Letting Go

Chapter Seven: The Final Battle

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"Courage can't see around corners but goes around them anyway."

-Mignon McLaughlin The Neurotic's Notebook 1960

*

Jade stood in front of Voldemort's throne experiencing an odd prickling on her skin. She was changing back from Ivy. It did not matter though. The Death Eaters already knew whom she was and had taken the potion. Ginny and Jade were somewhat relieved though, as Draco hadn't been caught. There was still a doubt because Lucius had been sent after him. Brice and Payton were off to the aside and would be 'dealt with later'. He was their only hope at this point because without Aurors and the Order they didn't have much chance of getting out.

The Death Eaters had descended upon them in the hall suddenly and they had only three wands with them. Three wands against six wasn't a nice ratio. Ginny had shrugged it off and punched the first one that touched her but she had been shoved against a wall and received a large gash for her efforts. Jade had tried to mop it up but Ginny would not allow her and was more interested in the non-existent scrapes on her daughter. Draco had tried to reach both of them but Brice and Payton had taken over defending him and told him to go after the wards. They needed them gone and it would take more than a wave of his wand.

Now it didn't matter. For the first time Jade was facing Voldemort and she didn't expect to lose the image anytime soon. It was the snakelike appearance that got her the most. He was like a human skeleton with skin and organs. It was surprising that even through all that skin and bone, his frail appearance was cancelled out from the sheer aura of power that surrounded him. His skin was so white it almost glowed in the candlelight. What were most noticeable about him were his facial features. The lipless mouth somehow portrayed his disgusted sneer. His nose was flat with snakelike slits for nostrils. Then finally, his eyes were red and wide with catlike pupils. They seemed not to blink once almost as if they were lidless.

"Do you know why you are here?" Voldemort asked finally.

Jade didn't answer and instead glared lightly at the floor trying to control her fear. She had watched her mother control her fear and anger in front of Blaise many times. She found strength in the memory of her mother's protection and stood resolute.

"Shall I persuade her to answer?" Blaise asked from beside Voldemort. Jade saw Ginny visibly flex her fingers as if she wanted to wrap them around his neck.

"No, she can be stubborn. It's the least I can do since I'll be killing her soon," Voldemort responded. "After all, it took a lot of effort to bring her here. We might as well have some fun with her."

"You will not touch her," Ginny ground out.

"Pray tell Weasley, what are you going to do about it?" Blaise sneered.

"Yes, I wonder at that myself. You are just a mother protecting her daughter. As soon as I kill you there will be no barrier between me and her," Voldemort added.

"She has a father!" Ginny snapped vehemently. "And have you forgotten the last time you went through parents to kill a child? It didn't work out to well for you did it? Harry reduced you to the disgusting sniveling being you really are!"

"That was an unfortunate mistake and it won't happen again. She was a powerful witch despite her being a Mudblood. You are just naïve and stubborn as we all witnessed in your first year of school." His arrogant tone was infuriating.

"That was a long time ago and you would do best to remember not to underestimate your enemy," Ginny answered in a cool tone.

"I don't underestimate you in the least bit. You are the same as every other Gryffindor in this world. Stupidly brave and prone to rushing head first into anything." Voldemort was unimpressed with her replies but he was caught off guard when she opened her mouth next.

"If you had gained any knowledge from that diary you would know that the Sorting hat considered me for Slytherin but I declined thinking of my family. Just like you were considered for Gryffindor before you so adamantly begged for Slytherin. You fit it to the 'rushing into things stupidly and rashly' category rather nicely. What would you call that night at Godric's Hollow?"

"Crucio!" Voldemort released his anger through the wand and Ginny bit through her lip, trying and failing at keeping the cry of pain from escaping her lips. "It isn't nice to lie Weasley!"

Ginny smirked from her place on the ground where she had curled up. She slowly lifted her head up "I wasn't lying. You forget during that brief event with the diary you poured some of your soul into me. I didn't forget any of it, though the spell was broken. I can still speak Parseltongue you know. Just like I know despite your Slytherin heritage, you have Gryffindor traits that stand out."

The information settled on the room and whispering could be heard among the Death Eaters present. Voldemort was seething but had been rendered speechless unable to counteract the comment. His chest was heaving as anger took over his mind.

"It's a bit stupid really..." commented Jade. "One man fights with his three friends about being selective with students in a school and encourages people to dislike halfbloods and muggleborns. Now thousands of years later we are in a war because of it."

Ginny looked at her. It was disturbing to see an incensed but calm expression grace the girls face. She knew far more than she should ever have to know. They were waiting for the explosion just like everyone else but Voldemort seemed to still be looking for something to say.

"Master...?" Blaise broke the silence.

"You sodding bitch!" Voldemort hissed. She stood to retort but he advanced on her within two seconds and slapped her so hard she fall back to the ground.

The whole room watched with baited breath as she stood back up, motioning Jade to stay back. The girl made a distressed noise but obeyed. "Having trouble accepting the truth?"

Voldemort slapped her again cursing her casual but disgusted tone. "No, I am having trouble disposing of you!"

"Why?" she hissed. "Don't tell me you've gone soft Voldie!"

Everyone was riveted on the fight within unwavering attention. No one save Harry Potter had stood up to the Dark Lord and lasted more than five minutes. It was as if she were on a personal vendetta. She had every right if that was the case. Yet it was a wonder that Voldemort had not just killed her. They didn't have to wait long to find out why she had lasted so long.

"No, I have not gone soft. I am just waiting for Lucius to get back with his son. I am sure the young Malfoy will enjoy watching you die." His voice then chilled Ginny and she barely hid the shiver of fear that traveled up her spine.

"Scared?" Voldemort sneered.

"Of course I'm scared! Confidence is ignorance. If you're feeling cocky it's usually because you don't know something," Ginny answered truthfully.

"Well that's good to know. Maybe it won't be so hard to accept your death when it comes," he replied with pleasure. She winced when his hands encircled her throat and pressed lightly. Jade let out a cry and moved towards her mother but Blaise grabbed her by the arm.

"Let them go!" a voice boomed through the hall.

Voldemort's grip on Ginny's neck loosened and she whipped around to see Draco leaning against the wall of the entrance way covered in blood.

~Earlier~

Draco ran from the Death Eaters after Payton practically threw him in away. The Order was their last hope and they needed those wards down. The halls were empty and Draco snorted at their arrogance. It figured they wouldn't have guards in the halls. Voldemort apparently didn't worry about intrusion with the wards and all. They were just begging someone to try and brake in.

It took barely anytime to reach the tower where the wards were centered. Draco remembered his father explaining the system to him when he was thirteen. He had paid full attention, awed at his father's power. The thought disgusted him now. That was another time and place now. It was a very different Draco who had worshipped his father.

When Draco entered the tower he closed the door and turned before freezing in place. The room looked just as he had expected. It was circular with three tapestries and three windows. There were a few weapons on the walls and torches more so decoration than anything else. There were two pieces of furniture in the room. A tall skinny stand in the middle of the room with a glowing orb in the middle of it. That orb held the spells and magic, and much like a wand converge the magic into the barriers that surrounded the Manor.

The second piece of furniture was what had caused him to stop short. A chair on the opposite side of the room held his mother. She was reading a book and studiously ignored him until she was done with the page. It was peculiar to see her gracefully place the book down and look up at him. He half expected her to welcome him home.

"So you have left us for the other side?" she asked casually, though it was more of a statement.

"Yes," was his solid reply. Neither made a move and stared at each other instead.

"I lost my sister to that cause you know. Andromeda married Ted Tonks a Mudblood man. They had your cousin Nymphadora and all that. Mother was furious. I suppose I should be as well but I am not." Narcissa shrugged carelessly. "I always knew you would defy us somehow Draco. I never got close to you in fear that I would lose you and that would hurt."

"Really, I hadn't noticed what with my childhood being so full of love," Draco replied acerbically.

"Don't be angry about it. There is no love lost between us. You cared for me because you had to and you admired your father before you saw a different life for yourself. You can't change the past and if you could, would you want to?"

Draco declined from replying, as this would be admitting she was right. It was childish but he did not care at that particular moment. Narcissa stood up from the chair and walked towards him but stopped when she was a few feet away from him. They didn't speak for a long time and again Narcissa was the first to break the silence.

"There will be love lost once your little girlfriend dies I assume," she commented. "Shouldn't be too long from now either. He needs to kill your daughter at midnight as it is a solar eclipse and after that you will both be expendable."

"What does the eclipse have to do with anything?" he asked trying to keep his mind off everything else she had said.

"That should be obvious. For a few minutes everything goes completely dark. There is not natural light to speak of. What other time would dark magic be at full potency than in the dark?" Her demeaning tone irked him.

Of course she decides to scold me twenty years too late.

"What makes you think you have the right to rebuke me in any way after ignoring me for all these years?" he asked bitterly.

"I may not have been a good one but I was and still am your mother," she answered.

"I passed the age where you and my father had any control over my decisions long ago. So don't assume you can continue to believe you are a part of my life. It only makes an ass out of you." Narcissa looked a little shocked at the apparent mention of her stupidity.

"Your father doesn't seem to think so," she said carefully.

"I'll keep that in mind in case I ever decide to care." Draco heard the door close behind him. It was Lucius. He knew that with out looking.

It would have been more characteristic of the older Malfoy to attack his son from behind but he did not. He walked past him to his wife and whispered to her. She looked slightly disappointed and pouted a bit. It was an overly whiny pout that irritated him. He thought of Ginny's pout. Her soft rose lips in a pout with a slight smirk gracing the corner of her mouth. His mother had always had that whiny aspect of her that made her sound like a three year old. His father had always dropped everything for that whine. The man was whipped but then Ginny didn't have to whine to get Draco to drop everything for her anyways.

"You still haven't learned your lesson have you boy?" his father asked. Narcissa had already left the room.

"Which one is that, father?" Draco asked, spitting out the name.

"I told you to never weaken yourself for someone like her" Lucius hissed. "You were destined to take my place at the Dark Lord's side and you threw it away for Mudbloods and common filth."

Draco laughed cynically. "Ginny never weakened me, she only made my will to leave you stronger. Do you really think that taking everything that ever mattered to me would make me stronger? The only person that could be blamed for ruining me is you. You were the one who pushed me to the other side."

"What are you talking about? I always showed you the benefit of joining us!" Lucius looked livid.

"No, you really didn't," Draco replied. "You ruined me."

"I made you stronger! I made you independent!" Lucius yelled in outrage before taking a few deep breaths. "If you are referring to your grandfather and your aunt then I will make no excuse. Their deaths were a means to an end that I did not unfortunately accomplish."

"Andromeda and Grandfather Malfoy did nothing to stop your 'Junior Death Eater' tirade though they disagreed with you. They only helped me discover there is more in the world than blood revenge and pointless killing. Not much harm teaching me to care for people. Sadly enough for you, my 'caring' was never extended to you," Draco told him with disdain dripping from his words. It still hurt to talk about his lost family. They had been a large part of the reason he had decided to join the Order in the first place.

"That does not matter to me. You shall join us whether you like it or not. Soon your slag of a girlfriend will be dead along with your bastard child. You won't have anything left in this world," Lucius sneered.

"I still have love," Draco answered evenly, but he was shaking with suppressed anger.

"Love! That is a meaningless four-letter word!" Lucius spat. "You cannot possibly love a Weasley whore-"

Draco let loose his fury and hit Lucius with the Cruciatus. As soon as the curse ended Lucius threw a spell at him that Draco didn't catch. He moved fast to avoid it and hit Lucius with the leg locker curse. The older Malfoy reflected it with a shield charm and Draco barely dodged it on the rebound. As he avoided the returning curse Lucius shot a severing charm at him. Draco gritted his teeth against the pain from a long deep cut on his upper chest. Trying to ignore the blood, he retaliated by conjuring and shooting an arrow at his father, which grazed the man's shoulder.

"At least I taught you to fight decently," Lucius mocked.

Draco ignored the comment and flung a hex at his father who instead dodged it and disarmed him. Acting instinctively, he grabbed a sword from the wall and lunged towards Lucius. It was easy to knock the wands out of Lucius' hands as he was surprised by Draco's actions. Kicking the wands behind him, Draco advanced on his father who grabbed another sword and blocked the stab at his midriff. Draco was quickly reminded of the cut on his back as he pulled his shoulder back to dodge a swipe from Lucius. The man re-directed the sword and cut just below Draco's rib cage. Stumbling back, the younger Malfoy put a hand over the fresh wound and winced at the amount of blood. Lucius, thinking he had won, raised his sword above his head ready to kill son. Draco watched as a manic smile adorned his father's face. He thought it rather humbling to be on his knees as his father readied to kill him. But then pictures of Ginny and Jade raced through his mind. This wasn't over.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion as Draco reached up to thrust his sword into his father's exposed stomach. Lucius stared at the long silver object protruding from his stomach. Draco backed away from him and the sword slid out of the man's stomach silently. As soon as he had Lucius collapsed to his knees and looked up at his son as a pool of blood began to form on the ground.

"Just remember who raised you boy," Lucius gasped through the pain.

"Don't worry, I won't. It'll take a whole lifetime to take that horror from my mind," Draco answered and started towards the wards.

Even as he left the room he could feel his father's glare and smell the metallic scent of blood. He didn't stay long, instead taking the large ball that concentrated the wards with him. He didn't want to watch his father die. The sight of the sword in his stomach had been enough. It had dazed him and to actually watch the life leave Lucius' body would be too much. His mother was right, there was no love lost. Yet it didn't make it any easier to accept.

After taking a deep calming breath, Draco worked on the wards as he traveled down the halls desperate to make it to the Main Hall. It was Voldemort's temporary throne room. Praying silently that he wasn't too late he quickened his pace. If anything had happened to Jade or Ginny he wouldn't hesitate to kill the one responsible. The thought made him tighten his grip on his wand and the sword. They were both in his right hand and the wards were in his left. He wasn't about to let go of another weapon.

Draco reached the last step, making it to the first floor and managed to take the last spell off the house. It was a bit startling when the Order Apparated seconds later. No one spoke as Draco turned to the doors of the hall. He pushed open the doors and took in the scene as he leaned against the doorway lightly. The blood loss was starting to affect him.

"Let them go!" he demanded.

Everyone turned towards the doors as Draco and the Order flooded into the room and chaos erupted as spells were being thrown in every direction. Draco dodged anything thrown at him and grabbed Pansy on his way over to Voldemort. His eyes didn't leave the Dark Lord as the man grabbed Ginny and raised his wand to her head. Draco didn't stop advancing.

"Pansy, take Jade and get the hell out of here," he said in a low voice. Pansy didn't argue. She passed Draco Ginny's wand and went to get Jade. She was comforted that at least Blaise had disappeared to fight and wasn't there to see her take the girl to safety. Jade had backed away from everything at her mother's insistence and was easy to grab her without being noticed.

Ginny watched with some relief as Pansy took Jade and left the Hall. She was put at more ease when they reached the doors unscathed by loose spells. Now she only needed to worry about her current position. She watched Draco advance towards them and stop barely five feet away.

"Let her go," Draco's voice was low and threatening.

"You are quite helpless in this matter little Malfoy. You move at all and I well sever her head from her neck with a simple spell," Voldemort informed him smugly.

"I warned you once," Ginny interrupted. "I told you not to underestimate your enemy. I told you that if you are cocky it is because you are missing something. Looks like it's your loss." Without more warning Ginny brought her head back ramming it into the man's nose.

Ginny backed away from him when he let her go to touch his nose instead. There was blood there. Ginny shivered at the site of the blood. It was a strange reminder that he was actually human. She looked around at the pandemonium around her. Payton and Brice were fighting their captors. She could see Ron throwing a spell at a random Death Eater. She saw Professor Lupin fighting Peter Pettigrew. Harry was throwing a curse at Bellatrix Lestrange. She momentarily caught site of her father but her attention returned to her immediate area as Draco handed her the retrieved wand and Blaise returned to his master's side.

"Where is the girl?" Voldemort hissed at him.

"She is long gone," Ginny answered with satisfaction.

"You Bitch!" Voldemort roared and raised his wand. The action paused as someone interrupted.

"I think you should save some of those spells Voldemort" Harry said casually. "I hope you're a better challenge than Lestrange was."

"I shall take care of him master," Blaise insisted.

"Oh I think not Blaise dear," Ginny told him mockingly. "I dare say you'll have your hands full."

The bat bogey hex hit him before he could put his wand up. Draco kept his eyes on her as she continued to advance on Blaise with the rage she had concealed for years. The man had no hope of winning.

Draco stood by Harry's side and was throwing hexes at anyone who tried to distract Harry from the fight. He was growing tired though, and fast. He had lost a lot more blood than he had first thought. Ginny watched him out of the corner of her eye knowing he wouldn't last much longer. She just barely deflected a hex Blaise hurled at her. She concentrated on the task at hand.

"You always were pathetic," Blaise hissed at her. "Pining after those who you could never have. First it was Potter and now Malfoy."

"At least I didn't have to threaten people into marrying me," she retorted.

"I would never have done that if not forced into it. Voldemort needed an assurance that you would give birth to an heir that would possess that power. Of course it was never for sure. It was hard to mark you while you were dieing. There didn't seem much point but our Lord thought it would be an idea. He expected it to act more as a mark on your soul but this works just as well," Blaise sneered.

"What do you mean mark me?" Ginny asked hesitantly.

"Hadn't you ever wondered what that mark is?" was his arrogant reply.

Ginny placed a hand to her ribcage. Just under her left breast there was a small tattoo. Not a dark mark. It was a hearth, which held a tamed fire; it was the symbol of the virgin goddess of the hearth and home Hestia. She had never told anyone about it. Draco hadn't even noticed it. Though it had created a burning sensation for a while after she had lost her virginity.

"A constant reminder isn't it," Blaise commented malevolently, "of that event in your childhood. It must hurt to know how easily you were sucked into the diary. You were such an inexperienced little girl whining over the-boy-who-lived. It was despicable. Your innocence was lost it seems with Jade but you are still the gullible bint you always were. "

Draco glanced up and saw Ginny raise her wand. He froze as green light erupted from her wand and hit Blaise in the chest. He was dead before she had even registered her actions. Even from across the room he could see her trembling and he made his way over to her as fast as he could. She dropped to the ground staring at Blaise. Draco pulled her into a tight embrace forcing her to look away. She was tense and he slowly massaged her back as she breathed heavily into his chest.

A few minutes later she pushed away slightly. She stared at his wounds in surprise. They looked a lot worse then they had when he had first stumbled in. She had seen blood on the front of his shirt but now his whole side was soaked in the red liquid. A bruise on his right eye was beginning to form and she noticed he had only hugged her with one arm. The other was tucked against his body.

"What happened to you?" she whispered.

"Nothing much. I'll survive," he replied offhandedly.

Ginny and Draco looked up as another green light filled the room. They didn't catch what was going on though because Draco gave out a soft groan and fainted. Ginny quickly called for help. But he didn't hear her. All the noise seemed to fade until he knew no more.