Would You Like A Hand?

29 | the pit

It was already chaotic.

Curses and random objects flew all over the place, smashing into walls and other furniture. Shouting echoed throughout the Manor, some startled, some angry, and some calling for backup.

Quickly, Draco found the Golden Trio standing on their own, each of them frantically casting all sorts of spells. Two hooded Death Eaters were fighting back - Draco could only assume that if there had been more Death Eaters here, they had run off for reinforcements.

Joining the fray, he disarmed one of their enemies and Harry cast "Incarcerous!" on them.

From behind Draco, he heard the fireplace come to life and more students joined them in the Manor. The second Death Eater was taken down easily, and then orders were being directed from several predetermined students. Easily, everyone split up into groups and stormed the halls.

"This is well-thought out!" Draco called to Harry, "Good job on the planning! I didn't think you had it in you! Everyone knows exactly what they're supposed to be doing!"

"Is that a compliment coming from your mouth?" the Gryffindor responded.

"Draco!" Hermione ran up to him, "You said Voldemort was likely to be hiding upstairs, right? Let's get up there, guys!"

As the four of them rushed through the halls, Draco noticed fallen Death Eaters tied up or trapped in place.

"Is there a reason we're not killing them? This is a war!" Draco asked.

"Voldemort can just revive them, remember? Undead Death Eaters can be avoided this way," Harry explained, leaving out the obvious fact that he didn't want to resort to murder either way.

"Was that your idea?" Even Hermione was skeptical about how well thought out Harry's plans were.

"It might've been Ginny's," he answered.

"Oh, you had help; that explains it," Draco smirked in spite of the chaos around them.

"Protego!" Ron's shield covered Hermione's side as a curse flew at her.

After that, everything was a blur - everywhere, students coordinated attacks against Death Eaters, who were scattered around the Manor.

There seemed to be very little of them for some reason, and although some were skilled and managed to cause a few injuries, most fell easily. It was strange, but no one wanted to question it, lest they jinx the situation.

Leading the way because he knew the Manor best, Draco weaved around teams of kids. Every now and then, he and the Golden Trio behind him let loose some spells to help out as they ran by.

If he had thought about it at the time, Draco would've concluded that it was only a matter of time before they ran into some bad luck. But currently, he was not thinking about it, only focusing on getting upstairs - the Dark Lord was probably in Lucius' office.

And so the group of four found themselves stopped in a room when they tried to cross it - but not just any room. Draco remembered this room quite well, and he was sure Hermione did as well.

Two Death Eaters were waiting for them here, and they attacked immediately. Harry and Ron retaliated, but Draco looked back to see if Hermione was still okay.

She wasn't.

The witch was going to have another meltdown; Draco saw it in her eyes and shaky stance. She recognized the room where she was tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange.

Draco had never had the cruciatus curse inflicted on him, but he remembered Hermione's screams that day, remembered watching as she was tortured. He remembered it vividly, and he knew that that meant Hermione would remember it even more vividly than he.

"Hermione-" he started towards her, but she threw him back with a flipendo.

"No!" she stumbled backwards a few steps. Her eyes glanced wildly around the room, seeing things that weren't there.

Draco got up as fast as he could, despite the aching caused by Hermione's spell.

"Hermione?!" Ron turned around to see what had happened.

"Focus on the Death Eater!" Draco forcefully yelled to him, using protego as a hex was thrown at the Weasley.

"What's going on?" Harry asked, but didn't take his eyes off his opponent.

"She's having a panic attack," Draco replied, and then tried to move toward the witch again.

It probably didn't help that there was a battle happening in the area. Hermione suddenly threw a confringo at a decorative table by one wall, and it exploded into flames.

"I don't know anything!" she sobbed.

Ron worriedly looked to her again, and was knocked back in that moment of distraction.

"Ron!" Harry helped pick him up, telling him, "Leave it to Malfoy. The longer these Death Eaters are around, the more danger we'll be in - the more danger she'll be in."

Unwillingly, Ron agreed. He faced his opponent.

Draco wanted to help take down the Death Eaters - they were an annoyance and he just wanted them gone so that he could help the panic-stricken witch out. But he saw as Hermione let loose another confringo, barely missing Harry and hitting another useless decoration. He would need to stop her before she did too much damage to her friends or herself.

Slowly, he approached her. The sounds of battle was agitating her, and she shot another spell - incendio this time - towards the combat. Fortunately, the fire caught onto the cloak of one of the Death Eaters. Taken by surprise, Ron quickly hexed his enemy and knocked him out.

"I don't know I don't know I don't know," Hermione shut her eyes.

"Hermione," Draco called to her softly. He was still inching closer to her, one step at a time. "Hermione," he repeated, slightly stronger.

"I don't know!"

Ron yelled as he was blasted away, and Harry suddenly exclaimed, "Hermione!"

The commotion broke Draco's focus and he glanced up in time to see that the remaining Death Eater had thrown a spell at the witch, deciding to pick on her while she was unable to fight.

Unable to throw up a shield in time, Draco only had one thought on his mind as he dived in front of Hermione: I owe the trio my life!

And then the pain hit, and he couldn't think anymore.

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end note: remember to give this story some votes and/or comments if you enjoyed it! let me know what parts you liked, what parts need work, or what parts seemed out of place. i'm always up for improvement.

aeratheninja-