Hold On - Dramione

Chapter 26

Draco was starting to wonder if revealing his deception of the Dark Lord was such a wise idea considering now, he was in the Great Hall, up to his teeth in Death Eaters whilst Blaise and Theo held the front doors.

Spells flashed and fire flamed as wizards were thrown through the air, never to get back up again.

Many of the students, professors and former Order members were greatly surprised indeed, to see Draco Malfoy openly fighting for their side. They didn't trust it, but they'd take what they could get, especially in a battle where they were grossly outnumbered.

Draco had just thrown up a shield around his former Transfiguration professor as he protected her from a Weakening hex before he fired a killing curse in the direction of the caster.

When he lowered his shield, there was something that shone in the old woman's eyes, but Draco couldn't decipher it. He thought maybe, just maybe, it might have been pride but there had only ever been two people, two women in his life that had ever openly been proud of him, his mother and Hermione. If he lived, if she ever forgave him, then maybe, he'd ask her what it was. But now, all he could do was offer her a nod as time sped up again and they were both plunged back into battle.

Draco was duelling a low-level Death Eater that he quickly dispatched of when his eyes rested on someone he was really hoping to finally teach a lesson.

Ginny Weasley's red hair was blown back as her shield very barely managed to block the curse that Bellatrix Lestrange shot her way. She was standing atop the wooden grandstand seats many of the students would sit on whilst in the Great Hall, back when the school was functional, and Molly Weasley stepped up to join her.

"Not my daughter, you bitch!" she snarled at the lunatic as she fired a spell that Bellatrix blocked, then she had the sense to look very afraid.

Four spells Bellatrix fired as she whipped a wand across her body, her curved one no more since it had been lost in her vault in Gringotts. Molly blocked them but staggered back with every spell she blocked as Bellatrix cackled.

But the crackling sound of her laugh only seemed to light a fire inside Molly as she came after the witch with renewed strength. Her arm lashed across her body as explosions of green and orange light dissipated on Bellatrix's shield, but Draco knew his aunt well. She may have been crazy which was exactly why she was a perfect training partner because you could never truly predict what she'd do next, if her injuries were true or her spells at full power.

Which is why Draco knew exactly what his aunt had up her sleeve. She was going to make Molly Weasley think she'd won before she lashed out with some sort of painful curse or hex that would never be able to be reversed.

"Expluso!" he bellowed as the wooden benches between them exploded in a shower of splinters that had them both cowering back. He turned the Malfoy smirk on his aunt. "Mind if I cut in?"

She growled at him. As in, she opened her mouth and growled at him before she jumped off the bench, her curly hair still dangling in her face as she hunched over, Molly Weasley completely forgotten. "You filthy blood traitor! You are a disappointment, Draco! You could've had so much serving under the Dark Lord! You were his Right Hand!"

His smirk only grew. "I think I'm going to find it much enjoyable being underneath Hermione Granger as I service her."

"BLOOD TRAITOR!" his aunt screamed as she flashed a spell at him but he blocked it and returned fire. They fought at a speed that was much too fast for anyone else to have kept up with. He knew her tricks and she knew his. Well, almost all of his.

Draco had realised something about his aunt that he'd always kept up his sleeve. The spells she used were all complex curses and hexes and jinxes, designed to inflict pain, cause agony and extend misery. It was all that they used to practice with. So, it stood to reason that his aunt wouldn't have expected a harmless little body bind charm coming. He just needed a chance to cast it.

Bellatrix knew her nephew was crafty, especially after deceiving them all for so long. So her plan had been to bombard him with so many spells that he wouldn't have a chance to cast one back.

Especially when she knocked him back with a Knockback jinx.

His body hit the rubble on the floor as his wand clattered from his hand. Oh, he was screwed. So severely screwed. Unprepared and unarmed against his unhinged murderous aunt was a sure way to die.

He never expected who would save his life.

"Malfoy!" Arthur Weasley called as he kicked the remnants of a table towards him. Draco dove behind it for cover, just in time to avoid a fire charm. Arthur and Molly then blasted Bellatrix with their own spells as Draco's table smouldered.

With a bit of a magical boost, Draco used an Ascendio charm to help launch him over the table and into the air as he faced down his aunt. "Petrificus Totalus!"

Bellatrix couldn't move as she was frozen in place and Draco landed in a roll before he slowly rose to his feet.

He was Death. Bellatrix knew what was coming. She knew what he was capable of because she had trained him to be ruthless. She had crossed the line one too many times. And now she was going to pay for it because it wasn't Draco that stalked towards her. He was Death.

"You touched what was mine," Draco drawled. "And what's more than that, you hurt the woman I love."

His aunt's eyes widened and he chuckled evilly. "Yes, that's right. I'm in love with Hermione Granger. And as much as I would love to take my time and make you suffer a million times more than she did, I'll settle for watching you die slowly."

He levelled his wand at her. "Sectumsempra!"

It both made him want to throw up and healed something inside of him at the same time, using the spell that had once almost killed him, using the spell that marred his whole body with scars. But in the end, it felt more good than bad, because he used that spell to avenge Hermione. He used it to keep the woman he loved safe.

But make no mistake, Draco was still broken on the inside because he dropped the body bind just so he could hear his aunt scream as every inch of her skin was sliced open. Death by a thousand cuts seemed very fitting for her. One cut for every person she'd killed or tortured. Cuts that tore into skin, into flesh, into muscle, into her organs, into the very depths of her soul - what was left of it anyway. Yes, it was a very fitting end for her.

"Die well, Aunt Bella."

Draco then turned on the Weasleys as he wiped the bright red blood from a cut on his lip, smearing it over his porcelain skin. "Thank you," he said and both the senior Weasleys seemed surprised at his words, to say the least. "You saved my life. I might be loath to admit it, but I know to give credit where credit is due."

"What you said," Ginny spoke when her parents stayed silent. "Did you really mean it? About Hermione?"

"Boss! Time for your cue!" called Blaise as he came bursting into the room with three Death Eaters behind him.

Molly and Arthur rushed back to it along with some of their elder children as Draco pinned Ginny with a stare and the girl was unwavering as Bellatrix continued to scream her last screams.

"Every word," he answered before he turned into black smoke as he made for the courtyard, where this war would either be won or lost.