The Secret of the Malfoy Name

Chapter XXVI: Fly Away

09/26/1996
Hera couldn’t move from where she was, next to the only fatherly figure she had ever had, even if it had only been for a couple of days. She knew she had done the right thing, and it’s not like she had had a choice, anyway. Yet she still felt like she had killed him herself, which wasn’t too far from the truth, and she would never forgive herself, would never be happy again.

Tears rolled down her face uncontrollably, leaving their trace on her face like transparent ink stains she would never be able to erase. She had seen this very instant so many times before, but living it was completely different and was eating her alive. Right there didn’t lie the Dark Lord, murderer of innocent people, destroyer of all that is pure; she saw the real Tom Riddle, the man who had wanted her love and had gotten it.

She took a big breath and silently stood up, still unable to look at his brother and Harry, but specially his brother. She was afraid of what her own actions had done to him. She was embarrassed about the way she had handled the situation, not because there had been other options, but because he didn’t know there hadn’t been.

Hera took Voldemort’s wand from his hand and walked towards the brunette, who looked at her drawn between distrust and compassion. She stopped beside him and left the wand in his right chained hand.

‘There. Go crazy’, she said despondently.

Harry didn’t react at first, but then he gripped the wand and whispered ‘Finite Incantatem’, and the chains let go of him and retreated. He stood up difficultly and freed Draco, who would’ve fallen down from the remaining pain if Harry hadn’t taken him in his arms.

‘Are you alright?’, Harry asked looking at him worriedly. His eyes were still red and his voice sounded unsteady, as though he would break into tears again.

‘I’ll be fine, let’s just get out of here… I can’t stand this bloody dungeon anymore’, Draco said holding him as tight as he could, needing the support more than ever. He looked at Hera and sighed.

‘Draco…’, she started, but she choked on her own words. ‘I’m so sorry… about everything…’

‘Does ‘everything’ also include you offering to kill me?’, he asked dryly.

Tears begun to slide down her face again, each word stinging like giant needles.

‘If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been able to leave Harry the dagger to kill the Dark Lord!’, she cried. ‘I had to do it… I couldn’t let you get killed. I couldn’t let you get killed…’ She rocked back and forth, unable to stop her crying.

‘Come on, Harry. Let’s go’, he said as he tried to get up, but fell to the floor again with a pained expression.

Harry put one of his arms around his shoulders and helped him up. They walked together to the cell’s door, Harry looking back at Hera, Draco with his eyes fixed on the exit. When they reached it, Harry used Voldemort’s wand to open it and they walked out.

‘Are you coming or not?’, Draco asked without looking at his sister.

Hera smiled slightly and got up to follow them. As she walked, she saw her ring on the floor, still in the same place she had thrown it at. She picked it up fondly and put it on her thumb, giving them both a warm feeling inside. Draco looked over his shoulder and his expression softened, but he hid it quickly and they kept on walking.

‘Hera… do you happen to know where our brooms are?’, Harry asked.

‘Yes. The Dark Lord took them to his room to guard them himself, along with your wands’, she said as she ran to catch up with them.

‘His room? Why do I have the feeling we’ll run into a thousand Death Eaters before we get there?’

‘I doubt it. I faked a prediction and, right now, they should be waiting patiently for Dumbledore’s friends to arrive at a non-existent headquarter in London. The rest are waiting by the entrance we won’t use and the remaining one shouldn’t give us any trouble.’

‘You had it all worked out, didn’t you?’, Draco said silently.

They left the dungeons and went up three flights of stairs as quietly as they could possibly walk. Now that they were on the run, the castle seemed immense to Hera, as though it was a different castle the one they were going through. She didn’t feel like she owned it anymore. She had lost all sorts of protection she had had hours ago, but she knew it was best not to be cosseted by Draco’s side than living in a bubble next to his murderer.

They reached Voldemort’s bedroom and opened the door to find themselves in Wormtail’s presence. Draco looked at Hera disappointedly, feeling as though she had fooled him all over again.

‘Well, well, well… what have we here?’, the man said gleefully. ‘I knew you were nothing but a little traitor… too bad you didn’t predict me being here’, he laughed repulsively as he aimed his wand at them. ‘My Master will be so pleased when he finds out I prevented your runaway and trapped the cute Malfoy girl.’

‘Voldemort’s dead, Wormtail’, Harry said impatiently. ‘Get out of our way, unless you want to die along with him.’

Pettigrew’s round eyes opened wide. He was sweaty and shaky, looking around him madly, as though checking if there were other Death Eaters in the room. He fell to his knees and whispered, ‘Oh, thank God…’ He put his silver hand on his temple to calm himself down and closed his eyes. ‘Get out of here quick, before someone else sees you. And Potter, will this break my wizard’s debt to you? Please, say it will! It haunts me in my dreams every night!’

‘Yes, I suppose it will…’, Harry said uncertainly. ‘The one thing I ask you in return is to go back to being a rat and never show your face again. Am I clear?’, Harry asked aiming Voldemort’s wand at him.

‘Yes! Oh, you merciful boy! You are so much like your mother! Thank you so much!’, he cried and as he curled into a ball, he transformed into the rat formerly know as Scabbers, and ran out of the room.

Hera reached under the bed and took Harry’s Firebolt and Draco’s Nimbus 2001. She handed the brooms to them and stood still as though trying to sense the wands in the air. She turned around and opened the second drawer Voldemort’s large closet and, to their surprise, they found about a hundred more wands than they were expecting.

‘Great! Did he rob Mr. Olivander or something?’, Draco exclaimed annoyed.

‘Let’s just take them all’, Harry said taking off with school robes, which were a complete mess anyways, emptied the drawer on it and made two tight knots to keep the wands from falling.

Harry got on his broom and Draco took Hera on his and, just like they had escaped Malfoy manor, the flew out the window without looking back.