It was approaching five minutes since Professor McGonagall, Tonks, Filch, and Hagrid had left the room to meet the danger in Hogsmeade. Before leaving, she had sent a message to the Order and the Ministry about the attack on the town. She had also told Ron, Hermione, and Harry to stay put in the office until she returned.
Hermione had taken this to heart and was all too happy to settle herself down in one of the chairs in front of the Headmistress’ desk, all the awhile hoping that her little escapade from earlier would be forgotten in all the chaos. She immediately regretted this and chided herself for thinking such thoughts. Right now while she was sitting safe in this office, people were dying and others fighting for their very lives. Her problems were small in comparison, if not completely irrelevant.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
An annoying noise pulled her from her thoughts. She looked around the office for the source of the sound and saw the culprit not more than a few feet from her. Ron was slouching in the chair next to her and he was currently hitting the base of the Headmistress’ desk with the tip of his trainer.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the repetitive annoyance by examining a stain on her left sleeve. She rubbed at it vigorously hoping it would come off, but it wouldn’t. Whatever it was would require a special stain removing spell. Maybe she could finally put to use the one Mrs. Weasley had taught her over summer break.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Hermione sighed. She couldn’t take it any longer, and didn’t bother to mask her irritability from her voice. “Ron, would you stop that. It’s getting on my nerves.”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Either he didn’t hear, or he continued just to spite her. Hermione strongly believed it to be the latter. This only served to fuel her rising temper. Steady, don’t take it out on him just because you’re in a bad mood.
Ron let out a long moan and slouched even further into his chair. “This sucks. I wonder what’s happening?”
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” Harry replied. He stood up from the wall he was leaning against and briskly walked to the heavy door, flinging it wide open.”
The noise forgotten, Hermione stood up. “But McGonagall told us to stay here.”
Harry ignored her and disappeared down the stairwell without even bothering to look back. His voice rang back through the door, as if taunting her. “You stay, I’m going to help.”
Ron leaped up from his chair and started for the open door.
“Ron, what are you doing?” she yelled in frustration.
“What does it look like? I’m going with Harry,” before she could say anything else, he too vanished leaving her alone in the room.
Hermione stood with a scowl on her face. “Professor McGonagall said to wait here guys.” She crossed her arms expecting them to return. But when a minute passed and they still hadn’t come back she threw up her arms. “Wait up!”
She ran down the stairs, finally catching up with them three corridors later, and breathing rather heavily. “Do we at least have a plan?”
“Yeah, stop the Death Eaters,” Harry had a determined set in his jaw that scared her a bit.
“That sounds good to me!” Ron was only too happy to add.
Hermione snorted at this, “Don’t be silly. We can’t just go out there without some sort of a plan.”
“The plan is to assess the situation, and do what we can to help. Does that satisfy you, Hermione?” There was a hard edge on Harry’s voice.
She was a little taken back by his abrupt behavior but shrugged it off. “The Order and Ministry are capable of dealing with this without our help.”
“Maybe, maybe not… Look, let’s just say I have a bad feeling about this and leave it at that.” He hesitated before continuing, “Maybe, it would be better if you and Ron stayed here. I can handle this myself.”
“No! Don’t listen to Hermione. She’s just being her normal self. You’re not leaving our sight, at least not for a while, we just got you back, mate. And I don’t care what you say, you’ll need our help.”
“Fine, but stay close,” he said this while slipping into the tunnel the three of them had vacated not more than half an hour ago.
Hermione stood just outside the tunnel entrance surprised that they had gotten here so quickly. She was paralyzed in place debating on what to do. Should she follow and get into even more trouble with the Headmistress, or help Harry? It felt like all her hard laid plans of the last few months were spiraling out of control. And that wasn’t the only thing. Since Harry’s abrupt return, Ron was practically ignoring her. Why did he have to act like such a prat, anyways? She obviously wasn’t going to be able to talk Harry out of this and Ron… well he wasn’t exactly listening to her. She finally shrugged and stepped through the entrance. “If I don’t keep them out of trouble, who will?”
She quickly rejoined the other two and fell in behind Ron. Harry moved rapidly through the tunnel leading the three of them pass the spot they had met up with him earlier. It then dawned on her that she had completely forgotten why they were in the tunnel previously, and that maybe the situation in Hogsmeade wasn’t a total coincidence after all. “Ahhh… Harry, I need to tell you something.”
“Hermione, I already told you…”
“No, it’s not about that. It might be important. It’s about why Ron and I were going to Hogsmeade.”
Harry stopped and turned to Hermione. He looked uneasy. “You were going to Hogsmeade? Why?”
“We were going to get information on your whereabouts. I had a contact who knew where you were and…”
“That’s impossible. No one knew where I was, no one except for…” Harry trailed off a distant look in his eyes.
“Everyone except for who?” she asked nervously.
Harry ignored her question. “Who was this contact of yours?”
“I… errr…” For some reason she found herself unable to get the words out of her mouth. Panic started to grip her.
“Hermione, this is important. Who was your contact?”
“I… don’t… I mean… errr… I didn’t exactly get a name, just… just a note.”
“WHAT!” Ron yelled. “I can’t believe this. What the bloody hell were you thinking?”
It felt like she had been punched in the stomach as the air left her. It finally occurred to her the magnitude of the mistake she had made. “I was desperate, okay. This was the first real lead about Harry since his disappearance.”
“I wouldn’t call an unsigned note a lead, sounds more like a trap. Hermione, I can’t believe you would be that reckless,” Harry shook his head. She could see the disappointment in his eyes.
“I call it stupid, that’s what I call it,” Ron huffed.
Tears started to fall down the distraught girl’s face. She was angry at being called stupid, but most of all she was angry because they were both right. How could she be so reckless?”
Harry sighed heavily, “It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done. Come on, we have to go,” Harry started back up the tunnel.
“I knew it! It was a trap.” Ron threw a dirty look her way before turning to follow Harry.
“We don’t know that, Ron,” she spat at his back, even though she could feel in her heart that he was right. It had been a trap and she was stupid enough to fall for it. Well, almost fall for it. If Harry hadn’t of showed up when he did…
“Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Hermione.” The sarcasm dripped from his voice, echoing back along the dark walls.
The hollow resounding of Ron’s voice made the walls seem to close in on her. Slowly, she was able to find her feet and follow the other two, but this time she didn’t bother to try to catch up with them. She finished the trek through the dark tunnel in a daze. Desperate, she tried to find the answers to the questions and doubts running through her head. If she had been so wrong about this, what else had she screwed up? And what had made her miscalculate so badly?
She soon found herself climbing out of the passage and into the Honeyduke’s cellar, surprisingly Ron and Harry where still there.
“Wow, I think we made it in record time,” Ron whispered.
“Let’s just hope we’re in time.” Harry climbed the stairs out of the cellar two at a time.
Hermione followed after Ron, but lagged a little behind, trying to get a barring on her surroundings. She needed to get a grip if she was to go up against a bunch of Death Eaters.
Once upstairs in the candy shop, Hermione had to hide her eyes from the bright flashes of light that were coming from outside. She managed to get closer to a window, and was frozen in shock at what she saw. The street was full of wizards throwing spells at each other. The light from the spells and scattered fires lit up the night sky revealing a mass of people. She had never seen the streets full of so many bodies at once, dead and alive. And from the looks of things, the Death Eaters out numbered the Ministry and Order members four to one. Where did Voldemort get so many recruits? She shivered as she noticed the number of dead bodies littering the street. It suddenly became very clear to her that they may very well lose the battle and the war. To go out there was suicide, “Harry, are you sure…” But her words were drowned out by an explosion. It knocked her to off her feet and into a shelf clear across the store.
“Hermione!” she heard someone yell from far away.
She tried to answer, but no words came out of her mouth and her body refused to move. Slowly, she was able to open her eyes. Bright lights assaulted her senses, overwhelming her. She focused on a particular spot above her head, and watched the pretty lights dance on the ceiling. They swirled around and around making elaborate shapes, watching them made the terrible pain she was feeling ease up a bit, but only a little bit.
“Ron, it looks bad. I knew I shouldn’t have let you guys come. You should get her back to Hogwarts,” that voice sounded so familiar. Why couldn’t she remember who it belonged to?
It didn’t matter, nothing mattered, the only thing that mattered was the red fairy that was currently circling her head, or was it a butterfly? It didn’t matter. It was so beautiful. It swiftly changed to a gold, then green… purple…
“What about you?” Another voice… this one sounded familiar too.
The butterfly, or was it a fairy? Whatever it was it split into two, and then three, and then there where dozens upon dozens of them. They danced and swirled around and around. It was kind of like one of those Muggle rides… what were those things called again… She couldn’t quite remember, oh well… It didn’t matter.
“Don’t worry about me. Just get her out of here.”
“Harry!”
That voice… who…
“Go! That’s an order.”
That was the last thing she heard, as the pretty lights started to dim and a black abyss opened up to swallow her whole.
Crash!
Harry and Ron ducked behind the counter to avoid the blast that had just shattered the front of the candy shop. Once the dust had settled Harry quickly glanced around the shop for…
“Hermione!” Ron yelled, as he ran from the only real cover left in the building.
Harry looked to see where Ron was running to and noticed a hand sticking out of a pile of debris along the far wall. Merlin, no! Let her be alright, please.
He joined Ron in rapidly pulling off the wreckage from the girl. They were able to remove most of the debris from around the body, but from the looks of things she was badly injured. She needed a Healer and fast. Harry felt his stomach churn. This was his fault.
“Ron, it looks bad. I knew I shouldn’t have let you guys come. You should get her back to Hogwarts.”
Ron looked up at him. He made no effort to hide the tears flowing down his dirt stained cheeks. “What about you?”
“Don’t worry about me. Just get her out of here.”
Crack.
“Harry!”
He wheeled around just in time to see a masked man appear behind the three of them. Harry raised his wand and stood between the Death Eater and his friends. “Go! That’s an order!”
The man pulled the mask from his face. “Well, well, it seems that the Boy-Who-Lived is actually alive. My Master will be pleased. He’s been looking forward to killing you himself, but I must admit I would love that pleasure myself.”
What was he doing here? Seeing the man in front of him surprised Harry. Last he had heard the elder Malfoy was still in Azkaban. And from the look of things he may have just come from there. The usual well-kept man wore a black robe that did little to hide the black and white striped clothes that hung loosely to his frame underneath. His usual pale skin was even paler, almost clear, and his hair was a tangled mess framing his sunken face.
“Malfoy,” Harry hissed through gritted teeth.
He quickly looked around for anyone else that might be lurking around, but they were alone, well almost. He had to stall for time to allow Ron enough time to get away.
“Nice to see you haven’t forgotten me. I sure haven’t forgotten you. After all, if it hadn’t been for you and your pathetic friends I wouldn’t have spent the last year an a half in that sleazy prison.”
“Glad to hear and see your stay was less than perfect. Though I believe you’re out a little early.”
“Complements of my Master,” he grinned wickedly.
Harry caught Ron out of the corner of his eye levitating Hermione down the cellar stairs and out of sight. He let out a small sigh of relief.
He turned all of his attention to the ragged man in front of him. “I’m surprised he’s willing to give you another chance, since you seem to screw up everything he gives you.”
This seemed to hit a nerve in the older man. “Silence, you brat,” Malfoy raised his wand. “I may not be able to kill you, but I can cause you terrible pain. Prepare to scream, Potter.”
Light came from the end of Malfoy’s wand, but he was prepared. When the light hit it made contact with the half destroyed wall behind Harry. He rolled to the right and threw back his own spell, “Incarcerous!” It missed Malfoy and connected with the only shelf still standing in the store.
Malfoy laughed hysterically among the erupting shards of wood, “You’ll have to do better that that, Potter.”
“Yeah, how about this!” he whispered.
He silently thought the first curse that came to mind. Harry’s spell flew across the room and found its target. The surprised look in Malfoy’s face turned to rage as his legs moved wildly on there own accord. Harry couldn’t help laughing out loud at the ridiculous sight.
“You think that’s funny! Laugh at this,” Malfoy had somehow stopped the spell faster than expected and was steadying himself to fire again.
Harry dove behind a pile of wreckage. Moments later, his cover exploded. Thousands of tiny sharp fragments began to assault him.
“Protego!”
The deadly swarm fell harmlessly away from his protective shield and left him with only minor s scratches.
“Clever, but not clever enough, you will pay for your insolence.”
Spell after spell was sent his way by an enraged Malfoy. Harry dodged, feinted, ducked and fended off each spell thrown his way. Sweat soon began to fall into his eyes, but still he continued to evade and attack. He used everything he had ever learned, especially the things he had learned while he was with Snape, including nonverbal spells. He had to admit that the things he had learned from the man were coming in handy, but he wasn’t sure how much more he could take. The unending storm of spells, were beginning to take its toll on him. How could such a weak and malnourished-looking man have so much energy?
“I see you’ve been doing some training. You know you’re just prolonging the inevitable. Eventually I’ll get the upper hand and you will be mine. You might have learned some new moves, but it doesn’t change the fact that I’m the more skilled wizard here. I can already sense that you’re starting to tire. What good is it to know how to fight, if you can’t go the distance?”
“I can take you,” Harry said through clenched teeth.
“I highly doubt that, and even if you could, three is harder to take than one.”
“Ooh, its baby Potter. Maybe you’re not so worthless after all, Lucius.”
Harry slowly turned careful to keep Malfoy in his sight. He saw Bellatrix and Goyle standing several feet behind him.
“I have this, Bella,” Malfoy sneered.
“Really, because it seemed to me that you are having some difficulty in that area. Potter is still armed, is he not? I guess you shouldn’t send a man to do a woman’s job.”
“Really, and here I thought this whole thing was a man’s idea. Snape’s to be exact,” Malfoy goaded.
This got Harry’s attention immediately. He felt like he had been slapped in the face. Snape. The uneasiness he had been feeling seemed to explode inside him. No, there had to be a good reason. Why would he… after everything he had done and said… after he had seen that memory… maybe Snape had finally found a way around an Unbreakable Vow? If anyone could, he would be the one to do it. Merlin knows Snape hated him enough to at least try. Anger ripped through him, anger at Snape, but mostly at himself for being gullible enough to fall for his tricks, again. He didn’t know why he was so surprised. It was just like him to pull something like this. Harry gripped his wand so tight his knuckles turned white.
Bellatrix misunderstood Harry’s anger and laughed. “Oh yes, the very man who killed your precious meddlesome Dumbledore is also the one who arranged for the attack on this horrible little town, and for this loser’s release along with all the others. Though if you ask me, they could have stayed in that filthy place for getting themselves caught in the first place.”
Malfoy sneered at this, “I’m surprised, Bella, this coming from someone who spent the better part of a decade there while some of the smarter of us played dumb and lived quite comfortably.”
“Silence, you fool! Remember your place?” she spat.
“My place?”
“Yes, or don’t you remember the conditions on which you were released and our Lord allowed you to live.”
This was enough to wipe the haughty look on Malfoy’s face and replace it with fear, “I remember,” he hissed.
Bellatrix looked quite pleased with herself for finally getting under Malfoy’s skin, “Good then. Run along and find that son of yours. I’ll take care of little baby Potter.”
At first, it looked like Malfoy might disobey, but in the end he disappeared with a loud Crack.
“Finally, I thought he’d never leave, now it just us. I’m so glad to see that you’re okay. We were worried about you,” she crooned with fake sympathy.
Harry snorted, “Yeah right, more like you were worrying what I was up to.”
“Ahhh… so you have been a bad boy. Go ahead tell Bella everything, because if you don’t I’ll torture it out of you… on second thought… don’t tell me. I would much prefer the torturing you. Crucio!”
Harry tried to duck from the spell, but he was to slow. The fight with Malfoy had slowed him down significantly. He was hit by a blast of incredible, but familiar pain. He tried to resist the urge to scream, as he was hit with what felt like thousands of needles. The needles turned into hot pokers and soon it felt like his insides were being twisted and ripped open. He heard a terrible shrieking sound and realized it was he who was making the noise.
“It hurts doesn’t it and it will only hurt more until you tell me what you’ve been up to.”
And as suddenly as it started, the pain stopped. Curious, Harry opened his eyes. It took him a moment to bring everything into focus, but when he did he was shocked at what he saw. Goyle was out cold, and Bellatrix was thrashing on the ground in the very curse she had just put on him. But the bigger shock was that it was Snape who was standing over her seizing body.
“The Dark Lord was very specific Bella, not to harm the boy. What part of that did you not understand? Maybe next time you won’t act so hastily.”
After a few minutes, Snape eased up on the spell. He stepped over the now unconscious body and advanced toward Harry.
Harry was still hurting from the effects of the spell Bellatix had cast on him, but slowly he was able to crawl to his wand that lay mere inches away from him. His finger touched the tips of his wand only to have it ripped violently from his grasp. He watched helplessly as it flew into the man’s hand that loamed above him.
“Traitor!” Harry spat at him. “I should have never trusted you!”
“Not everything is what it seems, Potter. There is a perfectly good explanation for all of this, but now is not the time or place. We have to get out of here,” Snape bent down to help Harry up.
Harry was waiting for this. As Snape tried to grip his upper arm, Harry rolled away from the man’s grasp and kicked at his legs. Snape was momentarily caught off guard and fell to his knees. And before Snape had a chance to retaliate, Harry threw his fist deep into the older mans’ face. The hit compacted with such a force that blood sprayed everywhere.
Snape reacted to this and twisted his left foot around to make contact with Harry’s side. Harry thought he heard at least one rib crack. Hot fire raced up his side confirming this theory. The distraction was enough to give Snape the upper hand again. He had had enough time to pull out his wand and fire a binding spell. Harry was in too much pain to resist.
Snape knelt over him. A river of blood was dripping from his nose. Harry grinned with satisfaction at his handy work. It was clearly broken.
“Do you always have to do everything the hard way? This is getting old you know,” Snape sneered. “I told you, things are not…”
He was unable to finish, because he fell to the floor in a full body bind. Surprised, Harry looked over the bound body to see Mad-Eye limping towards them.
“Constant vigilance, aye Potter,” he winked at Harry with his good eye.
If he was surprised to see Harry, he did not show it. Instead, he said a counter spell that freed Harry from his binds.
He carefully sat up, wincing in pain as he did so. Mad-Eye must have noticed.
“You hurt?”
“I’ll live,” he groaned.
“Good to hear it. We were beginning to think the opposite.”
“What… what… about the others… Death Eaters…”
Mad-Eye shook his head. “It’s the strangest thing I ever saw. They retreated, even though they clearly had the upper hand. I don’t like it. I don’t like it one bit.”
“Maybe they found what they were looking for?” Harry said this as he eyed Snape.
Mad-Eye looked doubtful. “Maybe… maybe…”
“Moody, we need you over here for a minute,” someone called from the street.
“Well, I better go see what’s up. Can you handle him until I get back?” he asked, handing Harry his wand and pocketing Snape’s.
“Yeah sure.”
After Mad-Eye left, Harry got to his feet and stood over the Snape. His anger was barely containable as he looked down at the man with pure hatred.
“Potter… please… believe me…. I never meant you any harm…Har…Harry… please… I….its too complicated to go into now…take… the note from my front pocket. It’s important,” he motioned down to his chest.
Harry didn’t know what caught him more off guard, the fact that Snape had used his proper name, or that the man was pleading for something. It unnerved him, and made him wonder how desperate the man in front of him had to be to do such a thing. It also made him think about Dumbledore and that night that he had died. He had pleaded to Snape too. His hate and anger towards the bound man slowly disappeared. It didn’t matter. Snape would soon get what he deserved.
Harry did notice a sliver of yellow sticking out of the pocket and bent down to take it. He took it more out of curiosity then anything.
“Move aside Potter.” Mad-Eye came limping up to them, leaning rather heavily on his walking stick. “It’s time that this traitor gets what’s coming to him.”
Harry stood back as Mad-Eye pulled out an old sock from his robes and held it out for Snape to touch. Snape mouthed the words. “Go there,” just before he and Mad-Eye disappeared in a flash of light.
Harry stood in a daze wondering if maybe he had dreamed the whole last few minutes up. He looked down at the note in his hands and opened it.
7932 Croxley Avenue Bideford.