Control

Control

Chapter 6 Gone Again

"Everyone to the center!" shouted Lupin as the platform began to shake and crumbling sounds were heard from below. Everyone occupied on it had nervously skitted to the middle of the pillar, confusion in their eyes. I had tried in vain to calm myself from trembling, but had failed. My heart beat quicky as each I inhaled each precious breath, any of them threatening to be my last. Now we were in darkness. It was eerily cold and the air dripped with moisture. And it was quiet. So quiet that it almost strained your ears to even be exposed to it. The crumbling noises only grew louder the more we decended. And then the noise abruptly stopped and the platform ceased to move. I could hear the frightened quick intakes of breath from the others around me, but nothing else.

There was a cold flow of air which sent shivers up my spine. Suddenly the dark place was illuminated with dim candle light and the sound of footsteps made their way closer. We were in what seemed like a large dungeon. The floors were grey cobblestone as were the walls and ceiling. The air was musty and smelled of death. Hundreds upon hundreds of white candles lined the walls on black shelves. Looking in front of me was a area of raised floor, which seemed oddly like a stage. There was a light shining over the only thing that occupied the 'stage', which was a chair composed of wood. I looked uneasily at the chair as something queasy churned in my stomach. I had the impression it wasn't an ordinary chair.

Distinctly, I heard the sound of muffled cries and loud yelling. My heartbeat quickened as I strained my eyes to look towards the source of the noise. Then, right in the direction I was looking, two men dressed in hooded black robes walked out from a doorframe I had not seen before as it was dark there. Between them was the body of a young boy, he was gagged and I could not make out what he was shouting. They threw the boy in the chair, where he lifted his head and angrily glared at his captors. Glowing chains shot out from behind him and wrapped themselves tightly around his torso. He stuggled in vain and lifted his head. My hand flew to my mouth and I let out a surprised gasp.

"Malfoy?"

It couldn't be truer, for he was the only person with stone silver eyes and pure platinum hair. His face was red with fury as the hooded men roughly pulled off his gag ("You Bastards! Let me go!"). One man pulled out a small glass vial which held a clear substance. He then grabbed Draco's head and pushed it back. He cried out, but the liquid had already gone into him. It's Veritaserum! I thought, But why...

My thoughts were interrupted when I saw Draco's non-chalant signature smirk spread across his face.

"I let Potter go," he stated simply.

One of the hooded men hissed another inquiry, but I couldn't make it out.

"I took him to the cellar where he was to meet with Our Lord. He reflected on our past experiences, and I've realised that he was right. I don't want to be a Death Eater. Never have, never will. Potter and I made a truce despite our differences. I let him go."

After the last inquiry, which I heard as "Where is he?", Malfoy smirked mischieviously and looked in the direction of where I and the others were standing.

"There," he said simply.

I gasped and turned around. Harry stood on the floor beneath us. He looked hurt, but he had an oh-so-clever smirk on his dirtied face. As usual his raven hair was untidy and his firey green eyes seemed to yell in victory. He held in his hand, a sack which he had opened and pulled out five long objects that I instantly identified as wands. He broke into a run, and threw the wands up to us on the platform. Everyone scrambled for a wand, not caring if they had their own or not, then jumped off the platform. The Death Eaters drew their wands hastily, hexed Malfoy and jumped off the stage. Harry made a break for them, raised his wand and shouted hexes at them, as did Tonks and Lupin. I stood there, watching as them men fell to the floor, unconscious. I felt useless...and alone. Harry whipped around sharply in my direction and ran to me. He stood in front of me and took my face in his hands.

"Are you all right?" he asked, looking at me, concern flashing in his tired eyes. I nodded.

"Yes, I'm fine. Are you?"

Harry opened his mouth to speak, but the others had made their way to us, panting heavily.

"I've arranged a Portkey, Potter, Granger. You two are to be sent back to Hogwarts immediately," said Snape stiffly and harshly. Harry's face contorted into a shocked scowl. Please don't, Harry.... But he had.

"Back to Hogwarts?! he shouted incredulously. "I didn't come here to knock out two Death Eaters and go home!"

Lupin lifted his hand at level with Harry's face and opened his mouth to speak, but Snape had suddenly stuck his hand inside his robes and pulled out a small, tattered book.

"Potter, you are to do as I say!" Snape snapped as he held the Portkey toward him.

"Severus, like Alastor has said before, this is as much his battle as we think it ours," said Lupin, trying his hardest to rationalize.

Harry forced a small smile to Lupin, thanking him.

Snape, obviously feeling defeated, stuck the book back into his robes.

"Ludicrous..." he mumbled. "Absolutely unthinkable..."

Harry shot his gaze over to the stage-like platform and his eyes softened slightly. Turning back around to the others, he took one last glance and walked towards the stage where Malfoy lay, unconcious.

I ran to catch up with Harry. He hoisted himself up onto the platform and stared at the boy. His face was paler than usual, and his mouth was gaping open. I got up on it also and pointed my wand at Malfoy.

"Ennervate."

After a bit of stirring, Malfoy opened his stone grey eyes so that he stared straight into mine. He gave a shocked gasp and sat up.

"What the--"

"Malfoy, what are you doing here?" I asked, my eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Should ask the same of you," he grunted. Harry gave him a warning look.

"What do you think Granger? Mister Dark Lord himself called me here. Of course, I'd accepted. I'd thought perhaps it would have been interesting. Well, I was wrong enough, which is more than you can say for yourself. Now--"

Harry offered Malfoy his hand to help him up.

"C'mon, Malfoy," Harry said in a serious tone. "There's no time for modesty right now,"

The blond boy looked poisonously up at Harry as he stood up, turning down his offer.

"Believe it or not, Potter, not everyone needs your bloody help," he said coldy, dusting his robes off.

Harry looked down and shook his head hopelessly. I sighed inwardly. Malfoy was so full of pride, he couldn't bear to admit he was human and he did have his weaknesses. It looked as if Harry was thinking the same thing, but he kept himself silent. Malfoy leapt off the stage and looked at the adults standing a few meters away, a confused expression on his face. Then he looked back at Harry, and me.

"What's the little Mudblood doing here?" he whispered loudly to Harry, but I could hear too. Anger boiled up inside me. Even if we tried to show kindness to Malfoy, he always found a snide way to throw it back in our faces. What on earth was his problem?! I cleched my jaw tightly. I could feel his icy stare boring into me. I tried to divert my glare everywhere else except for on him. Despite my indignation, I did not say anything back.

"Come on, we have to figure out what we're going to do now, we can't just stand around and throw rude remarks at one another," he said this last bit staring warningly at Malfoy. And so with that, we walked over to the adults who were planning what to do.

"Well if you've noticed, the only reason we came here was to get the Granger girl, now we are to leave, Remus!" snapped Snape glowering at Lupin.

"You just tell me how, Severus! Your portkeys are ineffective and Apparating is simply not an option!"

I became perplexed as I did not know how they had gotten here in the first place. As I opened my mouth to ask, there was the sound of a door slam, and everyone and everything became quiet. Draco and Harry took a few steps backward and an icy cold chill swam through the air, raising hairs on my neck.

I made move for my wand and grabbed it, as I didn't have a good feeling about this. A man had walked into the dungeon, his head was balding and he looked rather round, and stunningly like...

"Pettigrew," Harry muttered under his breath.

Bring me the one of unpure ancestry and Potter. Kill the rest...

Harry's face screwed up in anger as he must have heard that voice numerous times before. Pettegrew drew his wand and pointed it at Harry, but Harry had drew his first and shouted, "Expelliarmus!"

Pettigrew's wand flew from his hand, and Lupin pointed his wand at it saying, "Accio wand."

Snape rapidly rushed over to Pettigrew, pointing his wand at him warningly.

"Get Potter, Granger and Malfoy out of here!" Snape shouted at Lupin and the others. But Tonks and Mad Eye stayed with Snape.

"Come on, you lot," Lupin said directing us towars the doorway where the two Death Eaters had came from before. Harry grabbed my wrist and we ran, Malfoy tailing not far behind. The doorway lead us out to a large catacomb. Water dripped from the ceiling and there was an absolutely massive pool of a red, boiling fluid. My stomach dropped at the horrible stench. A long, feeble-looking wooden bridge hung about twenty feet over it.

"What is it?" Malfoy asked frantically, staring at the pool and holding his nose. I could have sworn I'd seen a flicker of fear in his eyes.

"It's, it's..." stuttered Lupin, but as usual, my knowledge tapped in.

"I've read about this before, it's called Enfer de sang. It was discovered by a French wizard centuries ago. It means hell of blood."

"Hell of blood?" Malfoy asked, sounding apprehensive.

"Well you see if you fall into it, it sucks you down under. It would be difficult to get to the top if you even could. Fifteenth century Dark wizards in France used it as a way of murdering their victims--"

"All right, Granger, we really don't need to hear the history of it. Why the hell does it smell so horrid?" Malfoy asked.

"Well," I started, "it's kind of...alive. It sucks the blood out of its victims and adds it to...itself. The more blood it has, the more powerful it gets. See if only one person died in it, you'd have a better chance of being able to swim out...but if it has had many victims, it would be impossible, and you'd be stuck under."

"Nicely done, Hermione," commented Lupin with a smile. Unconsciously, I beamed proudly and felt a blush come to my face.

"Now, to get over this thing..." said Lupin studying the area.

"We should go one at a time," said Harry, Lupin nodded.

"What's at the other end?" Draco asked, squinting.

"I see an archway, but that's all. Best keep aware," said Lupin seriously. "Harry, Hermione have you two got wands?"

We nodded in unison.

"All right, then. Hermione, since you're the lightest..."

I nodded and turned to Harry. He enveloped me into a warm embrace. When we parted, he placed a tender kiss on my forehead.

"Be careful," he whispered to me. "I can't lose you too..."

I forced my lips into a reassuring smile and turned away from him. Grasping my wand tightly, I grabbed the wooden post of the bridge and looked back. Lupin smiled and mouthed 'Go on.' I turned away and took a step onto the bridge. It creaked slightly, but seemed strong enough. I took another step. Fine. I broke into a slow, then hasty walk. I stayed away from the edges and kept my balance the whole way through. And before I knew it, I had made it to the other end. I let out a sigh of relief then waved my hand to show that I was all right. So, next came Malfoy. I watched as he meticulously tiptoed across the bridge. His eyes were wide and stared at what was below him. He gave a small yelp when the red liquid made an odd burping noise. It was almost amusing, I thought as a small smile crept to my face. But all possible traces of happiness dissappeared from my soul as I felt a cold hand clasp over my mouth and pull me back through the darkness of the stone arch.

"Hermione!" I heard Harry's voice distinctly yell.

"Silencio," said a voice. I meant to scream, but all that came out was a silent cry. Footsteps, hard, thumping fast-moving footsteps.

"Hermione?" he yelled through the void darkness.

Then I heard him scream. They must have captured him too. But they didn't silence his screams, they let him cry out as much as he wanted. But then his angry screams grew into painful ones. The sound of him going through pain was too much for me to muster. I struggled with the hands that held me, but to no avail. He was being hurt and I wouldn't, I couldn't bear him to any longer. I shut my eyes tightly. What seemed like a thousand volts of anger surged through my veins. The hands on my arms let go and Harry's screams subsided. There was a loud crash.

"Hermione?" said his strained voice weakly.

"Harry! Hermione!" shouted Lupins voice. "Lumos!"

A narrow beam of golden light emitted from the darkness, brightly lighting everything in its path, and dimly lighting everything near it. Lupin set a countercurse on me so that I was able to speak again. I looked down and saw Harry curled up into a ball on the floor, panting heavily. Lupin and I rushed over to him and tried to get him to his feet.

"Harry, oh my... are you all right?" I asked frantically.

Harry groaned and blinked his eyes.

"I'll be fine..." he replied, straightening his glasses.

"No, I don't think you will," said Lupin, flashing the light around the room. There were shelves full of books and odd looking body parts inside jars from who knows what. Spiderwebs hang from the ceiling and water dripped slowly from cracks.

"There's nothing of help to us in here, we need to find another way out," said Lupin. "Malfoy, are you here?"

There was no reply. I sighed and put my face in my hands.

"Come on," he said, studying the faces of the unconscious Death Eaters on the floor. Broken glass jars lay next to them in shards and their heads were bleeding horribly. I had done it.

Shining the light in front of us, we managed to make our way out of the large room. Back in the catacomb, we saw Malfoy on the opposite end of the bridge. He was on his knees and talking to a tall, hooded figure...it looked like...but couldn't possibly be...

"Voldemort!" Harry hissed.

"Get down, both of you!" Lupin commanded. We did as he said and sunk low on our hands and knees. Lupin whspered, "Nox," and the light ceased. But then he did something unexpected and began walking across the bridge. I fought the urge to stand and yell out to him, but I would just screw everything up and someone would be hurt. Harry's face scrunched up in anger and anticipation. I took his hand and held it firmly. He looked at me, his bottom lip trembling slightly.

"I never wanted you to go through this," he whispered shakily.

I took his hand and shook my head. 'It's okay,' I mouthed to him.

"Leave him alone, Tom!" yelled Lupin. Harry and I jumped slightly and looked up. Voldemort stood there, facing Lupin, while Malfoy cowered behind him.

Voldemort must have replied, because Lupin stared at him with attentive eyes. But I could not hear, as it was too far away. Then suddenly, Snape, Mad-Eye, Tonks and Kingsley burst out of he room behind them where this had all started. They all had their wands aimed directly at Voldemort. Then without warning, the Dark Lord raised his arm and threw a ball of white light at the five of them. I gave a silent scream as all five of them were thrown backward into the Enfer de sang. Harry yelled "NO!" and Voldemort cackled loudly. Clenching my jaw tightly, I focused on each of the people, falling downward. Each of them had a life, each of them had someone who cared for them. I focused on their appearences, their voices, everything. Reasons of why they should survive ran through my mind. And then I opened my eyes.

All of them, Snape, Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye and Kingsley were all hanging in mid-air. This was good, I was doing well. I concentrated harder and harder until I thought I'd faint, but I didn't and they drifted closer to Harry and I. There was nothing but utter silence as they all fell onto the ledge, their eyes wide with confusion and shock. I could hear an angry yell from the other side of the bridge. Voldemort was furious. I could tell even from afar that his cold, snake-like eyes were on me. Without warning, I flew into the air and was soon plummeting down towards the pool of Enfer de sang. Terrified screams came from Tonks, and gasps from the others. No, I was not going to let him get me, not now, not here. I grabbed the edge of the bridge as I fell. My hands held to it firmly, but I knew I couldn't hold on much longer. The bridge began to rattle furiously and one of my hands slipped off it. I guess the silencing charm had worn off since I screamed and it echoed through the dome. Then I realised as I looked up that Malfoy was running on the bridge from one direction and Harry from the other. They bent down next to my slipping hand.

"Give me your hand!" shouted Harry. I stared at him pleadingly and reached up with my other hand that had let go. Malfoy took the wrist of my hand that was still on and they both heaved. I landed on the bridge on my stomach. The two boys were on their backs, panting. Suddenly there were jets of white light firing at us.

"Come on!" Harry yelled as he grabbed my wrist and began running down the bridge to avoid the attacks from Voldemort. By the time we reached the side with the others, Voldemort was on the bridge walking slowly towards us. I saw in his eyes a maniacal glint of glee. Memories of the events of the previous months ran through my mind. I heard Harry's tears, felt his pain and saw through his eyes. I saw him yelling at Ron and me. I saw him moaning in his sleep, trying to fight off his demons. I saw the horrified look on Lily and James Potter's face before they took their final breaths.

There was a cracking sound as the ropes supporting the brigde snapped, the planks of wood falling into the pool of Enfer de sang, bringing along with it Voldemort's helpless form. His arms flew up as he fell, his black robes billowed around him. He was a night devil, falling into his final destination. Hell. His anguished cries of agony ripped through the air as he fell.

Then it stopped. There was an odd liquid noise as he was sucked down into the red sea, but that was all I heard before I suddenly felt weak and fell to the ground.