June 10th, 2003
Tiptoeing into the darkened kitchen, Hermione flicked on the light under the cabinets. Her stomach had been growling since midnight, and after tossing and turning for what felt like hours, she had decided it was officially time to raid the kitchen.
She munched on a plate of stale cookies while some milk came to a boil on the stovetop. She gasped as she flipped the book she'd left on the counter and noticed the edge had been dog-eared.
"What kind of uncivilised heathen—" she mumbled to herself.
"You wouldn't be talking ill of Potter and Weasel behind their backs now, would you?"
With a yelp, Hermione quite nearly jumped out of her skin at the very sudden proximity of her blond roomate.
"Of course not." Hermione sent him a withering sneer. "I was talking about you. Why do you insist on ruining my things?"
"Ruining?" He arched an eyebrow at her. "Don't be dramatic. Now, do tell, what are you whipping up at this ungodly hour?"
"I am making a cup of hot chocolate for myself. I am making you nothing. Although, I might decide to gift you a bump on the head if you don't stop irritating me at all hours of the night."
The dance between them had become routine over the past weeks. Something would bring them both into the kitchen at their witching hour, which hovered around two o'clock in the morning. Their late-night interactions were mostly brief and uneventful, save a nasty thunderstorm the week prior that had left Hermione in a ball of nerves on the sofa. Draco had quietly taken a seat next to her on the armchair and, without prompting, turned a movie up blaringly loud in an attempt to drown out the rain.
"Come off it, Granger. Can't you just make me a cup? I'm withering away under your tender care. I've lost so much weight I look nearly pubscent."
Hermione chuckled to herself as she poured the steaming milk into her mug and then proceeded to stir in the chocolate powder. "Do you really think a single cup of hot chocolate is going to pudge you up again?"
Draco's eyes narrowed dangerously thin. "Pudge?" His lips wrapped around the world like a curse. "Take that back."
Cradling the mug to her mouth and inhaling deeply, she finally conceded with a roll of her eyes. "I guess you can use my leftover milk."
"How generous of you," he mocked, his lips twisting into a sneer as she found a seat on the sofa with her now-damaged book.
She waved him off with a dismissive hand. "Don't mention it."
After some shuffling in the kitchen, Draco joined her in the sitting room, a half-drank cup of hot chocolate resting on his knee as he watched her. "No sleep again tonight, Granger?"
"Do I ever?"
"Why don't you take that Dreamless Sleep you're always trying to shove down my throat?"
Hermione's eyes tightened just slightly, but before she remarked on it, she shook her curls out and wrapped the throw blanket around her legs.
"Oh, come on now. Don't be like that. I thought we were friends." His sock clad toe reached over and nudged her foot, and she nearly growled at him.
"Why don't you take it?" she asked, her voice clipped and lips pursed tightly.
"I told you already: it reminds me too much of death. Sometimes after I take some, it's weird… I'm lucid but I can't wake myself. It feels like it goes on forever," Draco's brow furrowed and Hermione's breath caught in throat, sobered my his confession.
She squinted as she watched him the darkness, his eyes trained on some invisible point, lost in a memory she'd never know about it.
Hermione sucked in a sharp breath before beginning. "The same for me. I get trapped in dreams and more often than not, they aren't pleasant ones."
"I can hear your nightmares you know." His voice was low in the dim room, and she could feel his words against her skin.
"I can hear yours too." She didn't lift her eyes from the book in her lap, but she didn't read anything either. They sat together on for a long time, long enough that she drifted off with the mug in her hands and the book tipped on the floor.
Too soon, the sunrise broke through the windows, and she jolted awake. Her book was missing from her chest, and something warm and unfamiliar bloomed in chest as she spotted Malfoy unfurled in the arm chair, his head lolled to the side, a soft snore leaving his lips.
She sat up, stretching the sleep from her spine, and she froze, a smile playing at the corners of her mouth when she saw her book had been placed on the coffee table, a bookmark where she had fallen asleep instead of a dog-eared page.
June 12th, 2003
Hermione had a book propped up against a particularly long stem of Hailey's Root. Her hair was piled messily on the crown of her head, and she was wearing her – possibly too short – denim shorts that seemed to always accompany her into the garden these days.
According to this particular book, the Chinese Chomping Cabbage needed to be planted in midday sun and no closer or further than exactly six inches apart. Their roots were meant to intertwine and give strength to the lot.
Digging the holes wasn't necessarily strenuous work, but it was tedious and with a sigh, she dragged the back of her soiled hand along her forehead. After several hours she had twenty-five identical plots for the cabbage seedlings, and one by one, she deposited a single seed and covered it with the surrounding dirt.
As she sifted the damp soil between her fingers, her body tensed, and she clenched her eyelids shut as a visceral memory played out. She could see Lavender's blonde tresses mixed in the dirt, her lifeless eyes never again blinking.
"Hermione!" A familiar voice broke through, and although her heart raced dangerously in her ribcage, she managed a smile as Neville rounded the corner of the house wearing a giant grin and a large canvas tote slung over one arm.
"Neville." She grinned and pushed up off her knees, running into his arms and squeezing him breathless. It was rare that her friends visited her when they weren't bleeding out. "How are you?"
"We're hanging in there." He hugged her tightly before placing her back on the ground.
Hermione's eyes darted towards the screen door that led back into the cottage, and her throat tightened. She wasn't sure if Neville was cleared to know that Draco was staying here, but it seemed a problematic situation that could be avoided as long as a certain blond stayed hidden from sight.
Hermione's eyes flashed back to her friend, and she smiled up at him. "So tell me, what do I owe the pleasure?"
"Garden supplies." He proffered the tote to her and she took it happily, even as it crashed to the earth from the sheer weight of its contents. "Although, it seems you're doing brilliantly without any help from me."
"Ah, I assure you it is only because of you." Hermione knelt to inspect the contents: seedling packets and a few bulbs. Vials, two new mortar and pestles, tools for digging, and at the bottom, she nearly gasped as she snatched up the labeled containers. "Powdered Unicorn horn? Moonstone? Neville," she breathed, her eyes wide in awe. "How on earth did you manage—"
"I wish I could take the credit, but I'm just the delivery boy. Ron procured them during a raid and said to make sure you make yourself Draught of Peace with those." Neville pointed to the rare ingredients in her palm and she felt a tear slide from the corner of her eye.
"Tell Ron I'll try," she sniffed. Her friend's unending thoughtfulness filled an empty space inside of her, and although there was no way she'd use the draught for herself, the gesture was enough to bring her a semblance of peace. "Can you stay for lunch? I'm almost finished here, and I don't mind whipping us something up."
"Wish I could, but there's a brief happening soon about our mission tonight."
Hermione stiffened next to him, and her eyes studied his face, searching in vain for a clue about what they would be doing. "Nothing too dangerous, I hope."
"Of course not! When do we ever do anything dangerous?" He nudged her playfully with his elbow. "So enjoy the supplies, and Professor Sprout said she was gathering some stuff for you as well – we'll make sure that makes it up here as well."
"Brilliant. I was just getting the Chomping Cabbage in the dirt, and I'm hoping they take; I've read they are quite fickle."
"Ah, brewing Skele-gro, I take it? And yes, quite fickle. Water them constantly until they flower – even at night. Do you want a charm for it?"
She shook her head and turned towards her sprawling plot of earth, levying a deep sigh. "I think I'll do it by hand. It's good for me."
"That it is." He slung his arm over her shoulder and gave her a tight squeeze. "I'll see you soon, Hermione. I'll try to manage a longer visit next time."
Hermione loved Neville's easy charm, and as he retreated back towards the front of the house, she called out after him. "Be safe!" A warning and a prayer.
"Always am!" He called back with a grin.
While tending to the cabbage that night, she gasped when a hysterical shriek cut through the silence of the night. It wouldn't be illogical for her to have imagined it, and she stared at the full moon for a few counts, waiting for something to tell her it existed only her mind.
Her eyes fluttered closed, and when a matching yell pierced through her, the watering can clattered to her feet, and she sprinted towards the front of the house. Her eyes darted around the scene in front of her, unable to make sense of it all.
Luna was back, her brow dripping blood and her eyes wide and frantic. She stumbled forward, and with the help of Ron, they shouldered the weight of a man, unconscious between them.
"'Mione!" Ron shouted from the lawn, and Hermione rushed to Luna's side, taking the weight from her, and when Hermione's eyes washed over the man propped between them, she felt herself go weak. "He's been hit. We don't know with what. There are dozens more, and we can't bring them here because of…" Ron's eyes flickered to the front door, non-verbally acknowledging Malfoy inside. "But we need to you be with Neville."
"Of course," Hermione reassured him as they rushed in the front door. Her eyes darted around the room, and she heaved a sigh of relief when she confirmed that Draco was still hidden in his room.
Luna rushed behind them, and when Neville was placed on the kitchen table, she pushed the hair from his eyes, her fingers leaving a wet trail of warm blood in their wake.
"Nev… Neville…" Luna's hovered over him, her worried brow low over her pale eyes, and she placed a hard kiss on his mouth, tears falling from her face onto his. "Can you hear me? You come back to me, Neville Longbottom. Okay? You don't get to leave me here."
Hermione heart fissured as she watched her normally calm and cool-headed friend weep over the man on the table, and Ron rested his hands on Luna's quivering shoulders.
"Luna, we've got to go back. Other people need you." Ron's voice was low, and Hermione's throat tightened. "Hermione will take care of him. Won't you 'Mione?"
"Of course, I will. Luna, I promise. I'll do everything I can."
"Not yet!" Luna screamed over her shoulder and laid her blonde head on his chest, her eyes clenching shut as she strained to hear his heart beating.
"Luna. It's an order." Ron's commanded, and Luna let out a final sob before kissing Neville one more time. "Get the rest of them out of there, but don't bring anyone here if you can help it. Try Grimmauld and the other safe houses first. Understood?"
Luna stepped back, her spirit shattered as she ripped herself from Neville's side, refusing to meet Ron's eyes, and she sprinted out the front door.
"It was a shit show, Hermione." Ron dragged her into his arms and squeezed her tightly. "But we took it. We took Malfoy Manor."
Hermione gasped and pushed him back, her heart soaring. "What?"
Malfoy Manor had been long considered Voldemort's headquarters; it was impenetrable. Hermione stiffened when Draco appeared over Ron's shoulder, moving from the shadows of his room.
"My parents?" Draco's jaw was set, and Ron let go of Hermione and turned to face Malfoy, a grim set to his mouth.
"They weren't there. I'm sorry, Malfoy, but we've got a dungeon full of new prisoners; one of them will know something. I'm going to find them. Alright?"
"Right. What's wrong with Longbottom?" Draco's jaw was set fiercely as he stepped up to the table and stared down at the unconscious wizard.
"I don't know. Figure it out guys; we need him. I'll be back." In a moment of familiarity, he reached over to Hermione, cradled the back of her head, and pulled her into his embrace again, placing a firm kiss on her forehead. Draco's gaze avoided the intimate moment, keeping his eyes trained on Neville and pulling his wand out to assess him.
As Ron rushed from the room, Hermione shook herself into action and stood next to Draco.
"He didn't know what happened?" Draco asked out of the corner of his mouth.
"They rarely do, unfortunately."
With a soft hand, Draco lifted Neville's eyelids and inspected him more closely. "Look: his pupils. Dilated and the blood vessels have burst. I can guarantee Cruciatus, but that's not all. He looks like he was fucking blasted into a wall. Diffindo, maybe?"
Hermione placed her hands on his chest, wand trapped between them, and cast Injuriam Revelare.
Slowly, Hermione's magic poured through his body, only hesitating when two-thirds down his spine. The light swelled around an area her magic wouldn't touch.
"Shit," she cursed under her breath, her eyes shooting open. "It's his spine. I don't know… Draco, I don't know what to do." Hermione racked her brain, begging for a spell to appear, but Draco's hands replaced hers, and with a sure voice, he began an incantation.
"Episkey Maxima Totalum," he repeated again and again, until his eyes fluttered closed and he staggered. Hermione wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him to the couch where he collapsed.
"You rest. I'll finish." Hermione watched him warily as his head rested back against the worn cushions of the sofa.
"Don't. It'll drain you, and someone needs to care for him if he wakes. Get the potions ready, and I'd be prepared to stun him, if you can."
Hermione gave a solemn nod and made her way back to Neville. "Oh, and Draco?"
"Hm?"
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it, Granger."
Hermione smiled at him as he rested. Draco Malfoy, surprising her again and again.
A/N: Last update for about a week or so lovies! I'm on vacation! WHOOP WHOOP! I adore all of your reviews, they give me the biggest smiles. Thanks for all your love and support on this rewrite.
Beta love to the one and only Ravenslight.