Chapter 26

Hermione looked at the jewelry box in front of her. It was very ornate, encrusted with stones that looked old and expensive. It was roughly the size of a wand box, though a little bit wider. It had come to Tom's firm, and he invited her to take a look at it with him.

"It's heavily warded," she said, waving her wand over the box, feeling the resistance as she brought her wand closer.

"It is, so whatever is inside must be very valuable," Tom said. "You remember what I said about wards, right?"

"They are most easily unraveled by breaking them at the seams," she murmured, passing her wand over the object again and beginning to map out the complexity of its shields.

He nodded beside her. "There are two different ways of breaking wards. The first one is a direct attack on the shield itself, relying on the strength and reserve of magic available to you. With that method, though, there is a risk of you getting caught in a recoil when the shields defend against your magic."

"You've done that before," she said.

"Yes, it's a very headstrong way of doing things. It's quick, results are instantaneous, but the risk to yourself is great. That is why, after doing it that way several times, I came to prefer the second method."

"The Slytherin one," she said, smiling.

He matched her smile. "Of course. Attacking the wards sideways, looking for the seams to unravel them layer by layer until it is nothing more than a thin shield. It takes longer, hours even for the most complex ones, but the risk of a backlash is minimal because the wards do not feel as if they are being attacked. Why don't you try it?"

Hermione passed her wand over the object a third time, finding the seams in the shield and she bent her wrist this way and that, letting her magic flow through her wand to start breaking down the wards gently. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Tom casually had his yew wand in hand, ready to protect them should there be a backlash of magic, but she knew she had this taken care of.

It took her a good quarter of an hour, but she felt a rush as she sensed the last of the wards give way under her magic and the box stood before them unprotected. "There," she breathed.

"There indeed," he agreed, a hint of pride in his tone. He quickly tapped the box with his wand. "The box itself is still cursed, though, so we can't open it without any preparation on our part."

"What kind of preparation?" she asked.

"Proper shielding," he explained, putting the box away. "And the curse on the box is dark, very dark, so it will take equally strong magic to weaken it. There are, like dismantling wards, several ways of doing it but I prefer to draw out the curse, siphon it out of the object until it is too weak to cause any damage. Dark magic is attracted to dark magic, so I use dark magic to draw the curse from the object."

Hermione looked at him, biting her lip. "Tom, how come you never wanted to teach me dark magic, when you said to me before that dark and light magic should not really be discriminated from each other?"

"I want to teach you about all kinds of magic, even those you consider to be dark," he corrected her. "But I wanted you to ask for it instead of me offering it to you. I didn't want you or others to think that I turned you."

She was almost indignant. "You can't turn me even if you tried."

He merely raised an eyebrow at this as he stood up to put on his cloak.

"No, really, you can't," she insisted, although she knew that with the way things turned out, everyone would agree that it wasn't true. Then she turned serious and looked up at him. "Did you ever try to manipulate me?"

He helped her to her feet, wrapping her own cloak around her shoulders. "No, aside from that one time I withheld from you information about my own plans," he said quietly. "You were almost kind to me, that first meeting. I never expected to be treated as such, especially from someone who has more than enough good reason to hate Voldemort. And I told you, I treat people according to the way they treat me, so I was quite mindful to be accommodating to you." He smiled knowingly. "If that has resulted in me turning you, then it was still unintentional and does not count as manipulation."

She laughed as they stepped out of Tom's office. It was almost five in the afternoon and most of the staff were getting ready to leave as well. Tom gave them a curt nod as they swept past the desks, with Hermione waving gaily to Theo, who was just shoving his things into a briefcase.

The afternoon sun was casting a peach glow against the clouds. Hermione allowed Tom to take her arm as they stepped outside, since he was the one who always led their apparitions, but instead of pulling her towards him like he always did, he pushed her behind his body almost roughly, and she barely registered the red streak of a curse sailing through the air where she had just been standing at.

"Disapparate, Hermione," Tom said calmly as he parried three curses away from them, his yew wand viciously slicing through the air to return three curses, one after the other.

Hermione saw them surrounded by at least ten assailants, all of them wearing white masks to hide their faces. She quickly got out her own wand to throw in several curses at their attackers. "I can't leave you," she protested.

"Then shield us while I summon Draco," he said.

Hermione stepped in front of him, casting a Protego that was so powerful that it pushed some of their nearest attackers away. It took Tom less than two seconds to touch his mark and spit out Draco's name, and less than a minute for Draco to apparate to their side. Draco took one look at the situation and lifted his wand to send up orange sparks into the air to call for the Hit Wizards.

"Hit Wizards are on their way," he said loudly, joining in the battle and firing hexes at two of the masked wizards.

The attackers paid no attention, and only answered by pressing on with their attack, all of them aimed at Tom. The passers by on the street have already scattered off, though some of the more curious ones only stopped at the next corner to keep an eye out on what was happening. Perhaps because it was rare for them to watch the notorious dark lord fight in a duel, they kept watching. Tom did not disappoint them. He smoothly ducked and sidestepped curse after curse, moving away from Hermione as soon as he realized he was the sole target of the attackers. He had already incapacitated four out of the ten, and would have been able to hold off the rest if not for the arrival of more back up from their attackers.

Hermione stunned two of the new arrivals before letting out a gasp. One of the new arrivals had a mop of ginger hair atop his masked face. She would recognize that build and that hair anywhere. "Ron!" she exclaimed, rushing forward to cut him off before he could go after Tom, who was almost to the corner of Diagon Alley, still fighting with eight wizards.

Ron stopped to look at her for a moment before yanking his mask off. "Mione," he said grimly, holding his wand at the ready as more wizards and witches rushed past them. "Are you still with him?"

"What are you talking about?" Hermione said angrily, flicking her wrist to deflect a stunning spell that was coming their way. "Why are you suddenly attacking him?"

"Harry and I and the rest of the resistance are doing this to protect our future," Ron said, stepping closer to her.

Hermione shook her head as she stepped closer to Ron, her wand lowered but ready, taking the chance to speak to him face to face. "Tell Harry he has to stop this fighting. Look around you! Is this what you want to happen?"

Ron was steadfast. "Get out of my way, Hermione. I'm going after him, and I'll have to hurt you if you stay in my way."

Irritation surged throughout Hermione at Ron's ultimatum. She gripped her wand more firmly, her heart racing at what she was about to do. She knew Ron and Harry were past the point of ever listening to her. If she wanted their resistance to end, it would have to be through a fight. She did not answer him, not with words, but she brought her wand up to throw a stunning spell at him.

The quickness and efficiency with which Ron was able to put up a shield was an indication that Harry and his resistance have not been idle the past few months. They had been training, biding their time until they were certain they were strong enough to go after Tom. At the back of her mind, Hermione wondered just how strong the resistance had gotten, but before she could worry about Tom, she became busy defending herself against Ron's attacks.

She ducked and turned and sidestepped to move out of his line of attack, getting in several slicing hexes in between her movements. She was surprised that Ron was using curses that were somewhat dark, and she recognized an entrail-expelling curse when he flicked his wand a particular way.

She was quicker than him, though, and she rallied herself to match his curses with her own. She stuck to her familiar spells, casting slicing hexes and the blasting curse, weaving them into a relentless attack that put Ron completely on the defensive. She was about to cast a final stunning spell at him when a slicing hex hit her from the side.

Hermione stumbled and looked over to see another Legion member standing to her right holding his wand up. His face was hidden by his mark as he pointed his wand at Hermione. "Avada Kedavra!" he shouted, but Hermione had already dived and rolled out of the way, the killing curse missing her by several feet.

"Don't kill her!" Ron screamed, but Hermione was already back on the offensive, incapacitating the offending Legion member with a stunning hex. She turned back to continue her duel with Ron, but saw that he was already engaged in a quick-paced fight with Draco.

Hermione looked up the street, where Tom was dueling with multiple Legion members. She ran to his direction, keen on helping him for he was vastly outnumbered, but several pops around her alerted her to more incoming apparitions. She looked over her shoulder to check if it was the Hit Wizards, but her heart sank when she saw more white masks.

A blasting curse streaked towards her, and she quickly leapt into a store's alcove for protection. The curse hit the brick wall, causing several pieces to break and fall over head. Hermione coughed at the dust and looked up to see the shop owner gazing at her with shock. The old wizard stepped forward to help her, but she held up her hand. "Stay inside," she gasped, feeling a cut on her temple where debris must have hit her.

She looked back out on the street, quickly stunning two other Legion members before stepping out into the open once more. She was relieved to see that several Hit Wizards had already arrived, and more Legion members were falling. She continued working her way up the street to where Tom was, dealing with her opponents as needed. She caught a glimpse of Tom, still in the heat of a duel, but several members of the Legion were already disapparating after having seen that more Hit Wizards had arrived.

The commotion started to die down, as one by one the Legion left, until only the Hit Wizards, Tom, Hermione and Draco were left standing in the street. Hermione looked around. Some of the shops that lined the streets had their fronts destroyed, and while Hermione saw that some of the resistance were being apprehended by the Hit Wizards that had arrived after Draco's call, she knew none of them. She spied Tom talking to one of the Hit Wizards, and she made her way to him.

Tom broke off his conversation with the other wizard when she got close enough. He looked her over quickly from head to toe, frowning when he saw the cut on her temple. "Any other injuries?" he asked tightly. He moved to heal her head.

"Just a cut," she said, feeling her tissues mending under his magic.

"Three Hit Wizards dead, five critically injured and taken immediately to St. Mungo's," the Hit Wizard talking to Tom said, shaking his head. "More would have been killed if Lord Voldemort did not start throwing more serious curses."

"It was Harry Potter and his resistance group," Hermione put in. "I recognized Ron Weasley."

"We know, Hermione," Tom said, placing a hand on the back of her neck protectively. "Potter showed his face here while you were talking with the Weasley boy."

She gasped. "He was here?" she asked him.

Tom nodded. "I was mainly defending and stunning, but Potter appeared and started to duel with me. I was using pretty tame curses, but then several Hit Wizards came to apprehend your friend and he cursed them, killed several. That was when I started dueling him with intent to kill." He met her eyes, waiting to see if she would react to this, but Hermione had already spent too much time with Slytherins that she knew how to school her expression when needed. She merely looked at him and nodded. She couldn't blame him. He had no reason, other than her, to spare Harry's life and the fact that he had gotten this far without killing his nemesis already exceeded her expectations.

"But he got away?" she asked.

"Potter disapparated soon after the Hit Wizards arrived." His lips curled into a tight smile. "Probably realized he couldn't finish the job."

Draco approached them, nodding to the Hit Wizard. "The rest of the resistance have gone," he reported. "We have detained about twelve of them, and five are dead. They will be sent to Azkaban while awaiting their questioning and their trials."

Hermione pretended not to shudder at the name of the wizarding prison. "Thank you for coming, Draco," she said.

He managed a wan smile. "I'm an Auror. It's my job now," he said. He turned to Tom. "Will both of you be available to make a statement?"

Tom shook his head. "We will head to your office in an hour," he said. "Hermione needs a change of clothes first."

Hermione tried to protest that she was fine, but Tom had already grabbed her arm and apparated them to Serpensgat. He released her as soon as they landed in their bedroom.

"What is the matter with you," he snapped, and she recoiled at the anger that he was apparently trying to contain since the confrontation.

"What do you mean?" she asked, wrenching her arm from his grasp and backing away from him.

"I knew they were after me. Why do you think I was moving away from you?" he said, toning down his voice when she moved away from him. "And you followed me! And then that Weasley boy appeared and you had to talk to him in the middle of a fight. Don't think that I didn't see that killing curse almost hit you!"

"I talked to Ron because I was trying to get them to stop attacking," she argued. "When I realized he wasn't going to listen, I was the one who threw the first curse! And the killing curse missed me by a mile, because I wouldn't let myself be caught off guard. You can't expect me to just run away when a horde of wizards is going after you! If you expected me to do that, then you do not know me at all."

He let out a breath, calming himself down a fraction, but he was still agitated. However, she didn't draw away when he reached out to place his hands on her arms. "You don't understand, Hermione," he said tightly. "They could have captured you and used you against me. That would have been… Never put yourself in a situation where I would have to choose between saving you, or compromising my strategy, because I would choose you. And the moment I do that, it will undermine people's perception of me."

He moved closer, so that they were almost nose to nose. "I do truly care about you," he said softly now, his finger tracing the healing scar of the wound she had acquired earlier. "But nobody can ever know."

Hermione drew a shaky breath, his words adding to the realization that was just beginning to dawn on her that she had been a fraction of a second from death. She had no words, but she leaned up to give him a kiss that told him she understood his words.

He leaned into the kiss as he drew her body firmly against him, his arms winding around her waist. She ground her hips against him, and a second later they were lying on the bed, magically divested of all their clothes. She licked at the spot on his neck just below his ear before sucking on it, knowing that it was one of his sensitive areas. He groaned in her hair, and she hummed happily with the knowledge that she knew his body well enough to get the best responses out of him. She sighed as he slid inside her, filling her perfectly as he slowly began to move. His strokes were hard and purposeful, filling her with every inch of himself. His cheek was against hers, and she could hear him panting in between his thrusts. He was careful not to crush her with his weight, balancing himself on his elbows as his hands were locked with hers, their fingers entwined. Hermione closed her eyes to feel him surrounding her, his palm against hers, both of them still high from the duel they had just survived.

Her back arched, pushing her body closer to him as she went over the edge, barely aware of his drawn out groan as he spilled himself inside of her. He continued to thrust until he was spent, and he pressed his forehead against hers.

"I love you," she whispered in his ear as she wrapped her arms around him, both of them covered with a thin sheet of sweat. "I've loved you for a long time now. And while I understand your reluctance to expose me to danger, you must understand that there is absolutely no way I am going to stand back while you are being attacked."

He remained silent, his face still buried in her hair. She turned his face towards hers and kissed him, wanting him to appreciate what she was saying. "I am a strong witch," she said, cupping his cheek. "And I am more than capable of protecting myself, and those I love."

"I know you are," he said. "But don't put yourself at risk when it is not necessary. You are strong, yes, but so am I. I would have been fine."

"I will not abandon you at the first sign of danger. I just won't, Tom. You just have to accept it, the way I accept everything about you."

He nodded wearily against the palm of her hand. "We need to go back to the Ministry," he murmured, though his body language said he would rather remain in bed.

"We do," she agreed. "Then back to bed afterwards?"

"Yes," he said, reluctantly drawing away from her and helping her up.

They dressed again, Hermione changing into a fresh set of robes. They made their way back to the Ministry, both of them calmer, and with a new appreciation of each other.

They ended up at one of the conference rooms of the Hit Wizards Division. The Head of the Hit Wizards himself presided over the meeting after introducing himself to Tom and Hermione as Maximillian Kent. Kingsley Shacklebolt was present as well, as he had been informed that the resistance had been dabbling in dark magic now. Dolores Umbridge's assistant, Lillian Craster, had also been called. Apparently the attack on Tom in broad daylight in the middle of the wizarding world was a big deal.

Tom lost no time in relaying to Kent what had happened as the scribe proceeded to take down notes. His voice was cool and detached, but Hermione could make out the hint of annoyance at being caught in an unnecessary duel. "Yes, most of their lot were using dark curses. Hermione told me that Ronald Weasley tried the entrail-expelling curse on her, and another member attempted to cast the killing curse as well. I admit that I was forced to use dark magic myself but only in self-defense," he said firmly. "I have no intention of giving up my life so easily."

Kent waved his hand at this. "As much as I hate seeing the use of dark magic in our streets, I admit that you would not have made it out alive had you not retaliated in kind. You will not be persecuted for that, especially when I know that you have saved the lives of at least five of my Hit Wizards."

Tom nodded curtly at this. "My people have been working the past few months to locate the whereabouts of Harry Potter but we have only dead ends. This problem started more that a year ago with the attack on the Greengrass estate. This has gone on way too long."

"We have come close several times but Potter has become good at covering up his tracks," Kent said, rubbing his arms. "Nevertheless we will keep at it. The Auror Division will be coming in now as well, as we are dealing with dark magic."

Hermione looked at the paper on the table in front of them and saw a familiar name among the casualties. "Bill Weasley?" she said in a muted voice.

Tom looked at her and he nodded once, confirming her unspoken question if Bill had died by Tom's hand. Hermione bit her lip. She didn't know Bill that well and had met him only a handful of times. She knew he had just been married a little over a year ago and she wasn't even sure if he already had a child, but she couldn't feel grief at his death, not when it was either him or Tom. If the situation had been slightly different, it might have been Tom that was dead and Bill was the one who came out alive in that fight.

Kent called the meeting to a close, finding nothing else to discuss further. As they stood up, Tom called Draco to his side once they were out of earshot of the Ministry officials. "Draco, tell MacNair to set up a meeting with his contact at the Daily Prophet."

Draco nodded, and Hermione looked up at Tom. "What are you going to do?" she asked.

He smiled coldly. "I am going to take advantage of an opportunity."