positioned himself at her side, between where she stood unconsciously close to Draco.
"Neville," Harry addressed his former housemate. "You went through hell. I know what you went through. I lost my parents too. Last year you rose above it all and prevailed. I won't trivialize that. What Hermione and I went through though," Harry paused. "We saw the best and the worst of the people we loved and the people we thought we could trust. Everyone acts in the way that they think is best. That doesn't mean they meant any malice or even wanted to do the things they were pushed to do. It meant they had people they too loved and wanted to survive. Until you understand that you're not going to understand our actions."
"Then I don't think I care to," Neville said, red in the face. "In fact, I don't think I need to be here talking to any of you anymore. Obviously your loyalties have changed."
With that Neville turned and stalked towards the common room. When the portrait swung open Hermione saw Ginny and the rest of the students inside, waiting with baited breath as to the fallout of the hallway. Neville slammed the portrait shut behind him.
"Well," Harry said, running his hand through his hair. "That went well."
"Right," Blaise agreed, bending over to pick up the discarded book Harry had tried to attack the Maliceptor with. "What now?"
"Back to the original question, however distasteful it was," Harry replied. "Is there anyone we can ask about Deatheaters that managed to avoid incarceration?"
Hermione looked at Draco, who had not said a word since Neville's first outburst. "My mother," he finally said. "If anyone paid any attention to my father or I, my mother would know."
"Alright then," Harry said. "Will you talk to her?"
Draco narrowed his eyes at his childhood rival. "And make her relive that?"
"It's not for me," Harry said and looked pointedly at Hermione.
Draco's tense body language relaxed by a margin. He stared at Harry, who returned the gaze without blinking. Draco then quickly shot a glance at Hermione, who was biting her bottom lip and looking between her best friend and the man she barely knew. Finally Draco sighed with a sound of defeat. "Fine," he said, but his voice was void of anger. "I'll go see her tomorrow."
(A/N) Ahhhh. That was hard too. Poor Neville. I am pretty pumped to try my hand at Narcissa, though. Remember to find me on tumblr as arielxwriter! You can find a sneak peak snippet of writing Narcissa as well as other random blathering :) Let know what you think! If you like what you read please recommend =D