When You Least Expect It

WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT

"Do you regret not joining me in power, Harry Potter?"

Harry groaned as he tried to stand up. Every bone in his body was sore and fragile. His ripped up robes were nothing compared to his flesh. He glared menacingly into the cold artic eyes of Draco Malfoy. Ron was sprawled on the floor, bleeding fatally from the head. Hermione had been chained up and knocked unconscious in a far corner of the cave. The group once known as Dumbledore's Army was now fighting a losing battle, but not against Voldemort - no, that sinister snake had been vanquished three years ago - but against Draco Malfoy.

Harry's bruised and swollen hand barely had enough feeling to grasp his wand. His walk was a pathetic limp as he backed away from Malfoy. Draco had a victorious smirk plastered across his pale pointy face.

"Now, I could kill you right here and right now," said Draco very calmly, toying with his wand. "But I don't want to. You haven't suffered enough for my tastes. All those years when you stole my limelight. All those years when everyone praised you for no good reason. You strut around the school like some king."

He scoffed softly. "But look at you now. The great Harry Potter. The boy-who-lived will now die. He will die in the hands of his superior, like he should. Your death will forever be carved into the stones of time after I'm done with you; you will no longer be remembered as the boy who killed Voldemort, but the boy who died in my hands."

Harry spit a mouthful of blood onto the dirt ground. "If you're gonna kill me," he breathed in a raspy whisper, "you better do it before I kill you."

Draco shrieked with laughter. "You still don't get it, do you? You've lost, Potter! I've won this time! I am superior to you. You will bow down before me and do as I say."

"Never..." scowled Harry.

"Very well then, Exsuxi Animo!"

Harry gasped in pain and collapsed weakly onto the ground. It felt like he was being eaten, bit by bit, by Dementors, except the pain was tenfold. His soul was being pried out of him and the more he resisted, the faster it ripped. It was the kind of excruciating torture that rendered his voice useless--only the violent twitching of his lanky body could express what he was going through.

Draco sneered at his tormented expression. "Come on, Potter! You look like a pathetic little baby!"

Harry heard him, but the words were lost inside his vacant mind. "Help," he strained. "Help..."

His desperate cries never reached his sweaty lips; not that he knew who or what he was pleading for. Everyone who could have helped him was dead, or dying, and it was all his fault. His parents died protecting him. Sirius died on a rescue mission to save him. Dumbledore died in a last attempt to fuel him with the power he needed to kill Voldemort. Ron was dying because he refused to let Malfoy get past him. Hermione...she was the only one left, but she was tied up and being tortured, just like him. She had it easy though, she was unconscious. He closed his dried out eyes and let the pain consume him. He felt that he deserved this.

Draco raised his wand. "Had enough, Potter?" he drawled.

Harry breathed heavily and remained on the stone cold floor.

"Good. Because things are just about to get interesting."

Malfoy snapped his crooked fingers and his minions brought a body in from the shadows. Harry made a weak attempt to look up.

It was Hermione.

She was awake now, but she didn't look like herself. Her eyes were glazed over and her expression was - she had no expression.

"Wha-What'd you do to her?" he growled.

Draco sniggered. "It's not her you should be worrying about, Potter. It's you."

He strode up to Hermione and whispered something in her ear. A cruel smile came across her face, and she laid her unfocused eyes on Harry. The look sent shivers worse than goosebumps down his spine.

Draco unchained her wrists and whispered something else to her. She drew out her wand and pointed it steadily at Harry.

"Crucio," she whispered coldly.

A spasm shot through his whole body and sent him into horrified screams. Hermione kneeled down beside him and laid a hand over his chest.

"Hush now, Harry," she said. "It'll be over soon."

Harry stared into her eyes, desperately searching for some sign of life in them. "Her-Hermione," he gasped. "Listen to me..."

She blinked.

"You're under the Imperius-" he broke off as an excruciating pain pierced his chest. It suddenly occurred to him that maybe this was the end. Was this how he was going to die? Killed by his best friend...with a single curse?

Draco walked over to the two of them and knocked the wand out of Hermione's hand. Harry's abused body relaxed. His throat burned with every breath he took.

Malfoy grabbed Hermione by the hair and jerked her upright. She didn't have the sense to wince at the pain. "Now, she's done her job. I think it's time for her to die. What do you think, Potter?"

He threw her down and drew out his wand. Harry didn't even have enough strength to say stop.

"Finite Incantatem!" ordered Draco.

Hermione snapped out of her daze immediately and looked around. "Malfoy..." she scowled with clenched fists.

Draco grinned sinisterly and pointed his wand at her. "Any last words before you go, Mudblood?"

Hermione glanced over at Harry, who looked worse off alive than dead. "I love you, Harry," she mouthed silently. Then she launched herself into the air and tackled Malfoy. Draco hissed and kicked her off of him.

He then hastily retrieved his wand and cried, "Avada Kedavra!"

A green light blinded the room, and the next thing Harry knew, Hermione was dead. A lump in his throat choked off his oxygen. He tried to cry, tried to release the sorrow and ache that flooded his heart somehow, but he couldn't. He was practically dead himself. He couldn't move, he could barely stay awake.

Draco came over to him and kicked him hard in the stomach. "You know, if you weren't such an arrogant bastard, I'm sure this would have turned out better. If only you had once told me that you loved me, I wouldn't have to do this right now."

Harry exhaled. "I could never have loved a bastard like you," he scowled.

Draco closed his eyes and nodded. "Good-bye then, Potter."

He dug his wand into Harry's chest and whispered, "Av-a-da. Ked-a-vra."

Harry, for the second time that night, saw a pale neon green light fill the cave. He felt a deadly force hit him in the heart, but before it made contact, it dissipated against a shield of warmth wrapped around him. His mind suddenly flashbacked and for the first time, he saw his mother in his own memory; for the first time, he remembered what had happened that made him so famous.

"How'd you find us?!" James demanded, waving his wand to fend off the Dark Lord.

The evil creature smirked. "It really wasn't hard. A filthy rat came to me and told me early this morning."

James heard the closet door close, which meant that Harry was safe now.

Lily held Harry close to her heart and repeatedly whispered that everything was going to be alright. Then, they heard a loud cry, followed by a nasty crash, and then a shrieking laughter. He could feel his mother's distress, but she let it show to no one else.

Tucking him in his little blanket, she kissed his forehead and embraced him one last time. "I'll just be a moment, dear," she breathed, caressing his soft face. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"That's right," snarled a cold voice from behind them. The closet door flew off its hinges and into another neighborhood. "Say your good-byes."

Lily stood up and armed herself with her wand. "Leave my baby alone!" she cried.

"Now, now, Lily, you can't always get what you want." Voldemort's smirk was inhumane. "However, I will let you step aside - spare your life, if you hand him over to me."

"Never!" she scowled darkly.

"Are you sure about that?"

She fired a spell at him, but he had no reaction to it. He simply cackled as if she were playing a joke on him. With a swift wave of his wand, he sent her flying into the wall. Then, he advanced on Harry.

Harry's eyes widened as his memory became clearer and clearer.

Voldemort kneeled down and looked him in the face.

"This weakling," he sneered, "would kill me?"

He chuckled and stood back up.

His next move was to curse Harry, kill Harry. Harry remembered his two thin lips forming the words of the Death Curse. It should have hit him, it should have killed him.

But instead, his mother threw herself in front of the spell, screaming no. It all happened so fast, yet so slow. She died, right before his eyes. She had no fear on her face, only determination and love. Voldemort appeared almost shocked at what happened. Almost like he hadn't wanted it to happen. Nevertheless, Lily fell dead onto the ground, and now nothing stood between Harry and him.

"Well, that was stupid of her," Voldemort snorted. "You see, Harry Potter, that is why I am not nice to people. They just don't seem to appreciate it."

He took a moment to laugh at his own joke, then he cautiously advanced on the baby boy, pushing Lily aside. His eyes examined Harry before he made a final decision to kill him.

He dug his wand into the crying infant's chest and without another second wasted, he whispered those two deadly words.

Harry blinked in confusion when he didn't die, for the second time. Draco on the other hand was terrified when the spell had bounced off of Harry. He was too close to dodge the rebound. And it occurred to him too late what was about to happen. Without warning, the force of the green light swept through him and took his life with it.

He collapsed cold onto the ground. Draco Malfoy was dead.

Harry had won again. With all danger removed, his tired body finally gave in, and he laid his mind to rest.

- * -

"Harry!"

Ginny ran over to him. Her red hair was everywhere and her face cut up pretty bad. She cupped his head in her warm embrace and cried.

"Harry, you're alright."

Twice in his life, love had saved him.

Twice in his life, love had brought the death of his enemies when they least expected it.