Is anyone still here with me?
Ahh I am SO sorry for the extremely late update. I've been terribly busy this month, and didn't help things at all when I got sick with pneumonia. :( Been too weak to write anything, and I definitely didn't want you guys to read a half-baked chapter.
Really hoping you enjoy this next part, and thanks for sticking with me. I promise I'll finish this story. ;)
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Do or Die
Hermione lay in bed for what seemed like hours, replaying yesterday's events in her head over and over again: her argument with Ron, Draco's induction to the Order of the Phoenix and Harry.
It was Harry's precarious condition that worried her the most. Hermione felt terrible; she remembered the last dream she had about her friend. She had no idea where that place had been, but it was dark, cold and eerily desolate. Obviously Harry felt trapped inside his own mind, and she had promised to find him and save him before it was too late. But what if she wouldn't be able to keep her promise?
Suddenly, Draco rolled over and opened his eyes, disrupting her thoughts. "Good morning." he said sleepily, turning to face her and kissing her gently on the forehead. "Have you been up long?"
"No, I just woke up as well." Hermione lied, giving him a small smile.
Draco stared at her. "What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up.
"Nothing, nothing." she answered flippantly. "Come on, let's go down for breakfast. I'm starving!"
He glanced at the clock. "Hermione, it's six in the morning!" Draco exclaimed, as his stomach gave an almighty grumble.
Hermione smirked. "See, your stomach agrees with me!" she laughed lightly.
"Oh wipe that smirk off your face." Draco grumbled, but he got up nonetheless.
They made their way down to the dining room, careful not to make too much noise and wake the others. Thankfully, the occupants of the portraits that decorated the hallways were all fast asleep, none of them bothering Draco by their snide remarks about his family and what they've done.
Surprisingly, they weren't the only ones who had an early start to their morning. Blaise and Ginny were in the room when they arrived, seemingly engaged in deep conversation.
"Morning!" Ginny said a bit too brightly when she saw the two of them enter the room. Blaise, on the other hand, looked mildly irritated at the unexpected disruption.
"Morning, Gin. Zabini." Hermione said, greeting the two. "Anything good to eat?" she asked, eyeing the empty table.
"Mum's having a bit of a lie in, so I guess we'll have to fend for ourselves." Ginny responded.
"That's odd. I've never known Molly to sleep in." Hermione remarked.
"Surprised me as well." Ginny said. "But I guess yesterday's events really wore her out."
Hermione said no more, and began to prepare breakfast. The two women made toast and kippers while Blaise made coffee.
"So why were you up so early?" Draco asked Blaise sat down and handed him a cup.
"You know I've always been a morning person, mate." Blaise winked, the previous irritation in his face gone.
Draco raised his eyebrow at his friend, but said no more. Meanwhile, Hermione and Ginny joined them at the table.
"And why were you up so early, Weaselette?" he asked the redhead.
Ginny didn't even bother correcting him about her name anymore. "I've been up to visit Harry." she said, her voice suddenly somber.
"What's up with scarhead? Isn't he better yet?" Draco asked, ignoring Hermione and Blaise who were shaking their heads wildly.
"No, he's not." she replied, her voice suddenly laced with despair. "He's getting worse."
"Well can't that old bat heal him or something?"
Hermione sighed in exasperation, while Blaise rolled his eyes at him.
"That's the thing, she can't! Muriel says he was hit with some sort of dark magic, which is causing the wounds to stay open." Ginny explained, her eyes welling up with tears.
"I don't understand…weren't you hit with the same curse? Why can't they give Potter the same potions they gave you, then?" Draco asked, looking at Hermione this time.
"They've tried, but apparently Rookwood modified the curse so that the wounds it caused wouldn't be that easy to heal." she explained to him.
"So Potter's bleeding to death?"
Ginny gave a small whimper, and suddenly bolted from the room.
"Now you've done it." Blaise said, throwing Draco a dirty look before rushing after her.
Draco turned to Hermione, only to find her glaring at him.
"What?" he asked.
Hermione gave an almighty sigh. "Boys. You're all so tactless sometimes." she said exasperatedly.
"What did I do wrong?" Draco drawled, looking at her defensively.
"Well you can be a little more sensitive to Ginny's feelings, for starters. And of Harry's condition as well." Hermione said.
"You know that Potter will never be my favorite wizard in the world." Draco pointed out.
"Yes, well, he's dying!" Hermione said, suddenly looking agonized.
Draco stared at her with dawning comprehension. "So that's why you were acting so weird this morning. You were thinking about him, weren't you?"
"Yes." Hermione sighed. "I'm worried, Draco. What if he never recovers?" she whispered.
"Why didn't you tell me Potter was that sick?" he asked gently.
"I…I don't know. I think part of me wants to deny that he's actually at death's door. That I might actually lose…" she said, unable to finish her sentence.
Draco reached out for her hand. "Potter won't die. He's too stubborn for that." he said as he gave a rueful smile. "Someone will find a cure for him."
"But what if they don't?" she asked, her brown eyes looking up at his silver ones searchingly.
Draco stared at her in amazement, never before had he seen her look so lost. "They will." he said with conviction. "No one's going to let the Boy who Lived die without a fight."
"It's not that easy, Draco. Muriel already told us that she's running out of ingredients for the Blood Replenishing Potion. Unless we find a way to close up Harry's wounds…he'll die."
A shiver ran down Draco's spine as he understood the gravity of the situation. He was never fond of the third member of the Golden Trio, but he had never wanted him dead. In fact, he was banking on the Gryffindor's triumph over the Dark Lord so that the war would be over. No more death and destruction, no more lies, secrecy and spying. Everyone would be able to go back to their normal lives, as well they should. It was for this reason that Draco hadn't given away Harry Potter's identity at the Malfoy Manor.
"We'll find a way, Hermione, I promise. Don't worry about it." he said firmly.
"Maybe…maybe you can find a way to heal him, Draco. After all, you've been taught some Dark Magic." she said hesitatingly.
Draco throat tightened; it was true, though. Aunt Bella had taken him in as her little protégée and privately tutored him the entire summer. It was the longest, most agonizing summer of his life. Picking up on Lucius's ways, his aunt had seen fit to torture him with the Cruciatus Curse whenever Draco refused to comply with her teachings. All summer long he'd been taught to perform spells on lesser Death Eaters, curses so horrible that only few survived the sessions. He felt disgusted with himself, knowing that it was his hand that had caused all of those deaths. Bellatrix, however, was delighted. She kept going on and on about what a talented Dark wizard he was, and what an asset he could be to the Dark Lord.
"I…I don't know, Hermione. I was taught to cause destruction, not to fix it." Draco replied, his voice grim as he remembered those terrible memories.
"But can't you try, can't you?" Hermione said, her face hopeful.
"I'll try." Draco heard himself saying. For how can he ever let her down?
That had appeased Hermione, and she felt a great deal of weight lift off her shoulders. She knew that Draco never made promises lightly, and he never went back on his word. So she relaxed and took her mind off of Harry, switching to a more interesting topic instead. "Did you notice that Blaise keeps trailing after Ginny?" she asked him.
Draco nearly spat out his coffee. "W-what? I don't know what you're talking about."
Hermione's brow raised. "Like you haven't noticed. He's fond of her, isn't he?" she said as a matter of fact.
"Zabini? Nah, he's always been rather friendly towards people." Draco said, covering up for his friend.
"Yeah, he was real friendly to me back at school." Hermione scoffed. "Alright, if you won't tell me, I guess I'll have to ask him instead."
"You go do that." Draco said, not falling for her trap.
Hermione pouted, realizing that she wouldn't be able to trick Draco into telling her what Blaise truly felt for her friend.
"What are you doing?" she asked, as Draco reached out to grab Ginny and Blaise's unfinished food.
"Well I'm not going to let all of this good food go to waste." he replied, taking a bite out of the piece of toast.
Hermione rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "You and your stomach." she laughed.
Suddenly the door opened, and Fred and George walked in sleepily.
"Anything good to eat?" Fred asked, pulling up a chair.
Hermione shook her head. "Apparently your mum's having a bit of a lie in. We've had to cook breakfast for ourselves."
George let out a huge yawn. "Well, you better get the apron out again, 'Mione. We're starving."
"I am not cooking breakfast for you two!" Hermione said stubbornly.
"Why not?" Fred whined. "I'm starving."
"Well cook your own breakfast, then!" she glared at the twins.
George sighed. "You're really not going to cook for us?"
"No!"
"All right. It was worth a try, I suppose." he muttered and got out of his chair.
The door opened once more, and in came Ron, scowling as he spotted Draco sitting next to Hermione.
Hermione tensed up, sensing a fight coming on. Really, it was much too early for this sort of thing.
Apparently, Draco was thinking along the same lines. "I don't want to deal with this right now. I'll be in the library." Draco said and he stood up and left the room.
"Draco, wait-" Hermione started to say, but the door shut closed immediately.
"Well go on, run after him." Ron said scathingly.
"Maybe I will." she said, jutting her chin out defiantly.
But the door opened for the third time, and in came Muriel, lumbering into the kitchen.
"Ah, muggle-born! Just the person I wished to see." she said as she spotted Hermione.
"Er, why do you want to see me, Aunt Muriel?" Hermione asked in bewilderment.
But Muriel didn't answer. Instead, she beckoned for Hermione to follow her.
"Well, hurry up, girl! I haven't got all day, you know." she said grumpily when she noticed that Hermione hadn't moved an inch.
She glanced back at the others in confusion, but was forcefully grabbed by Muriel by the wrist and was led out of the room.
"You know all about muggle medicine, yes?" she whispered urgently, walking down the hallway towards Harry's room. "The things those funny men called ducktors do?"
"Doctors." Hermione corrected her instantly.
"Yes, those. Doc-tors." Muriel waved her hand impatiently. "You're familiar with their work?"
"Well I'm not an expert, but I've had my fair share of trips to the hospital." Hermione admitted.
"Wonderful!" Muriel clapped her hands together. "So, tell me, what are sutures?"
"Sutures?! You're not...you're not actually thinking of sewing Harry's wound, are you?"
"And why can't I do that, muggle-born?" Muriel raised her eyebrows condescendingly.
"Because it's not safe! Harry's wound isn't some simple scratch that can be sewn up by anybody, it has to be done by a professional!"
Muriel looked startled by Hermione's objections. "My dear, I am more than capable of sewing your friend back together. I am one hundred and seven, you know." she said in an affronted tone of voice.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to disrespect you Aunt Muriel, but it's much too dangerous. Besides, I don't think it will work on Harry. Mr. Weasley had tried to have his wounds stitched as well when he was attacked by the snake, and that didn't work either."
"Well do you have another idea, muggle-born?" asked Muriel sharply. "Because unless you do, your precious little friend won't live to see the end of the day."
Meanwhile, Draco was busy leafing through the pages of Incantesimi Oscuri e Maledizioni, convinced that it contained information about the Unbreakable Vow. Now that he was officially in the Order of the Phoenix it was even more important that he find a way to sever his bonds with Bellatrix lest he be forced to reveal the Order's plans.
But it was useless. Draco didn't have a clue on what the book said, as all of the words were in Italian. He supposed he could ask Blaise to translate for him, but that would mean explaining to him why he was so interested about the Unbreakable Vow, and he just couldn't risk anyone finding out about his deal with his aunt.
"There you are. I thought I'd find you here."
Speaking of the devil, Draco thought. Blaise walked up to him and plopped down on the couch.
"So how's the Weaselette?" Draco asked, remembering the red-haired girl's untimely exit during breakfast.
"I do wish you'd call her Ginny, you know."
"Not happening, mate."
Blaise rolled his eyes at him. "She's better. I managed to calm her down before she had another breakdown. Mind you, that's been happening a lot lately."
"Does it bother you, how much she cares for Potter?"
"I don't want to talk about that." Blaise replied, his jaw muscles twitching.
"Oh come on, Zabini. Face it, she'll forget all about you the moment Potter's healed." the words left his mouth before he could stop himself.
"Well we can't all be as lucky as you, can't we? We can't all get our Gryffindors!" Blaise said bitterly.
"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way, mate."
Blaise sighed. "I know. I just...I don't know what to do, Draco. I like Ginny, but she's so in love with Potter that I don't even think she's noticed my attention towards her."
"I'm pretty sure she has, mate. Even Hermione's noticed." Draco said.
"Granger knows? What did you tell her?" Blaise's eyes widened.
"I didn't tell her anything! She merely commented after you two left at how you've been trailing after Ginny these days, and she asked me if you fancied her."
"And what did you say?" Blaise demanded.
"Don't worry, I covered up for you. I told her that that's how you normally behave, though I'm not sure she believed me."
"No, she probably didn't. She's too clever, your girlfriend." Blaise said ruefully.
Draco smiled at his comment. "So what are you gonna do about the Weaselette, then?"
"I don't know." Blaise shook his head. "Perhaps if Potter didn't survive..."
"You can't honestly mean that, Zabini? You want Potter dead?" Draco said disbelievengly.
Blaise winced. "No, of course not!"
"Look, just tell her. Don't be such a bloody wimp!" Draco said, his patience waning.
"Yeah, I suppose..."
"Speaking of Potter...I'm going to heal him." Draco said, finally admitting his plans out loud for the first time.
"What? But how...no." Blaise said as comprehension dawned on his face. "You're not going to use your healing magic on him?" he said incredulously
"I have to. I promised Hermione I'd find a way to help him."
"I'm assuming she meant you'd help her look for the ingredients for the Blood Replenishing potion, not give Potter your bloody life!" Blaise exclaimed.
"Don't exaggerate, Zabini, I'm not about to give my life up for Potter." Draco scoffed.
"Well you do know that healing a wound that's been cursed with Dark Magic's gonna take a lot out of you, right?"
"Yes." Draco replied, his mouth pursed into a thin line. "But we both know that the Blood Replenishing potion's not the real solution to the problem, it's merely buying Potter time. And it's about to run out as well."
"But...don't be ridiculous, it's too risky, Draco. Surely there's another way to heal him?" Blaise said, trying to talk him out of it.
Draco shook his head. "There's no time. I have to do this. I'm going to do this. Look, as much as I hate to say this, Potter's our best bet in defeating the Dark Lord. You do want him gone, don't you?"
"Of course I do!" Blaise answered immediately.
"Then you know what I have to do. Blimey, I didn't think that one day I'd actually be volunteering to save Potter's life. How times have changed." Draco said as he gave a small smile. "I'm turning into a bloody Gryffindor, damn it."
"Oh please, we both know you're only doing it for Granger." Blaise scoffed. "Look at you, she's turned you into a bloody bookworm already!" he added as he laughed.
Draco made a spur of the moment decision. "Look, about that...do you think you could translate this book for me? See if there's anything in it about the Unbreakable Vow?" he said as he handed the book to him.
"The Unbreakable Vow? Why would you want to read about that?" Blaise said, narrowing his eyes at him.
"Oh you know, just wanted to know how to cast it or if it could be broken. My mum made an Unbreakable Vow with Snape once, you know." he said, hoping that this piece of information would distract Blaise.
"You're kidding! I can't believe people still used that spell!" he said, grabbing the book and browsing through the pages.
"Yeah, too bad Snape didn't break his vow though." Draco smirked, but Blaise didn't laugh at his joke. His brows furrowed as he leafed through the pages of the thick book.
"There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?" he asked softly.
Draco's blood turned to ice. "What do you mean?"
"I mean this." Blaise pointed to the book. "You're not just looking for information about the Unbreakable Vow out of mere curiosity, aren't you?"
Damn. He had him there. "No. No, I'm not." Draco sighed, unable to lie to his friend.
"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Blaise said with a concerned look upon his face. "You can trust me, Draco."
"Look, Zabini, it's not that I don't trust you. It's just...I'm not even sure whether I can talk to you about it without either of us getting hurt or something worse."
"You sure you're not using this to information to harm anyone?" Blaise asked warily.
"Of course not!"
"Then why-"
"I can't tell you, mate. But I have a good reason no to, alright?"
Blaise stared at him. "All right." he finally gave in. "I'll browse through and see what I can find. It might take a while, mind you. This book is too damn thick."
Draco sighed in relief. "Thanks, Blaise. I think I'll go check on Hermione now." he said as he stood up and started to make his way out of the library.
"I wouldn't have done this for anyone else except you, you know!" Blaise called out. "Except perhaps Ginny, I suppose."
Chuckling, Draco made his way downstairs, feeling lighter than he did in days. Maybe now he could actually find something about the Unbreakable Vow!
The kitchen was empty, which was odd, so Draco wandered around the huge house, checking each room and looking for Hermione.
Then he heard bunch of loud voices down the hall. A loud scream came from the room at the end of the hall, and Draco's heart lurched uncomfortably. Picking up his pace, he walked briskly towards the room.
Pandemonium greeted him as he entered the room. Muriel and Molly were both scurrying around, waving their wand urgently at the figure lying on the bed. Hermione seemed to be holding a crying Ginny in her arms. The youngest Weasley, Draco was horrified to see, was covered in blood.
"What in Salazar's name happened?" he asked Hermione.
"M-Muriel tried stitching Harry's wound up, and he reacted badly to it. Somehow it made his wound even worse, and now it won't stop bleeding." she replied, tears streaming down her face and her voice quivering with fear.
Draco glanced at the bed once more, and finally got a glimpse of the figure lying on it. Harry looked awful, his face gaunt and his torso all bloody.
"There's no use. He's lost too much blood." Muriel said resignedly as she lowered her wand down. Ginny gave another terrifying scream.
"NO! YOU CAN'T GIVE UP ON HIM!" she shouted, wrenching herself free from Hermione's grasp and ran towards the bed.
"Ginny dear, there's not much we can do. We've tried everything." Molly said softly, tears welling up in her eyes.
"Well try harder, then!" Ginny snapped as she sobbed into Harry's shirt.
Alright, it was now or never then, Draco thought.
"I'll heal him."
All four heads turned to him at once.
"Draco what do you-" Hermione started to say, but Molly interrupted her.
"Of course, your healing magic…" she whispered.
"Healing magic? This boy has healing magic?" Muriel said in disbelief.
Draco nodded in response.
"But you said you can only heal minor cuts and wounds, Draco. How can you be sure that you'll be able to heal Harry?" Molly asked.
"I don't. But I've got to try, don't I?" he said resolutely, glancing at Hermione.
"Draco, what if…what if you hurt yourself? What if you're not strong enough?" she said, worry etched in her face.
"Hermione, don't argue with me. You do want to save Potter, don't you?"
"Yes, of course, but-"
"Then let me do this."
Hermione bit her lip, obviously torn between her worry for Harry and her fear for Draco's safety.
"Hermione, let me do this. We're running out of time."
Hermione saw the stubborn determination in his face, and relented. Everyone in the room held their breaths as Draco placed his hands on Harry's gaping wound and closed his eyes in concentration.
Draco could feel the energy pouring out of him, his magic flowing out of his hands and into the Boy who Lived. The mere effort of siphoning his magic into Harry was causing his head to ache. The room was suddenly spinning out of control.
Then there was nothing.
Ooooh, cliffhanger? Haha.
Really hope you liked this chapter. Leave a review, please! :)
