A/N: Sorry to make you wait so long. I wanted to tweak this chapter before sending it out. (I also had to wipe all the rotten tomatoes off my computer screen :P) Thanks to all of you for sticking with this story. It has been a labour of love. Once again, thanks to all of you who have been leaving a review! I appreciate your kind words and thoughts about my chapters. It's what keeps me going. I enjoy answering every one of them! Now, on to the next chapter! We haven't finished yet…
Trick or treat! JKR played a nasty trick on all of us Harmony lovers. Here's my treat, a chance to set it right!
Chapter 56
The Rising of a Hero
Previously:
Draco stood over Harry's lifeless body, his heavy breathing the only sound in the room. Snape came forward and rolled the body over and checked for a pulse.
Snape swallowed hard before looking up. His eyes darted to Draco before settling on Voldemort's face.
"He's dead, my Lord," he said.
****** ****** ****** ******
"MURDERER!" screamed Hermione as an uproar came from the students and teachers in the cages.
Draco spun around nervously as the accusations were thrown at him; this was not what he had expected. Too many people here saw Harry as the bloody hero. Didn't they understand the predicament he was in? He tried to get Ginny's attention, but she wouldn't even look at him, her eyes fixed on the body at his feet, a horrified look on her face.
He heard a voice above the noise. "Draco…"
He turned to see Voldemort looking down at him from the dais. The look on his face would have been enough to scare Greyback.
"You killed Harry Potter."
Draco flinched. It sounded worse when someone said it out loud. He had refused to look at the body.
"My Lord-" he started.
"Crucio," Voldemort said coolly.
Draco collapsed, the sword clattering to the ground beside him as fingers of fire danced through each nerve in his body. It felt like someone was trying to pull his bones out, one at a time. He screamed, and the sound of his pain reverberated through the hall, silencing everyone.
Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Draco lay still for a moment, breathing heavily. When he rolled over to look up, he saw his mother pleading on his behalf. Over the roar in his ears, he could hear her using the same tone of voice that she had often used with his father when she wanted something.
"Considering the animosity between the two families for the past few generations, I'm not surprised at what happened," Mrs. Malfoy was saying.
"He still took away my fun," Voldemort said, sounding a little bit like a spoiled child.
She laid a hand on his arm and smiled at him.
"You got to see him humiliated and beaten in front of his friends, and you saw him die. Surely that was satisfactory?"
Voldemort looked down and smiled at her.
"You are right, Narcissa, but I am still angry at your son."
"Then let me take him out of your sight and I will deal with him. If you wish, I can take…the body, and have the house elves clean it up and make it more presentable for your announcement to the Wizarding World," she leaned in closer. "It would send quite a strong message to the populace, don't you think?" she murmured.
Draco shook his head, trying to clear it. This couldn't be his mother standing up to the Dark Lord!
Voldemort patted her hand.
"This is why you will be such a great mother. Always thinking one step ahead."
Narcissa nodded her head.
"May I borrow Severus? I prefer to not soil myself with such…filth."
"Of course." The Dark Lord acquiesced.
Snape levitated Harry's body out of the Hall to the cries of those in the cages. Narcissa went to her son and hauled him to his feet with a strength that surprised Draco.
"Time to go, Draco," she said as she pulled him along none too gently.
"SILENCE!" Voldemort bellowed. "The next person to cry out, dies!"
The hall became silent.
"Self-preservation is wonderful, isn't it, Wormtail?" Voldemort smiled.
Draco staggered after his mother, trying to make sense of all he had seen. As they entered the Slytherin common room, he pulled out of her grip. Narcissa followed Snape to the couch.
"I don't have much time. How long?" she asked.
Snape checked the wounds and shook his head.
"I'm not certain. Draco slashed him twice, which meant that he got a double dose of the potion. One dose of the Draught of the Living Death is enough to put someone out for a while. A double dose…" he shrugged.
"You knew," Draco accused his mother. "You knew and you didn't tell me."
Both Snape and Narcissa turned to look at him.
"I didn't know the exact plan, Draco, but I am not stupid. Come and sit down before you fall down," Narcissa said.
Draco made his way over to the chair and wearily sat down, putting his head in his hands. His body was still aching from earlier. He stole a glance at the figure lying on the couch. From this angle, it just looked like Harry was sleeping.
"Now what?" Draco asked. "I hide in here and hope the lynch mob doesn't find me?"
"Don't be so dramatic, Draco," admonished his mother.
"I think that I have every right to complain, considering what I have been through," Draco shot back. He was still angry at the fact that he had been kept in the dark.
"You seem to be forgetting that you are not the only one who has it difficult right now," Narcissa said.
"If the two of you are finished…" Snape drawled.
Both of the Malfoys turned to look at him.
"Obviously we are not done yet. I will have to find a way to drop the wards around the castle. I am presuming that Potter wouldn't be stupid enough to come alone. I am sure that there are others waiting for some sort of a signal. You can explain to Mr. Potter what happened. I'm sure he would like a word with you."
Draco scowled at him. "Thanks," he said.
"Thank-you, Severus," Narcissa said as she touched his arm.
Snape gave a curt nod.
"Remember to clear your mind before going back," he said.
Draco's head snapped back up.
"You've been teaching her as well?" he asked.
"Of course," his mother said. "I'm not that naive, Draco, I am fully aware of what is going on. How else could I prepare for this?"
She came over and kissed Draco on the forehead.
"Get some rest. We need to be ready for whatever is going to happen next."
Draco watched his mother follow Snape out the door and shook his head. Here he had thought she was the weaker one and needed protection.
He had just leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes when he felt a wand poke him in the neck.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't hex you right now," Neville said.
Draco opened one eye and looked at him wearily.
"Because I'm too tired to fight you, and Potter is still alive. He just looks dead," Draco said.
"Why should I believe you?" Neville said.
"What do I have to lose by lying?" Draco said.
Neville was silent for a moment.
What did you do to him?" Neville asked.
"Draught of the Living Death," Draco replied. "It was on the blade."
He opened one eye and looked at Neville, surprised by the amount of confidence and lack of fear the Gryffindor seemed to have.
"How did you get in?" Draco asked.
"I came in through the front door. Doesn't everybody?" Neville said sarcastically.
Draco snorted. "Lousy security," he said.
Neville moved over to look at Harry, his wand still trained on Draco.
"Why?" Neville asked.
"Why what?" Deville sighed irritably, letting his hand drop down to his side.
"Why didn't you kill him? You had the chance," Neville said.
"It's complicated," Draco said as he shifted slightly.
"Try me."
Draco sighed. He obviously wasn't going to get any rest, and he wasn't too sure how quick Neville had become. He might only get one chance…
"I was brought up to believe that Purebloods were the elite of the Wizarding population; that we didn't have to answer to anyone else," he said. "Then the Dark Lord arrived, spouting his propaganda, and my father-" he closed his eyes and swallowed past the sudden lump in his throat, "my father believed. He believed that the Dark Lord was the solution to all the problems of the Wizarding World. And since he believed, the family followed, it was either that, or becomes labeled."
"As blood traitors," Neville said, and Draco nodded.
"But as I got older, I started to question," Draco said quietly, more to himself than to Neville. "My father refused to see the things I saw. I saw the Dark Lord for what he really was, and he didn't care who died on his way to gaining complete power. No one is safe, not even Purebloods."
"You still didn't answer my question," Neville said.
"Why?" Draco shrugged. "He's my ticket out of here, and now he owes me. You, on the other hand," he shrugged, "are useless to me."
Draco jumped up, pulled out his wand, and pointed it at Neville, but to his surprise, he wasn't there. Draco spun, his eyes darting around the room trying to figure out where he had gone. He could not believe that he had disappeared.
"Come on Long…Neville, I wasn't serious," Draco said, but he kept his wand drawn. He was suddenly feeling very nervous.
When he felt the pressure of wood on his skin, he froze, holding his breath. Draco could feel the sweat trickling down the back of his neck as the wand poked him harder in the neck. He hadn't expected this.
"When did you grow a backbone, Longbottom?" he said, trying to sound unaffected as he felt his wand being pulled from his hand.
Neville shrugged as he came to stand in front of him, his eyes blazing with anger.
"Perhaps it was one too many Death Eaters who came to visit my home and thought my family and I were irrelevant. It has a tendency to change your perspective on life. Maybe it's time for someone to pay for that?"
Draco swallowed nervously as he tried to think of a way out of this. The way things stood right now, he may end up being the one dead.
Just as he was thinking of throwing himself at Neville in a desperate last attack, he heard the cry of a phoenix. Both boys turned and looked. There was a flash, and a large fiery bird appeared in the room and flew over to land on Harry.
"Isn't that Dumbledore's bird?" Draco asked.
"No," sighed Neville as he lowered his wand and moved back beside the couch.
Neville watched as Albion methodically dropped phoenix tears into each wound, and then finally onto Harry's lips. After a moment, Harry gasped, and slowly opened his eyes.
Neville smiled in relief. "Welcome back to the land of the living," he said.
****** ****** ****** ******
Hermione was in shock. Later, when she looked back, that was the only explanation that she could think of for her reaction to Harry's apparent death. She had always been so level headed, but this was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. As soon as Snape had pronounced Harry dead, Hermione felt as though someone had ripped a huge hole in her heart. She heard someone screaming and realized later that it was her voice. She couldn't feel him; in fact she couldn't feel anything anymore. Even if she tried to think of him, the pain was so unbearable that her mind shut down to avoid it.
"Hermione?" the voice sounded so far away…
"Hermione?" she knew that voice, but it wasn't the one she wanted to hear.
"Hermione, please answer me."
Hermione slowly lifted her head and looked at Ron with dull, lifeless eyes. She could see the pain in his face, but she didn't care. She didn't want to be the responsible one anymore.
"I know how much you loved him," Ron said sadly.
Hermione closed her eyes and let her head drop. Her strength gone, she sagged against the wall; the pain of the manacles cutting her wrists was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
"NO!" her mind screamed. "No one will ever know how much I loved him!" She didn't want to think about that any more. It hurt too much.
Ron tried to get her attention again, but she ignored him and he finally gave up.
`It's better this way,' he thought.
The one person in her life that she lived for and fought for was gone. What was left for her? He doubted she could visualize any future; she was probably stuck, replaying the horror that had just happened. It would be easier just to shrink back into herself and shut out the world around her. That's what he would do if something happened to Luna…He vaguely wondered where she was, and hoped that she was staying safe.
`Just like Harry wanted Hermione to stay safe…' he thought sadly.
Ron watched warily as Hermione didn`t even react when Voldemort lifted her chin to look at her.
"Tsk. What a sad face," he said mockingly. "What an interesting reaction to the death of someone who is just a friend. Unrequited love, perhaps?"
A titter went through the crowd of Death Eaters.
"This one is too weak," Voldemort said as he let her head drop. "You will be much better suited," he said to Ginny.
"For what?" she whispered.
Voldemort smiled, and to Ron, it looked slightly psychotic.
"Why to carry my child, of course. One that shall grow and be my very likeness, and with the power of this pendant," he held up the red stone, "when the time is right, I shall take over his body. Immortality and youth, it will be mine forever."
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