The quiet clatter of dishes and low voices made their way slowly into Hermione's consciousness. Wandering to the kitchen she found Molly Weasley and Harry cooking breakfast. Ron, Dean, Neville, and Luna were seated at the kitchen table eating.

They all turned and stared at her and she suddenly felt self-conscious. She hadn't had time to think about the fact that the whole world knew she had mated with Draco Malfoy. But now, meeting their stares, it suddenly occurred to her. The papers were probably filled with speculation over her sex life and details of what was known about bonding rituals.

She wasn't a prude but it still felt like a strangely intimate thing to have as public knowledge. She tried to steel herself. It wasn't any different than coming back from a honeymoon, she tried to tell herself. But it felt raw, especially standing there alone.

She wavered. Trying to make herself walk the rest of the way into the room.

"Hermione." Mrs Weasley bustled over to her and enveloped her in a crushing hug. "What a mess the Ministry has made of things. Are you alright, dear?"

Hermione clung to the motherly embrace.

"I'm alright," she said quietly.

"Let me get you some breakfast. Harry realised this morning you haven't eaten anything since goodness knows when."

"There were some biscuits in the cupboard," she reassured an apologetic looking Harry as she allowed herself to be served a heaping plateful of food.

No one was trying to conceal their stares. She tried to focus on eating but she could feel her face growing hotter and hotter.

"Just ask!" she finally barked.

They all jumped.

"Are you really alright, Hermione?" Ron asked quietly.

She stared at him.

"No. I'm not," she admitted quietly. "But not because of Draco, if that's what you're thinking. None of this was his fault... well, I suppose it is his fault in some ways. But he didn't mean for any of it happen. And now everything is awful and I don't know what I'm supposed to do to help him."

She stabbed an egg.

"You're not alone, Hermione," Ron said firmly. "I'll alway think of him as a ferrety tosser. But if you're determined to live with a ginormous, pointy-face bird person for the rest of your life, you know I'll help you."

Hermione knew he was trying to cheer her up but she couldn't muster the will to smile.

"Thank you, Ron," she said quietly.

She meant it. The Weasley family's dislike for the Malfoys was legitimately rooted. Even before the War, Ginny had almost died because of Lucius. And Draco's insults toward Ron in school had tended to hit their mark more frequently than when they had been directed toward herself and Harry.

"He isn't the same person he was," she said after a moment. "I don't know if that matters for you all, but I want you to know."

What might have been asked next was lost when George suddenly bustled into the room carrying an armful of boxes.

"Hermione, my love," he cried. "Gone and broken my heart you have. I thought we were destined for each other. Was I not enough of a lost cause for you that you had to choose Malfoy instead?"

His face was woebegone.

"What did you bring?" Harry inquired.

"A bunch of old merchandise. Some of our old shield charmed clothes. And some temporary wands. They'll shoot off about ten small jinxes or three stronger spells. Not the most useful, but handy backup if anyone loses a wand during a duel. You could summon your wand back with it at least."

"Speaking of spells, Hermione, when you're done eating I want to check something." Harry told her.

Hermione ate a few more bites and then stood. Harry led her up to one of the upper floors of Grimmauld Place into an empty room.

"What is it Harry?"

"I want to see your spellwork. It seemed unreliable yesterday and if it's still that way—" he hesitated, "we should know ahead of time so we can strategise accordingly."

Hermione nodded and drew her wand. It still felt foreign. It was different than when she'd used Bellatrix's. It still wanted to cooperate with her, it just felt as though it couldn't.

" Stupefy." She cast toward the wall. The stunner exploded from the tip so violently she slid backward and the beam of red light widened into a broad arc that slammed into the wall so heavily it dented.

She stared down at her hand. And then tried again, several times, trying to hold back as much magic as she could. By the time she stopped there were a dozen dents several feet wide in the wall and the wood detailing was splintering.

"Let's try something simpler." Harry pulled out a knut and placed it on the ground. "Try levitating it."

Hermione cast a restrained wingardium leviosa .

The knut shot off the floor and into the ceiling where it stuck, burrowed into the wood.

"Bugger," sighed Harry as he stared up at it. "I was afraid of this. Try a shield charm."

" Protego." Hermione commanded, trying to siphon out only the tiniest amount of magic as she cast.

A white wave shot from the tip of her wand and spread from the floor to the ceiling. But, rather than remaining in place, it proceeded to roll across the floor like a wave until it vanished through the wall.

"Well," said Harry. "At least that works a bit."

"A bit." Hermione repeated flatly. "I'm going to be absolutely rubbish in a fight. I could kill someone by accident."

She tried again and again to hold a shield in front of herself, but even when she tried to use fianto duri she couldn't force it to stay in place. The shields just exploded out of her wand; as though each time she channeled any magic all of it endeavored to pour from her wand.

After several minutes she stopped, feeling drained and rather defeated. There didn't seem to be any technique or method that worked to manage it. She couldn't understand, she'd never heard of such a side-effect from bonding. She hoped it was just temporary, maybe she just needed to recalibrate.

She looked over at Harry, feeling frustrated.

"It's alright." He gave her an encouraging smile. "I already thought through this. I'm going to have Ron and Neville sitting on both sides and Luna in front of you. They're all your friends so it will be natural for them to be close to you. I'd be there too, but they're bringing Malfoy in for his testimony and I'm in charge of him. George and Dean will be elsewhere in the audience along with Molly and Arthur and Minerva. I'm really hoping I'm just being paranoid about all this. The room will be packed with reporters and anyone one else who can squeeze their way in."

Hermione nodded. Just thinking about returning to the courtroom made her feel a sort of frozen exhaustion. But, she needed to go. To hear Emeliory's explanation for why she'd brought this hell down on them. And to see Draco. The bond had a strained, aching feeling that seemed to grow stronger as time passed. She wasn't sure if it was because of their separation or a sign that he was in pain.

"I'm going to go talk to Ron and Neville, I want to make sure they know you probably won't be able to cast at all unless it's defensively." Harry said.

Hermione got ready mechanically. Harry had brought over some of Ginny's clothes for her to change into. It was odd, to realise her clothes were all gone too. Harry included a shield cloak from George to put on top.

Half and hour later she'd stepped onto the front step of Grimmauld Place beside Ron. She felt so useless, unable to even apparate herself. He took her arm and brought her to the Ministry with a pop.

The courtroom was even more packed than it had been the day before. The walls were groaning slightly from the repeated expansion charms that Ministry's magical maintenance employees kept casting to accommodate the growing crowd.

Hermione tried to slink in behind Ron and Neville in an attempt to avoid the barrage of questions that occurred every time anyone recognised her. Finally they were tucked up against a back wall, far away from the public seating.

The Wizengamot filed in with Kingsley while the side doors opened and two aurors escorted Emeliory Bogfeld in. She was still dressed in wizarding robes rather than prison clothes, indicating a low level of security concern. She walked cooperatively up to the chair in the center and opened her mouth for the three drops of veritaserum that aurors presented to her.

As she swallowed the potion a hush fell over the crowd.

"Ms Bogfeld, you were staying with Miss Granger during her convalescence in St Mungo's for the purpose of getting her statement on how she came to be injured and partly bound to Draco Malfoy. Instead, you violated your wizarding oath and duties by smuggling her out and leaving her to mercies of a magical creature of unknown abilities. How do you plead?"

"Guilty," she answered, under a regular dosage her voice had none of the dazed quality Hermione and Lucius had exhibited. "I did it."

"Why?"

"'Money?" She suddenly sounded confused. "I think. I got money."

"You aren't sure?" Several Wizengamot members were staring down at her bewildered.

"The Malfoys paid me to help make Draco a full-blooded Veela. By doing it he'd be powerful enough to rule the wizarding world."

"Do you believe Mr Malfoy has any interest in ruling the wizarding world?" Kingsley asked, looking at her with a veiled expression.

"No. Not at all. He wanted to die to spare Miss Granger. I tried to tell her and he obliviated her to keep her from bonding with him or feeling guilty over his death." Her voice sounded suddenly clearer.

"Mr Malfoy obliviated Miss Granger?" A witch interrupted.

"Yes. Last week. After I told her about the bond at the request of Narcissa Malfoy. He was determined not to give in to it."

"Why would he do that if he intended to take over the wizarding world?"

"I don't know. I got so much money from the Malfoys. He planned to be the next dark wizard. full-blooded Veela. No one would be able to stop him." Emeliory's voice was confused again.

"When did the Malfoys pay you to smuggle Miss Granger out? And why did Mr Malfoy need your help?"

"I—don't know. I got money."

The witch, Wingletorp, who had laughed during the WRA passage turned toward Kingsley.

"I have known Emeliory Bogfeld for thirty years. Her memory has been tampered with, and shoddily at that. I'll bet my seat on it."

Several other Wizengamot members nodded.

"I think you're right. Remove Ms Bogfeld from the stand and call in a memory specialist to examine her. See if it can be reversed. And send word to to DMLE, I want a record of every person who accessed her holding cell."

Emeliory was escorted out. Hermione watched her go, trying to guess the purpose of the tampering. Was it just an attempt to frame Draco and prevent his release? That didn't seem right. If anything it was framing Lucius or Narcissa.

Hermione had already given her side of the event, so Bogfeld must have known something. Possibly she had an idea of who wanted Draco dead. But Hermione couldn't understand, why had she lied to Hermione and sent her to Malfoy Manor before she could give her statement to the aurors? What was the benefit? Had she simply thought the investigation would go too long and worried about Draco's magic breaking through?

"Bring in Mr Malfoy," Kingsley commanded.

There was a grating sound and a pair of heavy doors to the side of the room slowly slid open. Several aurors stepped out first and then a large metal platform floated out behind them. On the platform was a narrow, spiked cage in which Draco was standing.

Hermione felt her heart drop.

The cage was so narrow it was impossible to do anything but stand in it, not that Draco could have shifted anyway. He was chained from head to toe. Heavy, goblin-wrought manacles stacked one upon another all the way up his body. Beneath the manacles it seemed like his torso was enmeshed in something that resembled chainmail, but she couldn't see his arms. After a moment, she realised that it was a chainmail straight-jacket, but rather than restricting his arms up across his chest, they had been twisted up behind his back to block his wings from emerging. He would dislocate both shoulders if they did.

A heavy iron collar with two large, vicious, metal teeth was clipped around his neck. The teeth were millimeters from his skin, so that he had to strain and keep his chin held up high in order to keep them from sinking into his throat. There was something wrapped around the top of his head, covering his eyes and ears. Only his jaw and mouth were visible.

Everything was intended to strain him. To bring him to a point of exhaustion that he was unable to give into. His shoulders must have been burning from his arm position within seconds and he couldn't lean forward to relieve the pressure because of the collar. The teeth of the collar ensured he couldn't rest or lose his concentration on keeping his chin up without immediately starting to cut his throat open.

She almost wouldn't have been able to tell it was him. Except she just knew. And the bond crackled between them at their proximity. He twitched slightly and she knew he knew she was there.

The audience muttered. Some people seeming horrified and others still seemed afraid of him. The air around the platform was humming with magic, the heavy wards around him shimmering and visible due to the quantity.

Hermione's breath caught as she bit down on her lip to keep from making any noise.

Ron squeezed her hand reassuringly and she nearly crushed it in return.

Have you been like this the whole time? She whimpered through the bond to him.

His hesitation answered the question.

When the cage reached the center of the courtroom a stone-faced Harry stepped through the wards and pulled the blindfold off his head. Draco's grey eyes opened and swept across the room until they locked on her face.

Come on, Granger, he chided through the bond. Can't you look a little bit happy to see me?

She was physically shaking with the effort it took not to sob with rage. He had been restrained like that for almost twenty-four hours. It was torture. It was inhuman.

"Mr Malfoy, you have been brought here today to provide your testimony in regard to the kidnapping and attempted murder of Hermione Granger," Kingsley said. "There is no point in dosing you with veritaserum as you're a known occlumens and a magical being, but we would like an oath from you that you will tell us only the truth."

"I swear it on my magic," Draco drawled as though being dragged, tortured, caged and manacled before the Wizengamot was an unexceptional experience.

"Please tell us what you experienced at the time of Miss Granger's kidnapping."

"I already told all this to the aurors at St. Mungo's." He actually rolled his eyes at Kingsley as he said it. "I knew something went wrong. Everything about our bond got muddled, and when she suddenly disappeared from Diagon Alley, I felt her lose consciousness. And I couldn't tell where she was anymore."

He barely moved his jaw as he spoke to avoid catching the teeth of the collar.

"You're able to locate her?"

"Yes. It's easy to tell when she's somewhere familiar. But if it's not, it's just a sense of direction. I just knew she was somewhere far northwest of London."

There was a snort from the Wizengamot.

"The house she was inside of was unplottable. You expect us to believe you tracked her from London to Northern Ireland in five hours when she was in an unplottable location?" a pompous young wizard asked.

Draco stared at him.

"I can always find her," he said flatly.

"After you found the house, what happened then?"

"I sent a patronus to the Ministry. I would have waited for aurors to arrive, but I could tell that whatever was happening was getting worse. I couldn't wait. I went in."

The pompous wizard made a choking sound in his throat.

"You went in? That's all you have to say? That was the ancient Burke estate. The aurors found the wards torn from the foundations."

Draco appeared to shrug through his chains.

"I believe there was a fireball involved. I wasn't really paying attention."

"What happened when you went in?" Kingsley inquired.

"She started dying." Draco suddenly looked ashen. "I could feel her slipping away. I found her in a bedroom. Tied to a chair with a pool of blood around her. Her wrists had been slashed. She had a knife wound in her stomach. I healed everything as much as I could but she was dying from blood loss and going into shock. There wasn't anything I could do. The house had no floo network or brooms. The anti-apparition wards were attached to the estate, not the house. If I tried to apparate us out I might have splinched her when I tried to force us through. Even if I could, we were still at least fifteen apparitions from St Mungo's. She wouldn't have made it. She was already almost gone."

"So you bit her?"

"I didn't know what else to do. I told her there was only one way left. She already knew. She said to do it."

"Did you know at the time that bonding would cause you to manifest as a full-blooded Veela?"

"I didn't even know they were real."

"But you forced yourself to transform," interjected a witch. "And Miss Granger described it as a long and torturous process."

"It was instinctive. I could just tell that if I pushed into the magic enough, there was a way to save her. Even after I bit her, it wasn't enough to keep her alive for much longer. It just bought her a little time. I would have tried anything to save her. Once it happened I flew her to St Mungo's."

"How long do you think that took?"

"I wasn't really paying attention, maybe fifteen minutes."

"Fifteen minutes from the Belfast area to central London?" The pompous wizard was looking distinctly pale.

"Based on the aurors investigation and the statement given by Miss Granger, Pansy Parkinson is believed to have been behind the attempt on Miss Granger's life. Miss Parkinson has appeared to have fled the country and vanished. As a lifetime friend of hers, do you have any ideas as to where she may have gone into hiding?"

"Pansy's a meticulous planner. She's had bolt holes and contingency plans since the war. She's spent half her time doing undercover work since she became a journalist. If you ever find her I'll be surprised."

"Are you trying to protect her?" asked a witch pointedly.

"She nearly killed Hermione." Draco snarled. "If she has a fraction of the sense I assume she does, she knows never to let me find her."

"After you brought Miss Granger to St Mungo's, you gave your statement to the aurors and consented to be placed in a stasis until your testimony could be corroborated by her. But instead she was smuggled out of the hospital by Ms Bogfeld. Did you have any idea the investigation was still incomplete when Miss Granger appeared?"

Malfoy hesitated.

"I wasn't what I would describe as conscious at the time. But when I regained awareness I had assumed she had spoken to the aurors. I certainly wasn't expecting them to blow up my door with dark magic that nearly killed her the next morning." The menace in his voice was palpable.

"But you agreed to be remain in the Ministry's custody until the investigation was completed?" An old wizard inquired.

Draco stared up at him.

"I agreed to make a gesture of good faith while letting the Ministry corroborate my statement. I did not agree to remain imprisoned until you have caught Parkinson or any other aspects of the investigation that do not relate specifically to me." Draco said coolly.

The expressions on several members of the Wizengamot tightened.

"How are we to know that you are not a threat to the wizarding world?" Asked the old wizard.

"I believe the jurisprudence of the Wizengamot is innocent until proven guilty. It should not be my responsibility to prove it." Draco retorted.

"In 1783 a full-blooded male Veela was recorded as razing a wizarding city because his mate died. Isn't that reason enough to continue holding you?"

"Is something going to happen to Hermione?" Draco inquired, his tone pure ice.

"Last night an attempt was made on Miss Granger's life. Her flat was vaporised. If she'd been there she certainly would have died. If the attackers had succeeded what would you have done?" an elderly witch asked.

Draco visibly flinched at the news and his eyes immediately found Hermione's.

Your cat... he hissed. She could feel his fury.

It would have made you panic if I'd told you. And you couldn't have done anything. Besides I don't recall being the only one that lied about the situation yesterday, she retorted.

"It would have depended on who was to blame," he said flatly to the Wizengamot.

I won't do this anymore. He was snarling in her mind.

Just wait a little longer. She pleaded. Harry swore to do everything to get you out today. There are people here specifically for my protection.

Before he responded the courtroom doors suddenly opened and the two aurors accompanying Emeliory Bogfeld entered along with a unfamiliar witch.

Kingsley looked over.

"Were you able to restore Ms Bogfeld's memory?"

"Yes." Answered the witch. "Luckily for us it was the worst memory work I've ever seen. Rush job. They left the original memories intact and just tried to slopping on a layer of implanted ones. There was so little detail provided that it had barely rooted into her mind at all."

"Excellent," said Kingsley. "Ms Bogfeld, will you please explain to the Wizengamot why you sent Miss Granger on to Malfoy Manor without allowing the aurors to interview her?"

Emeliory was clear-eyed.

"I suspected that someone was trying to take advantage of the partial bond in order to harm Mr Malfoy and Miss Granger. Magical being bonding is my specialty. I've seen what happens when the magic is tampered with. I informed my superiors that trying to interfere with the bond by keeping them apart midway was dangerous and pointless. But rather than consider my advice they seemed to intentionally do the opposite."

Hermione could feel Draco freeze as he processed Emeliory's claim.

"What do you mean?" Wingletorp asked.

"A magical being cannot partially bond. It would be a violation of a fundamental aspect in some of the oldest and most elemental power in the Magical world. When magic is thwarted like that it continues to build. Much in the way it did when Mr Malfoy refused to bond in the first place. Trying to prevent the completion of the bond by holding Miss Granger somewhere would never succeed. Eventually the magic would have broken through the stasis charm and driven him to find her. If it reached that point, he would have been driven entirely by instinct to ensure his cooperation with the mating imperative." She paused. "He would have razed St Mungo's if necessary to reach her. I told my my superiors that we should let the bond be completed and then interview Miss Granger."

"Why didn't they?"

"I—I think someone wanted it to happen. I suspected it when he was taken all the way to Wiltshire and one of the aurors made a comment that made me understand that we were to try to keep Miss Granger from him for as long as possible."

"To what purpose?"

Emeliory hesitated.

"If he was seen as a feral, uncontrollable magical creature... The Ministry would have be obliged to neutralise him. From the little information we have on full-blooded male Veela, the only way we know they die is when their mate does. I believed I was being used to keep Miss Granger hostage. In order to provoke Mr Malfoy and then kill him."

Draco was panicking in Hermione's mind. Get out of here. Get out of the Ministry. She needed to take Potter and go.

He audibly jerked in his manacles. It made the room jump and look toward him.

When everyone was looking toward him Hermione suddenly saw a flicker of motion out of the corner of her eye. Turning sharply she saw a bolt of dark magic shooting toward her. Her wand was already gripped in her hand, she slashed downward on pure instinct.

"Protego!" The shield charm exploded from her wand into a wall of magic that blasted across the room into the opposite wall. The curse she'd blocked smashing into the shield resoundingly.

Suddenly the room was filled with magic. Curses were zipping toward her from multiple directions. She dove to the ground and rolled. The Order leapt into action.

There were so many bystanders in the room. The attacks were concentrated on Hermione but trying to practice anything but defensive magic was almost impossible without risking the packed room of panicking wizarding folk.

A spell whizzed by her head and singed her hair. She still couldn't control her magic well enough to hold a shield charm so she kept recasting them again and again. Ron and Neville were backed up around her protectively, shooting precise spells toward the attackers scattered throughout the room when they thought they could avoid casualties.

Luna was moving across the room like water, sending off rapid spell after spell. Getting close enough to ensure she couldn't miss before neutralising an attacker. Harry was moving toward her steadily but the hundreds of people packed into the room were stampeding in their attempts to escape. The panicked witches and wizards were shooting off dangerous defensive spells and ridiculous hexes and charms in all directions. It was almost impossible to tell who actually was an enemy.

The board was stacked against them, Hermione quickly realised. It was a sheer impossibility to know who was actually trying to kill her among the number of wildly casting wizarding folk; it was just a game of waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And when the Order solely prioritised protecting her, it left the bystanders vulnerable. Some of the attackers were clearly aware that the Order wouldn't be willing to only protect Hermione to the detriment of all others and they were capitalizing on it, drawing the members away, spreading out the defenses by shooting curses toward the vulnerable.

In less than a minute she, Ron and Neville had backed into one of the obtuse angled corners of the courtroom in order to to limit the number of directions attacks could come from as they tried not to get crushed by the crowd.

Hermione was feeling exhausted, as though all the shields she'd cast had overdrawn her magic. She needed to get out. If she got killed it wouldn't just be her, Draco would die too.

Draco.

He was screaming with rage. She shot a glance toward him.

Suddenly there was a shredding sensation through the air. It was unlike anything Hermione had ever experienced. It felt like something other-dimensional and alive was tearing its way into the room. Through the walls, through the air. The power was palpable. The air almost bulging as whatever it was shredded its way through the heavy layers of wizarding magic that wove through every inch of the Ministry.

The fighting stopped as everyone froze, glancing around.

Draco was snarling and suddenly it was like the otherness suddenly concentrated and descended into him for a moment before a shock wave of magic shot out of him. The Ministry shook and Hermione felt all the ancient, onerous wards woven into the courtroom suddenly collapse around them.

As the wards fell she watched as the chains and enchanted manacles around Draco melted as he shifted and transformed, splitting the cage apart as his wings burst out and he flung himself toward her.

She hadn't seen it happen from a distance before. He grew. Suddenly he seemed almost a half a meter taller as his shoulders jerked and his huge wings unfurled themselves from his back. The expression on his face was pure murder as it sharpened and the silvery white feathers suddenly shimmered into place, making him even more angular and predatory and... beautiful.

It all happened in a few seconds.

The entire room was frozen in shock and terror as he dove across the room toward her.

Except—

"Avada Kedavra!" Runcorn snarled from up in his Wizengamot seat. The green unforgivable zipped toward her.

Her eyes widened.

She was cornered.

Ron and Neville were still standing in front of her.

She shoved them away with all the strength she could and dropped to the ground in the hope it would go over her head.

It was angled low.

There was a slicing sound through the air and the instant before she was struck, Draco was suddenly in front of her, his eyes wide, locked on her face.

And then…

She felt it hit him.

The feeling of death rippled through their bond.

It reached through to her, closing itself around her mind. She could feel it swallowing her.

The silver of his eyes vanished into a flat grey as he stumbled and then collapsed onto her.