Heyy, sorry you all had to wait this long. I already wrote the last few chapters, but I've been struggling with this and the next chapter. Hope the waiting was worth it and you still enjoy it!
Fifth Year: Draco's Punishment
Summer vacation had started two weeks ago and Hermione sat on her bed staring at her silver bracelet, waiting to hear from Draco. Even though they hadn't been alone since their kiss, they had been communicating on a daily bases. Sometimes all they would say was 'Good morning' or 'Goodnight', but other times they chatted trough their magical wristlet. The past few months they had discussed everything with each other. She had told him about Harry and his visions, the D.A., O.W.L's and everything in between. He had done the same; telling all about Umbridge, the Inquisitorial Squad, his Father and You-Know-Who himself who apparently appeared frequently at his manor.
But it had been almost a week since his last contact. She didn't know what to do, afraid to be putting him in more danger then he already was. Draco had told her Voldemort was furious with his Father and the others who were present at the Department the night he came visiting her in the hospital wing.
Hermione had been glancing at the entrance of the Hospital Wing every few seconds. Draco had messaged her in the afternoon saying: "Let me know when everybody is asleep." Ten minutes ago, after madam Pomfrey did her last check up, she had informed him he could come. Finally she noticed a dark shadow near the doors. He quietly stalked over to her and enveloped her in a hug. "Don't ever do that again, Granger. Do you know how worried I was? I thought you would reason with Potter. Tell him it was just a dream." She sighed. "I tried Draco, I told him to check on Sirius. That's why we were in Umbridge's office. But only Kreacher was there." He nodded.
"Maybe you should've told him about us." He said hesitantly, but Hermione shook her head. "No, we've already discussed this. Voldemort would've known you were a Blood Traitor." At the sight of Draco's grimace, she quickly added an apology. "It's okay, Hermione. I guess I am one anyway." She squeezed his hand in encouragement. "You should've warned them, Hermione." Tears were falling on her cheeks. "I know, but Harry just wouldn't listen. I didn't know what to do, so I just did my best to keep him safe." "You should've kept yourself save, Hermione!" he bellowed. "I mean, look at you. Potter is walking and breathing, but you almost died. You have to take 10 potions just to stay alive." She huffed. "I'm fine. It just caught me off guard. What did you want me to do? They're Death Eaters. Skilled wizards and witches who know dark magic." "You could have stayed here."
Hermione and Draco were staring furiously at each other. "I couldn't let Harry go on his own." Draco threw his hands up in frustration. "He had his bloody friends." "I am his friend, Draco. Besides why did you even let the others escape? If you hadn't let them go, we might've never been able to make it to London." Draco was now seething. "I let them escape, because you were in the Forest with Umbridge without a wand. I had to do something." She took a deep breath. "Come here, Draco." He hesitated. "Please." He gave in and walked over to the distraught girl. "Thank you. You did everything you could do. And- and so did I. I warned Sirius, but he came anyway." She sobbed. "It's now officially war. There are going to be casualties." She started to cry louder and Draco embraced her again. "You did everything you could, Hermione. We'll figure it out." She nodded her head and calmed down.
"So, what's happening with you?" He scowled. "Father is in prison, but he deserves it I guess. Mother is devastated, she's been hurt because of Father's mistake. She doesn't want me to come home. She's afraid what He will do to me to punish Father even further. I'm starting to freak out a little, but I'll manage." He looked away and continued. "Don't be mad, but I tried to take my anger out on Potter. Nothing happened, McGonagall intervened." She took his hand. "I understand, Draco. I wish you and Harry would stop this ridiculous school rivalry though, you both have a lot in common. But you have to keep your cover, so I can't even try to convince you both." She rubbed her eyes in exhaustion. "I just want this all to be over, but it's just going to get worse isn't it?" She looked into his grey eyes. "Yes, it will."
And indeed it did. Hermione grabbed her wand when she heard a loud plop beside her. Her eyes widened at the sight in front of her and she quickly cast a Muffliato so her parents wouldn't hear anything. She climbed out of her bed and crouched down beside the boy who was groaning in pain. "Draco? Draco! What happened?" He didn't seem to be aware of her, he was clutching his left arm with his right, had his eyes closed and tears where streaming. "Young Master has been marked. Young Master told Tiana to take him here. Tiana tried everything, but Tiana can't stop the pain. Young Master has been marked with dark magic." Hermione looked up and saw a house-elf sniveling besides Draco. She hadn't even notice the creature in her worry for Draco. Slowly Hermione understood the words the house-elf, Tiana, muttered. "Marked?" she questioned and she turned back to Draco. She carefully took his hand and rolled up his sleeve, which caused Draco to pull back his hand, but Hermione held her grip steady.
As soon as she saw the mark on his pale skin she started to cry as well. "Oh, Draco, what did they do to you?" She saw the pain in his face and angrily wiped away her tears. She could cry later, right now, Draco needed her. She stood and levitated Draco to her bed and sat down beside him. She grabbed his tattooed arm and started mumbling healing charms. Nothing seemed to work, however, and she got frustrated. She cast cooling charms, tried to remove it and tried to use her magic to fight the evil. "Granger." Draco weakly mumbled, clearly still in agony. "Stop it." He lifted his right arm and tried to push her wand down. Hermione obliged and took his hand. He gave a small smile, before succumbing to the pain.
She watched him, but after a few minutes she couldn't bear it anymore and turned to Tiana. "Tiana, that's your name right?" The house-elf bobbed her head and Hermione continued. "Do you know what happened to Draco? Can you tell me?" The creature, still teary, explained what had happened. "The Dark Lord is very angry at Master Malfoy. The Dark Lord hurt Young Master and Mrs. Malfoy. Tiana wasn't allowed to help. The Dark Lord gave Young Master a mission. Mission is horrible. Young Master is very brave. Young Master refused. But Dark Lord threatened Mrs. Malfoy and Young Master's friends. Young Master very brave. Young Master accepted the dark magic and mission." Hermione stayed silent, trying to comprehend what happened.
"When did Draco receive the mark?" she finally asked. "Three days ago, Miss. Young Master wouldn't wake until a few hours. Young Master started screaming. Very horrible. Very sad. Tiana tried to take away the pain. Tiana failed." The house-elf started to sob again. "Tiana! This isn't your fault! You did your job and brought him here. I will take care of him, alright? Can you go back and make sure no one notices Draco's absent?" Once again the house-elf nodded. "Yes Miss. Tiana sealed Young Master's room. The Dark Lord don't want to hear Young Master's screams." Hermione gave the house-elf a relieved smile. "Good. That's good. You can return to the manor if you wish Tiana, but please warn me if someone tries to go into Draco's room. Draco will call you when he feels better so you can take him home, alright?" The elf bobbed her head one last time and disappeared with a plop.
"Oh Draco, what did they do to you?" Hermione silently cried at his side. After calming down a bit, she slowly stood careful not to wake him, in search of a book she bought the day they returned from Hogwarts. She had told her parents she just wanted to get a head start on her sixth year at the Wizarding School. In reality, she had searched for hours to find a book on healing Dark Magic, in the hope she could find a way to heal her and her friends wounds and scars from the Department of Mystery. She had read the book already, and although she didn't think she could alter a spell to get rid of the Dark Mark, she could take away the pain a little, by absorbing it herself. "Portio Dolores" she whispered while focusing on the black stain on Draco's arm. It felt like her arm was on fire and she bit her lip not to cry out in pain. Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the pain until her arm was numb. When she opened her eyes again she saw Draco staring at her.
"Hermione, what the hell? Stop that immediately, it's not your burden to carry." Draco hissed angry. She gave him a glare and the blond boy closed his mouth. "I will do no such thing, Draco. If I can't take away the pain, then we'll just have to share it." He sighed. "You can't Hermione, even if you wanted to. It will take days before the pain subsides, weeks before it is gone completely. You can't keep me here that long and you definitely won't be able to perform the spell that long." Hermione grunted. "I can try." Draco frowned at the stubborn girl. "Fine. If you really want to help, you could go to Snape's place. He probably has some kind of potion which takes away the pain. Like a Dreamless Sleep potion, only stronger." She nodded in agreement. "That could work." "Go to Spinners End, Cokeworth. A simple Alohomora won't work, but it should open if you say 'Draco needs help'. Go to the basement and you will find more potions you've ever seen, but I think you can figure out what you need. Hopefully he won't notice anybody has been there, because he's too busy with spying."
"That could work," she said doubtfully, "but how do I even get there. This is a muggle-house, so I don't have a Floo-network and I haven't learned how to Apparate yet. I could drive, but that would take too long." Draco chuckled. "Don't worry about that, I got it covered." Before Hermione could ask anything else, he said: "Tiana." With a plop the House-Elf appeared. "Yes, Young Master?" she asked with her big eyes. "I want you to take Hermione to Spinners End and obey every demand she makes." Tiana happily bobbed her head, but Hermione glowered at him. "You could ask her nicely instead of demanding it from her you know." Draco rolled his eyes. "Just go please. I'll thank you both when the pain is gone." With another huff, Hermione took Tiana's hand and they disappeared.
It took a few moments before Hermione's eyes had adjusted themselves to the dark night. "Tiana, could you please wait here for me?" "Of course young miss. Tiana will wait 'til Young Miss is back." Hermione smiled sweetly at her. "Thank you. Make sure nobody sees you and try to warn me if someone else follows behind me." When the House-Elf agreed, she took a deep breath to calm herself and walked to the door in front of her and whispered: "Draco needs help." The door clicked open and Hermione found herself in a dark hallway.
She slid through the hallway and while she whispered "Lumos", she hoped Draco was right and Snape wouldn't be home. It didn't take her long to find the door leading to the basement. She carefully walked down the stairs, lifted her wand and found herself in a large room filled with potions, kettles, books and all sorts of ingredients. She moved to the back were the whole wall was covered with a huge cupboard, which contained all sorts of magical potions. As a top student at Hogwarts she brew a lot of potions and could recognize even more. Yet as she stood there examining the potions, she realized how little she knew. She bit her lip, not knowing which she should take. She decided to first grab a few she knew for sure. So she delicately seized a Dreamless Potion, a Burning Bitterroot Balm, which should cool the burning sensation, a Revive Potion, in case Draco couldn't be woken up and finally a thick, golden potion she read about and should heal curses.
After putting the potions on the table behind her, she continued to stare at the potions, deep in thought. She had found a few potions that maybe would help a little, but she wanted something that would definitely work and most preferable take away the pain completely. "Show me your wand and slowly turn around." An ice-cold voice behind her suddenly spoke. Hermione paled, but obeyed to his command. "Well, well, Miss Granger, if that is really you. I must say I didn't expect you to invade my home." His face didn't show any emotion and Hermione wished she had the same ability instead of looking like a scared little school girl. "Sorry, professor. It's an emergency."
Severus Snape lowered his wand a little, before questioning the girl. "Is Potter alright?" Hermione nodded. "He is still upset because Sirius is gone, but physically he is fine." "Then what is the emergency?" Hermione hesitated now, she didn't know if she could trust him with her, and Draco's, secret. "You are a spy right? So you know how to keep secrets?" The professor answered slowly. "Yes, I've kept secrets all my life." "Then I plead you to keep what I am going to tell you a secret. From Voldemort," she hesitated again, "and professor Dumbledore as well." She eventually added. "And why would I do that?" Hermione smiled. "Because you care about Draco and you don't want to see him being punished or used, because he befriended the Mudblood friend of Harry Potter."
This time she could see the surprise in his face, even if it was brief. He lowered his wand completely and Hermione did the same. "You and Draco are friends?" he finally asked. "Yes. He is at my house right now in a lot pain, because he took the Dark Mark. He told me to go here and find a potion which could help him. He informed me to tell the house he needed help and then I could enter freely." Snape nodded. "The words aren't enough though. If you didn't mean them, you would have been paralyzed." He whispered. "Which means, you really are here to help Draco." He walked over to her and saw the potions on the table. He put the Burning Bitterroot Balm back and scanned his collection, mumbling. "Bitterroot won't work, but the golden potion might. I should have something better though." He picked up a few potions, examined them and then put them back.
While he searched, he asked: "How did you and Draco befriend each other?" Hermione frowned. "I don't know exactly, it's a long story. But we just helped each other out a few times and now we are friends. Close friends actually." She added. "And now you just pretend to hate one another to keep each other save." It was more a statement than a question, so the muggle-born stayed quiet. "Does anybody else know about this friendship?" Hermione shook her head. "We haven't told anyone. But I think some of Draco's old friends know. They aren't as blind as Harry, Ron or Crabbe and Goyle." Snape seemed to agree with her. "How come you told me? A bright witch as you could have thought of a lie." Hermione chuckled. "My Occlumency isn't good enough to fool you. If I would've lied, you wouldn't have helped me." Severus Snape put a vile with a white substance and curling red dots next to the other tables. "Once again, you're correct Miss Granger. It is getting pretty annoying." He scowled, but for the first time in her life she saw a genuine smile on her Potion teachers face.
"One last question before you go. How did you know you could trust me? Draco believes I spy for Voldemort, not for Dumbledore." Hermione sighed. "I don't know where your loyalties are. I think you spy for both Voldemort and Dumbledore. But I also think you don't care about the Order or Death Eaters. I think you care about Draco and Harry. No matter what, you always protected them. Although I don't know why, I am very grateful." The greasy-haired man looked at the young girl and he sighed when he realized he would protect her as well from now on. "Go help Draco. We'll continue this conversation some other time. I would appreciate it, if you won't tell anyone about our exchange as well." "Thank you professor. I won't."
She took the potions and walked outside were Tiana was waiting for her. "Let's go back to my place, Tiana." Within a second she stood back in her room and noticed that Draco was once again unconscious. She took the Revive potion and sat down beside him on the bed. Pushing his mouth open with her fingers, she forced him to drink the magical drink. He groaned before opening his eyes. "Hey, Granger. Back already?" he asked in a husky voice. "Yes, I found some potion I think could help." He smiled. "I knew you could do it. Did you encounter some trouble?" She smiled back. "No, no trouble at all."
