Chapter 12

A/N: Hello readers! I finally got my new computer! Unfortunately, this means that Microsoft Office and I are having a prety big disagreement what with it not wanting to transfer over to my new computer... Anyway! What this means for you guys is that you get a chapter early, mostly because I'm not sure how long it'll take me to sort this out (and I've deleted everything from the other computer, so I'm really hoping I can sort it out). Also, it appears that my little red lines are missing, so when the spaces somehow disappeared around my italics as they always do when I get betaed chapters back (ff . net seemes to do it for fun) I can't see it underlined. I've read this through twice, but it's possible I missed one, sorry.

*deep breath* Now, on to more fun things. Thanks to eveyone who reviewed and also to irianaceleste for beating!

Now, I just have to get to the bottom of why this thing is beeping at me... It should tell you instead of just giving you a mysterious beep *muttering*

~Frosty

The moment a chained sphinx was raised into the arena through one of the trapdoors in the red sand of the stadium floor, Hermione's whole body tensed. It went against all of her instincts to just sit there and watch the cruelty she knew was about to happen.

Sensing that she was on the verge of jumping out of her seat and helping the creature, Draco placed a heavy hand on her knee, holding her in her chair. To a casual observer, it probably looked affectionate, but he was squeezing so hard that it almost hurt, a warning to keep her head and pretend to be unaffected by the promised spectacle.

It was a warning she desperately needed when, a moment after bringing out the sphinx, a magical barrier was erected around the arena to keep the creature away from the audience but trapped within the stadium and the chains were removed.

An announcer's charismatic voice echoed around the coliseum. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the fourth Creature Battle! We have quite a show for you this afternoon. First up is the sphinx. Since her specialty is riddles, we're accepting challengers from the audience to prove themselves against this fierce creature."

Hermione was horrified for so many reasons. She kept asking herself how it was possible for the Ministry to overlook the disappearance of enough magical creatures to run three of these macabre games before they noticed.

There was a surprisingly large number of people – predominantly young men – who were willing to report down to the arena to take their chances against the creature housed there. The sphinx, bearing her teeth at anyone who ventured too close, was hit with stinging hexes to stop her from charging at the first challenger as he was introduced into the arena. Her eyes were pained and extra wide when the barrage of hexes stopped.

Instead of challenging the man who approached her, the sphinx reared back and pawed at the trapdoor from which she had entered the stadium. The wood of the door refused to bend under her scratching and a pair of men who were obviously working for the show came up behind her and hit her with more stinging hexes. A pained roar echoed around the coliseum and the crowd answered with one of their own, seeming to enjoy the show.

Hermione tried to keep her eyes open and her face blank while ignoring what she was seeing. Head hanging in defeat, the sphinx faced her first challenger. She was magically bound not to attack until her riddle had been answered, so the stinging hexes stopped as the challenger pondered over his question.

The first challenger answered wrong and the barrage of hexes started once more to prevent the sphinx's natural instinct to pounce on him. Once safely behind the protective magical barrier again, the man was praised by his fellow challengers for his bravery. The next challenger was more skilled with riddles. He answered correctly and was permitted to fire a hex of his own at the sphinx before he was ushered back out of the arena. This pattern continued as the line of volunteers decreased.

The sphinx's speech got more and more high-pitched every time they hit her with the spells and she occasionally released a pained roar that grated along Hermione's bones and shivered up her spine. It wasn't a sound she was going to forget anytime soon.

Sometime during the show, Hermione's hands latched onto Draco's upper arm, and not long after that, her face was pressed against the expensive fabric of his suit just above where her hands were gripping.

Malfoy allowed it for a few minutes since she wasn't the only woman in the audience having a similar reaction – though he suspected that many of those women were just looking for an excuse to get closer to their date. However, when the last challenger was finished with the sphinx and the creature was herded back over to the trapdoor and lowered below the arena, he shook his partner off of his arm.

"Pull yourself together," he hissed. "We've got more to accomplish today, and it's not going to work if you're cowering against me like you have pudding in place of a backbone."

Knowing he was right, she straightened up and faced forward. "It looks like we need to go down there if we want to get a tour behind the scenes."

There were remarkably few people wanting to get a look at what was happening behind the scenes of the show. Hermione could only assume the lack of interest was because no one really cared about the magical creature aspect of the show, just in the violence and bloodshed portion.

Draco produced a pouch of gold from his pocket and slipped it to the man standing at the entrance to the basement under the arena. They were allowed down into the bowls of the coliseum without further fuss from anyone.

The air was much cooler below the ground, and it would have been pleasant if the pain and suffering in the air hadn't been nearly palpable. Too many creatures kept in spaces too small left the entire place smelling of excrement, blood, and sweat. There were a few poachers loitering around, occasionally shooting sparks and stinging hexes at the captive creatures, but they said nothing against Hermione and Draco. It seemed that it wasn't unheard of for the audience to bribe their way behind the scenes.

It was dark, only a few scattered torches lighting the entire space. What could have been a huge room was divided into a series of small corridors and rows of cages, many of them containing magical creatures. Hermione was faced with an overwhelming feeling of helplessness because she knew that she wasn't going to be able to save them all.

"Come along, love," Draco said when she started to slow her progress in front of the cages. He grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze that caught her by surprise; her partner wasn't usually one to coddle, even those who were close to him. Despite acting like lovers for the watching eyes of the poachers, the additional comfort of the little squeeze of her hand was something that wasn't necessary for their ruse. She appreciated it.

"It's a shame we can only watch," Draco said loudly, putting on his persona of arrogant and heartless Pureblood. The one that he had wore for much of his school career. "I don't think its entertainment unless I get some blood on my hands."

Ironically, this was true, but in reality, Draco only fought things that fought back, like magical creatures that were trying to kill him, or Auror trainees who needed some of the eagerness beaten out of them and sense pounded into them.

Hermione clung to his arm, making sure that her breasts were very obviously pressed against him as she stared up at him, trying to look adoring. "You're so brave."

"I'm a man, love. We need to get our hands dirty from time to time to prove our masculinity."

Just as they had intended, their talk grabbed the attention of some of the loitering poachers. "You want in on the real action?" a large man in a stain-covered shirt asked, lumbering over to them.

Draco answered in the affirmative.

"We could use another man after that useless moron got himself captured by the Ministry," another man said as he stepped forward. This one was much smaller and cleaner than the first man. "You look capable. Would you be willing to take Veritaserum to guarantee that you're not an Auror?"

Shaking Hermione off of his hand as she clung to it, Draco gave her a patronising look that normally would have earned him a hex, or at least a good kick in the shin. "Go look at the animals while the men talk."

The men laughed as she walked away. Hermione pretended to be scared of the loud, dangerous creatures that were housed in the cages around her while she was actually scanning them to see which ones were most in need of rescue.

"Let's get some of those poor creatures out of here," Earl said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice. In a place where unusual creatures were collected, it was safest that he keep a low profile. He'd been successful in pretending to be a normal brooch up until that moment, which was impressive.

She nodded.

In Hermione's pocket, there were three portkeys. She was going to have to choose the three magical creatures that were the worst off and leave the rest. It broke her heart to have to make such a choice, but at least she could do a little good for the poor beings besides just the reconnaissance that she and Draco were doing.

The sphinx was first. After the little display that she'd just witnessed, Hermione needed to free the sphinx. In addition to being on the verge of breaking, the creature was also endangered and sentient enough to really understand what was happening to her. Hermione hated doing it, but she was being forced to rationalize saving one creature and leaving others to their potential doom. Her only consolation was that they were going to try and bring down the organization before more creatures could be hurt.

Slowly, so she didn't startle the creature and so that it would appear that she was afraid in case the men were still watching, Hermione approached the sphinx's cage. The bars were as thick as her arm and the cage wasn't large enough for the poor sphinx to stretch out her wings. The proud creature's head hung nearly to the ground as she crouched in the farthest corner in fear of more hexes.

"I'm sorry this happened to you," Hermione said mournfully. She glanced over her shoulder to see that the men had taken Malfoy into a back room, presumably to give him the Veritaserum and question him. There wasn't time to waste worrying that he would be okay; she'd just have to count on her partner to take care of himself – at least until she finished with her task and was free to assist him.

"Leave me, human!" the sphinx spat.

"I'm here to free you." Hermione fished the wrapped Portkey out of her pocket, pulled the wrapping off of the top, and extended her hand into the cage, trusting that the sphinx wasn't going to claw her hand off. "This is a Portkey that will transfer you to the Ministry. From there, we'll make sure that you get back home."

"Why should I trust you?" The sphinx tried to sound hostile and unwelcoming, but her head had come up slightly and she edged forward.

"Because nothing I can do is worse than the treatment you're getting here."

That was all the encouragement the sphinx needed. She stretched out a huge paw to touch the Portkey and disappeared.

A small, ill-looking centaur and a phoenix with the cloudy eyes of the blind took the other two Portkeys. Hermione heard the door opening that signified the return of her partner and the men. Quickly, she punched herself in the eye, cast a light slicing hex to tear the edge of her skirt and make her leg bleed a little, and crumpled to the floor in tears. After all of the horrible things she'd witnessed that afternoon, the tears weren't hard to summon.

"What happened here?" the smaller man demanded as Draco, with feigned concern, rushed forward to embrace her. Despite knowing it was fake comfort, Hermione's distress wasn't entirely feigned and it felt nice to be in his arms.

"S-someone came an-and shoved me down!" For dramatic effect, Hermione added a wail at the end of her sentence that made Malfoy cringe away from her slightly.

"The sphinx is gone!" the larger man exclaimed. He rounded on Hermione. "Did you see what happened?"

"Who cares about the animal, my girlfriend has been attacked!" Draco growled. He stood up, keeping his arms around Hermione so that he lifted her along with himself. At his most intimidating, even with a crying girl in his arms, Draco had the two men somewhat cowed.

"We'll deal with this. You should get her out of here."

The carrying charade continued until Draco had placed Hermione into the carriage, at which point he took the seat across from her and she stopped her tears. Hermione spent a moment peeking out her window at the coliseum, hoping that the rest of the show was going to be cancelled. The people streaming out of the exits, looking put out suggested that it probably had been.

"There's a phoenix, centaur, and the sphinx waiting for us back at the Ministry." Her voice held a slight croak from all of the crying she'd done, but her demeanour was entirely professional despite the aching and insistent sadness that she still felt. "How'd the questioning go? Are you in?"

Draco nodded. "The idiots used Veritaserum on me, but they asked me if I was an Auror, not if I was working for the Ministry or looking to ruin their little organization or any of the many questions that would have led me to ruin my cover. It's a wonder they haven't been caught before now."


After making sure that the rescued creatures received the medical attention they needed and were sent to their respective habitats – with some protection spells in place, of course - Hermione, Earl, and Draco headed back to Hermione's house.

"I've seen some impressive acts of cruelty in my time, yet I'm always surprised at the horrors you humans are capable of," Earl said sadly. "And that's saying something. My father is one of the most bloodthirsty creatures you'll ever meet."

Hermione needed a change of subject. If they kept talking about what they'd just witnessed, then she was going to have nightmares and would be useless in the morning because she'd been tossing and turning all night.

"Are you going to go on that date with the trainee?" she asked, ignoring Earl and turning to Draco instead.

"I just spent a shitload of gold bribing our way into that place," he said with a shrug, "I may as well let someone else pay for my meal for once."

"The Ministry would reimburse you if you'd just fill out the paperwork." Hermione was already feeling a little better, falling back into their usual argument. Forms were a safe thing to talk about. She was familiar with forms and they didn't remind her of anything horrible.

"Goodbye, Granger." Draco wasn't cooperating. He didn't feel like having the familiar argument with his partner again when he had somewhere else to be.

Earl climbed onto her shoulder as soon as Malfoy was out the door. His entire being was exuding outrage and frustration. "You're just going to let that slag move in on your man?"

She brushed the lizard off of her shoulder and went to the Floo. It had been a while since she'd checked in with Harry and she figured it was probably a good idea to inform at least one Auror that Draco was going to infiltrate a criminal organization. Aurors were so touchy about other departments on the Ministry - people who were technically "civilians" – doing dangerous things like going under cover. Hermione understood the concern, but that didn't mean she wasn't frustrated by it.


"You did what?" Harry demanded. In Hermione's opinion, he was being unreasonably whiny about her whole explanation. He'd done things that were so much more dangerous in his lifetime; he'd been there when she had done things that were much more dangerous. She didn't see why he had to get so worked up about it. Any danger she had been in was over.

Hermione sighed and repeated herself. "Draco and I infiltrated the poaching organization and freed some of their captives. They seem to have accepted Draco as one of their members and we hope to bring down the whole operation in the very near future."

"Hermione, do you know how dangerous that was?"

"I'm well aware of the danger that was involved, thank you, Harry. We took a calculated risk and it paid off."

He rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I just worry about you, and apparently it's warranted, since you're keeping all of these secrets from me. I mean, you were keeping the fact that Malfoy was your partner from me for years. It stings a little."

"I'm sorry, Harry," she said, hanging her head slightly.

Hermione Granger was anything but stupid; she'd known that keeping the identity of her partner a secret was going to come crashing down around her at some point, but that didn't mean that she was prepared to handle her friend's hurt. She hadn't meant to hurt him; things had just gotten out of hand.

"What is it about the git that makes you willing to lie for him? You could have spoken to Kingsley and had a different partner assigned. There are advantages to knowing the Minister."

"I gave him a second chance and he proved himself reliable, Harry. There's no one else who could do his job quite the way he does. Somehow we work together quite well." Her tone was reproachful. She was sorry that she'd hurt him, but she wasn't going to let him walk all over her just because she was feeling guilty. Keeping Draco secret from her friends had been a mistake, but keeping him as her partner was certainly not a mistake.

"I still think he's a git," Harry said almost petulantly.

"Almost everyone does."