A Hero's Defeat

A Hero's Defeat

Chapter Seven

Ron forced himself to stay conscious through the torture inflicted by Harry and Voldemort. He couldn't understand what was going on, but he was vaguely aware that the curses had stopped. He looked up. Voldemort was now alone.

"You've held out much longer than anyone else in your family," Voldemort sneered.

"Like you would know the meaning of the word family," Ron shot back.

"Indeed, I do not."

Ron glared at him. He couldn't understand what Voldemort had just said.

"Sadly, though Weasley, I'm afraid this visit must be cut short. You will be returning to your friends and family at Hogwarts. Do give them my love."

~~~

Harry returned to the dungeons. They just had to mention Hermione. He didn't know where she was, but he could wager a guess that it was somewhere far away from England. He'd told her that he never wanted to see her again and she'd left, probably back to Voldemort's side to do what Severus had once done before he'd been found out as a spy, and killed.

That had been one of the worst times in his life. He had always believed that Hermione was too good of a person to join Voldemort's ranks, but she had. It didn't matter that she'd done it because of him, to save him. It was noble actually, but she had done evil things for the Dark Lord.

Hermione had taken a place in Voldemort's Inner Circle when Severus had been supposedly killed. She knew how to make many deadly potions and despite the fact that she was Muggle-born, Voldemort had accepted her.

And then he'd taunted Harry about his friend.

He had loved Hermione and he still did to a point, but he'd never be able to trust her again. She had said she'd made those choices to try to save him from Voldemort, but she was too smart for that. Something else had been going on and Harry had never been able to figure out what it was. Hermione had betrayed him, betrayed everything he'd worked for his entire life and he didn't know why.

So what had driven her to the snake?

~~~

Ginny walked back to her rooms followed by Charlie, Tonks, and George. They needed to talk again after their encounter with Harry in the hall. He seemed to be two different people and that scared Ginny.

What had happened to him while he was with Voldemort?

At times he could be cold and distant, yet at others, he could be almost like the person he was before his fourth year. Ginny had loved that Harry, but now she didn't know what she felt towards him.

Why were things so complicated?

"We have to do something about him," Tonks said. "He's going to do something and he could very easily bring Voldemort here."

"Probably," George said. "Tonks, you should check out the Death Eater activity."

Tonks nodded. Everyone looked at Charlie. They all sat in silence for several minutes. Charlie was their leader now. He had been for a long time and no one in that room would question him. The rest of the Order nearly despised him and the decisions he made.

"I don't want anyone alone with Harry for any reason," Charlie said. "He could be dangerous."

"He is dangerous," Ginny muttered.

"Charlie," Tonks said, "do you think Ron's dead?"

He didn't look at anyone. "Yes, or he soon will be. No one survives Voldemort."

Ginny looked away. The only person who had survived Voldemort was Harry and it had left him broken and a servant to the monster. It seemed worse than death to serve one such as Voldemort. Ginny stopped that line of thought and looked at her brother. No, it wasn't possible.

~~~

Draco was still resting peacefully when Severus Snape looked into the room where he'd been taken. Severus quietly closed the door and went downstairs. He needed to prepare. Once Harry told the Order that he was a Death Eater, he'd have little time and he'd need to run if was going to get to Azkaban without anyone from the Order knowing of his plans.

Few people knew the truth about how Azkaban was being used or what was really going on. Even the loyal Death Eaters didn't know. Except maybe Malfoy and Wormtail. The Lestranges probably knew. And he, Harry, and Draco knew and Hermione Granger had known.

Severus had always wondered what Harry had said to her to make her leave. The young man was so closed off and he had been since Voldemort's return to power. That was why it was so easy for him to play the part of being insane. Part of it, Severus knew, was Harry playing on the worst fears of everyone in the Order. They all believed Harry would be their savior from Voldemort.

He would be, just not in the way they thought.

Severus continued his way down to the lowermost basement of his family's home. He had potions to make before all hell broke loose. Their time was growing short and Severus wondered how many more people he had come to care about would die before it was all over.

~~~

There was once an ancient magic that, though Dark, was widely used by all witches and wizards. No one knew how Dark it was considered to be. It was first used on elves to make them become servants. It stole Souls.

Hermione Granger read over the words several times. She read the spell and the notes on how to perform it and after several hours, she was positive that she knew how to accomplish the task.

Before she tried it on the intended victim, however, she needed to test it and she had just the perfect rat to test the spell on. Her face twisted in a cold, almost cruel smile as she shut the book she'd been reading and left the room. Where would the rat be at this time of night?

She walked the halls of the ornate Malfoy Mansion. She, being a lover of old architecture, had fallen in love with the mansion the first time she'd entered its protective walls. The house reminded her of Hogwarts in a way, only this place was much more exquisite than her former school.

Looking at these walls, however wonderful, served as a painful reminder to the life she'd given up. Her life, her love, everything to do these few tasks to thwart Voldemort's plans. She hadn't even been able to tell Harry the truth about her actions and there wasn't a doubt in her mind that he still believed she had betrayed him.

Where was the rat hiding?

~~~

Luna Lovegood-Malfoy was escorted into her home by her husband's closest friend, Greg Goyle. She was distraught over her husband's death and she refused to let him do anything. She needed to be alone, to remember. He left with a promise to stop by later.

As Luna walked towards her daughter's room, she thought about the meeting. She had been surprised by Harry's interest in Dark Arts, but never questioned if he would join Voldemort. She knew he wouldn't. In a way, she saw that Harry and Draco were alike. Both would do anything to win the war. Draco became a Death Eater just to become a spy and Harry studied Dark Arts most likely to find a way to kill Voldemort.

None of it surprised her anymore. She felt confident Harry would never work with the monster.

But Hermione. Luna had been wrong about her. She'd thought that Hermione was a Light witch. Besides, Hermione was a Muggle-born. Voldemort would never accept her.

What had been going on? It wasn't making any sense to her and she was too upset to focus on any of it but she felt that she needed to do something. She walked up the stairs to check on her and Draco's five month old daughter, Katherine.

The nursery was decorated in soft shades of yellow and pink. Luna smiled sadly as she remembered the discussions she and Draco had had about the color of the room. He, being the perfect Slytherin, said that the room should be green and silver. Luna had wanted blue. They'd argued for a long time before Harry had suggested yellow.

It was decided upon that day and they had asked Harry to be Katherine's godfather. Everyone else thought that they were crazy to leave a child in the possible care of someone who was insane, but Luna didn't think Harry was insane at all. Those same people had always said she was insane and they had been wrong and so the logical conclusion was that they were wrong about Harry too.

She knew what insanity was and he was far from it. But why would he fake it? Why?

Luna fell asleep in the nursery watching the rise and fall of her daughter's chest and dreamt about the past and hoped for the future.

As she slept, she didn't realize that the wards protecting the house from Voldemort's Death Eaters fell and black cloaked figures began to appear.

~~~

Harry woke with a start. Something wasn't right. Someone was in danger, but who? Besides Ron he could think of anyone who would be in immediate danger from Voldemort.

The boy who lived paced the dungeons that had once belonged to his most hated professor.

Then a thought occurred to him. Draco was supposedly dead, which meant that Luna was alone and if a Death Eater betrayed Voldemort, the entire family was to pay for the crime with their lives.

Luna and Katherine.

Harry bolted to the door and rushed towards his rooms. He didn't care if anyone saw him. He had to get to Luna and Draco's mansion.

But when he arrived in his room, he quickly realized he wouldn't be able to leave anytime soon and Luna and Katherine would die.

~~~

Time seemed to stand still as Death Eater broke through the remaining wards surrounding the small mansion. A simple spell opened the door and the group of five walked inside.

"Search this floor," one said, obviously the leader of the group. "You two go upstairs. Kill the woman, bring the child."

The Death Eaters complied with their commander's orders and quickly went to do their job.

In baby Katherine's nursery, Luna Malfoy still slept unaware of the events taking shape around her and her daughter, unaware of a prophecy being born.

~~~

Harry was having the worst luck with the Weasleys. Ron, Ginny, and now George. Harry fought the urge to sigh.

"Hello, George," he said tiredly, hoping that the message got across. It didn't.

"I want you to stay away from my sister, away from everyone else as well," George said. "You're up to something."

The man sitting in front of him had come a long way since his youth when all he had cared about was the next prank he could pull on the Slytherins. Now he wore a suit and was looking very much like a Muggle businessman. Harry suppressed another sigh and moved to his desk aware that George had visibly stiffened as if readying for an attack.

"I have to leave," Harry said. "I won't be back." He opened the desk drawer and pulled out a box. Opening it, he extracted a necklace.

"Are you working with Voldemort?"

"Do you want to hear the truth or what you would like to believe?"

"You are," George stated. He stood up and pulled his wand. "You're a Death Eater."

"You said it, I didn't." Harry put the necklace into his pocket. "Believe what you want to believe, George. You hate me because you blame me for everyone in your family being dead. Trust me, it no longer matters how much you say or do to me because of it because none of it plagues me more than my own conscience."

Harry took advantage of George's shocked state and left the room. He ran to the Forbidden Forest and Disapparated.