Hermione checked her wristwatch.

9:42 p.m

She bit her thumbnail. Where were they?

9:43 p.m

They were due back by now, weren't they? This was to be a quick mission to Malfoy Manor to scope out the wards. No more than a few hours, they said. Back before 10.

9:46 p.m

Teddy screeched noisily from his cot. Hermione laid a soothing hand over his tummy, rubbing her thumb in soft circles over his naval. She cooed gently, willing him to fall back to sleep. He was hungry, she could tell by the way he opened and closed his mouth silently, blindly looking for a breast to latch onto.

"It's alright, sweet boy, mummy will be back soon."

9:53 p.m

Hermione sighed in frustration. She should be out there alongside them. She was the best trained at healing spells. But Tonks was a close relation to the Malfoy bloodline through Narcissa and Draco, meaning she would be able to surpass any blood curses or traps along the property. Meaning Hermione was to stay behind with Teddy.

She grumbled, smoothing the baby's dark hair from his face.

9:56 p.m

Sudden explosions of loud popping sounds came from outside. Hermione counted each one: Harry, Ron, Tonks, Lupin, Kingsley, Moody, Arthur, and another she couldn't quite place. Pressing herself against the window of the Lupin family's room that overlooked the garden of the Burrow, Hermione watched the familiar figures scramble around a hunched figure.

Hermione pressed herself closer, trying to distinguish who it could be.

Had other members of the Order met them there?

The figures were guided through the door and Hermione scrambled down the stairs. Tonks was already halfway up when they passed each other.

Her vibrant pink hair was limp and sweaty, clinging to the dirt around her temple.

"Teddy?"

"Sleeping," Tonk's shoulders sagged. Hermione couldn't imagine the terror of being a mother in this world, in these circumstances. Not knowing if you would ever return home to your child. "But he's hungry. I forgot to ask you to leave milk."

Tonks nodded, going to speak but was interrupted by more shouting from below.

"What happened? Who's here?"

Tonks sighed, rubbing a dirty hand across her forehead and looking up longingly at the closed door to her baby. "Long story that I'll explain later, I promise. But they'll be needing you downstairs I'm sure."

"Who-"

She was already gone, a piercing scream of Teddy being woken from his slumber coming from the now open door.

Hermione followed the voices downstairs into the kitchen, where everyone's backs were turned to her and prevented her from seeing the table they were surrounding.

"You have to let him go so we can help him." Harry's familiar, concerned voice.

"Fuck off." A less obvious, venomous voice answered back.

It descended into chaos again, voices shouting back and forth at each other. Hermione pressed her shoulders between Ron and Harry and pushed her way into the circle.

"What-" she gasped at the sight before her.

Blood, lots of it. Too much of it. Soaking into the rough wood of the table and dripping onto the plush tops of the seats. The body that lay on top was almost unrecognizable between the bruising of its face and the slashes across its chest.

But the man next to it, practically covering the body with his own, was undeniably Draco Malfoy.

"So nice of you to join us, Granger." Malfoy hissed.

His almost white blonde hair was stained pink with blood. Was it his own or this figure? There was a deep gash across his cheek and down his neck into the collar of his blood soaked shirt.

"What's going on? Who is that?" Hermione ignored Malfoy and turned to Ron.

" That," Ron pointed to the body. "Is Theodore Nott. Malfoy won't let us touch him. Even though we're trying to help."

"I've seen your wand work, Wealsey," Malfoy scoffed, a splatter of blood coming from his mouth. "You'd just make it worse."

He pointed at Hermione. "Her. Only her. The rest of you can fuck off."

Hermione sprang into action, unholstering her wand and waving it across Nott's abdomen. She tried to ignore the incentent shouts of her friends and the hissing responses of Malfoy as she worked.

He had three broken ribs, one of which punctured into his lung. A ruptured liver. Internal bleeding. It was a miracle he was alive.

Hermione smoothed dark, curly hair away from his bruised face. She remembered him only vaguely from Hogwarts. A friend of Malfoys, quieter than Pansy but more intelligent than Crabbe or Goyle. They shared a few NEWT level classes, but he never spoke a word to her or about her.

"You're lucky we even brought you here, Malfoy. Should have left you there to rot like you deserve," Ron pointed a finger in Malfoy's face.

He swatted it away, "I'm sure mummy would be very disappointed with your hospitality, Weasel."

" Please," Hermione snapped. "All of you: out. I can't work like this."

"I'm not leaving you alone with Malfoy," Ron crossed his arms over his chest even as Harry tried to usher him away.

"I'm not leaving Theo."

Hermione looked up from Nott's bloody face. Malfoy's jaw was set, his teeth grinding into each other. Their eyes met for a long moment over the table. There was something there in Malfoy's gaze that she had never seen before. Vulnerability.

"Ron," she began, not looking away from Malfoy's face. "It's fine. Malfoy can stay."

"But-"

"Come on, Ron," Harry grumbled. "Let her work."

Between Harry and Arthur, they had finally pulled him out of the kitchen, leaving just Malfoy and Hermione standing over Theo's body.

"I…" He licked his lips, blood sticking to the crevices in his lips. "Thanks, Granger."

Hermione nodded, clearing her throat. "If you're going to stay, you have to help. Do you have your wand?"

He pulled out his wand and Hermione tried not to flinch at the splintering wood as he gripped it in his hand. Whatever happened at Malfoy Manor, it would have to wait until later.

"Alright, swish your wand like this…"

By the time they were done, both Hermione and Malfoy were sweating and panting profusely. Hermione could feel her magic pulsing and draining, leaving her fatigued and tired. She could only imagine how Malfoy was feeling, already having been worn out from whatever occurred in his home.

But he didn't complain, not once. He followed all her directions carefully, even taking over when she went to collect water to wash Theo's abdomen.

Hermione's clothing was almost completely covered in blood. Sticky and warm and smelling of metal.

She ran a shaky hand over her brow. "He's stable now. We'll move him to a bed and he'll need to rest for a few days to regain his strength."

Malfoy nodded, his eyelashes fluttering softly in exhaustion. "I'm staying with him."

It wasn't a question, but Hermione nodded anyway. "Charlie's room has a recliner you can use for now. It's where Ginny has been staying, but she and Molly are in Cornwall with Fleur and Bill."

Malfoy didn't even pretend to seem like he was listening. Instead he was running his hand over Theo's arm in a gesture that Hermione could only describe as tender. She looked away for a moment, feeling like an intruder in this moment.

"Come on, let's get him up to bed."

Malfoy's hand shook as he tried to cast a levitation spell.

"Here, let me. Leviosa."

Theo's limp body lifted from the table and suspended in midair. Hermione guided her want in front of her to move him up the stairs.

Ron was lounging in the adjacent living room, snoring loudly. Hermione rolled her eyes, but smiled weakly. Of course he hadn't actually left her alone.

She didn't bother to turn on the lights in Charlie's room. The window was just parallel to the moon, which cast enough light for her to navigate Theo onto the bed.

She heard Malfoy fall into the plush seat in the corner on unsteady knees.

"I'll do it." He insisted as Hermione lifted the blankets around Theo's chin.

Hermione tutted and walked to stand in front of him, kneeling between Malfoy's knees.
"Wha'are you doing?" He protested as she took out her wand again, but his voice was weak with exhaustion. His hand came up to close around her wrist, but his grip was too loose to stop her from moving.

Hermione blushed at the contact.

"I'm fixing your cut," she gestured to his face with her wand. "If we don't close it, it could get infected."

Malfoy nodded softly, his eyes already falling closed as she worked. She watched his skin stitch together tightly. It would leave a nasty scar down his face and around his jaw, but Hermione took little pleasure in that face.

When she was finished, she made to stand up again and leave him to sleep, but gasped softly when she spotted his eyes open and assessing her carefully. In the moonlight, they looked like two sparkling, deep holes of black on his marred face.

She was frozen as he lifted his hand to his mouth, licking his thumb, and pressing it to her brow. She gasped again as the sticky saliva removed the remnants of blood that she had wiped on herself. His hand dropped suddenly and Hermione heard a deep snore, Malfoy finally succumbing to his exhaustion.

On shaking knees she stood, draping a nearby comforter over his shoulders. She closed the door tightly behind her, pressing her back against it and closing her eyes tightly. She breathed out a shuddering breath before making her way back down the stairs, past a still sleeping Ron.

She spent the rest of the night scrubbing the table of Theo's blood until the sun peeked up over the horizon. She fell asleep that way, or at least she remembered falling asleep there. But when she awoke that afternoon, she was in bed.

Curiously, not hers.