"Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

signifying nothing."

- Macbeth, William Shakespeare

Chapter Thirty-three: The End is the Beginning is the End

"Nora!" Harry said, and pointed to the east.

Nora looked toward where Harry was pointing; the sky had briefly lit up with red light. "Oh my," Nora said, releasing the handle of her broom.

"That's a Hogwarts charm, Nora," Harry said urgently. "Students use it when they need a teacher!"

"I remember," Kingsley put forth. "And what's more, look at that."

The group looked again, watching as the Dark Mark twisted the clouds unnaturally in the distance. A few of the Aurors with them noticeably shivered.

"And that's why we are happy to have you with us, Harry. Let's get over there before the rest of the department comes to investigate the Mark. Kingsley, you're in charge now; I'll take Harry and Shalvin to investigate and send a patronus when we're ready. If no patronus comes by the time the Ministry arrives, assume the worst."

"I'll get Jesse over here as well."

Nora nodded sharply. "Never have I been happier that you turned down the Minister position. We're going to need your expertise on this one."

Hermione awoke to the metallic smell of blood and the damp smell of old wood. She didn't move, realizing almost immediately that she had been knocked out and was probably captured.

"Pretense doesn't suit you," a voice said.

Hermione acknowledged the comment cooly and leaned against what felt like bars, her heart beginning to speed up.

"Remind me to thank dear Draco for bringing you to me; none of this would have been possible without him. He shall be greatly rewarded."

Hermione's cool mask shattered immediately. "Shut up about Draco!" she sputtered.

Master No Name's expression reached all the way up to her eyes, as if she was genuinely concerned. She tutted. "I hadn't realized how badly he'd fooled you."

"He's fooled no one but you, hag," Hermione shot back.

Master chuckled and shook her head. "How quickly you forget your past…" images from Hermione's past encounters with Draco began to fill her vision, "… and how quickly you forget his true nature." The images stopped with the last time she had seen him at school - he'd had the gall to insult them even as they saved his life, the Room of Requirement burning in the background.

A flicker of doubt crept into Hermione's expression; it was all Master needed. "He's manipulative, you know that. Don't pretend like you did not see this coming, Hermione."

"Don't… shut up."

Master got up and walked right over to where Hermione was sitting and laid a hand upon the cold steel of a bar. "To think, everyone named you when they thought of smart, cultured muggleborns. You. You let Draco Malfoy fool you into thinking that you'd be safe if you two killed me yourselves. I didn't see you dueling the Dark Lord in the end. You had Potter for that."

"That's ridiculous!" Hermione shouted, causing Master to recoil slightly in order to protect her hearing; Hermione's voice filled the large room and echoed down the hall. "There was a prophecy. What am I to do, single-handedly fight him? I figured I could do my part in taking you down, whether I succeeded or not!"

"Looks like you failed, honey," Master smirked. "Failed quite miserably. Now are you going to shut up long enough to do some reading?"

Hermione stopped, the thought of books and parchment and their comfort to her invading her senses. Her expression visibly hardened. "Do I look fit to read a damn thing?"

Master's smirk deepened. "Oh, of course, I apologize. I had forgotten how handicapped you were." Her eyes lit up at Hermione's indignant gasp. "I'll read it to you, then. Or we can wait until after the experiment, whichever you prefer."

"Experiment? What could you possibly experiment on?"

"You'll like this one," Master said, ignoring Hermione's jab. "I've been told you have a nose for academia. Research is in your bones." She turned and strode over to the desk. "I've been waiting quite a long time for you. Too long. So we'll be getting started immediately."

Master retrieved a stack of parchment and opened the cabinet next to the desk. Some sort of wooden contraption floated out, covered in leather straps, nails, metal bars, and plastic tubing. Hermione listened to the creaking and groaning of the contraption, wondering what in the world she was in for.

Draco ran, knowing that Master liked to waste no time once she got a new toy to play with. He could feel her "watching" him as he charged through the foliage, burnt leaves and branches crunching under his feet.

He tried to keep a clear head, but it was difficult, what with the way his heart wanted to spasm and how his throat wanted to tighten at the thought of what they were doing to her in there.

Why did he always have to learn this lesson?

Sure, it was easy to think he didn't need anyone when it came down to it. But that wasn't the case anymore.

He came upon a large tree in a clearing, reaching way up to the clouds above him; he did not hesitate, rushing immediately to the thing. His Dark Mark began to burn, and he pressed the skin against the tree's bark, looking around anxiously and wondering if the Ministry was on their way yet. It didn't matter if they caught him now, if anyone caught him now. All that mattered was Hermione's safety.

A door appeared, barely discernible from the surrounding bark, and Draco turned a nob on the tree that acted as the doorknob and stepped inside.

He was stupid, he realized. For thinking that they could do this.

Of course we can't. The very reason I thought we could… is the reason why we can't. Two people against the world? It only took the whim of one woman to foil this.

Draco's wand was out; the time for subtlety and sneaking around had passed. He stomped down the stairs and threw open the door in front of him, ignoring the grandeur of the foyer he had stepped into. He raised his wand.

"Where is Hermione?"

Master was waiting for him, as he knew she would be. What surprised him, however, was that she was alone. "Now now, Draco. Be polite," she tutted.

"Incarcerous!" Ropes formed and tightened around Master's slim form, framing the contours of her body, and winding around her neck.

She shook her head at him chidingly, but her eyes were angry. "At least buy me dinner first," she said shortly, and the ropes evaporated.

"SHUT IT! TELL ME WHERE YOU HAVE HER…" Master's words clicked in his brain. "She's in the dining hall, isn't she?" Draco started forward, intending on going around her.

She raised her wand, and Draco promptly fell, his feet bound to the floor.

"Not so fast, Malfoy," she said, turning to pick up her glass of wine from the ornate pedestal to her left. "I've got some questions for you."

Draco muttered the countercurse for the spell and jumped to his feet, his face twisted in an ugly scowl. "I SWEAR, If you've harmed a single hair on her head, I'm going to curse you into a bloody pulp!"

Master rolled her eyes and put the glass down. "Not now, Draco. We have much to discuss."

"W-What? Fuck that," Draco went to the door and tried the handle; it was locked. He cursed loudly as the golden handle burned his hand.

"I always wondered how you managed to escape the first time," No Name commented, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Seeing as you can't keep it together enough to get passed a locked door, I doubt you did it without a little help."

Draco turned, his eyes murderous.

There was yelling from the other side of the door; hopefully it was Hermione giving some Death Eaters a hard time. Draco's mood lightened.

"I asked you a question." Master sat in the leather armchair and straightened the edge of her dress.

Draco smirked darkly and relaxed. He knew how to open the door; he just couldn't concentrate enough to do it because of Master's infuriating comments. "You really need to see about the poor lighting in this place. It was all too easy to slip into the shadows."

"Well, yes," she said, shaking her head, "but I meant getting past the wards on the cell door."

"The corner by one side of the bars isn't warded, since whoever put them up stood inside the cell to put up the wards and needed a way to get out."

"Ah. Unfortunately, standing outside the cell when putting up the wards defeats the purpose of the cell. It just keeps people out, not in." She paused. "You hear that, Nora? You should have your people down in Spell Development work on that. I bet that'd do wonders for catching criminals or something."

"Don't talk to me."

No Name shrugged, a smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth; Draco whipped around and blanched as Harry Potter and Nora came into the light. Another wizard, probably an Auror, had his wand trained on him. The tension in the room increased as Draco eyed Harry warily. Harry however stared directly at Master No Name, once again startled by not only the woman's attire, but also her face - she was the spitting image of Nora Constable. "Nora... " he gasped.

"Always a lonely problem drinker, I see," Nora said, nodding at the wine on the table.

"Always a bloody killjoy, I see," Master retorted, standing up. She smiled as they noticeably started. "Shall I leave you lot to talk?"

Nora's expression darkened exponentially. "I don't think so, Mason." Nora raised her wand, and Master pouted as her feet locked to the floor. Her own wand give a small flick, and Nora's wand leapt away and clattered against the marble tiles.

"Don't be rude," she said, eying the bottle of wine on the table for a second, as if contemplating making the other woman a glass, or perhaps wondering if she really was a lonely problem drinker. "Let's have a chat."

Harry looked over at Nora briefly, still startled by the resemblance between them. Master looked like a slightly malnourished version of Nora, with longer hair and wider eyes. "Mason? That's a strange name for a woman..."

Nora looked at her wand on the floor, not seeming fazed at all by the fact that her weapon was not within reaching distance. The wand twitched, and then rose gently until it landed in her palm. "Don't be fooled," she said, twirling the wand, "No Name is my fucking brother - Mason."

Harry looked over at Master No Name to get confirmation of this; Master's expression hadn't changed. She was still smiling at the lot of them, her eyes malicious.

"You're just angry about how much trouble I've been."

"No," Nora said, shaking her head slowly. "I'm mad because my own fucking brother is involved in something as awful as this. I'm mad because I had no idea that you were still alive. I'm mad because I spent the longest time - "

"Well, I'm here now, so pipe down."

"Not the point, Mason."

"This is weird," Harry said uncertainly. "Are you sure that's him? I thought your brother was killed by…" He looked over at Master, his confident anger returning. "You faked your own death to create an image for your alter-ego?"

"Alter-ego?" Master asked incredulously. Harry took a step back. "This is who I am!" she seethed, gesturing at her body. "I have never been anyone but this. Everyone else just couldn't handle it."

Nora nodded. "And you decided to make them pay?"

"Don't oversimplify, sis - my chosen gender has nothing to do with that. I wanted to make my mark on the world, just like anyone."

"And so you lead all of us to think you were dead." Emotion tinged in Nora's expression for the briefest of moments, before she reformed her mask and said, "But something told me to check to make sure you were actually dead in the only other way I knew how - records controlled by magic."

Harry thought back to the book he had retrieved from the Archives.

"I looked at your parole record to see if the magic binding you to this area was still in place. It was. If you were really dead, then the magic would have automatically expired before the release date.

"And to top it off, the release date was the day before my office was broken into. Of course you would test out your new freedom by trying to mess up everything for me and the Ministry."

"Of course," Master confirmed, her control established again.

"I bet getting around the wards on my office was simple enough, seeing as we are twins, hmm? Spell Development will have to look into that. You could have easily passed as me at a glance, so long as you didn't have that creepy look on your face. And then you would probably have had the nerve to impersonate me regularly so that everyone suspected me as being 'Master No Name,' putting your cronies on my Ministry floor to fuel the lies. Unbelievable, the lengths you'd go to fuck with me."

"Sis, you really should take some anger management courses," Master commented lightly.

"So was that the plan then? When you realized that you couldn't just kill me off and take my place, you were going to ruin my career and possibly put me in Azkaban? To think, I was against our mother disowning you. Now I see why she did it."

"Don't," Master said suddenly, her face darkening as much as Nora's.

Nora crossed her arms. "I can't wait to tell her that she had been right all these years."

There was a tense silence; Harry watched Master's face contort into almost demon-like features. He suddenly wanted to just back out of the room and take off as fast as he could; was Nora insane enough to bait the other woman?

"You cannot imagine the immensity of the fuck I do not give."

"And so the person I dueled back in Bergen wasn't you, was it? An impostor. Where did you find such an idiot?"

Master's expression lightened. "Animated corpse. I'm quite gifted, as you know."

"So that's what the smell was," Nora quirked her head to the side. "In any case, I suggest you give up your plot now, before I have the entire Department of Magical Law Enforcement take you down."

"I'm not scared of a few Aurors," Master said, picking up her wine glass once again. She took as sip and set it back down. "Besides, you're too late. Whether you kill me or not, my work lives on."

"What 'work'? The only work you've done is screw up people's lives, especially Hermione's. And the Worthingtons' as well."

"Have you been paying any attention? I've isolated the magical gene. I've discovered the one thing that will save the wizard race from having to hide from muggles for the rest of eternity."

Harry nodded knowingly. "I knew it'd have to be something like that, considering what your cronies stole from the Department of Mysteries."

"Yes. I've made probably the most valuable contribution to the magical world in all of history. Nothing that happens now will rewrite what has been written, nor change what has occurred here. No matter what happens, the Ministry will be forced to look at my findings. Since Hermione Granger had to ruin my original plan, and you had to ruin my alternative, we are going through with the back-up plan. Whether I die here tonight, or you capture my Death Eaters, there will be debate over my work. It will be a debate as old as the wizarding race, as old as time itself."

Nora snorted, startling Shalvin slightly; Harry was getting antsy, wondering where the rest of the Death Eaters were and slowly realizing that Master was stalling.

"What do we do with a knowledge that can change lives forever? Will the Ministry choose to hide it away, sweep it into a corner? Or will it be voted on, implemented, voted on again, discussed? Will the Ministry approve the plan straight away, and we can all live in peace and harmony, giving all humans the strength and the tools they need to advance even further? It's up to that codger of a Minister you lot put in there, and it's up to you. But no matter what happens, it's my great work. And everyone will know that the smart and wonderful Nora Constable's insane, transgender and Death Eater brother came up with all of it."

So there it was. In the end, the only thing she was really after was recognition. Recognition of skill, of talent, of hard work. Of anything.

This was the core of a lot of people, even of Nora herself.

Nora's expression softened briefly before hardening again into amused contempt. "Why are you so desperate for attention?"

"The world is made up of attention-seeking whores. I'm just smarter than the rest," Master replied, visibly irritated with the obvious shoot-down of her lecture.

"Right, well, I think we're done here," Harry said. "I'll call in the Aurors."

"Shut the hell up, Potter, before I eat your soul," No Name said dismissively, smiling her frightening smile at her own joke. Harry did not dare think that she wouldn't eat his soul. He knew better.

"Too late!" Nora twirled her wand, sending a silvery patronus thundering towards the door. Master No Name watched it go, looking not in the least bit worried.

"So what of the prophecy then? What place does that have in any of this?"

Master sighed, turning away. "Just me being hopeful. I just wanted to know how this would end."

There was a loud bang from the other room, and an earsplitting scream; everyone turned to look, but Draco was already at work on the door, having stepped over to it unnoticed as Nora and Master talked. It burst open, and he shook his hand, willing it to stop burning.

Death Eaters flooded in, and Draco sidestepped against the wall to remain unseen to them as they charged through the door.

The first curse flew from behind them, and a few dropped, hit with Draco's Stunning spell; they were still running forward to get a good position on the others in the room, so none turned to look where the curse had come from. Draco left without another word, leaving Harry, Nora, and Shalvin to deal with the mess.

"MALFOY! GET BACK HERE!"

"You'll be fine," Draco muttered, and found his way to the center of the dining hall.

More Death Eaters; this certainly explained why Master was so calm about everything; since she had captured Hermione, she had probably thought to alert the rest of the Death Eaters that the location had been compromised and they needed to come home and fight. This was one of the oldest codes they followed - protect the leader at all costs.

More voices sounded behind him - he was right, Potter would be fine - and flashes of light in front of him. Draco dodged a nasty looking red hex and pointed his wand.

"Crucio!" The spell barely missed the tallest Death Eater, hitting a vase behind him instead and shattering it. He jumped behind one of the chairs and conjured a dark curtain around the table so he could free Hermione. He was not prepared, however, for the sight he was about to see.

Draco looked up, and the color drained from his face.

Author's notes: Be sure to drop me a comment if you like the story! I always get back to anyone who has questions.