Harry's blood ran cold.
The person on the throne smirked cruelly. "So you made it, huh?" He rose from his seat and took a step forward.
"Stay back, Ron." Hermione demanded. She protectively outstretched her arms in front of the quivering first years.
"What are you going to do? You don't have your wand." He chuckled. He had his in his hand, and with one flick he uttered the words "Alarte Ascendare" and Hermione was shot up into the air like a stone projected from a catapult. She began tumbling back down again, screaming loudly. Draco had barely a moment to think before running to where she was going to land, hold out his arms and catch her right before she hit the stone floor.
Her screams stopped and she took a few shaky breaths. "T-thank you." Draco swallowed and put her down. Draco remembered that spell - the spell Gilderoy Lockhart had used during Harry and his duel in second year, when the snake had appeared. His eyes flicked over to Harry to see if he made the connection, but his eyes were too focused on Ron.
"That was so fun! Who's next? You?" Ron used his wand to point at Alex. She took a fearful step back. "Incarcerous!" Ron announced with glee, and silvery, glowing cords lunged out of his wand tip and wrapped tightly around Alex's body. She dropped to the ground and Henry ran over, trying to pry the binds off her but they wouldn't budge.
"Why are you doing this?" Ginny called over to her brother.
"What?"
"This. This seems like such a massive effort just to kill us. I mean, are you trying to show off or something?" Hermione looked nervously over to Ginny, fearful that whatever she might say next might actually get them killed. "Cool. You tied up a first year and shot Hermione into the ceiling with a couple of words. Aren't you so powerful, eh?"
"Shut up!" Ron barked. "It wasn't my stupid idea to do those lame tasks, I wasn't involved with that at all!"
Harry furrowed his brow. "Then who was it?"
Ginny nodded. "Yeah, who was it?"
Ron's face went red with anger. "Didn't I tell you to shut up? Incarcerous!" Once again, thick cords surrounded Ginny, wrapping around her body and mouth.
"Mmph! Mmph!" She struggled, tumbling to the ground. Harry and Emily, who were closest to her, bent down and tried to help but there was nothing they could do.
"And in answer to your question, it was me." A cold voice behind them piped up. Hermione spun and came face-to-face with Lucius Malfoy.
"You..." Draco breathed, staggering backwards.
"How nice of you to join us, Draco. How long has it been? Oh, that's right, since your mother and you decided to run away from me?"
Ron released a belly laugh. "Didn't I say, eh? Didn't I say, wait til Draco sees you. Wait for his reaction. I knew it would be funny."
Hermione saw Lucius roll his eyes.
"Can we kill them now? Please? I'm bored." Ron twiddled his wand in his hand.
"We can," Lucius had a smile curling onto his lips. "Let's have some more fun before, shall we? It's not every day that you get 8 wandless people come here like lambs to a slaughterhouse. Let's savour the moment."
"Yeah, yeah, good idea. Aguamenti." A burst of ice cold water hit Harry with such force he was shot against the wall and landed in a soggy heap. Ron pointed his wand at Draco, but Lucius pushed it down.
"No, he's mine. Crucio." Suddenly, white-hot pain erupted over every inch of Draco's body. He fell to his knees and released a scream of agony.
"Draco!" Draco heard Hermione call out, but his hearing sounded like he was deep underwater and everyone else was on land.
"Crucio! Crucio" Lucius called again and Draco's flaming pain was reignited. He had never felt anything like it before in his life. The pain was so bad he couldn't remember what it felt like to not be in that much pain. Meanwhile, Ron had Stupefied Emily and thrown her across the room.
Thankfully, Lucius turned away from Draco but had his wand pointed at Henry. "Crucio!" Henry dropped to the floor and howled in pain. Lucius readied himself for round two, pointing his wand at the convulsing boy. Hermione knew what she had to do, and ran in between Lucius and Henry. "Crucio!"Hermione got the curse right in the chest, but it spread to the rest of her body in an instant.
She felt as helpless as she did in Malfoy Manor those years ago. She lay on the ground as Lucius shot two more curses at her, tears leaking from her eyes, her mouth releasing all kinds of agonising noises. At that moment, Hermione thought she was sure to die. From her misted vision, she saw Lucius's pair of polished black boots walking away from her.
"Petrificus Totalus" Lucius shot the spell at Wren, who froze in place then fell backwards.
Ginny released a nervous whimper from behind her binds as Lucius approached her. "stupefy" he said boredly, and Ginny's eyes rolled back into her head with a jolt of her body.
"Levicorpus!" Ron shouted at Alex, who was lifted into the air by her left ankle, which was bound tightly to her right one. She had a large knot on her head from being struck earlier, and she was unconscious. He flicked his wand with sharp, rapid precision and she was thrown again the back wall, next to Harry who was still passed out. Hermione could barely breathe, and she closed her eyes, waiting for it all to be over.
"Expelliarmus!" A voice shouted out. Hermione opened her eyes again. Why would Ron or Lucius disarm each other?
She sat up weakly and saw Lucius's wand skid past her at lightning speed. She clamped her hand on top of it before it could slide far away, pick it up and snapped it with all the strength she could muster. She looked up and saw Draco hunched over the lectern she's noticed earlier, his wand tightly in his grasp.
"Expelliarmus!" He shouted again, this time at Ron, who was thrown back into the wall, his wand shooting off in the direction of Wren, who picked it up and snapped it in half.
"DRACO!!!!!" Lucius bellowed. He started marching over to his already weakened son, his hands clenched, his knuckles white. Draco frantically pointed his wand at his father. "Coccinellidus!" he shouted.
Lucius began to wail as his body contorted. He shifted his size, shape and colour and he suddenly disappeared completely, leaving behind a pile of robes. Wren bent down and sifted through the fabric. "Look!" On his palm was a small, scarlet ladybird. "Is that him?"
"Coccinellidus!" Draco yelled again to Ron, which the same thing happened to. He disappeared in a pile of clothes and Wren discovered a little ladybird hiding in the folds as well. Hermione tried to ignore the pounding pain on every side of her body as she got up and went to help Henry. He was crying in pain, but got up ever so slowly when Hermione helped him. A crucioed first year? He must've been the youngest ever.
"Good spell choice." Ginny got up, rubbing her wrists and arms as her bonds had disappeared. An eerie silence hung in the air after the loudness it had just been subjected to.
Draco passed out the wands to the conscious people and gotten Wren to give him the ladybirds. He'd been told that Ron was the one with five spots, Lucius had six.
He used his wand to render them immobile and put them in his pocket.
It was over.