She had steam coming out of her ears as they reached the summit of the mountain again, a pepper up got her all the way to the top, Antonin could only get her halfway. His magic was still weak from the rescue attempt, and so when they apparated halfway up the slopes, sliding down into a bramble bush, instead of in the valley between the mountains, he felt anger towards himself for being so weak when she had to constantly be strong.

He picked another bramble off of her blue robes that was now billowing with the high winds at the peak and stood beside her looking down over the valley of giants, their fires dim compared to the bright sunlight that almost blinded them as it reflected off the white snow.

"I don't know if I can do this." She said looking down at the valley, her arms wrapped around her for warmth "We have no offerings, they don't really-"

"You can do this." Antonin cut her off, stepping closer to shield her from the wind.

She looked up at him and offered him a shy smile. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, if my magic can get us there." He turned away, his face reddening at his inadequacy.

A frown and her brows knitted together in thought before she slipped her hand into his. "I think, I mean I've only read about this, but it's worth a try?"

"Malyshka-" He warned but then there was a heat that flared up between their hands. He tried to pull away but she grabbed him tighter, the warmth became like a small fire licking at his palm and then cooled off before flaring up again.

Her eyes were closed, her hair got that familiar blue crackle, the air around her seemed to warp, like on a hot summer's day. "Stop moving, Antonin."

"Explain yourself, girl." He barked angrily as the fire got even more intense, stinging as it burnt through his skin and muscle, hitting every nerve, and then she squeezed her eyes tighter, lines appearing on her forehead.

The fire suddenly went from between their hands and to up his arm, going from intense flame to a firewhiskey type warmth that coursed through his veins. He realized he had forgotten to breathe while analyzing the feeling, and in the briefest moments she pulled away from him violently, falling back into the snow with a small "oof."

He opened his eyes, struggling to remember when he had closed them to see a bright smile on her face, and she laughed. "Did you feel it Antonin?"

"Feel what? What did you do?"

"That was my magic, your magic accepted mine!" She held her hand out again, but he was too busy inspecting his own. "I gave you some."

"Some what?" He didn't know whether to be amazed or angry at her. He had a feeling he knew exactly what she had given him, and it was not something any witch would just offer up.

"Some magic, you needed it, and I had it, and our magics were compatible once you stopped moving."

His hand was not burnt despite the aching raw tenderness of his palm and he looked at the girl, his girl, sitting in a snow drift who was having her own celebration. "Malyshka, do not ever do that again, I don't need your help, and I certainly do not want you doing something so dangerous again."

Her joyous mood vanished as quickly as it had come, her brows knitted together now in confusion. "It wasn't dangerous, I was with you."

"Normal witches do not share magic with strange old men who kidnap them." He barked "It's a familial magic, and only as a last resort, not as some kind of pepper up potion to be used as you see fit!"

"The book didn't say anything about it being a family only thing! It's not a last resort if used properly! It was my first time, honestly!" She huffed and started down the other side of the mountain "You've done so much for me over the past few days, I just wanted to return the favors you insufferable man."

He shoved his hands in his pocket, mad that she thought to do something so dangerous so remotely, mad that he couldn't convey to her how dangerous it really was, and mad that he couldn't just tell her that he was worried. He came up behind her as she trudged down the path that winded down the mountainside and scooped her up. Her shriek punctuated their apparition and then they were at the bottom of the mountain before the giants.

There was no word for cowering in her dictionary, and as they stood before the Chief of the Giants who was amused by her ramrod straight posture, her defiant chin, and her loud voice.

"I beseech you now, knowing that the call you answer from a wizard will be your last, is this how the history of the giants will end?" Her voice was barely a whisper compared to the response.

"And muggleborns? They refuse?" The Chief's voice boomed.

"Muggleborns are currently being registered under his regime, given numbers and being reduced to cattle. Muggleborn registration was the first act in a measure against minority magical beings. We are the first, the weakest, and we will not be the last." She replied unfurling a copy of the Prophet from Christmas "They attempted to register werewolves before us, citing them as a danger, to tag and track, and to eventually kill."

The paper was about as big as the giant's hand, and he could not read but instead stared at the photos of a smiling Dolores Umbridge waving to the press for a few moments.

"This is not the wizard we serve." He said tossing the paper.

Hermione tried to catch it before it hit the snow, she failed, the ink running as it got wet. "You know of Rufus Scrimgeour though." She said picking it up and casting a drying charm, and then a reparo before pulling out a second newspaper clipping and this time enlarging it "Who approved both werewolf and muggleborn registration."

She held it high over her head and the chief giant plucked it from her fingers.

"This man I know." He looked down at her appreciatively "You, muggleborn, have warned us of a trap. We will listen to your warning and feast tonight in your honor."

She looked back at Antonin with a bright smile on her face, her cheeks red from the cold, her teeth a dazzling white, and her eyes danced with light. "A feast, yeah?"

Antonin hummed in agreement "A feast."

The fires burned brightly that night, every so often a giant would bang drums that made the trees shake, and Hermione would get startled by the sudden loud noises and cling to him, afraid it was something exploding. They sat together on a log that was gifted to her as a seat by the very giant who broke her ribs as an apology.

"His name," She explained patting the log "is Grawp and he's related...somehow to Hagrid, I'm not sure how, it's hard to understand, they're woefully uneducated, half giants get shunted out of society, and full giants…" She waved it off "I just don't understand why we cannot integrate all these magical beings into society with wizards and witches. They would be less dangerous if they weren't shunted out in the first place. Separation causes paranoia, and paranoia is why we're in this mess in the first place."

"Hagrid is that giant who can't keep his mouth shut?" Antonin asked.

"Yes," She sighed and looked down at her hands "He was always unable to keep a secret, which is how I knew about Dumbledore's plans, but also, I suppose it backfired."

"You're too trusting."

"I am."

"You're too soft."

"I am."

"I like that."

She blushed prettily and looked away. "Good."

"You have much to learn about the good."

She laughed now "I do. I do."

He mulled over her words about paranoia for a bit as they were served "small things" which ended up being rabbit. According to the chief giant, humans liked small things because they themselves were small. He now had two very dead rabbits that were not cooked or skinned.

"We'll just not eat, I think." She said looking at the corpses of the fluffy winter bunnies with aversion "It was a thoughtful gift." She added but turned away as Antonin placed them on the ground.

She was invited to dine with the Chief, at a table that she could not see the top of with a pile of torched goat and deer that had been collected and stacked morbidly on the wood that was only trees that had been halved and tied together crudely. Antonin watched her carefully, afraid that this diplomatic dinner would be broken with one wrong word. Giants seemed to be an untrustworthy sort, and the one that had betrayed her now sat at this crude chief table with her, speaking amicably despite his words leading her to being kidnapped. There was a tussle as she asked the Chief to keep the half-giant, Hagrid, within the valley, but as soon as Antonin got up, the matter was resolved. He would stay. He was no match for the Chief of the Giants.

Eventually the war stories died off, and the fires quelled, and her tiredness became more than just yawns, when the chief fell asleep he woke her up as well. "Time to go, moya lyubov, it is late."

They walked in tired silence out to the edge of the campsite, he tugged her along, but eventually, in frustration, picked her up, her head resting on his shoulder. "It's been hard." She said, her voice slurred from sleep "It's been so hard."

"I will take it from here, maylushka." He said, his hand holding her head down on his shoulder as he walked underneath branches "Let me take care of you."

"Antonin," her voice was a whisper now "promise?"

"Promise."

She was flipping through a Harrod's catalog with Yaxley the next day, half asleep over a cup of coffee as Severus and Rodolphus were brewing, Rabastan and Luna had left to go see her father before she returned to Hogwarts, leaving the house devoid of the warmth that the happy couple created.

The house elves were busy cleaning up the last remnants of Christmas, but the quartet stayed in the Great room that Hermione studiously avoided. It had switched from Christmas hymns to soft chamber music that somehow made it's way into the kitchen between the rhythmic chopping of the two potion brewers.

"This one is nice." Yaxley said as she stared at a page for a little too long.

"Does it say, virginal vampire-envoy?" She said tapping her finger on the model's lowcut dress "I just want something simple."

Antonin settled himself at the table, requesting another cup of coffee "Have you given up on the poor muggles of Harrod's malyshka?"

"Rodolphus has agreed to give Yaxley money for anything I wanted, and Yaxley has agreed to pay for it." She said looking at him seriously "Right, Yaxley?"

"Right, love, but I still think-"

She flipped the page. Yaxley gave Antonin and apologetic look.

"What about this one?" She pointed at a modest white dress with the soft blue that Antonin loved, it tied just beneath her chest, the cut was low, but not too low, it was soft and it was her.

Yaxley ho-hummed it but she looked up at Antonin shyly and he gave her the barest hints of a smile. She lit up at his approval.

"This is the one, this is it."

"While I'd hate to interrupt your shopping date Miss Granger, you have aconite to deal with."

"The black one, love. The bla-"

"Antonin said he liked the white on-"

"Fuck what Antonin-"

"Yax!"

"The black one! It's divine."

She sighed and rolled her eyes, sliding away from the table and moving to the countertop where Rodolphus was busy measuring some powder.

Antonin liked to watch her work, her fingers were sure as she smoothed over the ingredients, chopping with precision and speed as she slid them over to Rodolphus who measured them. Severus seemed to trust her well enough with ingredients, never hovering over her as she worked, talking with her as a colleague instead of a student. Was there anything Hermione couldn't do?

"What was our little dove like in school, Severus?" Yaxley asked, now flipping through the catalog himself.

"Insufferable." Severus said, dumping a board of ingredients into the cauldron "And furry."

"Severus!" She shrieked suddenly turning back to Antonin looking beet red "No one was supposed to know."

"Furry?" Rodolphus said beside her. "Furry how."

She stepped back from the counter "Don't you dare."

"A mix up, perhaps, between a human hair and a cat hair may have happened during a impromptu polyjuice party?"

She groaned and buried her face in her hands. "No one was supposed to know, Madam Promfrey promised."

Rodolphus gave a small snort of laughter.

"Who do you think brewed the curative that restored you without your bushy tail." Severus was doing his best to hold back laughter.

She made a whining noise and walked back over to the table burying her face in the magazine. Antonin patted her head reassuringly.

"All this time I've been calling you little dove, when I should have been calling you kitten instead." Yaxley remarked, tugging the catalog out from underneath her.

"Yaxley, fuck off."

"Of course kitten."

Even Antonin had to laugh at that.

She was reading through a book on Vampire Etiquette when they discussed the downfall of the Ministry of Magic, Lucius and Narcissa sat close together across from the crowded loveseat that had Antonin, Yaxley, and Hermione. Rodolphus and Severus were lazily playing a game of chess, half heartedly telling stories of their school days and Hermione's as she thumbed through the pages.

"So, when?" Severus finally asked "When do we distract the Order?"

"Now is as good as ever." Yaxley said "Kill the bitch and make my life easier."

"With that kind of attitude you're going to die in the process." Hermione said flipping another page "How many days has it been since we gave Umbridge the locket? Has anyone seen it?"

"Three days." Rodolphus floated her a neatly folded copy of the prophet that had Dolores Umbridge waving at a crowd, flashbulbs illuminating the locket worn around her neck.

DECREASE IN CRIME LINKED TOWARDS TOUGHER LAWS ON MAGICAL CREATURES.

"Surely the Order would have put two and two together by now, Severus." She said flipping the prophet to show him the photo "Yaxley?"

Severus hummed in agreement, moving a pawn forward "They believe that it is the horcrux that Dumbledore had told the Potter boy about."

"And the diadem?" She asked.

"I am arranging an inventory of heirlooms within Hogwarts now that the board of Governors has control over the school in absence of a headmaster. It's pedantic enough to be overlooked by anyone but someone who knows that we're looking for something." Lucius chimed in "Everyone underestimates good bureaucracy."

"If it exists in Hogwarts, an inventory will find it, the house elves know the locations of objects and will produce a list on request." Severus elaborated.

"Won't the Dark Lord be suspicious?" She asked, now looking up from her book "I mean if we call for an inventory-"

"He believes we are taking inventory for another reason, it seems Dumbledore was in possession of a very important wand that went missing after his death." Severus said, now paying more attention to the conversation than the game. "Which means we need a favor from a wandmaker."

"A favor I can procure." Rodolphus added "To make a replica of the wand, if I can borrow it, Hermione."

She got up from between Antonin and Yaxley and went over to a chest of drawers that contained all three hallows in special cases she had crafted out of wood. "Anything that is mine, is yours...all of you." She lifted the wand out of the case and looked at it critically.

"I will have to disarm you." Rodolphus said "Or the wand will reject me."

"It's fine." She gave him a wan smile "Go easy on me, yeah?"

Rodolphus got up and so did Antonin, Yaxley, and Severus. Rodolphus withdrew his wand and the group surrounded them.

"Is this wise?" Antonin asked, eying the elder wand. Was it wise to give Rodolphus ownership of the most powerful wand ever made? Could any of them be trusted?

Hermione looked up from the wand and narrowed her eyes "The minute we stop trusting each other is the minute this whole group falls apart. All we have is trust. I trust everyone in this room with my life."

"She's right." Yaxley agreed "We have to trust one another. I feel the same."

"Disarm me, Rodolphus." She said holding the wand out and closing her eyes.

"Expelliarmus." He said quietly but she was not disarmed. The spell fizzled out before it left. "Cursed family magic is preventing me from disarming you. Expelliarmus!" He waved his wand with more force and then she went flying backwards into a waiting Antonin.

Antonin held her against him and the wand sailed across the air and into Rodolphus hand, but he seemed uninterested in the wand, pocketing it and rushing over to her. "You're okay?"

She nodded and stood up on her own two feet "Tell me about the family magic."

The tension in the room surrounding Antonin's mistrust seemed to dissipate, and Rodolphus looked relieved that she wasn't upset with the force behind his curse. "Lucius can help explain family magic with me, it's his specialty."

"Lucius has a specialty?"

Lucius scoffed and turned his nose up.

"Lucius knows many things, but humility is not one of them." Narcissa said, scooting over so that Hermione could sit next to her "Let us tell you about the old magic, the magic that we sought to protect in the first place."

Narcissa held her hand when they talked and Antonin realized how desperate the purebloods were to accept her now that she had been adopted by Rodolphus, it was common knowledge among the group, one that irked both Hermione and Antonin. However now, settled between the man that adopted her into his family, and another set of pureblood nobility, she looked like she had been born into it all along. She wore luxurious family robes, her hair was tamed into a low bun with a hairpin of a lion cub playing, a gift from Rabastan and Luna. She had a serious air about her, but every so often she would break away from the conversation to give him a look for askance. Is this okay? Am I okay? Her insecurities were so obvious now.

"The original Malfoy's founded Malfoy manor on the intersection of four leylines in England, which is why many muggles have not tried to settle on the land. It offered our ancestors a protection from persecution, while amplifying our magic. This is where ancestral magic is concentrated, a gift from the earth itself." Lucius said and gestured to the room around them "LeStrange Manor only has three, you can feel them in the house now that you are attuned to the magic, if you are attuned, it's a warming feeling, the family magic should mesh with your own, replenishing you, protecting you. It's why Rodolphus could not disarm you, it's why your healing magic is more potent in the house than in the field. It should supplement your own, as was our ancestor's need. This..." Lucius looked down at his hands on his lap.

"This," Narcissa picked up "is what we have sought to protect, ancestral magic is a lost knowledge, many people would and still do use it to supplement their magic, not for healing or safety, but to attack others. The Dark Lord uses Malfoy Manor as his stronghold due to our leylines, our family magic is older than most, which means many wizarding families have some Malfoy in them already and can use our leylines, our ancestral magic, as they wish. If you have the magic within you, it recognizes it, and you can tap into that ancient power. If the Order ever decided to attack Malfoy Manor, they would lose. Death Eaters, purebloods, they can use ancestral magic as a weapon."

"Is it possible to see it?" Hermione asked, looking around the room, she could only see the portraits staring at her from the walls. "The leylines, I mean, how can you tell if you cannot see them?"

"Rodolphus could-" Narcissa began.

"Close your eyes for a minute, dear." Rodolphus said and did the same, extending his hand so that his index finger rested between her eyes.

Her body went tense and Antonin went to get up but Yaxley stopped him.

"Open them." Rodolphus said, putting his hand on his lap and looking at her expectantly.

She did, slowly, almost sleepily and then she looked around, her eyes scanning the room for something, and then suddenly she saw it when she looked down at herself. "Oh!"

"Go to the window, it's easier to see outside. It's easier to understand." Lucius said and gestured to the windows on the far side of the library, but by the time he had motioned to them she was gone in a flutter of fabric, rushing to the huge windows that illuminated the entire room.

"Oh. Oh! Rodolphus, it's everywhere! I can see it!" She looked back at them, awe clearly written on her face "This...this is magic!" She gestured to the air.

Rodolphus laughed "Yes, my dear, this is magic."

"It's in me, it's in you, I can see it in everyone." She darted back across the room and then she was gone.

Lucius frowned "What does she mean she can see it in everyone? The spell should only show her the family magic."

"If she's considerably powerful-" Narcissa began.

"But she's a muggleborn. Impossible." Lucius said standing up to find out where she had gone "Hermione!"

She was outside in the gardens, trying to touch something Antonin could not see. Lucius and Rodolphus were following after her peppering her with questions, but she was too caught up in the moment to give them clear answers. Finally, Narcissa stopped her husband from asking anymore and Hermione was left to her own devices. Antonin liked the way she rushed around to see more and more of the garden blanketed under the white snow, footprints left behind as she disappeared from view.

"This," Lucius said "This is the kind of feeling I wanted to protect, do you remember, Rodolphus, the first time you got to see the family magic?"

"I do, I do. It was just like this." He was smiling, they would catch glimpses of Hermione as she wandered deeper into the gardens, trailed by Yaxley.

"When did it become so twisted, when did it become more than just keeping our land?" Lucius kicked some snow away, crossing his arms. "It was supposed to be about defending what was ours, and instead my family is being torn apart as a madman takes over England."

"She made me realize that long ago." Rodolphus said, her laughter cut through the winter air. "As I taught her our ways, I began to see that I wasn't following them any longer. She was such an outsider. She was supposed to be nothing, and now look at her."

"She's changed." Antonin said.

"We all have." Narcissa replied "She was just the catalyst."

"Tomorrow then." She said finally as they sat down for dinner after an exciting afternoon. "Tomorrow after breakfast, we take care of the Ministry of Magic."

"We? Are you coming along?" Yaxley asked as the house elves began to serve the soup course.

She shook her head "What's the plan?"

"Imperio Scrimgeour, send a notice for Umbridge to meet with him, kill 'em both, stage the scene, notify the Kingsley that there has been a breakin in the Ministry, leave."

"You shouldn't notify anyone," Severus said "You need an alibi, we all do."

"Then Hermione will give us an alibi at the Leaky Cauldron, modify Tom's memory and we'll have been there for hours. We meet there, disperse, and meet there again when we are done, with the wand to button up the alibi. The wand and the inventory."

"That means I have to be part of the memory, I have to come along for the beginning and stay until the end, and there's a limit on what I can modify, if we begin at day, we must be back while it's still daylight out. So three to four hours at the most."

"Can we duplicate a wand, inventory Hogwarts, find a horcrux and destroy the Ministry in four hours?" Rodolphus asked the table.

"We have to. We have to have everything set to rights before we meet with the vampires." Hermione said "We have a little over a month now before the final battle, Severus is right, now is the time we need to be the most careful, can we do it in four hours?"

"The inventory should not take more than an hour or so, once we get the inventory we can get the diadem." Lucius said gesturing to Severus "Severus has promised to keep McGonagall busy while I fetch the diadem."

"Antonin and I can take care of Dolores and Scrimgeour in twenty minutes, but staging the fight is going to take longer. It'll be a stretch, but...we need to have the Order notified before the authorities."

"Unless the Order is the authorities." Antonin added "Make sure that Kingsley man is stuck doing paperwork, make him the first responder. He'd take the locket."

"Kingsley and Nymphadora." Yaxley scratched his chin "Okay."

"The Wand will take the longest." Rodolphus said "I will drop it off early, and meet everyone in the Leaky Cauldron then before I pick it up."

"I will take care of the snake tonight so it's out of the way, you can count on me, Hermione." Narcissa gave her a bright smile.

"Tomorrow then, at eleven we'll convene at the leaky cauldron." Hermione said beginning to dip her spoon in her soup "We'll right the Wizarding World."

"I understand." She said later that night, when she was laying in bed next to him "I understand why Rodolphus and you, and Severus and Lucius and Yaxley hated muggles. I do."

"Was it that amazing?" He asked and she rolled over to face him.

"Light danced everywhere in ribbons across the air, glowing blues and purples and greens intertwined fed into and out of people connecting us all." She said "The magic within me, fed into the magic within you, it was...I understand more about magic now than I ever had before."

"I was too young to remember much about the first time my papen'ka showed me the ancestral magic. It's back in Russia, Lucius was concerned that you could see so much." He rolled over to face her.

"Narcissa says Lucius is always concerned."

"He has more to lose than most."

"Antonin."

"Moya Lyubov."

"Have you thought about...after the war?"

"What brought this up?"

"Narcissa."

"Of course she would have. I haven't thought about what to do after the war, no."

"Not even slightly?"

"Well," He closed his eyes and tried to think of a life without a war, his whole adult life had been centralized around the Dark Lord and his mission, Antonin really hadn't thought of a life without that. "I will follow you."

"I haven't thought of what I'm going to do after the war either." She confessed "I have no NEWTs so I can't really get a job. I am missing two years of education."

"You are smart. You are rich, and you are mine. There is nothing that you will be barred from."

He hadn't realized he closed his eyes, but when he opened them, she was staring at him with a strange emotion. "I am yours." She repeated.

"You have always been mine, Malyshka." He brought his hand up to her chin, torn between kissing her and just touching her. "Since the moment we met."

She kissed him shyly, her lips just brushing across his. Antonin deepened the kiss, his tongue tracing her lips, and then finally meeting hers. It was like fire in his veins. The need to possess her, claim her roared to life. Every cell in his body asking him to take her as a man takes a woman, but instead he kissed her gently, enjoying the small hitched breaths she made, the mewls of pleasure, the way her tongue danced with his.

He didn't want to scare her away, and so he had to be patient because he cared for her, because he loved her. He stayed still in the bed, his hand cupping her face, memorizing the feeling of her lips on his, because she was still so innocent, and because he loved her. When she fell asleep nestled up into him, her soft puffs of air warming his skin as she slept, he grabbed onto her, because she was the first to love him, and he was afraid at any moment, she would be enticed by something else and leave.