Blood droplets slowly snaking down windows, limbs morphing in unspeakable ways, sharp jagged jaws glinting in the darkness, Ginny weasley lying at the bottom of the stairs to the astronomy tower, her body broken and bathed in blood. These were the things Hermione dreamt of. The pain, fear, disgust, she lived through it each and every night. It tended to desensitise her to the happenings of the day now. When members of the Order were rushed in for healing, or their lifeless bodies were collected from battlefields and brought back to head quarters for a final goodbye, Hermione felt nothing. She was usually tasked with handling the bodies and injuries because she was emotionally able to. Harry, Ron and even some of the adults could not without fear of having an emotional breakdown. This was what the war was like. This is what Hermiones life was like.
Never in her life had she felt this useless. There was no solution, they were slowly failing. Harry would be ready to face Voldemort himself soon and they wouldn't have the numbers to protect Harry from the hundreds of death eaters. They weren't able to secure help from the Giants who had joined Voldemort, or from the Vampires who had chosen to stay impartial. Hermione scoffed at the idea, they obviously didn't realise that Voldemort was after everybody not just muggleborns.
Hermione felt personally responsible for not coming up with a solution yet. Everybody reminded her it wasn't her job but rather the adults jobs to figure out a solution to swell their ranks. However, Hermione was still dissapointed in herself. She had always somehow come up with an idea or solution to every problem she had come across with Harry and Ron over the years so why was her brain failing her now?
Feeling quite despondent she would hide in her room most of the day. She missed spending time with Ron and Harry but they both reminded her of Ginny and that was the one memory she'd rather keep locked away. She felt as though if she lingered on it then she'd finally break down and all her emotions would come flooding back which was not practical in the face of war. She would have time to mourn Ginny later. Hopefully.
She was lying on her little lumpy, single mattress on the floor of the room she shared with Luna. Luna, despite circumstances, still managed to exude her strange and wistful aura that alleviated Hermiones dark emotions. They had all been issued small square rooms that just fit 2 single mattresses and one cabinet in between them on the floor. She still didn't know where they were, but the less people that knew the better. It seemed to be some kind of renovated warehouse space, though it looked like the many surrounding abandoned warehouses from the outside. Hermione and Luna were on the third level in one of 12 rooms on that level.
Hermione was still contemplating her fustration when Luna entered. She fell down onto her mattress with a pair of scissors in hand. Hermione sat up and watched Luna quizzically as she laid the scissors on the floor and pulled out a comb and a spray bottle from the pockets of her loose denim overalls. Hermione had placed undetectable extension charms on everyones pockets because it would be useful in a suprise attack to have everyone carry at least one weapon in their pockets at all times.
Luna finally finished lining up the items in the small space between the matresses and smiled at Hermione. "Will you cut my hair?" She asked Hermioned brightly, like it wasn't a random request at all. Hermione blinked slowly at Luna.
"You want me, Know-it-all-bookworm who dosen't have a girly bone in my body, to cut your hair?" Hermione responded.
"Yes, and you're being silly. I want it a bit shorter so it dosen't swing in my face when I'm in battle," she answered as if it was obvious. Hermione eyed Luna's gorgeous, albeit slightly dirty, white blonde wavy locks. It was a bit hard to keep their hygiene up to par with the limited resources they had but they made do. She met Luna's eyes uncertainly but Luna just smiled and turned around so her back was facing Hermione.
"Ah, okay then," Hermione mumbled. She knew theoretically how to cut hair since she'd always studied the hairdressers that used to do her mothers hair. She picked up the Water bottle and sprayed Luna's hair until it was sufficiently damp, then she combed through it with the comb until it was straight. She asked Luna how short she wanted it and Luna indicated that she wanted her hair to be styled like a pixie cut, very short and out of her face. Hermione almost didn't want to do it because it was just so much gorgeous hair wasted but she did as asked of her.
Luna sat patiently as all her hair fell in the space between the two matresses. In the end she looked possibly more beautiful than before. Not because of Hermiones skills, because her hair was not even or perfect or styled nicely. It was because Hermione could see her face clearly for the first time and Lunas defined cheekbones and strong jaw was uncovered from all the heavy locks that used to cover it. Luna asked Hermione if she wanted the favour returned and Hermione told her she'd think about it.
Suddenly there was a commotion on the ground level that could be heard all the way from their room. Luna frowned, hoping everyone was okay with her usual unhurried and calm manner. Hermione just rolled her eyes and indicted they should go help since they were designated Order healers by now, since they knew the most healing spells and were the most unaffected by the injuries.
Hermione and Luna walked briskly down the stairs and were met with two bloodied Order members who were still breathing, and one who wasn't. The crew that had brought them in were quick to throw a sheet over the dead member and rush back out to battle. Hermione and Luna grabbed an injured member each and went to work slowly assesing their organs and bones, administering potions and peforming what spells they could to fix the injuries. After Hermione finished cleaning the copious amounts of blood off her patient and finished healing the tears in his back she rolled him over and realised it was Remus.
She placed pain medication on all his bandaging and waited the ten minutes it would take to enter his system before using renervate on him. His eyes fluttered open and the second he saw Hermione he started to sit up but Hermione shoved him back down and in his weakened state he couldn't really argue.
"So what happened with you? I thought you were with Greybacks pack?" She asked confused, she hadn't seen Remus since he'd gone undercover months ago.
"Not Greybacks pack anymore," he managed to rasp out. Hermione was even more confused. What was that supposed to mean? Seeing her expression Remus decided to try and explain further.
"Draco Alpha now, Greyback dead, Draco not with Voldemort so new assignment," he croaked out.
Hermione sat down to process the information as Remus slowly drifted back to sleep. Draco had somehow become a werewolf, she didn't even want to know why or how. But he had also overpowered Greyback who was high up in the death eaters ranks, killed him and became Alpha of the largest pack in Britain, and then decides to do nothing with all his newfound power? She knew that couldn't be right. Draco always had a motive and she would figure out what he wanted in order to protect everyone. It made sense that Remus was being assigned a new mission since Draco was much smarter than Greyback and would have aesn right therough him. Probably accounting for Remus' injuries.
She decided to go have a wash to get all the blood off of her. She signaled to Luna where she was going and then headed back up the stairs to their level. She went into the little tiled room at the end of the hallway and filled the empty bucket in the corner with water. She undressed and placed her clothes on the one rack on the wall. She grabbed the bucket and tipped the cold water over herself. All the brown and red water traveled down the drain in the center of the floor. She cleaned her clothes magically dried them and herself and shrugged them back on. She had been wearing the same khaki cargo pants and white tank top for the past month, alternating with her pair of jeans and black tshirt which were the only other two things she owned.
She left her hair damp. It hung down to her waist now and that bothered her for some reason. She felt that this girl she looked at in the metal mirror that hung in the makeshift bathroom was not the girl that she felt she was. She looked so innocent and young with her long ringlets that swayed around her body and her unmarked skin. She felt like so much had changed. She was not this soft, caring girl anymore. She was hardend and crueler due to the war. She frowned at herself before walking back to the room. She noticed Luna already inside and sat on her matress before clearing her throat which got Lunas attention.
"Will you cut my hair?" she asked Luna with a determined voice. Luna smiled and nodded. Hermione turned around and indicated where she wanted her hair cut too. Luna complied to the best of her ability. Hermione then transfigured the scissors into a shaver and handed it back to Luna. The feeling of Lunas fingers raking through her hair was almost comforting.
When Luna was done she transfigured the comb into a mirror and handed it to Hermione. Hermione took one glance and felt a small smile pull at her lips. This felt like her. She had shoulder length curls on one side of her side part and the other side was shaven down to a buzz cut. "I rather like the edgy look on you Mione," Luna mumbled dreamily, Hermione smiled and thanked her before cleaning her hair off the floor and lying down.
Hermiones mind felt clear for the first time in ages. She felt lighter and more like her true self. She thought maybe now she felt a bit better she would have more luck on finding a solution to the Orders problem but no matter how hard she tried to concentrate her mind kept wandering back to Draco. She felt like there was a missing piece she wasn't linking.
She thought of what Draco could possibly want with a pack that huge if he wasn't going to join Voldemort or the Order. She turned towards Luna. The girl might have her quirks but she wasn't sorted into Ravenclaw for nothing. She explained the situation to Luna who went quiet trying to ponder what he might want.
"I just dont understand what the point was of acquiring all that power if he isn't using it to power his own agenda in this war," Hermione wondered out loud.
"Did he actually ever do or say anything that indicated he didn't want to join forces with the Order?" Luna asked quietly.
Hermione went to scoff at the idea when it suddenly occured to her that he hadn't. He hadn't come looking for help, but he also hadn't declared he was averse to it. "Oh My God," Hermione breathed.
"He's waiting for us to make an offer. He wants something and he can only get it from us which is why he hasn't joined with Voldemort or tried to go against him alone. we have something he wants," she muttered.
"If anyone will figure it out, it's you Mione," Luna murmured before falling asleep.
Hermione kept musing over the idea in her head until she fell asleep. She vowed that she would find out what it is he wanted and find a way to secure it so that Draco would fill out their ranks. It was perfect really, she just had to talk to him.
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