Shattered Glass

Chapter Six: The Plan
(Author's note I do not own Harry Potter or any of its characters.)

Tonks stood horrified as she watched from the kitchen, unsure of what to do, Lupin was grasping his arm, screaming at Hermione to run. She felt panic as she held the screaming baby in her arms. She had seen them coming through the window. They had managed to doge the blast by ducking into the kitchen. It was then in that moment that she finally realized it; it was clear that she could not be both a fighter and a mother at the same time, especially if you were a mother to a newborn. She felt herself being pulled. The man she loved was injured bleeding and defending her friend, but the baby in her arms was far to fragile to be taken into battle that was unfolding with such risk. They were out numbered. She looked down at Teddy. “Shush now darling.” she whispered. She felt tears fall from her panicked eyes. Tonks looked back up at Remus only in time for her to see a green light soar through the air and hear Bellatrix's voice scream all at the same time. “REMUS!” she screamed just in time for his form to fall in a heap on the ground. Bellatrix's laugh sounded in victory.

“The werewolf is dead, the werewolf is dead!” Bellatrix sang. Tonks had to act. Just as she made her decision she watched Hermione run up the stairs. Teddy the only link she had left in the world to her now dead husband was her one and only priority. Hermione would likely find Draco and manage to escape; and even if she didn't Tonks couldn't worry about her now. The tears were falling freely from her eyes now, Remus, her love, her world... She knelt and wrapped herself around her baby. “FIND HER, FIND HER AND THE PUP!” she herd Bellatrix scream.

“Its okay Teddy.” She whispered frantically then with one last look at Remus's dead form she apperated. She landed just feet outside the barrier of the safe house where she knew her parents to be. With shaking sobs she walked slowly into the barrier. To be a mother was to give up all else for your child. She had learned her lesson, harshly. “Remus... oh god.” she kept saying to herself. Teddy's cries stopped and he looked curiously up at his mother touching her chin. She looked down at her son. “I love you.”

***


Draco awoke with a start falling off of his couch onto the floor. “Oof.” This was third night that Hermione's blood curdling scream had filled the tent and woke him at an obscene hour in the morning. He grumbled. He knew that she screamed in her sleep and that she would remember things but never did he have to be in the same vicinity as her when she did scream. It drove him crazy that he was the only one who could hear the true terror of the situation. He rested his elbow on the short coffee table that was in front of his couch. He sat rubbing his side then ran his fingers through his hair. He sighed. Hermione was going to be the death of him. Angrily he muttered to himself under his breath. He felt like he was alone again, only this time he didn't have an owl screeching desperately at him. Instead he had Hermione, who had gone practically catatonic.

He placed his head in his hand resting on the coffee table and allowed himself to think. He had wanted to reach out to her to help her, return to the way he felt about her at the safe house, but couldn't bring himself to. Every time he got close to even talking to her he would feel a surge of Malfoy pride go through his veins, and always, he would turn away a cold look in his eyes. Changing had been harder than he thought. His old ideals that had been drilled into his head since birth were harder to forget than he predicted. He could barely remember comforting her three weeks ago and wanting to cry at the moment. It was a wonder that he hadn't turned her out on her own. The small changed part of himself that he managed to hold on to would not allow it. It was the early hours in the morning that he even managed to think about Hermione as a person, when he was barely awake and half dreaming. The small part of him wished that he could remain half dreaming forever. He was going in circles on how he felt about the girl, and life in general. He could honestly say that for the first time in his life that he was utterly confused. He found it odd that he changed more when he was by himself, though he somewhat expected that especially now when he was with someone that he had thought so low of before for so long. His brow furrowed He blinked trying to forget the thought.

In any case changed, or not, Hermione's screaming was becoming a problem, one that desperately needed to be fixed. He stared blankly at the tent wall. Draco didn't have a bloody clue on how to fix her. She was a right mental case. She, other than to wash go to the bathroom and eat didn't get out of bed. He didn't catch why she had begun to act to strange. Though from what could gather about her screaming and the few words she had muttered from the morning after the attack on the house, it was something to do with what had happened the night they had escaped. His mind wandered for a moment to the three freckles above her lip, a smirk crossed his features, he did like those. He was soon brought out of that thought though. He winced as she screamed out again. “I'M SORRY!” he heard her scream for the millionth time. Draco closed his eyes. For the thousandth time the thought of obviating her completely, crossed his mind. It would be so simple, one easy incantation and her screaming would be done for.

“No.” he muttered. As much as her screaming irked him, he couldn't do that to her. Even the likes of a know it all twit had the right to memories. He wasn't getting rid of her and he wasn't ridding her of her memories. He exhaled deeply. Then what should he do? He felt his expression soften. Of course that would be the answer. He sighed opening his eyes. This would require some tact.

***


Ginny was up, again, before her two companions. She was woken by something odd, the sound of a woman's voice. That was peculiar and very suspicious. Her first thought was the crazy woman Bellatrix Lestrange. But upon further listening she determined that to be false. She was THE only woman in the area, she knew that when the three of them had come to the forest the previous day, they were more cautious now after a run in with some death eaters three days ago. Ginny would apperate first with the invisibility cloak to scout out the area for any danger, then she would apperate back and bring the other two plus all of their supplies with her. She listened again, “Ron!” it whispered. The voice sounded familiar like someone from the order. “Ron! Are you there? Ron?” it whispered. The voice almost sounded like... Tonks? She listened harder. “For goodness sakes Ron, just answer.” It was Tonks alright. Ginny grabbed her coat and walked just outside the tent. There was frost on the ground, it was cold on her bare feet. There was a silver wispy werewolf standing outside the entrance. This must have been Tonks patronus.

“Hello there Tonks.” She answered softly.

The wolf looked at her for a moment before it spoke again. “Wotcher Harry, Ron, it's me Tonks. Look, if you reply don't send Harry's patronus. The Death Eaters are on the look out for it. I escaped narrowly weeks ago from a brutal attack.” The patronus paused looking almost sad. “Reply back, if you can.” the Patronus disappeared in thin whips of silver. They would reply, Ginny would send her patronus as it was a horse and likely would not be recognized or cared about, but not now. For risk of the area being watched Ginny would reply to Tonks tomorrow, when their location would be different. With a shiver She retreated into the warmth of tent and began to prepare breakfast. She wondered how bad the attack Tonks had been through, and if Lupin was alright. She sighed rubbing her hands together for warmth.

Harry arose first that morning for once. He stood slowly and silently. Ron was still asleep, that was odd. He thought on that for a moment. He walked very slowly into the kitchen not wanting to wake Ron. Ginny as always was standing in the kitchen making breakfast for the three of them. He smiled since she had her back to him, ever since she had arrived to help them he desperately wanted to hold her in his arms, to tell her how much she meant to him. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She jumped slightly at his warm touch then she realized who it was. “Good morning Harry.” She said softly, a smile gracing her features. She leaned into him resting her head on his shoulder. She could understand why they never did this around Ron, so she savored the few moments that they got alone together. She closed her eyes and inhaled Harry's scent.

“You know you mean the world to me right?” He muttered into her ear. His grasp tightened on her waist as he pulled her close. She nodded against him.

“And you to me.” she replied her voice almost a whisper. She freed herself from his grasp and turned around. Ginny smiled at him before she kissed him soundly on the lips, losing herself in her pent up passion for Harry.

***


'Stupid... selfish... thoughtless... boy...' Lucius thought over and over. He was huddled on the floor in the corner, in the fetal position on his side. His teeth chattered. His hair was falling out. His skin was almost transparent. He was dirty. He was grimy. His bones threatened to protrude from his skin. He was crazy. He could feel it festering in his blood, infesting every part of his being. It was both horrifying and wonderful, insanity. He could understand his sister-in-law better now. Like Bellatrix, he too had one purpose, on duty, one right. His allegiance was to no one but himself. And after he killed his son and his revenge was fulfilled maybe, just perhaps, he would return to his dark lord. But that was all secondary.

He smiled his lip cracking and starting to bleed, though that did not matter nothing but escaping mattered. Lucius had figured a way out. It would be risky, and surely had been tried before; but it was the only way the he saw out, he smiled wider, his teeth covered in layers of plaque. The only reason why it would work? The prison guards expected him to try to escape. They were right, but all of them were wrong on how he would do it. Gone was his Malfoy pride he was willing to do anything, but again, the guards didn't know that. He would resort to any means necessary to get out. Nothing was too low for him anymore. He cupped his hands and blew into them as the dementors came closer. It was usually in times such as these when Lucius had learned to sleep, not this time however. 'Phase one.' he thought and stood up. There was a prison guard with the dementors who had a stack of trays, it was dinner time. He dropped his smile and licked the blood that was coming out of his bottom lip.

'Remember Lucius. Remember.' He thought. Concentrating on his revenge he braced himself for the dementors, who floated around breathing heavily as the guard served the trays. “Ready.” he muttered softly. He listened as the tray was slid under the door at the first cell in the block, then the second, and third, fourth. Lucius was the sixth. He clenched and unclenched his fists. “Come on.” he breathed.

“Stay back.” the guard grunted at him. Lucius backed himself fully into the wall. The guard paused looking him over. “Never thought I'd have the honor of serving a Malfoy.” he said quite sarcastically then chucked at his own joke. The words hardly even touched him; Lucius was a man on a mission. He rapped his fingernails lightly on the wall behind him. The guard bent over sliding the tray under the bars. Lucius sprung into action then. He flung himself at the guard and wrapped his arm around his neck and squeezed. The remaining two trays thumped to the ground with a loud clank.

“You served me well.” Lucius hissed. “Give me your wand. Quickly.” he demanded.

“You'll only kill me.” The guard laughed.

“You'll die either way, now hand me your wand.” Lucius smiled. His lip bleeding more staining his bottom teeth red.

“No.” The guard smiled defiantly.

“The question is, would you rather die by wand, it would be quick and painless. Or, suffer suffocation and choking on your own tongue, its your choice. I hear the second option is simply horrible. I know I would love to watch you suffer.” He laced his words with as much malice as he could conjure, which was all he was anymore. He glanced casually down at his knuckles, his front teeth red with blood. Lucius in that moment was an ominous sight.

The dementors were still on the other end of the block. The guard merely nodded and slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out his wand and surrendered it over to the mad blond man, fear in his eyes. He knew Lucius Malfoy to be a ruthless harsh uncaring man. Lucius let the man go. “Stand up.” he commanded at holding the man at wand point. The guard stood very fast. The dementors didn't even notice their scuffle. “Now open this door and let me out.” The man nodded and fumbled with his keys until he found the right one and unlocked the heavy bared door. Lucius stepped out “On your knees good sir.” Lucius commanded. The guard fallowed command. Lucius being the man that he was reached down with both hands and placed them on either side of the mans head he lowered himself so that he was a just an inch away from the mans face. “I'm going to break your neck, but only mostly. Enjoy your slow death.” He twisted hard hearing several loud cracks, and feeling them under his hands. The man fell to the ground making a strange kind of raspy gargling sound all the while grasping desperately at his throat. Lucius thought fondly about torturing Draco. “Expecto Patronum.” A silver cobra erupted from his wand tip and he smiled as it hissed down the corridor chasing all of the dementors in its wake. He fallowed the animal at almost a skip.

“I got out of my cell!” he sang over and over to the prisoners who were still behind their bars. He was overcome with pure, untainted, sweet and vicious delight. His plan was going so well, though he needed to cause more of a commotion, though not one to warrant his death. He grimaced, how to do that? It was then that the prisoners began to yell at him. Lucius felt warm and energized, he began to whistle to himself. He was hit with another dose of delight since his commotion problem was solved without him even having to think. As he passed by all of the cells the prisoners screamed at him, spit at him, cheered him on, but he didn't care enough to listen. He just smiled and waved at them all, the ones that he did recognize he bowed to them waving his hand, or even curtseyed. He was having a ball.

His silver cobra slithered happily around his feet, warming him. Now where were those pesky guards? The first half of his plan was working wonderfully. He looked around, The prisoners were screaming, he was warm and armed with a wand, perfection. Had he been the same kind of Malfoy, filled with pride and higher expectations of himself, he perhaps would have thought about escaping for real, but now fully insane he knew his odds of achieving that, they were not good, not good at all. To actually try that, was beyond silly. The prison was, after all, on an island surrounded by vicious ocean and he was physically worn down. Instead, he just needed to make it look like he was making a run for it. “Guards! Guards!” he cried out, laughing as he did it. “I've escaped!” he threw a curse at the wall making int crumble slightly. 'BANG, BANG BANG'. He crumbled more of the walls down, though he had careful not to let any other prisoners free.

As he approached the stairs leading up to higher levels, he heard them, panicked footsteps of many guards. He stopped in the middles of the hallway, his cobra hissed menacingly in the direction of the approaching guards Lucius put on the best and most formidable smile that he could muster his lip cracking open again. “COME AND GET ME BOYS!” Lucius growled at the crowd of guards that entered the corridor. He threw a curse at them, knocking many of them over, then a protection charm around him. 'Don't kill them Lucius.' he reminded himself. 'We don't want the dementors kiss now do we? No we don't.' he thought just as he dodged a falling part of the ceasing.

He didn't even remember all of the curses that he had thrown at them, but he knew that some of them were injured and that his left arm hung limp at his side. None of that mattered however, all that mattered was getting to Draco. He looked up, there was a large section of the ceiling that was cracking, if he could just shake it enough, maybe, just maybe would this work. He looked back at the group of guards just in time for him to doge a curse. He watched as it soared through the air it hit just inches from where he had been standing, the section of wall cracked up close to the section of ceiling. Lucius crawled quickly so that he would be under it. He threw a few more curses toward the guards, when unexpectedly he was hit, then covered by falling rubble.

“I'm hurt.” he whispered from beneath the pile. His plan, had worked and was fulfilled to absolute perfection. Despite the intense pain he was in and the sharp jagged rock covering his body he managed to chuckle once then he was swept into unconsciousness.