Chapter 41

It was past midnight when Draco slid silently out of bed. He got dressed but didn't put on his shoes until he was out of the dormitory and had pushed the door closed behind him. Pansy was already waiting for him in the common room. She stood up when she saw him

"Sorry I'm late," said Draco quietly as they headed for the exit.. "Nott kept moving around, I wasn't sure if he was asleep."

"It's fine, I haven't been waiting long."

The scuffling of their footsteps sounded awfully loud in the echoey corridors of the dungeons.

"Do you think this is a good idea?" he asked.

"I haven't thought any part of this was a good idea since we started."

"You didn't have to come."

"You would be an uneven number without me. I want to help, I already told you that. And you'll need my moral support when you get your ass handed to you by a Weasley."

They had gotten the message from the Gryffindors the day before. Draco's fight with Pansy had gotten in the way of him telling Harry what they had found out about the dementors and he hadn't talked to him since. So maybe Granger had told them, or maybe they had no reason but simply felt it instinctively, how it was all looming ever closer, the way Draco did. No matter the reason, they had decided that they ought to practice their duelling before heading to Azkaban. They no longer had access to the room of requirement, so they would have to get off the school grounds to stay unnoticed.

Pansy cast nervous glances back up at the castle when they passed over the grounds. All the windows were dark, and even if someone had been looking out, Draco doubted they would have noticed the two dark figures making their way towards the gates.

They walked down the path where the thestrals pulled the carriages to the school on the first day after the summer holidays. Draco thought he had understood where the Gryffindors wanted them to meet, but no one was waiting for them. He looked back towards the castle.

"I thought it was here," he said.

Pansy nodded, looking uncertain too.

"We're late. Maybe they didn't think we were coming."

Draco pulled out his watch – it was hard to read it in the dark, but he was pretty sure it was only ten minutes past the time they had agreed upon. He was about to tell this to Pansy when she started violently and a strangled, high pitched sound escaped her throat. Draco had his wand out in a second, his heart pounding.

Granger stood on the path only three meters ahead of them. She hadn't been there a second ago and they hadn't heard the crack of someone apparating.

"Is that an invisibility cloak?" asked Pansy, pointing Draco's attention to the piece of cloth folded in Granger's arms.

"Yeah, it's Harry's," she said.

Draco groaned.

"He had an invisibility cloak? All this time? And then that map…" He looked at Pansy. "You see how everything is starting to make sense?"

Pansy rolled her eyes.

"Oh, the hours of Potter-analysis I could have been spared from if only you had found out earlier."

"As far as I know, Malfoy doesn't have an invisibility cloak and I wasn't spared from endless hours of Malfoy-theories, so…" Granger shrugged.

Pansy looked disoriented.

"No? Well, no, I suppose not…" she said lamely.

There was a moment of awkward silence as the conversation stalled on the fact that Granger had just engaged in their conversation in such a casual manner. Then she cleared her throat.

"So, why are you late?" she asked briskly.

"Sorry," Draco said. "Nott is a light sleeper, so I had to wait."

"Alright, well, the others are already there, I stayed behind to wait for you. I'll side-along you and we'll get started."

She reached out her arm to them and Pansy took it.

"You too," she said to Malfoy.

"You can side-along two at a time?"

"Yes, now come on."

Draco took Pansy's hand and as soon as his fingers closed around hers he felt the familiar jerk in his gut as the ground pulled away, air pressed itself hard against him and darkness pushed his eyes into his skull. He held onto Pansy's hand as hard as he could, and a second later the air cracked around them, he felt a hard jolt up his legs as his feet made contact with the ground once more. He stumbled a few steps forward before regaining his balance. Then he straightened up and looked around.

They were on a low hill and could see heath stretching out all around them. It was a bright, clear night and the moon was almost full. There were no houses in sight, only small groves of trees breaking up the landscape. He assumed they must be somewhere in the English countryside and could probably place it more precisely if he found out which one of Harry's people had picked the place. It was perfect for their intentions – no one for miles to see the light from their spells and they would have to be very loud before anyone would hear them. He turned around and saw the rest of their group getting to their feet from where they had been sitting while they waited for the Slytherins.

There wasn't much time spent on hellos. As soon as Draco and Pansy had arrived, Ginny got to her feet and asked them all to split into pairs of two.

"And obviously I shouldn't have to say this, but we're not using any spells that might cause any actual damage. We don't want to have to explain any injuries to Madam Pomfrey. I know it's less realistic, but that's how it has to be," she said.

They all nodded in agreement and then Pansy and Draco walked away from the others as the groups spread out. He pulled his wand out and they took up position. He had had practice duels with Pansy before, and a few real ones when their fights had gotten out of hand. Draco almost always won, Pansy was smart, but her magic wasn't very powerful and she struggled with many spells that came easily to him. She smirked at him, glancing at the others like she thought it was all a bit silly.

"Are we really going to do this?" she asked.

"Of course," he said and raised his wand.

Her wand whipped through the air and the curse took him by surprise. He didn't know she could do non-verbal spells.

"Protego!" he cried, taking a quick step back.

Pansy grinned.

"Children's spells, Draco!"

He and Pansy only duelled for a few minutes before she got tired of it and let him disarm her. She walked over to him and he handed her wand back.

"Do you want to go again or…?" he asked.

"Or we could watch the Gryffindors," she said. "You'll need to know what they duel like anyway if you have to fight with them."

It was a thin excuse, especially since Draco hoped desperately he would be able to stay mostly out of any fights, but he was curious. They turned to watch the duels going on around them, the loud cracks of magic and flashes of light seeming closer now that they weren't duelling themselves anymore.

Harry had paired up with Ron, which was obviously an unfair match. Harry was faster, his spells stronger and more varied. Weasley was mostly on the defensive and it was an easy duel to follow as he used hardly any non-verbal spells. Both his attacks and defences were very predictable, straight-forward, typical duelling spells. Draco suspected Potter was going easy on him or he would have already disarmed him.

Longbottom and Lovegood were the furthest away from them, but he was interested in seeing what they were like in a fight. He couldn't make out most of their verbal spells over the noise Potter and Weasley were making, but there was something clumsy about their pace. Longbottom wasn't fast, but his spells were still much more frequent than Lovegood's. He was pretty sure she was stepping out of the way more than she was deflecting his attacks, so his aim had to be pretty bad even if there was a heavy force behind his magic that Draco wouldn't have expected – he had been calling him a squib for years, which seemed ridiculous now. But then Longbottom had never performed like that in a classroom. Then Lovegood raised her voice and the complicated string of words carried all the way to where Pansy and Draco were standing. There was a flash of purple light, her robes billowed around her and her blond hair rose in a white cloud. Longbottom didn't even try to cast a protection spell, he just threw himself down on the ground to get out of the way as the spell passed over him.

"Did she just…?" Pansy said.

"I… don't think so?" said Draco, feeling just as bewildered as she sounded. "I would expect Lovegood to listen to Weasley, but…"

"But I have no idea what that was."

"Doesn't mean it was necessarily something dangerous."

"Right, leave it to Lovegood to use something harmless and obscure in a duel."

"I wouldn't know how to block it, though."

Pansy shrugged.

Longbottom had managed to cast a disarming spell from where he had fallen and now he was getting up to hand the wand back to Lovegood. Draco could see them stopping to talk before they split up again to start over. Pansy nudged him and he looked over at her, then followed her gaze to where Granger and Ginny were duelling – and that was a fearsome thing to watch. Granger seemed able to cast non-verbal spells just as easily as verbal ones, and even though it was hard to make out the details of her movement in the dark, the intricate wandwork was enough to tell them that she was not using simple spells. There were only seconds between the sharp flashes of light, glimmers of shielding charms going up and cascades of sparks when the attacks were deflected. However, despite her advanced spells, it was clear that Granger was loosing. Ginny was ferocious, her spells fast and powerful, and there was a certainty to her movements that made it obvious who was the better duellist of the two. Draco and Pansy had only been watching them for a couple of seconds when Granger reacted too slowly to a close succession of spells from Weasley – she deflected the first one, but the second one caught her, and it must have been an expelliarmus, because her wand flew from her grip and Ginny caught it with a triumphant cry. They watched the two of them catching their breath, then Ginny walking over to Granger to hand her wand back. Next to Draco, Pansy stepped forward.

"Are we going to do group battles too?" she called to them.

Draco looked surprised at her.

"Where did that initiative suddenly come from?" he hissed.

She ignored him. Weasley's smile had vanished from her face as soon as Pansy spoke.

"What?" she called back.

Draco followed Pansy as she made her way towards the Gryffindors.

"I asked if we were going to do group duels?"

"We are. I'm just giving the others a bit more time," said Weasley.

Pansy glanced back over her shoulder.

"I think they're all on at least their second duel," she said.

Weasley looked coolly at her, clearly not appreciating the input, but she did step towards the two pairs still fighting.

"Hey!" she called and they stopped, turning to look at her. "Harry, how do you feel about doing a couple of group duels?"

He shrugged.

"Alright?"

"So, two on two?" she said addressing all of them.

"Maybe we should mix it up a bit? I'm already acquainted with Draco's style and I suppose you might feel the same way about each other?"

Ginny narrowed her eyes.

"What are you getting at?" she asked.

Pansy shrugged.

"Nothing, I just thought since we're already depriving ourselves of a good night's sleep we might as well try to use our time effectively."

"Fine, whatever. You and Hermione against me and Luna, Malfoy and Neville against Ron and Harry?"

Shrugs and nods around the scattered group and Pansy made as if to follow Weasley and Granger. Draco grabbed her sleeve.

"What are you doing?" he whispered.

She smiled innocently.

"Practising duelling," she said and walked away from him.

"You ready?"

Draco turned away from Pansy, forgetting what he had been about to say to her. Longbottom was watching him warily, twiddling his wand between his fingers.

"What's up with her?" Longbottom continued, nodding towards Pansy.

"I have no idea," said Draco.

And a second later he didn't care anymore – he caught Harry grinning excitedly at them as if he had already won and Draco felt a rush of adrenaline like the one that would hit him during quidditch matches when he knew both of them had spotted the snitch. He raised his wand, unable to keep a smile off his own face.

It was not at all like duelling with Pansy. Draco would get competitive even with her, but it was something entirely else when he was facing Potter and Weasley. Longbottom wasn't as bad of a partner as he could have feared, but they were not even a minute into their duel before it became clear that the two of them were the inferior team. Draco was sweating in his robes and his jaw was clenched as he fired a close succession of three different, non-verbal disarming spells at Potter, all of which were deflected either by Potter or Weasley. And bloody Weasley – he was turning out to be a nightmare in a duel as soon as it wasn't just one on one. His spells were no less dull or predictable, but now they were suddenly well placed, covering Harry where he opened up, he was constantly moving about so Draco more than once almost hit Longbottom when he tried to throw a spell in his direction. Draco's heart was pounding and he was out of breath, but the rush of adrenaline was worth every painful stab through his lungs. Longbottom's voice sounded far away when he yelled for him to duck. Draco did and a needle of light shot over his head. He was back up in a second, so caught up in the game he hardly noticed the growing noise to his left, the bright bursts of light were only slight irritations in his peripheral vision. It was only when a loud, resounding crash bellowed around them that he turned to look at the other group. His wand was snatched from his hand by a disarming spell a second later, and he didn't even know if it was Harry or Weasley who cast it. When he glanced back, they had all lowered their wands too, and like him they were staring wide eyed at Pansy and Ginny.

The two girls were duelling like it was the final battle of the war. Lovegood and Granger had stepped back and stood uncertainly on the edges of it the fight, their wands down. Pansy and Ginny whirled around each other, their cloaks whipped about by the superfluous energy from missing spells, shield spells were cast with furious cries and there was determined anger on both their faces.

"Shit…" breathed Draco.

"We should probably stop them," said Longbottom.

"How?" said Weasley.

No one answered that – or if they did it was drowned out by the loud hiss of one of Pansy's spells being swallowed by Ginny's protective charm. And Draco had to admit that he was slightly impressed that she was holding her ground. He would have pegged Ginny as the best duellist of the lot, but Pansy was keeping up with her, even if there was a sheen of sweat on brow and her movements looked frantic where Ginny's were rapid and certain. He gripped his wand tighter, knowing Longbottom was right and that Weasley was too, but Pansy would tire out soon and watching the furious look on Ginny's face, he wasn't sure she would stop when she did. He watched Pansy dancing around, half dodging half deflecting the barrage of spells hitting her, fighting for the chance to cast a shot, then noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye and reacted before he could think, dragging Longbottom's arm down and holding on to his wrist to keep his wand pointed to the ground.

"What are you doing?" he hissed.

"Disarming her, that'll stop them-"

"Yes, after she's been hit head on by three of Weasley's spells – do you know what Weasley's casting? Disarm her if you're-"

"Expelliarmus!" cried Ginny and the red light caught Pansy in the chest, throwing her off her feet next to Granger, the wand flying from her hand.

Ginny caught it. She lowered her own wand and was about to turn away when someone cried out, loud and shrill and frightened.

"Ginny!"

Pansy was on her feet and had snatched Granger's wand – her curse missed Weasley by mere inches.

"Protego horribilis!" cried Weasley slashing her wand downwards.

Draco knew that spell. Or he knew variations of it. There were different wand movements that meant different duration and coverage. The incantation was the same though, and all variations served the same purpose: it was a shield charm against dark curses that would block almost anything short of unforgiveables.

Ginny was out of breath and off-balance, but they had all seen Pansy's first spell miss; they had all seen Ginny cast the shield in time for the second one.

There were startled cries from the others when she collapsed.

Draco felt like he was falling.

He stood frozen and watched as Weasley ran for his sister, followed seconds later by Longbottom, Lovegood and Harry. The dark shape of her body disappeared from Draco's view when they crowded around her. He watched as Granger yanked her wand from Pansy's limp hand and went to join them. Pansy was still breathing heavily, her mouth half open, her face red and splotchy, strands of black hair clung to her cheeks.

It was an eternity before she turned to look at him. His chest felt cramped. Words stuck in his throat but he held her gaze and hoped she knew him well enough to read the why from his expression, to see the fury and the betrayal in his eyes.

And then he heard the voices of the Gryffindors.

"I'm alright! Ron, look I'm fine – Luna fixed my legs, I'm fine."

Draco turned to see Ginny standing up between them looking completely unharmed. He stared at them, unable to move or make sense of what he was seeing. He looked to Pansy, but her eyes were on Ginny. Slowly, he approached the group.

"It was a jelly-legs jinx, alright, calm down!" said Ginny, shaking Ron off her.

Only then did Draco really feel like he could breathe again, relief finally flooding through him. "You said no dangerous spells," called Pansy, coming towards them.

"Pretty dumb to cast shield that only protects from dark curses."

Ginny shrugged.

"Didn't trust you to follow the rules," she said.

"Well, I did."

"Sure, except for when you stole Luna's wand after Ginny had won," began Ron.

Pansy shot him an icy look.

"The duel wasn't over. I could still fight, so she shouldn't have assumed it was - and you should probably make a note of that before you try to use expelliarmus against any of the aurors in Azkaban."

"No dangerous spells," said Ginny, holding Pansy's wand out to her. "I didn't break the rules either. If it had been real, it would not have been expelliarmus that hit you."

"Oh, I don't doubt that," said Pansy.

There was a note of grudging respect in her tone. There was a brief moment where both of their hands were on the wand and their eyes were on each other, and there was a hint of a smile on both their faces.

Then Pansy put the wand away, and Ginny turned away from her, pushing back lock of her sweaty hair and the moment had passed.

"I'm exhausted," she sighed.

As soon as she said it, they all felt the acid in their muscles. The castle was very far away. Draco thought of how wonderful it would be to sink into his bed, but he right then apparating anywhere felt like more than he could manage.

Ginny sat down in the grass and the others followed. They formed a small, irregular circle of teenagers with tired faces, still recovering from the shock and relief from the duel, still with adrenaline pumping through their bodies. After all the noise of their spells, the night seemed completely quiet. Draco could feel the cold air drying the sweat on his neck.

Nobody said anything and in the silence, he watched the red-haired girl across from him. Lovegood was leaning against her and Ginny had put an arm around her and was running her fingers absentmindedly through her hair. She looked both fiery and serene and it was not the first time that Draco had to admit to himself that she was beautiful. The stab of jealousy he felt was familiar too. It was easy to understand why Harry had fallen in love with her. It was easy when looking at her, to see all the ways in which she would have been a better choice.

"We've figured out how to kill the dementors," said Granger quietly.

There was a second of stillness. They all turned to stare at her. She wasn't looking at anyone.

"What?" said Ronald, expressing eloquently what most of them were thinking.

Granger took a deep breath.

"Malfoy and Luna and I, we've figured out how to kill the dementors."

"When?" asked Harry, casting a confused glance at Draco, who was at a loss for words.

"A little over a week ago," said Granger.

She sounded so calm. Draco stared at her and tried to look past that, tried to see the the girl he had talked to in the secret room just a few days earlier, who had been fracturing under the pressure of the secret and the quest. He couldn't imagine why she would tell them in this way, or why she hadn't asked him or Lovegood to do it in her stead. He caught Lovegood's eye, but he couldn't read her expression. All the others looked perplexed.

"Why haven't you told us?" asked Harry.

"We- I didn't think it was a good idea to tell you because I knew you would all want to go before we were ready."

"Because we're not," interjected Draco, still looking hard at her. "Far from it. We've found out what to do about the dementors, yes, but there is still the pit and whatever it's doing to the tower, we still know nothing about that."

He said it heavily, more to Granger than any of the others – those had been her arguments. She shrugged.

"And we won't be able to find out either," she said.

Draco opened his mouth and closed it again.

"Right," he said. "We won't."

"So if we are ever going to go, we should do it soon. We're as ready as we're going to be."

"How soon?" asked Harry.

"We probably all need to rest after tonight. And we need to wait long enough to be sure no one has noticed we've been missing – in four days, maybe?"

Draco's gut wrenched. Four days was nothing.

He waited for Granger to announce that she wouldn't be coming with them – that was the only explanation he could think of for her odd timing. But she didn't say anything and so they all agreed that four days was long enough, and they would be leaving then.

"We should meet up in the room tomorrow to go over the plan," said Ginny. "You can tell us about the dementors then, I think we're all too tired for it now."

There was a general murmur of agreement.

"Then I guess we should get back to the castle," said Ron. "Try to catch some sleep."

He got to his feet and then extended a hand to Granger to pull her up too.

"See you back there," he said and then they disapparated.

"You mind side-alonging me?" Pansy asked Draco. "I'm a bit worn out."

Draco and Pansy appeared on the path that led to the gates of Hogwarts. Weasley and Granger were waiting for them a few meters ahead. A second later, Longbottom and Lovegood appeared in close succession. Two more cracks snapped behind them and they turned to see Potter and Ginny stumbling onto the gravel.

They walked as a group towards the gates. Draco longed for his bed and the blessed promise of exhausted sleep. Now that the excitement of it all was over, he could feel how tired, beaten and cold he was.

"I want to sleep forever," said Ginny.

"Anyone know what time it is?" asked Pansy.

"Close to five," said Harry.

"Well, shit," said Ginny.

No one had anything else to say to that. The sound of footsteps on gravel followed them the rest of the way to the gates and they passed between the winged boars that seemed to be looking sternly down at them. They were almost at the steps to the entrance hall when Granger touched his arm.

"Malfoy, can I talk to you for a second?" she asked.

They all stopped. Malfoy raised an eyebrow.

"Sure," he said.

"Just go ahead," she said to the other Gryffindors. "I'll meet you up there."

"Do you want me to wait for you, Draco?" asked Pansy.

He shook his head.

"No, it's fine, go get some sleep."

They watched the others climb the steps and disappear into the castle. Draco sent a longing glance after them. The chill of the early morning was steadily gnawing itself into his bones. Granger didn't speak until they were gone.

"I just wanted to say that I've thought a lot about what you said the other day," she said. "About me not going Azkaban."

"Yes, I see you made up your mind."

"I did. I wouldn't be able to stay back here not knowing what was happening to all of you, or if something did happen I don't think I could live with not knowing that perhaps I could have prevented it if I had been there."

Draco nodded.

"I understand."

"But I'm glad we talked."

"Me too."

"It was very decent of you."

"I'm so sorry for the way I've treated you over the years," he said and it came out rushed and clumsy.

She looked surprised.

"Thank you," she said.

"And I'm sorry for what Bellatrix did to you."

Granger looked away.

"Don't apologize," she said. "You're not responsible for what she did."

Draco nodded.

"It's cold out here," said Granger. "Let's go inside."

They went up the stairs and into the entrance hall. It was only dimly lit this time of day and it was a second before either of them noticed the figure sitting on the stairs waiting for them.

"Harry? I thought you went back with the others?" asked Granger.

"Yeah, no, I just remembered something. Do you mind if I talk to Draco for a second?" he said, standing up.

Granger looked from Harry to Draco, then shrugged.

"Sure," she said. "I'll see you up in the common room. And Malfoy, I guess I'll see you tomorrow. Goodnight."

They watched her go up the stairs.

"Hey," said Harry, only turning to face Draco when the sound of Granger's footsteps had disappeared above them and they were alone in the entrance hall.

He looked worn out.

"Hey," he said.

"Are you tired?" he asked.

Draco shrugged.

"I'm alright for a little while."

Harry leaned against the balustrade, not really looking at Draco.

"So, four days," he said.

Draco nodded.

"Crazy."

"Are you scared?"

"Yes."

Their voices were low making their words seem even smaller in the great silence of the empty hall.

"Me too," said Harry.

He looked miserable. Draco was almost too tired to be nervous, but he did feel the knot of apprehension in his stomach. They hadn't talked since their fight.

"I'm really tired," said Draco. "Maybe we should just head back and try to get some sleep?"

"Look, I'm sorry."

Draco scoffed.

"What's with all the apologies tonight."

"What?"

Draco shook his head.

"Nothing. I just talked to Granger outside. It's nothing."

"I shouldn't have asked you to obliviate Pansy."

"Harry, just leave it.

"I just wanted them to find out the right way. And I wanted… I liked that it could be easy between us. I know that's stupid, because it hasn't really been easy, but I couldn't stop thinking about all the ways it'll become even more difficult if everybody finds out."

"She's not dumb, she would have figured it out eventually anyway, but I talked to her and she won't tell anyone. It can still be a secret."

Harry took a step closer to Draco. Draco couldn't look at him.

"I don't want it to be," he said quietly.

"Harry-"

"Sometimes I look at you and I can't help thinking about all the shit that has happened, but that doesn't mean that I don't… I'm going to tell them, Draco. I am. They're my friends. They won't mind."

"I know."

Harry reached out and touched Draco's hand where it was clutching his left arm. The imagined itch of the dark mark on his skin was unbearable. Harry gently loosened his fingers.

"They won't mind," he said again and Draco allowed him to pull the hand free.

"Don't tell them until after Azkaban," he said.

Harry was making tiny circles with his thumb on the soft skin between Draco's thumb and forefinger.

"Alright."

"Thank you."