The Lord Appellant 33/37

[herumtreiber]

Title:  The Lord Appellant 33/37
Chapter:  Horcrux resolution?
Author:herumtreiber  
Genre: Slash, romance, adventure, dark!fic
Pairing: Draco/Blaise, one sided Harry/Draco
Rating: R
Warnings for the fic: It's a dark fic, rape is mentioned several times. Dementors appear and not for show. Character death (not Harry, Draco or Blaise). Evil!Ron, powerful Hermione, Pansy and Bellatrix. Sympathetic to Slytherins.
Epilogue compliant? No
Chapter length: ~4,953 words
Disclaimer:  I do not own Harry Potter or related characters. Nor do I make any money from  writing  these stories.
Summary: After the events of HBP, the Minister of Magic wants to finish the Malfoys but Draco uses a Wizengamot procedure to fight back. Veelas and Siddhe appear in the story as Draco uses political means to contest the pureblood's allegiance to Voldemort.
Notes: I wrote this before DH was published, so please no picayune comments about canon.


Table of contents


32. The power of three

That Monday morning, Draco observed Ginny at breakfast. Yesterday she had been upbeat about receiving her brothers' missive and later participating in the revenge against Leprechaun and company, but today she was downcast.

This was probably caused by the effects of the obliviates, and it was high time that it be dealt with. He signaled Blaise, Pansy and Ginny to accompany him to his offices.

Once they arrived, and Draco had cast privacy wards, he told them about noticing Ginny's mood changes. Since she had been healed, these should have become far fewer, but were not, and were in fact increasing in frequency. They needed to counteract the effects of the obliviates at the source, making accessible for the brain what had been withheld from it.

Blaise pointed out that by now Ginny should be used to being in the Manor, and shouldn't feel threatened here. He suggested that Draco provide Ginny with a portkey to the dining room. Draco took out a golden ring with a ruby as the centerpiece. He asked Ginny for the password to activate it, and she said "Magenz." Draco settled the ring and put it on Ginny's left hand's middle finger.

Draco declared concernedly, "Are you ready for this step? It will be disorienting, not to mention appalling, to receive the memories. I can't help but feel that you are more threatened by the memories, your imagination of them. Probably it will be ghastly, but not as bad as you expect it to be, and you will draw strength from it. If you feel like you are about to be whisked away by a thought, that you could just follow your dream into another realm, then I bid you welcome to my land, which I've trod since I was 15. You see, due to my upbringing and heredity, I understand how slippery our mental roads are."

Blaise said, "You strike me as the kind of girl they used to put in Slytherin: determined, resolute, cheerful even in adversity, like our redoubtable Pansy, Millicent and of course dear Daphne."

When hearing Daphne's name, Ginny broke down and cried. She told them how they had gotten to know one another, Daphne being the one who checked her in those fateful mornings. How she lost track of her until she heard she'd been killed.

The mood was somber. Pansy said, "We are once again grateful to Daphne for her caring side, her nurturing mind, that you two found each other, befriended so and made life a little bit better. So how say you, Ginny?"

Ginny replied, "I want to stop feeling like there are places in my mind I can't reach, so I want to remove the logjam. I also have a request. I have seen little of love, more like power struggles. Could Draco and Blaise kiss before they take out the barrier? I'd like that to be my last memory before that particular dangerous road."

Pansy looked as if she wanted to hug Ginny, for approaching something that titillated her so in her prosperous career as peeping tom.

Of course Draco and Blaise agreed, they went to Ginny's room, and just as she sat down in the bed, Draco pounced on Blaise and started kissing him, seemingly spurred by having an audience. He trailed kisses down Blaise's jaw and ear, then came back to plunder Blaise's sweet mouth and entice his tongue to come out and play.

Ginny looked gobsmacked and a little out of this world, while Pansy surreptitiously moved her Muggle photographic camera so she could catch more of the action. It wasn't like this was a common occurrence for her.

In Ginny's eyes, Draco and Blaise's kiss signified hope. Hope that not everything in sex had to be dark, secret, violent; that there could be sweet moments between consenting people. That maybe someday she would find such a person. Holding these thoughts to her bosom, she prepared herself for the spell and nodded to Draco.

Pansy helped Ginny recline in the bed. Draco swished his wand and intoned the spell "Ganz Erinnerung!"

Immediately Ginny's mind was assaulted with the images and sensations of the rapes. Like Draco had intimated, they were awful to contemplate, but in truth, she had been expecting far worse; and having all her memories made it easier to avoid the awful ones.

Ginny opened her eyes and saw Pansy beside her, and Draco and Blaise at the other end of the room. Blaise had his hand in the small of Draco's back, with his other hand he was trying to save Draco's ponytail from the groping they'd engaged in before. There was a sweetness to the scene, something so primal and so good, that it just took her breath away. It also gave her hope for her future.

Pansy snorted and chastised her friends, "If you would continue your groping elsewhere, boys, I'd be obliged. Ginny must be tired. I'll transfigure a bed and stay with her."

Draco countered, "Let me get you a reasonable bed. Winky!"

Winky appeared and said, "How may Is helps you?"

Draco replied, "Please bring one of the beds from the South Wing to this room."

On Tuesday, Draco felt the need to spend some time alone, reflecting and meditating. He went to the Gardens and sat down. He was about to begin emptying his mind of his problems when he heard a voice, the last voice he would have ever believed he'd hear, especially because the owner was dead, or as good as dead.

"Errr, Malfoy?" Said the tentative voice of Ron Weasley's ghost.

Draco replied, "Is that truly you, Weasley?"

"Yes, it is the Weasley that now knows how you tried to capture that memory, but were foiled, the one who was blind for so long about Harry and you."

"I've come to thank you. I know revenge has been served against those hooligans. You've also provided for Ginny much more than her own family has done. I come to tell you that I was wrong about you and I'm sorry."

Draco's Slytherin side was not about to let go so easily, and so he fished for information. "If you're sorry, you can help me by clearing out some facts. Do you know the third prophecy?"

Ron's ghost visibly shrank. "There are some things I can't repeat, I won't repeat."

Draco said, "Can't or won't?"

The ghost said, "Can't."

Draco replied, "Interesting information, nonetheless. Are you going to manifest as a ghost in Hogwarts?"

Draco observed the ghost's grimace of pain and realized that the crux of the matter was in Hogwarts.

Draco had the urge to soothe the ghost. He said, "You know, Weasley, you should be ready to move on and go to the next adventure, as Dumbledore used to say." Draco clinically observed Ron's jerk and grimace of pain and one other puzzle piece fell into place.

There were many kinds of Obedience Vows. He had to find one that acted beyond death, that bound ghosts and other entities past their last breath.

That Tuesday would prove to be a fateful one. That was when the Horcruxes started pouring in, or rather; the persons who'd risked everything started arriving.

Mr. Goyle arrived first, with 23 companions. He bid them to wait for him at his Manor and then took out a small bag, and flourishing it like he were a parlor magician, asked, "Where should I put the horcruxes?"

Draco interrupted and said, "My office, Mr. Goyle. Follow me." He magically augmented the volume of the room, cleared the table and put it in the middle, took out a cauldron and put it on the table. Finally he concentrated and used his magic to create a Siddhe shield and try to contain the evil magic inside it.

Mr. Goyle took two antiques: Rowena Ravenclaw's brush and the Hufflepuff cup. Everyone could feel the noxious emanations of evil trying to escape from the things. Harry brushed the horcruxes and then visibly shrank from them. They were put in the cauldron.

Draco smirked in vindication at Hermione and Harry and said, "Do you believe me now, oh ye of little faith?"

They went back to the living room to wait for other news.

Three hours later Mr. Crabbe came in, he was accompanied by 35 men. He bid them goodbye and told them to meet with him at the safe place next Thursday. When they'd gone, after leaving him a trunk, Draco and Harry took it to the room and opened it.

There were three antiques inside. Outwardly, they didn't look threatening, just staid and common, but if you had magic, you could sense the antiques trying to slip inside your magic, maybe. You felt like they were leering at you, taunting you with their emptiness, their supposed lack of worth when they were ready to pounce on you. As before, they all touched the antiques and felt that they were indeed horcruxes. They were put in the cauldron and Draco enacted a stronger Siddhe shield.

By that time Draco was very worried about Bellatrix. She should've been the first one to come here. If the Dark Lord realized the pattern, he couldn't help but be suspicious of Bella and Snape.

In truth Bellatrix was busy at the moment searching the Dark Lord's house for two horcruxes that were supposed to be hidden by tomorrow. After months of inaction, Voldemort had decided to update his horcruxes and rearrange them so they'd be harder to steal. Of course, while he was doing this, he should have mused that the easiest chink in the link is the person entrusted with their safety.

After looking through the dungeons, interrogation and guests rooms, there was only one left, the office. She went there and found a trunk in which laid two swords, one all silver and the other golden. She'd bet she found the horcruxes.

But then a brutal voice, McNair, called "Accio Bella's wand!" Her wand flew to McNair, who gleefully told her she was done in. He'd had doubts of her during months, but had no proof until he saw how she treated the house-elf Hilsy. Of course he tried to get the dratted house-elf to admit the truth and convince the Dark Lord. But Hilsy kept the news until she died. So sad, but now Bella will go join her elf in death, right?

McNair kept ranting until Bella could hear footsteps approaching. She had to get out of here! Fortunately she'd followed Draco's advice and kept a spare wand. She took it out and immobilized McNair, retrieved her wand, then said "Accio horcruxes!" and two of the artifacts flew to her arms. She knew that the Dark Lord's headquarters were warded specifically against portkeys, but hoped against hope that Draco would know what he was doing when he insisted the portkey would work.

She turned toward McNair, who was gleefully observing her predicament. She said, "I wouldn't be gloating so, McNair. Avada Kedavra!" The Killing Curse reached its target and killed the Death Eater.

Finally, she turned to the door as it was blown out of its joints, grabbed the ring and shouted, "Eroberungsfeld!"

Immediately the portkey worked, and Bella was whisked away to Malfoy Manor. She arrived in what appeared to be a battle of the glares between Draco's, Pansy's, Hermione's, Harry's and Ginny's scowls.

But when they noticed her, they all stopped what they were doing, and Draco asked, "How are you, aunt? Were you hurt?"

Bella replied, "No, your portkey worked. I bring two horcruxes."

Draco replied, "Let's take them to the study. Dobby, could you please tell my mother and my Aunt Andromeda that aunt Bellatrix is home and can be found at the study?"

They arrived at the room and, as had become almost like an automatic gesture, everyone wanted to touch the horcruxes, to feel the evil within and realize that they had two more horcruxes in their power.

Then Narcissa and Andromeda arrived and all was tense for a few seconds, until Narcissa said, "Come on! You've all worked to protect each other. Andromeda when we were younger, and Bella, you've protected us when we were older. Let bygones be bygones!" Then Narcissa spoke low to the other two and they laughed and looked at Draco with menacing sweetness. He was sure it was something to do with the damned baby photos!

He continued to scowl at Hermione. She couldn't seem to admire his underhanded way of acquiring the horcruxes and was babbling that there were too many!

He countered, "Hermione, we've all felt their magic. They have to be horcruxes, they cannot be counterfeit." "As for their number, there is a good enough reason that Arithmancy selects a higher number than the one you seem to have adopted of 7"

Hermione answered, "And what are those reasons?"

Draco replied, "They are with some notebooks of mine I left in Black House. We'd have to go there. We might as well all go."

Given the importance of the horcruxes, Hermione grudgingly consented.

The gang went to Black House, and it was hilarious to observe a calmer, more courteous Mrs. Black deal with Luna. Harry was surprised to note that the house had lost its black and depressive connotations for him. Now he recognized it at the place where he had spent a happy time (however brief) with his godfather.

As always, Draco engaged in a lively discussion with Walpurgis Black, Sirius's mother. They discussed how best to go about adopting children, and how that concept had changed through the years. Walpurgis surprisingly offered encouragement to the idea, going so far as to hint about a spell she had once heard that could be used to find a child for a willing couple.

Draco went to get the notebook and came back. He was accosted by a curious Hermione near the door, and said, "See here. You must take into account the numerical properties of his name, which must be done twice. They're the same letters: 'Thomas Marvolo Riddle' and 'I am Lord Voldemort' this indicates that the letters of his name are important to him beyond the name. When you do an Arithmancy transform of the fourth power with the letters…"

Hermione interrupted, "Can you do that? I thought it was supposed to be impossible"

Draco said, "Not impossible, just very hard to do. It requires a potion that uses blood from the test subject. As I couldn't very well go and ask Voldie for it, I did the next best thing: knowing that thanks to Pettigrew, Potter and Voldie share the same blood, I used a little bit of Potter's blood for the potion, hence my results are irrefutable. Voldemort has used 9 horcruxes, and we only have 7."

Hermione looked despondent as she said, "I wonder where the Slytherin locket is?"

There was a gasp. Draco and Hermione were talking alone and were startled by the noise. They looked up and saw Mrs. Black looking at them curiously. For her, life had changed completely for the better since she had met Lord Malfoy. He'd proved to be unfailingly polite. He charmed her, and spoke to her with the truth, telling her he needed her help, and the reasons why he had those needs. She'd gone to being a lowly painting to being someone to confide in, someone who knew oftentimes information that had been forgotten otherwise, and it was a gratifying position to be in.

Miss Granger had mentioned something she thought had been forgotten. But what should she do? Perhaps she could dissemble and conceal the information from them, but she knew that outside Black House there was a war going out, and this information could be crucial to ending it once and for all; and perhaps she could help the Lord who had looked at her and seen not only a shrewish woman, not only a mother, daughter, spouse, but simply Walpurgis Black.

Walpurgis said, "Miss Granger mentioned something about the Slytherin locket. Are you looking for it?

Draco replied, "Yes, we are looking for it. It could prove of immense importance for the war."

Walpurgis continued, "Then I can help you. When I was alive many times I heard Regulus, my other son, laugh wildly into the night. He never spoke to me about his concerns, but listening outside his doors during the night I surmised that he had played a prank on Voldemort. A deadly prank on his part. He vowed to keep the Slytherin locket free.

Unfortunately, at around this time I got mortally ill and died. When I was put on the wall, Regulus was gone.

Hermione and Draco grimaced and kept silent.

Walpurgis added, "But I know who knows. Get Kreacher to show you. Call him now!

Draco called out, "Kreacher!"

The elf appeared, and looking at them, couldn't hide a moue of disgust at seeing Hermione next to Lord Black. However, before anyone could say something incendiary, Walpurgis started.

"Kreacher: long have your family and yourself served the interests of Black House. It is Walpurgis Black who asks this of you, that you help us restore order to the world. We are acting following the strictures of tradition. Will you show us and help us to find out how Regulus hid the Slytherin locket?"

The house-elf stood up straighter, after bowing down to Mrs. Black, and rejoined, "I wills does it for Mrs. Black and for Lord Malfoy and Black," trying his best not to look at Hermione.

Draco observed clinically and hoped that Hermione kept her temper in front of the temperamental little elf, although he had to admit that he had been discriminated by some people too, and it was damn annoying!

Draco and Hermione followed Kreacher to the tapestry room, where the elf knelt before the part marked with Regulus's name. He put his hands below that spot and muttered something, perhaps a spell, perhaps a curse. A door appeared and opened. Kreacher's hand entered and came out bearing what seemed to be the real Slytherin locket.

Kreacher handed it to Draco, who sensed the Dark magic, and exulted. He gave it to Hermione, who also sensed the evil, and paradoxically was comforted by it. Draco politely thanked Kreacher and they went to look for the others.

Draco stayed behind to express his thanks to Mrs. Black. He was succinct in his praise, offering only that he was sure she would be of help. She was a Black through and through. She had made an enduring impression on Draco since he'd met her. He nodded and bowed to her and hurried after his friends.

When they arrived at the Manor, they met the Black Sisters in the living room, catching up about lifetimes spent traveling different roads. Narcissa asked where they'd been. Draco answered flippantly, "We were going horcrux-hunting, we've got 8, and one to go."

Andromeda countered, "that sounds serious. Is this something we should worry about?"

Tonks answered just as glibly as Draco, "No, mother. After all, you only have to destroy them using your awesome powers!"

Bellatrix laughed uproariously, "You're having her on, right Tonks?"

Then Luna said, "Tonks was completely serious."

Bella stopped laughing and scowled concernedly,

Luna continued, "Hermione discovered that because you are three witches who are sisters, you have powers out of mythology, the druidic Power of Three. Since your magic used together should be formidable, you're the best shot we have to destroy the horcruxes, which are dangerous pieces of Voldemort's soul that if they were left to go free would mean we'd meet the bastard again down the road, as happened when the strike against Harry backfired."

Narcissa managed to cough regally and said icily, "So you've known about this Power of Three since when, Draco?"

Draco replied, fidgeting, "Since yesterday, Mother, I just wanted to..."

Narcissa interrupted, "And when were you going to tell us, just when you need us, as has transpired?"

Andromeda interjected for good measure, "Really, children, you ought to tell us and let us prepare." She glared at Tonks.

Everyone explained about horcruxes, their number and how many they had.

Draco was worried. There was still one horcrux left. Even with only one, the Dark Twit would win, and there was a spy who hadn't returned yet, the one he'd had great hopes for.

Just then the wards informed him and Blaise of a horrible disturbance. Apparently, there was one person seeking entrance to the Manor using a portkey designed by Draco, the portkey activated with the password and all was well, except that person had two others clinging onto him/her. Those two interlopers could only mean trouble. The wards were conflicted and requested direction. Said directives needed to be forthcoming, hence the urgency.

Draco immediately took charge and ordered, "Do what you do best, uncouple the magical field from the physical and the mental field, so that none concurs." After obtaining Blaise's consent, the wards proceeded to do just that.

Draco turned to the door. If the person arriving was the spy, that'd be the spot to watch. Immediately a slight figure in black could be seen with two misshapen lumps at each side. Draco walked up to the figure, hugged it and murmured "Oh Mandy!"

He took her to an empty room and let his mother diagnose her and try to heal her. After a while Narcissa came out. She said to the room of Slytherins and Gryffindors, and lone Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, "Your friend was tortured. Apparently they were saving the rough stuff for later. Your friend also has my utmost respect for her courage and pluck."

Narcissa continued, "As you can deduce, having the ring-portkey, she could get out anytime she wanted. However she knew her captors well. She must have hoped that they would take the turn to taunt her, to show her the horcrux she had been looking for. That they most assuredly did, they used the dagger-horcrux to hurt her, when she realized that was the horcrux she used the portkey and Apparated here, with the horcrux still embedded in her flesh, unfortunately, the two torturers had a moment to grasp what was happening and grabbed her, thinking to stop her. The wards did their job and did away with the torturers, by completely scrambling their magical, mental and physical fields."

Harry asked in a small voice, "The spy was Mandy Brocklehurst?"

Draco replied, "Yes, that is Mandy."

Harry muttered to himself, "Theo must be happy, because she was indispensable in the end."

Draco said to all of them, "Let's go put this final horcrux with the others!"

Everyone cheered and went to the study. Draco took out the dagger and passed it around. Everyone felt the Dark magic and was paradoxically comforted seeing it together with all the other horcruxes. If they hadn't had the help of the people they had, they'd never have gotten all the horcruxes, which was what Voldemort was counting on.

Draco wondered about something and said, "Hey, I wonder. You know we can feel the Dark Magic of the horcrux. But if we can, surely the adults can, and if the horcrux was at Black House, and that house was scanned for Dark Magic, how come they didn't notice the horcrux?"

No one could answer effectively.

Looking at the horcruxes, they all felt restless. Blaise asked Hermione if there was a time to use best to destroy them. She said there wasn't, the important things were intent and magic.

Draco said, "Damn! I want to get rid of these pesky things. Let's get the cauldron on a table in the living room and do it now."

Hermione interjected, "But Draco…"

Blaise replied, "Draco's right, Hermione. If we waited, we wouldn't sleep tonight. I know I'm too keyed up, and I gather everybody else is as well. We might as well get on with the program, if the Black Sisters are willing."

So Blaise and Harry were put in charge of ferrying the cauldron to the living room. Draco and Hermione went to look for the Sisters. Draco took advantage of the moment alone to speak with Hermione. "What do you know about obedience spells, Hermione?"

"A little, why, going to put us under one?"

"No, that'd be too easy. It's just that recently I've run across a problem when the subject of the spell could not divulge the caster, quite common I'm sure you're thinking; except the subject of the spell was dead. That is, we are looking at a spell strong enough to survive death."

Hermione replied, "That narrows the choices a lot. You want me to research it?"

"If you have enough time."

They got to the study and asked to speak to the Sisters in the living room. When they entered, the whole gang was there. They were forming a circle around the cauldron. The Sisters visibly shuddered watching the object.

Draco asked them if they would kindly use their wondrous Power of Three to rid the world of the unnatural horcruxes. Apparently using sarcasm on them backfired, as Andromeda answered primly that they wouldn't.

Everyone gasped, and then Andromeda – whom Draco was privately beginning to think of as the evil sister – said, "Think, Draco. We are Slytherins, kin of the Slytherin Prince. There is something you can do for us in return for our help."

Draco saw the trap then, but there was no turning back. He said, "You can show the baby photos, you have my word as a Malfoy."

Draco's mood was not lightened at all by the sniggers of his comrades.

Finally he said, using all the sarcasm he could muster, "And how are these pretty women going to destroy the big bad horcruxes by their lonely selves, Hermione?"

Hermione, who'd been snickering, stopped abruptly and said, "The stories tell that they projected the mental equivalent of 'destroy' in all the languages they knew. They acted in synchrony and succeeded."

Draco took charge at once and said, "Here's what we'll do. Put the table with the cauldron 5 meters from the window. The Black sisters stand 10 meters from the table, the rest of you form a shield behind me. Together we form a triangle with the horcruxes at the apex and we are the base. Just let me set a ward against unwanted energies." He took out his wand and brandished it, swishing, flicking and muttering strange phrases with such elegance and panache that it took one's breath away.

Draco continued, "Mother, aunts, you can begin when you want."

The witches began to weave a cohesive chant, using the cognate forms of words such as 'destroy, eliminate, Dark Magic, stop Dark Magic.' The unity that had been lacking in the beginning grew as the chant progressed. Small as the window of opportunity to get reacquainted had been, they had used it wisely, connecting at a deep unconscious level. They still had issues between them, which might never get solved satisfactorily, but they had the rest of their lives, however long or short that was, to try. Essentially, that was the important part, that they be willing to try.

So the sisterly bond that was the basis of the Power of Three grew visibly. There was a cloud of metallic silver and blue surrounding the table with the cauldron.

However the "big bad horcruxes" didn't plan to go out without a fight, apparently. Tentacles of black reached between the table and the Black Sisters and wrapped around them, when people wanted to help them, Draco put his foot down. "Stay out of it! The Power of Three will protect them!"

Surely enough, after a while the black streaks turned white, and were wrapping around the cauldron. The Black Sisters continued muttering, working as a team and closing one after the other the Dark Magic that underlay the horcruxes.

As the last horcrux was being destroyed, the Dark Magic again sought to gain the upper hand, but Draco sensed the coming struggle and forced the magic to follow his wards out of the Manor towards the Northwest, considering that was why he had selected the triangular shape.

After it was all finished, they took Narcissa, Andromeda and Bella to their rooms.

Draco wanted to go outside for a while, so he left to go to the Gardens. Susan came up to him and together they made good time, but when they opened the door, they could see a ghastly sight: the Morsmordre over Malfoy Manor. Draco got angry. He cast a camouflage spell and fumed, "Never had the Morsmordre been over the Manor. He'd have to hope no one had seen it."

Susan cheerfully said, "Come on, Draco! If people see it, we'll say we were attacked by the Death Eaters. Which is true, by the way. You've got rid of old Snake-face's means of resurrection, from now on, he is only an old man."

They were restless and decided to look for the others at the Manor. When they got to the living room, everyone was observing the spent horcruxes. They seemed normal now, with no magic.

An owl entered and approached Luna, who untied the parchment from its leg.

Luna read it and went to Draco, saying "My father sent me an interesting report about an unusual earthquake which occurred in Liverpool, at around the time of our adventure with the horcruxes."

Draco noncommittally nodded.

Luna continued, "It occurs to me that Liverpool is due Northwest from here."

Draco replied, "I'd say an enormous amount of magic tried to find its way home. Think about it, 9/10 of his soul just tried to unite with him and couldn't find him. If I were Voldemort's soul I'd also be pissed enough to cause an earthquake."

Luna laughed and replied, "This means he is aware that all his horcruxes were destroyed."

34. Dealing with Dark Twits, part 1