Living in Darkness

Clarification: Blaise didn't poison Hermione, he basically gave her something like a drug to knock her out and when she wakes up, her resistance will be down and she will be disoriented; will be easier to question and get truthful answers. Sorry if you guys didn't like that last chapter! You have to realize though that Draco is Draco... he is capable of anything, that is why he is so dangerous and also why Hermione is attracted to him on some level. This need to understand why he is like that is how she fell in love with him. But don't worry, if it bothered you, I have a good ending on the way!


Chapter 15: A Malfoy's Final Wishes

Lucius sat in his study quietly, a picture of Narcissa in his hand. He was responsible for it all... her misery... her hatred of himself... her death... Lucius could never forgive himself for what had happened to her. Draco had followed in his footsteps as he was forced to against her wishes... and now he faced certain death for defying him. He knew Draco was better than he was... he knew now, when it was too late...

Lucius Malfoy was not stupid. He could admit when he made mistakes, but this mistake had cost him his family... This mistake was unforgivable... unless he could change it all... unless he could stop it from happening.

He stood up quickly as he realized the solution to his problem. He left his study and went to the Malfoy Vault in Zurich, Switzerland.

XXX

For the second time that day, Hermione woke up in a dark room. Her head was pounding as she tried to pry open her eyes. The very little light from the window was enough to practically blind her. She shut them tightly for a few more moments before trying to open them again.

Finally, her eyes adjusted to the light a little more. She saw clearly enough that Blaise wasn't in the room. She remembered back to just before taking the potion. She had no idea how much time had passed, but she had to tell Harry. She looked around. She was bound at the wrists and ankles, no wand in sight.

Okay, focus Hermione, you can do it, you know the concept, you just have to use it, she thought calmly about casting wandless magic.

She breathed deeply and cleared her mind of all else but the Patronus charm. It took several moments, but just before she was about to give up, a silvery otter appeared in front of her.

She breathed a sigh of relief. She instilled a picture of the room Draco hopefully was still with Melanie. Harry had to get that locket. This way, he could apparate there.

"Tell Harry, Melanie has the locket, I don't know how, but she has it around her neck... this is where she is," she said and the otter swiftly swam out the window. Hermione's headache was worse now and she felt drained of her energy. That was very complex magic she had just done wandlessly while potioned.

Great, she thought, now I'll never be able to resist Zabini.

At that moment he walked in.

"Glad to see your awake mudblood," he smirked at her. Hermione did her best to scowl at him, but it was futile. Blaise laughed.

"So you're just going to abandon Melanie?" Hermione said incredulously. Blaise stopped smirking.

"Draco wouldn't hurt her, their probably fucking happily as we speak. You're insane to think he could actually love you. He despises you. I don't know what has gotten into him lately, but it wouldn't have lasted. You're nothing mudblood, just another war casualty." Blaise turned his back to her, taking off his cloak.

"You're just jealous of him Zabini, he did what you never could, he called your Death Eater organization out and abandoned you. Admit it, that's what your problem really is, he's gone and you need him. You need him by your side so you can have the balls to do what you have to to stay alive. I remember you in school, you couldn't do anything without Malfoy by your side. You're pathetic Zabini."

To Hermione's surprise, he just smiled at her as he approached her.

"You know what is pathetic, Granger? You. You are pathetic because you fell in love with a Death Eater. How will you tell dear Potter? Better yet, how will you tell Potter you fell in love with his wife's murderer?" Hermione felt the oxygen in her blood dissipate. The color drained out of her face.

Blaise smirked, "Oh, he hadn't told you?" Hermione looked to the floor. It couldn't be true could it... she felt her skin chill... she had seen Ginny alive when she got there... then that night... Malfoy had come back with blood all over him... the keys of the piano... he was so distant... like he had murdered someone...

Hermione started choking violently and threw up. Blaise shook his head.

"Still love him, mudblood?" Hermione looked at him darkly... how she wished he was lying, but she knew he wasn't.

"Do what you came to do Zabini," she said. Blaise smirked one final time.

"As you wish."

XXX

Draco closed his eyes. The darkness was all around him. It was everywhere, like it was going to seep into his heart and turn his cold, crimson blood black. The stillness of the air was unnerving as the smell of her blood permeated the room.

Everything had happened so fast. He looked at Melanie... he had grown up with her. She had loved him and in some unknown way, Draco realized he had loved her too. Not like she wanted of course, but neither of them were brought up in a world to allow any emotions. It was forbidden. He tore his eyes away. A tear threatened to burn his skin as he realized what this war had done to them. It had destroyed everyone. It had ruined lives that had never done anything to deserve it. He regretted what he had done... to everyone... The tear fell and he brushed it away angrily.

He stood up and left the room, going to the hell he knew he would find Hermione in.

XXX

Harry looked like they had just lost the war. His face was hot and he didn't know how to react.

Mrs. Weasley stood staring at the two boys curiously.

"Mum," Ron said, staring at her. He looked at Harry expectantly.

Harry continued to stare in disbelief, trying to make sense of it all. He thought hard and suddenly he remembered something strange... the potion bottles in Mrs. Weasley's room at the burrow... she... no... polyjuice.

Harry felt his blood begin to boil as his expression changed from confusion to anger.

"It was you... how... how could you do this?" Harry said, showing her the vial.

Mrs. Weasley looked at the bottle carefully before she looked at Harry.

"You are giving this to Bill, aren't you? You are getting it from the dark side and giving them whatever information you can to get it..." Harry continued.

Mrs. Weasley looked at Harry defensively.

"Bill? You don't understand," she started, "I have to, it is the only way we can save Arthur...he would be dead already if I didn't do it. I had no choice." She looked at Harry carefully deciding something.

"Mrs. Weasley, Arthur is dead. All you did was keep Bill from getting any better," Harry shouted and threw the vial into the wall while he ran his hands through his hair in frustration. Ron was listening intently while he stared at his mother.

"So, you were Ginny's secret keeper then... not Fleur..." Ron asked slowly.

She looked at Ron suddenly, as if seeing him for the first time.

"I made polyjuice potion and disguised myself as Fleur... who better to blame than her, she was just getting in my way every time I went to see Arthur anyway. And Ginny... Ginny was a necessary sacrifice... she was the only way I could get them to trust me enough. Ginny will understand, we had to do it to save Bill..."

Harry felt like the whole world had lost its sense of direction.

"A NECESSARY SACRIFICE! GINNY'S DEAD!!!" Harry shouted at her, making her flinch, "Ginny is dead because you had to impersonate Fleur to give Bill POISON!"

Mrs. Weasley shook her head frantically, "No! It's Arthur... and what is keeping him alive!" Harry clamped him hands to his head as if it would make it all go away. He couldn't believe what was happening. This was insane.

Ron stared at his mother in pure shock.

"Mum... you gave the Death Eater's Ginny's address when you were the secret keeper... You deliberately gave Ginny up... for poison?"

"Ron, it had to happen," she muttered, shaking her head, "It is saving Arthur."

"So you would have given us all up given the chance, just to save him?" Ron asked in horror.

Mrs. Weasley looked at him and nodded, "To save Arthur."

"Mum, dad is dead, he died three months ago," Ron said, "Mum, please you are losing it, you have to believe me, it's not dad, it's Bill."

Harry turned around, unable to watch this anymore. Mrs. Weasley had lost it.

Ron stared at the woman in front of him. She had lost her mind. She had got Ginny killed and nearly killed Bill by betraying him and Harry and the whole order...

Ron shook him head. She couldn't do this. He felt the tears sting his eyes as he raised his wand

"Avada Kedavra," he whispered, but meant it in every way. Now she could rest with his dad and not have to experience the horror of what she had done had she ever regained her mind. She wouldn't have wanted to live with herself...

Harry heard Ron's words and his heart sank... he turned around to look at him.

"Ron... it was your mom,' he said softly.

He looked at Harry darkly, "That wasn't my mum, my mum died three months along with my dad."

Harry watched Ron's back as he walked down the hall. Harry's back hit the wall and he let himself fall to the floor...resting his head in his hands...

It wasn't supposed to be this way...

XXX

"Tell me where the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix are," Blaise said. Hermione looked at him dully.

"I can't, I'm not the secret keeper," she said exasperated. She realized the potion must have had veritaserum in it because he took her answers without question.

"Where is Potter now?"

"I don't know."

"How did you get in through our defenses?"

"I disrupted the waves in the air through radio waves."

Blaise looked at her strangely, "So you didn't counter the charms?"

"No. I disrupted them."

"Where did you and Draco go?"

"To Paris and to my apartment."

"Was he betraying us consciously?"

"Yes."

Blaise stood up and cut her binds. Hermione looked at him nervously.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking you to the Dark Lord," Blaise said passively.

XXX

Harry walked into Grimmauld Place with a clouded expression on his face. He had just called a meeting to order after receiving Hermione's message. He walked into the kitchen where he found everyone accounted for.

"Listen. I have just received word on the horcrux, and I will find it and destroy it. Tonight is the night that we will defeat Voldemort and his followers. This war has taken far too many and it will end tonight. Too long have we all suffered and too long have I allowed it. I want everyone to prepare to attack the castle in Romania. I will alert you when the horcrux is destroyed and we will attack. I leave you now, but no matter what happens, do not give up... This is our only chance."

Harry took one last look around the room before he left Grimmauld Place.

XXX

Draco looked around his room. It looked like a bomb went off, or Death Eaters had searched it...

He opened his door, shielded by his mask and walked down the hallway. His steps echoed loudly as he steadily made his way to Blaise's quarters. Someone opened a door ahead of Draco down the corridor and stepped out. He noticed Draco and demanded that he stop and remove his mask.

Draco barely gave it a second thought as he said the killing curse and stepped over the body moments later.

After a few other similar encounters Draco found Blaise's door closed and locked.

After a quick, "Alohamora," Draco opened the door to find Blaise steadily pulling Hermione to her feet. Without hesitation, Draco cast the killing curse on a friend he had known since childhood. Blaise never knew what hit him... and that was the way Draco wanted it.

Hermione looked at Draco in horror.

"Why did you do that?" she said, her voice shaking. Draco looked at her curiously.

"Why do you care, he was going to kill you?" Draco said, helping her to stand as she was obviously having trouble.

When she felt Draco's hand she flinched very obviously. Draco withdrew quickly, realizing she didn't want him to touch her.

"What's the matter?" Draco asked, a confused look on his face. Hermione looked up at him with tears in her eyes. Her voice shook as she spoke.

"Is it true? Did you... murder Ginny?" she looked into his face and choked on the tears as they flowed harder.

Draco felt like he had been hit by bludger. He didn't realize how that would affect her when she found out...

"That night... at the piano... was that... Ginny's blood?"

Draco looked at her, unable to deny it. Her face was colorless and she looked near to passing out. She shook her head frantically.

"How could you..." she turned to leave but Draco grabbed her wrist to stop her.

"Hermione....." Draco looked to the floor. He didn't know what to say to her. He had murdered Ginny, he just wished he hadn't.

Hermione felt a fresh wave of pain. How could she have let herself fall in love with a murderer... She jerked her wrist away and fled the room after grabbing Blaise's wand, leaving Draco alone in the darkened emptiness, the light leaving his life.

XXX

Harry looked around in shock. He thought he had been witness to atrocities but they paled in comparison to what lie before him. He reached cautiously towards the locket around the slit throat of Melanie's lifeless body. After several sickening moments of struggle, Harry pulled the locket away from the corpse.

He laid it on the table next to him and shouted, "Casso ater atra atrum animus." The locket glowed an eerie green shade before it exploded, and sent shards of shrapnel everywhere before the pieces dissipated into the air, leaving dark smoky trails across the room.

Harry breathed a sigh of relief and cast the Patronus Charm. The great stag erupted from his wand and awaiting his message.

"Tell all the members of the Order who are ready for the attack that they are to proceed. I will be there with them shortly." The stag leapt out the open window.

Harry took a moment. Just a moment to clear his head before what could be the last few hours of his life proceeded.

Then he left.

XXX

Hermione looked around the dark corridors. She had no idea how to get out of here. There were Death Eater's crawling and she was lost.

The tears were still fresh in her mind as she replayed the events that had just happened. Draco had made it very clear that he did murder Ginny... and she felt guilty... guilty that she still wanted for him to touch her again... to feel his lips on hers... guilty that she still loved him...

At that moment she felt an arm pull her close and press a hand over her mouth.

"Hermione, it's okay, it's me Ron," the voice said. Hermione pulled his hand down and turned around. Her initial shock wore off quickly as Ron pulled the Death Eater mask off his face to show her it was him and quickly restored it.

"Ron, what are you doing here," she asked panicked.

"I feel like I should be asking you that," he said, "Harry got your message and just sent word that he destroyed the horcrux. He gave us the go ahead to enter the building. We are all disguised until Harry gives us the alert that he has found Voldemort... then we fight."

Hermione looked at him in elation.

"The horcrux... it's destroyed... that's great-" Ron suddenly reached into his pocket.

"It's time... Harry has found Voldemort..." Ron looked at Hermione and could see the worry there.

"Come on, we have to find him and help," Hermione said, rushing down the corridor.

Hermione and Ron soon crossed a Death Eater, but Ron cast the blood curse before he knew what hit him and left him there to die. Hermione barely noticed what happened as her mind was focused only on Harry.

"So how do you know that wasn't an Order member," Hermione asked as she practically ran down the hall looking for Harry.

"We all cast charms on ourselves so that we can see through the hood and masks, I just killed Lucius Malfoy back there," Ron said.

Hermione felt a twinge of pain as she realized Ron had just killed Draco's father, but it faded fast as Ginny's face came to her mind.

They continued down the corridor.

XXX

Draco had stood in that room for several minutes before moving. There was simply nothing he could do now. He had lost her. She would always hate him now.

Draco's tears burned his flesh as he traversed the corridor. As he walked he spotted a dark body lying on the stone. He kneeled down and removed the Death Eater mask and stared into the face of his dying father.

"Father," Draco gasped. Lucius shifted his gray eyes to look at Draco.

"Draco..." he whispered, "I've found a way to do it... to change it all."

Draco looked at his father sadly, as if he had lost his mind. Lucius didn't utter another word but simply lifted his wand to his temple and drew out a silvery wisp of memory that he gave to Draco.

A sudden cold rush overcame Draco as the memory flashed before his eyes.

It was a vault in the Swiss Wizarding Bank that Lucius went into. He spent many hours there, pouring over ancient scrolls that seemed to make him very happy.

The memory ended as Draco found himself looking back at his father.

"Go there... and you can change everything."

XXX


AN/ Hope this length makes up for the last short one! Hope you guys like it! And if you are upset about Ron killing Molly, it will all turn out okay! It is meant to be dark and horrible. You'll see why.

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