Breaking the rules

AN - My muse really doesn\'t like Lucius. ;-)



When they emerged from the Whomping Willow, the sounds of battle were already drifting from the courtyard. "We\'re too late!" Ginny groaned.



"C\'mon!" Ron grabbed her hand and they broke into an awkward run, struggling to keep the invisibility cloak over them both. Moving as fast as possible through the ravaged grounds, they finally reached the edge of the courtyard. Neither Dolohov or the Malfoys were there.



"Dammit!" Ginny exclaimed, looking around frantically. Her eye fell on Tonks and Lupin, lying nearby, their hands joined even in death. "Oh no..."



"We didn\'t know where or when they died," Ron murmured regretfully, squeezing her hand, "We can\'t save everyone..."



"Maybe we can still save Draco. Look!" Ginny exclaimed, pointing at a flash of white blond hair on the far end of the courtyard. They began picking their way through the crowded courtyard, having difficulty avoiding the many individual duels that were taking place. She quickly lost sight of Draco over the crowd, "Do you see him?" she asked, glad for once that her brother towered over her.



"If I didn\'t know better I\'d say he just warned Neville he was getting ambushed," Ron replied dazedly, looking amazed by whatever he was seeing on the other side of the courtyard. "Oh fuck...that had to hurt," he hissed, cringing at whatever he\'d seen.



"What?" Ginny asked worriedly. 



"You don\'t want to know. This way...we should hurry," Ron mumbled, urging her forward. As they passed Neville, they heard him ask Seamus, "Did you see that?"



"Aye. What got into him?" the Irish wizard nodded, frowning confusedly toward the front doors. 



Ron grunted and pulled Ginny up the steps, pausing to look at a dark, wet spot on the wall of the castle. "Fuck..." he winced, shaking his head. 



Ginny looked closer and realized the spot was blood. A few strands of light blond hair were stuck to a crevice between two stones. "Oh my god..." she groaned, her stomach lurching. 



"Come on!" Ron mumbled, pulling her inside. Looking around for a moment, he headed for the entrance to the dungeons. At the top of the stairs, they paused to listen. "You hear anything?"



"No," Ginny whispered. They slowly crept down the stairs, stopping frequently to listen for any sounds from their quarry. "Do you even know how to get to the older dungeons?" Ginny asked when they reached the hallway to the potions classroom. 



"Shit...this is the wrong way!" Ron yelped. Whirling around, he lead her back up the stairs, through the foyer and down a short hallway that lead back beneath the main stairs.



"You went the wrong way?!" Ginny hissed angrily. "Seriously Ron!"



"I\'m sorry! Not used to coming this way, am I?" He whispered back defensively, "You didn\'t even know where to go at all!"



"Shut it!" Ginny muttered quietly as they reached the bottom of the stairs. The hallway was almost completely dark, but there seemed to be a bit of light come from under a door about halfway down. "Listen..." she froze suddenly, thinking she\'d heard something. 



Ron listened intently, then his eyes flew open. "Screaming...sounds like Mrs Malfoy," he whispered, pulling her closer to the door.



As they crept closer, they heard Draco say something, his voice soft and urgent. Then, "Avada Kedavra!"



"Shit!" Ron cursed. "Our best bet is surprise...how many did Kingsley say were in there?"



"He didn\'t..." Ginny started. 



The distinct sound of fists on flesh drifted under the door, followed by Draco grunting in pain.



"Let\'s do this, Sis. Time for your \'reducto\'," Pulling off the cloak, Ron held up his wand and nodded at the door, giving her an encouraging smile.



Taking a deep breath, Ginny faced the door and raised her own wand, "On three. One. Two. Three! Reducto!" Putting all of her power behind it, she blasted the door inward. The massive sheet of iron crumpled in on itself and flew into the room while the stones surrounding it shattered. 



Not waiting for the dust to clear, Ron charged into the room, screaming, "Fumos! Stupefy! Stupefy! Stupefy!"



Ginny raced after him, noticing that the mangled door had knocked down one Death Eater. Unfortunately, that left Ron facing three others, all of whom seemed to have blocked his spells. "Expelliarmus! Incarcerous!" Ginny yelled, smirking as her spells incapacitated one of them.



"Stupefy goddamit!" Ron yelled, finally blasting one man into the wall behind him. "Incarcerous!"



He and Ginny turned on the remaining Death Eater, who comically threw down his wand, raised his hands and yelped, "I give up! Don\'t hurt me!"



"Incarcerous!" Ginny exclaimed, just to be sure, then looked anxiously at Draco, who was half naked and chained to the wall across from her. His face and torso looked like one huge bruise and his head was bleeding profusely from a cut along his right temple. His hair stuck up all over, looking more brown than blond from all the half dried blood that had soaked into it. "Did he cut you?" She demanded, staring worriedly at the cut on his head and looking for any others.



Draco just stared at her dazedly. She wasn\'t sure he could even see her at that point; his eyes seemed to be swelling shut. "Wha-?"



"Did he cut you?" Ginny repeated urgently, terrified that they were too late. "With a knife?"



"No," Narcissa\'s voice answered her from behind. Turning, Ginny found Ron helping her out of her chains. "You came in just as Dolohov pulled out a blade, though. Oh gods...he killed Lucius..." she grimaced, gazing at the floor beyond Ginny.



When she started to turn her head, Ron said, "Don\'t look," and rushed past her with one of the Death Eater\'s cloaks. Narcissa raced to Draco\'s side and fumbled with the shackles around his wrists, "They broke my wand," she mumbled apologetically, "Can you..."



"Oh... of course." Ginny gestured at the chains and they fell loose. 



Draco slid to the floor, clutching his head in his hands and moaning as his mother knelt beside him and gently rubbed his back, "Can I sign up to not be hit anymore today? Maybe for a couple of weeks?" He chuckled weakly, then groaned and moved one hand to his stomach.



Ginny smiled amusedly despite herself, then looked around and found Ron peeking under the mangled door at the fallen Death Eater. She glanced around at the other three men, none of whom were Dolohov. Ron looked up and met her eyes, frowning, "It\'s not him, Gin,"



"What?!" Ginny exclaimed worriedly. 



Narcissa looked up at her, then looked around at her captors, "Dolohov escaped? He\'s the one behind all of this..."



"We know," Ginny nodded knowingly, "It\'s why we\'re here..."



"Huh?" Draco raised his head and squinted blearily at her. "How\'d you know we were here?"



"Um..." Ginny glanced questioningly at her brother, who shrugged uncertainly. 



"Um...let\'s get out of here and find someplace safer to talk," he murmured, gesturing at the bound Death Eaters, two of whom were listening in rapt attention. 



"Right," Ginny nodded, "You got their wands?"



Ron grinned and held up a handful of wands of various sizes.



"Cool," Ginny grinned. Turning to Draco, she quietly asked, "Do you think you can walk?"



"I\'m okay," he nodded, then moaned and rubbed his head. "Um...I can walk," he amended, grinning sheepishly. The effect, with all his bruises, was gruesome. Ginny wondered if he knew he was missing two teeth, but decided now was probably not the time to ask.



With a little help from his mother, Draco managed to stand up and the four made their way out the door. "I\'d suggest locking them up, but someone really did a number on that door," Narcissa murmured, looking fairly impressed.



"Oh, yeah. Sorry," Ginny grinned sheepishly. 



"I can\'t believe you\'re apologizing for that," Draco chuckled, then groaned and clutched his stomach again. Ginny could already make out more bruises forming on his abdomen and winced sympathetically. 



"Okay...we need to do something about that...it hurts to look at you," She declared. Opening a door a few rooms away from where they\'d left the Death Eaters, she ushered everyone inside, then closed and locked the door behind them. Casting a silencing spell just in case, she grabbed Hermione\'s bag from Ron and turned to Draco. Pointing at a wobbly looking wooden chair she quietly ordered, "Sit," in a tone that made it clear that trying to argue would be pointless. 



Draco raised an eyebrow at her tone, then hissed in pain as the motion tugged at the cut on his temple. He ultimately obeyed without the argument she\'d been expecting. "So...what\'s going on?" He asked quietly, "Not that I\'m complaining, mind you, but the last thing I was expecting was a rescue from you two..."



Ginny shot Ron a look as she began pulling tubes and jars from Hermione\'s bag. He sighed resignedly and began explaining everything while Ginny conjured a wet cloth and gently wiped the drying blood from the Slytherin\'s face. To her surprise, other than flinching a few times, he didn\'t put up any signs of a fuss despite the fact he had to be in a great deal of pain. Speaking of which...she reached in the bag, pulled out a pain potion and handed it to him. "Sorry, I should\'ve given you that first," she mumbled apologetically. 



"Thanks," Draco smiled slightly before chugging the potion.



Ron paused in his explanation and said, "\'Mione should have dittany in there," before continuing, "Then we found out...well...we heard Dolohov had...erm...tortured you. After Harry died, Kingsley decided to send us back to try to stop him..."



Ginny noticed Narcissa listening with wide eyes and was glad her normally thoughtless brother had decided to edit the facts a bit. Then she realized he might have already forgotten that Draco had actually been killed and not just tortured. He wasn\'t wearing the time turner, after all. She could remember everything from before and since they\'d come back, and it was making her a bit dizzy. 



Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, she dug out a half-filled jar of dittany ointment and gently dabbed some on the gash on Draco\'s forehead. He yelped, glancing at her with a slight frown; but he said nothing before turning his attention back to Ron. Ginny stared for a moment, amazed that he hadn\'t given her a hard time for hurting him. Then, she cocked her head to one side, noticing now that most of the blood was gone that his nose was broken. "This is gonna hurt," she warned, tapping his knee to get his attention as she raised her wand. She noticed that Ron had stopped talking and both he and Narcissa were watching intently as Draco braced himself. "Sorry...Episkey!"



"Ow!" Draco yelped as his nose snapped back into place. His eyes filled with tears, but he took a few deep breaths and then seemed to shrug off the pain. "That wasn\'t as bad as when Pomfrey did it third year," he grinned weakly, then turned back to Ron, who was now staring suspiciously at him, "What?"



"Are you really Draco Malfoy?" Ron asked. Ginny could tell he wasn\'t entirely joking.



"Um...not funny," Draco replied, giving him a pointed look. "For all we know Dolohov\'s running around disguised as me..." he shuddered disgustedly. 



"Nah...he seemed to prefer looking like Harry," Ron shrugged, barely hiding a shudder of his own.



"He seemed to want to kill both of you equally..." Ginny murmured, carefully smearing some dittany over a cut on Draco\'s lip before sitting back on her heels to look him over more critically. She didn\'t see any other obvious injuries other than the bruises on his stomach. The thought of rubbing dittany all over his bare torso seemed a strangely appealing. "I\'ll let you put this on the rest of your bruises yourself...." she blushed as she handed him the remaining ointment.



"I think I might have a broken rib, actually," Draco admitted sheepishly. "My back hurts like hell."



"Oh. Turn around..." Ginny made a twirling motion with her finger and he gingerly obeyed. "Ouch!" She gasped as a huge black bruise came into sight on his lower right side. "I don\'t think that\'s your ribs... it looks like they got you in the kidney. Gimme that jar again..." she reached around and he put the jar in her hand. Their fingers brushed against each other and she nearly dropped the jar as a warm tingling sensation went up her arm. Her hands shook slightly as she scooped out a dollop of the cool ointment and gently smoothed it over the massive bruise. Draco shivered, and she quickly jerked her hand away. "Okay!" She exclaimed, grimacing as her voice came out a few octaves higher than usual.



"I don\'t suppose you know how to fix teeth?" Draco grimaced, turning back around as he probed around a bit with his tongue. Ginny shook her head apologetically. "Oh well. I didn\'t even notice them until now. I guess it\'s better than being dead," he said after a moment, smiling almost shyly. Growing more serious, he looked back and forth between Ron and Ginny, "Seriously though...thank you both for saving us. I know you didn\'t have to. You could\'ve just gone up to Gryffindor and saved Harry."



Ginny raised an eyebrow at his use of Harry\'s first name, and the fact that he had actually thanked them, but decided that it was best to just mumble, "You\'re welcome," and leave it at that.



"Speaking of Harry, we should probably get on that..." Ron pointed out quietly. "It\'s almost six thirty, so we can probably catch Dolohov before he even bothers Harry and Hermione. Come on, Gin..."



"Let us help you!" Narcissa exclaimed eagerly.When they both gave her sharp looks, she added, "He murdered Lucius and I know he would have killed Draco. He needs to pay," she nodded emphatically, crossing her arms across her chest, her eyes narrowed in barely restrained rage. Ginny looked at Ron, who shrugged, then at Draco, who grinned slightly.



"You\'re better off to just let her have her way once she\'s made up her mind," Draco said, chuckling slightly.



"Good boy," Narcissa murmured, kissing him on the forehead before heading for the door.