Harry Potter and the Desideratum Crusade [Harmione]

56. The Rising of a Hero

Previously:

Draco stood over Harry's lifeless body, his heavy breathing the only sound in the room. Snape came forward and rolled the body over and checked for a pulse.

Snape swallowed hard before looking up. His eyes darted to Draco before settling on Voldemort's face.

"He's dead, my Lord," he said.

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"MURDERER!" screamed Hermione as an uproar came from the students and teachers in the cages.

Draco spun around nervously as the accusations were thrown at him; this was not what he had expected. Too many people here saw Harry as the bloody hero. Didn't they understand the predicament he was in? He tried to get Ginny's attention, but she wouldn't even look at him, her eyes fixed on the body at his feet, a horrified look on her face.

He heard a voice above the noise. "Draco..."

He turned to see Voldemort looking down at him from the dais. The look on his face would have been enough to scare Greyback.

"You killed Harry Potter."

Draco flinched. It sounded worse when someone said it out loud. He had refused to look at the body.

"My Lord—" he started.

"Crucio," Voldemort said coolly.

Draco collapsed, the sword clattering to the ground beside him as fingers of fire danced through each nerve in his body. It felt like someone was trying to pull his bones out, one at a time. He screamed, and the sound of his pain reverberated through the hall, silencing everyone.

Then as suddenly as it started, it stopped. Draco lay still for a moment, breathing heavily. When he rolled over to look up, he saw his mother pleading on his behalf. Over the roar in his ears, he could hear her using the same tone of voice that she had often used with his father when she wanted something.

"Considering the animosity between the two families for the past few generations, I'm not surprised at what happened," Mrs. Malfoy was saying.

"He still took away my fun," Voldemort said, sounding a little bit like a spoiled child.

She laid a hand on his arm and smiled at him.

"You got to see him humiliated and beaten in front of his friends, and you saw him die. Surely that was satisfactory?"

Voldemort looked down and smiled at her.

"You are right, Narcissa, but I am still angry at your son."

"Then let me take him out of your sight and I will deal with him. If you wish, I can take...the body, and have the house elves clean it up and make it more presentable for your announcement to the Wizarding World," she leaned in closer. "It would send quite a strong message to the populace, don't you think?" she murmured.

Draco shook his head, trying to clear it. This couldn't be his mother standing up to the Dark Lord!

Voldemort patted her hand.

"This is why you will be such a great mother. Always thinking one step ahead."

Narcissa nodded her head.

"May I borrow Severus? I prefer to not soil myself with such...filth."

"Of course." The Dark Lord acquiesced.

Snape levitated Harry's body out of the Hall to the cries of those in the cages. Narcissa went to her son and hauled him to his feet with a strength that surprised Draco.