Traitoress

Stalemate

Harry’s wand was trained on the strange girl’s chest, as he struggled to remember if he’d seen her before, and if she was an enemy.

She had black hair with red highlights and had a strange resemblance to Ginny Weasley, but before he could pursue this thought any further, she had fired a curse at the statue he was crouched behind.

"Shit!" he exclaimed, and he and Ron leapt for cover. The statue exploded and a quick spell shielded the two of them from the shards of stone. The girl looked at them, smiling, lifted her arm and showed them her glittering green Dark Mark, and then began to walk down a corridor to their left, not bothering to guard her back.

"Stupefy!" Ron shouted and the jet of red light flew at the pretty Death Eater, who spun on the spot and deflected it easily, then began to run, disappearing from sight.

Harry leapt out of his defensive position. "Get after her!" he hissed. "If she alerts the other Death Eaters, we’re dead!"

The two of them jumped to their feet and ran after her, just sighting her cloak disappear around another corner.

Following her through several long passages, firing curses at her back which she deflected back at them, they skidded into the main hall of Malfoy Manor. She was stood with her back to them.

"Put your wand down," Ron said fiercely. "We won’t hurt you."

"You think I’m scared of you?" her voice was muffled. "You should be scared."

Harry was curious. "Why?"

"We are why you should be scared, Potter," Draco’s cold voice echoed around the dark hall, as three other guys stepped out from their hiding places around the room, wands out and Dark Marks on their arms.

"It’s a trap…" Ron gasped.

"Well done, Weasley," Draco rolled his eyes. "Now put down your wands and we may consider not torturing you."

"Never!" Harry spat, then fired a curse at Draco that hit him in the shoulder, throwing him into the wall.

"Draco!" the strange girl cried out, and Ron pointed his wand at her.

The entire hall suddenly lit up as curses began to fly between people, hitting shimmering shields. Suddenly, one of the Slytherin boys, Zabini, Disapparated and the numbers were slightly more even, three against two.

Harry and Ron were fighting back-to-back, as one of the curses was fired at them and Harry deflected it with a cry of "Protego!"

It flew towards the Death Eater girl, who had placed her hood over her face. She had no time to cast a counter-spell. She raised her hands and with a colossal bang it rebounded off them, but the effort made her weak and Harry took the opportunity to leap forward and grab her, locking his arm around her neck and holding his wand ready to curse her.

Draco was sitting against the wall, coughing up blood, but he muttered a spell which seemed to heal him for the time being, and got to his feet, calling a halt his friends. Silence fell.

"The Boy Who Lived, using a hostage to escape," he hissed, his eyes gleaming. "That’s not what Mummy and Daddy would have wanted, is it?"

The girl in Harry’s arms laughed, and he tightened his grip around her neck. Zabini apparated back into the hall, holding a bushy-haired girl in an arm lock, and Theo Nott also aimed his wand at her. "Look who I found snooping near the dungeons…"

"Stalemate," Ron said grimly. "Give Hermione back."

"Give my friend back," Draco countered, as the girl in Harry’s arms kicked at his legs and attempted to bite his arm. Harry tightened his arm again and she gasped for air, her breaths loud and agonising in the silence.

"Give Hermione back, and let us leave the mansion unharmed, and you get your friend back," Harry grinned. "Fancy you having a girlfriend, Malfoy."

The girl pushed at his arms, then choked out, "Girlfriend? Where did you get that idea, Potter? Since when did you know anything about girls?"

The Slytherins grinned, while Ron spluttered indignantly and Harry went red. "Do you agree to our terms or not, Malfoy?" he strengthened his grip on her throat and she gasped for breath, while he noted the expression of distress flicker on Draco’s face.

"I don’t believe you’ll kill her, Potter," he grinned, but his eyes were worried.

"Try me!" Harry snarled.

"Slytherin scum!" Ron growled, his eyes fixed on Hermione.

"Because Slytherin is so much worse than Gryffindor, you pompous pricks," the girl in Harry’s grip said scathingly.

"What would you know about it, Slytherin?" Harry dug his wand into her neck.

"A lot, actually, seeing as I was in Gryffindor."

There was a silence, while the Slytherins caught each others’ eyes, a mixture of amusement and surprise in their faces.

"Who the hell are you?" Harry asked incredulously, and yanked down her hood. All he could see was a mass of black and red hair, but Ron gasped and stared at her face.

"Is that really you?" he asked, and she shoved Harry’s arm off her throat, unaware of Draco’s sigh of relief as she released herself.

"Yes, it’s me, Ron," she said.

Hermione let loose a torrent of swearwords, and Zabini twisted her arm harder until she shut up.

Ron slapped the girl’s face so hard that her neck cricked to the side. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Her hand flew to her cheek, as she replied calmly, "I’ve always been here, Ronald. I’ve always served the Dark Lord."

Harry put his hand on her shoulder, turning her roughly around so he could see her face. He stepped back from the sparkling purple eyes in shock.

"Ginny…"

Ginny turned as Ron aimed a punch at her, and with a flick of her finger, she sent him flying into a pillar.

"Neat trick," Harry said weakly.

"You like it?" she asked. "The Dark Lord showed me that I could cast magic without a wand." Saying so, she slapped his face very hard, and drew her wand, stepping up close and poking it into his chest.

"Get out of here, Potter," she hissed. "And remember, I’m hunting you down from now on."

He made a move towards Hermione, but she drove him back. "We’ll be keeping her…if you don’t get the hell out of here, we’ll kill her right now."

Harry grabbed Ron’s sleeve and they apparated with a loud crack, leaving Hermione in the grasp of the five Death Eaters.

"Nice work, guys," Ginny slapped hands with all of them, taking Hermione’s wand from Zabini to high-five him too.

"Not so bad yourself, Ginny," Draco grinned at her. "But why did you let them go?"

She smiled at him, her eyes alight. "We‘ll find out more if we interrogate this one first." She jerked her head at Hermione, then continued, "And they’ll be disorganised, desperate…easy to pick off. And we might get to track down some Order members."

"I can’t believe you’re such a bitch," the bookworm hissed, her eyes expressing a burning desire to kill the other girl.

"And I can’t believe you couldn’t see it coming," Ginny said sweetly. "Enjoy the dungeons." She turned her back on her old friend and walked up the staircase, Draco right behind her, leaving the other three to put Hermione in her cell.