The nook in the wall was small, but it was big enough to fit them sitting in a circle without touching the walls. Justin and Padma were already sleeping. Malfoy was taking the first shift, and would wake Justin in approximately an hour to take the next. Hermione was third, and should have been asleep, but the Invigoration Draught was taking its time to disappear from her system.
"We should cast a Warming Charm," Malfoy said lowly, doing something that skimmed his hand along her leg.
"Padma thinks using magic will make the Dark magic locate us – I don't think it's just that, but it might help it to." Hermione sniffed, shifting closer to his warmth, and her leg pressed more tightly to his. "It's best not to risk it when we're trying to sleep."
"I thought there was no honor in lack of risk?"
She looked over at him, but the darkness was complete, and she couldn't even make out a shadow of his form. It was the sort of dark where something could be a millimeter from poking her in the eye and she'd have no idea until it was.
"There's risk enough," she whispered, and wondered if there was some way he could tell by her tone that she wasn't just thinking about the magic.
"I thought it was the means, not the intention? What if the intention isn't honorable?"
Did he know? Was he talking about the same thing she was thinking, or was this just a normal conversation for him? "Do you have dishonorable intentions?"
He was silent, but she felt the faint touch of hot air on the neck of her shirt, brushing her skin. She stared into the dark for a few moments, and then reached out gently towards his face. She felt his breath on her fingers, and she moved her hand over a little, pushing until her fingers met skin. Her heart picked up speed as she felt along his jaw, learning the shape better than the image in her memory. Stubble prickled the pads of her fingers, and then his earlobe folded against her index. She pressed her palm to the curve of his jaw.
"Perhaps I should be asking you what your intentions are," he murmured.
She thought to make some excuse to ease the anxiety clawing up, but it was too late to deny it now. "I…believe I'm going to kiss you."
She felt his skin pull up a little as he smirked. "I got that part, Granger."
She pressed up, tilting her head back, and her lips brushed his chin. Something clicked in his throat before he lowered his head, and her lips touched the corner of his. She grazed his mouth as she settled into a better position, and then kissed him gently. She hovered a moment, and then edged back at the way he had so barely responded that she might have imagined the tiniest of pressure.
Malfoy's hands slid along her jaw, stopping her from further retreat, and he cupped her face. He moved towards her as he tilted her head back, angling it, and then sucked her bottom lip between his. Her stomach flipped, and the hand on his face dropped to his shoulder before she thought better of it, wanting to feel the movements of his jaw as he kissed her. He pulled his mouth away completely, and then did the same to her top lip, the bottom, sliding his lips along it.
When he came back again, she kissed him harder, and followed his mouth before he could pull away. He made a low, dragging sound, and his left hand fell to her side, pushing along her ribs. His tongue flashed hotly up her lip before he pulled away enough to tilt his head. Hermione flicked her own out when his mouth pressed against hers again, and the tip of her tongue met his. Hermione's breath caught and Malfoy moaned, both of them repeating the action, and once more.
When Hermione went to do it again, Malfoy's lips closed around the tip and sucked in a gentle, short pull. "Oh," Hermione breathed, pushing a hand into his thigh for leverage as she raised up to kiss him fully.
Her other arm slipped around his neck, and his wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. The thick silence in the nook was pushed away by the sound of small pops and smacks, and heavy breathing. Her stomach was rolling in an entirely pleasant way, and she felt like she was buzzing under her skin as her tongue slid along his. His mouth was hot, and tasted faintly of the treacle tart he had finished when they decided to rest again. It was also doing far more damage to her mind and havoc to her body than his proximity could have even hoped to.
She twisted as he hauled her closer, the hand on her hip leaving for the back of her knee to assist in her climb into his lap, when her other foot slipped out too far. She paused when it pushed into someone, and Malfoy only took a second to notice, right before Padma grabbed her leg.
"Sorry," Hermione breathed.
"Wh-" Malfoy started to say.
"Are you all right?" Padma asked.
Malfoy's hand skimmed briefly above the back of her knee before moving away, and Hermione thought she was going to burst open.
"Yeah." Hermione cleared her throat, slowly extracting herself from Malfoy, but still utterly distracted by him. His breath touched her cheek, her neck, and then his hands were gone and she was back to sitting beside him. "I'm, uh, just, uh…a bit cold and tired."
She was actually very, very warm now.
"You should try to get some sleep – you're on after Justin." Padma yawned. "You can come between us to warm up?"
"No, I'm not that cold, actually, but thank you." Hermione pushed her hair back and released a heavy breath, aware of every tilt of Malfoy's leg against her.
"…You're sure you're all right?"
"Yes, yeah. Just getting some sleep now."
"Okay. Good."
"Very good." Though she didn't think she was going to be able to sleep for a long time now.
15-
*
Hermione woke up to warmth on one side of her, and shaking cold on the other. She only had a second to revel in the oddity before the warmth pulled away, and Padma yelled something.
"I hate rats!" Justin yelled. "When they attack, and they have those little, fumh, fumh, teeth, and the black eyes. And the tails. They're evil."
"They're Dark magic, so of course they're evil."
Hermione rubbed her eyes, trying to adjust them to the wandlights. It felt like she hadn't slept more than five minutes. Her nerves sputtered to life when she remembered why she hadn't got as much sleep as she could have. It was stupid to be nervous over something like that, but she still avoided looking at Malfoy when she stood up.
"If they're magic – there could be rats down here. Unless it's sealed off to everyone but us."
"Isn't it my turn to keep watch?" she asked.
"Padma took your shift since you didn't fall asleep until right before I came on, and then the rats came, and we just decided it was time to go." Justin shrugged.
"I'd rather get this over with, and sleep a full night in my bed," Padma said. "Justin, you said you have to…"
"Use the pretend loo, right." Justin rocked back on his feet, tapping his fingers against his thighs, and looked at Malfoy. "Want to come?"
"No, I certainly don't," Padma told him.
"No, I was-"
"Fine," Malfoy said gruffly. "But you're going in another corridor."
Justin nodded, giving Malfoy an understanding look. "I get a bit shy, too."
"It's not a matter of being shy – I don't trust that you won't-"
"If you guys just go down those corridors, we'll wait for you here. Just yell if something happens."
Hermione picked up her bag, pulling the strap over her head, and glanced up to Malfoy looking at her. She paused awkwardly, heat creeping into her cheeks before he looked away.
"Don't worry, Padma – it'll be my first reaction of defense." Justin grinned broadly at them before turning, and Malfoy followed after him.
Hermione smiled at the back of Justin's head, but it froze on her face when she met Padma's frantic expression. "I need the toilet paper, Hermione," she whispered fiercely.
"Oh, yes – here." Hermione took some for herself before handing it to Padma. "I'll just go right down here."
"Sure, okay, yes."
Hermione started walking before Padma fell into a panic attack, but glanced back once to see Malfoy round into another corridor. For the first time with Malfoy, she felt in over her head. She had written up the first kiss as being a climax to a building tension, but the one last night had felt just as good. Had felt better, and amazing, and stomach flipping, and way in over her head.
She had no one to blame but herself, really. No. She just needed a couple minutes to form a list of reasons to blame him. She'd start with his hair, linger about the hands, spend some considerable amount of time on the mouth area, and then work her way down.
*
"You look tired."
Even Justin's smile seemed tired when he aimed it at her, hiking his bag strap back up his shoulder. "I'm in a haze, really. I can't decide if it feels good or really horrible. So I figured if I can't decide, it must be really horrible, because it's even causing me confusion over what it feels like."
Hermione laughed, reaching out to rub a hand against his back. "Maybe we should stop so you can take a nap."
"We just started an hour ago." Justin huffed an unamused laugh. "Just started with an hour ago. Yesterday I would have thought we had just started when it was only five minutes in. If that was yesterday. Maybe it's still today."
He aimed a look at the ceiling that reminded her of Luna. She thought it must have been some time into the morning of Sunday by now, but she could have been wrong. Time moved differently here in the tunnels, but she was betting it was at least late Saturday night. Perhaps the Auror had even discovered Malfoy was missing. She wondered if Harry and Ron would come in an Auror search and investigation team, and if they would stop by her room to see she was gone as well.
If it happened, they'd find the note she left, and she imagined a lot of craziness would shortly follow.
"What are you thinking about?" Justin asked.
"Explaining to Harry and Ron why I didn't tell them."
"Because they would have thought us all mad."
Hermione shook her head. "No. They would have taken my word for it. They might have doubted it, but…" She stared over Malfoy's shoulder and tightened her grip on her wand.
"I know extreme exhaustion causes delusions sometimes, so, is it just me, or did a creepy looking woman just appear out of nowhere in the middle of the tunnel?" Justin asked.
The woman was wearing a white dress that looked like the ones young girls and older women tended to wear to bed. Her hair was brown and limp, falling to her waist, and her feet were bare. A wide mouth opened, and Justin slapped his hands over his ears. No sound came, though, and the mouth kept stretching wider until a black hole was covering half the woman's face.
"Oh-" Padma was cut off by a loud screeching noise that tore right into Hermione's eardrums, and blackness exploded from the woman's mouth.
The cylinder of darkness spread out enough for Hermione to see large wings beating on dozens of creatures, and then more joined them. They streamed out of the woman's mouth like a horizontal tornado, and it was flying directly at them.
A muscle in her arm stretched painfully with the amount of strength Justin put into yanking her arm back. Padma and Malfoy turned as she did, all of them sprinting back down the corridor and into a new one. The noise behind them was getting louder, or closer, but it all narrowed down to one pair of wings when they coasted by her ear. The wing sliced into her cheek, and then her hand when she tried to bat the thing away.
She heard Padma scream, and then there were more wings around her, cutting into her face in zings of pain, and then her arm when she threw one over her head. Hermione ducked her face forward, and pressed the knuckles of her wand hand against her shoulder. She yelled the warding spell as loudly as she could, light bursting up to the ceiling. One of the creatures screeched directly into her ear, and it felt like it shot right into her brain. Hermione screamed back in response, but it was gone, the warding spell knocking them all away from her.
Hermione tried to keep track of the turns, but they were getting jumbled in her mind under the loud screeching, and the sound of thousands of wings flapping hard down the echoing stone passageways. Malfoy had rushed into the lead, and his turns were sporadic at best. She didn't know if he was going more all over the place because of all the options opening along the tunnels now, or from whatever cut on his head was soaking his hair red.
She cast another banishing spell behind her, feeling the magic drop like a weight down her arm and stay there. Right, left, right, no, right, right, left, and this is left, so right, left, right, right, lef—right, left. Malfoy took another right, and she turned to follow him, Justin beside her, and Padma just behind him. Hermione threw a blocking spell back before quickly lighting her wand again, but the sound of the horde behind her didn't stop.
She slammed into Malfoy's back when he skidded to a stop, and almost fell over him when he was thrown forward. He caught his balance on the ground as a beast with orange fur ran at them from out another corridor, another one right behind it. Hermione cast the warding spell, knocking the first animal back enough for them to turn down another corridor. The red-gold of Malfoy's spell flew over her shoulder as they darted down the tunnel, and turned sharply into another.
Hermione's breath was wheezing into her lungs, and it felt like another person had stuck themselves against her body to be carried in dead weight. Their wandlights were bouncing all over in the dark, and she was waiting for something else to barrel out in front of them, or swipe her into oblivion from the side.
Malfoy cast a banishing spell just before they turned into another tunnel, and almost immediately twisted into a second. She could hear their feet pounding over the screeching now, and two corridors later, she could hear her breathing. It took her the length of one more tunnel before she realized something was very, very wrong with the amount of noise they were making.
She slowed, her legs wobbling out of the routine of panic-driven adrenaline, and she had to clutch onto a wall to save herself from collapsing. She turned and pointed her wandlight, already knowing she would find the space behind her empty, but dread waited to drop down her chest until her light caught nothing but stone.
She heard Malfoy's running slow and stop halfway down the tunnel, and then his light hit her face dimly. She felt like crying, and it took all of her to focus on gasping in breath while swallowing the burning knot in her throat.
"Fuck," Malfoy whispered.
Hermione nodded, looking back down the empty corridor. She didn't hear the screeching, or wings beating, or yelling, or running. There was nothing at all from where they came. "We have to go back."
"We can't."
"Malfoy-"
"You saw that Dark magic, our strongest spell didn't stop them! The banishing spell barely did what the blocking spell used to d-"
"Exactly! What if something happened to them? What if-"
"They were just as likely to get away from it as we were. They must have taken off down another tunnel for some reason."
"Why would…" Hermione swallowed, pushing her head back against the wall. "The orange things. Justin was right beside me, but then I knocked into you. You fell, and that thing came out. Two of them. I warded us against one, but it only lasts a moment, and the second…no, the second just stood there, didn't it." Hermione swallowed again and shut her eyes. "That must have been when. The animals were right there, at the front of the corridor we turned into. Justin and Padma must have kept going straight."
"There you are, then."
"I saw at least one of the orange things behind us after that…the other must have followed them." Hermione's eyes snapped open. "I bet they did it on purpose!"
"To get away from-"
"The magic! It's never been that strong, I bet we were close. Too close." She turned towards Malfoy and waved her finger at him, but all she could see was his wandlight at the bottom of his trousers. "It's intelligent, we all know that. It wanted to send us away, in the wrong direction, before we found the device. It knows we're here, and it knows what we're after!"
"Granger-"
"It did it on purpose. Separated all of us. It knows we're stronger together. Might even know we need to be together." She raised her wandlight to Malfoy, her arm trembling with weakness, but her other words backed up in clenches of her throat.
Malfoy narrowed his eyes and blinked in the light, but it was too dim on his face to be the reason behind his discomfort. His arm was stretched behind his head, and she belatedly remembered the blood that had been seeping out of it before. He had a few cuts on his arms, and two on his face that looked pretty deep.
"Crap," she whispered, pulling her bag in front of her as she walked as quickly as she could to him.
"Heads bleed a lot. It's just a cut."
"And a lot of blood loss. Get down so I can see it properly."
Malfoy raised an eyebrow at her, and she rolled her eyes, annoyed until the moment he dropped to his knees in front of her. Hermione cleared her throat as he lifted his eyes to her face, with a sort of knowing there that she hurried around him to escape.
She stepped between his legs and bit down on her wand, opening the bottle of Dittany. She winced at the bright red of his hair, and the blood covering the back of his neck and shirt collar. She reached out to push back the strands of hair untouched by the blood, the roots damp with sweat and the tips softer than they had any right to be.
She bent closer, moving his hair forward in sections until she found two deep cuts on his head, still bleeding profusely. "This is going to hurt."
She opened her fingers in a v, trying to get as much hair as she could away from the wounds, and then dripped the liquid onto them. Malfoy's spine pulled straighter than the wall beside them, and his fists clenched at his sides. The cuts were shallow enough to appear almost completely healed, but she didn't want to use magic to clear the blood and be more certain.
"There," she whispered, stepping back. "We have to be careful with how much we use, so just"–she put a drop on a cut on his arm, and scooped up the excess with her finger–"put it on the deep ones. Do you have any on the other arm?"
She ducked around him as he went to stand, and ran a path of liquid across a cut on his forehead. Malfoy stood slowly as she put another drop on her finger, and then reached up to a deep line near his ear.
"We have to go back," she told him, squeezing a drop onto a cut on her arm. "I don't know all the turns, and I doubt you do either, but we have to try. Justin and Padma have very little Dittany, no map, and Justin was exhausted before it even happened."
"They're fast runners, and just as skilled at the spells as we are. If we outran it, so did they."
"If they didn't have a dead end, or less turns, or fell, or-"
"Granger," he said, his tone demanding her attention. She looked up at him as he took the bottle from her hand. "Talking about it doesn't do anything but worsen my headache. As far as I'm concerned, we can leave now and consider them buried. Don't look at me to alleviate your fears, or expect me to disagree with any possibilities of disaster. You-"
"You're a liar." She sniffed when his eyebrows shot up. "You wouldn't consider them buried – Justin's your friend. Even if you left now, you'd still see if someone else could find him."
He glared at her, but his thumb was gentle when it ran Dittany along the length of a cut on her cheek. "Finch-Fletchley is a pesky fly that doesn't leave no matter how often you swat at it."
"And your friend."
"And you're an annoying little chit."
"But you're still coming with me." She looked at him for a moment as his hand dropped from her cheek. "Right?"
*
"It was left. Look, we came down this way-"
"How do you know we came down that way when it all looks the same?"
"Well, how do you know?" Hermione asked him. "You're so sure-"
"Because I took the first available tunnel nearly every time. If we had come from that way, I would have turned down the other twopossibilities first."
"There were a couple times where you went for a bit, especially right after you cast a spell!"
Malfoy's jaw clenched. "Why are you so sure it was this way when you have-"
"I have a good feeling about it."
Malfoy stared at her until she wished she had said something profound and inspirational. "You have a good feeling?"
"Yes. All right? It just feels like we came down that way. And I think I remember that little ridge up there on the ceiling."
Malfoy's eyebrows lifted, and he pointed his wandlight at the ceiling down the other way. "That one?" He turned down the one they had just walked. "Or perhaps that one? Maybe-"
"Fine, I just feel like this one is it!"
Malfoy shot her a glare before turning down the one she had been waving her arm at. She went to scorch the arrow into the wall, but stopped at the wave of doubt that swamped her.
"Wait." He actually growled at her. "How sure are you it was the other way?"
He turned back around, and for a few seconds she thought he was just going to keep giving her murderous looks. "As sure as I can be when it's all stone walls in weak wandlight, and sure enough to bother arguing with you about it. Again."
"All right." She hesitated, and then turned the direction he had wanted to go. "Let's try this way."
"You're sure?"
"If you are."
"Is this your way of blaming me if shit goes wrong? Because you chose the last-"
"No, you idiot," she snapped, forming the arrow. "It's my way of taking your word for it. For now. Now can we hurry up, please? I'd like to find them and get some rest."
Malfoy muttered something about rest as he followed after her. It said something about how tired he was as well that he wasn't bothering to catch up to her. He hated walking behind people, as if it made him look slow, or the lesser rather than the equal or leader. He had a lot of annoying- A woman's scream echoed down the corridor, and Hermione fell into a run as quickly as she could while feeling like her legs were lead.
She reached the end of the corridor, and found a vision in the one to the left. Her adrenaline burst open at the sight of the two orange animals and a woman with dark hair. She nearly ran at them, until she realized the hair was flowing freely. She couldn't see the woman's face, but Padma would have had her hair in a plait.
Hermione narrowed her eyes. The magic was trying to trick them again, and- Her eyes widened, and she stepped back when the animals tackled the woman to the ground. Large jaws snapped, and the woman screamed as half her face was torn away. The other swiped claws into her stomach, and blood sprayed out in an arc.
Hermione jumped when Malfoy grabbed her wrist and pulled her light away from the vision. The light was smothered against his shirt, and she could just make out his face and the glow of his eyes. She blinked repeatedly, trying to rid the gloss over her eyes as the woman screamed again, and Hermione thought about Justin and Padma.
"That's the way," she whispered. "I remember the turn, and the other tunnel forking instead of going directly off. That's where they went."
"We can't cast," he whispered back. "We don't have the energy. We have to go this way."
"No."
"If they take as many spells as they did before, and we have to outrun them again, we'll collapse. We can't do it. If we turn this way, take a left, and keep fairly straight-"
"It's still a different system, it might not connect us to the same tunnels-"
"If it doesn't lead us straight, we'll turn back. Granger…if they're gone, they're already gone." He lowered his chin. "Do you understand?"
She shoved him away from her, anger ripping through her, but he was right back in her personal space again. "Don't-"
"Shut up," he hissed. "These are the facts – you deal with them, or I'll leave you here. We turn around, or we go the other way. We're not staying, and we're not going by them. They're going to find us any second, so get your shit. Together."
Hermione was trembling with the urge to slap him, but even through her anger and exhaustion, she knew he was right. She knew it, and it made her even angrier. She stepped around him, killing the light of her wand, and turned down the other tunnel, away from the vision and the last place she'd seen Justin and Padma.
*
"We're stopping."
"We're not stopping."
"You're moving at the pace of an oyster turning sand into a pearl, and-"
"Actually, it's usually not sand, but-"
"We're not getting anywhere, and if something comes at us now, we're not going to be able to fight it." Malfoy stopped walking and pushed a hand through his hair. "I'm not leaving this corridor, but if you're intent on going, then go."
She sighed and stopped walking, her eyes sliding shut as her body rocked. "We have to sleep in shifts." She turned back, looking at the signs of fatigue on his face. "We're both too tired to make it long, so one of us will have to do a short shift, then wake the other person for a short shift. Once we've both had a bit of a power nap, we'll take a shorter shift. I mean a normal shift."
"Fine."
Hermione walked back to him, letting her bag drop off her shoulder. "I think we should sit together, that way something will have to attack both. Not just one to you, one to me, and then two places to cast with only one person awake."
She sat down a short space in front of him, and pulled her robe out of her bag. Malfoy looked at the floor next to her for a long moment before settling into the spot.
"Go to sleep, then."
"You're sure? I can-"
"Yes." He pushed his bag behind his back, and kept his wand in hand.
"All right," she said. "Make sure to wake me if you're about to fall asleep, even if it's ten minutes from now."
He might have nodded or just lowered his head. Hermione pulled her robe up to her chin, and found a hard spot in her bag to rest her temple on. Malfoy muttered to end his Lighting Spell, and darkness rushed in around them.
"Was that a ye-"
"Yes, Gra-"
"Okay."
She was out in seconds.
*
"Granger?"
She sucked in a breath as a hand on her hip stopped shaking her. "Uh-huh."
...the pixies formed another code in the air, and she drew it quickly while Mad-Eye threw glitter at the parchment. "Make it accurate! Granger? Granger?" The pixies flew into another shape that wobbled and shook-
"Granger."
"Huh?" She pulled her eyes open as a hand clenched twice on her hip, then started to shake her again. "I'm up. Sorry. I'm up."
"I'm finding it doubtful."
She had to try twice before she pushed herself up to a sitting position, and reached to rub at her eyes. "Go to sleep." She didn't hear him move. "Really, I'm up," she told him, digging into her bag for a jar of water. "I'll wake you when I'm too tired."
She felt his leg slide against her own as he stretched it out, paused, and then finally lay back. Hermione shifted back and forth, but there was no comfortable spot to find on the ground. She thought of lighting a candle, but didn't know if it would bother him.
Now she only had the dark.
*
Hermione lit the candle with a swirl of her wand, and had to blink rapidly to adjust.
She'd woken up Malfoy to sleep not more than an hour after he had lain down, and he had let her until she felt better rested than she had since leaving her dorms. She had waited patiently for him to catch up on sleep, but her patience had left pretty quickly. There had only been a man dragging his way down the tunnel during her watch, and so her mind had been on overdrive.
All she'd been able to think about was Padma and Justin, and if they're gone, they're already gone. She wanted to go back for the tunnel they had gone down, and while Malfoy might be a bit reluctant at first, they hadn't made it that far past it. She didn't know where Justin and Padma were right now – and she had to believe they were out there and still moving – but they might have been trying to retrace their steps back to where they separated. It meant there was a chance they could meet up, or that she and Malfoy could catch up to them, and Hermione wasn't willing to ignore that.
When her anxiety reached the point that she was ready to wake Malfoy and demand they run the whole time, she forced herself to stop thinking about it. And that meant thinking about Malfoy, which was just as puzzling and requiring of a plan of attack, but far more illogical and mad. But it felt good – and Hermione figured if she was such a good person, then she couldn't feel so good while doing something that was bad. So, logically, kissing Malfoy was good. Being attracted to Malfoy was good. Whatever might happen…was good.
She liked spending time with Malfoy. She liked debating things with him, and discussing anything that came to mind, and arguing with him when she won. She enjoyed cataloging the different meanings behind his real smiles and grins, and the wrinkles in his forehead when he thought. She liked the way she was getting better at reading him, and how he didn't seem to mind as much anymore. She liked making his reserved, cool exterior come crashing down, and slowly solving the puzzle of who he was, and the way he looked at her sometimes. She loved the way he kissed her. And, especially, she loved owning the feelings he brought her just a little more than she feared them.
Not that she had a single clue where this was all going. Maybe it wasn't going anywhere – and for the first time, that bothered her. Just a little bit.
The candlelight wasn't working to wake him. He didn't look peaceful as he slept, like he normally did when she caught sight of him in his bedroom. There were cuts on his face now, and at least a day's worth of hair growth on his lower face. He looked like an escaped criminal, but she couldn't deny that it was a bit…alluring. Hermione reached out to touch the bridge of his nose before she could think not to, running her finger over the slight point at the tip. She smiled to herself when his forehead wrinkled, but his eyes didn't open.
She lifted her hand to touch a lock of his hair hanging over his forehead, and memorized the softness against her skin. Why hadn't she touched his hair before this? If she ever kissed him again, she was going to bury both hands in it. There was a slight tear at the neck of his shirt, and several in his robe that he hadn't mended yet. His trousers- Hermione's eyes widened and jumped back to his face, and she folded her hands in her lap.
That was, uh…that was a bit…unexpected. Though she had read and experienced that it tended to happen to men several times throughout sleep. Just a, uh… Hermione's eyes drifted back down, and her breath paused in her chest, as if the act of exhaling would tell him where she was looking. And she really, really shouldn't be looking at all, it's not like she enjoyed men ogling her chest, which was always out and about, and couldn't be made unnoticeable by way of clothes and robes, and just because this was very much, definitely, positively noticeable, didn't give her the right to, uh…yes, to look. But, really, she was just inspecting a normal, healthy, bodily function. Reaction. That.
Hermione was experiencing her own natural reaction that made her eyes dart to the sliver of floor between them. There was curious examining, and then there was just wrongful ogling while the person was asleep. And reacting to it certainly made it the latter. She cleared her throat lightly as she squirmed, and glanced up at his face.
She would have given him longer to sleep and the heat in her blood to pass, but they didn't have time for that. So she pushed back her shoulders, raised her chin, and reached out to rub his arm. "Ma-"
"I'm awake."
She froze. How long had he been awake? Had he opened his eyes before that? Had he seen her…seeing? Had he been up before that and felt her touching his nose, or his hair? Why didn't he just open his eyes? Had he wanted to see what she would do? Had he been trying to trick her?
"Oh."
She pulled her hand back slowly, and he reached up to rub his hands across his face. His beard rasped against his palms, and he stopped to scratch at his jaw. His eyes finally opened, and he blinked at the ceiling, adjusting to the candlelight.
"I have to pee," she said, and his eyebrows raised. "Er…yes. I'll be right back."
Malfoy wasn't in the corridor when she turned into it, casting cleaning spells on herself. The arrow she had left to point down this corridor was shaky at best, and it was missing the other line at the point. Padma and Justin would recognize it for what it was, though, which was the important thing. She was going to have to put a line through them or something on their way back.
"You want to turn around."
She looked over in surprise, watching Malfoy come back down the corridor looking a lot fresher than he had before. He'd removed the beard, she noticed. She refused to look past his neck, but she couldn't help but wonder if he'd taken care of other things as well. The tips of her ears heated up at the image that flashed through her mind, and she looked away from him, walking back to their things.
"Yes, I do. This way hasn't led us anywhere near straight, and there's no way to know if we're connected to the same tunnels they're in. We're not only going in the wrong direction to get to the device, but we're going wrong to get to them."
Malfoy nodded. "How many Invigoration Draughts do we have left?"
"Five. I'm not sure if Padma and Justin have any. I want to save them until we're back near the device, and at least two for when we're at the device. The spell is going to take a lot out of us, and if it doesn't work…"
"We also have to cast it on a wall on every floor of Hogwarts. If we contain the Dark magic, and we can only get to the walls when affected, we'll have to do it before we leave."
"The only perk to that is that the visions will have stopped, and we can all rest between spells."
"If we're not out of water, food, or Dittany for the attacks we're bound to suffer."
"Water is easy. Food and Dittany…" Hermione shook her head, pulling a peach out of her bag as Malfoy sat down across from her. "Do you want one?"
"I have something," he told her, pulling it out of his bag.
"Oh."
"Why are you smiling?"
She shook her head. "Just because you're so…all the time, and yet you're obsessed with sweet things."
He raised an eyebrow at the statement or her scowl-y face. "That's because most people are complex beings." He lifted his eyes and grinned wickedly at her – she hoped he didn't hear her breath catch. "And I just like taking apart sweet things with my mouth."
Jesus.
*
"That's- What do you think?"
"Who was in the lead?"
Hermione's cheek bunched as she thought. "I'm pretty sure it was Justin."
Malfoy looked at the tunnel to their left, and then the one farther down on the right. He nodded his chin to the latter. "He wouldn't have wanted to turn that soon, but wait until he had more speed and they weren't as likely to grab him when he slowed for the turn."
"Makes sense," she muttered, starting for the tunnel on the right. "Anyway, as I was saying-"
"How is it that you fight for animal rights, and yet you own a pet?"
She flashed an incredulous look over her shoulder. "Cats are domesticated-"
"So are house-elves-"
"-and Crookshanks runs around all he wants. I believe in giving fair rights to magical creatures. House-elves have been brainwashed-"
"They haven't been brainwashed – house-elves are naturally inclined to be subservient."
"I'll have you know that I've met-"
"Some aren't, just as not all wizarding people produce a magical child, or Muggles produce only Muggles. A rare few Horntails are peaceful. There's exceptions to everything. However, the majority-"
"No, it's like…like…relationships!" she said, and he gave her a look like she'd just told him the tunnels were a great place to relax and sunbathe. "Men in relationships. Men are naturally inclined to…you know…spreading their seed- Don't laugh, men are, no, listen- But as time has gone, monogamy is the 'natural' way of life, and cheating has-"
"Do you mean you wish to free all men from monogamy?" His eyes roamed down her, and for a second, she was self-conscious of her own walk. "How-"
"No, of course not. I believe in monogamy-" She thought it was very important he happened to know that.
"Wasn't your whole point about freeing intelligent beings from the restraints placed on it by the misconceptions of society?"
"No, ye- I was trying to show how people can call something natural and be wrong, but in terms you'd find relatable!"
"I never said I don't believe in monogamy. But you use an example that contradicts your point and argues for mine." He looked like he was teasing her more than being smug, and she had to look away to not be distracted by it.
"It does not. My point is that all beings desire freedom, unless the situation is one they prefer over having other options because they chosethat option, and they're happy with it. And also, it's not just woman who made monogamy 'normal'. Men can't stand when their significant other goes with someone else, even if they want other women – which is rubbish-"
"You're getting off the point-"
"Which is that a man chooses to have the monogamous relationship, just as the woman does, because it's preferable to them in many ways. They want it, and they're happy with it-"
"House-elves want to-"
"They think they do because it's what they're taught they should do-"
"And people aren't taught to have monogamous relationships? Marriage, divorce on grounds of adultery, jealousy. If their parents have lovers outside of marriage, the children rarely see it. By your reasoning, monogamy is inherently wrong because it goes against nature, and we're taught to-"
"No, because people – most people – are able to…" she paused, waving her hand, "sample, learn their choices, and then choose. House-elves are mistreated, paid nothing, given no rights, and they think that's all they're capable and allowed to have. What's wrong with breaking social norms and showing them there are choices, and allowing them to make them?"
She grinned triumphantly at his contemplation, and then turned to scorch an arrow into the wall.
"Are you willing to break the social norms of a relationship?" he asked.
Her hand stuttered on the diagonal line, and it waved before ending vertically. Was he trying a new approach to his argument, or talking about this personally?
"I already told you that I believe in monogamy." Had that been what he meant? Or was it about breaking the social norm of them being together? Or was this not about that at all?
"And you've believed-"
"But other social norms, yes. It's about knowing you have choices, then choosing what you want. Whether that breaks social norms or not."
He shut his mouth and stared at her, his expression unreadable, and then hummed as he looked away.
*
Hermione's head whipped up as sound and light flooded the tunnel, and her sight went white. There was sobbing loudly to her left, and dozens of voices screaming words or in terror. Something banged into her shoulder as she squeezed her eyes shut, pushing her into a person. They shoved her back, and she staggered as more people ran into her, dropping her to the ground.
"Malfoy!" she yelled, blinking rapidly and trying to get to her feet.
She cried out when a heavy weight pressed fully into her hip and upper leg as someone ran over her. She tried to stand again, and a foot connected with her ribs, the person falling over her before using her to push themselves up. Hermione shoved back at them, her vision clearing enough to see a brown robe.
She hurried to her feet, swinging her arm out, and was shoved between two people as they flew around her. A woman was running at her with two children under her arms, her face hot red and wet with tears. Hermione lifted her gaze to the tunnel, lit as brightly as the summer sun, and absolutely filled with people.
They were all in a panic, running in her direction and shoving one another as they screamed. She searched for Malfoy's head, but there were at least a dozen people with platinum hair. The banishing spell only worked on four people in front of her, but they were replaced by more people in the masses just a second later.
"Malfoy!"
She shoved her way back through the riot of people, but they barely moved, while they were able to move her with more impact than a person should have had. Hermione did her best to navigate around them, but they were determined to barrel into her from all angles, and she still couldn't see Malfoy.
The blocking spell worked to throw them all back a space, but she'd be completely drained before she ever made it to the end of the tunnel. Light flashed in the corner of her eye, and she turned her head in time to see a blade sweeping towards her face. She threw herself backwards to the ground, and a foot pounded into her stomach, shoving all her breath out in a grunt. She wheezed in a breath, and then gasped in a second, screaming the banishing spell as the blade came at her again.
She rolled away from the sword when the spell failed, her heart hammering, and rolled directly into several pairs of legs. The tip of the blade sliced across her hip, and she yelled out, grabbing onto a passing man to use him in yanking herself to her feet. She shoved her way back through the crowd, watching the two men fight their way towards her, and then turned to run forward again.
Hermione thought her foot caught on someone else's when she fell forward, but it just took her a moment to recognize the shape of a body curving against her legs. She pushed a hand into the ground to lift herself up, glancing under her shoulder at the fallen person. Her elbow gave out in surprise when she saw the back of a blond head.
"Mal—ah!" she yelled, jerking her hand back as someone stomped on her fingers, and cradling her hand to her chest. "Malfoy!"
No response. He wasn't even moving. Hermione scrambled backward, aided by the woman whose kneecap slammed into her shoulder. She looked up, making sure there wasn't any weapon about to fly at her, and then pressed a hand into Malfoy's shoulder. She guided him back enough to see his face, but her panic hiked even higher at the wet squish of fabric against her thumb. Malfoy's eyes were shut, and there was a long, deep wound across his chest, as if he'd taken a direct hit with the side of a blade.
"Oh, God," Hermione choked out, pushing two fingers into the side of his neck.
Something slammed into the center of her forehead, forcing her head back, before someone fell on top of her. Hermione punched and shoved wildly, fighting them off of her, and threw herself back to Malfoy. She reached for his neck again, and found his pulse as soon as she pressed her fingers down. It was strong, steady, and there, and she felt like she could breathe again.
People were falling over them and trampling over Malfoy; whatever had sent him into unconsciousness, he didn't seem to be coming out of it any time soon. Hermione pushed her hair back, panting for air. She couldn't stop the magic by herself, and she couldn't run with him. Her mind was spinning through possibilities that kept ending in failure, and she took it out on the man stomping over Malfoy's leg.
There were two spells they had been looking at for the banishing spell. If she combined the roots of both, it would be two spells through the same runes at once. As long as she didn't touch the wand with the other runes on her fingers, it might have been enough energy. Or her hand would explode.
Hermione climbed to her feet, using all her strength to shove two women back before they stepped on Malfoy's head. She shoved her way to his shoulders, and cast the blocking spell. It gave her enough time to grab his arms and haul him back three steps, before the horde continued pushing on top of them.
Hermione squatted, her arms shaking as she heaved Malfoy's head and shoulders up to her chest. She wrapped both arms around him, then pitched them both backwards. Hermione felt like she was in the sea during a storm, and was desperately fighting against the crashes and pulls of waves to reach oxygen. Malfoy was a dead weight dragging her towards the bottom, but that she was absolutely unwilling to cut free of herself.
A large, broad man smashed into the side of her, and her teeth clinked together as her head whipped to the side, her body jarred from the impact. Her feet skidded sideways, and she almost lost grip on Malfoy. She hoisted him back up, spreading her feet to attempt keeping ground, and reached to cast a blocking spell on the group barricading her from reaching the wall.
Someone grabbed her wrist from Malfoy's chest, and she thought he was finally awake until her hand was twisted and something popped in her wrist. Hermione screamed, trying to jerk her hand back as pain slammed up her arm. Malfoy dropped down her body, and Hermione yelled the blocking spell before the sword could sever her arm. The man flew back, and Hermione was flung forward in the second before his grip was lost.
She fell on top of Malfoy, and felt someone else collapse onto her back. Hermione rolled them off of her, cradling her arm to her chest, and landed on her back next to Malfoy. The banishing spell hit the man just a second before the tip of the sword stabbed into her chest. Hermione gasped, expecting death or pain, but neither came.
The man yelled and ripped the sword back up as Hermione dug her elbows back and dragged herself away from it. Something changed about him, unnameable but there, and she felt a sharp pain burst in the side of her chest. The tip of the blade came up red. Hermione grabbed the back of a woman with one hand, using the unstoppable momentum to get her feet on the ground – using the magic against the magic.
Magic against the magic.
Hermione pointed her wand at the man, spotting two others in the crowd behind him, and her arm wavered. She pulled her index and pinkie from the wand, took a shuddering breath, and yelled the spell combination. She knew she had forgotten a vital element as soon as the spell left her mouth.
A ball of red flared around her hand, and then seemed to suck back into her skin. She felt it enter her hand like all the bones were being crushed, and the strength of her scream shook her chest as the magic thundered up her arm and through her blood. It felt like a fire was burning inside of her, like her magic itself had renegaded against her body.
Awareness came back slowly. She was moving, jostled to the side, and things were making impact with her, but she couldn't feel them. Sound was dulled into a distant murmur, like a whispered conversation heard through the floor. Then her breath, like a strong wind against the covers on her eardrums. The compact, deep ache through her entire body, and the cold of stone on her cheek. A foot stomping into the middle of her shoulder blades, toes hitting into her cheek, and then a hand wrapping into her hair.
She was pulled up to her knees, her vision blurry, but she saw the three men and their swords. The noise of the horde was filtering back in, growing in volume, but they seemed to run around her now. Hermione had to attempt swallowing three times before she could get her saliva down the dry, tight passage of her throat.
A portion of the blade touched her jaw, and the man in front of her grinned, his teeth webbed in decay. He pulled the sword back, leaving a quick, hot slice across her jaw. Hermione tightened her grip on her wand, and then pulled back her pinkie and index. She couldn't risk a blocking spell when there was only one that might work longer than a second, and it needed all the energy she had left.
The man was speaking to her in another language as she ran through the spell three times in her head, as sure as she could be. She hesitated, just a second, just long enough for the blade of the sword to drop to her throat, and then she screamed the spell.
A golden purple light erupted in her sight, and she felt wind against her skin as she was lifted by the force of the spell and thrown backward. Her path was cleared of any moving bodies, and that was the last thing she registered before she slammed into a wall and everything was dark again.