Living in Darkness

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Chapter 14: Decaying Hope

The air was cool and wet inside the tomb. Harry's breathing was heavy and Ron's face was sheer white. So close they had come to death... or worse. The dementors had nearly been their undoing, but Harry's pure skill had saved their lives.

"Harry look, I can see the crypt," Ron said after several minutes of unsuccessful searching.

"Come on," Harry said. As they approached, they saw the body of Regulus Black.

Harry looked at the decaying corpse. The smell was severely awful as they drew nearer. Finally, they reached the tomb.

"Jeez, you'd think he'd be a little bit more bones than this..." Ron said, his face twisted in disgust. It was truly a horrific sight.

Harry searched the body for the locket and soon began to panic.

"Ron, I don't see it..." Harry started to look around the surrounding area frantically. He turned around to look at Ron, he was simply staring at the body.

"Ron, help me look for it..." Harry started. His sentence was cut short when his gaze followed Ron's back to the body... it was moving...

The hollow eyes of Regulus Black bored into Harry's. Harry felt himself take a step back.

"You seek the horcrux..." it whispered faintly. Harry's mind was racing... how was he alive... it must be a terrible dark curse...

Harry nodded his head at the body...

"It is not here... Zabini stole it from me... just as I was coming here... I didn't know he took it until it was too late... find it and destroy him, only then will I be released from this curse."

Ron was staring in horror at Harry as he listened carefully and nodded.

"I'll find it, I promise," Harry said, looking at the cursed corpse... years of pain and suffering as your body decayed, but you never truly died...Harry shuddered.

"Come on Ron, we have things to do," he said, leaving the tomb.

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"Let go of her," the Death Eater said, "and step away." Draco looked into Hermione's eyes as if trying to convey a message, but she didn't understand. She was confused... confused as to why these Death Eaters would be against him...

He let go of her and fastened his pants quickly before he turned around. His eyes were dark and full of hate as he looked at the masked intruders. Hermione quickly reached for her clothes.

"Honestly Draco, I don't know what the hell is the matter with you. You directly disobey an order from the Dark Lord for the mudblood and run off with her. I mean, is she really worth it? Was she that good of a fuck? Because it is your life you are risking, you do realize this Draco? Tell me she put you under the imperious and maybe your life will be spared..." Hermione was staring at Draco hard... He had left to save her life...

"Do what you came to do Blaise," Draco said coldly to the speaker, looking at the second Death Eater, who had remained silent.

"You really have lost your mind then," Blaise said, "Come here mudblood, and we will not kill him yet." Hermione glanced at Draco who was steadily staring at the other Death Eater. She slowly stepped around him in front of the other Death Eater who quickly pulled a dagger from their cloak and intended to put it clear though Hermione's heart, but Draco was quicker.

He gripped the Death Eater's wrist with the dagger tightly and put it threateningly to their neck.

"You always were a jealous whore, Melanie," Draco spat, dragging her back and ripping off her mask and hood. In a matter of seconds Blaise had immobilized Hermione and grabbed her.

He glared at Draco darkly, "You're going to die Draco, even if you kill Melanie." Melanie looked dangerously at Blaise. Hermione watched in silence as a silver chain fell out of Melanie's robes and dangled around her neck. She would have gasped had she been able to. Hanging so innocently from her body was Slytherin's locket. She thought hard, but how?

Draco pressed the dagger tightly against her neck, "I will never let you live if you take her Blaise, you have my word." Blaise chuckled at him.

"A dead man gives only empty threats, Draco. Your arm proves your time is limited," he said, nodding to the blackening bruise on his left forearm. He gave Draco a final smirk as he apparated away with Hermione in his grip.

"FUCK," Draco shouted, pushing Melanie into the floor after grabbing her wand and snapping it.

Melanie watched Draco in horror as he shattered the glass in the window from his sheer rage. He looked at her, his eyes drunk with anger. He looked like a fallen angel the way he stared at her. She felt herself recoil.

"Draco... please," she stammered, "I just wanted you to come back to us... Ever since that mudblood got there, I never saw you again..."

Draco lifted her by the neck from the floor and threw her into the wall.

"You tried to kill her, you wanted her dead because you couldn't stand to see me with her and not you, you BITCH!" Draco shouted.

He looked at her with a twisted smile on his face as he took the dagger and shredded her cloak and shirt beneath it.

"You did this, didn't you? You and your jealousy... tell me how."

Melanie looked at him with fear in her eyes, "I put a tracking charm on you and Blaise said he would help me get rid of her. The Dark Lord ordered him to bring her back to him, but I didn't know that until very recently. I just wanted you back."

Draco felt any control suddenly snap.

"If you want me Melanie, then just say so," he whispered. She looked at him, clearly scared.

"SAY IT," Draco shouted. She started to shake as she complied.

"I want you, Draco." His face turned darkly satisfied.

"Then I'll make you scream," he said in a whisper worthy of the devil. His eyes burned with hate as he ripped off the clothes left on her, the locket still dangling from her neck.

He shoved into her disgustingly wet cunt and brutally fucked her into the wall.

"Does that feel good Melanie... this is what you wanted right? My dick shoved into you so hard you screamed bloody murder?" She struggled under his weight trying to move, but he held her tightly in a very uncomfortable position.

Draco laughed hollowly, "Too bad we get what we want sometimes, huh?" Melanie had her eyes clenched tightly, tears streaming down them in fury as Draco felt blood against his skin. He smirked to himself, feeling only slightly relieved of his rage. He lifted the dagger back to her throat as he was close to climaxing.

"You should never have fucked with me," he said, staring into her tear filled eyes as he sliced her throat the moment he felt himself climax. He pulled his bloody cock from her body as the blood spilled from her neck like a river.

Draco stared, his rage gone from him, as the bloody corpse of yet another casualty from the war, fell to the ground.

XXX

Harry and Ron stormed into the Burrow looking for Hermione.

"Hermione," Harry shouted, "We need your help." The two boys searched the house for her until they finally came to the conclusion that she was not there.

"She had to have gone to look for Malfoy," Harry told Ron, "Come on, we're going to Grimmauld Place."

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Hermione found herself soon surrounded by cold, stone walls. She realized they must be back in the castle. Blaise's grip on her only tightened as he released the charm restraining her. He turned her around to face him and he picked up a potion sitting on a table near him.

"Drink this," he said. Hermione looked at him like he was insane.

"It will make you very disoriented, that is all. Take it, or I will just beat you until you are unconscious," he said, smirking.

Hermione scowled and jerked the potion from his hands and drained it. It took effect immediately. Her vision blurred and she felt her weight being held by Blaise as he set her against the wall. She vaguely felt him restrain her wrists with ropes tightly.

Blaise grinned as she became unconscious and left her alone in the room.

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Harry looked around the room in disbelief. They were gone.

"Where is my mum," Ron said seriously, "She was supposed to be watching him."

"Maybe she went to check on Bill," Harry said. They both left for St. Mungo's.

When they got there, they found Bill's room empty. Harry sighed, very irritated. They finally had some useful information and nothing seemed to be working out. Harry looked at Bill. He didn't look any better. Harry had expected him to make a full recovery when he had stopped Fleur from giving him the potion... since she was dead...

Harry shook the thought from his head. He couldn't think about that now. His gaze drifted from Bill's unconscious face to his bedside table.

Another vial.

Harry felt his blood run cold... how did it get there? And since it was there... then Fleur wasn't the one giving it to him... Harry felt his stomach turn. He grabbed the vial.

He pulled his head together and left the room. He looked up and down the hallway quickly looking for a healer. Finally, one rounded the corner.

"Hey!" Harry shouted, running up to the witch. She looked at Harry, startled.

"Yes?"

"Who gave Bill Weasley this vial of potion," he asked, holding up the small bottle.

She looked at it oddly.

"I've never seen it before Mr. Potter, and it is definitely not used by any of the staff or it would have our label on it. Where did you find it?" she asked, concerned.

Harry was visibly sick now.

"Who was the last person in the room?" Harry asked, knowing he was going to regret asking it.

The second the name left her lips, Harry bolted down the hall.

After sprinting flat for several seconds, Harry stopped dead in his tracks, Ron soon to follow.

Harry felt his insides stop functioning as he lifted his eyes. Before him stood a murderer.

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