Revenge and Rebirth

"Well, Malfoy?" Ron's voice was as calm and steady as his wand. Draco made an involuntary movement, jerking up short as Ron's wand dipped just a fraction and Narcissa dropped a foot toward the green water. Under the waves eerie glints flickered and danced, reminding Harry of the time he and Dumbledore had crossed those same Inferi-ridden waters. A small, detached corner of his mind found it curiously fitting that the nine-month hunt for the fugitive Malfoys should end here, where the events were set in motion that would end in Dumbledore's death. Harry gripped Hermione tighter as a crowd of bony hands broke the surface, reaching toward Narcissa Malfoy's motionless, suspended form.

"What do you want?" Malfoy panted. Since the death of his father and Voldemort's defeat at Harry's hands, Malfoy, like the remaining Death Eaters, had been a shadow of himself. His attempts to evade the Aurors had been fractionally successful, and had it not been for his mother's intervention on numerous occasions, he would have been in Azkaban by the third encounter.

Ron considered, one eyebrow raised.

"There's a good question...What have you got, then? What's she worth to you?"

"Ron, stop it!" Hermione struggled helplessly in Harry's grip. "Harry, don't let him!"

"Let us go. You've won. Let us go." Malfoy said it all in one breath. The lack of any braggadocio at all in his voice was pitiful. Harry felt the slightest inner twinge, but quelled it sternly.

"Offer me money." Ron's eyes were without emotion.

Malfoy licked his lips, his hand twitching just inches from his wand. His eyes scoured Ron's for any sign of weakness, found their answer. He swallowed hard.

"It doesn't matter, does it?"

"No. But offer it anyway. Remember--" this as Malfoy's hand moved fractionally, "if a spell touches me, she goes. I've got you either way."

"For Merlin's sake, give me a chance!"

"Ron!" Hermione was on the verge of tears.

"Money, Malfoy. Offer me your precious money."

Malfoy's gaze shifted to Narcissa's dangling body, he took a step toward her. Ron's wand jerked. Malfoy stopped, sank to one knee, unable to look away.

"I'll give you all the money we have. Take it. Please." Harry's stomach curled at the horror written on Malfoy's face, but somewhere inside him a strange voice gasped with delight. Shame and pleasure went through him in one lightning surge, delicious, revolting, and so incredibly cold...

The body in his arms went suddenly quiet. Harry looked down, relieved at the distraction.

"Harry?" Hermione's eyes were wide and uncertain. Harry realized suddenly that he was breathing harder than she was.

Malfoy's voice arrested their attention.

"You'll pay for this in years of pain, Weasley. I'll make you pay." It was hardly more than a whisper.

Ron's lip curled, his wand drooped lazily.

"Ron, I'll never speak to you again! Ron!" Hermione screamed.

He glanced at her, something changing in his eyes. Malfoy half rose, his eyes suddenly sharp again. Ron's breath quickened for the first time.

"Not a move, you! Eye for an eye, 'Mione. No more than fair."

"No, Ron! Don't! Please!"

The air stood still as Ron's wand dropped. Harry let Hermione go and jerked his wand from under his robes. A sharp crack echoed, Harry dropped his split wand and lunged at Ron, who released another wordless spell. It hit Harry in the face like a slap, bringing him up short. Ron backed away slowly.

"No more than fair, Harry. It's over now. He can't stop it."

Malfoy crouched, his wand outstretched, frozen in a deep lunge at the edge of the slimy lake. Every muscle was wrenched as tight as it would go, his whole body rigid and trembling behind the sliver of wood that held his mother just inches above the muttering water. Hermione's wand wavered, she jerked it toward Ron, then back to Malfoy.

"Petrificus Totalis!" Ron flicked his wand at Harry, stopping him in his tracks.

"Move, Hermione!"

Her eyes met his.

"No. I won't let you do this."

The shutters clicked shut again, he shrugged suddenly and laughed. Just as abruptly, his mouth turned down harshly at the corners.

"Sorry, love. Planned too long for this."

His hand shot out, freezing her helpless with a wordless spell as he turned his wand on Draco.

Then Malfoy was scrambling in the mud, snatching at the hissing fragments of his wand, sobbing out spells that broke on his lips. The shards sizzled in his hand and went black, but his fingers kept moving, fitting the pieces together, fumbling for them as they crumbled in his hands, fitting them together...

From the rumbling water a scream stood every hair in the cavern on end. Draco staggered to his feet, staring.

"Mother?"

The scream grew, a cacophony of voices in every pitch.

"Draco..."

He stumbled forward, one step, then another. The slime sucked at his boots as he thrust himself into the writhing morass. The hands reached for him, touched him, sending a shudder through him.

"Mother!" he whispered, his eyes closing as the white, swollen fingers slithered around his neck.