Unless You Tell Them to Everyone

The six heroes began to exit the Great Hall before they were joined by Neville, Luna, and Ginny. Neville spoke for the three of them, "We're going to help. Tell us what to do."

Harry responded automatically, "Ginny, I don't want you to-"

"Oh shut up, Harry. I'm going to help, and you know it."

Harry scowled, but knew he was going to get nowhere with the fiery redhead. "Fine. You guys follow us. We're trying to make it up to the Room of Requirement to shut down the vanishing cabinet, but we have to get rid of any death eaters on the way or up there. Just follow us, stay close, and watch your back."

They all raced out of the Great Hall, following Harry up the stairs, avoiding spells along the way. They past Professor Mcgonagall and Professor Flitwick fighting off two unnamed death eaters. They continued to go up the stairs, knowing that even though they wanted to protect their friends, shutting the vanishing cabinet was more important.

When they got up to the fifth floor, Dolohov realized who was passing by him. "Oy! It's him! It's Harry Potter!"

As quickly as he could, Draco sent a body-bind curse towards Dolohov, hitting him square in the chest. His body froze and fell backwards, but a couple of death eaters nearby had already heard him.

"Let's bring him upstairs!"

"Bellatrix will know what to do with him!"

Harry was grabbed by two death eaters, who the others tried to fight off. They got them off of Harry, and hit them with body-bind curses as well.

Luckily, there were only two more death eaters, and nine of the good guys, so they easily fought them off before continuing their journey upstairs.

They got upstairs to the Room of Requirement without any more run-ins with death eaters, which was extraordinarily lucky.

When they got up to the seventh floor corridor, they stopped for a moment to make a game plan. "Alright," Harry said with determination. "I think, that if we all go in there at once, we can take them down. But, on the other hand, the only one I know for sure that's in there is Bellatrix. I don't know if she'll have others with her."

"I know her weakness," Draco mumbled.

"What did you say, Draco?"

"I said... I know her weakness. I know it's ridiculous, but if you hit her with Rictusempra, the tickling charm, it'll render her totally useless. She won't be able to do anything. Not to mention, it'll catch her completely off-guard, because almost no one knows that."

Everybody's eyebrows knit in confusion at that exact same time, except for Hermione's. "How did you-" Ron started, but Hermione cut him off.

"That's great, Draco, thank you so much. I think I can handle the Rictusempra charm," she said, smiling. Of course, the rest of them didn't know that Bellatrix was actually Draco's biological aunt, and it was going to stay that way.

"Alright, sounds good. The rest of us will all grab a death eater, depending on how many of them there are. If there are more of us, then double up on a death eater. No one is getting hurt on this mission. If Hermione is handling Bellatrix, then Draco and I will go deal with the vanishing cabinet. Is everybody ready?"

Everyone nodded in unison, and when Harry counted to three, they all burst in to the Room of Requirement as loudly as they could, trying to catch the people inside off guard.

Inside stood Bellatrix Lestrange, standing in front of what looked like about fifteen death eaters. They recognized Avery, Greyback, Thicknesse, Dolohov, and Lucius Malfoy. The rest were random people they didn't know, but before they had a chance to dwell on it, curses were flying.

Hermione started it off with a particularly powerful, "RICTUSEMPRA!" cast at Bellatrix, who immediately fell to the ground, screeching and cackling hysterically.

The rest of the death eaters sprung to action, as did the students. Curses were flying everywhere, and Hermione saw Draco and Harry slip away, Draco leading Harry to the vanishing cabinet.

Hermione kept a watch over Bellatrix, but also sent curses towards the death eaters her friends were battling. She hit Avery with a particularly harsh stupefy, and he went flying backwards only to be knocked out cold, much to Neville and Luna's relief.

It seemed as if the others were handling the death eaters quite well, but she still sent more curses to help them along. Bellatrix, meanwhile, was still laughing on the ground, but shouting out profanities in between giggles.

Hermione watched in horror as Lucius Malfoy hit Ron with the Cruciatus Curse, and then side-stepped over his writhing body to deal with someone else. Hermione ran over to Ron, not sure what to do. She screamed at Lucius, who was busy battling Fred Weasley. As she was huddling over Ron's struggling body, she felt the breath get pushed out of her lungs as she was picked up by her stomach.

Suddenly, she felt a wand pressed to her throat and a deep voice yell out, "Stop." Everybody stopped short, except for Bellatrix, who was still laughing. Dolohov pointed his wand at Bellatrix, who stopped laughing immediately and ran at Hermione.

"You filthy, disgusting little mudblood! How dare you curse me, a pureblood? Say goodbye to everybody, because you will be dead in moments, and-" She stopped when two more boys walked in to the clearing. Harry and Draco stood at the edge of the circle and looked around at everybody.

"It is destroyed," Harry said quietly.

"What?" Bellatrix hissed. "The vanishing cabinet... is destroyed? Oh, you've really done it now. I don't care if the Dark Lord wants to kill you himself. Avada-"

Lucius stopped Bellatrix with a barked out, "NO! You will not kill the boy... yet. First, he must watch his friend die."

Hermione felt tears begin to fall down her face- she had been close to death before, but it had never felt this real. She looked towards Draco, pleading with her eyes for him to do something.

"What about the blonde boy, Lucius? Can I at least kill him?"

Lucius, for the first time, locked eyes with Draco. His mouth opened slightly, but he shook his head, as if he thought he was hallucinating.

"Come on, Lucius! Let's get on with it," Bellatrix said gleefully.

"Right... right."

As they both raised their wands in unison, Harry and Draco did the same time. In unison, just before Bellatrix and Lucius could, the boys screamed, "AVADA KEDAVRA!"

Both Lucius and Bellatrix fell, dead to the floor. In moments, all the remaining death eaters turned in to shadows and flew out the windows, shattering them, and through the obviously damaged magical shield around Hogwarts.

Draco ran to Lucius, alternating between looking at him and his own hands, which still held his wand, as if he couldn't process what he had just done. Harry had the same look on his face, trying to get it through his head that he had just killed a person.

Everyone was looking at Draco with a confused expression, wondering why he was mourning over a death eater. Only Hermione knew the truth, something that she knew would haunt Draco forever.

He had just killed his own father.