It May Be Raining

Chapter Twelve

It May Be Raining

"And freedom, oh freedom, well that´s just some people talkin´..."

As the world came painfully back to Harry, he realized that he was laying flat on his back on a cold, gray, flagstone floor. The back of his neck ached with a dull pain as he twisted his head sideways to get his bearings. He appeared to be on the floor of a--no, that couldn´t be right--he was lying on his back on the floor of a prison cell.

Everything came quickly back to him: Ron had taken a hit and had fallen beside him, only as he scanned the cell, Ron was nowhere to be seen. He also remembered that Ron was afraid Hermione had been taken, but taken where Harry had no idea.

He made and excruciating effort to sit up. Only to be rewarded with an intense jolt of pain that ran down his spine with the movement. He collapsed backward on the hard floor with a groan.

"Harry are you alright?" a soft and comforting voice asked, betraying a hint of worry. His vision swam in and out of focus but slowly he recognized the image of Ginny leaning over him. She seemed scared.

Lifting his head as gently as possible, Ginny moved closer, placing her knees under him to cushion his aching head. "Don´t move Harry, everything is fine." She hesitated slightly and adopted a very frank and hopeless tone of voice. "No, actually things are not fine. I think we´re in Azkaban." She lifted her hands from the back of his head and examined them. "And I think you´re bleeding," she added with concern.

As she examined the wound at the base of his skull and stemmed the flow with her discarded school robe, Harry spoke feebly, "How did we get here and who all is `we´?" He tried to sit up and scan the cell but was gently restrained with one small hand of Ginny´s placed firmly on his chest.

"Take it easy, Harry, they´re gone for the moment. As to the `we´, a few other students--Hermione´s over there." She nodded her head in their friend´s direction. "With Professor Snape."

Harry gave a start at the name. "Snape! It was him, he let them in, the Dementors and the Death Eaters, he´s the one that took you!" Ginny shushed him immediately.

"Calm down, Harry. It wasn´t Professor Snape. He´s been in here all the while. Someone else must have been impersonating him." She helped him slowly into a sitting position, keeping a firm grip around his midsection to keep him from collapsing again. His head wound worried her--most of the blood was dried, but it looked serious.

"How about you?" Harry asked tentatively touching his head and rolling his neck around with a grimace. "Are you hurt at all?"

"No, I´m fine," she answered. "Hermione looks pretty shaken up and I´m worried about that little girl over there," Ginny said, pointing with her free hand. Harry followed it only to be greeted with the sight of a pale and seemingly lifeless Imogen. Her lolling head was cradled in Malfoy´s lap as he looked on her with a frantic sort of worry.

"Do you know what happened to her?" Harry asked, not taking his eyes off of the pair.

"No," Ginny shook her head helplessly. "I wish I could do something, but they´ve got us all locked up. I can´t get to her. He doesn´t look like he knows the slightest bit about medical magic." She passed a weary hand over her eyes. "Not that I´d be of much use. They took my wand." It was hard to take in all of this suffering around them. Harry could sympathize.

Several thoughts passed through Harry´s fuzzy mind at once. One, what the hell was Malfoy doing locked up in Azkaban on the orders of the Death Eaters? Two, how could he get to Imogen to help? Three, what was Hermione doing?

He caught sight of the bushy haired girl crying hysterically in the cell on the other side of Malfoy and Imogen. Snape placed an awkward hand on her shoulder to calm her some. None of them wanted to rouse the tempers of their captors, who, at present, must be outside of the cellblock, guarding the entrance, Harry assumed. Snape spoke too low for Harry to hear, but whatever it was he´d said to Hermione only made her more hysterical. Harry watched Malfoy in the cell next to him as he shook his head wearily and closed his eyes to the noise, leaning back on the cell bars.

"Is there something wrong with her?" Harry asked with a worried glance at Ginny who had silent tears in her eyes as well.

She cleared her throat and wiped her face on her shirtsleeve. "She tried to help her, but it was too late." Ginny looked back at Harry and dropped her gaze to the ground.

"Who, Ginny? Who was it?" He almost didn´t want to know.

"Parvati Patil. Hermione took on the Dementor, but it almost got her as well." She stopped a moment and then continued, "Did you see if Neville was okay?"

"I was knocked out just after you were taken, Ginny. I don´t know." He couldn´t lie to her--she had to know, "and Ron," he continued.

Ginny let out a sob and placed a hand over her mouth to stifle it. Her eyes shone all the terror that was necessary. Harry felt bad that he had to be the bearer of this news, but indeed, he was unsure if any of them would get out of this alive. "He was hit right before me, Ginny." Tears were streaming down her face now. Harry fought the painful knot that formed in his throat.

"But he wasn´t brought here, I didn´t see him," Ginny managed to say through her hands. "That means-," she stopped at the thought of it and dissolved into shuddering tears.

"I know, Gin," Harry admitted, gathering her up in his arms. She clung tight around his injured neck and cried into his shoulder. He bit back the pain she was causing him and stroked her hair comfortingly. "I didn´t see what happened to him after he fell, Gin. He could be fine, for all I know."

He felt her nod as her head rested on his shoulder and his neck ached with unrelenting fury.

***

"You! Up!" A tall hooded figure spoke and leveled his wand at a group of lower year students who cowered under his presence. He singled out a terrified girl, grabbing her roughly by the arm, leading her through heavy steel doors.

This had been happening about every hour since Harry had been awake. They were taken to God knows where and they never came back, reminding Harry ominously of a scene from the cartoon movie `Lady and the Tramp´. Everyone knows it, the scene in the pound. The door marked with an X. The dogs go in and none ever come out.

This was similar in a very un-cartoon way. Harry wished that there were some way he could stop this. He had no idea why they were being systematically taken to the firing squad, he was sure that there was some form of mass genocide magic that would work appropriately. What was the purpose of extracting them one at a time?

"It´s him. I know he´s here," Ginny said suddenly, startling Harry a little. He´d thought she was asleep, her head was resting on his chest and she hadn´t moved for over half and hour.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked more for conversation purposes than anything else. He rubbed her arm trying to warm her up a bit. Wherever this place was, it was not very warm at night. Her fingertips felt icy.

"Voldemort." She spoke the name without fear. " He´s in this place. I can feel him, sort of. I can´t explain how I know. Really, I think it´s him, trust me on this one."

"I trust you, Gin. That isn´t a very good thing, you know. If it´s him, I mean. We´re all in a lot of trouble. Think about it. No one even knows where it is they´ve brought us."

"I know," Ginny admitted, heaving a sigh and picking her head up to check on the occupants of the next cell. Imogen seemed to have a little more color than she´d had earlier, but was still out. She lay on her side, one arm tucked under her head as it rested on Draco´s knees. He was also asleep at the moment, or just resting his eyes. His head was leaning back on the bars of the cell as they met the wall in a corner. Three Hufflepuff cellmates huddled in an opposite corner.

"What time is it, d´you know?" Ginny asked massaging her neck and blinking.

Harry shrugged. He guessed that it was sometime after midnight.

Beyond the next cell, Snape was sitting on a stone slab. Yes, he got the presidential suite of the joint. He was eyeing Hermione with concern. Hermione looked right at home in her cell. She was sitting on the ground near the door of her cell, knees drawn up into her chest in a tight ball. She was rocking nervously and staring at the ground in front of her, giving her the look of a deranged mental patient.

Ginny shook her head sympathetically. She wished that she could comfort her friend, but there was really nothing she could do, being two locked cells away from her.

The same hooded figure returned--no small Hufflepuff girl in tow. He extracted Ernie MacMillan from his cell and led him through the door.

Ernie went willingly, unflinchingly, very much like another brave Hufflepuff he´d know at one time.

Harry felt Ginny shudder.

***

"The Dark Lord wishes to have a word with you, Miss Weasley." A high and familiar voice extended its sinister invitation, unlocking the door to their cell with a wave of his silver hand.

Wormtail.

The cell door swung open.

Harry noticed out of the corner of his eye a motion from a few cells over. Snape had gotten to his feet. He was watching the whole scene with rage and concern.

"Peter, if you harm that child-," Snape´s voice rang from the other side of the room with authority. It would have been enough to intimidate Harry back in the Potions Dungeon at school. Not Wormtail, however. He laughed and turned in the Potion Master´s direction.

"I hardly think that you are in a position to threaten me, Severus," Wormtail laughed mirthlessly.

Harry and Ginny were both on their feet. Harry, a bit unsteady from the head injury, wobbled a bit before gaining his balance. He immediately stood between Ginny and her pursuer.

"Nevertheless, Pettigrew. I will hunt you down if you touch her." Snape´s fingers were in a white knuckled grip on the bars of his cell. Malfoy was awake and alert to the situation. Watching everything with quiet attention. Wormtail caught sight of him and sneered menacingly, recognition passing briefly across his features. Malfoy´s face remained expressionless as he stared back. Harry had no doubt that he recognized Peter as well--he just hid it better.

"Don´t give me the opportunity to make you bleed, Potter. It would definitely be my pleasure," Wormtail spat, stepping threateningly closer to Harry who didn´t budge. He would have to do more than draw blood if he wanted to get to Ginny.

The determined look that covered Harry´s features melted as he felt Ginny´s hand close shaking around the crook of his arm. She stepped out from behind him quietly reassuring him that this was the only way. He was suddenly very afraid. She would feed herself to the wolves for him and the thought was terrifying. He tried to stop her but she slipped through his grip and followed Wormtail through the cell door and off the block.

Harry stared past her in disbelief.

She was gone.

***

"How do you feel?" Malfoy asked, helping Imogen to sit up. She rubbed at her eyes groggily and then, as if suddenly realizing where she was, she got straight to her feet. She landed hard on the ground in the next instant and took that opportunity to answer his question.

"Sick, I think I´m going to be sick."

A look of horror passed over Malfoy´s features. "Don´t do it here. Go over there. Puke in Potter´s cell."

Harry stopped his pacing to glare at Malfoy. Then he turned to Imogen and told her to lie still for a moment until the feeling passed.

"Thank you ever so much, Nurse Potter," Malfoy quipped as he sat down beside Imogen who was holding her head in her hands.

"What was I hit with?" she asked Malfoy as he rubbed her back.

"I don´t know what it was but you got it right in the gut and went down pretty quickly," Malfoy said. Harry could tell that he was restraining some sort of snide comment. It was rather odd that he censored his behavior around this girl. He really cared for her. The worried attention that he showed her seemed to confirm it. Harry felt a spark of jealousy as he watched the two of them.

She nodded, accepting this as answer enough. She opened a minuscule compartment on her bracelet, one hidden behind a sapphire, producing a tiny pill, which she swallowed promptly. She replaced her head in her hands and rocked back and forth slightly.

But he was straying from the point. What he meant to be doing at that moment was worrying frantically about Ginny, who hadn´t returned, nearly two hours later.

He ceased with the impression of a caged tiger as the door to the cellblock opened admitting two dark robed figures, the first of which, Harry could spot from several yards away. The platinum hair was unmistakable.

Lucius Malfoy.

Draco also noted the entrance and stood.

As the senior Malfoy approached, Harry could make out the Hogwarts insignia on his black robe. So it was he who had been impersonating Snape. That would explain the degradation in temper that they´d witnessed since the beginning of term.

What alarmed Harry was not Lucius but the man behind him, or rather what the man was carrying. Ginny.

With one massive hand the man unlocked the cell and deposited his load roughly on the flagstone floor. Lucius smiled slightly at this scene. He´d always had it out for the Weasleys. The girl was no exception.

Harry was immediately at her side. Alarmed and angered, he noted a bruise beginning to form on her cheek and a small stream of blood stemming from a cut on her bottom lip. Her shirtsleeve was torn giving her the look of a mugging victim. But the most alarming bit was that she was unconscious, unmoving and very pale.

Harry lifted up the palm of her right hand and examined a deep and gruesome cut that split the delicate skin there. Reaching down, he tore at the hem of his school robes, wrapping her injured hand gently with the makeshift bandage. He would never forgive himself for allowing her to walk into this. He just hoped that she would live. She looked as if she´d lost a serious amount of blood.

***

"Follow me, Draco," his father said with seething impatience.

Harry watched the entire exchange from the next cell, Ginny´s limp form cradled in his arms. She wasn´t waking up and her pulse was dangerously weak.

Draco placed his hands lazily into the pockets of his black trousers and remained rooted to the spot.

"I think I´ll just stay here, if you don´t mind," Draco drawled, pushing his father dangerously past the endurance of his patience. Harry wished that he wouldn´t do that. Just go quietly, he prayed. A lot of people had already died tonight, Harry wasn´t eager to see one do so in person.

Lucius opened the cell with a flick of his wand. His face was set into hard lines, eyes never leaving those of his son. Draco held his ground. Harry was surprised. He´d always taken Malfoy to be a big talking coward that hid behind his father´s coat tails. What he was witnessing now was just the opposite of everything he´d ever held true about his number one enemy at school. Draco seemed to be standing against the Dark Side--and his father.

"When the Dark Lord bids you come, then boy, you come!" Lucius growled in a low voice, moving closer to his son. Draco didn´t move, didn´t flinch, he didn´t even blink.

Lucius glanced past his son and saw Imogen there, sitting on the floor. She appeared to be having problems with her back. It looked painful to move. Maybe, Harry thought, it was a side effect of the curse she´d been hit with.

A wicked smile passed briefly over Lucius´ face as he stepped past Draco and leveled his wand at the helpless girl. She took a quick breath and closed her eyes, knowing full well that if she were hit, it would be the killing curse.

Draco made one deft movement, placing himself between the wand and the girl. Now panic was evident in his face that had been before now a mask of determined insolence. "No father. I beg you, don´t do this. I´ll come if the Dark Lord bids me." His voice carried a note of defeat as he followed his father and the monstrously huge henchman that had accompanied him off the cellblock. As he did, Harry caught a worried glance back at the frightened form of Imogen and then a very brief one directed at himself and Ginny. He´d better not try anything brave, Harry thought to himself. Draco´s blood was the last thing he wanted on his hands.

***

With the constant down pour of rain, Harry couldn´t tell exactly how late in the morning it was. He guessed it was somewhere between three and six in the morning as he looked out the barred window to his cell. He scanned the room.

Two cells over, Snape sat brooding in a corner, head resting against the bars and Hermione was asleep, thank goodness, on the stone slab in their cell. Harry doubted if he could have taken another minute of her psychotic rocking about. It was maddening to watch, knowing he couldn´t get to her. He wanted her to know that he felt Ron would be all right (even though he couldn´t be sure that he was).

Draco had returned to his cell next to Harry about twenty minutes ago, looking worse than Harry could have imagined any living person to look. Surely he couldn´t have looked worse if the Hogwarts Express had run him over. Imogen sat stroking his hair and crying silently. Harry wished that there were something he could say to her, but their situation seemed hopeless. This whole place was hopeless. The Hufflepuffs that they´d shared a cell with were gone, as well as the other captives of various other houses occupying the outer cells.

The last tiny Gryffindor, Dennis Creevey, was dragged out no more than fifteen minutes ago.

The door to the cellblock opened, causing Harry to wonder morbidly who would be next? To his surprise he recognized all three of the entrants. Lucius Malfoy, Peter Pettigrew and Voldemort himself.

Unsurprisingly, all three men came to stand in front of Harry´s cell. He stood quietly, leaving Ginny in a corner as not to draw attention to her.

Peter unlocked the door the same way as he had before, the sound of which caused the remainder of the conscious occupants of the cellblock to watch with silent attention. Professor Snape caught every movement.

The three men stood in the center of Harry´s cell, giving him little chance to escape even if he wanted to. He didn´t want to, as a matter of fact--he wouldn´t leave Ginny and the others here to be slaughtered.

Voldemort stood directly in front of Harry, flanked by his two servants. There was something different to his appearance than when Harry had last seen him. He looked more solid, confident, intelligent--all around, more intimidating. Maybe he had returned to full powers as well as full physical strength. If so, then they were all in serious trouble.

Voldemort drew a scaly hand into his robes and produced his wand, aiming it at Harry with a smile. Before Harry could do or say anything, he was hit dead on with the Cruciatus Curse, bringing him to his kness. The white-hot pain that usually accompanied this curse was absent, however. Harry was temporarily dumbfounded, but as if in unconscious realization, his hand moved to the charm that was hidden under his robes. Ginny was not kidding when she´d said that it would ward off any curse or hex. This was a powerful amulet. His assailants were, likewise dumfounded. They threw other curses at his as well and were no more the wiser.

No more wiser, that is, until Lucius drew his attention to the corner where Ginny was stirring, clutching her stomach and breathing laboriously. Lucius drew his wand and leveled it at Harry as well.

"Crucio," he called in a dispassionate tone.

Harry felt the impact of it hit him but not its effects. He turned as he heard Ginny scream and then double over with pain. Lucius smiled.

"Check him for an amulet, Wormtail," Lucius commanded with all the authority of his master.

Wormtail brought the elaborate ruby out from under Harry´s robes and attempted to rip it from his neck, causing a blinding pain from his wound to shoot into the back of his skull. The amulet stayed in place.

Lucius moved to where Ginny knelt on the floor, hands outstretched in front of her attempting to stand. "Take it off," he demanded of Harry.

Ginny interrupted, ignoring the wand that was held directly at her forehead.

"Don´t do it, Harry. Only the wearer or the maker can take it off," Ginny commanded with authority.

Harry was confused. She spoke with unconcern at the fact that Lucius Malfoy held a wand aimed at her. He was unsure whose directions to follow.

"Don´t be stupid, Potter. I will kill her. Make no mistake there. Now take it off," Lucius spat impatiently.

"And if he kills her," Voldemort interceded calmly, "your amulet will be worthless as it directs all effects of the curses to her." He smiled and turned to Ginny.

"Powerful magic, Virginia. Consider me very impressed."

"Your wrong," Ginny spat immediately, "the amulet will work for a few hours after I´m dead. I programmed it. It will work." She was breathing as if it was painful now.

Harry was angry. Angry that he was put in this situation, angry that she hadn´t told him everything about the gift. If she had, he never would have accepted it. He was unsure that he could get either of them out of this situation as it were. But, if he could bargain his life for hers, he would do it.

"Don´t listen to them, Harry!" Ginny called desperately.

Lucius silence her with a vicious backhand to her cheek, sending her backward into the iron bars.

"If I take it off, you don´t hurt Ginny," Harry said as Wormtail restrained him from attacking Lucius.

"It´s a deal, Mr. Potter," Voldemort answered immediately. Harry couldn´t be sure that he would keep his word, but reached back to remove the chain anyway.

Voldemort smiled victoriously as Harry dropped the magnificent jewel to the ground.

"Perfect," Voldemort sneered, leveling his wand at Harry. Voldemort turned to Lucius. "Finish the girl," he commanded.

Lucius smiled and answered, "With pleasure, my lord."

As Lucius raised his wand to voice the incantation that would end Ginny, it was blasted out of his hand.

Dumbledore.

***

Harry turned to see several armed wizards and witches flood into the scene. Lucius and Wormtail sprang into action, fighting three at a time. More seemed to be coming into the room behind them. Distracted, Voldemort had to dodge several curses from the wands of the enemy himself. Harry ducked the firefight and grabbed Ginny, pulling her out of the cell behind him. They ran for the cellblock entrance only to be greeted with a horde of Death Eaters just arriving on the scene.

A hand grabbed the two of them, shoving them into a corner.

It was Sirius.

"Stay here," he commanded them.

Harry nodded, picking up a discarded wand from a fallen Death Eater. He shoved Ginny behind him and held the wand at ready.

Beyond that, Harry could see Remus hurriedly freeing the captives, so that they could move freely if fried upon. As he came to Snape, he reached out and threw Snape a spare wand. Both immediately took fire at the enemy.

Chaos unlike even that in the Great Hall earlier ensued. Half the time Harry couldn´t tell who was firing upon whom.

Two Death Eaters spotted the pair in their corner and rounded on them. Harry gave Ginny a questioning glance that seemed to ask if she was up to the fight.

She nodded.

Harry shouted, "Expeliarmus!" Relieving one of their pursuers of his wand, he handed it to Ginny and pushed away from the wall in pursuit of the unarmed Death Eater who ran once he was without a wand.

Ginny kicked the smaller one, taking his feet out from under him.

Harry saw Imogen, the same vision from his dream. Of course, now he could clearly see whom she was fighting against. Harry joined her, disbanding robed figures twice their size together.

He scanned the room to make sure Ginny was holding her own without a problem.

He saw that Hermione had just woken up to the scene around her. She was searching frantically for a wand, or anything to defend herself with. Nothing.

Her pursuer was nearing with a menacing grin.

Harry would never make it there on time. He was relieved to see that Sirius was nearer and had just noticed the situation. Springing forward, he took out the approaching figure, freeing Hermione and arming her with the wand of her pursuer.

Harry heaved a sigh and ducked a hex.

He saw Wormtail in that instant. It was Remus he had in his silver grasp. Silver!

It was the only thing that could kill Remus.

Panic overtook his other senses. He scanned frantically for Sirius, who was busy with three monstrous Death Eaters and a Dementor, Hermione beside him.

Dumbledore was likewise occupied and unaware of Remus´ danger.

He looked back helplessly at Remus as he gasped and thrashed in Peter´s grip. Beyond that he saw Imogen take a hit and fall, Draco lay motionless on the ground beside her.

Harry felt that he would never make it in time to save any of them. He tried to shout, alerting Sirius to Remus´ situation. No good--he couldn´t make himself heard above the din.

"Ah, Potter! I finally have you," an eerie voice said behind him. He turned slowly and was greeted with the sight of Voldemort, a satisfied grin on his lipless mouth.

He lifted his wand and muttered the incantation that made Harry´s world come crashing down into black, noiseless darkness around him.