This was one of those moments where she wasn't sure her bravado would hold out. Her composure was also at risk. It had been almost exactly a month and one had come. To the same cafe she had seen the first at, which was both understandable and not. It was a known location of hers but hardly one she trusted after last time. Whether or not he would try and take her now or today was unknown and of course she had gotten stuck with two women who were excellent at observation. One of them knew her well enough to see when something was wrong.
Her want of a berry scone and a huge latte had led her into Roasted. Having brought Narcissa one of the white chocolate mochas last time after her discovery that she had never tried one, it wasn't all that surprising to see the matriarch in the adorable cafe. It was just unfortunate timing. The inclusion of Francesca Warrington was also on the lesser end of the fortunate events scale. It was a sliding scale of course but at this moment she wasn't best pleased to be at an unplanned interview for a position she was pretty sure she didn't want. Couldn't begin to think about accepting at this time. She would have to say so.
Narcissa had given several small indications that perhaps Hermione wasn't ready to contemplate such a large step. Even suggested having them all to her home for a dinner party. That had been accepted but it hadn't deterred the determined mother.
"Mrs Warrington, I am sorry. Both for my rudeness and my unreadiness for this conversation. I was and am flattered that your son seems interested in me. Your family is lovely from what I know. I can't, in good faith, consider your generous offer and its implications at this time." Hermione spoke sincerely and meant what she said. She was flattered and also unable to seriously consider Warrington while she still felt so much for another. It wouldn't be right, or honest. She would be upset if he did such a thing to her, under the guise of assessing each other for marriage. That also didn't sit well with her, the assessing. It seemed clinical but she had been assured that it was the vocabulary used. It didn't necessarily mean a loveless arrangement.
"I'm sure that whatever concerns you have." The woman kept talking in her smooth tones but Hermione wasn't paying her any attention. Her posture must have stiffened or she alerted Narcissa in some other way. A small hand gesture let the older witch know she didn't need help. Narcissa gave a discreet nod and stood. Speaking some excuses about a forgotten appointment and quite a bit more fuss with her shopping bags and cloak than she usually would. Creating a distraction for Hermione, should she need one. The witch was excellent to have in your corner, Hermione was coming to appreciate this more and more. Assured that she didn't need help Narcissa set out to help in whatever way she could before removing herself from the situation. Had she indicated otherwise she was sure very little would have separated the witch from her. Hermione murmured goodbye and Narcissa leaned in.
"Send a signal should you need help. I know you've got some coins or something. One of us will come." Kissing her cheek as cover for the message and genuinely the two older witches swept from the small coffee shop.
Gathering her tote bag she decided to let herself have some of the fun Yaxley had thought she might. Letting some of her mischief and a slight blush rise at her excitement she turned as she reached the door and smiled at the young man. His bright blond hair was medium length and came to his chin. Sea green eyes were too pretty for any man and his grin was a bit meaner than she had hoped. Maybe he would lighten up and maybe he would be a prick.
Deciding that she would see what he could do, she set off toward the apparition point in the Alley and didn't employ any of her possible planned precautions. He was about a hundred feet behind her when she spun into blackness.
After entering two shops in Hogsmeade and spending an hour she didn't see him. Not today then. Having replenished her candy stash and picked up two charms journals from the bookshop she began to head down the Main Street. She liked to catch a view of the school. It would also be a chance for him to come at her in some way with less of an audience. Her magic was fully aware and searching as were all her other senses. It was easy to wear a small smile on her face. These boots had been a good choice. Susan was more practical than Astoria and had been quite helpful. If she was going to wear them often this winter then she should like them. Which she did. They came a few inches above her angle and zipped up on her inner calf. The shape was great for jeans or leggings and she was just thinking about a brown pair when she felt the magic flare.
Wand in hand, in her pocket, she sent a shield toward it and deflected whatever he had sent at her into the trees. He was pretty far away and it gave her the time to react easily. This was one of her drills. Much faster than this though. Maybe it was one of his too as the spells came faster and her shields danced. One got through but she knew it would go wide and so she let it.
Then a small pop told her he had apparated to another vantage point and she took her wand hand out of her pocket and let more magic gather by her free hand. It was costly to use raw magic like that but it could be done. Her determination was running high.
Wards were going up around her and she heard two more pops as he created the areas boundaries by setting markers and then joining the spells. Trapping her. No apparition, that she could feel when she let her magic spin as it would before she performed the action.
When the magic stabilized she waited and nothing happened. Unwilling to commit too much attention at once to discerning the kind of ward that he had put up she sent individual assessment charms up and mentally kept a tally of what she could find. She hadn't seen the set up before but recognized its construction. It was one of the banded ones that used pressure to stay in form. She debated what to do if he wouldn't act. She would have to ward herself before she took these ones down or risk him being quicker than she could react to.
There he was. Just in range. She dropped and rolled out the way of the barrage of coloured jets of light. It looked quite impressive but she had no problem coming to her feet and meeting it. Dolohov and her hadn't dueled yet but she had been practicing with others. This wizard was either not trying or not very good. Eight in half of Russia's young people was a small percentage and he should be better than this. More creative even if he wasn't an instinctive dueler. Perhaps he was just teasing her. Thinking her incapable.
She shot three spells one after the other and then rolled. While she was upside down she shot two higher up then as she came up in a crouch she shot three at hip height. Two hit and she stood for a moment. Not knowing if he could just throw them off. The disarming spell had shot his wand into the bush but the variation on the petrification spell could be broken with enough quick surges of magic. Unfortunately for him, it seemed he was just pushing in one hard surge against it and it held.
Twirling her wand with one hand she summoned his with the other. His face was purpling and she lessened the increasing pressure around his chest from his attempts to escape. In an instant she threw herself to the left and barely missed the jet of fire from his left hand. As she came up she was casting. It was actually her haphazardly thought out plan incase Rowle had ever tried this during the war. The magic was more elaborate and better suited than she could have managed then.
He should have released himself before but she would take his anger fueled error in judgement. As she cast the first transfiguration spell she watched him begin the correct method for breaking her spell. Two trees about twenty feet behind him became stone pillars and the ground began to fold in on itself as she leached the moisture from it and forced it to compress.
Unable to complete her catch at the moment she took advantage of what she had already caused to happen and cast a ward around both of them that increased the pressure the air pushed on them. Not gravity but it did make it harder to move, and breathe. In the minute it took her to cast a shield against his wandless blast of fire, and a second ward to keep him from summoning his wand, she could barely keep herself from panicking at the difficulty of drawing air in. Eventually they would suffocate but it took about ten minutes to completely lose consciousness.
Then she had the ward against it up and stabilized so that she had about two feet of clearance around her. She used the wrist cuff she had taken to wearing for this purpose. She hadn't asked for help on it and hadn't told anyone but it made her putting up wards for just herself easier and faster. Now she had an advantage and it only took her maybe two minutes to get him trussed up and then force him against the poles. She could feel his magics trying to find the catch for the ward she had put up. They were only about twenty feet apart now and when his back hit one of the pillars she used her hand to manipulate her magic into sucking his left hand into the stone. Then she pulled all the magic out of the pillar and used that as the fuel for her transfiguring a rock into a manacle and then used a banishing charm to straighten his arm. When the manacle was on and his lips were turning blue she hurried to use a magnetism spell to pull his other arm to the second pillar. Performing the same spell on the other pillar stretched him, not tightly, between them.
Neither of them had said anything other than spells and incantations when they could do it non verbally but now the words came as his magic began to flail in his physical distress at the difficulty of breathing. Deciding not to be cruel, she lifted that ward completely and began taking his down. As he got his breath back he began shouting at her in Russian and some English.
It was quick and a bit choppy so she wasn't exactly sure but it sounded like threats to her, and promises of putting her in her place. It didn't sound like a nice one. Eventually she was getting angry and silenced him before beginning the last step of breaking his wards keeping him here.
It took a few minutes to break them because she wanted to know just when the energy would come so she could use it to put up some of her own wards. These she would tie to her magical signature so she could enter and exit, but no one else could. There was a flash of light and she felt heat warm the air around her as she began putting up the ones she wanted in two patterns. That was enough for this. No need to tip her hand. When she had finished his face was red but he looked intrigued. Thinking that eventually she would probably be caught and a little good will could go a long way, she cast cushioning charms and did her best to make him comfortable. Then decided sleeping was preferable to being awake for potentially twelve hours. She cast a regular sleeping charm and then tied it to the wards coming down. Those she set a sensor for in reverse of the light spectrum at the moment. So maybe it would be about thirteen or fourteen hours but at least she hadn't just left him invisible in perpetuity.
Then she stood for a moment. Going over everything she had done and biting her lip while she thought. Her eyes were on the sharp featured man, her age she would guess. It seemed to have been a bit too easy. That made her nervous and she began to feel her adrenaline spike again. Maybe there was another one. Under her own wards she was nearly certain she would know if someone was there. It wouldn't do her any good if she couldn't keep this one for twelve hours either.
Scanning the forest around them and noticing it was getting dark she wondered again if she had done the right things. He was sleeping but that spell wasn't particularly difficult to break, except it was tied to her wards. Depending on the situation, she could get out of this. Twirling her wand absently she added a few things and then tried to decide if she should put a funnel for his magic into the ground. Imagining it was Rowle she had trussed up, but better at wards. Now wasn't the time to contemplate him bound and at her mercy so she focused on the less attractive face and thought through the plan. It would give away a certain amount of her knowledge. Not skill but what she knew. That she had looked into those with different magical talents. Usually these were genetic, like Tonks and Teddy being metamorphmagus or Rowle's family affinity with channeling their magic into fire.
She had read that some could do it from other parts of their bodies, a quite disgusting old scroll recounted a wizard who used his eyes. It had reminded her a bit of Cyclops from X-men then but if this man could use another part then his hands being confined made no difference. She didn't think Rowle could channel enough raw magic through another part of his body to assist in getting out of something like this. Again this wasn't the gorgeous man though so what to do. If she tried to hide it and didn't succeed then she would give away yet more.
Surely someone would be smarter in how they tried to take her than this eventually and that made her less inclined to use any of her more esoteric knowledge. They knew Dolohov though, or their masters did. How much would they assume she would be capable of, in order for him to take her on. Even with all of her embarrassing drawbacks. That stiffened her resolve a bit and she began creating channels and tying a ward to the moon. It was close to full and it's pull should be enough. It was all she was willing to do. Then she altered her wards and took down the two he had put up that were still standing. They had been separate from the ones he had put up against her. Interesting, her mind was full of thoughts and questions as she exited her wards and then dropped the protections against her own defences. Her last change was to make the wards passable to those who entered but not the captured wizard. Best make it so they had to know what they were looking for or at least that someone was here. Just incase Dolohov wanted to check or whatever, and she didn't want random people stumbling across a Russian wizard in this situation.
Allowing herself a moment to begin to calm down after so much stress and excitement, she walked until she could see the castle in the distance. Then with a last careful scrutiny of her surroundings she silently cast two wards and dropped an acorn before disappearing with a crack.