a/n: A shorter update this time, and warning of implied abuse. (not too bad as I don't believe in writing terribly graphic scenes)
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
"Draco really put a lot of effort into this place." Pansy remarked turning her head to take in the shop. Hermione grinned as she began to leisurely pace through the shelves.
"It really is amazing." She said, tracing the spines of the books.
Pansy made a noise of agreement as she hurried to catch up with her.
"So what are we looking for again?"
"Books on healing spells. Draco said he had a whole section on them. He's already read them so he said he wouldn't mind if I…" Hermione trailed off, the end of her sentence ringing in her mind.
If she took them with her when she left.
Pansy gave her a sympathetic look before putting her arm lightly on her shoulder.
"Hermione."
She looked up, momentarily shocked at Pansy's use of her first name.
The other girl swallowed roughly.
"When you leave," Pansy took a breath, "You should take Draco with you."
She froze. Had she heard correctly? Sure she had thought the same thought hundreds of times and planned to make it a reality, it was something else to hear it voiced out loud by someone else.
"He's done enough here. He...He needs to get away from all this. It's not safe. It's not healthy. Frankly, the way I see it, he can help end it from the other side. You lot need all the help you can get." Pansy continued baring her eyes into Hermione's.
She found herself nodding with each word Pansy spoken. Part of her felt relieved that someone else had also come to her same conclusion. A larger part; though, was at a loss for how to make it happen.
"I'll help you get him out Granger." Pansy said with a slight smile, clearly interpreting the small frown that had twisted her lips.
She swallowed roughly.
"Pansy...what about you?"
The girl waved her off.
"Once Draco, you, and Theo, if he'll go, are out, I'll slip away. I'm not as watched. I won't be as hard for me."
Hermione stared at the other girl with more than a little bit of awe. Sure, she and Pansy had formed a tentative friendship over the few weeks she'd spent here, but she'd never truly felt a kinship to the girl until now. Pansy was private with her heavy thoughts, adopting a light demeanor filled with attitude and snark to mask her sharp mind. She couldn't take it lightly, the way the girl had opened up to her.
Respect.
She had respect for her.
She forced a smile on her lips.
"I'll hold you to it then."
Pansy smirked, before twisting around and setting off in pursuit of the healing magic section.
Hermione's smile stayed plastered on her face as she moved to follow. Stepping through the shelves, her eyes involuntarily landed on the genealogy section.
She wasn't sure why, but something compelled her to walk over. Her hands found the familiar title and she pulled the book from the shelf.
Unraveling the Lines
It had fascinated her last time. The updates with each birth was intricate and powerful magic. She bit her lip and was about to open the book back to the Malfoy family tree when Pansy called out she'd found the Healing books.
In seconds, she'd shrunk the book and stuffed it into her bag.
"Coming." She called out before leaving the section and heading toward Pansy's voice.
It didn't take long to pull the books she wanted from the shelves and store them into her bag. Pansy had laughed at her thorough evaluation of each text and even humored her with suggestions of her own.
By the time they finished, she was sure she couldn't have compiled a more complete connection than if she'd ordered the books herself.
Together, the two walked toward the Floo, with Pansy remarking that Blaise had said he'd be coming into town soon.
She'd had the breath knocked out of her then.
Blaise's arrival signaled the beginning of the end of her time in London.
Strangely, despite her near imprisonment, she was going to miss it.
They'd barely settled into the room with Draco looking up from the game he and Theo were playing to ask her if she'd found what she needed, when the Floo chimed again.
Her eyes widened as Draco shot up and pushed her toward the bedrooms, casting a quick disillusionment charm on her as they walked.
The flames settled and she could see one figure slump forward, desperately carrying the weight of the other body leaning heavily against her.
"Daphne!" Theo shouted.
Her eyes widened as she recognized the other girl. Her gaze shifted to the second figure, and she bit back her shout of horror.
Daphne was holding up her sister, who seemed barely aware of her position or her surroundings. No. Astoria Greengrass looked like she was on the verge of collapse. Her skin was decorated with bruising and at the base of her hairline was an open cut that was bleeding down into her swollen left eye.
Theo had rushed forward and quickly extracted the girl from Daphne and laid her gently on the couch as Pansy moved to support Daphne.
"Oh gods. I didn't know where else to go." Daphne stammered, tears dancing at the edges of her eyes, "Draco always seemed so good at healing spells, and Tori…" At that Daphne's resolve seemed to break, and she openly began sobbing in Pansy's embrace.
Hermione watched, too stunned to move as Draco immediately seemed to switch gears, focusing entirely on helping Astoria.
"Theo." He called out, wand in hand as he crouched over Astoria.
When he didn't get a response, he called out again with more force.
Theo tore his gaze from Daphne and focused on Draco, who was rattling off potions he needed and supplies from the kitchen.
Theo blinked, but made no move to go retrieve them.
Her senses seemed to return to her then, and her regard for maintaining her presence a secret seemed to vanish. She broke the disillusionment charm and rushed into the kitchen to retrieve the potions.
Blood Replenishing. Numbing. Pain. Skele gro.
She roamed through Draco's supplies and pulled the potions he'd requested along with one's she thought may help as well.
Draco was murmuring simple bone mending spells on Astoria's ribs, and she could see he'd already healed the cut on the other's forehead as well.
He held out his hand to accept the supplies.
"I can't heal the hip with a spell. Skele gro will have to do…" he trailed off when he caught sight of her.
She shook her head, hoping he understood that now was not the time to worry about her presence. His jaw clenched, but he accepted the potion and tilted Astoria's head back as he poured it down her throat.
"Have you scanned for internal damage or bleeding?" She said, kneeling beside him.
"Yeah...thankfully none, but I think blood-replenishing just in case she lost too much." He said taking the indicated potion.
Hermione nodded scanning Astoria for any other visible injuries she could treat, and tried to stifle her whimpers as she took in the younger girl's torn clothes and cuts.
She shook her head and took a salve Draco had asked her to use for the outer wounds and began to apply it up and down Astoria's arms and legs.
Merlin. What on earth happened?
She stole a glance over her shoulder and made out Theo with Daphne in his arms and Pansy lowly offering reassurances and soothing words.
Her eyes than landed on Draco, who seemed completely in his element healing Astoria. Though, she didn't miss the anger burning in his own eyes as well as the tension that had settled in his jaw and ran through his shoulders.
He looked ready to kill.
In fact, she was baffled how he could still mend and perform the delicate healing spells with a practiced gentle hand while he was so obviously brimming with fury.
She'd never been that skilled at rerouting her emotions.
When he seemed satisfied with his work, he stood and turned sharply to Daphne.
"What happened?" he bit out.
Daphne wiped her tears from her face. "Tori was back from school, and…" She took a breath, "They came to visit us, for...for the fee we pay for our neutrality...and you know Tori, Draco. She's not a fighter. They said they wanted to make an offer and I wasn't there-"
Hermione stepped slightly closer to Draco, and put her hand gently on his back, hoping her touch would calm him from doing anything rash.
Draco sighed at the motion before asking, "Who?"
"MacNair and… Dolohov."
Theo looked over quickly to Draco, and shot the other a look she couldn't decipher.
Daphne pulled away from Theo and came to stand before Draco.
"Draco… you and Tori. You were happy once, if you would just-"
"Daphne do you hear yourself." Draco said softly, "Do you even think Astoria would accept that? Never mind that I would never do it."
Daphne blinked furiously, and Hermione could see she was in near tears again.
"Besides," Draco's face hardened, "You accused Theo of doing just the same thing, and look how well that turned out."
At that, Daphne turned away with her shame burning across her cheeks. Though not before finally focusing on Hermione, and blinking in slight shock.
"Granger?"
Draco stood protectively before her. "I'm going to move Tori into the guest room to rest." He spoke leaving no room for argument, as he took his wand out and carefully levitated said girl before him as he disappeared into the guest room.
Daphne continued to eye her, though with more of a curious expression rather than one of disdain or contempt.
Pansy had edged closer to the other girl and whispered something in her ear, which led Daphne to nod.
She cleared her throat after a moment and finally met Hermione's gaze. "Thank you for helping Draco with Tori...it means more than you know."
Hermione gave her a weak smile. "Of course."
After a moment, Daphne returned the gesture.
Hermione watched as Daphne turned slightly to Theo as though to speak. Whatever it was she wanted to say, Theo seemed determined to avoid it tonight. Emotions were running too high to speak in an even remotely logical manner. He excused himself quickly to the kitchen to put on some tea. When he returned a few minutes later with tea and a bottle of firewhiskey, spiking each cup with a shot, no one said a word.
In fact, the rest of the evening was spent in near silence, only broken briefly when Draco returned telling Daphne he'd transfigured a second bed beside Astoria for her.
When Daphne excused herself to join Astoria, Pansy stood and declared she had to be getting home. Theo; though, made no move to leave and asked Draco if it wouldn't be too much trouble if he transfigured the couch.
At that Hermione had ducked into Draco's bedroom feeling a little more than suffocated by the heavy tension between the two men. She had a feeling, were it not for the girls' presence, they both would have gone after MacNair and Dolohov that night.
She shivered, getting quickly beneath Draco's covers. When he joined her later, he pulled her closer and held her tighter than he would normally. She didn't protest though. She had a feeling she could guess what exactly he was imagining.
She woke early the next morning, right before the sun. She took in that Draco had edged even closer onto her side. She smiled slightly and pressed a light kiss to his temple before she slipped from the bed and headed out toward the kitchen.
As she neared the edge of the hall, she could make out two soft voices whispering back and forth.
"- You know that everything between us is real Daph, and maybe it's a little faster than what we'd like, but we were going to get there anyway."
"Theo."
Hermione's eyes widened as she wondered if she should simply turn back and climb back into bed. She bit her lip, unable to get her feet to move to carry out the action.
"I know. I know." She heard Theo say, "But I love you Daphne, and by Salazar I want to protect you and Tori. We don't have to do anything too fast. Please. You can wait a week and announce it, and then tell everyone that you and Tori are going to your cousins in France to begin preparations and shop around."
She held her breath, hoping against all odds that Daphne would say yes. She let her eyes drift toward the second bedroom's door, and tried to shake the broken vision of Astoria Greengrass from her mind.
"Theo." Daphne whispered, "I'm so scared."
Hermione closed her eyes and stepped slowly back toward Draco's room.
Though her actions didn't stop her from hearing Theo's response.
"I know Daph. I am too."
She rushed back into the room, only to find Draco wide awake. He swung his legs over the edge and slowly came to stand before her. After a moment's deliberation, he reached out and ran his thumbs across her cheeks.
That's when she realized she'd been crying.
"I want it over." She whispered.
His face flashed in pain as he gave a curt nod.
"Yeah. Me too."
Blaise arrived later that day.
If possible, he was even more enraged than Theo and Draco combined. Though, he seemed resigned to simply getting the two Greengrass sisters out of London as enough. He had suggested Pansy also leave with them, but her subsequent threat and reminder that she was quite skilled with her wand, had silenced him rather quickly.
Daphne waited two days before she announced Theo as her intended.
Hermione was at least happy to see that despite the circumstances, the two were obviously together for more than just convenience. She saw it in the way they looked at one another and sought out the simplest of opportunities to simply touch. Pureblood society was so different from what she knew, and despite Draco's avoidance of it with her, it did mark some of their interactions. It was that formal respect and attentiveness that seemed to decorate how they interacted with one another. To cherish the other as something special and worthy. It was one tradition she could respect of theirs, even if it was so obvious that Theo and Daphne had defaulted to it as their motions spoke goodbyes.
She helped Blaise plan their movements to safe houses, as he caught her up on the various changes within the Order, including the change in headquarters.
By the end of the week, she was sad, but relieved, to see them go. With their departure, even more bitter news fell upon them.
A date had been set for the attack on Godric's Hollow.
