A/N: Hey guys! I finally updated :) Hope you like this chapter :)
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Chapter 8: Sanctuary
Draco and Hermione found a cave that was a good distance into a different forest they had Apparated into. The two of them had decided that it would be best to continue moving to make sure that they were never in one place for long enough to be detected. Draco knew that at first, Voldemort would send Death Eaters to hunt them down. And then, when they yielded no results, he would begin his own search. Draco only knew this because this was what had happened when Snape had betrayed the Dark Lord.
Now if they could only get into wherever the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix was! That was how Snape had been surviving! Not even Voldemort himself could find this place. That was what made Draco positive that if he tried to search, he would never find it on his own. Their survival hinged on Hermione's memory.
They had a week. A week until Voldemort would begin to hunt them down, and he would kill everyone in his path until he reached them. A week of going from forest to forest to town to town and trying to revive Hermione's memory so that they could be safe. She was straining to remember, and did not speak to him much, so lost in her own thoughts. He felt somewhat guilty, as he was also keeping his distance from her in his frustration.
Finally, sleep had become necessary. So, they had found this cave.
Hermione was sleeping in one of the corners of the cave, and Draco was near the other, unable to fall asleep. He also had a horrible feeling that if they both were asleep, they would immediately be found. So he was staying awake, unable to bring himself to make Hermione stay awake when she so obviously needed this peaceful sleep.
He was resting his chin on his chest, beginning to have trouble keeping his eyes open, so very tired, when Hermione's scream rent through the air.
He jumped to his feet faster than he ever had in his life, his wand drawn. But Hermione was only thrashing around in her sleep, screaming because of some nightmare that was plaguing her. He immediately leapt the few steps to get to her and gently grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. "Hermione! Hermione, wake up!"
Her screams stopped and her eyes slowly opened, the great brown orbs finding his own, tears filling them. Why did she have to cry so much? "It's ok. It was just a nightmare." Draco said, desperate to break the silence as she continued to look up into his face. She nodded silently, her hands reaching forward to clutch his shirt as she pulled herself up into a sitting position.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "I guess I woke you."
"It's fine. I wasn't exactly asleep." Draco said, feeling quite awkward. What was he supposed to do now?
Hermione continued to inspect his face. Then, to Draco's surprise, she leaned herself against his body, her head against his chest. He watched her face as it turned a light pink. "That night…" Hermione began, her voice trembling slightly, "that we fell asleep in the cell…it was the first time I didn't have nightmares."
Draco understood. When Hermione was alone, she felt vulnerable and exposed. Silently, he leaned his back against the wall of the cave and allowed her to lean her body against him. She didn't seem at all uncomfortable with this position, and instantly closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Draco awkwardly wrapped an arm around her, leaning his own head against the wall of the cave and closing his eyes.
The world was rent apart.
The entire cave they were in seemed to explode from around them. Instinctively, Draco threw his entire body over Hermione's as she screamed in shock. He felt the debris falling on top of him, heavily, it hurt, the pain, was it over? He was buried under the wreckage of what had been their haven, was his back broken? He tried to move, but he couldn't, was Hermione ok?
"Think that got 'em?" A deep, bored-sounding voice said from somewhere above Draco. Rookwood. He froze instantly, dearly hoping he was concealed under the wreckage. The edges of his vision were blackening, and the sharp, throbbing pain in his back was beginning to overwhelm him. Tears were brewing in his eyes as he desperately attempted to hold in the scream of pain that wanted so very badly to rip from his lungs.
"Should've knocked them out at least. The Dark Lord wants them alive, so you better hope they still are." Avery's voice sounded somewhere to the left of Draco. He continued to lie completely and utterly still, hoping that Hermione was alright. How could he get up and Disapparate without them hexing him? They had to get out of here. If only his arm would move so he could get to his wand and maybe hex them when they were unaware! But his entire body didn't seem to be functioning; it was oh so hard to move, with all this pain coursing through him…
"Here, clear the rubble, we'll take 'em back…"
Something stirred underneath him, sending horrible pains throughout his back, but the thing didn't stop, it was squirming, attempting to reach the surface, no, Hermione, they'll see, we'll die, no…
A wand poked out from the rubble near him, it was Macnair's, there was a loud shot of "Stupefy!" and a body thudded to the ground, and then Avery's body met the same fate before he could even react, and they were both lying there, immobile. Hermione was pushing through the rubble from slightly underneath and to the left of him, and she broke the surface, only a few cuts on her cheeks and arms. Immediately, her eyes wide with worry, she got down on her knees and scooped away the rubble near Draco. He groaned as she attempted to help him sit up, the pain so dreadful that movement was an impossibility. She immediately shrank back, mumbling an apology.
"We've got to get out of here, Draco, hurry, before more come!" Her voice was scared, frantic. He wanted to get up, he really did, but even the simple task of breathing was wracking his body with immense pains.
"Can't…move…" He managed to gasp out, his eyes sliding out of focus, his back was surely split into, nothing else could be the cause of so much pain…he was dying, oh he was dying…
"Avery? Rookwood? You find them?" A call came from somewhere out in the woods, and in complete desperation Hermione grabbed his arm and turned on the spot.
The normal sensation that he was being squeezed through a rubber tube had never seemed so painful, so horrible, he felt as if he were being ripped apart, and oh he was going to die the pain was so immense he surely must be dying…
:::
Something was touching him, his forehead, cool hands…he was lying on cold, hard ground, the last thing he remembered was that his back must've been broken it had hurt so bad, but how had it happened?
The cave exploding, throwing himself over Hermione, the Death Eaters…
His eyes shot open. The first thing he saw was Hermione's bushy head, an empty vial in one hand and a wet cloth in the other. She was dabbing at his face with the latter, and as soon as she noticed he was conscious, her face split in a wide grin. "You're awake!" She exclaimed, looking pleased with herself.
"Where are we?" Malfoy groaned, trying to get a look around him without too much movement. Hermione glanced around her, as if trying to decide herself.
"I'm not really sure…I mean, I was thinking of where to go, and this place sort of came to mind…and here we are." Hermione looked unsure of how he would take this information, but Draco didn't really care, as long as they were safe.
"What happened to me?"
Hermione put the glass vial down and hugged her knees to her chest. "Well, I think you broke your back…I went into town though, and this lady told me this potion would help…"
"You what?!" Draco said loudly, almost attempting to sit up but immediately stopping at the pain that shot through his back. It wasn't as bad as before, but he didn't do well with pain. "Hermione, people think you're dead, and if this lady gave you a potion, then she was a witch!"
Hermione moodily crossed her arms over her chest. "Well obviously I'm fine, and so are you! You could've never walked again if not for that potion! And anyways, I had a hood. The witch said that was pretty common these days; people not wanting to be seen and such."
He was grateful, sure, but also worried. "How'd you just find a witch with a potion for backs?" Draco questioned, his suspicions rising.
Here, Hermione glanced down at the ground. "Well, er, I wasn't exactly hiding the wand you got me too well, I guess, and she saw me. She said it was wise of me to have my wand out though, said we witches and wizards should be able to know each other in these dark times. She had opened up a little Potions shop when You-Know-Who started to win the war, thinking it might be wise in case someone got hurt. There's a little community of witches and wizards in this town. I asked if she had anything for a broken back, and she brewed it up."
"And how, exactly, did you pay for this?"
Hermione seemed to be increasingly becoming more embarrassed. "Well…I sort of…took it when she went in the back to get something else I 'needed'." At Draco's incredulous look, she held up her hands in defense. "I didn't have any money, and you were hurt, and I was worried! What else was I supposed to do?"
Draco honestly didn't care that she had stolen the potion, but it seemed so alarming that Hermione Granger had stolen the potion. He relaxed a bit more, leaning his head back and closing his eyes, the throbbing in his back beginning to fade into a dull, constant ache.
"So where were you thinking of when you Apparated here?" He asked nonchalantly, hoping against hope that she had been thinking of…
"Well, I sort of was trying to remember where the Order of the Phoenix was."
"It's here?!"
Hermione jumped a bit at his excited reaction. "I looked! I looked around town, and I have no idea if it's here. This is just what popped into my mind!"
Draco heaved himself into a sitting position, ignoring the jabbing pain in his back that told him not to, and stared into Hermione's anxious eyes. "We have to look harder. We might be able to detect something magical, and it could be here. Hermione, we can find this place, and find Potter!"
After a moment where surprise flitted across Hermione's features, she then smiled and narrowed her eyes in determination.
:::
Draco's back had been healed enough by the miraculous potion so that he could walk with only an ache making him a bit slower. They trudged into town after dark, wearing Muggle blankets around their faces like hoods that they had found hanging outside a nearby home. It was too dangerous to be detected now, when they could be so close to safety.
And so they scoured the city, trying to find any sign of magic. Magic almost always left traces, so surely they could find this place, right?
After hours and hours of searching so that it was nearly three in the morning, Draco had been passing rows of houses when he saw it in the darkness. 11, 13. No 12. An accident by a careless Muggle, or was a magical home hidden here? He traced his hand over the 11, and beckoned Hermione over.
Hermione gaped at the little gap in-between houses number 11 and 13. When he impatiently asked what she was looking at, she just pointed a shaking finger at the gap. "There's nothing there!" Draco cried out in frustration, and she seemed to break out of her trance and glance at him.
"You mean you don't see it?"
"See what?"
"This is it." Hermione stepped towards the little gap. "This is the Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix!"
The moment the words left her mouth, a battered door emerged out of nowhere between houses 11 and 13, immediately followed by grimy walls and windows. It was as though an extra house had inflated itself and pushed the others out of the way to make room. Draco's mouth fell open, quite unable to believe his eyes.
"You see it now?" Hermione asked, correctly reading the look on his face. Silently, Draco nodded.
He followed her up to the steps, where, as if having known what to do the whole time, Hermione pulled out Macnair's wand and tapped it on the door. The battered old door with the silver knocker in the shape of a serpent swung open. Silently and swiftly, holding their breaths, they stepped inside and removed the blankets from their heads.
They were in a dimly lit hallway, and as Draco looked up, he saw an old, grand chandelier. "Hermione," he whispered. "I'll stay back. It's going to be hard convincing them you're the real Hermione, and it won't help if you have a Death Eater tagging along."
Hermione nodded, and Draco could see the apprehension and fear in her eyes. She was nervous, he could tell, nervous to see the people who thought she was dead, the people who loved her. He nodded back, and she turned, making her way down the hall alone.
But it seemed their arrival had not gone unnoticed. Harry Potter stood at the end of the hallway, unable to see Draco behind Hermione, staring at his dead friend in shock and horror, his wand half-heartedly raised, his mouth hanging open.
Hermione shuffled her feet nervously, and he could just see her hesitantly smile. "Hello, Harry."
A/N: So, I figured that since Hermione became a Secret-Keeper when Dumbledore died, if she told Draco that it was the Order of the Phoenix, it would appear to him. Sorry if that's wrong! Hermione and Draco were originally not supposed to find Grimmauld Place for a chapter or two more, but it seemed to me that reading about them pointlessly wondering around would get kind of boring, so I sped it up. Tell me what you guys think! Hope it was ok!
