Memoirs of a Serpent's Son

Memoirs of a Serpent’s Son

--Age 17—part 37

March 1 –continued

I couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t possible. I mean, it was entirely possible, but I just couldn’t believe that the bloody slut was ACTUALLY a traitor. She was conniving enough, sure… but really evil?

I stared at her in shock and almost burst out laughing as though it was all some poorly timed but very funny farce.

“Ginny, what are you –” Harry began with as much confusion as I had.

“Just shut up and give me your wands!” she shrieked. There was something slightly off about the way she spoke and about the way her muscles were taught around her mouth.

“No,” Harry answered stubbornly. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you, but I need my wand, Ginny.”

“You stupid fuck,” she spat in a manner unlike her own. She immediately waved one of the wands back and aimed it at Longbottom’s slowly stirring form. “Give me your bloody wands or I’ll kill him!”

“Ginny, you’re mad!” Harry cried, his muscles tensing as he tried hard not to move and think quickly enough to be able to save all of us.

She turned her head to him directly and for the briefest moment I saw a very familiar glazed look in her eyes… I’d seen this so many times before and it was often my doing. I cursed under my breath.

The damn bitch had gone and gotten herself put under the Imperius Curse.

And after I had WARNED HER that control curses were her weakness! HOW STUPID DO YOU HAVE TO BE?

But that wasn’t the important matter at the moment. There was a bigger problem. If she wasn’t doing this of her own accord… then whose will was it?

Who cast the curse on her?

I snapped back to reality and did some very quick thinking. I carefully held out my own wand for the stupid bint to take, all the while stealthily sliding Lovegood’s wand up my sleeve, under my cloak, hoping that she hadn’t noticed it.

“Draco! What are you doing?” Harry snapped, watching as the Weasel-idiot took my wand from me and left me –apparently –unarmed.

“Now is not the time to be testing theories,” I told Harry with a warning. “Give her your wand, Harry.”

“Yeah, listen to Malfoy, Harry,” the little puppet sneered. “For once he’s right.”

Harry’s jaw clenched and his lip curled as though he sorely wanted to retort to that. He held his tongue momentarily, however, and handed her his wand with as much reluctance as one can put into an action.

“I can’t believe this,” he muttered through his teeth, glaring death at the Weasley. I frowned and wished for a moment that Harry was a little more perceptive… if he were then he might notice that this wasn’t her, but someone else acting through her.

“It’s about time,” she snapped, taking his wand. She swung her arm back around and gestured for us to go ahead. She pointed the wands at our backs and forced us forward like criminals. “Get moving.”

I did as I was told and began to walk toward the side of the building. It was then that I noticed the sounds coming from the distance. I couldn’t make out what was happening exactly, but the reality of what was happening hit me harder than a bludger to the face.

The puppet slut forced us to the front of the ruined Orphanage into a tightly held ring of Death-Eaters. Granger and Weasley were being forcibly held by two of them, their mouths magically silenced and hands bound behind them. I gritted my teeth and stared into the masked faced of the towering black figures that stood around them.

Then I noticed something… Remus, Tonks and Moody were nowhere to be seen. Had they been killed already? Had they gone? Had they been kidnapped?

I stood stalk still, standing in the centre of the circle with Harry and a very stupid red-headed girl. I noticed, momentarily, the faintest ghost of a smirk cross over Harry’s lips before settling onto determinately furious.

“My, my, Draco,” a familiar voice began in feigned disappointment. “I never thought you would be this foolish.”

A man stepped forward and removed his mask. There was no need for him to reveal his face. I knew who it was already.

“Snape,” Harry hissed, clearly fighting the overwhelming urge to leap forward and strangle the greasy man in front of us.

“Very good, Potter,” he snapped back. “You always were one to point out the glaringly obvious, weren’t you?”

I glanced around the circle and tried to identify the others. The Carrows were there… along with the Lestranges. Those were faces I could never and would never forget. Crabbe and Goyle Sr. were both there, along with several others I was not as familiar with. There were also one or two Death-Eaters who seemed to be a lot younger than the rest…

The one… staring out at me from behind the skull mask with those dark eyes… seemed so familiar but I couldn’t place it. The glare burned through me so violently, I had the distinct feeling of a prey being stalked by a hungry predator.

“Give me the cup, Potter,” Snape demanded, holding out his hand. Harry glared at him.

“What cup?” he answered rather foolishly. Snape’s lip curled.

“You aren’t really that daft, are you?” he asked with a snide tone.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Harry continued stubbornly. “I haven’t got any cup.”

That’s where he wasn’t lying and I realized it right then and there. He DIDN’T have Hufflepuff’s cup. And neither did I.

It was back behind the Orphanage with Longbottom and Lovegood.

“Don’t be stupid, Potter,” Snape spat. “I know you have the cup! Just give it to me and you might spare yourself and Malfoy here a little bit of pain!”

“Sirius was right about you, Snivellus,” Harry answered evenly, a dangerous flicker in his eyes. “Just a coward hiding behind your Dark Arts. Were you really so scared of Draco and I that you could only face us when we were wandless?”

“You should learn to shut your mouth, Potter,” Snape replied venomously. “How many times have I tried to teach you that?”

“Don’t remember,” Harry said. “Then again I don’t put much stock in the words of cold-blooded murderers!”

I tried to ignore the careful wording of each of their replies, following the circle with my eyes and probing past the shrouded figures in hopes that I might see something in the distance that could tell me more about Remus, Tonks and Moody.

“Enough, Snape!” a very familiar shriek came from the crowd and Bellatrix Lestrange stepped forward. “That’s enough, just kill him and we can look for the cup later!”

“Hold your tongue, Bella!” Snape shot back, his eyes never moving from Harry. “You are not the one the Dark Lord charged with this mission. Know your place!”

“He’s right you know,” I hissed. “You never did know where you belonged.”

Bellatrix spun on me and removed her mask. Her lips were drawn up in an unpleasant sneer but I countered her look with one of pure boredom.

“Draco,” she whispered darkly. “I’m rather surprised to see you here. I didn’t think you had enough gall to venture out of whatever hole you’d buried yourself in after your cowardly escape.”

“Malfoys don’t belong in holes,” I replied calmly. “I think it’s something you are more suited to, Lestrange.”

Snape rolled his eyes and Bellatrix glared at me and pulled her wand.

“It’s a damn good thing I killed Cissy when I did,” she shot viciously. My nostrils flared and I clenched my jaw, letting Lovegood’s wand slip soundlessly and without movement into my hand beneath the folds of the cloak. “She never had to see what a petulant little traitor her son has become.”

“No I think the shock of treachery from her sister was quite enough to ruin her last moments,” I spat back, feeling my anger rise. I wanted to grab her neck and wring it. Forget the wand, forget magic. I would kill her with my bare hands.

“Enough!” Snape screeched in warning. “Where is the damn cup?!”

But before Harry or I could answer, someone else did.

“O-over here, y-you greasy g-git!” Longbottom’s stammering voice called from ten feet away. He was standing, shaking under his own weight and holding the brilliant gold cup above his head like a trophy.

A spell came flying from somewhere to my left and hit Bellatrix square in the chest, sending her flying into the wall of Death-Eaters next to her. I didn’t stop to think on the origins of the spell, but spun around with Lovegood’s wand in hand and cast as silent ‘Accio wands’ at Ginny Weasley.

Immediately the four wands she was holding burst forward and into my hands.

“Stupefy!” I called out, the spell aimed at the Weasel-puppet not only to stop her from attacking us but to protect her from her own weakness. “Harry!” I cried, catching his attention for long enough to toss him his wand.

I spun again and sent a stunner at the Death-Eater standing in front of Longbottom as the others in the circle cried out in outrage and began to send hexes and curses flying everywhere. I threw Longbottom his wand and he dove to the side to catch it.

I didn’t pay much attention to whether he caught it or not, but turned back in time to see Harry send some unknown curse in Snape’s direction.

I ducked to avoid a flash of green light that burnt the hair on the back of my neck dangerously and threatened to be a Killing curse, and held out my wand to unbind Weasel and Granger. I removed their silencing charms and they immediately pulled out their wands.

It was then, through the brawl that I realized that Alecto Carrow was not fighting against us, but with us against her own brother. I blinked in confusion before I saw the briefest flash of purple hair from beneath her hood.

Tonks.

But where were Remus and Moody?

Before I could think long on the matter I felt a blinding pain spread through me and I let out a deafening scream and fell to my knees, writhing under the power of the Cruciatus curse.

It stopped suddenly and I scrambled to my feet, spinning around to see my Aunt Bellatrix laughing wickedly as she pointed her wand at my heart.

“Oh, no, Draco dear,” she snickered with poorly judged sarcasm. “That can’t be dear old Sirius’ cloak that you’re wearing, can it?”

“Do you remember the wardrobe choices of everyone you’ve killed, Bella?” I sneered, sending a wordless Confundus spell at her. She deflected it. “Or just your family?”

“I wonder who gave it to you,” she wondered with a vicious smile, ignoring my comments completely and sending more and more spells at me. I cast shield after shield and in between defenses sent my own attacks. “Surely the werewolf didn’t part with the last remnants of his precious puppy?”

“Twinge of jealousy, there auntie?” I shot back. “Because you didn’t inherit a single thing from your adoring family?” Bellatrix hissed like an angry cat and cast another crucio at me, though this time I avoided it narrowly.

“It’s a pity you never got to know Sirius,” she admitted falsely. “But don’t you worry your delicate little head, little dragon, you’ll meet him soon! I’ll send you straight to him!”

“Lestrange!” a voice called from just behind Bella. She turned her attention briefly in time to see a bright red curse fly past her face.

Longbottom was standing, clutching the cup with all his might and glaring with his face contorted into a look of utter loathing as he trained his wand on his parent’s tormentor.

“Ahaha!” Bella shrieked with glee. “Little Longbottom fool! How I’ve been wanting to meet you!”

She held up her wand and trained it on him instead, sending the cruciatus curse at Longbottom. He fell to the ground immediately and the entire clearing echoed with the horrifying shrieks of a tortured boy.

“Hey!” I screamed pulling my wand on her but before I could cast a spell I felt a powerful force hit me upside the head. I went flying forward and landed face-first into the ground.

I scrambled to my feet again, trying to focus my vision and saw two tall figures standing before me. Both were wearing masks but both seemed oddly familiar.

“Draco Malfoy,” the taller one said with a strained calm. “You should be thankful your father was such a coward and killed himself before he could see what you’ve become.” The man removed his mask and smirked down at me. This was Nott Sr. My eyes grew dark and flat as I stared at the man. His smile grew wider. “I would tell you Theo sends his love… but why should I when he could tell you himself?”

And to my horror, the man standing next to Nott Sr. removed his mask as well and behind the skull face was the image of the one person on earth I hated more than Voldemort or Bellatrix.

Theodore Nott smiled darkly at me and licked his lips.

“Surely you didn’t think that Crabbe and Goyle would be enough to get rid of me?” he asked with a mite of surprise. I felt my anger boil over and desperately wanted to close my fingers around his pale neck and squeeze until there was no more breath coming from his mouth… no more sneer… no more memories.

“Hey!” Harry’s voice came from somewhere to my left. Then in a flash there was a bang and Nott Sr. had been thrown backwards some twenty-odd feet, directly into Remus’ awaiting arms. With a flash and a crack they were gone again.

“Impedimenta!” I screamed at Nott, hitting him hard. I cast a Conjunctivitis Curse at him but he deflected it and laughed at me. I wanted to kill him.

“Is that all you’ve got Draco?” he screamed back at me, throwing a Cruciatus curse at me. I dodged it. “I don’t think your heart is in it! Perhaps you missed me, hmm? I’m ready to give you one more go!”

“FUCK YOU THEO!” I shrieked, casting a Cruciatus curse right back at him. FUCK UNFORGIVABLE. WHAT HE DID TO ME WAS UNFORGIVABLE AND MERITS SIMILAR TREATMENT!

“Yes, I imagine you’d like that!” he cackled back, dodging my curse. “I could always Imperius you and make you my slave, though where’s the fun in that?”

“You fucking bastard!” I hollered, catching him off-guard and punching him square in the jaw. He stumbled backwards. “You always thought you were so much cleverer than I am!”

“Oh no, Draco,” he corrected with a smirk. “I don’t think. I know.”

I kicked him hard and he flew to the ground, throwing an unknown spell into the air as he went but it missed me. I let my lip curl into a snarl and glared down at him with nothing but hatred in my eyes.

“Then let’s see you get out of this one,” I hissed. “SECTUMSEMPRA!”

He screamed and then his chest and face pulled open in different places where several large wounds drew themselves on him. He started bleeding and shaking and I remembered the feeling of knowing that I was moments away from death.

“Draco!” a voice came from close to me. I kicked Nott’s wand from his hand and turned to look. Moody was in battle against MacNair and Rudolphus Lestrange all at once. Remus was back and fighting Crabbe Sr. while Granger and Weasley fought with Goyle Sr. and another Death-Eater I couldn’t recognize. Tonks was fighting hard against Amycus Carrow and Harry was facing off with Snape.

I could already taste the iron-scent of blood on the air as Nott bled to death beneath me. I took little notice at all. I felt somewhat empty… hollow…

And yet I’ve never felt so complete and at peace with the universe.

“Draco!” Harry called again. Snape was laughing and looming over him.

“Have you really resorted to seeking help from Malfoy, Potter?!” Snape was shrieking. “I never thought I’d see the day! Are you using him because he is much better at closing his mind than you are, or are you getting something else out of the deal?”

Snape’s eyes flashed dangerously between us and I glared shooting a Cruciatus curse in his direction but he blocked it.

“No no, Draco!” he cried out with a mirthless laugh. “You’re on the good side now, boy! No Unforgivables anymore! Pick a new one!”

“You arrogant bastard!” Harry bellowed, throwing everything he could think of.

I stepped up and while Snape was still occupied with Harry and deflecting his curses, I sent one of the curses that my father had used on me. I sent the curse that makes your blood boil from within you.

Snape suddenly froze and began to writhe violently on the spot, his face contorted into a hideous expression of pain and agony as I slowly felt the magic drain from me with the effort of keeping up such a powerful blood curse.

I finally dropped to my knees, weary from the effort and Snape spun to me, holding his wand up to attack, but Harry hit him first.

“Levicorpus!” Harry shrieked out into the night and Snape was suddenly hanging from his ankle in midair, his eyes wide in horror and loathing.

“POTTER!” he bellowed into the night. “Just like your filthy father! Using my spells against me!” He struggled in midair for a moment before he twisted around and then landed on his feet facing Harry again and giving me time to catch my breath.

But something else distracted me.

“CRUCIO!” a high-pitched shriek came from behind. I turned, trying not to lose my balance as my eyes found the right scene.

Bellatrix was standing over the writhing form of Longbottom as he glowered defiantly from his seizure-like position on the ground. Hufflepuff’s cup was in one hand as she cackled maniacally while she tortured the only son of her most infamous victims.

“Promise me you’ll last longer than your pitiful parents!” she shrieked at him. His eyes did not leave her and he clutched his wand with all his might, desperate not to drop it. “They hardly managed to take any torture at all! Would you like to join them at the hospital, you little useless lump? I promise you, madness is much more blissful than sanity.”

“You should know!” I cried out to her, but she ignored me. I felt someone closing in and realized that Goyle Sr. was standing over me with a malevolent but mindless smirk on his face. Instead of standing I rolled to the side and cast a wordless ‘furnunculus’. Immediately massive boils exploded all over his face and he screamed, stamping forward inadvertently kicking me hard in the ribs.

I gasped as the air was knocked out of me and tumbled over to the side. I turned my attention briefly back to Longbottom, trying to grasp at my wand that had rolled out of my hand.

As I looked up I saw the strangest thing… strangest and most frightening thing.

Longbottom had managed to raise his wand, fighting hard against the intense pain that coursed through him by sheer will to defeat the woman who had destroyed his parents in every way that mattered.

Bellatrix simply laughed at him as he tried to attack her even then… but he didn’t attack her.

“LONGBOTTOM, NO!” I shrieked, realizing just too late what he was going to do.

“Annihilare!” Longbottom cried out through his agony. His spell hit the cup in Bellatrix’s hands and caused it to explode in a brilliant flash of flaming debris.

There were two blood-curdling shrieks that rang out through the dark and echoed over the grounds of the Orphanage. Bellatrix’s form was crumpled and bleeding on the ground but Longbottom’s body was floating and glowing a blinding yellow in mid-air.

Then, with a sudden absence of light that was almost as painful as the blinding glow, Longbottom was dropped to the ground and the cup landed harmless and no longer a Horcrux next to him.

“NO!” I screamed, bolting from my spot and tumbling forward toward Longbottom. I skidded to a halt next to him and turned him onto his back. His eyes were open and empty… there was no spark, no glow… no life.

“NEVILLE!” Harry’s voice suddenly cut through the air and I felt him running toward me. “Neville, no! You didn’t!!”

But he had.

I saw red and my eyes found their way to the bleeding woman, stirring in front of me. I raised my wand, my hand unnaturally steady and trained it on her. She raised her head and her face was bloody and burnt. Her eyes were wide.

“Avada –” I began, my voice hoarse and very much unlike my own. But before I could finish, she Disapparated and was gone. I screamed at her disappearance. “NO!!”

“Neville!” Harry screamed, stumbling to his knees on the other side of Longbottom. I looked around suddenly and realized that all the other Death-Eaters were gone.

The rest of them came running to meet us, to see if it was true.

“Neville, you didn’t,” Harry was rambling, holding onto Longbottom’s robes. “You didn’t do it! Why did you do it?!”

“Harry,” Granger whispered, suddenly at his side. She had a hand on his shoulder and was trying to calm him. Weasley was standing behind me and Remus knelt over Harry, trying to lift him.

“NO!” he screamed. “No, leave me!” He threw Remus and Granger off of him. “Another one! Another one of my friends died for this stupid fucking war! Another one died who didn’t have to just because I’m not fast enough… because I’m not strong enough!”

“Harry, this has nothing to do with your weaknesses,” Remus tried to calm him. “Neville died to help us all. He did the only thing he could to stop the Death-Eaters from getting away with the Horcrux.”

“HE SHOULDN’T HAVE HAD TO!” Harry bellowed, shaking as he clutched onto Longbottom’s robes. “He shouldn’t have had to make himself a victim just to stop them!”

“He didn’t,” I argued. That was wrong. “He’s not a victim, Harry. He’s a hero.”

“He died a hero,” Granger agreed quietly.

“He shouldn’t have had to die to be a hero,” Harry cried, tears streaming freely down his face now. There were tears on my own cheeks… and everyone else’s.

“He was already a hero,” I added. “We wouldn’t have made it out of the Orphanage without him… Harry…”

I shifted around Longbottom’s body and pulled Harry to me. He wrapped his arms around me and held me tightly as though it was the only way he could stop himself from giving in to the grief.

Remus knelt over and lifted Longbottom into his arms, taking him away from the scene. Everyone stood in stunned silence for a while as Harry sobbed loudly into my chest.

“We need to get everyone back to safety,” Moody’s voice came, less gruff than usual. He walked over to the lifeless body of Theodore Nott and lifted him away.

Tonks disappeared for a moment but returned with Lovegood and cast an ‘ennervate’ on Ginny Weasley before taking the two of them back to Grimmauld place to be tended to.

“Come on, Harry,” I whispered. “Let’s go back.”

He didn’t answer, but he let me and Weasley guide him to his feet before nodding. He took one last look around. His eyes roved over the ruined building, to the grey grounds and then down to the spot of grass on which Longbottom fell. He picked up the Cup with a grimace and nodded.

I gripped his arms and brought him with me as we Apparated back to Grimmauld Place with heavy hearts and one less among our number.

-------IIIIIII--------

A/N: DON’T HATE ME! I’M SORRY! I LOVE NEVILLE! I DOO!

Look… I honestly have this deep dark feeling that Neville is going to die in the books. I love his character, and he deserves some attention… but I think he’ll die. However, if he does die, I believe that he will die a hero… fighting alongside Harry to save the world and in a selfless act to defeat the Death-Eaters.

This is my tribute to Neville Longbottom. No he did not get to defeat Bellatrix Lestrange, but he got to steal her glory from her. He got to force a failure for the entire Death-Eater team. He got to disfigure her to the point of no recognition and avoid being tortured into madness.

In my opinion I think this was the best and most valiant way for Neville to die. Had he died in battle it would have been by murder… this way he met his end on his own terms. He decided… not Bellatrix and not Voldemort.

I hope you agree with me… and if you don’t I’m terribly sorry.

I also needed to kill Theodore Nott. Because he’s a bastard and deserved to die.

Ah I’m nervous about this chapter, but I hope you like it anyway!

Thank you for everything and all the support! Love and cookies to all!