The safe house was dully lit and very simple. Small quarters, old couches and chairs, but a cupboard that magically refilled with food every time they opened it. So amid the silence, they all sat in a circle, eating but nowhere near speaking. Hermione had woken up after a while and Ron was by her side, trying to assist her in sitting up and eating, but she refused his help.

"Are you feeling better?" Harry asked quietly after an unsteady moment. Hermione quietly nodded and ate by herself. "Good… Then, do you mind?"

Hermione only stared when he pointed to his shattered glasses on the table. Ron tried to smile. "We couldn't remember the spell…since you always did it."

Hermione gave both boys a queer glance, a little puzzled and bitter. "What are you talking about? I don't know a stupid spell like that."

There was a minute of realization and Ron looked to Harry in bewilderment. "You always fix my glasses, Hermione."

She slowly looked herself over, then messed with her hair. "I guess… I can't remember. Sorry."

There was something in her voice that sounded so far off that Harry found it hard to grasp any honesty. Even when she looked away, the look in her eyes made Harry set an alarm ringing in the back of his mind. His fingers were suddenly tingling, trying to tell him something he was unsure off. Yet, he shrugged it off and made Ron to do the same. "It was a nasty ride… We all just need to relax."

While Ron started to talk closer with Hermione, Harry got up and moved into kitchen. He took his pathetic excuse for glasses and gently placed them into the cupboard. It was a long shot, but he closed the door, tapped it with his wand, and reopened it. He should've been happy to see his glasses repaired, but seeing his exhausted, sad expression in the reflection was nothing to smile about.

Dumbledore was dead. Only Merlin-knew what happened to the other Weasleys and their other friends. In just a few days, everything had fallen apart. One moment he was dancing and the next he was almost caught on fire. Now everyone was running and screaming and dying. So many were dying.

Harry quickly closed his eyes and shook off that image. He could see himself dancing with Draco all over again, the light gleaming around them, the canopy covered in moonlight-but in the next he could see the same boy he loved so much, held so dear, burning alive before him. Or getting shot down by Voldemort's wand the same as Cedric Digory had. Because of him. They were dying-he was going to die because of him-

Harry slammed the cupboard door shut right as something in the other room shattered. Harry threw his glasses on, ran into the other room, and pulled out his wand all in the same motion. He expected to see Hermione being held hostage or Ron shot dead on the floor in a room full of Death Eaters. Instead, he saw Ron standing up and Hermione with her head in her hands, and a broken glass on the floor.

"Just leave me alone!" Hermione snapped, only to hide her face again.

Ron looked to Harry again in astonishment. "W-We were talking about Dumbledore…" he whispered once he approached his best friend.

Harry looked Hermione over. Really, there was something off about her. He noticed it as she covered her eyes and mouthed something. But that wasn't right. She must've been gasping or something. There was no way she could have said something like that.

I'm glad…

"I'm sorry," Hermione finally said, her voice back to being soft and feminine. She sounded far past exhaustion. "I'm just…tired of all of this."

Harry pulled Ron back to the couch, setting him in a nearby chair and placing himself across from Hermione. "Yeah. We all are."

"It's all right, Hermione. It'll get better." Ron went to move closer to her, but Harry quickly shook his head. Confused, Ron pulled away.

It went quiet for a while. The entire time Harry studied his friends.

They were the only people had left. Everyone was fighting for him and everyone was dying. The whole world was going to die because of him-Draco could die because of him. The man he considered a second father had already died. His two closest friends were the only thing he had left. The man who killed his parents was threatening to end the human world and he was going to kill his closest friends if he was given the chance.

Now Harry was getting the feeling that chance was already taken.

"Hermione," he spoke up quickly. "How long have you been dating Ron?"

Slowly, both friends looked at him. "Excuse me?" she said a little sourly.

Ron shook his head. "Mate, what are you-"

"I really can't remember. I'm just wondering." When Harry waited for Hermione to answer, she held her jaw open in shock.

She laughed a little uneasy and shook her head. "Harry, it's unimportant-It's bloody ridiculous to be talking about such things-"

"I just want to know," Harry interrupted. He spoke quickly and with a tone as if he was muddled by something, but clearly leading up to something. "I don't know. It's just…. Something to take our minds off of everything."

Hermione scoffed, still surprised, and looked away. "I've lost count. You figure it out-"

"Why don't you know?"

Ron quickly stood up. "Eight and a half months. Are you happy?"

But Harry went on. "How did it happen? Do you remember what Ron said to you?"

Hermione's face twisted. She looked upset and cornered. "Harry, it's…"

"Back off, mate. She doesn't want to talk about it."

"I just want her to answer me," Harry said defensively, keeping Ron back when he approached him.

"What's wrong with you?" Ron asked. "Just drop it-"

"How long ago , Hermione?"

"He just said-"

"Then when was your first kiss? How long have we've been friends? How did we become friends?"

"Why do you want to know?!"

But the bickering continued. Ron was starting to get heated and he even gave Harry a shove, but Harry kept over Hermione, questioning her although she had turned away. The questions rambled on until Hermione finally snapped.

"Why?" She shouted fiercely, back on her toes. "Because you miss that pussy Malfoy boy?"

Ron pulled away in shock while Harry's fury burned. His wand was still firmly in hand from when he entered the room. His gaze was locked with Hermione's until Ron got between them.

"Hermione, what's gotten into-"

Suddenly, Hermione jerked her arm up wildly, flinging a spell at both boys so fast that Ron just barely missed it. Harry was prepared, and he reflected the spell right back at her, watching the sparks fly as it knocked her to the ground. Ron shouted, but Harry dragged him back.

"Ron, no! Stop! Look at her!"

She had gotten back up on one knee across the room. There was a little smoke, but as it cleared, they saw it. The brown hair burned into a midnight black, while her body stretched a little taller and morphed differently. She was wearing Hermione's jacket and white blouse, but when she looked at the boys, her eyes were soulless and black.

Harry held up his wand defensively as the merciless Death Eater stood up tall. Her terrifying laughter made all the lights in the house flicker. "Expecting someone else?" Bellatrix mocked cruelly. "You can't even tell the difference between your mud blood girlfriend and a real wizard?"

Ron cursed under his breath and lifted his wand, but Harry smacked it down. "Where's Hermione?" It was not a question. There was a new boldness in Harry's tone-one that was fed up with the tricks and the cruelty and the deaths. He was demanding an end to it all.

But the witch only laughed again, louder this time. "Your mud blood is in my playpen." She tilted her head back a little, letting her tongue flick out dramatically on every syllable. "And I plan on giving her some…special attention later."

Ron jumped again, but Harry kept him still. "Don't you dare-"

"Oh, but I do, you pathetic boy. I plan on playing with her… and tearing off her skin limb by limb and letting her bleed all over the floor like the filthy mud blood she is!" Her rising terror grew into another fit of laughter to which Harry had to keep Ron from charging at her. He was so blinded by rage that he didn't even think to use his wand. But Bellatrix wasn't making any moves either. She was taunting with her eyes wild and feral and a voice lingering and cold. Right now, such a cold gaze pierced Harry right to the core. "Don't worry," she said slowly. "Malfoy will get to play, too. Right to the very end."

Harry didn't have a chance to even begin thinking about her threat. Power snapped from Bellatrix's wand in a great green burst to which Harry knocked aside. In the process, Bellatrix threw both arms up, forcing the power out from under her and back into the wall. There was a terrible crash, then a small explosion that sent both boys crashing to the floor. The wall crumbled into pieces and the house creaked with threats to give in. All while the witch's laugh echoed outside.

Immediately, Ron tried to get up. "No!"

"Ron!" Harry tried to drag him back from the debris-covered floor.

"No, Harry. She has Hermione!"

The redhead tried to fight, but Harry wrestled him back to the ground. Ron punched him in the shoulder to which Harry kneed him in the gut. There was a moment of pain, then a minute of stillness.

Harry sat up and pinned Ron down slightly, making sure he listened carefully. There was pain in his eyes, but strictness in his voice. "I want her back, too, Ron, trust me. But we got to think ahead! She only told us this and left. Don't you see? It's a trap. We can't go rushing in-"

"They're going to kill her!"

"Not yet." Harry said carefully. "They can't kill her yet. They need her as leverage to draw us in. They're making us come to them…."

After a second of staring, he stood up and held his hand out to Ron. Silently, he took it and made himself stand. Harry stared at the hole in the wall until something caught his eye. Sadly, he stepped over and picked up Hermione's original wand from the floor.

Slowly it added up. "She said a playpen, like a cage, with D-Draco…"

"Malfoy Manner," Ron answered coldly as he looked at the wand in his friend's hand.

Despite the pinch of pain in his chest, Harry swallowed down the confusion and thought. They weren't going in there to die. No, no one else was going to die. Not Ron, not Hermione. Especially not him….

The thoughts clicked together and Harry faced Ron. "We're ending it, Ron," he said directly. The boys met gazes and the tension was too much to handle. "It's a lot to ask of you… and we could be killed… But we have to.. For Hermione. For everyone."

Harry silently handed out the wand to which Ron glanced at, then accepted it-along with the risk. "They're waiting for our move," Harry said as he looked at the hole in the wall. "So let's go…."

…...

Draco tried to stop pacing the room. How long had he been locked up in there? It was almost a complete day by now. So that meant Harry had slept through the morning. Which meant Bellatrix killed him in his sleep. No, she couldn't, he was Voldemort's, but not yet. So the passed hours meant that she's exposed herself to them and they were going to come here-

Draco planted his feet down so he stopped moving and covered his face. No, Harry wasn't that stupid. He wouldn't come walking into a death trap. He would know better. He would definitely know better. He had to. He just had to….

The sudden click made Draco whirl around. The heavy metal door opened and his father stood ominously in the doorway. For a moment there was silence where the glares were evenly matched. Up till Lucius stepped aside and the hissing filled the room. Draco barely choked on a gasp before there was the flash of green. An unbelievable weight knocked him in the chest, stealing his breath, and he hit the ground.

He didn't even know how it happened. When he tried to breathe again, the weight only tightened and he began to suffocate. The room was spinning and the hissing was right in his ear. He tried to move and found himself paralyzed with that intense weight constricting him in place. The snake was wrapped around him from head to toe, keeping him lying on his side and facing the door.

He could see his father standing in the corner and he wanted to shout, but the second he saw the black cloth and bare feet, he forced his head completely away. Nagini's vicious jaw was right there to greet him, the yellow slits burning him right to the core. But Draco couldn't decided if he'd rather watch himself die by getting eaten alive by a snake or staring into the soulless eyes of the Dark Lord as he shot him down.

He could see the bare feet stop beside him, the cloth flying like the dark power he possessed.

"My dear Draco," the wicked voice hissed from before him. "Do lift your head. You have done nothing wrong."

But Draco couldn't look up. Not at first. He closed his eyes, head still turned away until Nagini nipped at him, almost taking off his nose, and making him jerk away.

Draco slowly looked back up although the sight of the Dark Lord towering above him in such a small room, when everything he had kept hidden was now exposed, was terrifying enough to make him tremble.

Nagini loosened a little and Draco sucked in the largest breath he had ever taken. He watched the ugly feet glide pass, as his voice hissed around him. "I was told of a little…. Disturbance."

Just like that, Draco felt himself dying. If he knew-If the Dark Lord knew-then they were all as good as dead. He was about ready to fight out of the snake's grip and take off running as fast as he could, but he could hardly move as it was. There was no way he'd make it two steps before he was killed. All he could do was close his eyes, seeing that shade of burnette and beautiful gold, and brace himself.

However, the shot never came. Instead, Voldemort said. "Albus… is dead."

It took Draco a minute, but he looked up and saw the familiar wand in those long, disgusting fingers. Something in him wrenched.

"I had Harry Potter…right in my hands, as well… But…someone deliberately disobeyed me."

Draco felt his ribs on the verge of cracking as the snake constricted, then felt his organs ready to burst as the snake forced him to roll over and scrunch together into an awkward kneeling position. He could hardly breathe as his lungs were crushed against his ribs, and he could feel the edges of his toes and fingers start to tingle with numbness. Even with the pain, a part of Draco was relieved. As long as their affair was still hidden-As long as Harry was still alive, he could deal with the pain.

The cold touch of a wand under his chin made him obediently raise his head. The Lord's eyes were colder than death and Draco could smell fresh blood and pure hatred on his skin. "You wouldn't betray me…my poor Draco."

Draco's eyes flashed to his father who stood in the doorway behind the Dark Lord. His unforgiving face made something in Draco's chest harden. He looked back and sat between tight lips, "No, never… my Lord." His breathing was hitched and it sounded uneasy due to his choking.

Voldemort pressed his wand into Draco's throat a bit tighter as he opened his mouth and gazed at him. But after a still minute he released it, and hissed, "Then prove it."

Nagini released him fast, making his dead weight hit the ground hard. He caught his breath and didn't get up till the Dark lord left the room, calling his snake after him. Draco slowly got to his knees, then smacked off the hands that had forcefully grabbed him. He couldn't curse at his father, but he could sure as hell give him the coldest glare he'd ever given in his life before walking away.

He stormed into the hall where Snape and another Death Eater were waiting. Draco was too heated to wait for his father and the rattled teacher seemed to have no patience to get where they needed to. Snape turned and Draco followed down three halls and two flights of stairs down into the cellars. Even before they reached the last floor, Draco could hear it. The screams of pain, high pitched and sobbing.

A girl was being tortured.

And if he was right, he knew exactly who it was.

Draco was first into the row of cellars to see the black figure hanging over the flailing and screaming girl. Bellatrix was singing something slow and dark with the girl's screams before shouting, "I can't hear you, filthy mud blood!"

"Bellatrix!" Lucius snapped. The witch turned her head and Draco formed a knot in his gut at the sight of Hermione's face underneath her. Half of it was swollen and bloody, her arm was a massive stretch of blood. It looked like the witch was trying to peel her skin off inch by inch, starting with the sensitive part of her inner elbow.

Bellatrix started to laugh and dug her wand in deeper, making Hermione flail and scream again, but Lucius smacked the metal bars, making her flinch to a stop. At the same time, another voice shouted, "Don't touch her!"

Draco had to walk to the next cell over and shine his wand into the darkness. The ginger was perched against the far corner, clinging to the bars in Hermione's direction. Upon the sight of Draco, Ron fixed his glare on him. Draco immediately searched the rest of the cells, but found them empty. "Where's Potter?" he tried to sound spiteful, but his eyes remained hopeful.

Ron continued to glare as Snape appeared behind Draco. "I came alone. For Hermione. Harry doesn't even know I left."

Draco snorted. "Of course. A weasley like you going around and screwing things up."

A creak made Draco look away to see Bellatrix coming out of the cell, leaving behind the limp body and mess of brown hair covering Hermione's face. Ron instantly fidgeted around, trying to see her. "Hermione? Hermione answer me!"

Draco tried to read his expression very carefully. Was he lying? Was Harry actually somewhere safe? Or was he somewhere alone and vulnerable? Was this just a trick? It was hard to tell, but the desperation and fear in his voice as he called for the silent girl was definitely true.

The next thing Draco knew, the gate to Ron's cell was opening. The ginger immediately stood, but he didn't charge nor even speak. He merely stood his ground, waiting for what was coming at him. Draco watched his father stand beside him in the doorway, wand open and out stretched. Could he really watch his father kill his lover's best friend without even trying to stop him? Even though his chest tightened, his thought was the same.

At least it wasn't Harry.

Yet, Lucius never fired. Not even Bellatrix, who stood impatiently behind them, lifted her wand. Draco looked to his father and back at her, then back to Ron, who only glared. Although, the silence was too unsettling to go unseen. Soon, Draco figured it out. Lucius lowered his wand and looked to his son. Draco's breath got caught in his throat.

"Come on, Draco," Bellatrix hissed. "Give him a good one."

Draco had to do his best to keep his eyes from widening. A good one? They want him to use-

No. Draco looked down to his wand and remembered all the animals he had killed using that spell. Using it on Ron…. Himself being the one to kill his lover's best friend…

Oh God.

"C'mon, Draco."

"Are you loyal or not?"

"Of course!" Draco had to snap, but he couldn't look back into the ginger's eyes.

"Then do it."

Draco stared at his wand. If he killed Ron… "Killing them won't do any good. Potter won't come in the end."

"He'll have to," Bellatrix hissed impatiently. "To avenge them. Seeing such a small fragile boy lose his sanity after getting his friends killed, it's his most vulnerable point."

Draco gave his father a glance, who was watching him with very cruel, very cold eyes. They terrified Draco as much as looking back at Bellatrix. They wanted him to do it…so easily. So easy, they thought it was. But Draco knew that his father was testing him. If he was truly loyal, he wouldn't have had that affair with Harry, he wouldn't have helped him escape, and if he was truly loyal, he'd kill Harry's best friend, right here and right now. If he was truly loyal, Voldemort wouldn't have to kill him in front of his own father and mother, and everything would go as planned.

Draco started to lift his wand. If he just proved he was loyal, he could live longer to help Harry-

"No!" Hermione's voice cracked on her cry, but it was enough to make Draco jump out of his skin. Her face was a bloody mess, her hair stuck to her face from dried blood and tears staining her cheeks and running to the floor. "Do-Don't do it," she begged. "Don't… D-Draco, please-"

"Shut it, you filthy mud blood!"

"Come on, Draco-"

"No! Please!"

"I said, shut it before I-"

There were too many things to focus on. Everyone was suddenly shouting, begging, hissing. There was so much blood and hate, and there was too much at risk to run away from it. Draco couldn't stand to see his father's judging, cold eyes, but he couldn't bear to see Hermione's heart-wrenching gaze piercing through him as well.

"Draco, don't, please. You don't have to-"

"Silence or I will silence you!"

"You're not like them!"

"Ooh, I'm going to enjoy this."

"Don't touch her!"

Draco turned on Bellatrix and before he knew it, he was shutting the cage door before her. "No!" his voice echoed. "I'm Harry's closet connection, right? Then his friends are mine." He turned back on Ron, approaching the ginger quickly before he was too scared to back down. "And I will prove my loyalty to the Dark Lord." Ron only tightened his gaze on the blonde before the fear swelled his eyes at the sight of Draco's wand.

Draco hesitated for only a moment before he moved. "Even if I have to make it very clear."

And in the next instant he flicked his wrist and shouted one of the only unforgivable curses that should never be used….

Okay, I need to apologize for the long wait but theres no way to make up for it unless I make a really good ending! The next chapter will be the last unless I can squeeze it an extra scene somewhere. Excuse any mistakes please and Ill update sooner. Till next time.