Chapter 25 - Rennervate

"Rennervate."

Hermione winced and slowly opened her eyes to find a starry canopy above her. Her brow furrowed as she tried to sort out where she was. She had seen this canopy before, but it wasn't hers.

It hit her. "Malfoy," she gasped and bolted upright in his bed. She was in his room again, alright, placed on his bed on top of his covers. Malfoy leaned against the bedpost at the foot of the bed with wand in hand and watched her. His expression was stormy and cold, and all too quickly, the memories of the night prior flooded back to her. They had teamed up to mislead the aurors about their relationship before the curse to their mutual benefit. Hermione had learned more about Malfoy in that one night than her prior 7 years at Hogwarts with him, and she had gotten carried away with her interest only to be insulted and rejected. They had fought. He had called her selfish. She had been an idiot and decided to prove him wrong by stunning him and dragging him to the hospital wing to get his back treated when he refused to go on his own, and she had fallen asleep there.

Malfoy must have brought her to his room after he regained consciousness. Based on his expression, he clearly intended to interrogate her or explode at her. After all, she had ignored his express wishes to avoid the hospital wing and stunned him repeatedly to get him there.

Hermione's eyes fell to her lap and blinked furiously as she felt tears try to form. She must be the most barmy, irresponsible nutter out there. She had succeeded in proving to herself that she could prioritize Malfoy's well-being, but for what? He'd likely take her wand away if he hadn't already… same for her access to magic.

With a sinking heart, she checked her pockets for her wand and found them empty. She shuddered and took a deep breath, pushing away the fury she felt on the discovery. She had made this bed, and she would lie in it. Arguing with Malfoy would only make it worse, and she was tired of fighting anyway. He would say his piece, and then she would leave and avoid him. Exhausted both physically and emotionally, she collapsed backwards onto the bed and covered her eyes with her arms. "How's your back?" she asked, not knowing what else to say.

Malfoy snorted, and she heard him walk closer. "Really? Is that all you have to say?" he asked in a voice like jagged ice.

His tone gouged into her heart. The friendly comradery they had established the night before was most definitely gone. That was okay though. She had expected this… counted on it, even, as she considered whether to stun him or not in Charms class. She needed distance from him to protect her heart long-term. She wasn't so daft as to expect him to remain interested in knowing her when she escaped the curse.

Luna's kind words regarding Malfoy floated back to her, and Hermione recalled her discovery that Luna might be exactly what Malfoy had been looking for. "I found an ally: Luna Lovegood."

"Yes, I heard. I expect I'll have to deal with her soon enough for dragging me around unconscious within sight of half the school," Malfoy snarled.

Hermione winced. She had somehow forgotten about that detail of their adventure. "No, I mean an ally for you," she said, pulling her arms back to lean on her elbows and look up at Malfoy. His eyes were dark with fury, but he was listening. "I know Luna's rather… dotty, but she thinks well of you. She said you were kind to her when she was a prisoner." Malfoy's eyebrows lifted slightly with surprise, and Hermione took a deep breath. "You were looking for someone you could trust. An ally who wouldn't judge you for your position or background. Luna fits." Hermione considered forcing a smile, but her mouth only twitched when she tried. "You wouldn't have to be lonely anymore," she clarified, looking him in the eyes.

Malfoy flinched and took a step back, eyeing her warily, like she had suddenly turned into a snake and he expected her to strike him. After a moment, he took several steps closer to her, stopping at her side, and slipped his hands in his pockets as he peered down at her. "Interesting. I thought you intended to claim that role."

The wry smile that followed came naturally to Hermione. "I found that I'd rather not have a relationship that you wouldn't maintain after the curse," she reminded him and sat all the way up to better maintain eye contact. Of course, when they had spoken of their non-relationship last, she had been referring to physical intimacy with him, but this was the same. She knew her heart would get caught up in things and eventually be shredded when he rejected her after she escaped.

His eyes narrowed at her, and he bent at the waist slightly to lean closer to her. "After the curse?" he asked softly.

Hermione swallowed and maintained eye contact in silent defiance even as he twisted to sit down beside her on the bed. He raised his brow briefly in acknowledgement of her silence and turned his attention to his pockets. He pulled out a wand and began twirling it in his hands, pausing it every so often to examine it. With a gasp, Hermione realized it was her wand he pulled out this time.

"You certainly are brilliant," he said, still looking away from her. "I've thought about it for some time now, and I still can't sort out how you managed to talk to Lovegood and Madam Pomfrey," he said.

Hermione's heart dropped into her stomach with fear. If Malfoy knew she could communicate… but then… how was this different than before? He had her wand. He had power over her access to magic. However, even without her wand and magic, she could still communicate using the map. At least, she could for now…

"It's a shame, really," Malfoy continued. "You're more interesting when you have your wand and magic, but you're far too clever for your own good." He twisted to face her. "Tell me, Granger. What am I supposed to do with you?"

Tension tugged at every nerve in Hermione's body. How was she supposed to answer that? He had all the power. She wanted freedom from the curse. They already knew he couldn't give her that. "What do you want me to say?" she blurted as hot tears came to her eyes. She wiped them with the back of her hand and scowled in disgust at the reminder of the bracelet on her wrist when it jingled in front of her eyes. She shook it at him. "I want to be free of this. Do you expect me to apologize for finding ways to talk to my friends again? Do you expect me to give up on escaping this curse?"

She brought her arm back down and studied his face. Malfoy was rigid as stone, his face carefully masked of everything but strain.

Hermione shook her head. "I don't want to depend on your generosity to see my friends, to have my wand, to use my magic… I don't want you to be the only person I can have any sort of normal relationship with… to... " She cringed. "To be my only option for physical intimacy. I don't want you to feel obligated to be responsible for me either." She took a deep breath, and tears rolled freely down her cheeks. "I'm not going to beg for my wand back, Malfoy." He didn't respond. She scrunched up her face in frustration at his silence and wiped her face again, ignoring the bracelet this time. She expected he wanted to know how she circumvented the curse in exchange for her wand, but the cost was too much. Surely he would stop it if he knew how, and if she couldn't talk to Ginny, how would she get help breaking the curse? Furthermore, she would lose her mind if Malfoy were her only company… and likely her heart as well. "If that's all, I'll return to my room," Hermione finished in a shaky voice.

His hand gripped her wrist even as she leaned forward to get off the bed. She sighed, sat back, and stared at him, waiting.

"I don't know how you're communicating with others," he said. His eyes were as hard as steel, and though he did not hurt her, his hand was like a vise around her wrist. Barely restrained emotion defined every visible muscle and tendon.

Hermione had had enough. "Piss off, Malfoy."

Malfoy stared at her, studying her eyes for something, though she couldn't fathom what. His grip tightened slightly, then he released her with a growl. "Do you want to throw your wand away? What kind of witch are you?" Malfoy asked and sneered.

Hermione ignored him, pulled her legs to her, and carefully swung them around to avoid bumping into Malfoy in her quest to escape him. His arm shot out to block her path just as she put her legs down over the side of the bed. "Malfoy," Hermione said in a warning tone.

"We're not done here. You need your wand," he hissed, glaring at her, as if this were somehow her fault.

Hermione scoffed. "Well as you have my wand and haven't seen fit to return it, I don't see much point in staying. What do you want from me, Malfoy? I won't plead for your amusement."

His face curled with disgust. The hand in front of her clenched into a fist, and he slammed it down into the bedding between them. "Why would I want you to beg and plead? I'm trying to help you, Granger, but I can't if you won't tell me how you're communicating!"

Hermione paused at that and blinked to clear her thoughts before facing him again. "Why would you want to help me? We were never friends. By your own declaration, I have been incredibly self-absorbed and rude with you. Furthermore, I stunned you, repeatedly, mind you, and floating your limp arse across half the school to the hospital wing to get treated against your will this morning. If I had done that to Ron or Harry, they would be angry and avoid me for weeks. You should want nothing to do with me!"

Malfoy's lips parted in a frown, and he pulled his brow together in a look of disturbed disbelief. "Avoid you for weeks!? Potter and Weasley, your supposed best friends, avoided you for weeks whenever they were upset with you? No wonder you're so mental. You glued yourself to the two biggest bloody wankers in all of England!"

Hermione choked out a laugh. Who would have ever thought Malfoy would be angry at her friends on her behalf? Though this wasn't the first time, was it? Hadn't something like this happened the night before? "They're not all bad. They still stood by my side when no one else did," Hermione reminded him. "They defended me from you."

The indignant wrath melted from Malfoy. He sighed, looked away, and scratched the back of his neck. "Point. We were all bloody wankers. You still deserve better, and in my defense, they were half the reason I bothered you. It's not like I went after every muggle-born witch and wizard in our year."

Hermione's eyes widened. He was right. She had never seen Malfoy go after Justin Finch-Fletchley, though Justin was muggle-born too and in their year. "If my friendship with Harry and Ron was half the reason, what was the other half?"

Malfoy scowled at her. "You were ahead of me in everything but flying class! Do you have any idea how much Father bothered me about being outdone by a mu-" He winced. "By a muggleborn!?"

Hermione broke into laughter at that. She couldn't help it. It was such a simple, ridiculous reason for teasing.

"Oh shut up," he groaned when he realized her reaction, but he was fully relaxed now, his shoulders soft and his hand loose where it rested between them. He tilted his head back and studied her at an angle. "You're also an insufferable know-it-all, like Snape would say, but you're not all bad."

"Is that meant to make me feel better?" Hermione asked. She wasn't quite sure if her question was sincere or sarcastic.

The corner of Malfoy's mouth twitched up, and his features brightened, as if he suddenly had an idea. "Since you won't talk yet, there is one thing I can check," he said. He placed her wand in his lap, pulled his own wand back out, and cast the incantation to see what spells she had cast with her wand. He frowned as he saw the levitation spell used. "Wingardium leviosa? Really? Why not mobilicorpus?"

Hermione shuddered, recalling a muggle family against the dark mark in the sky at the Quidditch World Cup. "Bad memories."

"Hm," Malfoy acknowledged with mild surprise, though he didn't comment more. As more stuns and levitations came out, he continued. "To be clear, I am angry with you. Livid, really. However, I'm a Malfoy, and I was raised to set my feelings aside when they would interfere with my ambitions."

"I expect you got in a lot of trouble for going after Harry so much then," Hermione said as her wand issued forth echoes of reparo from Charms class.

Malfoy smirked. "A bit. Father was rather disappointed I hadn't managed to befriend the most influential child after myself when starting Hogwarts. Of course, Father was no shining example himself of such tactics, except for when he shoved his family aside to gain the Dark Lord's favor." Malfoy's expression darkened even as the light of Hermione's wand illuminated him. He reached the point of watching echoes of their endless transfiguration spells on the letters the night prior and ended the spell. "Mother is much better about such things. She always puts family first."

Hermione listened in silence, feeling like she had just witnessed something very rare and precious. She bit her lip, wondering if she should offer comfort, and if so, how?

Malfoy frowned at Hermione's wand and offered it back to her. "I thought you might have spelled words in the air with the red flare spell I granted, but that's not the case." He saw her hesitation to reclaim her wand and rolled his eyes. "Go on. I've no cause to deprive you of your magic as is."

Hermione took back her wand carefully, and her heart raced when their hands brushed each other in the process. "Thank you," she said. She chewed her lip, wondering that he would trust her with her wand again when he was angry and she had clearly circumvented his intentions in several ways. "What would you do? Would you keep me from talking to my friends?"

Malfoy raised an eyebrow and sucked his bottom lip into his mouth as he studied her eyes for several long moments before slowly trailing down her face to her lips, neck, breasts, hips, and hands, which rested in her lap over her wand. He looked at her hands the longest, then twisted off the bed in a smooth motion only to crouch before her. "I need to show you something," he warned, and then his hands were over her own on her wand so that they both held it. Hermione felt Malfoy direct warm magic into the wand.

Golden sparks shot out the tip.

"How did you..?" Hermione started to say. Her eyes bugged and her jaw gaped with her astonishment. She had borrowed Ron's and Harry's wands before in a pinch, and they had worked, but she felt their resistance to her. They certainly wouldn't have shot out gold sparks in response to her magic. "I don't understand."

"Your wand responds to me," he said calmly, as if he had not just done something extraordinary. "Mine was left behind in Charms class, so I used yours to get you out of the hospital wing." He frowned. "I don't know much about wand lore, but I know it's difficult to master someone's wand if you haven't conquered them in battle. Theo and I once made a bet back in second year on who could use more wands."

"How many could you use?" Hermione asked.

"Only a few, and still very poorly until I defeated them in combat first to trick Theo." Hermione glared at his casual admission of cheating, and he smirked in response. "Slytherin, remember? I wanted those chocolate frogs." He looked back down at the wand. "Yours is the first that ever accepted me fully."

Hermione twisted her mouth in thought. She did not like what he was implying… Not that she quite knew what he was trying to imply. "The curse makes me subservient to you. Likely, my wand responds to you because of that," she said.

Malfoy froze, as if he had not considered that. He stood, pulled out his own wand, and switched it with hers in her hands. "Your turn," he ordered and crossed his arms.

Hermione gave him a dubious look, stared at the much larger wand in her hands, and sighed. "Wouldn't the very act of offering it to me change how the wand responds?" she asked.

"It didn't with the others. Crabbe and Goyle practically tripped over each other to offer me their wands when I suggested it."

Hermione sulked. She didn't want to do this. She didn't want to give herself more reasons to feel tied to Malfoy, and she could tell by the way the wand hummed in her hands that it was not nearly as opposed to her as she would expect. She looked up again at Malfoy, saw in his eyes that he would not give up on this, and closed her eyes as she sent some of her magic into the wood. She knew without opening them that she had succeeded and offered his wand back to him, which he traded with his own.

"What does this mean?" she asked, disappointed and disturbed that she could not seem to escape Malfoy.

"I don't know," Malfoy said. He sat back down beside her, closer this time, and poked at the bracelet on Hermione's wrist. "The curse connected us, but it didn't force us to work together. We chose that, and we did it well. You found a way to communicate, and you chose to focus on fixing my back instead of dragging the Wizengamot down on my family." He clasped his hands in front of him and tilted his head to look back and up at her. His hair fell into his face, and Hermione's hands itched to brush it away for him like she had done this morning when he was stunned. He was so close to her, and his brow pinched together when he asked her, "Why?"

Hermione bit her bottom lip. She had expected him to be too furious to ask why. What should she say? The truth? That she had gotten so angry at his claim that she cared only for herself that she went to an extreme to prove him wrong in a moment of insanity? That she had considered his anger a good thing in creating distance she desperately needed between them? Of course, that plan had failed spectacularly, given that apparently Malfoy considered such tactics beneath him.

"You're far too clever to have done it on a whim," Malfoy said.

Hermione snorted. "That's rather closer to the truth than I would like to admit, to be honest," she said, deciding to dash it all and just give up trying to be clever. Perhaps reality and blunt honesty would be enough to discourage Malfoy from… whatever he was on about with compatible wands. She took a deep breath and dropped her usual conversation filters, the ones that kept her from sounding entirely too much like a rambling know-it-all.

"I wasn't thinking properly. I was too knackered and angry at what you had said. We were sitting there in class. I was distracted from being late. You were clearly suffering, stretching every which way and grimacing, and I knew you wouldn't go on your own, so I stunned you at an opportune moment to make it look like you fainted… you know, since they can't see my spellwork anyway without your permission… I expected they wouldn't be able to tell that I had cast a spell on you. Anyway, it worked, and then I shot off red sparks when Flitwick asked for volunteers to bring you to the hospital wing, and that was everything, really. I knew you would be angry, but I didn't think about how you might take my wand and magic away until I was already in the hallway with you, and at that point, it was too late to back out."

Hermione blushed at the bewildered expression on Malfoy's face. "So you see, I wasn't being clever at all." She yawned. Now that she had her wand back and Malfoy had calmed down, her exhaustion was catching up with her.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "You didn't actually say why you did it."

Hermione winced. He wanted to hear more? Normally, her friends tuned her out when she began waffling on like that, but Malfoy… He was more attentive than ever, if possible. Hermione swallowed, feeling like a sandcastle before the tide. Malfoy turned everything on its head. "Err… I was angry about what you said. I wanted to prove that I wasn't. Selfish, that is." She paused to take a deep breath and collect her thoughts. "I wanted to prove that I wasn't selfish, which is preposterous, really, given that I was being selfish in not respecting your wishes, but I wasn't thinking about that at the time, just that your back was hurting and you wouldn't take care of it on your own."

Malfoy finally took his eyes off her to lean backwards and look up at his canopy. Hermione slumped in relief and took the opportunity to put her wand away. Her head hurt from trying to make sense of Malfoy and everything that had happened, and she feared how tempting she found the idea of curling back up in Malfoy's bed to take a nap. Would he mind?

"Where did Lovegood come in?" Malfoy asked her, breaking the silence.

Hermione blinked and yawned again. She had been staring at the pillow. "Luna? I ran into her in the corridors. Well, technically, you ran into her. I would have gone right through her." Her eyelids felt heavy, and she started to sink and caught herself. Should she ask first or just lie down? What was the correct course of action when you were being interrogated in the bedroom of your former-enemy-turned-crush after staying up all night with them? She shrugged and pulled her legs onto the bed before lowering herself back down.

Malfoy smirked at her with an incredulous expression. "Fancy yourself a kip in my bed, Granger? Go right ahead then. Thanks for asking."

"Piss off, Malfoy. I'm knackered," Hermione said, taking his sarcasm as a sign he wouldn't actually kick her out before she got some shuteye.

"I'm not done with you," Malfoy reminded her, scooting closer to maintain eye contact.

Hermione rolled her eyes and pulled herself under the covers, then realized she still wore her school robes, though her Mary Janes were gone and had been since she woke. "Where are my shoes?" she asked. She had them on in the hospital wing.

"By the door with mine. You didn't think I would soil my own bed by putting you down with them on, did you? I took them off when you came in."

Hermione chuckled to herself that he would remember that sort of detail despite everything else. It seemed like something she would do. Likely, the boys would tease her for it too. Frustrating as her situation was, there was something rather heartwarming in finding someone else who paid attention to details, even if it was Malfoy.

"What?" Malfoy complained in an offended tone, leaning over her. "Do the Weasels wear their shoes to sleep? Can't afford proper bedding? Why are you wearing your cloak, anyway? It's not that cold in here. Give it to me. I'll put it on the stand with mine."

Hermione rolled her eyes at his casual jab at her friends, but when he stood up and held out a hand for her cloak, she sat back up, pulled her own off, and handed it to him. She then pulled out her wand and left it on the table next to her so that it wouldn't jab her in her sleep. She yawned and caught Malfoy trying to swallow his own yawn immediately after.

"I really don't understand why you're being so nice to me," Hermione said, watching him hang her cloak up carefully before turning to face her and stretching his back with his arms above his heads. He had a lovely form, and Hermione bit her lip, wondering if he would also be resting.

Malfoy's eyes fell on hers as he relaxed his arms, and he smirked at her attention. "Like what you see, Granger?"

"No," Hermione protested out of habit, but she couldn't make herself look away, even when Malfoy lowered his arms and moved his hands to his hips. Malfoy raised an eyebrow at her continued staring, and she blushed. "Actually, I was wondering if you would be joining me in bed." Both of Malfoy's eyebrows shot up for a split second before he doubled over chortling at her social gaff. "Oh bollocks, Malfoy. You knew what I meant. You didn't sleep last night either. You must be right knackered yourself."

Malfoy held up a finger to indicate he needed more time to recover from his amusement. When he finally straightened back up, his cheeks were still taut from grinning and his eyes still sparkled from the laughter. "Granger, you've no idea how I'm tempted to bottle that memory and send it to your friends with a bow. Can you imagine Weasley's face?"

Hermione groaned and massaged her scalp. "Yes, I'm certain they'll think I'm quite randy for you," she said in the dryest tone she could muster.

Malfoy chortled again, but he walked over to what Hermione had come to think of his side of the bed, removed his wand from his pocket, and set it aside before climbing under the sheets as well. He leaned on his elbow and faced her. "You do fancy me though, don't you?" he asked her with a knowing look.

Hermione ripped out the pillow from behind her and slammed it at Malfoy's face, who blocked it at the last moment by dropping his head back to let his forearm take the blow.

"Hitting on me now, are we?" he teased in between laughter as the pillow flopped off his arm.

"Wanker," Hermione retorted and grabbed the pillow back. She flopped down on her side with her back to Malfoy and pulled the covers up to her chin. Behind her, she heard Malfoy say an incantation softly, and the bedroom lights dimmed except for his starry canopy. Vaguely, she realized they would both likely miss advanced herbology because of this, but she decided Herbology could go hang itself. She would collapse if she didn't rest first.

"Granger, your hair is huge," Malfoy said. "How do you sleep like that?"

Hermione scowled. "Would you shut it and let me sleep?"

"Can't," Malfoy practically sang. "I don't know that your hair won't strangle us both in our sleep."

"If it bothers you so much, then do something about it," Hermione fussed, vaguely recalling that he had spelled her hair up before massaging her back last night.

"Alright then, I will. Sit up," Malfoy instructed.

Hermione complied, though she was fit to snap at him if he teased her again or gave her a hard time about her impossible hair. She fully expected Malfoy to simply magic it up again, so when she felt him kneel close behind her on the bed, she nearly jumped out of her skin. "What are you doing?"

"Relax, Granger. I'm fixing your hair," Malfoy said dryly.

Hermione heard him say an incantation quietly, and she felt her hair untangle all at once. A moment later, Malfoy's long, slender fingers were in her scalp, gently separating her hair and working it back with more care than even she had given it in years. A few minutes later, she had a long braid going down her back. Hermione examined it with a frown. "Why do you know so much about hair?"

She heard Malfoy shrug behind her. "Mother taught me. She wanted me to have every edge I could with Aunt Bella." He shuddered. "I once wondered why Mother, who puts family first, never brought me to see her sister in Azkaban."

His tone made it clear that he wondered no longer.

Hermione pursed her lips, recalling that, at least as far as she knew, Narcissa Malfoy also no longer spoke with her other sister, Andromeda Tonks, after Andromeda had married a muggle-born. Her head spun though, and she desperately needed a lie-down.

"I need sleep, Malfoy," Hermione said as her eyes closed while she sat.

Malfoy chuckled. "Did you forget how to lie down? Need a guide to find your pillow?" he asked.

"Oh shut it," Hermione mumbled. She wobbled while sitting and felt strong arms reach out and support her against a warm, solid chest.

"Easy, Granger," Malfoy said close to her ear. He lowered her gently down, then separated himself from her only to resettle close enough that she felt his warmth. "Get your rest," he said. "We'll talk more when you're more alert."

"Git," Hermione half-yawned, feeling compelled to say something to restore her sense of normalcy.

Malfoy snorted at her, and Hermione smiled. A moment later, she fell asleep.


I hope you enjoyed the chapter! For the record, this chapter was incredibly difficult for me to write. I ended up putting in about 4k words into a Malfoy perspective of it and still rewriting Hermione's perspective of it no less than 3 times before it felt right. Yikes!

I also ended up doing more research on British terms for things because my American word-choices didn't feel quite right. Not sure if I overdid it or not though. Would love feedback on that.

Also, a quick PSA on COVID-19: Please be safe and sensible. Make sure you maintain 2+ weeks of supplies in the event you need to isolate at home for any reason. If you're under 60 and relatively healthy, you'll probably endure it no worse than you would the flu, but the elderly and sick are at much greater risk of death from COVID-19, so please take it seriously to protect them.

As always, I post updates on chapter progress and major life disruptions on my author profile.