The Alliance

Chapter 1

Child of Darkness

In the beginning I was just a child. My status in the war was defined, not by what I was able to do, but by who I was. I was Draco Malfoy, son of Lucius Malfoy, and one of the best of the young wizards that fought with blind devotion for our Dark Lord, Voldemort. There was so much that I needed to learn, but I was, in so many ways, still a child....

Erebus

*************

Summer had arrived, and had made itself quite obvious. No longer was there the sweet scent of spring with its cool breeze and showers of rain. Instead a deep, almost suffocating, heat had engulfed the city of London. With it came the overpowering need for minimal clothing, head protection against sun stroke, and the insatiable want of something cool to drink.

Not for the first time, Draco was glad that he wasn't a Muggle. The heat outside the Dark Lord's main base would have surely driven anyone in their right mind stark raving mad. While Azkaban was no picnic, it surely did its duty when it came to retaining cooling spells.

For everyone with him at the moment, though, the weather was the last thing on their minds.

"I'm sure that you are all aware that we have gathered here to discuss our new plan of attack on Muggle London. Unfortunately, our attack yesterday didn't go quite as planned, but that should not discourage us. Our next plan of attack should be bigger, and if we put enough planning into it, it should be quite a success...."

When Bert Malone, Head of Missions Strategy, had begun speaking, Draco had tried to give his undivided attention. However, as soon as it was stated that they had failed, Draco's attention again wavered. After all, who needed to hear the insufferable git's voice drone on and on when the main point had been stated anyway? It was quite obvious to Draco that the man before them was not very good at anything. He had half a mind to tell the old idiot just what he thought of him at this point. He didn't though; no matter how obvious the flaws in the plan had been to him in the beginning, he was not one to spoil Malone's obvious pleasure of having something useful to do. Besides, if the latest plan succeeded, then the failing of this plan wouldn't be so important anyway.

As Malone continued speaking, Draco's eyes surreptitiously surveyed the reactions of the other Death Eaters. Most of them were quickly becoming quite bored, and were just wishing for Malone to get to discussing the new plan.

"It's obvious from this plan, we didn't take into consideration that some of the Muggles would be armed with weapons, or that there would be Resistant members in such close proximity..."

Draco tried not to roll his eyes too obviously. Who the hell thinks up a scheme, and not add in the obvious determent of weapons and resistance!

It was becoming apparent that Malone was taking his sweet time getting to the conclusive part of the meeting, so Draco decided to just settle down, and become as bored as everyone else. Though he kept his face blank of any emotion, most of the time he couldn't help the random thoughts of violence that popped in his head as the time slowly slid by. He would soon be on the brink of losing his patience.

If he doesn't get to the next part soon, I’m going to shut his bloody mouth up the most effective way I know...!

Malone glanced in his direction at that point, and seemed to get the unspoken message quite clearly.

"Um, well, let's move on to other matters. Our attack scheduled for three days from now..."

At this announcement everyone, especially Draco, gave a sigh of relief.

**************

Albus Dumbledore, Second Order of Merlin, One of the most renowned wizards in the country, Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and Leader of The Resistance, smiled with glee at the three persons seated directly before him. As always, his smiles were tinged with a sense of pride, admiration and utter fear for them, but the trio before him pretended to take no note of this.

"To what do I owe this most surprising visit?" he asked, with a famous twinkle in his eyes.

"Yesterday one of our bases was attacked. We don't think the Death Eaters knew that it was a base, though. It was probably the congregation of Muggles that drew their attention. We were able to get rid of the Death Eaters, save the Muggles and cast the Oblivious spell without anyone realizing that the base was there. Since we did all that successfully, we just wanted to know if we should have it destroyed, or just have it vacated."

Dumbledore frowned in concentration for a few minutes.

"Destroy it," he decided. "There are more bases that are hopefully available right now; I think we can afford to get rid of this one. I don't think it would be wise to run the risk of it being detected and targeted."

The three nodded their agreement, and Dumbledore smile again.

"Not that I don't appreciate this visit, but I'm sure you could have sent that in a well encrypted owl, or simply make a decision on it yourselves..."

There was silence for a few seconds as two out of the three blushed.

"Well, we were changing location again, and...uh...Hogwarts is en route..."

Dumbledore looked on the one that had spoken, and his smile took on a characteristic of concern.

"I think we all know that Hogwarts is not en route to any of the bases," he said softly. "Besides, it's obvious that the Death Eaters think that Hogwarts is the main base for the Resistance. I don't think I particularly want you to risk coming here, especially since your mission for the Resistance is so...unique."

This time the three faces became one of disgust.

"That just goes to show just how stupid the Death Eaters are. Hogwarts is too obvious a location for any resistance to be located. Either way, we surely are not that predictable."

This time Dumbledore laughed gently as he stood up. Then walking around his desk, he looked at each of them in turn.

"Ron, Hermione, Harry, it's only been about two years since you left Hogwarts and my company, but I've missed you three. Thank you for risking your identities to visit me," he said softly.

Each of them hugged the man, who even the Dark Lord himself feared, with as much sincerity as they would their own grandfathers.

"Be safe," he whispered to them, as they prepared to leave.

"Always."

**************

Screw you Malfoy!

Pansy had been sitting across the room from Draco for the past hour, and still he insisted on blatantly ignoring her. It was now beginning to irritate her. No matter what she did to get his attention, he was bent on pretending that he didn't notice.

Of course it didn't help that even though they had just come from training together, she felt like shite, while he got to look like a demi-god.

It also didn't help that he had just bested her and everyone else outside in the mind numbing heat rather brutally. She couldn't help the flood of desire she felt every time she was near him. Yet he ignored her.

It was so unfair! He had been fighting for the Dark Lord since he left Hogwarts two years ago, while she and almost everyone else had had to wait until they were eighteen before they begun their training for physical battle. He was amazing now, and since he had always been good in Potions, he had to be amazing in that, too.

It didn’t help that Draco's father was screwing the Dark Lord, and his mother obviously couldn't care any less.

Why couldn't he be a screw up like Zabini?

Yet it didn't seem fair to even compare Blaise with Draco. Blaise wasn't made captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team in Lower six of Hogwarts. Blaise was never one of the two most shaggable boys in Upper six at Hogwarts. Blaise's parents had almost as much money as Pansy's, though neither of them could compare to Malfoy’s money. Most important of all though, Blaise was never the arch nemesis (after Voldemort) of Harry Potter, the next most shaggable boy, for seven years.

The exact reasons that made Zabini a screw up, was everything Draco was not. Even Pansy realized that.

Draco had a list of achievements that drew her to him, and apart from the obvious ones listed, there was also the fact that Draco had been personally chosen by the Dark Lord himself to fight in the war immediately after Hogwarts. Not to mention the fact that between his mother's beauty and his father's charisma, Draco seemed next to perfect to her.

Screw you Malfoy!

For the next few minutes after thinking that thought again, Pansy had to suppress a groan from the effect the visual was having on her body.

**************

Destroy the base immediately. We cannot run the risk of detection.

Demetre

Cho Chang had been working for the Resistance since the official declaration of war, and if it was one thing she learned, it was that one could never be too careful about who one trusted these days. Yet as soon as the owl had been delivered, and later decoded, the idea of questioning its authenticity had not once crossed her mind.

Every member of the Resistance knew who Demetre was, yet no one knew his identity. It was the same with the other members of The Alliance. Even the Death Eaters knew that The Alliance was important to the movement somehow. How important they were, where they got their information, and who they were was kept a secret from everyone. They could have been anyone, but no-one dared to truly investigate. Not that investigating would have helped. The very reason why The Alliance worked was because there was nothing to prove that they existed, except the priceless information they were able to retrieve, sometimes in situations where it seemed almost impossible to infiltrate.

With all the things The Alliance was able to do for the movement and all the remote places within Britain that they were able to turn up at in mere hours, personally Cho figured that there had to be about twenty members using the four aliases known. Otherwise, in her opinion, being one of them couldn't be all that peachy.

Still they weren't perfect.

Yes, The Alliance made mistakes, and some of them were pretty big ones. This was okay by Cho; after all it proved that they weren't gods. They were human like everyone else; it was only that they seemed to fight twice as hard as any other member. Whatever the hell it was that motivated them, could stick with them. Cho loved the little part she played to keep shite like the Dark Lord from claiming victory over the wizarding world, and though it may not be as risky as others, she was satisfied.

Turning to her maps of London, she began the scrying process to locate any Resistance member within the region of the infiltrated base. The first person she located would have to be sent the order to completely burn the base and all evidence that were linked to its location.

Today her order was simple, but most of the times she was expected to relay more important messages. Not that she minded the lack of energy she was expected to exert on this task.

When in war one learned to appreciate the simple things in life.

***************

Draco was livid, to say the least.

Seven hours before the raid, and now this! Though he thought Malone to be an incompetent fool, this plan had seemed a stroke of genius, and now there was the possibility that he may not even be allowed on the raid.

"Arghhh!"

Stalking over to his desk, he swept an angry arm across the surface sending the half bottle of red wine, wine glass, three ink bottles, pieces of parchment, two quills and his wand into a shattering mess of broken glass, ruined parchment and wine soaked carpeting. Then rather transfixed, he watched as his wand rolled away from the debris, perfectly unscathed, but his anger was nowhere from being sated.

I'm going to kill that meddling little --

His thought was not completed however. Instead the object of his disgust and anger barged into his room as if on cue.

"Draco? Draco, baby, did you hear the good news?" Pansy gushed as she slammed the door, all the while speaking to his turned back.

There were a few seconds of silence then Draco spoke.

"Accio wand!"

As soon as the wand was in his hand, Draco finally turned to face Pansy, and she realized her mistake in his eyes. It was the only thing that showed his anger, but though his eyes had become solid grey icebergs, his other features were carefully blank.

"What did you do, Pansy?" he asked, backing her up against the door.

"What do you mean?"

"What did you do?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"What did you do?"

"Repetition isn't helping, Draco."

"Tell me how you managed to get someone as important as me off the mission."

By then he had her crushed between his body and the door. His scent was a mixture of spice and pure male, and for a while she basked in the scent of him so close.

His breath trailed a line from the base of her neck to the tip of her ear, and she suppressed a shiver.

"Why? Why when you knew this raid was so important to me?"

This time his lips were barely away from her ear, so his whispered words were clearly heard.

"I know that raids are important to you, but I wanted you to stay here with me." She smiled. "It was so easy, really. All I had to do was to convince a few people to agree not to send you."

"How?"

She smiled again. "I have my ways."

A few seconds later the smile was wiped from her face as Draco's fingers entangled in her hair, and painfully pulled. His wand was pressed painfully between her breasts.

Still his face showed no change.

"Whatever you did undo it. I don't care how. I don't care how many men or women you have to sleep with in the next few hours. I want to hear that I’m back on the raid as soon as possible."

Pansy's faced was deeply etched by pain, and, as much as she tried to speak, her mouth refused to form the words of her consent.

Draco didn't care about that. Leaning against her again, he whispered seductively in her ear,

"Crucio."

Pansy's body was immediately engulfed by pain so deep it wracked her entire body. As soon as it begun, Draco released his hold on her, and watched as she crumpled unto the floor. Standing above her, he watched her screaming and twisting with his face still in an impassive mask.

"Finite Incantatum!"

Leaning over he grabbed her hair again, and pulled her up.

This time Pansy had no qualms about screaming, and as she stood before him sobbing, she looked into his beautiful grey eyes, and wondered if the devil was half as beautiful.

"Don't ever forget who I am, Pansy, and don't ever forget why I was personally chosen by the Dark Lord. I am ruthless, and I joined this war to fight. The next time you think of doing something like this remember that I have no problems in killing, and killing you would be easy."

Ten seconds later Pansy was on the opposite side of the door, and though she still hurt like hell, the look in her eyes had nothing to do with pain.

Groaning, she made her way slowly down the passages leading to her room. She still had to get Draco back on the mission, and that would take time and energy.

More importantly she had to work on a plan of revenge.

***************

"Finally, we have arrived!"

Standing about five feet in front of Ron and Hermione, Harry grinned at the wide open space before him.

Hermione grinned also. "And you thought we were never going to get here."

Rolling his eyes, Ron faked irritation.

"Well between the two of you insisting on visiting Hogwarts, and Hermione's need for travelling a la Muggle, I didn't think we were ever going to get here either."

"The point is that we have now arrived. How long it took us to get here is beyond the point," Hermione stated, before she began the incantations for unlocking the lock spells surrounding the house.

Ten minutes later, what looked suspiciously like a cottage appeared not more than two feet in front of Harry.

Harry gasped, and Ron snickered.

"Wow, Harry, one more step and the house would have landed right on top of you."

Harry turned to flash Ron a look of displeasure, but seconds later the grin was back on his face as he looked the cottage over.

"It's a good thing I know that these things are bigger than they look on the outside."

This time it was Hermione who rolled her eyes as she began to open the door.

Before she could finish turning the knob, the door opened from the other side, and none other than Neville Longbottom and Seamus Finnegan stood before them.

"Well would you look at that!" Seamus exclaimed in his lilting Irish accent.

"Where've you been?" He pulled his three now grinning friends in one of his famous hugs. "Haven't seen you three since graduation two years ago!"

As soon as they were able to untangle themselves from Seamus' grasp, they hugged Neville, who led them into the house. Once inside they gave their two friends a severe scrutiny.

Seamus looked almost exactly how he had looked since the last time they had seen him. He was still the six feet tall, brown hair, blue eyes person that they had hugged two years ago for what they thought had been the last time. Now, however, his hair was slightly longer and spikier than they remembered, with the added bonus of a small nose ring over his right nostril and an earring in his left ear. Hermione also thought that she had glimpsed a tongue ring at one point.

Neville, who had left to get them something to drink from the kitchen as soon as they had settled on the settee, had changed even less. Since he had lost his baby fat in his fifth year at Hogwarts his height of six feet and two inches was now clearly visible. With his now slim and, like Seamus, slightly muscled form, he had an air of intelligence and confidence that he had not possessed in his first year.

"We thought the place would be empty today. We really didn't expect to find you two here," Hermione said, from her position between Ron and Harry.

"Actually we were supposed to leave this morning," Neville responded. In his hand he carried five bottles of Butterbeer. "We got an owl from Cho about the base near Diagon Alley being compromised, so we spent the whole day trying to come up with a way to get there."

Harry looked confused. "I don't understand how hard it could be, I thought you guys were just leaving."

Seamus smiled his thanks to Neville, before he turned to face Harry who was in front of him.

"We were just leaving, but you see we meant to go to Lancaster to visit Neville's grandmother, and that's the opposite way from the base. If we were to go to the base first, we'd have to Apparate to there, and then Apparate back here. By the time we got back here, well...we'd be too tired to Apparate to Wales."

Hermione flashed them a sympathetic look, but she was quick to note that Neville looked as if he had a plan.

"I just had a brilliant idea." He was smiling with a mischievous look in his eyes, and Ron knew that couldn't be good. "How about if the three of you went to destroy the base? It would certainly eliminate the problem for us."

Hermione and Harry smiled at each other, but Ron did not look pleased.

"But we just got here! Besides, we just left that base, and it took us five days to reach here."

Hermione flashed him a look of utter patience, though her eyes still held the hint of a smile.

"Yes, but this time it will be much quicker, because we won't be visiting Hogwarts again..."

"And we won't be travelling Muggle. We'll just Apparate there and back." Harry chipped in.

Ron still didn't look all that pleased, but he conceded.

"All right, I suppose we could just hop over there and do it."

Seamus and Neville winked proudly at each other.

That had been almost too easy.

*****************

Pansy stepped in front of Draco's room door for the second time in four hours, and took a deep breath to calmly hide the anger she still felt, from her eyes.

Oh, Draco, baby, you'll pay for what you did to me, but not now. I just have to get a few things done first.

Taking another deep breath, she knocked on his door. She knew that it was better that she pretended to be okay with him now. She was a Slytherin for life, and Slytherins always got even the underhand way.

She was just contemplating another knock when the door slowly opened, and Draco stood before her. His eyes immediately became a dull grey hue to show his lack of interest in her presence.

"I take it you've corrected the situation."

Pansy nodded slowly. "Yes. You're to leave in three hours."

Draco ignored her need to point out the obvious, and, without another word, began to close the door.

"No wait!" Her exclamation paused him in his task. "I was also asked to inform you that you are to attend a meeting in the conference area with the others that are going on the mission."

"Why?"

Unable to hide her displeasure, Pansy shrugged sadly. "I heard that the Dark Lord is leaving for a few hours, and won't be back until tomorrow. I suppose he wanted to bid you people goodbye."

Draco nodded his thanks, and closed the door. Then he leaned back on it, and closed his eyes.

So the Dark Lord was leaving for a while. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Draco didn't give a shit about the coming and going of Lord Voldemort. The only problem was that as Voldemort's consort, his father would more than likely be leaving with the Dark Lord.

Draco groaned. He hardly got to spend time with his father already, and now that the war was going on it seemed that the only time he ever saw his father was at the Dark Lord's side. His father was still the most important person in his life, and Draco still lived to please him. Even though becoming a Death Eater had been his father's idea.

Opening his eyes he tried to clear his head. It suddenly occurred to him then that only Lord Voldemort's most trusted servants knew about his actions. Pansy was not one of them, so she really shouldn't have known what was going on.

Draco groaned at the rapid visuals he had of how she might have gotten that particular information.

I really, really don't think I want to know.

*******************

Hermione closed her eyes and sighed softly, as she basked in the feel of warm water beating down gently on top of her head from her shower. For the past few minutes she had let go of everything, and had quickly begun to lose herself in the water's warm glow.

"Haven't I warned you about letting go completely of your defences?"

At the sound of the whisper in her ear, Hermione smiled slowly, then she turned into the embrace of her lover.

"You know, you're really going to have to tell me just how you do that one of these days."

Ron smiled back, then began to trail tiny kisses up her neck, along her cheek and back to her ear.

"How I do what? Love you?" he asked in a whisper.

"No, sneak up on me," she whispered back, before she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into a kiss.

Wrapping his arms around her body, he pulled her against his naked body. The hand on her bottom gently pressed so that she could feel just how much he wanted her.

Reluctantly she pulled out of the kiss, but her body remained aligned with his.

"Ron…"

The hand on her back quickly released her, and a finger was pressed gently on her wet lips.

"I need to hold you," he whispered. "I miss holding you. Please let me make love to you..."

Beneath his finger her lips parted again, but he was quick to interrupt.

"Before you ask, Harry is not an idiot. He saw me come in here. I'm sure he got the idea." He smiled teasingly. "And I doubt he will expect us to leave in exactly another hour anymore."

Sighing softly she closed her eyes, and pulled his finger into her mouth, wrapping her tongue around it as she gently sucked.

Ron watched her for as long as he could, before he moaned, and pulled his finger out of her luscious little mouth. Instead he replaced it with an almost savage kiss. She tangled her fingers in the now long red hair that was so much a part of what made him uniquely Weasley.

Seconds later, he reached behind her to turn off the still running shower. Then in one swift movement he lifted her into his arms, and stepped out of the tub. With their lips still together, he carried her through the door, up the staircase, down the passage and finally into his room.

Fortunately for Harry his room was down the opposite passage, and that was where he had now found refuge. He had to smile though when he heard the footsteps on the stairs and Ron's door slamming close.

Yes, he had known exactly what Ron had been up to.

*******************

"I hope the misssion goesss well. I will be back tomorrow."

Now that he had ended his speech, the Dark Lord surveyed the hooded figures before him as they all nodded in union. Though he couldn't see their faces, he knew everyone of them that stood before him. He had chosen them all personally, and he knew that they all existed for him.

He could kill every one of them if he wanted to, but didn't because they were important to his cause.

Turning to his most loyal and devoted servant, he pulled Lucius into his thin pale arms and violently kissed him until he tasted blood. Not a whimper was produced from his consort.

He did so like Lucius.

"Goodbyeee my loyal ssservantsss. I ssshall return sssoon," he said, in the hissing snake sound that was his voice.

Draco sighed softly in relief. Finally it was over, and now they could get on their way.

Beneath the hood of his black cloak, Draco's eyes mirrored his disgust. His father had been all over the Dark Lord for the entire meeting, and if it had gone on any longer he had the distinct feeling he would have thrown up all over them.

It was disgusting! To watch the man who had been a figure of pride and strength his whole life become little more than a fawning whore at the Dark Lord's feet was unsettling to say the least. Luckily it was only when Lucius was in the presence of the Dark Lord that he was like that, otherwise Draco would have lost all respect he had a long time ago. Yet he still adored his father. It was just at these times that he wished Lucius would be a little less disgusting and had a little more pride.

Shifting slightly, Draco's eyes focused on the back of his mother's head. How he knew to distinguish her from all the other black hoods was amazing. Maybe it was the way she stood with pride. She was every bit the Ice Bitch she was rumoured to be, and Draco was proud of that.

At least one of my parents still respects the Malfoy name at all cost.

It was not only her pride and beauty that got Narcissa her nickname though; it was just that she was always so cold. It was as if she really was made of ice. Nothing fazed Narcissa, nothing hurt her, nothing angered her, and nothing could get past her cold demeanour. Narcissa was untouchable.

Draco once again focussed his attention to the podium, and watched as the Dark Lord and his father Disapparated. Without a sound he left the room.

*****************

"And we are off again!" Harry exclaimed as he stepped out of the safe house. Ron and Hermione weren’t far behind.

"I really hope this doesn't take long. It’s been a tiresome day," Ron said, as he turned to flash Hermione a wink.

To her credit she blushed deeply as she closed the door, and turned even more red when she noted Harry's sudden grin.

Trying to regain her composure, she whispered, "Could we please just go? The sooner we leave the sooner we can get back."

With simultaneous popping sounds the three Disapparated. away.

A few seconds later the house slowly disappeared also, and only the wide open space was visible to Muggles.

It was all they ever saw anyway.

************** *** ************