Somehow, they managed to waste the whole night in bed. Draco napped off every then and now and she took delight in waking him up with kisses and tickles. Eventually, Hermione tore herself away from his tender touches and his caring lips. "Dennis will be back soon," she said when he gave her a pitiful look.
"Fuck Dennis."
She laughed. "I prefer this bed, thanks."
Draco's expression turned sour at her twist of his words, but then a lazy smile found its way to his lips. "I knew you were after me. It couldn't just be plain luck that we crossed each other's paths so often back at school."
"You wish!" She scoffed and slid off his bed, letting the white dress shirt she had borrowed from him drop from her shoulders to slowly dress in her own clothes.
He threw one arm behind his head and watched her.
Hermione left him to bask in his annoying satisfaction and returned to the living room, intending to look at the papers he had shown her this morning to get a grasp of what he had done all day.
A look at the clock revealed that it was almost six in the morning. Her shift was nearly over.
Skimming over the employee files, her gaze caught on a name that seemed strangely familiar.
Hearing steps from the hall, she called, "I didn't remember that Fletchley's first name is Justin."
"What are those?" a curious voice asked behind her and Hermione whirled around.
"Oh, Dennis! It's you. Sorry, I thought Draco…" she trailed off. "You're early."
"Had to make up for the hour I took from your shift," he replied with a shrug, his curious eyes sweeping the files strewn over the dining table. "Are you working on the case again?"
"Oh, this? No! It's just something Draco asked me to take a look at for his organization," she evaded the topic.
Her throat felt strangely tight and she wondered where Draco was. Maybe he had fallen asleep again—she had kept him up all night after all.
There was something at the back of her mind, urging to reach her consciousness, but she couldn't quite grasp it.
"Breakfast?" Dennis asked, waving a paper bag from the nearby bakery.
"I—erm, I have to go to the loo." With a swipe of her wand, she collected the papers on the table and sent them floating to Draco's office. "Let me clear this away and then I'll be right back," she called over her shoulder as she hurried to the guest room and locked herself into the adjacent bathroom.
All the way down the hall, she had felt Dennis gaze follow her. She didn't dare look after Draco.
She returned with an uneasy feeling after splashing her face with cold water to look a bit more alert.
Hermione didn't even manage two steps over the threshold to the living room when she felt more than saw a spell hit her directly in the chess. She was blinded by a bright flash of magic and felt her suddenly stiff body fall uselessly to the hard floor boards.
Before she could blink the pain away and the white spots dancing in front of her eyes, she felt herself being bound by magical ropes. They wound around her limbs like snakes and all that she tried, she couldn't move a finger. Her mind was racing as she felt them tighten around her.
Only when she was bound tightly, did she feel her limb gain back movement and she struggled against the bind desperately despite knowing it was fruitless.
Twisting on the floor, she looked up at the figure towering above her.
"Dennis? What the fuck are you doing?" she hissed.
"Didn't expect this, did you, Hermione?" He smiled down at her. Hermione wanted to curse herself. She should have trusted her gut instinct because it had been obvious and she hadn't believed it.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this," Dennis interrupted her musings. "You weren't supposed to be dragged into everything. I don't know how Malfoy managed to get rid of all the evidence I planted in his office, all the files and the bombs of course.
"I'm sorry," he said again, a shiver crawling down her spine at those words. "This won't be pretty. I have to make sure that he can't get rid of this evidence. Believe me, I don't like this. But it won't hurt much, not as much as Samantha. I didn't bind her properly…"
Hermione sucked in a shocked breath and renewed her struggles. "Cut this crap," she wheezed as the ropes tightened around her torso the more she fought against them.
He ignored her demand and instead frowned at the scar on her arm where her sleeve had ridden up and ropes cut into her flesh. "They did that to us, didn't they? Marked us with this ugly word to make sure we could never be better than that. Your sacrifice will not be futile, I promise."
Hermioen swallowed, trying to appear calm. "You don't need to do this, Dennis."
He smiled sadly and shook his head. "You don't understand. I have to do this."
Dennis searched her eyes and despite the nausea she felt building at his cold expression, she held his gaze. "You used Justin to get the money you needed for those bombs, didn't you? Pretending to be his friend when he was in need of support and dragging him down into your machinations." She remembered as if it was yesterday what she had overheard in the office. Justin having lost his job, Dennis 'helping' him… Hermione had just taken until now to connect Justin to Finch-Fletchley. He was a plain guy, even back at school, she had barely spared him a second thought.
"Maybe you do understand. I've seen you working more than anyone, Hermione. I've seen your brilliant mind blossoming back at Hogwarts and then they put you in an office cubicle like a zoo animal to do funny tricks. Right now, there's too many old pureblood men in high positions for people like us to make a change, but that will soon change."
She felt dread close her throat at his words. This wasn't Dennis and yet it was. It felt like a mask had slipped off, as if this twisted version of him had always been below that kind and innocent face. All words died in her throat when he continued speaking.
"You know, it was always us who fought for freedom and a secure life. Always the young and most vulnerable. Children! It's time to balance society again, make sure there's more of us than there is of them."
She swallowed. "What are you planning?"
"You won't need to concern yourself with that, you won't live that long."
"Do you even listen to yourself? This is absolute insanity!"
"Oh, it will be!" He grinned his lighthearted grin and Hermione's heart broke in agony as she realised the sweet boy she had once known was lost forever.
"You know, it's far too easy to bring dangerous artefacts into the ministry as long as it's under the pretence of a running investigation."
That's when Hermione was able to connect the dots. Old pureblood men, of course he was targeting the Wizengamot where one wrinkled hand shook the other, the members patting their shoulders in mutual agreement of their legitimacy and superiority. He was planning to bring in the bombs as evidence and then set them off.
"Ah, I see you figured it out. You were always way too clever for your own good. It was a blessing and curse at the same time to get you off the case while bringing you closer to Malfoy. I wish you had just been injured by the bomb in the coffee shop instead and been in St. Mungo's for a couple of weeks. That would have made everything a little easier. Then Justin failed to set your house on fire at the right time, yet again missing you. He was never a clever one. I told him to check and yet he didn't.
"But enough talk now," he pulled a knife. "We'll have to do this the Muggle way, he said in a way of apology. Can't risk the magic being tracked back to me."
"What about Draco?" she asked, desperate to distract him.
"Oh, you two really got close, didn't you?" He smiled. "Do not worry for him, dear Hermione. He is sleeping until it's time for him to wake up. He will spend the rest of his life in a small cell in Azkaban once he has been tried for your murder. I'll make sure to tell a tragic story of how I came just minutes too late."
Hermione struggled to free herself from the bonds, but all it did was tear at the tender skin of her wrists. Maybe she should start begging, she thought distantly. Maybe it was time to pray. But when she closed her eyes to will herself someplace else in the hope that her magic somehow would burst out of her and make her wish come true. But she could only think of Draco. He would be blamed for this, he would suffer the consequences long after her.
A dull humpf sounded above her and she tore her eyes open. Dennis still towered over her, knife in hand, but his eyes looked strangely bulging and frozen. Then they rolled into the back of his head and he unceremoniously folded in on himself like a house of cards.
She didn't quite understand what had happened until her eyes fell on a figure with blonde hair standing in the door to the hall.
Hermione pursed her lips. "About bloody time, Davies."
"Sorry, Granger. I ha-had a date and ignored the Patronus you sent. I didn't think it was urgent because it didn't say anything…"
"Well, what are you waiting for? Free me already!"
"Of course!" He nearly fell over his own feet when he hastened forward to pull at the ropes still binding her.
Hermione rolled her eyes so hard her head hurt. "Use your wand, you imbecile."
"Oh, yeah, sure."
A blink of an eye later, she was free, rubbing her wrists to get rid of the red marks on them. "Where's Draco?"
How did you like my epic viallain speech? :D Congratualtions to all who guessed that Dennis was the murderer! There were quite a few of you who had already connected the dots :)
There's one last chapter waiting. I'll have to write on it a little more bc my beta demanded a little more fluff for a story with this much darkness. I wanna make sure you all like it ;)
Beta: Nora Fares