Skirmish at Malfoy Manor

"Harry Potter, Dobby has come to rescue you."

- Dobby the house-elf

The Battle of Malfoy Manor was a small but bloody skirmish of the Second Wizarding War that took place around Easter of 1998 in Malfoy Manor, located in Wiltshire, England. It resulted in several prisoners being freed from the dungeons of the Death Eater headquarters and in Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley discovering the location of one of Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes. There were at least two casualties – Peter Pettigrew and Dobby.

Background
By the spring of 1998, Voldemort was in control of the Ministry of Magic and had Snatchers prowling the country in search of Muggle-borns, blood traitors, and Undesirable Number One, Harry Potter. Harry and his friends were secretly hunting down Voldemort’s Horcruxes in an effort to make him mortal and defeat him once and for all.

Harry accidentally broke the Taboo curse on Voldemort’s name, and he, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger were immediately surrounded by a gang of Snatchers led by Fenrir Greyback. Greyback and his gang had already captured Dean Thomas and goblin Griphook. Thinking fast, Hermione used a Stinging Jinx on Harry’s face in an attempt to disguise his identity.

The three were disarmed and questioned on their identities. Harry claimed that he was “Vernon Dudley”, the son of a Ministry employee and a Slytherin, a claim he was able to back up because he knew where the Slytherin common room was from having been there in his second year. Ron said he was Stan Shunpike, but the Snatchers knew he was lying and punched him in the face; Ron then claimed he was “Barny Weasley”. Hermione told them she was Penelope Clearwater, and a half-blood. They claimed that using the Dark Lord’s name was an accident and that they did not know what the Order of the Phoenix was.

Their story may have been believed, but Hermione’s picture was in Daily Prophet, which described her as “the Mudblood who is known to be traveling with Harry Potter”. Greyback decided not to take them to the Ministry, thinking that they would “take the credit”. As he desired the monetary reward and to bite Hermione, he decided to bring them to Malfoy Manor, where someone with the Dark Mark could call Voldemort directly.

Identification
When the group arrived at Malfoy Manor, they were greeted by a disdainful Narcissa Malfoy, who let them in and called her son Draco, who was home from Hogwarts for the Easter holidays, to identify the prisoners. Lucius Malfoy was also there, and visibly excited at the prospect of being the one to hand Harry over to Voldemort, who had been put out with the family.

Draco was extremely reluctant to identify any of them, despite Ron and Hermione’s identities, at least, being obvious. Bellatrix Lestrange came upon the scene at that moment, and her and her brother-in-law briefly argued over who would be the one to signal Voldemort, but stopped when she spotted Godric Gryffindor's Sword among the seized possessions of the prisoners.

Interrogation
Bellatrix screamed at Lucius not to touch his Dark Mark, saying that they would “all perish if the Dark Lord comes now”. She demanded to know where the Snatchers got the Sword, and then stunned four of them in rapid succession for their “lack of respect” towards her. She ordered her nephew to move the unconscious men to the courtyard, and implied that she might kill them later. She then ordered Greyback to take all the prisoners down to the dungeons – except for Hermione.

Harry, Ron, Dean and Griphook were shut into the dungeons in the basement just as Bellatrix began to torture Hermione with the Cruciatus Curse while questioning her about how she and her friends obtained Gryffindor’s Sword, which Bellatrix had believed to be in her vault in Gringotts. Ron was reduced to sobs at hearing Hermione scream in pain.

Escape
"Help us! We’re in the cellar of Malfoy Manor, help us!"

- Harry screams for help into a communication mirror

Luna Lovegood and Mr. Ollivander were also in the dungeons, having been imprisoned because of Xenophilius Lovegood’s public support of Harry and for knowledge of wands, respectively. Luna helped cut the new prisoners’ bonds using a nail. Hermione was still screaming upstairs, driving Harry to desperately grab at a pouch around his neck. A piece of a communication mirror fell to the floor, and Harry saw a blue eye – later identified as that of Aberforth Dumbledore – and screamed for help.

In the meantime, Hermione managed to lie under torture and claimed that the Sword was a copy. To try to confirm this story, Bellatrix sent Draco to fetch Griphook, who would be able to tell true goblin work from fake. Harry begged Griphook to lie to them, and just as the goblin was taken upstairs by Draco, Dobby the house-elf appeared in the dungeon using house-elf Apparition. Harry had him take Luna, Mr. Ollivander, and Dean to Shell Cottage, the home of newlyweds Bill Weasley and Fleur Delacour.

Harry was briefly distracted by seeing Voldemort’s point of view – the Dark Lord was at Nurmengard to demand the location of the Elder Wand from Gellert Grindelwald. However, the crack of Apparition made by Dobby was heard from above, and Peter Pettigrew was sent to investigate the noise. When he arrived, Harry and Ron tackled him. Pettigrew started to strangle Harry, but Harry reminded him that he owed him his life, as Harry once prevented Sirius Black and Remus Lupin from killing him to avenge his betrayal of James and Lily Potter. Pettigrew slackened his grip, and his own silver hand promptly strangled him to death for his moment of pity, despite Harry and Ron's efforts to prevent it.

Just then, Griphook lied to Bellatrix, saying that the Sword was a fake, and she signaled Voldemort, who killed Grindelwald and started on his way to Malfoy Manor.

Skirmish
Just as Bellatrix was about to hand Hermione, who had been tortured into unconsciousness, over to Greyback, Harry and Ron burst in. Ron disarmed Bellatrix, using Pettigrew’s wand. Harry stunned Lucius, and then rolled behind a sofa to avoid curses from Narcissa, Draco, and Greyback. Bellatrix then held her short knife to Hermione’s throat in threat, and Harry and Ron surrendered their wands to Draco.

However, Dobby returned, and sent the crystal chandelier falling to the floor. Bellatrix released Hermione to jump out of the way and Draco’s face was scratched by the flying debris. Ron rescued Hermione from the wreckage, and Harry grabbed the wands from Draco and used them all to stun Greyback. Dobby disarmed Narcissa before she could curse anyone.

Harry threw Ron a wand, and he Disapparated with Hermione. Harry then grabbed Griphook and the Sword and followed. Bellatrix, however, threw her knife as they vanished, and struck Dobby in the chest.

Aftermath
Harry arrived at Shell Cottage to find, to his horror, that Dobby was dying. He subsequently buried the elf in the garden by hand, with the epitaph Here Lies Dobby, a Free Elf. As he dug, he got glimpses of Voldemort punishing Bellatrix and the Malfoys for their failure to capture him. After Fleur assisted in healing Hermione and Griphook, they gathered around the grave to give their farewells and thanks.

The Death Eaters’ discovery that Ron Weasley was with Harry and Hermione – instead of sick with spattergroit at home, as had been previously claimed – made his family a target. The Weasleys fled the Burrow and were no longer able to go to work. Bill was the Secret-Keeper for Shell Cottage while Arthur acted as the Secret-Keeper for Muriel’s home, where the other Weasleys stayed.

Harry, Hermione and Ron then spoke to Griphook, persuading him to help them break into Gringotts and steal the Horcrux in Bellatrix Lestrange’s vault by agreeing to give him Godric Gryffindor's Sword in exchange.

Afterwards, the trio spoke to Mr. Ollivander, who told them about the Elder Wand. Harry realized that Voldemort had gone to Hogwarts to take the wand from Albus Dumbledore’s tomb, but decided to focus on getting the Horcruxes, not the Deathly Hallows, per Dumbledore’s instructions. He, Ron and Hermione spent the rest of their stay at Shell Cottage planning the break-in of Gringotts. With Griphook’s help, they would eventually obtain Helga Hufflepuff's Cup.