Chapter Twenty-One
The full moon hung high in the sky over the lake, the light reflecting on the water. At the moment, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, a million points of light shining across the cosmos to this single spot. Harry approached the edge of the lake where the wards prevented them from moving any further. To his right stood Hermione and Daphne, both of them staring at the monstrously large house that sat high on the cliff opposite them.
To his left stood Malfoy and Ron. While Malfoy's eyes were also locked on the house, Ron's were locked on Harry. Silently, Ron nodded to Harry firmly. He was ready. They all were. Harry could have reminded them that they had no room for error from this point forward, but they knew. Reminding them wouldn't have helped.
Instead, Harry raised his wand and began the process of removing the wards. Removing wards was like lifting the covers off a bed so that you could remove the sheet underneath while simultaneously attempting to put a new sheet on the bed. The top layers of the wards could remain, but the one that they needed to alter so that they could enter the property were at the very heart of the wards that protected Malfoy Manor. Altering wards was incredibly precise work. If you lost concentration for a moment, a ward could fall. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but Malfoy Manor was protected by more than a dozen wards, one stack on top of the other.
If the sixth ward in the stack fell, it would interrupt the fifth, which would interrupt the fourth, all the way down to the bottom. If that happened, they would be forced to flee as quickly as possible or risk becoming caught by Voldemort himself. Harry had even considered intentionally setting off the wards, but he had decided against it after some experimentation with the wards suggested that the wards could potentially trap the person who had attempted to manipulate them.
No, the only way forward would be to slowly peel back the wards, one by one, until they reached the bottom of the wards. Then, they would alter that specific ward, allowing them to access the property before they carefully put all of the wards back. It was a painstakingly slow process that they knew would take hours. It was part of the reason why they had decided to break in at night. Besides the fact that the defenses of the Manor would be lower at night, it would also be less likely that someone would spot them working on the wards from across the lake as unlikely as that might have been.
Harry and Hermione led the process, each of them giving very specific instructions to the other three. It took nearly three hours of intense effort and concentration but they did do what they set out to do. Once they were done, Harry took a deep breath, lowered his wand, and stepped through the wards. If they'd failed, Harry would have immediately been caught in a sort-of magical bubble which would have held him in place until someone found him.
Instead, he stepped through with no problems and was joined by the others in short order. Of course, that was step one in a multi-part plan in which that was the easiest part of the plan. Now, it was Harry's time to shine. Unlike the process of pulling back the wards, this spell was one that could only be cast by one person.
While the others got prepared (Hermione had packed water-repellent clothes for each of them that they were in the process of putting over their clothes), Harry began to cast the spell. There were two ways to perform this particular spell. You could perform it quickly which was a far easier version but would create a storm out of thin air at such an unnatural speed that anyone in Malfoy Manor would have immediately suspected a magical genesis to the storm.
On the other hand, you could cast it slowly. The storm would appear more naturally, but it again required a great deal of concentration since the timing of the incantations and wand movements was more difficult to pull off at a slower pace. Harry had spent much of the last week practicing the slower timing, creating a series of small rain clouds in the ballroom at Potter Manor. But it was the final step that was both the most difficult and most dangerous to perform since it wouldn't create a simple rain cloud but a full scale monsoon.
Thankfully, Harry wasn't any ordinary wizard. In fact, he was about as extraordinary as a wizard could come and twenty minutes later, a once peaceful night had turned into a swirling storm of epic proportions. The wind was strong enough that they had trouble standing, the rain came down in sheets, whipping across their face in waves that felt like dozens of small pebbles raking across their skin. It was the single most miserable meteorological event that Harry had ever been in and he'd climbed a fucking mountain in the middle of a blizzard.
Once the storm was in full effect, Hermione conjured a boat that was large enough for all of them to fit in but also wide enough that the boat wouldn't be easy to flip. As they all climbed in, Harry magically attached each of them to the boat. Now, the only way they would separate from the boat would be if it flipped over entirely.
Harry, exhausted from having altered the wards and created the storm, sank into the boat as Hermione cast the spell that propelled them forward. Everyone remained on guard, their wands at the ready, as they began the slow journey across the lake. It was a tortuous experience. On one hand, there was the rain which only seemed to be growing more powerful as they progressed. On the other hand, somewhere out there was a very large, very fast water dragon that would likely attack the moment it smelled or heard them.
As they reached the halfway point of the lake, the boat suddenly came to a stop. Harry turned to Hermione who quickly gestured for him to be quiet and then pointed out towards the lake. Harry turned back around and what he saw truly horrified him. Through the rain and the mist, a large fin cut through the water next to them, travelling parallel to the path that they had been taking. Even in the darkness of the night, which was only made darker by the rain and clouds that covered the sky, Harry could see a dark shadow that passed by them.
Harry had stood face-to-face with a Hungarian Horntail. That had been terrifying. This was something else entirely. At the very least, Harry had been able to see the Horntail. As the moments passed, the fin slowly began to slip under the water until even the shadow of the dragon was gone. One moment, it had been there; the next, it was gone.
Now, it could be anywhere. While the storm raged on, they sat in silence, each of them terrified by the idea of moving. Had the dragon sensed them? Had it just been a terrible coincidence that had led to the dragon swimming alongside them?
Eventually, Hermione waved her wand and the boat started moving forward again. If they had been on high alert before, then they bordered on paranoia at this point. Every drop of water, every roll of the waves that still threatened to topple their boat, all of it was the dragon, ready to swallow them whole.
They were less than one hundred meters from the cliff when disaster struck. The storm, which continued to grow with each passing moment, was now generating massive bolts of lightning that struck at various points around the lake. Unfortunately, one of those spots was at the very top of the cliff. The lightning crashed against the rocks there, creating a small explosion that led to three massive boulders separating from the cliff.
Harry watched as the boulders fell. The second the boulders hit the water, Harry heard a terrifying roar cry out from somewhere behind them. He turned over his left shoulder to see the giant fin come towards them, but unlike the last time when it had been casually cruising through the water, this time it was slicing through the water at a speed that was almost unfathomable.
The worst part was that they were directly in between the boulders and the dragon. They had only seconds.
Harry turned back to the others.
"Transfigure now," Harry whispered.
"What!?" Malfoy replied.
"Transfigure," Harry ordered. "Slip into the water, transfigure, and then swim straight down as fast as you can."
"That's insane!" Malfoy said.
Harry pointed back at the fin, which was getting even closer.
"Do you have a better idea?" Harry barked as he grabbed Malfoy and dragged him to the edge of the boat. "Get in!"
Ron and Hermione were already in the process of their Transfiguration. During their practice time over the last week, each of them had practiced a partial Transfiguration like Viktor had done during the Triwizard Tournament. The thing about animal Transfiguration was that, like an Animagus, there were some animals that some people were just naturally predisposed to turn into. Hermione's head already resembled that of a swordfish while Ron's face started showing the features of a dolphin. On the other side of them, Daphne's teeth were growing, showing the same facial features that Viktor had shown during the Tournament.
Unfortunately, Malfoy wasn't changing. Harry turned back and saw that the fin was now less than a hundred yards away from them. It would hit the boat in seconds. Knowing that Malfoy wouldn't Transfigure in time, Harry drew his wand and faced Malfoy.
"Depulso!"
The Banishing Charm hit Malfoy in the chest, launching him from the boat.
"Levicorpus!"
That spell hit Malfoy as well, stopping his movement and jerking him by the leg so that he floated in the air. Harry had enough time to see that Malfoy was safe before he felt a sudden rush of water from behind him before the boat exploded under his feet, throwing him into the air.
As Harry raced through the air, he began to Transfigure himself like the others had, adopting the features of the marlin, one of the fastest animals in the ocean. By the time Harry hit the water, he was mostly Transfigured and that allowed him to dive nearly one hundred meters below the water before he turned back up and saw the monstrosity that was the water dragon.
Its scales were black with sickly green highlights that reminded Harry a bit too much of the Killing Curse. Its hide was thick like the armor of a tank and its tail appeared to end in a sharp point, although pretty much everything on the dragon seemed to end in a sharp point.
Harry swam back up towards the surface at a speed that almost left him dizzy especially when you took into account the rushing waves that pushed past him as he swam. When he was about twenty yards from the dragon, Harry raised his wand.
"Impedimenta!"
The white light of the Impediment Jinx streaked towards the dragon, hitting it in the underbelly. While it had almost no effect against the dragon, it did exactly what Harry wanted: it got its attention. Just outside of the dragon's grasp, Harry could see Ron and Daphne with Hermione behind the dragon. Now, the dragon was focused on the half-marlin-half-man that had attacked it.
In a move that was far too quick for a creature of that size, the dragon turned and charged at Harry. Thankfully, Harry had some practice taking evasive measures, having spent most of his childhood avoiding Dudley and Bludgers. Although it felt slightly different swimming rather than flying, the concept was the same: get small, stay small, and never stop moving. While Harry knew that he had no chance of outrunning the dragon, he could avoid it long enough for the others to get to the bottom and into the secret passage.
Harry immediately darted straight up, soaring just over the open mouth of the dragon before he came down upon him. Harry skimmed along the back of the dragon, racing from its head to its tail. Unfortunately, that tail was a weapon in its own right. While the dragon couldn't make the same turn that Harry could, it could swipe at Harry with its tail while it attempted to turn.
Harry watched as the tail, which was about as thick as a school bus, barrelled through the water towards him, moving far faster than the dragon itself could. Still, Harry had one thing the dragon didn't: a wand. He raised his wand and aimed it at the tail, firing a Shield Charm just before the tail hit him.
And, much to Harry's surprise, it worked, although only partially. Normally, a single hit from that tail would have killed Harry. Instead, the Shield Charm took the brunt of the impact. However, that impact created a shockwave that sent Harry deeper into the lake. Harry was able to use his wand to correct his descent just as the dragon recovered to charge at him once more.
This time, Harry decided he would take a slightly more aggressive approach. As the dragon pressed on towards him, Harry raised his wand and aimed for a spot between the eyes of the dragon.
"Furasshu!"
There was a moment where nothing happened. Then, a small orb of light floated away from the end of Harry's wand. Harry realized his mistake. He'd learned this spell during his time in Japan. Normally, that ball of light bounced towards its target. This time, however, there was nothing to bounce against, which meant that it simply floated out into the water between him and the dragon.
Immediately, Harry turned away from the ball and tore off towards where the others had gone. He knew he had only moments to get away before-
Just then, any ambient light in the lake disappeared, plunging everyone into darkness to which Harry immediately pressed his eyes closed in response. That darkness lasted for only a second before a sudden and blinding flash erupted from the ball, lighting up everything in the lake for a moment. The only time that Harry had been on the receiving end of that spell, he'd lost the ability to see for three days. He doubted that he'd be that lucky with a dragon who was currently howling with rage.
Harry swam as fast as he could towards the cave at the far end of the lake where the entrance to Malfoy Manor was hidden. He dared not turn around, although he could feel the disturbance in the water behind him, which told him that he only had a few moments before he could reach the cave.
Then, something hit him. Out of nowhere, one of the dragon's massive claws swiped at him and clipped his legs, sending him into an uncontrolled spiral. With no sense of which direction was up or down, Harry couldn't use his wand to save himself. He couldn't do anything other than hope that the dragon would ignore him.
It didn't. While he was still screaming towards what he assumed was the bottom of the lake, Harry heard another roar of the dragon approaching his position. Harry had admittedly thought a lot about how his life might end. He thought that he'd considered every angle, but death by water dragon at the bottom of a lake had not been one of the scenarios he'd imagined.
As Harry started to slow down, he was finally able to orient himself. He was upside-down in the water and as he looked up at his feet, he saw the dragon diving towards him. While Harry had figured out which way was up, his head was still spinning and he was exhausted, having spent most of his energy casting the Flash Bomb Charm.
Just then, Harry felt a sudden tug on his foot and before he knew it, he had come to a stop. But the moment he stopped, his body suddenly zipped in the opposite direction.
Towards the dragon.
Clearly, it had not been expecting Harry to come back at it and it watched Harry soar past its face. For his part, Harry had no idea what was going on. It wasn't until he got close to the cave entrance that he saw Hermione floating in the water there, her wand outstretched.
She's Summoned him, Harry realized. Hermione had always been special. She'd always been talented. But hitting his foot with a Summoning Charm from a rather sizeable distance while Transfigured while underwater was probably one of the most impressive things he'd ever seen her do and that was not a short list.
Hermione took him by the hand and dragged him into the cavern that hid the entrance to Malfoy Manor. The floor of the lake slowly rose until Harry was able to stand and return his body to its normal form. From there, Hermione and Ron practically carried him out of the water and deposited him onto the small platform at the end of the cavern where a clearly upset Malfoy was already waiting. At the other end, Harry could see the dragon swimming back and forth. It clearly knew where its prey had gone and it was not about to let them leave.
"Well, I guess there's no going out that way," Harry replied as he collapsed back onto the stone underneath him.
"Mate, that was some of the most insane shit I've ever seen," Ron said as he sat down next to him. "I thought outflying the Horntail was cool."
"Please don't compare them," Harry said. He was as tired as he'd been in a long time. The effort of removing the wards, generating the storm, and outrunning a water dragon had left him in a bad state. He could barely sit up at this point.
He wasn't surprised when Hermione suggested that they leave.
"Harry, there's no way that you can beat him in this state," Hermione said. "We should go now. We can always try again some other time."
"And we'll run into the same problems," Harry said as he picked himself off the ground. "No, we're here. We go now. Hopefully, we can catch him while he's asleep."
"And if we can't?' Malfoy asked.
"Then we do what we always do."
"What's that?" Daphne asked.
"Make shit up," Ron replied.
The door at the end of the cavern led to a spiral staircase that was so tall that Harry couldn't see the top from the bottom. Still, with Hermione in front of him and Ron behind, both of them ready to provide support should he need it, he began to climb. Malfoy led the way, his wand lighting the way up the dark chamber with Daphne bringing up the rear. None of them spoke, their attention solely focused on the climb and the task that they knew was coming.
With each step, Harry felt worse. He had expected to recover rather quickly after the battle with the dragon but the opposite was true. With each step, Harry could feel his energy wane. The further they went, the weaker Harry felt, and the more concerned he was that they wouldn't be able to finish the job. And yet, he climbed. He hadn't been this close to Voldemort since his duel with The Dark Lord in Romania. Even if he was exhausted, and he was, Harry wasn't about to give up. He knew that he would have the strength to do the job when the time came even if it took everything out of him to do it.
It took almost a half hour for the quintet to climb the stairs. Finally, they reached a landing with a large steel door at one end. The door was thick and Harry could feel the enchantments on the door from several feet away. If they hadn't had Malfoy with them, they would have crossed the lake and fought a dragon for nothing.
Thankfully, Malfoy opened the door without any real concern and led the others into the dungeons of Malfoy Manor. They looked exactly as you might expect: stone walls, low ceilings, and a number of cells on either side of the single hall.
"At the end of this hall, there are two ways you can go," Malfoy whispered. "If you go left, it looks like more of this. If you go right, that leads to the house."
"Where is that covered object?" Harry asked, his head swimming as he tried to catch his breath.
"To the right. It's not far from the stairs that lead to the rest of the Manor."
"Let's go."
Malfoy nodded and then turned and led them forward. Much like the stairs, the dungeons seemed to go on forever. There must have been hundreds of cells. Harry almost asked Malfoy what they were for but decided against it. It was unlikely that he would have liked the answer anyway.
Finally, they reached the end of the hallway and turned right. As Malfoy said, there was a staircase at the end of the hall, less than one hundred meters from where they currently stood. However, to their left, Harry saw exactly what Malfoy had described: a tall object of some sorts covered in a large black cloth.
His exhaustion suddenly forgotten, Harry stepped forward and yanked the cloth away. Underneath it was Harry's worst nightmare. The contraption was large with four massive columns, each of which ended in a large metal sphere. Runes had been carved into each of the columns. The columns surrounded a glass platform that had a small steel ring that seemed to float about it. Attached to one of the columns was a mirror that seemed to have a series of numbers written on it. A clock hand was embedded into the middle of the mirror, making a sort of makeshift clock.
The device, whatever it was, looked like it was close to completion. Harry could see where the columns had been rubbed away and the runes rewritten over and over again, a sign that Voldemort likely hadn't yet figured out the exact combination to make the device operational.
Or maybe he had and the marks were simply a sign of just how long it had taken for him to figure it out. In either case, the immediacy of their mission multiplied ten-fold. Harry knew that they were out of time. If they didn't kill Voldmort today, it would only be a matter of time before he got the device up and running.
"Should we destroy it?" Ron asked.
"No," Hermione said, pointing at a symbol on the ceiling. "He's enacted a ward down here. If anyone but him casts magic, he'll know."
"We do what we came here to do," Harry replied. "We find him and kill him. If we do that, then it won't matter whether this thing works or not."
"Do you think it works?" Malfoy asked.
"I can't be sure," Harry admitted. "This is well beyond anything that I really understand."
"What about you?" Malfoy asked Hermione. She shook her head in response. "Merlin, if you two don't know what the hell this is-"
"Then that makes it all the more important that we kill him today," Harry said firmly. "Let's go."
Malfoy headed towards the stairs with Harry hot on his heels. At the top of the stairs stood a single guard. Harry silently Stunned the guard and then dragged him back to the dungeons where Ron and Hermione tossed the guard in a cell.
Once they were sure that the hallway was clear, Malfoy led the way further into the manor. Even in the dark, Harry could see that everything about Malfoy Manor was about as extravagant as you could imagine. Gold wall sconces, diamond chandeliers, three story mirrors; Malfoy Manor had it all. Additionally, the house was massive, closer in size to Hogwarts or The Eagle's Nest than Harry's own home which was huge in its own right.
The halls were wide and long and that made sneaking through the Manor a challenge. While they did move through the house under Disillusionment Charms, they didn't want to risk being seen as they weren't quite transparent but rather translucent. At a distance, they were probably fine, but the closer the patrolling Death Eaters got, the more likely it was that they would be spotted.
They had left Grimmauld Place at just after midnight. Now, as they climbed the last set of stairs to the fourth and final floor of Malfoy Manor, Harry was able to look out the window and just barely see the light of day beginning to creep over the horizon. The sun hadn't come up yet, but they were rapidly losing the darkness that was one of the primary advantages.
At the end of the fourth floor was a single door guarded by four Death Eaters that Malfoy identified as the master suite. It was where Malfoy's father had kept an office and also where his parent's bedroom had been located. As expected, Voldemort had taken over it when he'd come to Malfoy Manor. Inside the guarded door, there was a small room that led to the study, another that led to a bathroom, and then a long hallway that ended in the Malfoy Family Library and the master bedroom. With it being just after five in the morning, that was where they expected Voldemort to be.
Harry, Ron, and Hermione silently Stunned the four guards and moved them to an adjacent room while Malfoy and Daphne kept watch. Once they were finished securing the guards, Malfoy led them into the master suite. Much like the rest of the house, it was adorned in expensive metals, silver and platinum, with diamonds and sapphires lining the chandelier that hung over their head.
At this point, the only way was forward and Harry took the lead, his heart racing. If they had caught Voldemort literally sleeping, then they might be able to end the war in silence. Even if Voldemort was awake, he was likely alone. Harry had been more than enough for him the last time they'd dueled. He had no doubt that even the distraction provided by the others would be enough to turn the tide in his favor.
They silently made their way down the hall, passing the entrance to the Library, before they came to a single door at the end of the hall. The door itself was rather plain all things considered, although it was adorned with a silver snake in the shape of an M.
Harry turned over his shoulder and motioned for the others to be ready. Then, he turned to Malfoy and pointed at the door, clearly indicating that Malfoy was expected to open the door. Malfoy nodded and then grabbed the handle and turned, pushing the door open. Inside was a massive room, almost too big to be called a bedroom, although there was a rather large bed on the far side of the room.
In the middle of that bed, there was a figure nestled under the covers, clearly asleep. Harry motioned for the others to stay put as he crept across the room. Once Harry was close enough to the bed so that he could be certain that he wouldn't miss, Harry raised his wand and fired a Cutting Curse, hitting a spot roughly where Voldemort's neck was. Sure enough, the moment the Curse hit the bed, a rush of red suddenly began to pour through the off-white covers, visible even in the darkness of the room.
Still, Harry wouldn't be satisfied until he knew that Voldemort was dead, his head separated from his shoulders. Harry stepped forward and grabbed the edge of the covers and pulled them back.
"Oh no."
The room had been dark. The sun was coming up but on the far side of the house and the curtains were drawn. Had there been just a bit more light in the room, Harry would have seen that the person lying in the bed wasn't Lord Voldemort at all.
It was Penelope Clearwater.
The spell had hit Penelope clean, severing her head from her neck just as Harry had intended. Her head had rolled towards Harry so that it stared at him, the rest of her body laying flat on her back, her hands bound to her side and her legs tied together.
Harry had just murdered the Minister of Magic.
"Harry?" Hermione asked from across the room, although she might have been a million miles away.
Killing the Minister of Magic should have been the first concern in Harry's mind, but it wasn't. Someone had known that they were coming. Someone had known that they were intending to murder Voldemort in his bed.
That meant two things. It meant that someone had known their plan.
"It's a trap," Harry muttered, saying the second thing out loud.
"What?" Hermione asked.
Immediately, panic set in.
"It's a trap!" Harry shouted. "It's not Voldemort. It's Penelope."
"It's who?" Ron said.
"Penelope. It's Penelope Clearwater."
Realization dawned on Ron's face immediately.
"Shit. It's a trap," Ron said, his body suddenly taut as he expected an attack.
That's when Harry heard a voice come from the hallway.
"You can come out now, Potter!"
That voice belonged to Antonin Dolohov. It was a trap. Someone had found out about their plan and told Voldemort. Someone had kidnapped Penelope and staged her there, knowing that Harry would shoot first and ask questions later.
Harry turned and fired his wand at the window, attempting to blow a hole in the wall. Instead, the curse simply bounced off the windows. The house had been rewarded at some point while they'd made their way to the master suite. Now, there was no way to blow their way out.
In fact, Harry imagined that there was only one way out: the front door.
"We're going to have to fight our way out," Harry said.
"You know that they're going to be waiting for us out there," Ron replied.
"Yes, they are," Harry confirmed. "There's probably going to be quite a few of them."
"What do we do about her?" Daphne asked, motioning to Penelope's corpse.
"Leave her," Harry ordered. "There's nothing we can do for her now."
Harry was furious. He'd lost to Voldemort in Romania. He thought he'd learned from his mistakes. Now, he'd lost to Voldemort here.
Again.
Harry turned to the others. He could feel the aura around him starting to grow. In a moment, Harry would be more powerful than any wizard that he knew of other than Voldemort himself. But even after these years of learning to control that power, there was still a moment where he wanted to lose control like he had done with Snape all those years ago.
Thankfully, Hermione seemed to sense his conflict and put a hand on his cheek.
"This was not your fault," Hermione assured him. "You couldn't have known."
"I could have checked."
"If it had been Voldemort and you'd checked, he would have killed you."
She was right. Their plan hadn't been a particularly good one, born out of desperation more than anything else. But Hermione was right. If Harry had tried to pull back that cover and Voldemort had been the one underneath it, he probably would have cursed Harry before Harry even had a chance to raise his wand.
That didn't necessarily make him feel better about it.
"Follow my lead," Harry said. "You know when to go. When we move, we don't stop and we don't look back."
They all had their wands ready. They all looked ready. Even Malfoy, who had been a Death Eater once and probably wasn't expecting to have to break out of his own home for a second time, looked ready. Harry walked past them, leading the others back down the hallway and out the door of the master suite where Antonin Dolohov and nearly two dozen Death Eaters were waiting.
"Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived, killing the Minister of Magic?" Dolohov said with a cruel smile. "That will make for quite a headline."
"I think it'll have to settle for the second page," Harry replied. "The headline will be "Potter kills Antonin Dolohov easily."
"Easily?" Dolohov said, his eyes narrowing. "You think you'll beat me easily? What makes you think that you'll beat me at all?"
Harry smiled arrogantly. "I've beaten every other Death Eater I've faced. Hell, I've beaten Voldemort one, two, three…"
Harry turned to Hermione.
"Is it three times?" Harry asked.
"Well, are you counting the first time?" Hermione asked, playing along.
"The first time?"
"Halloween," Hermione muttered.
"Oh. No, he killed my parents. He gets the win for that one," Harry said. "But, there was the Third Floor Corridor, The Chamber of Secrets, and the Graveyard at least."
"I would count Godric's Hollow," Ron added. "I mean, he disappeared for four years after he lost that day."
"Oh, I forgot that one!" Harry exclaimed "That's four!"
Then, without any warning, Harry raised his wand, aiming it at Dolohov. Dolohov was quick enough to raise his wand, but unfortunately, that only meant that the massive blast of fire that exploded from the end of Harry's wand was deflected away from him, hitting at least six of the Death Eaters flanking him.
With the Death Eaters on the defense, Harry quickly jabbed his wand at the space between Dolohov and the Death Eater next to him before sweeping the wand to his right. A giant rush of air fired into the gap before suddenly blowing towards where Harry's wand had gone, knocking half the Death Eaters, including Dolohov himself, to the ground.
"Run!" Harry shouted, sprinting for the gap that he'd created in their formation. Before the rest of the Death Eaters could respond, Harry and the others were through, tearing towards the stairs which would lead them to the front door and, hopefully, the exit. Spells flew over Harry's head, several of them almost hitting him as he reached the grand staircase.
Harry stopped at the top of the stairs and turned back to defend the others as they went down the stairs. Hermione, Ron, and Malfoy easily made it to the stairs, but before Daphne could reach him, a spell caught her in the back. She cried out in pain before she collapsed to the ground, motionless.
For a moment, Harry considered running to her but as he did, the rest of the Death Eaters caught up with them. On a normal day, Harry would have blown the Death Eaters apart, grabbed her, and ran. But today wasn't a normal day. Even with full control of his aura, Harry wasn't in a state to fight a dozen Death Eaters while dragging someone down four flights of stairs.
Still, Harry almost moved towards her when a Killing Curse flew just over his head. He was out of time. With one last look at Daphne, Harry turned and sprinted down the stairs. The others were a complete floor ahead of him which meant that by the time Harry reached the ground floor, they were able to cover his retreat as he had unsuccessfully attempted to cover theirs.
Once Harry reached the bottom of the stairs, they ran for the large double doors that barred their escape from the Manor. Harry could sense that some form of magic had been placed over them. Again, that magic didn't seem to apply to Malfoy, who grabbed the door and pulled, granting them access to the outside world. The storm that Harry had conjured was almost entirely gone now with a single dark cloud hovering over the lake as a reminder of the storm that had raged just over an hour earlier.
The entrance to Malfoy Manor led to a garden and a single path that ran almost two hundred meters out to a single gate, the only physical entrance to the property. If they could reach that point, they would be able to Apparate away.
But they still had to get there. Harry led Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy away from the Manor. He could still hear the sounds of the Death Eaters behind him. They were getting closer. But they didn't appear to be catching up fast enough.
That was until Antonin Dolohov popped up in front of them, Apparating directly between them and the gate that was their key to freedom. Dolohov quickly aimed his wand at Harry who was forced to go on the defense, blocking each of the spells that Dolohov threw at him easily.
"Get out of here!" Harry shouted to the others. For a moment, it looked like Hermione was going to follow his directions. Instead, she stood and moved to attack Dolohov.
However, just at that moment, seemingly out of nowhere, a figure in a dark hood launched themselves over the hedge to Harry's left. Who this person was or where they had come from, Harry couldn't be certain. Both Dolohov and Harry were stunned by the appearance of this newcomer, so stunned, in fact, that neither of them moved when the hooded figure leveled their wand at Dolohov.
"Avada Kedavra!"
The telltale green light of The Killing Curse covered the few feet between them, striking Dolohov in the chest. Immediately, Dolohov collapsed into a heap. Harry stood, frozen in place, stunned by the turn of events. He was quickly woken from his reverie when a series of spells flew by him, including a Cutting Curse that clipped his arm, causing him to cry out in pain.
"Let's get out of here!" Ron shouted, waving his wand at the gate. Immediately, the gate parted. Harry sprinted towards the gate, grabbing the hooded figure as he ran by. One by one, Ron, Hermione, and Draco all got past the gate and then immediately Disapparated, leaving Harry and their new "ally."
Harry dragged the figure to a point just outside the gate before he turned, Apparating both himself and his cargo to the study at Grimmauld Place. Immediately, the hooded figure pulled away from Harry, retreating across the room. In the heat of the moment, Harry had been confused, surprised by the sudden appearance of someone new.
But as he looked at her, Harry was surprised that he hadn't realized who it was the moment she'd appeared.
"What the hell were you doing there, Parvati?"
As expected, the hooded figure reached up and pulled back her hood, revealing the face of his former flame. She'd changed from the last time Harry had seen her. Her hair, which had almost been long, pulled back into a braid, was now clipped short, no more than a few inches long. She had a rather gruesome looking scar just over her left eye and another smaller one on her chin.
But it was her eyes that told Harry just how much she'd changed. In the past, her eyes had been warm, a source of love and comfort to those around her.
Now, they were cold, the eyes of a killer.
"I was paying Antonin Dolohov back for the pain that he caused my family," Parvati growled. He noticed that she was tapping her index finger on her wand. Parvati had always, quite literally, possessed an itchy trigger finger. It was evident that she considered Harry a threat.
Harry supposed he shouldn't have been surprised. He did try to arrest her the last time he'd spoken to her.
"I know that," Harry replied. "But how did you get in?"
The answer to that question would have to wait. Suddenly, Ron, Hermione, and Malfoy walked into the room. In the rush and chaos of trying to flee, Harry hadn't thought much about who had betrayed them.
But now that he saw the Slytherin in front of him, Harry had little doubt who their betrayer was. Silently, Harry walked across the room towards Malfoy. Immediately, Ron and Hermione attempted to get between Harry and Malfoy.
Neither were quick enough.
Without warning, Harry reared back and threw a right hook that connected with Malfoy's jaw. Clearly stunned by the sudden outburst of physical violence, Malfoy didn't even bother to fight back. Instead, he dropped to the ground, covering his now bloody face with his arms.
But a rage had taken over Harry, a rage fueled by his own murder of Penelope Clearwater and his abandonment of Daphne. Harry threw himself at Malfoy, peppering his former classmate with punches. Most of them missed, but the ones that did hit left Malfoy bruised and bleeding by the time that Hermione and Ron could finally drag Harry away from him.
"They knew we were coming, you son of a bitch!" Harry roared, doing his best to get back to Malfoy. Ron and Hermione were doing everything they could to hold Harry back, but they were failing. "They knew we were coming and now the Minister of Magic…"
A sudden image of Penelope's severed head flashed into his mind. Her head, which remained at Malfoy Manor, likely as a badge of honor for the Death Eaters, a sign that they had truly tricked Harry Potter into thinking that he was going to kill Lord Voldemort.
Harry suddenly sank to the floor, sobbing. He thought that he'd finally ended it. For a second, he thought that they'd made it through the lake and the manor and finally managed to end Lord Voldemort. Not only had they failed, but Harry had been tricked into murdering the Minister of Magic in the process.
"Did you tell the Death Eaters we were coming?" Hermione asked Malfoy as he picked himself off the ground.
"I didn't."
"Did you tell anyone else that we were coming?"
"No."
"That's not true."
Everyone in the room turned to look at Parvati. Clearly, the others had been more concerned with keeping Harry from murdering Malfoy and were just now noticing that their mystery assassin was none other than Harry's ex-girlfriend.
"What the hell?" Ron suddenly exclaimed. "Parvati?"
"Why am I not surprised?" Hermione said.
"What do you mean?" Harry asked her, ignoring the other two.
"I mean that he's lying," Parvati replied.
"How do you know that?" Hermione asked.
"Because he's the one who told me that you were going to be there."
"That's not true!" Malfoy roared, almost sprinting towards Parvati. Harry, in turn, simply flipped his wand at Malfoy. Malfoy flew across the room and landed on one of the chairs. With another twist of his wand, dozens of ropes appeared out of nowhere, tying Malfoy to the chair.
For good measure, Harry waved his wand one final time, gagging the slimy git. Then, he turned back to Parvati.
"Speak."
"Yesterday, I got a letter from someone telling me to meet them at Trafalgar Square. The letter told me to come alone. The letter said they had information on Dolohov, so I went. I honestly figured it was a trap set by the Death Eaters. You could imagine my surprise when Malfoy showed up and told me that you lot were breaking into Malfoy Manor."
Something about that didn't quite sit right with Harry. Sure, it certainly sounded just like what Malfoy had done with Harry. But why would he tell Parvati anything? What would killing Dolohov do for Malfoy?
Harry turned back to Malfoy and removed his gag.
"You're saying that you didn't do this?" Harry asked.
"No!" Malfoy protested. "I haven't spoken to Patil in years, not since Hogwarts."
"You spoke to me yesterday and I have the letter to prove it," Parvati said. She reached into the small satchel that she had hidden on her hip and withdrew a small scroll of parchment. Parvati handed the letter to Harry who opened it.
He instantly recognized the handwriting as Malfoy's.
"Explain this," Harry said, showing Malfoy the letter. Malfoy's response was telling. Harry had expected Malfoy to break, to admit to lying to them. Instead, he doubled down.
"That's my handwriting, but I never wrote that letter," Malfoy replied. "I wasn't in Trafalgar Square yesterday either. I was here the whole day. Greengrass can vouch for me."
"Greengrass got captured by the Death Eaters," Harry growled before he restored the gag. Then, he Stunned Malfoy for good measure before he turned around and Stunned Parvati as well.
"Why did you do that?" Ron asked.
"She's a wanted criminal," Harry responded simply. Then, he turned to Hermione. "Can you take the two of them to the Ministry?"
"You want Malfoy to go to the Ministry?" Hermione asked.
"He's still the person most likely to have betrayed us," Harry replied.
"You think that something's wrong about that, don't you?" Hermione asked. "I can see it on your face."
"Parvati was convinced that he was in Trafalgar Square. She saw him there and she had the letter to prove that he was the one that invited her. There isn't any magic that I know of that can accurately mimic handwriting like that. And yet, Malfoy was absolutely convinced that he didn't write the letter."
"And you believed him?" Ron asked skeptically. "How do you know that's not lying?"
"I don't know for certain," Harry admitted. "But it just feels wrong. Neither of them had a reason to lie. Even if Malfoy did tell Parvati, that's not the same as telling a Death Eater. Something's just off about the whole thing."
Just then, an owl came floating into the room and dropped a letter into Hermione's hand before it flew off again. Hermione carefully opened the letter and reviewed it, her face dropping with each passing moment.
"What is it?" Harry asked.
"Voldemort just showed up at the Ministry with Penelope's head. He's claiming responsibility for killing her and says that he'll do the same thing to the next Minister who claims that Muggleborn are equal to Purebloods."
"Merlin."
"I have to go to the Ministry," Hermione said before turning to Ron. "You do, too."
"I'd rather stay here," Ron replied. "I haven't slept in almost twenty-four hours."
"I know. I'd rather stay here, but I can't," Hermione said.
"Why not?" Ron asked. "You deserve sleep just as much as the rest of us."
Harry realized the answer just before Hermione said it.
"Because I'm the Minister of Magic now."
She was right. If the Minister of Magic died in office, the Senior Undersecretary temporarily took control of the Ministry until the Wizengamot could appoint a new Minister. Right now, that meant that the top job belonged to Hermione.
"Do you need my help?" Harry asked.
"Not right now," Hermione said. "Let me make sure that no one is going to come after you for murdering Penelope before you go traipsing through the Ministry."
"Good point."
Harry helped Ron bind Parvati and Malfoy before he Disapparated to the Ministry, leaving Hermione and Harry alone.
"This isn't how I expected to be named Minister of Magic," Hermione replied.
"I know," Harry said. "You'll do a good job for the time the job is yours."
"I hope so," Hermione replied. "Things could get really ugly."
"Yes, they could," Harry admitted. "Just...be careful. He's been very clear about what he intends to do. He knew that you were next in line. That threat was meant for you."
Hermione smiled and leaned in, hugging Harry. When she broke away from him, she had a strange smile on his face.
"Let him try," Hermione replied. Without another word, Hermione Granger, the new Minister of Magic, Disapparated, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts. Of all the places in the world that he wanted to be, his own mind was at the very bottom of the list at the moment and yet, with images of Parvati and Daphne in his head, it was the only place he could go.