The following note was also posted on chapter 37 of ACMI, but needed repetition here. Thank you all for your patience, it is so very deeply appreciated.
Hi everyone! My updates have gotten quite sporadic, I know. As you all have probably already noticed, the time between updates has steadily gotten longer and longer. I do sincerely apologize for this, as I usually do update once a week, if not multiple times a week. For the past month and a half or so, however, doing so has been difficult. I've had quite a lot going on in my personal life, and that has affected the pace of my writing quite a lot.
Nonetheless, I do want to reassure you guys that I have not and will not be abandoning my fics at all. Instead, for the next few months, I anticipate having a very sporadic update schedule. This means that if I find the time, I might update twice in a week as usual. It also means that I might end up going up to a month without an update, although I truly hope there won't be any delays that are that long. Overall, though, I'm asking you all for your continued patience and understanding— writing is very dear to me and has helped me immensely in times of stress, so I do not plan to let it go anytime soon. I expect to be back to normal in mid-August or so, but it could be sooner. I will be keeping you guys updated along the way though, and I am trying to stay as active as possible on social media to compensate because even if I won't always be able to find the time to sit down and write entire chapters, I will be available those ways. As usual, I'll leave those socials at the end of the chapter.
Also, on a happier note: My beta, RESimon, has posted her first fic! It's a Nevmione titled Not But For You, and you can find it in my favorites. Please go show her some love, she's worked so very hard on it. Also, please do follow her on tumblr and show her some love there (resimonfics). As you all know, this fic would be in quite the state without her, so she deserves tons of kudos for all of her hard work.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Hermione awoke sharply, flying from deep sleep to hyper-alertness in a moment. Her heart fluttered rapidly in her chest beneath the weight that held it down, and her panicked scream was stifled by the hand that was pressed firmly over her mouth.
"Do not hex me," Malfoy said. "We've been summoned." He waited until she gave him a short nod before he disappeared back out the door.
She cast a tempus charm, still blinking blearily as it showed the time to be nearly half past midnight. Several weeks of silence had passed since Kingsley's visit, and they had fallen back into a routine of working and training together, the rest of their time spent in relative silence. It was no longer tense, but the air was not amicable, either. There had been a shift between them — a subtle one, yes, but a shift nonetheless — since that fateful night in the cabin, and she now found it easier to breathe around him despite his cool demeanor. She slid out of bed and dressed quickly in her usual outfit of dark form-fitting trousers and a long-sleeved shirt, stepping out into the living room as she fastened her cloak.
"What did it say?" she asked Malfoy, who was already dressed.
He turned and tossed her knife to her wordlessly, and she felt her heart clench for a moment as she looked at its spotless beauty, no hint of what she had done left on its gleaming sheath despite the fact that it has been branded in her memory forever.
"Reconnaissance," he answered. "They asked that we be discreet."
She nodded, then crossed over and gently fingered his tousled platinum locks. "May I?"
He had stiffened at her touch but nodded all the same. She charmed his hair into a deep chestnut color, then glamoured his eye color to a deep blue. He was still strikingly handsome, and she flushed as she raised her wand again after it had been lowered and quickly cast a charm that caused his nose to grow longer, developing a slight hook.
He raised an eyebrow at her, but she said nothing, instead giving him a short nod as she charmed her own long braid auburn before taking his hand. She tried not to focus on how warm it was, nor on how his larger hand seemed to dwarf her small one while simultaneously fitting it perfectly.
But then his cold, gruff voice broke through her reverie, and she remembered the frigid, detached man to whom the hand that she held belonged. "I've never been there," he said, pointing to the shimmering circle he had marked on the map. "Do you know where to go?"
She let go of his hand, avoiding his eyes as he inadvertently addressed the presumption she'd made, assuming he had been there just as before. She approached the map, her brow furrowing as she analyzed the surrounding area.
"There's an inn that I visited with my parents once a couple of kilometers away," she said, pointing to a spot on the map. "Here. It'll be a long walk."
Draco looked at the path she pointed out and nodded before taking her hand. She envisioned the small, quaint inn and apparated them there. They landed in a shadowed area just outside the main doors to the quaint inn, a short ways from where the tree line began. They pressed back into the shadows as the doors opened, letting out a young couple. Hermione watched as the man lifted his wife's hand to his lips, kissing the rings on her finger as they glinted in the soft light of the lantern that illuminated them. She cupped his cheek and drew him into a long kiss before she whispered something into his ear that caused him to give her a sly grin before tugging her off into the underbrush.
"Let's go," Hermione whispered as they watched the couple disappear into the shadows.
They disillusioned themselves and ran across the gravelly road and into the forest. A few feet away, she heard the woman's soft moan that was followed by a short groan from her husband, and Hermione swallowed, speeding up while studiously avoiding looking up at her own husband.
The forest was soon silent around them, save for their soft breaths and footsteps. It was dark, and the silver of moonlight that shone through the trees did little more than give them a vague sense of where some overhanging branches were. As such, they stayed close, nearly pressed into one another, and the heat that radiated off of his body was her sole source of comfort.
"Malfoy," she whispered after a long while of silence. "We're getting close." She'd stopped moving altogether, and felt him slow to a stop beside her, his arm brushing hers lightly.
"Where?"
"I can't be certain, but the pull of the charm has lessened so much that I can barely feel it now. Only a few dozen feet ahead, I think." Her palms felt slick, and she rubbed them on her leggings as she bit her lip, looking up at where she could barely make out his outline in the dull moonlight. "We—"
His hand gripped her shoulder as he pressed her forward. "Just focus," his voice was so low that she barely heard him.
She nodded, knowing he couldn't see the movement but also knowing that he likely didn't care, either. Her breaths quickened as they moved closer and the trees began to thin, letting and more trickles of illumination shine through. Hermione stepped forward and nearly tripped, and was stopped only by Malfoy's strong grip as he caught her. It was still dark, too dark for them to see what it had been, but a sickening cold had begun to seep through her as she knew that it has been something distinctly out of the ordinary. As if coming to the same conclusion as her, Malfoy cast a low light from his wand, illuminating the ground before them.
And Hermione froze.
Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, and she found herself sucking in short, sharp breaths as she tried to stop herself from becoming violently ill.
There were dead bodies— a dozen at least, perhaps more — scattered along the ground around them.
The one by her feet stared up with cold, lifeless eyes, her dark hair matted with blood. She wore distinctly muggle clothing, as did all the rest of the victims. While some were pale and lifeless, others were covered in blood, their wounds telling tales of their untimely suffering. Hermione stumbled backward, slamming into a tree while Malfoy quickly put out the light.
"Don't look," he said. "We need to move the bodies. Quickly."
She shuddered a deep breath. "Wait," she said, then cast a quick homenum revelio on their immediate surroundings. When the spell showed nothing, she felt her heartbeat begin to slow although the churning in her stomach did not cease.
"Do we have enough portkeys?" Malfoy asked.
Hermione bit her lip. They had dozens, yes, but this was war, and it had no end date that they knew of. How many missions were left? How many more times would they need to use the portkeys? How precious of a resource were they, truly?
"Why are they doing this?" she asked, watching Malfoy's outline shift, presumably turning toward her as she spoke.
"Because this is what they do, Granger." His voice was dismissive.
"I know that," she said back. "But…over a dozen muggles just—" she choked on the word "—slaughtered in cold blood, Draco, it doesn't make sense—"
"It would if you understood Death Eaters," he snapped. "This is sport to them."
The ill feeling in her stomach continued to churn, and she forced herself to swallow it back as she ran through the options of what this could have meant. Even as she spoke, she held the pouch of portkeys in her hand, hesitating as she tried to come to a decision.
"It's just—random, Draco. Why here? Why just leave them? It might be a trap, maybe we shouldn't touch them—" she stopped short, sneaking a glance at where the bodies lay once more as she forced herself not to heave at the sickening realization that had just dawned on her.
"What is it?" Malfoy asked, his voice sharp.
"Inferi," she breathed. "They could be making more Inferi, couldn't they?" She thought of Harry's description of his time spent with Dumbledore in the cave, of the twisted, unnatural creatures that had attacked them…
She didn't doubt that those had been muggles, too.
"If they were, they would have taken them," Malfoy said. "They wouldn't just—"
"Slaughter them without reason and leave them here?" She answered with a humorless laugh. Her discomfort continued to increase exponentially the more time they spent standing there, surrounded by the dead. "It's a possibility, and you know that they're capable of it. They could come back at any moment to…collect them."
She looked up at him, and although his eyes weren't visible in the dark she somehow knew their eyes had met. "We have to burn them." Her lip trembled as she thought of all the muggles that lay before them, slaughtered for reasons she knew they would not — could not — understand.
"Granger," Malfoy broke the silence. "I'll do it."
"No," she said, her voice almost a whisper. "I can do it." Surviving this war would require a strength she didn't know that she possessed, but she knew that this action would at least be merciful. Yes— it was better that they died a final, peaceful death here than be forced to join Voldemort's undead army.
She lifted her wand with a shaky hand, pointing it at where the bodies lay. "Incend—"
Before she could finish the incantation, close by —entirely too close by— several distinct pops of apparition sounded around them.
And then everything descended into chaos.
Sparks of color began littering the air around them as it was filled with a multitude of spells and curses from their attackers. Hermione stumbled backward, tripping over a body as she dodged a spell that hit the trees just behind her, exploding in a shower of splintered wood. She tried to see where Malfoy was, but the plethora of spells exploding around her kept her firmly in place as she casted shield and curses of her own. As a white-hot spell grazed her leg, she sprang up, throwing back a spell of her own, satisfied to hear an answering scream. Then she took off at a sprint, searching for Malfoy's dark head amongst the chaos that was sparks of magic shrouded in shadow.
There was a sudden burst of light then, and the air was immediately filled with a sickening stench that had her earlier queasiness rising back up as the ground was suddenly ablaze behind her, consuming the bodies that littered the ground. The light the fire threw off illuminated several figures littered around them, their faces slightly obscured by the licking flames as they rose higher and higher.
She took advantage of the light to lunge forward, taking down two more Death Eaters with quick, precise movements. She ran past them, throwing out more spells as she dove deeper into the chaos, trying to identify her only ally in a sea of foes. Even as she took down three more in quick succession, she heard several more cracks of apparition as others joined the fight. She whipped her head around frantically as she searched for Malfoy, knowing that their window to escape was quickly closing.
There.
She spotted Malfoy's tall, lithe form a dozen feet before her, the distinctive hooked nose scrunched in anger as he dueled with two Death Eaters, taking them out easily. She rushed toward him, feeling the spreading flames begin to lick at her heels. She cried out, saying nothing in particular because she knew that she could not expose them, but hoping he would distinguish the pitch of her voice regardless—
A hand clamped down on her arm suddenly, dragging her backward even as she was mere feet from where Malfoy had begun dueling three newcomers. "Who do we have here?" A cold, male spat as she tried to wrench herself away, scrambling backward and stumbling over one of the bodies that had yet to be touched by the flames.
The heat was stifling, and the smell of burning bodies burned her senses as she tried to escape the man's iron grip. She shot out a slashing hex that grazed his cheek, causing blood to start pouring from the wound. He snarled, lurching forward as she dodged his next spell. She managed to wrench sideways at the last moment, sending them tumbling away from the fire. The man managed to secure a meaty hand around her throat even as she clawed at him with her free hand, scratching deep gouges into his skin. She managed to free her wand hand from where it had been trapped between them, but as her mouth formed the words of a curse the man wrenched them sideways once more, sending them tumbling in a heap.
Beyond them, shouts continued to sound as spells flew off in every direction, bathing the dark sky in color above the orange-red of the licking flames. This time, the man had managed to twist her in such a way that her wand arm was trapped painfully beneath her while he pressed her face into the forest floor. Her mouth filled with dirt as she struggled to breathe, feeling the man shove her face deeper into it as he kept his firm grip on her head while a knee was firmly embedded on her lower back.
She continued to hold her wand fast with the hand that was trapped beneath her while she started to creep the hand that was only partially trapped towards the pocket of her cloak, her fingertips just barely able to grasp at it in order for her to begin lifting it upward. Each breath she took only filled her mouth with more dirt, and she knew her time was running out. She hadn't much time, and she tugged at the pocket harder until she gripped the pouch of portkeys, grasping it tightly in her fingers. She fingered it open, sliding one of the small, hard objects to the top of the pouch. She needed only to be precise enough to press it against his body without touching it herself. His large frame covered her so completely that her pinky grazed his side as she twisted the portkey into position. She needed only to tip it in a precise enough manner that it touched his side—
There was a sudden blast of light, and two things happened simultaneously. The man rolled off of her, revealing Malfoy behind them, firmly poised with his wand pointed at him. The sudden movement, however, had propelled her in such a way that her hand automatically tightened on the pouch just below the single portkey she had nudged to the top that she had readied to drop on her attacker. The effect was that a single gold coin flew out of the pouch, sailing through the air between them as it twinkled in the light of the flames surrounding them. Hermione's eyes widened as the scene unfolded seemingly in slow motion, attempting to wrench herself away from where the man still held her braid in a firm grip. Malfoy came to the same realization as she did, and he moved forward, a hand swiping through the air a hair too short above where it fell.
It landed directly on the man's chest.
The last thing Hermione saw before the portkey sucked them away was the horror twisting her husband's glamoured features as she felt herself twisting away with a sharp, inescapable tug at her navel. And she was gone.
15 will be out sooner than usual — can't leave you all hanging for long! For updates on my writing progress or just to chat with me, you can check my tumblr (blankfishxx), my Facebook (Blank Fish), or my Discord sever: (remove all *'s, of course): h*t*tps*:*/*discord*.g*g/*GH6N7Sn.