Kreacher's Decision

Hermione:

For several seconds, Hermione was too stunned to move. She couldn't see Rosalie, but she had a perfect view of Draco's face as his white face turned bright red, then shifted to a nauseous green. "I-I-I've seen… I've seen you. You've - you've cast spells before," he stammered.

Rosalie shook her head. "I lied to you. I can't do magic at all." She hugged her arms around herself. "I'm an incredible actress – I just pretend to cast the spell. All I can do is some potions and memorisation and maths. And pipe bombs..." She reached into the pocket of her Hogwarts robes and withdrew a collection of tiny things. More vials with blue jelly in them. A few bullets, for a Muggle handgun. And a collection of teeny tiny cylinders. "Nitric acid is used in making explosives. Adding the porcupine quills, I was able to make these mini ones. These are my bombardas. I throw one when I cast the spell."

Draco slumped against the wall and began to slide down it. Rosalie panicked and shook her hands. "Acid! Acid!"

Right, he'd almost sat in it. He swayed, then went to sit on the desk instead.

In her opinion, Draco was taking this remarkably well. Hermione still didn't know what to say. Her stomach was turning inside out. So many little things were leaping out at her in her memory. Rosalie's unfamiliarity with the trace, with pureblooded bigotry... oh goodness, Malfoy had said he'd never marry a Muggle! And now Rosalie was one!

"You're joking," Harry said from the floor.

Rosalie was switching accents like crazy. She began talking like she was from Liverpool. "That's why I was so stressed coming to Hogwarts. And why it took so long. And why I'm rubbish in all our battles. Do you know how exhausting acting is?" She then took a deep breath and somehow managed to sound Indian. "I'm sorry, Draco. I know it's been way, way too long... But I didn't realise you didn't like Muggles."

The door that had been blasted off its hinges rustled and Dobby and Kreacher emerged. Kreacher looked horrified and disappointed. Ginny, Ron, and Sirius lay on the floor, still stunned.

Draco was shaking his head. "Why," he finally said, "did you say you were a Pureblood?"

Rosalie exhaled. "Because that's what Harry said you were," she said, sounding like the people in Wigan had. "When you came into the shop one day and you'd bought all that stuff. So I played it safe and decided I'd be whatever you were. And then I got here, and I realised everyone hates Muggles-" now she was tuning into the King's accent, "-and there's a war going on where they're killing us."

She shook her head and wiped her face. "I'm sorry, Draco," she said. "I'm sorry. I didn't know what else to do. I lied over and over."

Draco didn't move. Didn't react in the slightest.

"But you told us stuff about you," Harry said. "How'd you know all the stuff about the wizarding world?"

"Because I'm a liar!" Rosalie said, her voice rising almost to a scream. She put her hands up beside her head, looking so disappointed and upset with herself. "And after I saw the title of Hermione's book, I was able to go ask for it from the Wigan library, and they helped me get into the wizarding section that did not exist before. And that is how I realised magic existed. Before, I thought you were all loons! I memorised as much as I could and lied to you to learn more!"

"So who are you really?" Hermione asked. "All those names you use – you really were Rosalynn, weren't you?"

Rosalie nodded, crying.

"We don't even know your name!" Hermione shouted, though where she'd found the breath, she didn't know. "Why didn't you tell us the truth?"

"You do know my name!" Rosalie exclaimed. "I told you, even though I wasn't supposed to. I was a bloody idiot, but when I set out to meet you, I didn't want to live under a name that wasn't mine anymore. So, like a fool, I told you my name."

"Why can't you use your name?" Harry demanded.

"Because," Rosalie was smiling and crying and hiccupping like a maniac now. "I'm in the Witness Protection Program. Because of something that happened in Italy that I'm never supposed to talk about again."

This information stunned Harry and Hermione far more than it did Draco, who could not have known what this program was.

"You're Italian," Hermione said.

"I'm American-Italian," Rosalie said, and her voice shifted again so she was speaking in Draco's accent. She scrubbed a cheek again. "And I lied to you because I liked Draco and because I loved the idea of a world where people could call me my real name again. And then I got really deep in the lie because I'm still not supposed to use my real name, and because I couldn't get thrown out of Hogwarts, and because I liked Draco. And now here I am, a liar, a fraud, and I can't perform a stunning spell."

The room was quiet. Harry nor Hermione seemed to have any further questions for now. Draco was still. Rosalie looked at him the most as she searched their faces for clues on what they were feeling. Finally, he moved, and stood up. He towered over Rosalie by a head. She looked away, biting her lip.

He swallowed. "We'll talk later."

He picked up his and Rosalie's wands from the ground and tested Rosalie's by lighting the end. It lit. He tossed it to Harry, then bent down beside Ron. "Ennervate," he said, and then helped him get up.

Harry leaned over and revived Sirius. Draco moved to Ginny.

Rosalie slumped against the wall, but Hermione wasn't planning on letting Rosalie off the hook. After they were done here, they were sitting her down and getting a proper explanation of, well, everything. How she'd duped them. Where she came from.

And how she'd gotten into the Witness Protection Program – Merlin's beard! Which program was she even in? If the accident happened in Italy and she was American and she lived and worked in Britain, which country would handle creating a false identity and shipping her off to a remote location?

Hermione was no expert on the Witness Protection Program. But she could imagine keeping the world from rediscovering an actress over and over would be a frustrating career choice for anyone. She also figured that Rosalie must have been involved in something quite drastic to be in such a program. And her life must have been threatened. But with Rosalie's skillset, that could have been just about anything.

It was a miracle she'd been able to get onto Hogwarts grounds at all.

"If we go down to the ninth floor," Draco said, directing his words to Rosalie, "Now that Harry is using your wand, will you be able to protect yourself?"

"Why is Harry using her wand?" Ron asked.

Rosalie pulled a handgun out of her pocket. It should have surprised Hermione, but nothing could right now. She was all surprised-out. "I'll manage," she said.

"Hermione," Draco said. "What do you want to do?"

Hermione's ribs still ached, but she lifted the bottle Rosalie had given her and downed the rest of it. "I'm the most ambitious person to ever live," she said, and took a step to prove it. "I'll fight through the pain."

Her hands started giving off a green glow.

Ginny and Ron were bringing their wands up, ready to go as well. Sirius was nodding along. Draco looked at them all and said, "well. Any fight you pick is a fight I guess I have to pick as well."

And he started giving off a yellow light.

Rosalie looked at the two elves. "Kreacher? Dobby? What do you want to do?"

Dobby looked at Kreacher. Kreacher was glaring at the ground, mumbling to himself.

"Kreacher?" Sirius called sharply.

Kreacher looked at Draco's feet. "Kreacher would like to go home," he said. "Kreacher does not want to help blood traitors."

Rosalie began to cry a little more. Hermione felt angry at the little elf. But it was his choice. Sirius nodded. "If that's what you want," he said.

Hermione caught a glimpse of Draco's face. He did not seem inclined to comfort Rosalie, nor did he seem irritated or comforted by Kreacher's show of contempt. He simply was there and focused.

"Dobby?" Harry asked.

Dobby sniffed and his ears drooped. "Dobby is scared," he whispered. "But Dobby does not want to leave Harry Potter, sir."

"Dobby," Harry said. "Go get Dumbledore for us. And let Hermione's parents know where we are, alright?"

Dobby sniffed and nodded and popped away with a crack. For a moment, there was silence.

"Let's go, then," Harry said. And he got to his feet.

Rosalie took the detector from Ginny, who was connecting dots. "What's happened?" she asked. "Why is Kreacher not wanting to help anymore?"

"I'm a Muggle," Rosalie said. "I've been posing as a witch. That's why Harry is going to use my wand."

"You're a Muggle?" Ron demanded. "How'd you know about-"

"I'll explain later," Rosalie said. "When we're done, I swear, I'll explain everything. Even the parts I'm not supposed to."

They left Umbridge's office, ignoring the anonymous death eater on the floor in front of them. As they left, Ron blasted the "Hogwarts Headmaster" plaque off of Umbridge's door. It clattered on the ground.

The lifts didn't seem to be running on crack as they left. Hermione supposed that most of the employees would have evacuated by now. They caught a lift without trouble.

Hermione watched the grates move as they descended and took a deep breath. Her ribs still hurt. Rosalie was still shaking to Hermione's left. But Hermione felt no inclination to comfort her.

Everything got dark and cold and then the elevator slowed down. Harry was the one to open the grate and step out into the Department of Mysteries.

They were standing in a large, circular room. Everything in here was black including the floor and ceiling — identical, unmarked, handle-less black doors were set at intervals all around the black walls, interspersed with branches of candles whose flames burned blue, their cool, shimmering light reflected in the shining marble floor so that it looked as though there was dark water underfoot.

They stepped out into the open area and the walls suddenly began to rotate. Hermione grabbed onto Harry's arm. She balanced her wand against his bicep. "What was that?" he asked.

"I think it's to stop us knowing which door we came in," Ginny said.

Harry deflated as he looked around. Hermione looked around and could not decipher which door they'd come through. But behind Hermione, Rosalie said, "That door, there." She walked over to one, opened it, and sure enough, there was the lift. Out of her pocket, she pulled a purple sharpie and scribbled a wavy line across the door. "Unless they clean themselves too, we can keep track this way."

She shut it and the doors began to spin again. The purple sharpie was not very purple against the black door, but it shone when the light hit it.

"How will they get it off?" Harry asked.

"Scorgify," Hermione said at the same time Draco said, "Expo Marker." They exchanged a glance. "Your way works too," Draco replied.

Hermione was reminded of something Ron had said to her their first year, when they'd gone after the sorcerer's stone. In her panic over lack of firewood against Devil's Snare, Ron had yelled, "Are you a witch or not?" And Hermione was tempted to say something similar to Draco now.

Harry picked a random door. "Not this one," he said. Rosalie rushed over and scribbled across the door. They changed. Harry tried another. "Nope."

Hermione stopped Rosalie. "Flagrate," she said, pointing the door, and a much more visible black X appeared on it.

It only took four doors and then when Harry opened the last, he said, "This is it." There were clocks gleaming from every surface, large and small, grandfather and carriage, hanging in spaces between the bookcases or standing on desks ranging the length of the room, so that a busy, relentless ticking filled the place like thousands of minuscule, marching footsteps. The source of the dancing, diamond-bright light was a towering crystal bell jar that stood at the far end of the room.

Harry rushed forward, but Hermione snatched him by the shoulder. "How do you know?" she demanded.

"Because of the dreams I used to have," Harry said. "Months ago, before the Occlumency started to work." He put his hand on the doorknob and tried to turn it, but it would not turn. He flicked his wand up. "Alohomora!"

Then he opened the door to a place high as a church and full of nothing but towering shelves covered in small, dusty, glass orbs. They glimmered dully in the light issuing from more candle brackets set at intervals along the shelves. The room was very cold.

"Stop," Rosalie whispered behind them all. She dropped to the ground and pulled out her phone. "Signal's bad…" she muttered, and turned on the torch. She put it on a low level and held it at an angle. Then she put her face next to the floor. Hermione understood she was looking for marks on the floor and bent down to help her.

Roslie found one and stretched out her thumb and index finger, closing her other fingers, and measured the length of the mark. Then the width. She closed her hand and used the knuckle on her index finger to count. "I think Bellatrix Lestrange came through," she whispered. "This mark belongs to a woman. Short, but normal foot size. I can tell her height because the next mark is there. She's got a short gait. And her feet are narrow. So a woman, or a man with narrow feet who is far, far below the average height for men."

"You really are Sherlock Holmes," Harry muttered.

"Keep your voice down," Rosalie whispered. "You say this is the place? She might be here." She kept her face near the floor and touched other points, still measuring with her fingers. Hermione had seen her do this before. Rosalie preferred to measure rough measurements in inches because she'd measured that knuckle on her finger and knew it was exactly an inch across.

"Another woman," Rosalie reported. "Three men… maybe four. One is very tall. One is very heavy and short. She stood up. "But… do you hear that?" she asked.

"What?" Harry asked.

Hermione strained her ears. She was so focused that she thought she might be able to hear the dust settling. But there was nothing except for the ticking of the clocks behind them. Everything was quiet.

And that's when she realised.

She looked at Draco in alarm and he, upon seeing her face, made the connection too, confirming her fears. And he reached out and snatched Harry's arm and yanked him back and even leaned down to grab Rosalie's foot too, to pull her out of the doorway.

But Rosalie went flying across the floor, out of reach, screaming.

"Rosalie!" Harry shouted and jumped forward.

"They're here, Harry!" Hermione shouted. "This is a trap!" Because if this was the place that the Death Eaters had wanted to end up, they never would have bothered being quiet. No, no, this was the place that the Death Eaters wanted them to end up.

Rosalie disappeared into the shadows and Harry would have followed if a lit wand hadn't suddenly stopped him. Four other wands lit as the Death Eaters came out of the shadows. Their wands illuminated a sixth Death Eater with curly ringlets and a crazed expression, and dried blood on the side of her head. She held Rosalie's brown hair in a fist and a wand to her neck. "That's unfortunate," she crooned. "I was hoping to do this the easy way."

Harry moved to put their group behind them. "Let her go!" he said.

"Hush, Potter," said a voice Hermione did not recognise. "Pay attention, do as you're told, and she won't be hurt for now. She is a pureblood, and a smart one. We'd hate to waste useful, precious blood."

Draco moved Hermione out of the way and went to stand behind Harry. He seemed almost like a marble statue to Hermione. That pale, that rigid, and his eyes almost looked like sunken holes in this light. "They're going to have you take the prophecy off the shelf," he guessed, whispering to Potter. "But the moment you have it, they're going to do exactly what that Death Eater upstairs did. Don't doubt it."

Harry nodded.

Hermione stared between them at Rosalie's face. Rosalie's head was twisted almost up to the ceiling, but her lips were moving. Her nose scrunched. Hermione saw the flash of her teeth as she mouthed.

It seemed to Hermione that she was mouthing the word, "Snake".

Hermione stepped up and with her moving, Ron and Ginny and Sirius finally moved too. She almost wished they wouldn't, because it made it harder to see around her inconspicuously. She listened for slithering and glanced from side to side. With the Death Eater's wands, the room did not seem that dark. But there was no snake.

"If I were a snake," Hermione thought, "Or, rather, if I were a group of Death Eaters, and I had one shot at getting a prophecy, and they're all in here… I'd make sure they couldn't retreat."

And she turned and walked back through Sirius and Ginny. Her direction threw off the group, who turned to stare at her. Harry stayed facing forward but looked at her out of the corners of his eyes.

Hermione listened at the doorway, looked around, and then took a step into the room. Immediately, a black blue shot out from underneath an ornate clock. "Diffindo!" Hermione said, but her spell missed and she had to jump out of the way. A word appeared in her head, and she hissed, "Stop, Nagini!"

Her tongue seemed to bop and twist and curl all on its own. And Nagini stopped. Probably in surprise.

"She speaks Parseltongue?" A death eater demanded. "A Mudblood, speaking the language of snakes?"

"Don't you call her that!" Ron said, very angrily.

"She's worth more than ten of you lot!" Harry said.

Ginny took a stance beside Hermione and the two of them kept careful aim on the snake.

"Right," Harry said carefully. "Where's this prophecy?"

"Look at the Mudblood," the Death Eater who'd made the Parseltongue comment said. "She's wearing Slytherin robes!"

Hermione steeled herself. She could not turn around because she'd leave herself undefended against Nagini. She'd have to rely on everyone else to have her back.

"They put her in the Slytherin house!" Bellatrix screeched. "They dare… the most noble house… a filthy little…"

"Draco's in Hufflepuff, Bellatrix," said a female voice Hermione did not recognise. "And he's proud of it. Look at his clothes."

Hermione desperately wanted to turn and see Draco's face. But she knew the moment she or Ginny turned, that they'd be snake bait. She'd be walking with a peg leg like Mad Eye Moddy for the rest of her life.

"I don't know you anymore," Bellatrix said with some sort of emotion in her voice. "You aren't my nephew. Clearly, family and blood never meant anything to you."

"I've been told that caring about family is a Hufflepuff trait," Draco said. Hermione listened to him shift his feet. "Let her go, Aunt Bellatrix."

"Didn't you hear me? I am not your aunt!"

"I'll get the prophecy!" Harry shouted. "But you're going to let her go. Okay? Otherwise… We'll start bringing down the room. I swear!"

Hermione could see red and yellow light on the doorframe. Death Eaters were mumbling.

Then she had an idea.

She rotated her foot around the other until she was facing Nagini with only her side. "Draco," she said softly. "Draco."

Not quiet enough… the Death Eaters heard her. They went quiet. But Draco backed up, through Sirius and Ron, and came to stand behind Rosalie. "What?" he whispered softly.

Still keeping her eyes on Nagini, she gestured for him to come closer. He leaned down and put his ear almost to her mouth. "Cast Legilimens on the horcrux in the snake," she whispered. "Get Voldemort to call the Death Eaters back to him." They would touch their dark marks and leave.

Draco paused, processing this, and then took up her stance. Hermione released her stance and backed away. She turned and took Draco's place by Harry.

Rosalie, still held by the hair, was still being held in place. "How about this, Potter?" Bellatrix said. "You take the prophecy off the shelf, or I'll find out how much pain her heart can take before it gives out. Then I'll pick another one of your friends. How about the littlest girl behind you?"

Hermione heard Ron take a step closer to Ginny.

"You have to let us all go," Harry said. "If I take the prophecy off the shelf and give it to you."

But even Hermione knew that was a lost cause.

Bellatrix cast Rosalie onto the floor and yelled, "Crucio!" Rosalie screamed and flailed and shook and thrashed. Hermione found herself crying out. They all did, jumping forward. Hermione heard a slicing curse uttered behind her towards Nagini.

But oddly, Rosalie met Hermione's eyes in the middle of her flailing, and her expression was calm. The spell wasn't hurting her.

"Stop!" Draco yelled at the top of his voice. Though, not as loud as he had upstairs.

Bellatrix paused to wipe her face and then raised her wand again. "Crucio!" she yelled.

Ron leaned past Harry and yelled, "Stupefy!" The spell arced and twisted, almost in slow motion, and blitzed towards Bellatrix. She ducked, and it spun into a shelf behind her. The whole structure creaked.

"Diffindo!" Hermione dimly heard Ginny and Draco say behind her, but she and Harry and Sirius and Ron were pointing their wands in many directions at the same time. "Stupefy!"

The Death Eater's lights went out and the main source of light was now the thousands of prophecies as they fell from the collapsing shelves and smashed. As each smashed, a voice was heard. Each prophecy. There were dozens and dozens.

Bellatrix snatched Rosalie prisoner again and disappeared behind a crumbling shelf.

"Come on!" Draco yelled, running after her.

But the journey was made difficult now. Death Eaters fired from the shadows and were near impossible to spot in the dim light. Nearby, Rosalie began screaming again.

They reached a central spot in the room where the aisles arced out and left a circular arena. Hermione looked around the circle and immediately knew they'd be surrounded too easily here.

They'd managed to stay as a group. Harry, huffing heavily, Ron with his hands on his knees, Ginny, pale white, Sirius angry, and Draco, looking around anxiously for Rosalie's face.

They were so on-guard that they saw everything and nothing at all.

A figure appeared, running down the shelves. Dressed in dark blue, with white flowing hair and half-moon spectacles atop a crooked nose. But none of this was immediately recognised. All of them turned towards the sound and five simultaneous "Stupefy" yells were heard as Sirius shouted, "Wait!"

All of the spells connected with Dumbledore at nearly the same instant. He had not been expecting them and was knocked over into a barrel roll down the aisle, where his own head smashed several different prophecies.

Hermione covered her mouth in horror.

"Oh no!" Ginny shouted.

Dumbledore's wand – the Elder Wand – had been knocked out of his hands. As had several other objects. The Sorting Hat… Salazar Slytherin's locket… Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem… and Helga Hufflepuff's cup.

Harry and Sirius rushed to Dumbledore and rolled him over. A large cut on his forehead was bleeding. Two black eyes were forming. Ginny dug around in Rosalie's bag and pulled out a bottle of essence of dittany. The non-edible stuff. She held it out, but no one took it. Sirius was too busy checking Dumbledore for a pulse.

Underneath him was the Diadem of Ravenclaw. Hermione picked it up. Nearby, Rosalie screamed.

"He's alive," Sirius said, finally. "But five stunners at once could kill a person. We need to get him back out of here. We're on our own unless he's called the Order for help." He took the essence of dittany from Ginny and applied some to Dumbledore's forehead. The cut immediately began to heal.

Hermione picked up the Elder Wand, the Hufflepuff Cup, the diadem, and the locket. She slipped the locket over her head, where it thumped against her chest. She picked the diadem up and put it on her own head. At least until they could find Rosalie.

Harry suddenly slapped his hand over his scar. "Ah – ow!" He gasped. "I-I… he knows. Voldemort knows that Dumbledore's here. And he's down."

Sirius got to his feet, wand out. "He can't get here right away," he said. "Let's grab Rosalie and get the hell out-"

"The snake!" Hermione said. "We have to kill the snake!"

"Who cares about the bloody snake!" Draco spat. "Rosalie's gone quiet!"

"She's still alive," someone called from deep in the mess of shelves. "Come here, Potter. Take the prophecy off the shelf for us."

"Voldemort is on his way!" Ron yelled.

There was silence. Then the woman who had spoken earlier appeared at the end of their aisle, wand out. "How do you know?" she asked, and then her gaze flicked down at Dumbledore. Hermione supposed she must be astonished, but a mask covered the better part of her face.

Harry was taking his hand away from his scar, blinking rapidly. "I know he is," he said. "I heard him. He's going to punish you for failing."

"On the contrary, Potter," the woman said. "If he is coming, then we have no more use for you. Only you and he have the power to remove the prophecy from the shelf. So if he is coming, you won't mind us picking off your-"

"Don't touch them yet!" someone hissed behind her.

Every hair on Hermione's body stood on end. She raised both her wand and the Elder Wand, shaking.

Voldemort was striding down the aisle towards them. Hermione had not seen him before, but he was as ugly as Harry had described. Those eyes were sickening. And his skin… she shuddered. A wound on his left hand was noticeable only by the bandages. That must be where Rosalie had shot him at Malfoy Manor. He must have lifted his hand during the commotion. Unfortunate that it was not his wand hand.

The Death Eaters appeared around him. Voldemort looked down at Dumbledore, then at the five people around him. "Who stunned him?" he asked.

Hermione processed the question. It occurred to her that she should not be holding the Elder Wand up for Voldemort to see. The other previous horcruxes seemed hidden from view at the moment... her curly hair might be hiding the diadem well enough. Voldemort glared at them all. "Which of you stunned Dumbledore?" he asked.

They all shifted their feet. Truth be told, Hermione had no idea who had stunned Dumbledore. None of them had meant to. It had all happened so fast.

"Crucio!" Voldemort's curse hit Sirius and Sirius collapsed, yelling out. "Tell me who hit him!"

"We don't know!" Ginny shouted. "We all did!"

"You couldn't have," Voldemort said. "Someone had to have struck first!"

"It was too fast to tell," Ron said.

Voldemort's red eyes reminded Hermione of car lights on the road, far off in the distance. Except they were too close and too human. She shivered. Voldemort hissed and her skin crawled. "Bring the other girl," he commanded.

Bellatrix appeared on the far end of the aisle, where they'd shot Dumbledore from. She was still holding Rosalie by her hair. Rosalie's face was twisted up in agony. Hermione noticed Draco raising his wand at his aunt.

"Let her down, but do not let her go," Voldemort commanded. Bellatrix threw her on the ground. Rosalie hit her hands and knees and looked up slowly. "Ms. Spinks," Voldemort said, voice as smooth as scales on a floor. "You're good at math. And your friend's lives depend on it. You told Narcissa that you could track things. Tell me, who hit Dumbledore first?"

Rosalie pushed herself up and then stood. She looked back and forth between her friends, and the area they'd been standing in. Then she took a step towards the open area.

"I didn't say you could leave, Ms. Spinks."

Rosalie turned and looked back. Hermione felt her eyes scrape over them. "My lord," she said, softly. "The spell wasn't fired from there. I need to find where it was fired from."

Voldemort gestured to his Death Eaters and they all focused their wands on the small group in the aisles. Hermione kept her grip on her wand, but did not feel good about being cornered. "Stay where I can see you, otherwise… I think we'll start with the Muggleborn first. She is worth the least to me, and she's smudging the good name of Slytherin wearing those robes."

No fewer than three wands trained themselves on Hermione. Her breathing was lighter than it had ever been before.

Rosalie wandered into the circle and got down on the ground. She examined the floor, taking measurements with her fingers, drawing calculations on the floor with her finger. Not a single person moved. But behind Rosalie, Nagini curled into a ball and waited.

Hermione waited with baited breath until Rosalie looked up and happened to meet her eyes. She did not mouth anything, but she stood up. "I know who stunned him first. Only a nanosecond before, but I'm ninety-nine percent confident."

"Tell us," Voldemort said, spreading his hands.

"My lord, I will," Rosalie said, "If you let them all go. Let us walk to the entrance and let them escape. I will stay, and I will tell you who it-"

"Crucio!" Bellatrix screeched. Rosalie collapsed and began screaming again. "You dare deny the Dark Lord? Crucio!"

"It doesn't matter!" Voldemort shouted. "One of them had to do it. I'll simply finish them all! Avada Kedavra!"

The killing curse shot right for Hermione. Harry yanked her out of the way and the curse smashed into a shelf. Sirius jumped up and rushed at Voldemort. Draco did the opposite. He ran towards Bellatrix and towards Rosalie, jumping clear over Ginny.

Another killing curse sailed after him. But as Draco crashed into Bellatrix and sent them rolling, Nagini reared up. She was in line with the curse. "No, Nagini!" Voldemort yelled in parseltongue. The hisses vibrated in Hermione's ears.

The snake ducked just in time, but the air around her went weird for a moment. Almost dark, as if all of the light had suddenly been sucked out of the air around her.

Harry seized her robes like she was a cat and hauled her out of the aisle. Ron and Ginny had also evacuated, leaving Dumbledore unconscious and exposed on the floor. Sirius was blasted back by one of the Death Eaters and came spiralling out of the aisle. He hit a shelf and Hermione heard an awful snap. Sirius's face twisted in pain and he yelled, then rolled out of the way of another killing curse. Nagini was also forced to dodge and this time, chose to flee.

Hermione watched the air around the curse very carefully. Around Sirius, it did nothing. But around Nagini, it siphoned all the light out of the air around her. It must be because Nagini was a horcrux.

"We need to kill the mouse!" Rosalie exclaimed two bookcases down. Hermione's head spun as if on a swivel. "The mouse! The mouse at Hogwarts! We need to kill-"

A killing curse hit the case beside her and Harry and Ron began firing back down the aisle. Draco was still wrestling with Bellatrix.

Hermione suddenly heard a loud crack. It sounded just like the pop a house elf would make. But there was no house elf for ages around?

She cast a stupefy down the aisle and managed to only hit air and another prophecy.

Another crack, and Hermione saw, out of the corner of her eye, something appear beside Rosalie. She looked closely in between firing at the death eaters unable to come down the aisle, for Ron and Ginny had taken to guarding the other sides. Her mouth dropped. It was Kreacher. Kreacher had come back. And in his gnarled hands he held a white lab mouse.

"Kreacher has the mouse," Kreacher said. "Kreacher has brought the mouse to Miss Rosalie. And he hopes Miss Rosalie will understand that Kreacher decided to follow her instead of going home."

Rosalie bent down, and threw her arms around the house elf, who squirmed in vast discomfort. "Of course I understand!" she exclaimed and took the mouse. "Ginny!" she called.

Ginny turned and looked at the mouse. Rosalie had wrapped her hands around its body and its neck and head stuck out as it squirmed. Ginny readied her wand. "Diffindo!" she shouted, and the head of the mouse was sliced off. It plopped to the ground with a sickening thud.

And Hermione thought she heard a small, shrill scream as the horcrux died.

The next chapter will be called Draco's Solution.