Hi. I'm sorry I haven't been updating very frequently. I lost all my inspiration for this story, which is why the ending might seem kinda rushed. But there WILL be an ending. This is not the last chapter. There will be another, and likely a short epilogue. I hope I don't disappoint, because if you're still here then that means you took time out of your life to read nearly 200,000 words of MY writing, which is a fact that blows my mind.

I've got a lot more to say, but I'll put that at the beginning of the epilogue.

Oh, and this chapter is not beta read. All others were beta read by Sailor Silver Ladybug. I will be forever grateful to her, for making this story so much better than anything I could write on my own.

However, I know that there are some things not even a beta reader can fix, and yes, I am aware that this story needs a nice, long edit, and a cut of useless fluff, and just an overall trim. But I will not be doing that. I'm sorry. I hope you can look past all my mistakes.

If you want to read something I'm writing right now, and that I definitely am still inspired to write (at the rate I'm going, I'm writing four pages perday) then please read All My Little Demons! It is a MCU fic, so I understand if you all won't want to read it. But if you are into that, please give it a try?

()()()

"Okay… okay. Focus, focus. Not much time. Hurry."

She whispered under her breath as she searched through rows and rows of books, touching their leather covers as she went, quickly reading each title before continuing on. Occasionally she would open a book and leaf through its pages, only to come up with nothing.

Most of these books were ridiculously old, pages crinkles and yellowing. Dusty. She coughed more than once. Because they were so old, much of the information was outdated or indecipherable. She cursed aloud when she opened a book only to find that the words had been worn away by the years, and there was nothing left but ugly smears of ink.

"Keep looking. Don't give up! How can you give up?"

She stood on her tiptoes, scanning the highest shelves. She had already searched through "A" for "Alternate," but found nothing. "D" came up empty as well. She ran from shelf to shelf, tracing words with her fingers, muttering quietly under her breath. Gold print, elegant scrawls, it made no difference. There was nothing here.

Perhaps he had done this. Maybe he took the books away so that they wouldn't be able to find out the truth.

But… Malfoy Manor. If he hadn't destroyed them, they would be at Malfoy Manor.

She sighed, running her fingers through her bushy hair.

A footstep.

She whirled around, wand in her hand, instantly. She ducked, and the first curse hit the books behind her, turning them into a bright fire that licked at her sweater.

Madam Pince glared down at her. Another curse came towards her, but Hermione had already cast a shielding charm and it bounced off, burning a hole in the ground. Hermione stood, quickly, and ran behind one of the shelves of books.

Pince followed.

But Hermione was already running the other way, out the door of the Restricted Section and out of the library. Her feet pounded loudly on the floor as she bolted down the hallway.

"You have an advantage. You know Hogwarts," she said to herself, even though she was already out of breath. She hurtled past classrooms and stairwells before ducking into a small, secluded hallway - a shortcut to the DADA classroom. She ran, gasping, down it, through the darkness and out the other side. Skidding around the corner and into a dark classroom. She hid behind the door.

Forcing herself to close her mouth, to breathe through her nose. Crouching down into the shadows. And she watched the little shaft of light that came in through the cracked door, waiting for the tell-tale signs of a shadow moving across it.

She didn't have to wait long.

To their credit, she didn't hear a footsteps. But she saw their foot for a brief moment as they walked past. They were wearing green socks.

She pulled on the magical string she had Transfigured. It was crude, but effective. They fell ridiculously, like in the movies. Arms flailing, landing with a crash and a short squeal of surprise. It was cut short and replaced with a grunt as the wind was knocked out of them.

Hermione stepped out of the classroom. "Finite Incantatem," she said. Nothing. So it was Polyjuice. Idly, she wondered who they were, even as she stunned them with a jet of blue light. She pocketed their wand and hurried away, back down the hallway.

It was so eerily quiet here. Her footsteps sounded so loud in the empty halls, and for a moment the long shadow she cast held the illusion of another person standing there, making her heart jump into her throat. But no, she was alone. Completely alone.

She should have gone with the others. She shouldn't have stayed here. Sure, she could take on a lone, slightly idiotic death eater. But if she met anyone competent in these halls, she wasn't confident in her abilities. And she wasn't used to that.

A shadow, light grey, streaked across the wall ahead of her. She ducked into the space between candles where it was darkest, casting a quick charm to disguise herself and hoping it would be enough.

A quiet voice floated ahead of whoever it was, and footsteps. No, two sets of footsteps. Calm, regulated footsteps.

"She said it would be safest there. Less chance of escape. At least, that's what she told me."

A deep voice. A vaguely familiar voice. Hermione huddled closer to the wall.

"She told you wrong." High-pitched, nasal. Slimy.

The shadows bobbed up and down as they drew nearer to the end of the hallway.

"She thought that she was doing the right thing. It wasn't her fault, my lord, if I may… it was Carrow."

"Which?"

"Amycus. He was watching them."

"I will kill him when we are done here."

Finally, they came into view.

She gasped accidentally, pressed a hand to her mouth, tempted to bite down. She pressed closer to the wall, her fingernails stabbed into the carpet. Heart pounding, raw fear.

That was Lord Voldemort, only a few feet away.

It was surreal.

But she had to pull herself together. Pay attention. You can't have a fucking panic attack every time someone dangerous comes your way.

"But… may I be frank, my lord?" that was Lucius Malfoy. He was leaning heavily on a cane as he walked. He looked abnormally uncertain, cautious, around his master.

"Do as you will," it was apparent that Voldemort wasn't exactly listening.

Lucius took a few seconds to reply. "You… Carrow is loyal. He's like a bulldog. His one thought, his purpose, is to serve you."

"And?"

"And… you don't have many followers to spare, my lord. If you are indeed planning to…"

Voldemort's lips stretched into a smile. He began to laugh. High-pitched and awful. It hurt, it made her ears buzz. Hermione put her fingers in her ears, eyes shut tight until it stopped. "Oh, Lucius!" Voldemort cried, still smiling. "You are… adorable."

They had reached the end of the hallway. She saw them both pull up their hoods, wands in their hands, and walk around the corner, out of sight. But she stayed there, breathing quietly, and pulled out her wand.

"Locito."

The little golden strand grew outwards like a vine. There it hovered, catching everything that they said. Hermione sat cross-legged, listening, clutching the bright strand of magic tightly.

"No memory, apparently. Do you not recall my telling you over and over that I have a plan? That everything is falling into place? I can stand to spare a few incompetent death eaters, especially as an example for the rest."

"A few?"

Voldemort laughed again. Hermione winced. At this rate, she was going to get a nasty headache. "They nearly got away, Lucius. And you were on the roof."

The footsteps stopped.

And Hermione's breath caught.

Nearly?

What… what? What did he mean? Nearly?

"I know. I apologize. My lord, it was foolish of me, but I checked to be sure that he was truly dead, and I did not see -"

"Spare me your incessant babble, Lucius. You talk and talk, yet say nothing."

Lucius sputtered. "My lord, all I'm saying is that I was only trying to do what you ordered me to, I didn't mean for… all I did was…"

"I know what you did, Lucius!" Voldemort shouted.

Silence.

Now his voice was quiet, dangerous. "You actually thought you could hide it from me? Sometimes, I wonder if I only keep you around because your brainlessness is amusing. Oh, yes. Now your eyes widen. Now you back away. It won't save you."

"It's not what you think -"

"I know you let him go! I've always known! I can sift through your thoughts and watch it happen in front of my eyes!"

Something hissed. Lucius gave a sharp cry of pain.

"You let him trick you. He pretended to be just as weak as you expected, but then he stunned you. You tried to keep your folly a secret, but I knew from the instant you met me back in the great hall."

"I -" there was a thud. "My lord, the venom…" Lucius broke off.

"I know everything. I knew that Severus would betray me before he did!" Voldemort was yelling now. Hermione could feel the dark magic from here, making her hair stand on end. "I always knew that your son was a piece of scum. And I know that the Mudblood girl is listening to our conversation even as we speak!"

Hermione very nearly screamed. But she did drop her wand, and the little strand of golden magic shattered on the floor. She snatched it up and stumbled to her feet, running down the hallway with one hand clapped over her mouth. Everything was lopsided. She couldn't see straight.

She glanced behind her and sent a curse flying towards the ceiling. It hit with a sound like thunder, cracking and breaking and falling in front of her eyes. Slabs of rock, broken pieces all tumbling down to land in a great cloud of dust. Hermione kept running, back through the darkness. Past the frozen body of the Polyjuiced Madam Pince. It was the adrenaline, pulsing like blood, that kept her going, on and on without stopping.

"In here! Quickly!"

She stopped. She looked towards the sound, and saw that Luna Lovegood was standing against the wall, gesturing frantically. No, wait, not against the wall, in the wall.

Hermione stared at her. "What?"

Cho Chang appeared behind her. "Just do it!" she cried.

Hermione glanced in between them, and saw a crowd of other students. Several that she recognized, or was even friends with. Fuck it, she thought, and let them take her hand and pull her through the door.

()()()

"But… after everything… are you sure?"

Poppy smiled sadly, then flung her arms around him. Severus hugged her back just as tightly.

"Then why are we here?" he asked into her hair.

"I don't know. At first I was convinced I was dreaming. I still might be. But you feel real. How can I be dead if it all feels real? And yet…" she pushed him away, lightly. Sighing. She turned around and pulled up her hair with one hand so that he could see the little branches of green light trailing down her neck.

"What is it?"

"Minerva said that it's the magic from the killing curse. It's still in my system, but it has nowhere to go. Makes sense if you think about it. It's meant to kill, but I'm already dead. It has nothing left to do."

Severus glanced at Minerva. She was far off in the distance, and a few students were gathered around her. He recognized Plum, even from so far away. Her glasses were crooked. He hoped that her head didn't hurt anymore.

He met Poppy's eyes again. She touched his forearm just above where the dark mark was hidden. She pulled up his sleeve. He tensed, but waited as she traced it lightly with her finger. He cringed when he looked at it, and looked away. He much preferred to look at Poppy, anyway.

She looked at him. "I'm sorry," she blurted out.

"Me too."

"I missed you."

"Me too."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"You're not just saying that because we're dead?"

Severus paused. She let go of his arm, and he pulled the sleeve back over the mark. He stared beyond her, at the darkness. It glowed faintly green.

"I've only ever loved one woman, besides you."

"You love me?"

He smiled, ruefully. Wishing that he could have told her before this. "Her name was Lily Potter. She… had beautiful eyes," he whispered. He saw them in his mind - bright and burning. Her face, her smile, the freckles on her nose.

I don't need help from filthy Mudbloods like her!

It echoed through his mind.

He blinked.

"I heard about what happened. I'm sorry."

"Thank you."

Severus took a deep breath. He pulled away from her, crossing his arms tightly, looking away from her and into the dark. "Ever since I met her, my Patronus was a doe, like hers."

"You must have really loved her."

"Yes. But… just today, something changed. I tried to cast a Patronus, and it didn't work. But it always works. I used to be able cast a Patronus no matter where I was, no matter how few happy thoughts there seemed to be, because I could always think about her. But it didn't work."

"Why?"

"It was after our fight. I thought that was why. But I don't think it was."

"You care about me so much that… you thought it could cause you to be unable to cast a Patronus?"

"No. That's not what I'm saying."

Her face fell.

Severus struggled to say it. He really had trouble exposing his feelings. But eventually, he was able to form the words. "I'm saying that I care about you so much that my Patronus has changed."

"It has?"

"It's the only thing that makes sense. My being unable to perform the spell. I wish that I could do it here so that I could show you…"

And if he could have shown her, Severus would have hoped desperately that he was right. It would have been quite awkward if his Patronus was still a doe.

She put her hand on his forearm again, gently. "Why not? Try."

Severus laughed. "Even if magic were possible here, do you think I could come up with any happy thoughts now? I'm dead."

"Going back on our word, are we? You just said that you can always create a Patronus, no matter where you are," she made her voice lower, in a silly imitation of him that made him smile. She gasped, pointing at him. "You just smiled! You must have been thinking of something happy if you smiled!"

Severus hesitated.

"Just try," she said. "Here. I'll give you a happy thought to help you get started."

She kissed him.

"I hope that makes up for earlier."

"Most definitely."

She smiled.

Severus took out his wand. It was bright with blood, but he wiped that on his robes casually, hoping that she wouldn't see. No such luck. He saw her expression change, ever so slightly, becoming sadder for a moment. But when he waved his wand and cast a beautiful, shining Patronus into the dark, her smile was back.

It was a raven. He grinned, actually grinned, something that he hadn't done in a long time. "See? I told you!"

"Oh… Severus. My Patronus is a dove," she said.

Severus's eyes followed the raven as it swooped and dove through the darkness, before landed it in a bluster of feathers on his outstretched arm. Severus got goosebumps because of the gust of cool air that followed it. Poppy let go of his forearm to tap it lightly, and then she ran her fingers through its feathers.

With her other hand, she cast a Patronus. The silvery dove flew off with a cry of delight, turning in graceful twists and loops. The raven let go of Severus's arm and swooped away to join it.

He and Poppy stared, transfixed. Her hand found his, and she leaned closer.

"Perhaps it's yours," she said.

"What?"

"Your real Patronus."

Severus didn't know what to make of that, so he didn't respond, just squeezed her hand tightly and let her kiss him on the cheek. They floated through the endless black together.

()()()

"Have you all been hiding in here ever since the tournament?" Hermione asked, glancing at each student in turn. Perhaps she looked a bit too accusing. Most of them wouldn't meet her eyes.

Luna, however, did. "Yes!" she said. "The entire time. We ran in here together and haven't gone out once."

Hermione pushed her out of the way. The rest parted like water. Behind them was a brightly burning fireplace and several armchairs. There was a long table, heaps of food. A bookshelf. A pink rug.

"Seriously? You're been eating eclairs while people are dying?" she spun around. "We have to do something! You're not seriously planning on just waiting in your little hole for the battle to end, are you?"

Silence, and several shifting glances and fidgeting hands.

Hermione glared at them. "No. I have to find Harry, and you're coming with me."

She didn't look to see their reactions, instead she opened the door and stepped out of the Room of Requirement. She paced in front of it, all the while thinking, "A library. A library with the answers I need."

She pushed the door open and walked into the most beautiful library she had ever seen. Shelves disappeared upwards into a vaulted ceiling made of windows. Light shone through them, brilliantly, illuminating a single shelf of books.

She pulled them out in handfuls, threw them to the ground. There. A bright one, with a purple cover. It stood out. That would be the one.

Mali Munda Tacent, it read. The World's Evils are Silent.

She flipped through until she found a page marked with a bookmark. There were two paragraphs.

The wizard who creates this universe can lie. He can change the books to contain false information. He can create people who never existed. He can give people things they never had. But he cannot take away. All that exists in the new world existed in the old one. They made be tainted, they may be unrecognizable, but they are there.

The major flaw in this plan is the fact that this wizard's powers will be extremely heightened, to the point of instability. If attacked by many powerful spells at once, the wizard would be filled with so much power that he would simply explode. Even Horcruxes (see pg. 441) would not bring him back. The new world that he has created will be unstable as well. It will fracture and break. The occupants will be transported back to the old world (unless they were dead there, and the wizard brought them back to life) with no recollection of what happened. They may endure the same amount of flashes that they experienced in the new world, but there is no proof of this. In any case, everything will be much the same as it was before.

Hermione stared at the pages until they blurred together. So this was his master plan - create a broken shell of a world to rule? And once - if - they killed him, what then? Everything goes back to normal - whatever that was - and Voldemort gets the last laugh?

Hermione didn't want everything to go back to normal. She didn't know what normal meant. She wanted this world. She didn't want everything to break apart.

()()()

The Manor was empty. Nothing but quiet marble and ceilings that arched away into darkness and the smell of plastic flowers. Their footsteps echoed through hallway after hallway as Blaise and Pansy walked willingly into the dungeons.

When he passed the place where Greengrass had died for him, his heart gave a lurch.

Down into darkness. The walls dripped with mold. It was so cold that Blaise shivered. Obviously these things had been added by Lucius Malfoy to add to the discomfort of his prisoners. There was no way that a beautiful mansion such as his would be so drafty.

"Shh," he whispered, pulling her behind him and ducking behind a corner as two Death Eaters walked by. She smiled gratefully.

The ribbons led them straight to Potter's cell. Blaise formed a golden circle of light with his hands and let it drift through the bars. It lit up Potter's eyes, bright with too little sleep. Blaise blinked until his own eyes adjusted. Potter was bound by ropes, and they had leaned him up against the wall like he was a pair of skis. Longbottom was on the floor.

Blaise waved his hand and their ropes fell away.

"You're that kid from the…" Potter started to say, one finger pointed at Blaise's face.

"Let's just leave it at that, shall we?" Blaise interrupted. He vanished the bars and held out a hand for Potter to take.

"Come on, we haven't got all day," Pansy said.

Potter's eyes widened with recognition. "Pansy!"

"The one and only," she said, with a smirk.

Potter hesitated, eyes darting between them. Then he grabbed Blaise's hand and stepped out of the cell.

"How cute," someone said.

Not someone. Blaise knew that voice. He knew it because it sent chills up his spine. He knew it because his hands clenched into fists. He knew it because Potter's eyes widened and he took a step back and pressed a hand to his forehead.

Blaise and Pansy whirled around.

Voldemort stood like a ghost at the end of the hallway. There was no light and yet his skin glowed from within. Eyes narrowed into slits. But he held no wand, instead he stood with his hands outstretched, chest exposed, daring them to strike.

Blaise did. Blaise formed a red bubble of light with his hands and flung it outwards. A chilling smile crossed Voldemort's face; the bubble paused in midair and began to float back towards them.

"What?" Blaise furrowed his brows, pushing harder until his body screamed because magic was coursing so quickly through his skin. Beside him, Pansy screamed a curse and blue light barrelled towards Voldemorts, but he flicked his wrist and it shattered like glass. Potter was in too much pain to try.

"I can't kill him," Voldemort said. "I need something stronger. A werewolf's bite, but we all know how that ended. A basilisk's fang but… well, I've tried that before, as well," a smile tugged on his paper-thin lips. "Luckily for me, I added insurance. The muggle girl should have been able to do it, that plan should have worked, but it didn't." He took a step forward. "But if you know one thing about me, always know that I never give up. I have another plan, and this one will work."

Blaise gritted his teeth, but the magic just continued to glide towards Harry. "What the hell are you talking about?" he demanded, even though he felt more trapped than he had felt in days, even though he couldn't control his own magic which was the only thing that he ever felt like he could control, even though he was sweating with the effort and nothing was working.

"You," Voldemort hissed.

So the magic hit Harry in waves upon waves. Blaise screamed and Harry screamed and Pansy screamed and Voldemort laughed.

()()()

Draco heard it.

"Father!" he whispered, to Lucius, who was bound beside him, in his robes, but with dirty hair and tired eyes. "Quickly, we have to…" his voice broke off because he was about to cry because he knew it was Harry, and then his shoulders started to shake and his breaths came in gasps. He drew his knees up to his chest and leaned against the filthy wall of Voldemort's prison and squeezed his eyes shut, but nothing could drown out the screaming.

A hand rested on his shoulder. Draco shrunk away automatically and looked up at Lucius. The hand tightened painfully on his shoulder. Draco was frozen and he couldn't get away. Draco looked down because his father towered over him even though he wasn't even standing, he was on his knees in front of Draco, now with both hands on his shoulders, gripping him so tightly that it pinched his skin.

"Breathe slowly. You're having a panic attack, so just breathe slowly. I'm sorry about your friend but if you can't breathe then you can't save him."

Draco hardly heard his father's words. He was too caught off guard by the fact that Lucius was trying to help him.

"Okay," he said, and he tried to breathe slowly. It didn't work because Harry's screams still cut through the air, high and shrill and awful. He squeezed his eyes shut and choked on a sob.

The pain on his shoulders lessened. Arms folded around his body, drawing him closer. Draco realized that his father was hugging him. He tensed, frozen in his father's embrace.

"I'm sorry," Lucius murmured in his ear. "Please know that I am so, so sorry. But Voldemort's snake bit me, and I'm going to die." Draco jerked, struggling to escape his father's arms, but Lucius only held him tighter. "So listen. Don't worry about me. I'm cruel and a madman and I don't deserve your pity. Focus on Harry. Think about him and, as much as I loathe to say it, think about how you love him. You must do it. Grant your father his dying wish."

Draco nodded and swallowed and closed his tear-filled eyes. He thought about Harry, about his smile and his eyes and his ever-dirty glasses. About the Gryffindor scarf he had given to Draco, about their date at Hogsmeade and their first kiss. He thought about how he could hear Harry screaming and how much he didn't want that to happen.

So he pulled free of his father's arms and stood up, despite the sound of his own stuttered breathing and the feeling that the small cell was closing in on him. He walked to the door and looked out.

There was a bright light at the end of the corridor. In it, he could see Pansy's red hair. "Pansy!" he called out.

She crept to his cell and unlocked the door. "He's got Harry," she whispered. "I don't know how, but he's got Harry, and Blaise, and he didn't even notice me. He has Harry."

Draco tried to run towards Harry, but she held him back. "No!" she hissed. "It won't work. We have to find another way."

Draco hesitated, then nodded. He glanced back into the cell behind him. His father lay still on the ground.

They heard several pops of Apparition from upstairs. Pansy grabbed his hand and pulled him towards it. She stayed close to the wall so that they wouldn't be seen, and they ran up the stairs through the flickering torchlight. Draco nearly collided with Hermione Granger.

"Oh my god!" Pansy cried. "'Mione!"

"Pansy! Draco!"

"Luna? Luna Lovegood? Cho Chang?" Pansy said, confused.

Hermione was here, with a herd of Ravenclaws trailing behind her. "We came to find Harry," she said. "I know how we can beat Voldemort. We have to…"

More pops. They ran further up the stairs until they emerged into the Manor's huge entrance hall. There were the members of the Order. Hermione, Pansy, and the Ravenclaws cheered when they saw them.

"Thank you for sending us the owl, Hermione," Molly said, wrapping Hermione up in a hug. "We can only hope that you're right about this."

Hermione's eyes darted to the ground and back to Molly's face. She hesitated, then pulled away from her embrace and whispered, "Me too."

"Then there's no time to waste," Molly said.

()()()

Oh, green.

Beautiful green.

Voldemort licked his lips and brought Zabini's magical green light closer to Potter's face. Both boys screamed again. It was tantalizing, but not strong enough. He needed time to pour more magic into the spell. A simple Avada Kedavra wouldn't do the trick - this had to be something spectacular.

"Tom."

He whipped his head around. The magic faltered slightly when he saw who it was.

"Albus," he hissed, injecting the word with loathing.

Dumbledore stood impossibly at the end of the hallway. His robes were tattered, his beard was ragged and he had bags under his eyes but he was Dumbledore and he had a wand in his hand. "Let him go," Dumbledore said. He stepped forward.

Voldemort laughed. "Or what?" he asked. He let a jet of light shoot out from Blaise's hand, towards Albus. He blocked it, but a few sparks leapt up and sizzled in his beard.

Albus stepped aside to allow a ragtag bunch of Hogwarts students and what was left of the Order cram into the hallway. A smile tugged at Voldemort's thin lips. This was the group that had come to fight him? Fools. They didn't even know how to defeat him. But, even if they had, it would have been impossible. He was too powerful, and this was his world. They were fighting on his turf now.

()()()

Four pops, and four death eaters Apparated into the corridor behind Draco. Another pop marked the entrance of Sirius Black. Draco cringed away from the deadly fight that exploded around him.

Bellatrix Lestrange stepped past him, wand aimed at Sirius's face. She threw a curse at him, but it missed.

"Come on, you can do better than that!" he cried, with a laugh. He ducked away from another curse and sent one her way. It hit her in the chest and she fell to the ground.

Draco plastered himself against the wall and inched his way towards Harry.

Harry. Oh, poor, dear Harry. He had fallen limp to the ground, but a bright snake of power still coursed through his skin, growing out from Blaise's frozen, outstretched hands. Blaise's screams still ripped painfully through the corridor, but Harry was silent.

"Now!" he heard Hermione call out.

He raised his wand, along with everyone else. He raised his wand and pointed it at Voldemort and let magic - pure, unaltered magic - hit the Dark Lord straight in the chest.

()()()

A bright spiderweb cut its way through the darkness. Severus and Poppy pulled away from each other.

"Do you think…?" she didn't finish the question, but he knew what she meant.

Wordlessly, he nodded.

They raised their wands. Severus called out to the others and instructed them to do the same. Together, they sent bright beams of magic towards the spidery crack and smiled as it grew larger.

()()()

More beams of light were added by the others, and with each one, Voldemort's smile grew.

"You think you can defeat me with this? I am Voldemort! I am power! You are simply giving me exactly what I need, what I desire! In a moment your precious savior will be dead -"

He exploded.

All wandfire ceased as everyone simply watched, jaws dropped. There was a bang like a gunshot and then hot, white firey light. Draco darted forward and grabbed Harry's arm and pulled him away from it. Pansy grabbed Blaise and did the same.

The fire followed them down the hallway, up the stairs, and into the grand entrance of Malfoy Manor. By the time they had run out the door, the Manor was burning.

()()()