Come On Harry

Chapter 12: The Special Chamber

Ron woke up for what seemed like the thirty seventh time that night. He peeled his hair from his forehead with equally sticky fingers, sighing as he did so. It embarrassed him to touch Hermione in this sweat but he realized she was probably sweating too. And he liked it. He breached the static air with his arm and skirted his fingers over Hermione's face. It was slick wet like a lollipop still dripping with saliva.

Hermione jerked up, scared by his sudden touch, her shoulders shaking, and her eyes red and trained on him. She calmed for a moment and then sniffled.

"You been crying?" Ron said.

Hermione nodded, allowing herself another sniffle.

"Why?" Ron whispered, supporting her shoulders with his right arm. "Are you sick?"

She didn't answer. Tears continued to stride down her face, changing course slightly with her wrinkle and muscle change.

"You've been looking tired since we got here. And sad." He focused on her face for a sign. "Are you sad?"

He heard her let out a sob.

"Hermione, talk to me." His head drew near hers. "Everything's alright now, isn't it? Harry's awake. He and Ginny are happy together... You and I... You're going to have an amazing time in India, love. And when you come back, I'll be here waiting for you. I'm sorry I was such a git before. But I realize now that it's your dream, and I'm happy for you. No matter what you decide to do. Because you're an amazing person, Hermione. And beautiful and smart and kind... Please, stop crying. Although you do look beautiful when you cry."

This only seemed to cause Hermione to cry more. She started to shake her head. "No, I'm not!" She finally said. "I'm none of those things. I'm not kind. I'm not beautiful. I don't deserve you, Ron. I don't, I don't." She pressed into Ron's shoulder with her head. "I'm not kind."

"Hermione, what is the matter?" She didn't answer. "Do you want something, some water?"

She nodded, so Ron hopped of bed, grateful he could do something. He wrapped his hand around the doorknob and entered into the dark and deserted hallway. He was instantly terrified so he ran to the kitchen and back up the stairs, almost screaming when he stepped on something hard. Reaching down, he picked up a gold bracelet which he knew to be Ginny's.

He brought it back to Hermione, who had calmed down and almost smiled at Ron when he handed her the glass of water. She still did not seem intent on speaking, so Ron showed her the bracelet and said, "I found it in the hallway. It's Ginny's, right?"

Hermione's eyes grew wide. "Something is wrong," she said.

"What? What is?"

"I don't know. Something with Ginny."

"How do you know that?" Ron asked, looking at the bracelet for a clue.

She threw the empty glass on the bed and stood up. "Let's go."

***

"Draco, my son, I am feeling a mix of emotions right now. First, I am embarrassed and disappointed. Your 'plan' was dismal, and the follow-through was even more horrendous. You obviously did not check for security before you began, and you weren't caught by just anyone. Oh no, it was by three of Dumbledore's closest advisors.

"On the other hand, I am proud of your skills in persuasion. It's unfortunate about Macnair, but frankly, I don't give a damn about the man as long as your name is not on record. Mr. Shacklebolt seemed very convinced of your innocence in the situation and Macnair's threatening influence over you. If you betrayed Macnair at any time during the interrogation, I must say that I am surprised it worked, but also impressed.

"Besides, now you realize what an inappropriate leader Macnair is for you. I am hoping this incident will give you reason to work for me." Lucius folded his hands and turned towards his son, his face stoic and his eyes looking a lot like glass marbles that could pop out at any moment and roll along the oriental carpet, finally obstructed by the leg of a chair, causing the pupils to shake and then steadily point upwards in horror.

The room was dim. Lights cloaked in different shades of maroon floated below the ceiling, shadowing both Draco's and his father's faces in mournful pink.

"What of our earlier decision?" Draco said, outraged. "You told me to pursue becoming a Death Eater independently from you in order to show the Dark Lord that it was truly my desire and not just your insistence."

"That was the original plan, yes. But it is my desire to guide you now. I'm not sure what to make of the work you did independently, so I would like you to explain it to me now."

Draco sat down in a red and brown upholstered chair and put his right ankle on top of his left knee. "What do you want me to explain?"

"How did you become close to Harry Potter and what were you planning to do with him?" Lucius Malfoy stood above Draco's chair.

"I'm sick of answering questions. What if I don't want to work for you?"

"You will."

"So now it is just your insistence."

Lucius pointed his wand at Draco's chest, releasing a vibrant string that clung to both Draco's nipples through his shirt and dragged him up so that he was standing face to face with his father. The string wound back into the wand. "Are you implying that you do not wish to be a Death Eater? That you are not willing to follow me and be loyal to the Dark Lord?"

"I just don't see the point," Draco admitted, rubbing his nipples sourly.

"The point?" Lucius repeated, incredulous. "Has everything I have taught you come to nothing, my son?"

"Look, father," Draco said, because he sensed another lecture. "I hate Muggles. I hate Mudbloods. I hate everything and everyone that threatens to taint wizard blood. You have taught me this, and I believe it, and I am loyal to it. But I don't think that Harry Potter is the key to being a Death Eater. Just because he exists... I mean, he's a teenage boy just like me. He doesn't know what the bloody hell he's doing. Being a Death Eater shouldn't mean that I want to kill Harry Potter, just because he shamed the Dark Lord's reputation by accident when he was a mewling infant. That's not the principle I want to be loyal to. Do you understand, father? Harry Potter is irrelevant."

"I understand, but the boy is not irrelevant. He threatens the Dark Lord's power. He must be destroyed in order for the Death Eater movement to continue with the strength it had sixteen years ago. Do you understand that?"

"Yes, but I disagree!" He thrust his fists into the air.

Lucius grabbed hold of them. "Son, you are trying to be difficult. Why did you plan an attack on Potter if you don't think he's important?"

He struggled against his father's grip. "Because I knew it would fail and I knew we would have this conversation and I was trying to prove a point!"

"What point? That you're an insolent fool in need of my guidance?"

Draco turned his head away from his father. He calmed his voice. "Father, Ginny Weasley is missing."

"No, she's not," Lucius said. "She's in the secret chamber, waiting to be killed."

The young boy's faced his father, his eyes wide and disbelieving. "Why?"

"I have no use for her anymore."

"You have no use for her anymore? What about me?"

Lucius put his son's hands down and crossed the room with one black boot in front of the other. "What about you?" he said, his stare straight ahead. "She knows too much, and there are plenty of other purebloods who would be willing to shag you, I'm sure."

"Sex is the last thing on my mind right now," Draco said.

"With that attitude, you'll get nowhere in life."

Draco charged at his father, knocking over a vase of curled purple flowers and a black and yellow mosaic box, which shattered on the floor. "You can't kill her!"

"Would you like to have the honor?" his father said before reassembling the box with a flick of his wand.

Draco watched his father's work as if realizing something for the first time. He looked back, noticing the pink in his father's cheeks. "As a matter of fact, yes."

***

"Just what exactly is going on here, Harry?" Hermione asked. She stood in front of the Burrow with Ron trailing behind her and Harry in front. "Where is everyone? And why are you at the Burrow?"

Harry had been about to follow Draco, although he wasn't sure where the other boy had gone. After Theo had been released and Macnair was taken in for more questioning, Draco took off without so much as a goodbye.

"I... They..." He was in some sort of despair, it seemed. "Ginny's missing."

"Hermione, you were right!" Ron said. "I mean, of course you were right, but I'm still confused how you knew..."

"And you went off looking for her, Harry?"

"Yes." Harry looked back towards the shacks, and then towards the streets where Malfoy had disapparated.

"That was so stupid of you, Harry! Dumbledore told you not to leave Grimmauld Place. You could have at least woken us up."

"I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't know she was missing at first, you know."

Ron pointed to the shacks. Lupin had just come out of one of them with Elphias Doge. "Lupin's here!" he said. "Why is Lupin here? Wasn't he supposed to be protecting us at Grimmauld Place?"

Harry motioned towards the front door of the house. "Look, you two, I have to tell you something. I mean, what really happened tonight."

***

"It's disgustingly hot in here," Draco said to his father once the green valve-door leading to the special chamber opened.

"I like it this way," Lucius replied pointedly. He led his son farther into the chamber until they were both in view of Ginny Weasley, soaked in sweat and strapped tragically to a wooden chair with a slit all the way up her right thigh.

"Remind me why you want to kill her," Draco said.

Lucius grabbed hold of his son's shoulder. "Just do it."

Draco held his wand out towards Ginny's chest. Her eyes were closed and her breathing was steady. "Shouldn't I at least wake her up? Duel her? Make it fair?"

The older man rolled his eyes. "Just get it over with."

"This is a bit hard for me, father," Draco said as if he were holding a bullet between his top and bottom row of teeth. "Could you at least give me a minute or two? To say goodbye?" He looked at his father. "Alone?"

Draco watched as Lucius made his way slowly out of the special chamber. When the green valve-door closed behind him, Draco looked back towards Ginny.

He shook her shoulders. "Ginny!"

Her eyes opened immediately. "Draco? What? Where's your father?"

"Listen, there's no time. You have to do what I tell you."

***

Lupin appeared in the Weasleys' front room, looking exhausted and excited at the same time. "I located Ginny using Dumbledore's special Locator Charm." He waved his arms in front of Harry, and an orange light drifted out of his wand and drew a map in the air with a large red dot in the middle. "It took a while, but she is definitely at the Malfoy Manor. No one but us two know that she is missing, right?"

"Wrong," Ron said, walking from out of the kitchen. "Hermione and I know, too, and we're going to help get her back."

Hermione appeared from behind Ron. "But if she went to Malfoy Manor, there's a chance she went of her own free will, to see her boyfriend, right?"

"I thought Harry was her boyfriend," Lupin said.

"I am," Harry said, not clarifying the matter for the Professor.

Ron folded his arms. "But since her 'boyfriend' was just here, he couldn't have been there with her."

"True," Hermione replied, "But maybe she was waiting for him."

"How did you she get in?" Harry wondered aloud.

"The same way we're going to," Ron said.

"Or maybe Malfoy told her how," Hermione reasoned.

Lupin spoke up. "You all seem to be mixed up about whether Ginny is in actual danger or not. I think it's best to be safe in this case. Harry, you shouldn't go anywhere near Malfoy Manor. It's a one-way ticket to your grave. Ron, if you're concerned about your sister's well-being, maybe you should contact Draco Malfoy by use of the fireplace. I will stay with you all to make sure you are safe. But if she is in danger, I will go with Kingsley to Malfoy Manor and retrieve her. Let's hurry."

Ron ran to the fireplace, while Harry collapsed on the sofa and began to sulk. Remus Lupin approached the dark haired boy and sat down beside him. "Harry, I know you feel useless, but it's the price you have to pay for being so powerful and sought after."

"What's the point of being powerful if I can't use it? Besides, I'm no more powerful than Hermione or Ron."

"It's true, Harry. Your friends are powerful, too. But so are you. In perhaps a different way. But the wizarding world needs you to survive right now, and if that means sitting back while others bust in on Malfoy Manor to save your girlfriend, so be it. She is your girlfriend, right?"

Harry blushed. "Right."

"And Draco's, too, somehow?"

"...It's complicated."

"I can see that," Lupin said.

Ron rushed back. "No one is there. I'm going."

"Me too," Hermione said.

Harry looked at Lupin, who shook his head. "No, Harry." He turned his attention to Ron and Hermione. "You two aren't going, either. I'm going to get Kingsley now, and we're going to go. Can I count on you three to stay here?"

Ron looked furious, and Harry dropped his head. "Yes," he said.

***

Lucius returned to find his son still holding his wand straight out towards Ginny's chest, which was rising and falling evenly. "I thought you'd wake her," he said.

"I was going to," Draco admitted, "but I didn't feel like explaining to her what I am about to do." His father nodded in understanding. "I've said my goodbyes now. You were right, father. I've grown too attached."

Draco drew closer to Ginny and pressed his index finger harder into the wood of his wand. "Here goes. My first time using the killing curse, father."

"Indeed. Let's see it, then."

The boy sighed. "Avada Kedabra!" A spark of lime yellow shot out of the wand and hit Ginny's chest. Nothing appeared to happen. Her chest continued to rise and fall.

"KedaBRA?" Lucius asked, angry. "Was that a slip, my boy, or are you just being cheeky with me?"

"Sorry, Father. It...came out. Won't happen again." He re-pointed his wand at Ginny. "Avada Kedadra!" Sky-blue light shot out of his wand and floated into the air.

"Draco! What is wrong with you?"

"Father, has it ever occurred to you that 'avada kedavra' might be difficult to say?"

"You just said it!"

"Maybe I get a speech impediment when I'm nervous. I mean, this is the first person I've ever killed, after all."

"What are you saying? You want me to take you to speech therapy? A psychiatrist, perhaps?" Lucius looked annoyed.

"You'd seriously do that?" Draco asked, holding out both hands loosely, his wand slipping down his fingers.

At that moment, Ginny opened her eyes and caught the wand. She lunged towards Lucius and yelled "Stupefy!" A bolt of red light hurled itself at the older man, who was immediately knocked to the floor of the special chamber.

"Oh Merlin," Draco said, disgusted with everything. "I have to get you out of here quick before he wakes up."

"No. He needs to go to Azkaban," Ginny said, refusing to move.

"Ginny, there's no evidence," Draco reasoned.

"There's my word."

"You're a sixteen year old girl. He's a powerful man."

She looked up. "There's your word, too."

He shook his head. "You can't do this to me."

***

The three Gryffindors were trailing behind Lupin and Shacklebolt. They followed through the un-charmed doors. They watched doorways yell at Shacklebolt and stairs trip Lupin, but they learned from the mistakes and stayed hidden underneath the invisibility cloak.

They were rounding a stone corner, when Harry got a feeling and he put a hand in front of both Ron and Hermione. "This way," he whispered, pointing to a door on the left, as the others watched Lupin disappear at the other end of the hallway.

They entered through the door into a room filled from floor to ceiling with books. Hermione swung off the cloak and searched the shelves furiously for she wasn't sure what. Ron just said, "Crimey."

It was then that Harry noticed it. He rushed towards the shelf to the left of Hermione and held his hand out to a green velvet book with silver script along the spine. He skimmed his finger along the top and pulled it out. "Malfoy owns this?"

Both Ron and Hermione turned towards him.

Harry held the velvet book carefully in his hands, brushing his fingers against the cover and the spine and then reading aloud, "The Special Chamber." He looked up very suddenly. "The Special Chamber."

A wall near Harry opened up, revealing a dark passageway. Hermione gasped.

"She's in the special chamber," Harry said and entered quickly, with the others following behind him.

The tunnel was deep and damp along the edges. It seemed to be getting darker and darker the longer they walked, until finally they were up against a green door that looked like a valve. Harry banged on it. "Ginny!" he called.

"There's no way she can hear you on the other side of that thing," Hermione said, feeling it with her palm. She aimed a curse at it, but it was deflected and almost hit Ron.

Harry groaned in frustration.

But then the valve opened and all three heard Draco Malfoy yell urgently from far off, "Ginny, let's go already!" They entered the special chamber as Malfoy approached.

"Doesn't sound like fun and games to me," Ron said.

Malfoy came into view and stopped himself from gasping at the sight of the three Gryffindors in front of him. "Come to rescue her, have you?" he asked bitterly.

"What have you done to her?" Ron said, puffing out his chest and approaching Draco.

"Please," Draco said, "take her away safely. She won't leave."

Ginny ran over when she heard the voices. "Harry, Ron, Hermione, he has to be locked up."

"I know he does!" Ron said, holding his arm out menacingly towards Malfoy.

"No!" Ginny said, pushing Ron away. "Not Draco. Lucius! He tried to make Draco kill me. This can't continue. He has to be locked up."

"Just hurry and leave before he wakes up," Draco said.

She turned towards her blonde boyfriend and pointed at him. "Draco, stop acting like a child. This is a dangerous man."

"He's my father!"

"It doesn't excuse him," Ginny said, taking another glance at the motionless body. "We need an adult here as witness. A bunch of crybaby seventh year boys aren't going to do anything."

Hermione took hold of Ginny's waist and petted her hair. "Oh, Ginny, it's going to be okay."

"Thank you, Hermione," the other girl answered, turning towards Hermione and touching her cheek.

Harry and Ron were both dumbstruck.

At that moment, Remus Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt burst into the special chamber. "Ginny!" Lupin exclaimed upon seeing the girl, and then grew extremely red and embarrassed. "Children, you're all right. What's happened?"

Draco gave Kingsley a hard glance and stood back.

Harry stepped forward. "Lucius Malfoy tried to kill Ginny. Even Draco won't deny this. But we need you to act as witnesses since he won't."

Malfoy felt a wet stream on his cheek and turned away.