If you want it done right, ask the Squirrel

Lucius Malfoy felt the tingle at the base of his skull that meant that someone had dropped the wards on one of his properties. He hoped that it was Draco, and that someone had found Severus.

He realized now that the Dark Lord was insane. How could he be asked to kill his son? How could he be asked to set aside his wife? Obviously the man had no idea what real pureblood ideals were. Did Voldemort realize that he was basically killing off the Malfoys by asking this of him? The bond he and Narcissa shared involved many vows, one of which was fidelity. He could not cheat on her, which was what it would be, since they had bonded for life. Beyond the punishment his magic would bestow on him, he actually loved his wife.

Unfortunately, he was not sure she was going to survive the latest round of Voldemort's displeasure. The many Crucios and other painful hexes and curses were wreaking havoc on the delicate witch. He knew he would have to ask for sanctuary from Dumbledore, but he didn't know what kind of reception he would get. He was quite willing to play the spy, if it would save his family.

He prepared a note, with both Slytherin and Malfoy codes embedded in the plea for sanctuary. The codes would tell Severus and Draco what really was going on, and verify that he was telling the truth when he asked for help. He sent it off to Dumbledore, and then returned to Narcissa's side, to hold a vigil over his dying spouse.

The Malfoys had paid dearly for Narcissa's defiance of Voldemort. For once in her miserable life, Bella decided to act in the best interest of another, convincing Voldemort that it would be harder on the Malfoys if Narcissa was tortured but not killed. She had explained that any sexual attacks would render both Narcissa and the attacker dead, due to the complicated marriage agreement between the Malfoys and the Blacks. Therefore, Narcissa was beaten, cursed, hexed, starved and hurt in various ways, but only to the brink of death. Unfortunately, the brink of death was coming faster and faster every day. Lucius had to act quickly, or he would not have any chance of saving his wife.

The wards on the Manor could not be completely turned over to someone not of the Malfoy bloodline, so although Voldemort believed he was controlling the wards, he was not. Therefore, Lucius was able to use some of the hidden blood wards to hide his trek to the owlery to send his note. He called on Hermes, his fastest and most distinctive eagle owl, and sent him to Draco. Due to his ties to the family, the owl could get through Secret-Kept wards. As the owl flew off, Lucius braced himself on the railing briefly, hands tightening involuntarily, hoping beyond hope that his message would be deciphered in time.

"Hurry up, I don't want to miss a word!" Harry turned to Hermione as they set up the Extendable Ear in the hallway. The two friends quieted down quickly and sat together to listen to the conversation in the other room.

"I'm so sorry, my dear boy. There is no way we can rescue your parents. We cannot take the risk. Poor Remus has already been lost, and...well, it would just devastate Harry to lose anyone else," Dumbledore said to Draco.

Harry turned to Hermione, his face mottled in rage. "'Mione, please run the numbers. I think Dumbledore has finally let the power go to his head. We lost Remus because of him, no matter what he is making it sound like, and I don't think Draco should lose his parents. I saw his and Severus's faces when they read the letter, I'm sure there was all sorts of code in it for them."

"Don't worry, Harry, I already did. We need to go get them. It can turn the tide of the war. But you need to start working on getting Dumbledore unseated. I don't care what you do, we must get him out of power!"

Harry nodded, thinking rapidly. He nodded at Hermione. Then he picked up the Extendable Ear and went up to his room.

Ron looked up as Harry entered the room. "What happened, Harry? You practically have steam coming out of your ears, and I know you didn't have any Pepper-Up. Hermione and Snape ruined the last batch because they were snogging."

"Dumbledore is off his rocker. Too many sherbet lemons, I guess. He doesn't want to rescue the Malfoys. Something about another death making me useless. The old man is making me useless. We would be in such deep shite if Hermione wasn't here to keep us on the right path. We need to do something!"

Ron and Harry plotted for a while. They decided to create a diversion in order to allow a rescue party to head out for the Malfoys. Although not one of the Trio had asked Severus or Draco what the letter truly said, they could tell the news was dire indeed.

Harry had Gringotts send him a letter during the next Order meeting. The goblins were not too fond of Albus Dumbledore, and when Griphook explained the reasons Harry had given him, they were more than happy to comply with his wishes. Harry was quite polite for a wizard.

"Headmaster, I'm so sorry. We are going to have to move Headquarters. Sirius had a codicil on his will, and it said that if Remus died because of any action taken in the name of the Order of the Phoenix, you were to be ejected. The goblins verified everything and now...well...you have 15 minutes to get out, or the wards on the house are going to get triggered, and apparently, it can get ugly." Harry looked sufficiently saddened by this turn of events that Albus never once thought this might not be true.

Draco, on the other hand, saw right through the plot, and turned to look at Hermione, the only one of the three that he truly trusted. She smiled and, when no one was looking, winked at him.

She waved her wand in a complex pattern, and all of a sudden, colored dots appeared on the headmaster, as well as the rest of the feathered flock except for Hermione, Draco, Tonks, Severus, Harry, Ron, Ginny, Bill, Luna, Neville, Lavender and the twins.

"I would hurry up if I were you. The dots are those that are going to be, what did this say... oh, yeah, 'forcibly ejected.' I would hate to find out what Sirius meant by that!" Harry exclaimed worriedly.

The headmaster looked stunned at some of the people allowed to stay.

"My boy, why would he allow Severus and young Mr. Malfoy to stay?"

"He says in the letter that he realizes that he needed to grow up, and Severus should be allowed to have a safe haven. As for Draco and Tonks, well, they are Blacks, and the house would shelter them anyway. He couldn't throw them out without disinheriting them, and...well, he had just brought Andromeda and Tonks back." Harry was almost rambling. Just a few more seconds and....

All of a sudden the lights in the house appeared to coalesce and start swirling around the headmaster, who was the last of the marked people left, then they seemingly gathered him up and popped him out of the house.

Harry and Ron got rather devilish looks on their faces.

"So, where did you say he was going to end up, 'Mione?" Ron asked.

"He's having a nice visit with Seymour," responded Hermione.

"Who is Seymour?" Draco demanded.

"He is the Giant Squid," said Severus dryly.

Draco blinked, and completely uncharacteristically started laughing hysterically. He turned to Severus and said, "Sorry, sir, but I'm going to kiss your girl!" He then walked over to a giggling Hermione, took her face in his hands and gave her a rather thorough kiss. He broke it off when Severus cleared his throat. Draco did have some sense of self-preservation.

Draco then looked over to the three giggling Gryffindors and held his hand out. "Hello. I'm Draco Malfoy. I'm sure you have heard that there are the right kind of wizards out there. I am not one of them, but I would like to be friends."

The three looked at each other in amazement, then smiled. Ron took a step forward, took Draco's hand in his, and shook it. "You'll do. I'm Ron Weasley and these are my best friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger. Just be careful with her, her boyfriend is scary."

"That is enough, all of you. We have some planning to do," Severus said.

All of those left in the house sat down to talk out their strategy. At the end of it all, Bill turned to his youngest brother and said, "Ron, I'm impressed. I couldn't believe it when they said the plan to oust everyone was yours. I'm going to recommend you to Gringotts. They have a branch of strategic planners for some of the more complex sites that we go out to break curses on, and I would feel much better if you were around to do the planning."

Lavender leaned over and kissed him proudly. "With a job like that, we could start a family right away!" she stage-whispered. Ron turned bright red, even to the tips of his ears. It was obvious that he was well pleased.

Very shortly after that, Severus, Ron, Harry, Bill, Hermione and Draco were headed for the heart of Wiltshire, to get through the wards on Malfoy Manor.

"My father said that I could bring someone in through the rose garden, near the statues. I think it would be best if it were Severus." Draco stated.

"No," said Hermione.

"What do you mean? I would be ideal; I know the Manor," Severus argued.

"No. Now please listen. When I did the calculations, a plan like yours only has a seventy-two percent chance of working. I think it must be the Dark Mark. Harry can't go for a similar reason. It will have to be me or Bill or Ron. The percentages are much better that way, eighty-seven percent for one of the Weasleys and ninety-two percent for me," finished Hermione.

Draco had been looking very thoughtful, when all of a sudden he said, "Of course! You can be a squirrel, and no one is going to notice an animal. We've had lots of them all over the grounds, enough that you would be almost invisible."

"Exactly."

Severus was a bit perturbed at this, but he quickly realized that although she was willing to be his girl, Hermione was not going to let anyone push her around. It was part of what he loved about her, and so he kept his peace.

The infiltrators decided, the rest set up guard points along the perimeter. The rest of those left in Grimmauld Place were being sentries a bit further afield, except for George and Fred, who were to create a diversion.

Hermione looked at her watch then held up her hand. One by one, she closed her fingers: five, four, three, two, one... and then the sky exploded. It you weren't looking too closely, it appeared a Muggle airplane had crashed into the trees right outside the main wards of the Manor. Fred and George had outdone themselves. In the ensuing chaos, Draco ran through the small opening in the wards his father had provided, clutching a small red squirrel in his hands.

As they got through the garden and statues unscathed, Draco set Hermione down. She scampered up the tree nearest to the room Lucius had told his son that he and Narcissa were sequestered in, leaped to the balcony, scurried to the door and peered inside. She scratched the glass of the door to the balcony softly. Lucius looked up from his vigil beside his wife only to see a rather intelligent looking squirrel gazing at him.

He stood up, opened the door and then took a step back, pulling his wand from his pocket.

The squirrel came in, looked around to make sure that there were only Malfoys in the room, then suddenly shifted into Hermione.

"Miss Granger, I can only hope that this means you are part of a rescue party," Lucius drawled.

Hermione recognized the rather Slytherin defense mechanism. She had spent enough time around Draco to know exactly what was going on, so instead of being offended, she just replied, "Of course, Mr. Malfoy. Is Mrs. Malfoy ready to be transported?"

Lucius turned, cast a spell over the bed Narcissa was lying on which caused the upper mattress to form into a cot for transport. He then cast another spell which made the contraption hover and turned to look at Hermione expectantly.

Instead of having them leave right away, Hermione took a couple of snips of hair from both Lucius and Narcissa, mixed them with some clay she had brought, and made a type of golem with the mixture; anyone doing a surface scan of the room would still read the Malfoys as being there.

She then turned and walked out of the balcony door, shifted back into squirrel form and ran back down the tree. Lucius hovered the cot carrying his sick wife down to the ground, then Apparated to join Draco and Hermione.

They quickly, yet quietly made their way back out the way they came in, met up with the sentries and got back to Grimmauld Place in record time.

Once there, they called upon Poppy Pomfrey to help Narcissa, which she did with alacrity. After what seemed like an eternity to the Malfoy men, Poppy informed everyone in the room that Narcissa would recover completely. Lucius turned to Harry and told him that he was quite willing to help him overthrow the madman currently living in Malfoy Manor, but he would not answer to Dumbledore. Harry reassured him that he would not have to because none of those in the room answered to Dumbledore either.

Shortly thereafter, with knowledge that Lucius had, Harry was able to get his team together and defeat Voldemort. Apparently even that depraved man could not withstand being cut into twenty-seven pieces by nine different Sectumsepra spells.

When Albus tried to take credit, he was very quickly set to rights by the combined efforts of Narcissa Malfoy and Molly Weasley. He resigned as headmaster, and slunk off to his cottage in the Highlands, never to be heard from again.

Lucius was overheard asking Draco how the rescue effort had come to pass, and the response made everyone in the room laugh. "Oh, you know, Father, if you want anything done right, you have to ask the squirrel."

Many, many thanks to Annie Talbot for the beta!

Dedicated to all those who wanted to know what happened to the Malfoys.