Title: Take My Hand
Rating: M – for violence
Summary: Main is set five years after Hogwarts and 3 years after the Great War - flashback is set 2 years after Hogwarts a the final weeks of the Great War.
'It was during what would become the final weeks of the Great War that she had first been able to see Draco Malfoy as something other than an enemy. It had started when he had turned up at number 12 Grimmauld place shouldering the heavy weight of Nymphadora Tonks bloody and unconscious form, whilst barely able to stand himself…' Draco/Hermione
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Updates: Fortnightly – I have a life…honest!
Disclaimer: Computer (check), Idea (check), J.K.Rowling…damn, I knew I forgot something!
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Chapter One : Number Twelve Grimmauld Place
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At the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, twenty three year old Hermione Granger stared once again at the message that had just arrived for her by owl, it contained only three words in wrenchingly familiar script and its simplicity tugged at her heart.
I am lost.
Without question, she knew who it was from, what it meant and what she must do. Picking up the piece of parchment, she wrote underneath the missive, three words of her own.
Take my hand.
Curling the piece of parchment and tying it with a ribbon, she beckoned to the owl and sent it back.
Leaving her desk and asking her assistant to cancel all her appointments, she made her way through the Ministry's main hall to the fireplaces. Tonight she would floo to her destination. She had not needed to ask where they were to meet, grabbing a handful of floo powder, she instinctively she knew where she would find who she was looking for.
"Malfoy Manor" she said clearly, though not loudly.
Within seconds she was standing in the fireplace of the enormous library at Malfoy Manor, greeted only by silence and the unearthly beautiful portrait of Narcissa Malfoy which hung above the mantle.
He was not here yet, but she had not expected him to be, so, making herself comfortable, she took her seat in the large overstuffed armchair by the window, staring at the day light fading quickly over the horizon and thought about how she had ended up here.
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FLASHBACK 3 YEARS
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It was during what would become the final weeks of the Great War that she had first been able to see Draco Malfoy as something other than an enemy.
It had started when he had turned up at Number Twelve Grimmauld Place shouldering the heavy weight of Nymphadora Tonks bloody and unconscious form whilst barely able to stand himself. Lupin had opened the door, with wand poised, upon the insistent shuddering kicks that Malfoy had aimed to alert them to his presence, Hermione stood three paces behind him, wand at the ready and her heart in her mouth.
Malfoy had said only four words to them in a broken exhausted voice; "Help me save her", and with that he had crumpled to his knees in the hallway, his strength gone as he slipped from consciousness and slumped pathetically against the wall.
Nymphadora Tonks, senior member, guiding light and sometime comic relief for The Order of The Phoenix had been killed by Death Eaters two months ago; all that had been found was her broken wand, and one of her boots beside a pool of blood and earth scorched by curse blasts. As had happened far too often during the two years that the war had been raging, they'd had no choice but to mourn another fallen warrior and try to forget that they had lost another friend in their fight against the dark lord.
Lupin, naturally, had taken it hardest of all. He had thrown himself into the war effort with a renewed sense of recklessness and dark passion. No longer did he keep to Grimmauld Place's dungeons on the nights of the full moon, instead he journeyed deep into the Dark Lord's territory by day and wreaked his vengeance upon them with bloody satisfaction and a clear conscience by night. Many a Death Eater found their way to the gates of hell through Remus Lupin; and the memory of this was a salve to his tortured soul.
Lupin looked at her, his eyes wide with shock at seeing Tonks alive, if only barely, and he had screamed for Moody with wand still drawn at the unconscious Malfoy. Moody had limped into the hall, wand drawn, enchanted eye circling violently and had hollered at Lupin to "put your wand down and bring your girlfriend inside." Lupin had not had to ask if it was Tonks, Moody's enchanted eye had already assessed Tonks and Malfoy and had found them to be exactly who they appeared to be.
Lupin removed Tonks from Malfoy's limp arms and had hurried her through the house screaming for Molly Weasley to flu Madam Pomfrey here immediately. Other members of the Order had followed Lupin and Tonks through the house, never looking to see who had brought her home to them, excited just to see that she was alive.
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It was only Hermione who stood in the hallway with the unconscious Malfoy as he breathed shallowly in and out. She looked at him carefully, wand drawn.
To her surprise his hair was not perfect as it had always during their days at school. Now two years later, long and tinged with the rusty brown of dried blood it hung around him like a halo of death. The face that she had so often though of as being the perfection of cruelty, looked drawn, pinched, battered and yet strangely in his unconscious state, decidedly childlike. The too big robes he wore were caked with dried blood, dirt and torn and tattered. In his current state, he was unrecognizable as the 'Slytherin Prince' she had learned to loath at school.
Taking a step closer to him; kneeling down by his side she placed her hand on his shoulder and shook him gently, "Malfoy?" When there was no response; she waved her wand and whispered "Rennervate!"
Malfoy's eyelashes fluttered against his cheek as he struggled against the light of the hallway. A hand on his shoulder shook him again and his first reaction was to put his arms up in defense of himself.
"Malfoy?" a quietly commanding female voice asked "can you hear me?"
Granger, he decided, it was Granger talking to him…Grimmauld place…Tonks…his memory returned.
"Granger...?" he rasped his eyes still closed. "You have to help Tonks, they tried to kill her, they tried to kill us, they tortured…." His voice broke, his breathing became increasingly labored and he moved his hand to his side as though in pain. "Help her….please…please Hermione." As he said her name, Malfoy opened his eyes and looked directly at Hermione, those grey eyes no longer insolent or cruel, were merely pleading with her to save Tonks.
"Tonks is in good hands Malfoy, she's being helped now. The whole Order is looking after her" She watched as Malfoy slumped slightly in relief at her words. "Where did you find her; how did you find her?"
Malfoy closed his eyes and fought valiantly against the gathering darkness behind his eyes. "I was with her, at the Manor."
"Malfoy Manor?" Hermione asked
"Yes, she was tortured for what she knew" he rasped, his throat raw; "But she never told them…she fought them so hard."
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Sadly, Hermione's first thoughts were that if Tonks had been tortured then The Order had surely been compromised. The Death Eaters had been relentless in their pursuit of information from Order members over the years and were known to use unforgivable methods of torture, both mental and physical to get whatever they needed.
Order members had cracked under the pressure before, indeed Percy Weasley had almost cost them all their lives two months ago, sadly, after giving up battle strategies under pain of torture he was then killed and dumped at The Burrow for his family to find.
"Merlin's beard, she could have told them anything!" she gritted from between clenched teeth.
"No Grang…Hermione, she told them nothing" he grabbed at her arm weakly, but his eyes blazed with conviction "Tonks almost bled to death twice, because she wouldn't betray the Order."
"You saw her being tortured?" she gripped his shoulder, shaking him violently in her anger. "How, I suppose you were you part of it Malfoy?"
"We…we were in the same cell" he whispered as the darkness rose again "they tortured us in front of e-each other."
With that last comment, Draco Malfoy stopped fighting the tide of darkness that was trying to claim him, and slipped back into unconsciousness.
Although Hermione registered that he had passed out, the implication of what Malfoy had just said hit her hard. He had said that they had both been tortured, which meant Malfoy had been a prisoner, not a Death Eater.
Reaching for his left wrist, she pulled back his blood and dirt encrusted sleeve – there, where she had until now, expected to find the dark mark tattooed on his arm, was instead raw, weeping, infected wounds and the scarred and bruised flesh from months of being manacled to a dungeon wall.
The involuntary cry that passed her lips brought Moody into the hallway once more, with a dispassionate glance; he looked from Malfoy's arm to Hermione.
"He alive then?"
Hermione could only nod in response.
"Best get him upstairs and make him comfortable, I'll send Pomfrey up when she's done with Tonks."
Without an offer to assist her, he walked back down the hallway and into the room where Tonks was being helped.
Trying to pull herself together, Hermione waved her wand and said "Wingardium Leviosa" and watched as Malfoy's body rose from the hallway into the air in front her.
"Locomotor Malfoy" she said and pointed her wand towards the stairs, so she could put Malfoy in one of Number 12's many rooms.
