Notes: All the pertinent author's notes will follow, as I don't want to spoil anything. I couldn't have written any of this without the intense coaching and support of where_is_truth. So if anyone deserves thanking, it's her. I've never written anything like this before and Who? is fluff compared to this. Rainpuddle13 came in about halfway through and provided excellent betaing services and humor. And honestly, thanks to all of you who read Cut and kept reading it despite my huge lapses between posts. It's been an emotional time for me personally, and every review is like an ounce of gold.
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Draco had never been so glad to see his cousin Nymphadora. She came in screaming like a banshee with four or five other people he didn't recognize, but knew to be Aurors. Voldemort shrieked and immediately retreated to the adjacent dungeon.
They attacked quickly, more quickly than the Death Eaters could react. In the time it took four Aurors to yell out the incantation for a full body bind, four Death Eaters were rolling furiously on the ground, trying to break out of the powerful spell. Draco's last view of his father was of him dropping the dagger he'd been so eager to kill him with.
Finally, a thought broke though Draco's hazy mind that he had his wand now and he could escape these bloody shackles. Summoning it from his pocket, he disposed of the offending magic cuffs and barreled towards the Aurors.
Evidently they'd been told he wasn't a Death Eater, because he was able to get behind their line, all the while dodging spells and feeling errant sparks from missed hexes licking at his heels.
Careening around behind them, he was about to shout to his cousin that Voldemort was in the next room, but he was nearly knocked back by Professor Snape and Ginny's parents rushing in from the north door to help defend the Aurors' position. When the billow of Snape's robes flickered out of his sight, he was amazed to see Dumbledore with Potter, the Weasel and the Mu--Hermione.
Gasping, he stumbled out into the hall next to them and came up to Potter, grabbing his collar and yanking him close.
"Vol…Voldemort!" Draco wheezed, pointing a long finger back into the dungeon. "He's in the other room!" He pushed off from Potter and disappeared back into the fray, searching for his father.
***
Harry barely heard what Dumbledore and Hermione were strategizing. All he could think about was the pain pulsing beneath his scar and the very real threat of Voldemort in the next room.
Ron was directed to try to Apparate somewhere, anywhere in the mansion, but after several tries, his body remained in the same place and Hermione and Dumbledore were forced to come up with a new plan.
From the hurried words exchanged, Harry discerned Snape and Dumbledore would protect him and get him into the next dungeon without being discovered. The two wizards would cloak the three of them in a protective spell while they hugged the perimeter of the room, two walls away from the south door.
Maybe it would be easier this time, Harry thought wearily. Maybe he'd just have the courage to kill that bastard once and for all.
***
Ginny hung from her shackles, screaming with all her might, but Gods! Could no one hear her? The noise from spells deflecting off the hard stone walls was deafening, but she was sure her shrill screams would alert someone.
And they did.
Apparating so close to her their lips nearly touched, Lucius bared his teeth in a feral smile.
"Never fear, Miss Weasley," he purred, deftly avoiding her attempt to bite him viciously on the cheek. "After all this is over, you and I still have an appointment."
In a blur of magic, her shackles broke from the wall and she was placed in the dark, dank corner of the dungeon. As she gasped for a breath, Lucius' silver-topped wand silenced her and then cast a cloaking spell.
It was ingenious, really, Lucius thought. His practice in creating a cloaking spell that matched the bricks of the walls made perfect. As he watched the terrified muddy brown eyes of his quarry, a quick flick of his wand had her bound in ropes that effectively curbed her struggles.
Drawing a line with his wand on the bricks that surrounded her, he muttered an ancient incantation. There were equally ancient spells lurking behind those walls and when he released them, he didn't want the girl injured. He choked back a laugh of glee as he cast a protective spell over her and came so close his lips and tongue brushed her ear.
"Stay here, my little one, and I'll be sure to come back for you," he hissed, thrilled by the knowledge she couldn't recoil from his advances. He prodded the small riding crop toward her and into the cover of the spell.
Silently, he backed out of the cloaked spot and all he could see were mossy bricks.
Enjoying the privilege of being the only person save the Dark Lord who could Apparate in the dungeons, he waved his wand and reappeared on the other side of the room.
***
Smoke and the metallic tang of blood in the air clouded Draco's senses. He could see the Aurors had lost two men; one man was clearly dead and a huge black man had been hit in the arm with an impedimentia. The Death Eaters, having had more fighters to begin with, had suffered their losses as well. Though it hadn't yet registered, Draco had aimed the killing curse at Dolohov, one of his father's trusted cohorts. Dolohov had fallen immediately to the hard stones covering the floor, and if the curse hadn't killed him, the crunch of his ribcage as another Death Eater tripped over him certainly would have.
One Death Eater had tried to escape through the dungeon's fireplace, only to be thrown back to the floor by a rejection spell with a broken neck. Of course, four body-bound Death Eaters were rolling and jerking convulsively on the floor near where Draco had been shackled, trying to avoid any low-flying spells.
A red spark whistled past his ear and he ducked reflexively, trying to tell who had shot a badly-aimed jelly-legs jinx.
And he still couldn't find his hiding bastard of a father.
***
The fight began to escalate even though the Aurors and the Weasleys seemed to be holding their own. All at once,
multicolored sparks and steam began to emanate from the high ceiling and the walls of the room.
In shock, everyone who was fighting looked up to see what was happening. Lucius Malfoy's chilling cackles echoed
down from his perch atop an outcropping of bricks in the wall.
"You won't last against this, you bloody traitors! How about some old magic, eh?" he screamed,
aiming his wand very precisely towards the opposite wall and yelling out words no one could comprehend.
Red balls of sparks shot into the room from the walls. They acted as flaming balls of coal, meant to fall on and burn
the enemy, distracting him long enough for one to get in the killing curse.
Draco didn't understand the old magic bit of it, but he did know that when he saw an Auror get hit in the cheek
with one, the smell of sizzling flesh nearly put him on his knees.
He didn't see the Snape and Dumbledore covering Harry around the perimeter of the room, stooped low to the ground
to avoid the spell balls winging around them.
***
With magic pouring from the walls and Lucius Malfoy directing spells from above the fray, Hermione was wringing her
hands, unsure how to help or even proceed into the room.
It didn't help one bit that she had to physically restrain Ron from entering the room. He was close to crying and
swearing on Merlin's name he'd personally kill anyone who hurt his parents or his sister. Even in the face of
death, it was comforting to Hermione that Ron hadn't lost his senses; he was placing the blame for all of this
squarely on Draco.
"Hermione, we have to go in there!" Ron yelled at her when she tried to quiet him. She turned on her heel and
slapped him once, hard enough to leave fingerprints on his cheek.
"I'll apologize later! Now shut up and let me figure out what is going on in there!" she yelled right
back. Speechless, Ron merely stared at her as she dropped to the ground and worked her head into the doorway.
What she saw momentarily froze her.
She had seen this before! But where? Never in a battle with Harry, but it seemed as though she'd read about
it...
The Hogwarts library! The Restricted Section, back in the corner where the books were dated in Muggle time from about
1100 AD to 1500 AD. She'd had to sweet-talk Madam Pince to let her back there. She'd worn white gloves and was
sent to sit in a special alcove that would prevent damage to the precious books...
The Malfoy dungeon was laced with medieval torturing spells! They'd been used by the witches and wizards of the
time who faced persecution from neighboring Muggle groups. Wizarding folk had seen the Muggles mete out punishment, and
incorporated it into their spells. During those times, the torturing spells were an effective way to coerce secrets out
of a powerful wizard.
If only she could remember the mix of tiny scripted words that could stop the attack.
And then it came to her. Occludo terriculamenta. Stop the terror.
"Ron!" she said urgently. "I think I've got it!"
***
Snape prodded Harry with his wand.
"Get going, Potter! You want to be hit by these?" he sniped, dodging a particularly low-flying ball of
fire.
Gritting his teeth, Snape covered Harry as they progressed to a corner of the room. One more wall and then Harry could
enter the door.
"Harry!" Dumbledore rasped. "Go faster! I can feel something in this corner!"
Though she could not see the group that slunk in front of her, Ginny could hear every word.
***
Hermione was teaching Ron how to say the archaic Latin expression correctly. She only hoped they could get it right (and that it was the correct incantation) before they barged in to save the room.
***
Harry was shoved by Snape out into the open so he could dash the last six feet into the gaping southern door. He already knew that once they made it, Dumbledore and Snape would be needed to help fight the remaining Death Eaters. The Aurors appeared to have suffered some casualties.
***
Draco could see Snape and Dumbledore emerge from the darkness behind the line of desperately fighting Death Eaters.
Snape ran full-force through them and tripped over the dead Auror while trying to aim a shattering hex at Lucius'
legs as he stood on the brick ledge above.
***
Shrieks and screams emanated from the adjacent dungeon. Flashes of green and gold lights flickered though the doorway as if a Muggle telly was on in the next room. Nearly all of those who were fighting, both for the dark and the light, turned toward the sound of the Dark Lord fighting The Boy Who Lived.
***
Lucius' ledge shattered beneath him and he fell the thirty feet to the hard stone floor, a sickening crack
accompanying his landing. All heads swiveled back to the crumpled lump that lay on the floor.
At that moment, Ron and Hermione burst into the room. Taking advantage of the momentary stop in the fighting, they
screamed in tandem the powerful incantation to stop the spells from pouring from the walls.
Draco felt like he was in a dream. He watched his father fall with his left hand below him to cushion the fall. In the
back of his mind, he knew Lucius was not dead and that the awful crunch everyone heard was not his neck. As he
stood in a direct line of sight with his curled up father, he watched Weasley and Hermione directing their wands. The
fire balls and steam began to dissipate.
The action, stopped for five or six shocked seconds, began again when Snape shouted the killing curse and aimed his
wand at a Death Eater who unwittingly stooped to help his supposed comrade.
The chaos swirled as Weasley and Hermione ran around shouting words he didn't understand, and he saw the Weasleys,
Tonks and Mad-Eye Moody aim another body-binding curse at a group of three Death Eaters.
Hurriedly, Dumbledore came from behind and stopped the attack of a fourth Death Eater who was aiming at Tonks. Kingsley
Shacklebolt, having regained some of the use of his arm, began using the mobilicorpus spell to levitate both
the injured and the dead out of the room as sparks still flew.
A deafening thud and a thundering scream issued forth from the neighboring dungeon. All at once, every current and
former Death Eater fell to their knees and screamed as pain from their Dark Marks seared through their bodies, as
bloody wounds sprang up from where the marks had been.
Draco's chest constricted with the sheer agony radiating from his back, where his Dark Mark had been. Glancing
dully in front of him, he was just in time to see his father forming the words Avada Kedavra. Green
light shot from Lucius' ebony wand towards Draco. Unable to move, he watched the spell tear through the air towards
him.
"No!" Ron Weasley yelled, running the spell off course with a charm of his own. "Draco, move!"
In spite of the nausea that wracked his body, Draco scrambled to his feet and barreled toward his father, intent on
finishing what his father had started.
Before he could reach him, he saw Lucius pull himself up from the ground and attempt to escape.
With the skill of a Seeker, he reached down and scooped it up, clenching it tightly between aching fingers. Drawing on
speed borne of adrenaline, he ran towards his fleeing father. Reaching out, he snagged the back of his robes, jerking
Lucius around violently to face him.
Without preamble, Draco thrust his right hand forward and drove the dagger straight into his father's heart. When
the trademark Malfoy gray eyes rolled up to look at him one more time, still filled with contempt to the very end,
Draco's lip curled and his eyes squinted in fury. Twisting the haft viciously, he declared to his dying father,
"And I love her."
***
When he turned around to address the chaos behind him, he saw only two things:
Death Eaters trying to escape without fighting, being caught easily by the still-standing Aurors and Snape.
Ron Weasley, running toward him like a streak of red, his father's
silver-topped wand in his hands. Weasley pushed Draco out of the way and dropped to his knees by Lucius'
face.
"You fucking bastard, tell me where my sister is!" Ron screeched,
breaking Lucius' wand over his knee before Draco could reach out to stop him.
As if realizing what he had done, Ron turned to Draco, his eyes large and fearful.
Neither of them saw Lucius drift to the otherworld with a smug smile on his face.
When the wand cracked, when the dragon's heartstring slithered to the floor,
the cloaking spell around Ginny Weasley broke violently and she screamed as she was ejected from Lucius' conjured
shackles and propelled towards the floor.
Draco only had time to see her fall on a small object and disappear.
In a fit of hellish rage, he hauled Ron off the ground and pulled him to full
height, grabbing him roughly by the shirt and forcing their faces together so hard their noses slammed into one
another.
"You broke his fucking wand! You fucking idiot!" he screamed, spittle
flying and spattering a terrified Ron's cheeks. "If he did something to her, we can't fix it without his
wand!"
Shoving Ron forcefully to the floor, Draco fell sharply to his knees and let out a
primal scream that rumbled in his chest and seemed to be ripped out of his throat.
"I'm sorry!" he cried to the room at large. "I loved
her and I couldn't help her!"
***
In an austere room many miles away, a pale figure unknowingly joined in the scream, a scream that rent the small chamber with the sorrow of decades repressed.
***
~Finis~
Author's Notes: Okay, before you throw things at me (or wish you could still give me a 1) please know that:
Smiles all around,
Samantha