AN: So I'm stuck in my house after an ice storm came through. Wasting the day away reading fanfic and watching Hallmark. It's kind of the perfect Saturday.
Thanks for taking some time out of your day to read this story. I love hearing your thoughts.
Lost Souls of Nott Castle
Chapter 35 - Partition
Hermione opened her eyes to a room she had never seen before. Rain poured down against the glass that nearly surrounded her. She sighed, pulled out a chair and sat down.
A few moments later, Theo's elf popped into the room. He had a tray of food and tea, which he sat on the table in front of her before leaving again.
She nibbled on the food and watched the rain. It was mesmerizing, the way it flowed down the glass. She got lost in the rain, captivated by the patterns. The way the droplets ran together, merging, splitting. So close, but still the glass protected her from getting wet.
She put her hand on the glass as an idea started to form. She stood in front of the glass, placing both hands and her forehead against it. Her eyes fell closed and her lips turned up in a smile as the idea presented itself in it's simple glory.
She took a few moments, thinking through the solution and remembering what she had read. Step by step, she enacted the plan.
"Draco!" She yelled. Excitement bubbled through her as a possible solution presented itself at last. She raced to the door and opened it. "Draco! Where are you?"
She ran into the entryway as she called out for him.
"What's wrong?" He asked almost frantically from the dining room.
"What? Oh, nothing! Nothing is wrong." She went to him and threw her arms around his neck.
"Then what are you doing?" He caught her, held her against him for a moment before pulling back. "You shouldn't be out here."
"I don't care about that," she said with a grin. "I've got it. Come here. I'll show you."
She grabbed his hand and pulled him back to the conservatory. He hesitated and she knew why.
"Come on." She urged him to keep following her into the typically abandoned room.
She went to the window where she had been standing and smiled as she looked back and forth from him to the window.
"Do you see it?" She asked excitedly.
"Do I see what?" His brow furrowed.
"The solution! Look!" She stepped up to the window and put both hands on the glass. She could see his reflection in the glass next to her.
"Don't give me that look," she said. "I have not lost the plot. Not yet anyway. Look."
She traced a rain droplet as it made its way down the pane. Then it was joined by another, and another.
"It starts with one. One leads to two, or three, or four. Until they all mix together, unrecognizable." She looked at him to see a look of confusion looking back at her. "Out there, it is chaos. In here, on this side of the glass, it is dry."
"That is kind of the whole point to having windows," he said sarcastically.
"Exactly!" She exclaimed. She beamed as she faced him.
He blinked several times, sighed, and ran his hand over his face. For a moment she could see his weariness. For two days he had been her rock, her calm in the storm within her mind. He had done it on his own and it was taking a toll.
She put her hands on his chest and slid them up around his neck.
"Draco," she said gently. "I know this can't be easy on you. Don't give up on me yet."
His hands slid around her waist and he pulled her in closer, sighing deeply.
"Never," he told her. "We are tempting fate right now, though. I should go."
He started to walk away.
"Malfoy, wait! It's a metaphor." She grabbed his arm and turned him back towards the window. "See? The storm is the curse. To protect myself, I need a window. A partition."
She watched his reflection. She knew exactly when he understood.
"A memory partition." He said. "That's what the healer called it."
"Yes." She nodded in agreement.
He turned around to face her.
"We stopped looking for the directions. I'll go get the books."
"That isn't necessary," she told him. The smile on her face was making her cheeks hurt. "It was in the occulemency book you gave me yesterday. I read about it last night. I just didn't connect the dots. It said it was to protect your memories from outside interference, but why not use it to protect the rest of my mind from those memories?"
He tilted his head as he appraised her.
"What are you saying?" He asked cautiously.
"I'm saying I closed the window, Draco. The rain can't get in anymore."
She was bouncing on the balls of her feet and chewing on her lip in her excitement. She wanted to kiss him, but she needed him to understand first.
Slowly, she could see the comprehension dawning on his face.
"It's permanent?" He asked, taking a small step closer to her.
"Semi-permanent. I can remove it whenever I want. When they are ready to remove the curse."
His eyes were searching hers. Looking for confirmation, maybe?
"What happened after the trial?" He asked. "After you testified for me?"
"The Weasley's and Harry kicked me out. I was homeless for a week. Then you three felt sorry for me and let me stay here with you until NEWT's."
He took another step closer.
"Then?"
"Then I fell in love with the most wonderful wizard in the world." She took a step closer. They were close enough to touch now.
"You remember?" He pushed her hair behind her ears.
"Any memory that I've relived in the last two days, I remember. Everything else is just details." She shrugged her shoulders.
"How sure are you?" He asked.
"One hundred percent," she answered without hesitation. "Don't worry, Malfoy. I've got this."
He searched her eyes again. She could pinpoint the moment he realized she was right.
"Of course you do, you brilliant witch," he muttered as his face finally lit up.
She wasn't sure which one of them moved first, but the next moment they were kissing like they hadn't seen each other in weeks.
He picked her up and spun her around before setting her back on her feet. Then he cupped her face in his hands and searched her eyes again before pulling her in for another searing kiss.
"This has been the longest three days of my life," he told her as he held her tight against his chest.
"Has it only been three days?" She asked with a small laugh.
He sat down in the same chair she had been sitting in earlier. Then he pulled her down to sit across his lap. She laid her head on his shoulder and together they sat and watched the beauty of the rain.
The exertion of the day began to take its toll on her. She felt herself relaxing into him. Her eyes drifted shut.
She wasn't quite asleep yet when she heard the door open and tentative footsteps.
"Is everything alright?" Blaise asked.
"Yes. I think so." Draco took a deep breath and held her a little tighter.
"Still no word from the Minister," Theo said.
She heard chairs being pulled away from the table.
"She didn't know how to break it," Blaise said. "I could tell."
"She is not going anywhere near Hermione until she knows what the fuck she's doing." Theo interjected. "Who knows what could happen if she screws it up?"
Draco shook his head and held her even tighter.
"I don't even want to think about it." He said.
She didn't want to think about it either. She trusted her own magic. Someone else messing around in her mind, though? Not even a little bit.
"I didn't like her much," she said quietly.
Stunned silence filled the room.
"Should we go?" Blaise asked.
"No, it's fine." Draco told him. "Hermione, why didn't you like the cursebreaker?"
She took a deep breath then opened her eyes.
"When she was in my head, she watched the memory from the Manor three times."
Draco stiffened.
"Three times?" He asked in a low growl.
She nodded her head against his shoulder.
"You said make it stop. You weren't talking about the curse. You wanted her out of your head."
"Wait," Theo said. "The Manor? As in Malfoy Manor?"
"What happened at Malfoy Manor?" Blaise asked.
She rubbed her arm and shuddered. With a deep sigh, she sat forward and placed her arm on the table, palm up.
"Courtesy of Bellatrix LeStrange," she said.
Blaise and Theo both looked at her arm. For the first time, they saw the scars that remained and formed the crooked letters "MUDBLOOD".
"I'm going to kill her," Draco seethed.
"No, you are not," she admonished. "I am not going to Azkaban over that witch, and neither are you. I will tell Kingsley what she did and he can decide what to do from there. She most certainly will not be entering my mind again."
"We'll find another curse breaker." Theo said. "Which reminds me, how are we having this conversation right now? Did I miss something?"
"I have the curse contained. So we have time to find someone else to break the curse." Hermione smiled at him.
"About damn time you figured it out, Granger," Theo rolled his eyes. "Do you have any idea how exhausting it was chasing you from memory to memory?"
"Shut up, Nott," she laughed. She leaned back against Draco again, content to just be in his arms and surrounded by people that care about her.
"I'm not kidding. You broke my nose!" Theo grinned at her, just glad that she seemed to be back to normal again.
"I did not, did I?" Her hands came up to cover her mouth. Her eyes wide in shock. She did not remember doing that! But then she did. In the library. He had blood running down his face. "Oh Merlin, I did. I am so sorry, Theo."
"No worries. Draco healed it for me." He winked at her.
"Now you just have to break Blaise' nose so we'll all match." Draco chuckled.
"That's okay, Granger. You really don't have to do that." Blaise shot back and they all laughed.
She let her eyes close again and listened to the rain on the glass. A few moments later, the floo alarm sounded. Theo's elf, Murkey, led the Minister into the conservatory.
"Gentlemen," he greeted. "Is she asleep?"
"No," she answered quietly. Her eyes blinked open and she yawned.
"Minister," she sat up and stretched, rubbing at her eyes.
"Sorry," she laughed. "I am exhausted."
"Miss Granger? Are you feeling better?" He asked cautiously.
"I am. I would like to thank you for helping us. For helping me. Please, have a seat." She motioned to the remaining chair at the table.
"I am glad to hear you are feeling better. Would you like to fill me in?" He took the offered chair, but was watching her suspiciously.
"I used a memory partition to lock away the curse and the memories associated with it." She shrugged her shoulders and pushed her hair behind her ears. "It will hold until we find a curse breaker that can remove it."
"That's very impressive," he said with a nod. "That's actually why I'm here, though. Miss Giles is ready to remove the curse. She has a control room and two of her colleagues ready to help."
"No." She said simply.
"No? What do you mean, no?" Shacklebolt looked at her incredulously.
"Minister," Draco answered for her. "Are you aware that Hermione was captured and tortured during the war?"
"Yes, Mr. Malfoy. I am aware." Shacklebolt's eyes hardened. "I believe you were there to witness it when it happened."
"I was." He admitted. "Seeing it once was horrifying."
"I can only imagine." The Minister responded. "What does this have to do with removing that nasty curse, though?"
"When that woman was in my head, she watched that memory over and over again." Hermione told him. "She made me relive it, on purpose, three times."
Minister Shacklebolt sat back in his chair, speechless.
"I had no idea." He told them after a long moment. He sighed, then stood. "Very well. I will have the incident investigated. In the meantime, it seems the urgency of the situation has passed. We will begin looking for someone else."
"Thank you again, Kingsley. For everything." Hermione told him as he walked away.
"You're welcome." He replied. "Oh, and I almost forgot. Miss Parkinson has been apprehended. She is in custody."
She relaxed a little further into Draco's shoulder knowing that the witch that had done this to her was being held accountable.
After the Minister left, Draco convinced her to lie down for a little while. She was truly exhausted, so it didn't take much coercing on his part.
She curled up in her bed while the three Slytherins sat in her sitting room. They were watching over her, just in case she lost control of her thoughts again. Her exhaustion finally overtook her and she fell into a thankfully dreamless sleep.
AN: Finally, Hermione catches a break!
Until next week.
-mezy