A Dish Best Served Cold

A Dish Best Served Cold

Prologue- Being Right Isn't All it's Cracked Up To Be

April 1998

Ron was the last to arrive on the roof of the old north tower. Two floors below him Mrs. Norris was still looking for him in the Divinations class room. With a soft grunt he heaved himself over the edge of the outside edge of the tower and plopped down next to the rest of the group. "Who are you, Spider-Ron?" Hermione asked him with a good-natured swat on the arm.

"Ha ha, very funny. I almost got caught by Mrs. Norris covering up for him." Ron indicated the slight form of the tall blonde boy sitting across the tower roof. He didn't like the idea of Draco Malfoy being part of their little group. Ron's arguments against it had led to more fights and estrangements between himself and his two friends than he could count. All things being equal though, he liked Harry and Hermione more than he disliked Draco. So for a year and a half he had tolerated the blonde snob, and in turn Draco had stopped talking down about the Weasley family.

"I have a name, Weasley." Draco replied without any real malice. "And it's only two syllables, even you should be able to handle that."

"Drop it, Draco. You too, Ron." Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a black cloth bag. "We have more important things to do tonight." He untied the bag and dropped four silver rings into his palm. Ron had to admit it had been good of Draco to pay for the rings, they weren't cheap. He knew Harry could have afforded it, but it had seemed important to Draco to pay for them.

"This won't work if you two are fighting, now make-up." Hermione was a like mother hen standing over the two of them.

"I am not kissing that!" both boys said vehemently and in unison.

"Boys!" Hermione snapped. "I said make-up. Now shake each other's hands and apologize." The two boys reached out and shook hands, albeit reluctantly.

"It was good of you to distract Mrs. Norris like that. Thanks," Draco muttered.

"Next time you get to climb up the outside of the tower. You're welcome." Ron shot Draco a sardonic smile and the incident blew over.

"Hermione," Harry said holding out his fist. He dropped a simple feminine silver band into her outstretched hand. "Draco," he dropped a ring etched in a silver dragon motif into the boy's slender hand. "Ron." Ron accepted the unadorned silver band and slipped it onto his right middle finger. Harry slipped on his own ring, which was cut to look like a lightning bolt continuously encircling his finger. The clouds cleared away and the four stood bathed in the light of the full moon.

"A wizard without a family," Harry intoned as he extended his arm, his hand flat and palm down.

"A family without a wizard," Hermione extended her own hand and laid it on top of Harry's.

"Wealth without a family," Draco added solemnly, laying his own hand on top of Hermione's.

"A family without wealth." Ron set his large hand on top of the others and curled his fingers around so that he was holding all three hands in his own.

"On this night we swear our true allegiance to this sacred bond of friendship." Their voices chorused as one. Their hands were encased in a glowing blue nimbus. "Patronum il Adligo Amicitia." The blue nimbus changed to pearlessant white and began to pulse with power. "By our faith in each other and our common purpose, may this sacred spell help us achieve our common goal." The glow that encased their hands became a brilliant white, too blinding to look at. "Finite Incantatem." As one they spoke and instantly the light went out. The darkness in its absence was absolute. Slowly their eyesight returned.

Ron reached down and took his ring from his finger, which had begun to itch. "Wicked," he breathed as he took it off. "Look." He showed the ring to his friends. Inside the band were letters in a glowing script. Hermione grabbed his hand and pulled it in for a closer look. Two years before he had thrilled at her touch, gone out of his way to receive it. Then Draco had come, and the fights began. At first it was just her telling him that class prejudice was an ugly trait. From there it had escalated. He had learned very quickly what words would shred her like so much paper; she learned the same about him. What had been the idle bickering of sexual tension in the fall became mortal wounds to the ego in the spring of their fifth year. During that summer he had sent her just one owl, and received none in response. It had taken until the following Christmas to repair their friendship. For her friendship he had set aside his hatred of Draco, but what they might once have had was gone.

He watched as she took off her own band and held it next to his. There were markings inside and they glowed as well. Harry and Draco were taking off their rings as well, which also glowed. Gently, he took his ring back and read the script within. "A Wizard without a Family. A Family without a Wizard. Wealth without a Family. A Family without Wealth. On this night we swear our true allegiance to this sacred bond of Friendship. April, 1998."

"It worked," Harry said triumphantly, patting Draco on the back. He drew his friends in and they shared in a hug that did physically what the magic had already done, drew them closer.

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Two months later.

"Remember, if we get separated, your rings are Portkeys that will take you back to the Great Hall." Draco's whispers carried back to where Ron was walking behind Hermione. He nodded when she turned around to see if he had heard. Harry had his wand out and was leading the group of four through a maze of tunnels that were seemingly miles below the school.

"Harry, if something happens to one of us, we won't be able complete the spells. There's a reason there's four of us." Hermione knew it would be just like Harry to try and take on Voldemort alone if one or even two of the others were hurt. She ran over the sequence of spells again. The timing would be crucial, she only hoped that the new Patronus spell would do it's job and hold off Voldemort's spells until they had time to cast their own.

A hand grabbed her arm as she slipped in a puddle of muck and slime. "You okay?" Ron's voice was deep and reassuring as he pulled her from her contemplation and back to the present dangers. "Head up, okay. Harry reckons we're close." She looked ahead to where Harry was moving about ten feet ahead of her. His shoulders looked tense, and his head moved back and forth as though he were a snake scenting for danger.

"This way." Harry called back over his shoulder and disappeared down a sloping pipe. Draco went next and Ron urged her to follow.

"Shouldn't we..."

"Trust Harry." Ron gave her his patented lopsided smile. "Harry says we go down the hole, we go down the hole. Ladies first."

"I think your sense of gallantry is misplaced, but if you insist." Hermione shifted her backpack around to her front before she slipped her feet into the pipe and crossed her arms. The ride down was wild. The pipes twisted and turned and went into steep drops. Finally she shot out of the tube and skipped twice across the stone floor. Harry helped her to her feet and then waited for Ron as she shifted the pack around to her back.

"Draco's checking for company. He's here, I can feel him." Hermione gripped her wand a little tighter and ran through the incantations again. She knew them all. If any of the other members fell she could easily replace them. Any except for perhaps Ron, she doubted very seriously whether she could bring herself to actually cast the killing curse.

"Look out!" Ron grabbed Harry and pulled him back out of the way as a large chunk of stone fell from the inky darkness above them and struck the ground where Harry had stood just fractions of a second before. The rock fractured when it struck the ground, and a stray fragment caught Hermione in the leg. "You okay?"

"You're starting to sound like a broken record." She put her hand on the wound, it wasn't deep it just bled a lot. "I'll be okay." She muttered a healing charm and the wound closed up, though the leg still hurt and she was sure she'd have a nasty bruise for several days. She noticed that Harry was moving away from them, deeper into the chamber. She had heard Harry talk about the Chamber of Secrets, but she had no idea it would be like this. Statues of serpents were everywhere. The air was cold and clammy. At the far end of the chamber stood a monolithic statue of a man with a grim expression.

"So," came a smooth, oily voice from the shadows ahead of them. "We meet again, Harry Potter. And I see you brought your little friends. Isn't that nice? Perhaps I should kill them first." Hermione watched as Draco crept back into her field of vision. She saw Harry nod at him over his shoulder. Ron stepped up next to Harry.

Harry raised his wand without replying to any of Voldemort's words. He had told Hermione before coming down that he wasn't planning on doing this again, he wanted it over with. "Patronus il Amicitia non Incantato." Light burst forth from Harry's wand and a white mist filled the air between himself and the Dark Lord.

"Crucio."

She heard Voldemort screech. Suddenly the barrier of white light between Harry and Voldemort turned an angry red. A second later it reverted to it's white incandescence. She could hear Draco muttering in ancient Sumerian just a couple of feet away from her. She watched as a circle of black smoke began to appear on the floor just a few feet in front of Harry. She watched as Draco sliced his hand open and blood began to trickle down to the granite tiles at Draco's feet.

"Avada,"

Ron shouted. In rapid succession the white barrier quickly flashed all the colors of the rainbow, as Voldemort struck out with spells of his own. Hermione was watching Ron intently now. Her spell casting was dependent entirely on his completion of his spell. With a slash of his arm and a shouted word, Harry brought the shield crashing down. "Kedavra!" Green light shot from the end of Ron's wand and struck Voldemort square in the chest.

"Acciose Angelus Mordre."

Hermione was shouting over the roaring wind that seemed to fill the great chamber. She couldn't even hear the words but she continued to shout as magic ancient and powerful poured through her. She could sense Harry's voice joining with her own. Magic filled the chamber in the form of sound and light and force. Voldemort fell back as a green shadow tore through him. Suddenly a great black tentacle shot up out of the swirling black cloud that Draco had brought into existence. It grabbed the green shadow and retracted back into the cloud.

Draco began to speak very rapidly as Harry's arm extended toward the cloud and silver light shot out and surrounded the cloud, seeming to constrict it. Draco brought his arm down in a forceful motion and with a flash of light the black cloud was gone. Hermione wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but then she saw that Voldemort's body was still standing, seeming to stare at the group of them. As she opened her mouth to say something, it fell to ashes where it stood. All that remained were a two large bones that looked like ribs, a single fleshy hand, and a pool of blood. Harry walked forward and poked at the hand with his foot.

"What's that?" Hermione heard herself ask.

"Bones of the father, flesh of the servant, blood of the enemy."

"Harry," Ron said in a slightly giddy voice, "we did it. We actually did it." Hermione watched as Harry turned to Ron, a huge smile splitting his face. They had all lived through the ordeal, and the Dark Lord was dead. Hermione felt her own smile spreading across her face and began to move forward. Suddenly she heard the crunching of bone and saw Ron flinch.

There was blood on Ron's face. There was something silver and metal sticking out of Harry's chest. Hermione followed the line through his body and saw the sword extending from his back. The continued path of her eyes brought her to a hand wrapped around the pommel. That was connected to an arm, which connected to a shoulder, connected to the head of, "Draco?" Hermione heard herself ask the question and at the same time wondered why she was asking it.

"Very good, Granger. I'm proud of you, you did an excellent job." His voice was cold and cruel, the voice of the Draco she used to know and loathe. The Draco that insulted her blood, her appearance, her intelligence, and her prowess as a witch.

"You slimy, traitorous, bastard!" Ron leapt forward at Draco. The blonde boy was lightning fast though and yanked the sword free from Harry's body, causing it to fall in a puddle of blood and lifeless skin and bones. He whipped the sword up and set the point in the soft skin under Ron's chin.

"Ah ah. Temper Weasley." Draco sneered at Ron; Hermione could see every muscle in his face twitch as he did. Ron held up his hands in surrender. A hand grabbed Hermione by the arm. She spun around to see what had grabbed her and fell into Ron as her wand went skittering off across the stone floor. The hulking forms of Crabbe and Goyle advanced on her.

Doing the only thing she could she grabbed the ring on her finger and shouted, "Sanctuary." The air spun gray around her and after a terrible yanking sensation she found herself lying in a grove of trees. Ron very nearly fell over her as he appeared right next to her. All around them the air was filled with shouts as the lights of a half-dozen hexes sped toward them. Ron dove to the ground and covered Hermione.

"I don't have my wand." She cried as he pressed down on her. With a look of grim determination he shoved his wand into her hand.

"Go, Apparate." He wrapped his arms around her and rolled under a bush. "Don't go home, Draco knows where you live. Find someplace safe and hide! Get word to the Headmaster."

"Ron, I'm not leaving..."

"Yes you are. Get the hell out of here." The bush they were hiding under exploded under the force of a hex. She saw Draco advancing on them through the smoke. Ron saw him too. "Go!" He planted a single quick kiss on her forehead and jumped up off of her. A hex slammed through the space he'd just vacated and hit Hermione in the hip. Suddenly her legs were alive with pain. She knew it wasn't the Cruciatus Curse, but it still hurt like hell. Unable to do anything else, she gripped the wand tightly and concentrated on someplace she could go. She conjured up an image of home and, with tears in her eyes for her lost friends, she was gone.

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Ron knew she wouldn't listen to him. She'd probably head straight home, either that or she'd go to Hogsmeade. He hoped for the latter. He spun to his left to avoid a shot from the wand of Pansy Parkinson. Draco's wand came up, and Ron dove to the ground. He came in hard and fast on Draco, wanting nothing more than to crush the scrawny neck of this traitorous, ferret-faced, worthless excuse for a human being. Ron extended his long arms and was rewarded with a handful of Draco's robe. He gave a yank and the boy came down right on top of him. Ron rolled over and slammed a fist hard into the sharp jaw-line. He smiled at the satisfyingly wet crunching sound.

Draco reached up to grab Ron by the neck, but wasn't able to get a good grip. His arms were just too short. However, Ron was able to wrap his own sizeable left hand around Draco's throat. Inexorably he began to squeeze harder and harder. Draco's face was turning a livid shade of red and his hands scrambled for purchase on Ron's arm. Suddenly Ron felt stabbing pains all up and down his back and his legs wouldn't work. He flung himself sideways off of Draco and grabbed the boy's wand from his weakened grip. Through the fog of pain he pictured his own house, and Disapparated.