Harry Potter and His Witches

By: Shinteo5

Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

A/N: Sorry this is so late, but well, life kinda got in the way... As always, thanks for all those who have reviewed. It's a huge encouragement to see reviews notices in my e-mail intray. :)

Chapter 8:

The Dark Lord Voldemort stared at the cup of tea in his hands with unblinking eyes, thinking hard. The Weasley had been easy, hardly a challenge for the great Voldemort. However, he had a feeling that the mudblood would not go down so quickly. Call it a gut feeling, if you will...

Voldemort was not blind, and had noticed the eagerness that Bella displayed when the mudblood was mentioned, as well as the slight pause when he said the mudblood was beneath notice.

It's rare for Bella to show such a reaction to anybody, especially for a mudblood. Rare enough to make Voldemort cautious. Besides, she was Potter's right-hand girl, just as Bella was his own. He might have to work a little harder on her...

He leaned back and smiled coldly. Not too much more effort though. He is the Dark Lord Voldemort, after all, and she is just a little girl. Given that the pureblood within the group did not have a occlumency shield, it would be fairly safe to bet that the mudblood would not have one too. His legilimency would give him all the edge he needed.

Hearing the footsteps of one of his death eater walking past outside the room, Voldemort pointed his wand over his shoulder and summoned the poor fool into the room. There was a crash as the door banged open and the death eater stumbled into the room.

"Get me the mudblood." Voldemort ordered in an disinterested voice. Without waiting for an answer, or even sparing a glance at the man, he banished him back out of the room, the door slamming shut as he flew past.

The death eater recruit pouted under his mask, rubbing the sore spot on his head. Honestly, he joined the Dark Lord to cause mayhem and watch those stupid muggles flee before his awesomeness, not getting flung about the room and running mental errands like this. This is so beneath him...

He paused before a large gilded mirror hanging in the middle of the large flight of stairs to admire his dashing form. Granted, between the bone-white mask covering his face and the black robes covering everything else, there isn't much of his form that can be seen, much less admired, but he was still dashing, dang it all!

He should be out there terrorizing muggles, not running around the manor in the dead of the night fetching muggle-born wenches!

But on the other hand, this assignment was given to him by the Dark Lord himself! He might have only summoned him (roughly!) into the room, but it is the Dark Lord's personal order nonetheless. If he kept it up, he'll catch the Dark Lord's eyes soon enough! The Dark Lord will see his worth then, and then he'll get his wish of seeing muggles fleeing before him. It's only a matter of time!

He barely managed to resist busting out into manic laughter. No, time enough for that later. After he completed this distasteful task. With that, he continued up the stairs, turning round the corner in time to see the door of his intended destination swung open.

At this unexpected sight, the death eater panicked, fumbling for his wand. Nobody should be moving about at this time of the night, so it must be an intruder! Added to the fact that the room contained the mudblood, and it became a near certainty. He was rather proud of his little deduction.

The Dark Lord will reward him well if he was able to take down this intruder, the death eater grinned to himself, as he finally managed to pull out his wand. He whipped it forward, firing a stunner as he did, just as a blond girl stepped through the open door, and her eyes widen in surprise.

Luna had just pushed the door open and stepped through when she suddenly jerked back, shoving Hermione to the ground. Just barely able to keep from a painful spill, Hermione turned to demand an explanation, but a splash of red light answered for her, as Luna dropped onto one knee, returning fire from around the door.

Her first instinct is to join the fight, but when her hands closed on empty air again, she realized anew how helpless being without a wand in the wizarding world could be. Instead, she was forced to hide as Luna did the fighting.

She need not worry though. Luna had obviously kept up with her training on her own, even with the DA on a year-old hiatus last year. Her dreamy expression gone for the moment, as she utilized the speed and training from the DA to her advantage, firing a barrage of spells from around the corner of the door, easily blowing through the flimsy shield that the death eater had hastily erected to slam into the death eater's body, nearly throwing him right off the stairs. Only the fact that the death eater fell forward instead of back saved him from a painful trip down the flight of stairs.

She turned then, finished with her opponent, and reached out a hand to help Hermione to her feet.

Hermione nodded and accepted the aid, a little awed at how Luna was acting at the moment, and how fast she finished the fight. Then she remembered the ministry fight, and that Luna, out of the six that went, was the only one to escape serious injury. It seems there is more to Luna then just her dreamy face and imaginary creatures.

Looking over the death eater, Luna shot another spell at him, wrapping him up in ropes, before nodding in satisfaction. Hermione scrambled out of the way as Luna levitated the helpless man, guiding the prone body into the room and banished him onto the bed in a single wave of her wand.

"We better leave, before more arrive." Hermione said, as Luna fired another stunner for good measure. Luna nodded in agreement, and took hold of Hermione's hand again. Together, they stepped out of the room, once again following the Blue-winged Blugger in search of Harry.

"All right. What am I looking at here?" Remus grumbled. He had been shoved aside as Bill and Moody got to work attempting to track the portkeys back to their destination.

He had nearly tore into them then, and indeed would have, had Tonks not grabbed hold of his arm to hold him back. He had snared at her, the wolf within very close to the edge. That is, until Tonks grabbed a handy mug of cold beer miraculously left untouched and emptied it over his head, shocking him awake.

He had grudgingly stepped away from the room, allowing the professionals their room to work, knowing, now that he was able to think through the red haze again, that this would be the fastest way to finding Harry. That, and he needed to find a towel to dry the beer off his hair...

"Those would be the energy signature of the portkeys." Tonks explained from beside him. She had kept her hold on Remus' arm, not trusting him to remain calm. "Normally Moody can see them just fine with that magic eye of his, but Bill would need to bring it into the visible spectrum to do anything with it. Hence the light show."

Bill waved his wand, murmuring something as he did, prompting a set of interlocking rune set to rise from the glittering mess at his feet.

"Well, well. I haven't seen this particular address in some time." Moody said, magic eye whirling around as he took in the rune set.

"This is unfamiliar to me." Bill confessed, waving his wand again, changing certain runes within the set to a deep blue color.

"Don't bother." Moody replied sourly, stomping right into the changing runes. "I've seen that one often enough, back in the days. It's Malfoy's stinking old manor."

"You sure?" Bill asked disbelievingly, lowering his wand now that the runes were slowly dispersing from Moody's passage through them.

"Cos I'm sure." Moody shot back, tapping the side of his head. "This eye doesn't make mistakes, you know. Though the death eaters sure have slacked off. It never used to be that easy before..."

"We're wasting time." Remus cut in, shoving his way forward. "If Moody is sure, then let's go!"

"Not so fast." Moody interrupted with an open palm on Remus' chest. "There's bound to be defenses in that place. I'll take us close by instead. We'll make our way in from the outside. We'll get a better overview of their defenses and wards there."

"We don't have time for that!" Remus protested, knocking the hand away, unwilling to leave Harry in there for longer then necessary.

"That was too easy." Moody countered undeterred, waving a hand at the glittering remains of the rune address. "I will not willingly walk into a trap just because you want to save a few minutes!"

"Every minute we waste is another minute they could be torturing Harry!" Remus grounded out from clenched teeth, looming over Moody as he stared defiantly back.

"Cut it out, Remus." Tonks said, pushing in between the two. "I understand that you want to save Harry as fast as possible, but I'm with Moody in this one. It's just too dangerous to jump in blind. We'll do Harry no good if we got ourselves captured or killed before we can rescue him!"

There was a short pause as Remus and Tonks stared each other down. Finally Remus backed off with a growl. "Fine. I understand." He said, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Let's go then." Bill said, seeing the drama over for now. He held out one of the debris, half a leg, to the others. "I got the portkey ready."

"Better keep your wolf on a leash, Tonks." Moody whispered into Tonks' ear, knowing full well that with his enhanced hearing, Remus can hear him just fine. Tonks had to stuff a hand into her mouth to muff the sudden burst of laughter at the though of Remus in werewolf form, looking forlorn at her with a dog collar around his neck. Shaking with suppressed laughter, she followed Moody to the portkey.

Harry walked a step behind Mrs Malfoy, his hand holding the wand steady between them, but his mind was wandering, wondering what in the world was he doing, following along behind someone whom he knew was connected to not one, but two death eaters. His instinct was yelling at him to just stun the woman and escape as soon as he can, but he suppressed it as well as he could. She would be needed in order to find Hermione and Ron. He would be lost in a moment within this massive house without her as a guide.

Even as he thought that, Narcissa turned from the well-lighted halls into the gloomy shadows of a small corridor barely large enough to walk upright. "It's a short-cut," She explained as she went, one hand trailing along the wall. She had been pointing out to Potter some of the trinkets and artifacts kept within the massive halls that is the Malfoy's manor, showing off the sheer wealth of the manor. Even here, within the pathway mean for servants, rich paintings hung between everlasting candles.

'You'd think this is a guided tour, instead of a rescue and escape mission." Harry thought grumpily to himself, his eyes automatically turning to look as his companion gestured towards a particularly large painting of some Malfoy's ancestor. The same blond hair and haughty expression was evident on the painting, a practical clone of his descendants. He even had the same snobbish expression, as he sneered down his nose at Harry walking by.

Narcissa had to fake a cough as laughter threaten to bust out at any moment. She knew she shouldn't, but Potter's reactions were just too funny. Every time she pointed out one of the many items dotting the manor to him, Potter's eyes would follow her finger to whatever object she happened to be showing him at the moment, before snapping back to her and narrowing, as if angry at being caught off guard. Her new Lord was surprisingly entertaining

Harry frowned as Mrs Malfoy gave a very unconvincing cough. She's laughing at him, he just knew it. Well, he'll show her. Without stopping to think about it, he fired off a mild stinging hex at her butt, making her jump suddenly, more from the shock of the spell then any real harm.

"My Lord Potter!" She protested, whirling around to face the brat. However, he simply waved her wand at her, grinning away at her, silently reminding her of the current power balance between the two. Huffing, she turned back and continued on, her hands itching to rub at her butt and ease the sting. Resolutely, she held her arms at her side, refusing to acknowledge Potter's victory.

Harry smiled a little, seeing Mrs Malfoy's arms tense up. Idly, he wondered why did he did what he did. Though she was technically an enemy, there's a familiar ease that simply did not feel dangerous. Shrugging, Harry gave up the puzzle, opting instead to worry about finding Hermione and Ron, and escaping from the death eater's den.

Ron sat on the bed, hands clasping his knees as he stared blankly into the darkness surrounding him. He had tried to sleep earlier, but the thought of what he did raced around his mind, making sleep a near impossibility. He was already starting to regret his decision, as magnitude of what he had agreed to bore down on him. But he was trapped now, with no way out that he could see.

"Promise me, if I join you, that you would not harm Harry and Hermione."

"Do you presume to order the Dark Lord around?"

"N...No! I just..."

"Silence! You are not so valuable a pawn that I would tolerate such disrespect!"

"..."

"But... the Dark Lord can be generous to his servants. The mudblood will not be harmed,at least, not by my hands."

"Th...thank you, my...my Lord..."

"As for Potter... He has been a thorn in my sides for far too long."

"I... understand, my Lord. As long as Hermione is safe..."

"Go now, and prepare yourself. The morning will be a busy one."

"Yes, my Lord..."

He could only hope that the Dark Lord would keep his word. He wasn't stupid. The Dark Lord had only promised not to harm Hermione himself. He said nothing about his followers. Ron narrowed his eyes. He'll just have to keep both eyes open and on Hermione.