The Dark Prince

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She screams in silence

A sullen riot penetrating

Through her mind

Waiting for a sign to smash the silence

With the brick of self-control

Green Day - She

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Chapter 19

...sullen riot...

"Two bottles of butter beer on the wall, two bottles of butter beer. Take on down and pass it around - one bottle beer on the wall."

"Highly ingenious song, Mr. Weasley. Perhaps you could teach me?"

Ron got up from where head had been sitting with his back against his cell door and glared at the Dark Prince through the grate.

"I don't bloody think so."

"Not even for your life?" queried the Prince.

"No."

"An uneven trade, you think?"

"No," growled Ron. "I don't make deals with Death Eaters."

"Not even one's that are old friends?"

"I don't have any friends that joined you, you scum."

"Oh, contraire. I believe you know a mister Dean Thomas? Perhaps Oliver Wood. Or even - Harry Potter?"

"Harry'd never!" yelled Ron furiously, his ears burning red.

"Oh, I'd say he would. Mr. Potter is one of us. He had been for five years."

"LIAR!"

"Believe me, Mr. Weasley," said the Prince, " I would not lie to you."

Natasha peered down at them as all this transpired. Something was bugging her...

"Bring him here then!" yelled Ron at the Prince. "If he's here, bring him!"

"I have no need to," said the Prince.

"What?" said Ron, bewildered now.

The Prince reached up to his mask and slowly slid it off, revealing a face that was all too familiar to Ronald Weasley.. He pushed himself back away from the cell door with a gasp, backing away until he hit the opposite wall, where he sank down onto the floor.

Harry put his face to the grate and said softly, "Because I am already here, Ron."

Natasha gasped. How?

"Why?" croaked Ron. "Why, Harry, why? He killed your parents for Merlin's sake!"

"Where else was I to go?" roared Harry. "The wizarding world never gave a damn about me! All they cared about was that I had defeated Voldemort! When he returned they threw me aside like a piece of trash."

"You could have come to us!" bellowed Ron in response, rising to his feet angrily. "We all cared about you! We still do!"

"Even now? Even when you have seen what I have become?" asked Harry in a harsh tone. "I am as good a murderer as Voldemort. There is blood on my hands. Muggle and Mudblood's blood. It has pooled at my feet and I have enjoyed it."

Ron looked furious now.

"What about Hermione? Is that why you kidnapped her? To kill her?"

"No. Never Hermione."

"Liar!"

"Do I? Do I lie?"

"Yes," hissed Ron savagely.

"Then everything I have ever told you has been a lie. Except for this. Your time in this world is up."

Harry slid the white mask back over his features and drew his wand, aiming it at Ron's heart through the grate.

"And I am your executioner."

"Damn you!" spat Ron as the words of the Killing Curse formed on the Dark Prince's lips.

"Avada..."

"Expelliarmus!"

The Prince flew back away from the cell door to crash into the far wall and his wand flew in the opposite direction to land neatly in a grim-looking Snape's outstretched hand. He sneered at the crumpled form then spat to the Aurors standing behind him, "Get them out. I'll handle this young fool who believes he is the Dark Prince."

Several of the Aurors eyed Snape but at Moody's order moved to Ron and Natasha's cells. More were on guard at the door with Nott lying in a body bind at their feet. Snape began to walk over to the Prince's fall form but Hermione got ahead of him, eyes burning in her face.

"Move aside, Miss Granger."

"Do you know? Do you know who he is?"

Snape studied her for a moment then nodded.

"I know."

Hermione studied her Potions professor of four years ago for a moment then said, "Then you know he deserves a second chance, a chance to redeem himself." She reached forward and drew the white mask from Snape's cloak pocket, the gold lines over the left eye glinting dully as she moved it out of the view of the Aurors. Looking up at him, she added, "Just as you had."

Snape's dark eyes studied her for a moment then he said, "You're in love with him."

Hermione blinked, surprised at the statement, but nodded just the same.

"Yes."

"I see," said Snape cryptically. He took the mask from her hands and looked down at it while he spoke softly to her.

"I will do what I can. My second chance came with loss of my dignity and six years of my life. His will come at a far greater price."

"Don't bother doing anything. Just link him rot in Azkaban."

"Ron!" cried Hermione, turning to the dirty looking redhead. Apparently he had been standing there for some time and neither she nor Snape had noticed.

Ron turned dark blue eyes on her and spat, "I can't believe you want to try and save him. There's nothing of Harry left in there to save."

Hermione shook her head, remembering how gentle Harry had been and the words he had spoken softly the morning after before he had fully awakened. She had awoken something in him. She knew it in her soul.

"No, Ron. There's something left. I know there is. We just have to find it."

"Your wrong, Mione."

Hermione's eyes blazed and she spat, "If you give up on him now, you're damning him! He needs his friends!"

Ron stated coldly, "I stopped being his friend the moment he betrayed us."

The sound of Hermione's hand striking Ron's cheek hard echoed in the cell block. All of the Aurors looked up at the sound of it then quickly turned away at a sharp word from Moody. Hermione shook violently with anger as she glared at Ron, all the fury of a mother wolf standing over the body if one of her subs blazing in her eyes.

"Damn you, Ronald Weasley. Damn you to all nine levels of hell twice over and once more!"

With that, she shoved past him and stormed over to where Natasha stood shivering, arms hugging her torso. The older woman looked at her and said, "I thought there were only seven levels of hell."

Hermione looked at her then away again, growling, "I made three up."

"Specifically for Ron?"

"Yes."

"Ladies," said a young Auror suddenly, plucking at their sleeves. "We should get moving."

Hermione leveled such as glare at the boy that he flinched back, eyes wide. Natasha took Hermione's arms and smiled cheekily at the young Auror.

"She's a bit testy. No smokes here, you see. We'll just be moving right over there to talk to Moody, all right? Good lad."

The boy stared at the two of them for a moment then skirted Hermione as he hurried away.

"Let's move!" growled Moody. "Weasley, Bennett, and Granger in the middle, Snape!"

"Yes, my dear, dear Auror?"

Moody glared at the darkly clothed man, who smirked in response. The old Auror scowled at him and growled, "Bring him" with a nod towards the Prince's prone form.

Snape nodded solemnly and Moody turned, barking out orders. Ron, Natasha, and Hermione were huddled in the middle of the group, Aurors on all side of them. Moody led the procession out of the cell block and into the dark corridors.

Snape waited until they were gone then drew his wand and pointed it at the Prince.

"Enervate."

The body twitched and the eyes fluttered open as Snape slid the white mask over his face. He then trod hard on the Prince's hand, leaning over as the figure beneath him bucked in pain to place his wand in the hollow of the other man's throat.

"Be still, Potter. I would kill you now were it not for the fact that Miss Granger could in turn kill me and then you would quite possibly come back to haunt me in the afterlife and she in turn after that. But I digress. You have two choices now, two ways to go in life. Lice and serve out the sentence you will most likely live out in Azkaban. It will very likely not be that long and you may yet see Miss Granger again. But then there is choice number two. Return to Voldemort and die at my hand; Dark Prince against Dark Prince, old against new, age against youth, and all else you can possibly think of. Choose now, Potter. Life...or death."

The Prince's hand reached up and pulled off the white mask. Harry looked up at Snape and said, "I choose..."

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I woke up in a dream today

To the cold of the static

And put my cold feet on the floor

Forgot all about yesterday

Remembering I'm pretending to be where I'm not anymore

Linkin Park - With You

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Chapter 20

...cold of the static...

"Granger," said Moody as they paused in one dark corridor, identical to the one they had just passed through.

"Yes, sir?" asked Hermione from where she stood in the center of the group.

"Do you know where we are?"

Hermione gave a short bark of laughter.

"No, I'm afraid I don't. They didn't trust me enough to let me run about freely."

Moody sighed then growled, "Where is Snape?"

"Oh, we'll find him. After we dispense you fools."

"Hold, Aurors," growled a Death Eater as the Aurors reached for their wands. The Death Eaters appeared out of every nook and cranny in the corridor as well as from corridors ahead and secret passages. Ron and the majority of the Aurors cursed violently while the Death Eater smirked.

"Lower your wands and no harm will come to you," said one Death Eater.

"Much harm, that is," said another with a smirk, causing laughter to mingle among the ranks of black-cloaked figures.

Moody glared but gruffly ordered, "Drop your wands."

They only sound for a few moments was the clattering of wands to the floor and the sound of them being retrieved by Death Eaters. Then one Death Eater smirked and said, "Come with us and don't try to get away. Anyone who does - dies."

The Aurors were quickly rounded into a closely packed group and marched along the corridor. Hermione closed her eyes and involuntarily gripped Ron's arm hard as they walked. She knew where they were going.

When she reopened her eyes, she saw Voldemort on his throne, his red eyes going past the Aurors to her.

"Well, well. What have we here?"