Narcissa's opponent fell and she paused for a moment to watch the battle – it happened as if in slow motion around her. Her instincts sent her gaze to Draco – he was beside his father. They were swapping curses with Rowle and Mcnair and it made her blood boil. Narcissa broke into a run towards her family. They had been fools not to fight the Dark Lord from the start.
Pain flared in her left leg and Narcissa fell, skidding. She tasted dirt as blackness swallowed her.
Ears ringing, Narcissa blinked her eyes open. Something had woken her. Someone had tripped over her.
"You're alive! Are you alright?"
The girl's voice was high and breathy. Narcissa identified the Muggle-born witch – the friend of Potter's. Hermione Granger. Then, her eyes spotted something black moving towards them. She knew that tangle of madness, well.
Surging with fury, Narcissa pulled the girl down, pushing herself up with the same movement. The mad witch running at them lifted her wand.
"No, Bella!" Narcissa yelled, placing herself between her sister and the girl.
But, it was too late.
The curse hit Narcissa's chest and, at first, her senses were overtaken by pain. But the pain stopped and she felt light as a feather. Narcissa floated to the ground.
As if from a great distance, Narcissa heard the girl cast the killing curse. After a moment, she felt herself handled and she was peering up at the girl.
"Mrs. Malfoy! Narcissa! Can you hear me? Are you alive?"
Narcissa's breath came in rattling gasps. She seemed somewhat cognizant. Hermione had run out of dittany long ago but Narcissa was beyond help. Her sister had cast something like the Sectumsempra and Hermione didn't know the countercurse.
"You saved my life," Hermione breathed. "Can I do anything for you?"
The older witch's gaze fixed on her with sudden sharpness. "Protect them... Lucius and Draco..."
"I will," Hermione promised. Narcissa hadn't much longer. Her eyes glazed and blood trickled from her mouth. Hermione would hold the witch until she was gone.
"Vow to me you will protect them," Narcissa gave a shudder and then continued in a barely-audible whisper. "Lucius and Draco… Continue the family. As a wife a-"
If she was capable of crying, Hermione would have. The past two days of fighting had robbed her of tears and she could only squeeze her eyes shut.
"I swear it," Hermione promised, learning over her.
Bellatrix was a lifeless lump a few yards away. Hermione heard no more spells, saw no more flashes. The fighting was, likely, over. Harry had vanquished Voldemort yesterday but many Death Eaters decided to fight to their deaths, taking several students with them.
Gently, Hermione slipped out from under Narcissa Malfoy and made her way towards the castle. Hogwarts crackled with fire in several places and crumbled suddenly in others. Smoke billowed from one of the turrets. Hermione moved cautiously around battle detritus and ignored the bodies. She wasn't ready to face the dead.
In the remains of the Great Hall, Hermione found the survivors gathering. Harry, Ron and the Weasleys, numerous other students, professors, and Aurors. And, yes, Lucius and Draco Malfoy. Hermione considered her promise to Narcissa satisfied. If not unmarred, they were alive. When McGonagall joined the Malfoys, Hermione looked away – they were about to learn of Narcissa's death.
After exchanging significant looks with Harry and Ron, looks that said they had made it out alive but weren't ready to hug, Hermione followed Ginny and Luna to the prefect's bathroom to get cleaned up.
Luna filled the bath while Ginny and Hermione stepped into the showers. The hot water felt like heaven after forty-eight hours of dueling for her life. Hermione took her time under the spray, scrubbing away at grime and discovering spell burns. She finished rinsing the soap from her hair and picked up a nail brush. That was when she discovered the mark around her ring finger. No amount of scouring removed it.
Frowning as she toweled off, Hermione held up her hand to Ginny. "What the hell is this?"
"That would be a wizard's mark," Ginny said, eyes large. She slipped on some clean school robes. "They give it to you when you become their wife. Who did that?"
Hermione shook her head as her mind echoed with the word 'wife.' Suddenly, she recalled her exchange with Narcissa. Hermione's heart dropped into her stomach. Narcissa had asked her to watch over Lucius as a wife and Draco as a mother.
The next thing Hermione knew Ginny and Luna were fanning her face.
"Are you alright?" Luna asked.
Hermione felt hot and weak. "I'm just – no," she said.
"Can you stand? Do you want us to fetch someone?"
"No, no," Hermione replied testily, waving her hand at the other girls for some space. Her gaze locked on the mark on her finger and she felt ill. "I think I'm married to Lucius Malfoy."
After donning clean robes and explaining what she remembered, Ginny and Luna insisted Hermione see Professor Snape; he knew obscure magic and the Malfoys better than anyone else.
Alone, Hermione sought the professor. As she made her way to the dungeons, she noticed families and students moving about the castle, restoring what they could, caring for the wounded, and recovering the bodies of the dead. She still wasn't ready to discover who had been lost.
"Excuse me, Professor. I'd like your help in removing this," Hermione explained when he opened his door.
Snape took her wrist as if reluctant to touch her and peered at the mark.
"Better come in and explain how that happened," he said dryly, holding his door open.
Hermione did not feel comfortable enough in Snape's rooms to sit. It was too dark to see anything properly and the air smelled like rotting flowers. Unsatisfied with Hermione's lack of word-for-word recollection, Snape directed her to extract the memory of Narcissa's dying wish and set it into his Pensieve.
When Snape emerged from the Pensieve, he was shaking. Concerned, Hermione moved towards him.
"Professor," she began. It was with horror she realized that he was laughing. Hermione scowled.
He was laughing; he was actually laughing. It was a strained noise, as if he didn't make it often, and Hermione wondered if he might choke.
After a few minutes of wheezing, the professor fixed Hermione with a glare, "Don't move."
He stuck his head into the corridor and hailed someone. Hermione heard him bark an order to fetch McGonagall and then his black eyes pinned her, once more. He didn't smile but he was, infuriatingly, amused.
Annoyed with Snape's silence, Hermione made herself comfortable in one of the chairs before the fire. She watched the dark professor pour himself a glass of wine, his lips twitching.
"Really, Severus, we have wounded upstairs. What couldn't wait?"
Professor McGonagall spotted Hermione and her tone changed. "Ms. Granger, is everything alright?"
Hermione opened her mouth but before she could reply, Snape's cold voice cut over her.
"Your brilliant protégé has gone and agreed to Narcissa Malfoy's Death Vow. The idiot girl has married herself to Lucius and Draco Malfoy. And she's agreed to carry on the family line."
"What?" Hermione gasped. All of the blood in her body seemed to be pooling in her feet.
"What?" McGonagall repeated, barely audible.
Snape merely sipped his wine and gestured towards the Pensieve.
Mouth dry, immobile with disbelief, Hermione sat rigid as Minerva fell into the Pensieve. She considered joining her but couldn't seem to move.
"How do I stop it?" Hermione asked Snape.
"It cannot be stopped," he replied crisply. "It cannot be undone. You're married to them until the day you die. Or they die."
"I refuse," Hermione whispered, horrified to feel tears in her eyes.
The dark-eyed professor was no longer amused. "It's too late to refuse, Ms. Granger."
McGonagall emerged from the memory quite somber. She stared at the glinting swirls for a few moments before speaking. The fire crackled happily, oblivious to the room's mood.
"Perhaps the Ministry-"
"Tsk, Minerva. You know as well as I that ancient magic – particularly familial magic – is not regulated by the Ministry. They cannot undo a vow."
"What happens if I do nothing? Act as if the vow was not made?" Hermione heard herself ask.
Snape lifted a brow and turned to McGonagall. "I'll leave that explanation to you."
Minerva nodded and gestured to Hermione. "Time for some damage control," she said. "Come along and we'll get this settled."