Wow! That's all I can say. I appreciate so much the kind and warm welcome I've received after restarting this story. There was a worry in my mind that either, no one would be interested in the story anymore, or be irritated that it had taken so long. I only received love. It reminded me how much I love this community.
Thank you.
And I keep my promises, here is an update :)
Disclaimer: I do no own Harry Potter.
The shock Draco felt at being ripped away from Hermione was nothing compared to the shock he felt landing in the drawing room of his childhood home, forced through apparition by his father.
His feet hit the ground and he lost his balance, tripping forward onto his hands and knees. Head and heart pounding, he forced himself to stand and turn to face his capturer.
He was unsure what exactly to expect. Yes, he was still fulfilling a mission for the Dark Lord. However, the last time he had seen his father before the disastrous events of earlier that day had been when he had marked him as deserter. The memory of Lucius Malfoy cutting an X into his dark mark was seared into his mind.
Standing before his father, trying desperately to control his expression, he found nothing more to do over nodding curtly.
Lucius appraised him for a moment, before rushing forward and wrapping his son in his arms.
Whatever Draco had been expecting, it had not been this.
He could not remember the last time his father had hugged him. They had not been a particularly loving family in his childhood, and though he had fond memories of his mother holding him in his arms, his father was always an evasive figure. Tall, proud, shrouded in darkness.
And yet, the man he had once seen smirk and snarl at the most powerful wizards in the world was now holding him like a lifeline.
"Oh Draco," he mumbled, almost tearfully into his son's shoulder. "You brilliant, brilliant boy."
Lost and confused, Draco resorted to standing as stiffly as possible for a few more moments before Lucius finally let him go.
His father stood back, still grasping his shoulders.
"You have saved us all, Draco," he said, the fear that his father's face had worn for years gone. He was elated.
"Father," he said, his mouth dry as sandpaper. "I do not understand what you mean."
Lucius smiled. "You have saved us all because you have delivered us the Princess."
Confusion overtook him. "But…I haven't. You took me back here, not her."
Lucius shook his head. "I could never overpower her. And she cannot be forced, for our purposes."
"I still haven't brought her back."
"But you have," Lucius insisted. "She will come here herself and offer herself before the Dark Lord after seeing what she did today. I am certain"
Draco's mind was spinning, yet he still could not pinpoint his father's meaning. Sensing his confusion, Lucius sighed, showing his first bout of irritation, a much more familiar emotion.
"Draco, my son. She will come to us because we now have you."
His heart stopped. "What do you mean?"
"This is old magic, my boy. It is complicated, and I barely understand it myself, but when Hermione Le Fay threw herself in front of that curse to save you, and it worked, I saw all that I needed to."
Lucius' breathing became erratic, almost frantic, as if the words he was about to utter excited him beyond his wildest dreams.
"She will come because she has chosen you as her Other."
When Hermione finally landed back at number 12 Grimmauld Place, the Headquarters was in an uproar.
In the kitchen, all those who had been on the mission were being frantically treated by Molly and Bill, who must've both just arrived. They were wearing overcoats against the chilly fall weather. Bill's was half hanging off his shoulders as he dabbed ointment against Lupin's forehead, where it seemed Lucius' wand had made an indent. Molly hadn't even bothered taking off her coat. She was flushed red while fussing over Fred, who was cradling what seemed to be a broken arm.
Other Order Members who hadn't been on the mission were there. Kingsley was arguing with Tonks about something, in the distance Hermione could hear Fleur's voice, Mad Eye was staring at Luna with his glass eye as she seemed to be babbling on about something. There was so much noise. So much chaos.
Hermione leaned back until she hit the wall, trying her best not to slide all the way down and collapse. How had this happened? This mission was not supposed to end like this. No mission in a war is necessarily easy or safe, but this… Their entire team had had enemy wands at their throats. They weren't supposed to have even been in that position in the first place. It was almost as if…
It was almost as if they had known.
It hit her like a ton of bricks, and her knees finally buckled. She slid her way to the ground, pulling her legs close to her chest. They had known. The entire mission had been a set up. The Death Eaters knew how much they wanted to save those muggleborns, especially after the botched mission in the late summer. There was a reason that her team had basically no trouble getting into the dungeon and freeing the prisoners.
It was because they were supposed to.
It had all been a set-up, a trap, and the Order had played directly into their hands. Hadn't Draco said there were usually four guards at Malfoy residences? And this time, only two…
Her heart ached at the thought of Draco.
Lucius had him now. The elder Malfoy's actions in the foyer were evident of his feelings towards his deserter son. Draco was now back in the hands of the people who had thrown him mercilessly into a burning building just a month ago. If he wasn't dead already, surely he was being tortured for information about his time at Grimmauld Place.
Her head fell into her hands. All planned. They had played right into the Death Eaters' hands. They hadn't cared about losing the muggleborns in the dungeon. No, what had Lucius said? Sacrifices must be made…
Sacrifices. The Death Eaters had sacrificed their control over seven muggleborns, some high-ranking Order members, giving the Order what they must've known would've been a huge moral boost. The Order had been basically handed what they had been killed over mere months ago. All so that Lucius Malfoy could get them in a room to talk…
That was the reason for everything. The Death Eaters had handed them back their prisoners of war, offered to release everyone without injury, for one thing and one thing only.
Her.
She was what they wanted. And not dead either. They hadn't wanted to kill her to send a message to Harry or destroy hope on her side by killing the Gryffindor Princess. No, they wanted her alive.
Even more so, they wanted her to survive.
Why? She wanted to scream. Lucius had offered her everything she could've wanted in that moment: the safety of her friends and loved ones. He didn't even want her life in return.
He wanted whatever her mark could give them.
Her heart felt like it was short-circuiting. She knew that the mark was powerful, she knew it was old magic, and now she knew it could even shield her against the Avada Kedavra.
And the Death Eaters knew that too.
What did her mark mean? She wondered, not for the first time, but somehow more desperately, with Draco's face imprinted in her mind, the way he had looked disappearing with his father.
She had taken the killing curse for him.
She was broken out of reverie suddenly by a face appearing directly in front of hers. Blaise. He was speaking to her. She watched his mouth moving, but she couldn't hear him.
She couldn't focus on anything but Draco. The sensation she had gotten over the past few weeks had completely disappeared. She couldn't feel him anymore, the way she had known when he was in a room after the magic transfer. The way she had felt him the night that they had spent together. She couldn't feel anything anymore. She felt numb, so completely numb.
"Hermione," Blaise said again, the words finally reaching her. She looked up and met his eyes. He looked concerned. He was kneeling in front of her where she had collapsed on the kitchen floor, holding his hand out to help her up. It took her a moment to understand that the hand was there to help, and she reached out and took it.
Lifting her to her feet, he finally asked the question haunting her.
"Where's Draco?"
She shook her head. She couldn't form the words yet.
He couldn't just be gone.
Why was she reacting like this? Her rational side screamed at her. This was Draco Malfoy. Yes, the magic transfer, yes the budding friendship they had developed, yes the sex. But why was she shutting down? She felt disassociated from her own body, as if she was floating above reality, unable to pierce it.
Something was wrong. Something was missing.
Blaise seemed to gauge what had happened from her reaction. The look that adorned his features, however, was not one of anger, rage, or sadness at his old friend's capture.
No, that was pity.
He reached forward and pulled her into a hug to comfort her, she imagined. However, instead of feeling comfort, she froze. Feeling someone else's skin, even just in a hug, made her feel sick. She pushed back, shocked at her own reaction.
If Blaise was offended, he didn't show it. Instead, he nodded and whispered something that she knew was only for her ears.
"It's because I'm not him."
Before she had a moment to fully process what Blaise had said, he had shepherded her to a chair, seating her at the head of the table. It seemed that, though her comrades were injured, no one was in fatal danger, and the commotion in the kitchen had more to do with the events of the mission than with the possibility of losing someone.
They had lost someone, she thought.
"Attention everyone," said Lupin, seating at the other end of the table. Bill seemed to have healed his forehead well enough for him to lead an Order meeting. Around him, other members of the Order, both from the mission and not, turned to attention.
She looked around. Everyone seemed to be in good enough shape, at the very least. Lupin's forehead was healed, Fred's arm was in a sling, presumably until it could be more properly healed, Luna had a gash on her cheek, Neville looked more tired than anything, and Tonks seemed fine, though her hair was bright red in anger.
As Hermione looked around the group, she began to feel eyes burning into her that she should've been expecting.
She turned to look at Seamus.
Her ex-lover was staring at her with an intensity she hardly recognized on his face. He seemed fine physically, but there was a darkness brewing behind his eyes. Was it anger? Was it arousal? Or was it something else entirely…
She had to physically tear herself away, but she still felt his gaze burning into her.
Lupin sighed at the end of the table, reaching his hand over to his wife. She took it quickly, her hair returning to the normal bubble-gum pink she preferred.
"The good news is that every muggleborn was rescued from the Malfoy Summer House dungeon. They are all upstairs, being tended to by Fleur and Ginny. Given that this was the point of the mission, I think we should all feel very good about it."
"You all should've seen it," Neville burst out suddenly. When all eyes turned to him, he leaned back sheepishly. "It just…Hermione did it. She saved them all."
The eyes of the group shifted again.
Lupin nodded. "I had figured as much. Hermione, what happened?"
She didn't have the voice to speak. She opened her mouth, hoping her words would flow, that her mind would return, that she could pull herself out of the abyss she had fallen into when Draco had been taken away.
Sensing her hesitation, Blaise stepped in. He was still standing behind her chair. She hadn't noticed. "It was brilliant," he said, attracting everyone's attention. Well, everyone except for those eyes that she could still feel burning into her.
Blaise continued. "First, she broke all their chains off. Then she made a portkey out of a rock on the floor. Then, if that wasn't enough, she created an apparition field within the anti-apparation zone, so that the portkey would work."
Hermione didn't need to hear the gasps to feel the shock in the room.
Lupin was staring at her, wide-eyed. "Is that true?"
She nodded, knowing that's all she could do at that moment.
"My god," she heard Molly whisper.
"It has to be coming from the mark," Lupin said, his eyes drifting down to where she was cradling her arm. She hadn't even noticed.
Lupin continued. "Which brings us to the bad news."
Fred interrupted at that point. "They must've known we were coming. There's no other explanation."
"What happened to your lot?" Blaise asked. "We got through to the dungeon with no issues whatsoever."
Fred nearly growled. Hermione started. She hardly ever saw him angry.
"It was a set up," Fred snarled. "The second your team was out of the room, they descended. They must've been disillusioned. They were just all waiting for us in that goddamn foyer. They silenced the room, I guess, so you guys wouldn't have just rushed back. We were all disarmed immediately, and we all got a different Death Eater with their wand at our head."
Lupin nodded. "Then they just waited until you all came back upstairs. We all know now what they were waiting for."
Once again, all eyes turned to her.
She sat up straighter, and using all her energy, managed to utter her first words since returning to Grimmauld Place.
"They were waiting for me. This entire mission was about me. I'm all they wanted."
The words exited her mouth with more force than she had intended, hitting the room like a battering ram.
Bill raised his eyebrow. "Are you sure that's what happened, Hermione? It seems a bit extreme."
He was cut off immediately.
"You weren't there, Bill. You don't know what happened."
Seamus has chosen this moment to jump in.
"I'm sorry, Bill, but I'm with Seamus," said Tonks. "When we were all, well, waiting for the other team to come upstairs, I couldn't figure out what they wanted. They could've killed us all so easily, rid themselves of a bunch of Order Members in a half-second. But they waited because they wanted something, and that something they wanted was Hermione."
Molly spoke up. She was still wearing her outdoor coat. "What did they say to you, Hermione?"
"Lucius Malfoy offered me a deal," she replied dully, her burst of force gone. "Everyone got to leave safely if I agreed to stay."
The gasps from the Order Members who had not been present at the manor did not surprise her, but strangely, they irritated her slightly.
"Merlin, Hermione," Bill said. "You weren't being extreme."
"Speaking of Lucius," Lupin said. "Where's Draco?"
She looked at her old DADA teacher, focusing her eyes on him and refusing to look at Seamus.
"He was taken once he and I had gotten to the tree line. He's gone."
Hearing the words out loud didn't make them hurt any less.
After a beat of silence, a voice spoke out.
"I'm really sorry to hear that," said the kind voice of Luna. "I was starting to like his presence."
Seamus scoffed. "You can't be serious, Luna."
She nodded. "I am. Not to mention, he fought hard for us in that battle. Neville would've been taken down if Draco hadn't helped him."
Neville nodded. "I had to admit it, but that's true. I was outnumbered, and Malfoy really stepped up."
"Come on," Seamus said, exasperated. "His father just tried to trade all our lives for Hermione's. You lot can't be serious."
Before the anger boiling within Hermione had the chance to overflow, Lupin stepped in, giving her the chance to take a breath. Seamus's words had triggered something within her. Something protective.
"His father did that, Seamus, not him," Lupin said, he voice staying even. "The important question, though, is why."
"I think we all know that," Blaise said. "Lucius told us himself."
Lupin nodded. "Which brings us back to the central issue we've been having here lately. What is the mark on Hermione's arm?"
"Old magic," she muttered, looking down at her mark. It was now grey, almost ashen. "Old magic, and something to do with my mother."
"Your mother?" Molly asked, her eyebrows creasing in worry.
"That's what Lucius said."
"What could it have to do with your mother?" Fred asked. "She was a muggle and this is… well, magic."
Hermione shrugged, unsure of what else to do in that moment. "She really liked willow trees. She planted one in our backyard."
Behind her, Blaise shifted slightly.
"What matters is that Lucius obviously knows," Blaise said. Something about his tone didn't sit right with Hermione, making her feel more unsettled than she already did. "And if Lucius knows, Voldemort knows."
"Which is why they wanted her," Neville continued.
"So, it must be important then," Bill said.
"Not just important," Lupin said, his hands clasped tight. "Powerful. They could have just tried to kill Hermione, but they didn't. They wanted her to stay with their side."
"Which means it's something they want to use," Hermione concluded. "They want to use me."
"Of course, they do," Seamus said, his voice bordering on a snarl. "Anything that can block the Killing Curse would be an advantage."
The silence at the table was deafening.
"Sorry," Lupin said, his even voice long gone and shock overtaking his features. "What did it do?"
Hermione, with all eyes on her, suddenly felt quite small. "I hadn't realized anyone had seen."
Seamus shook his head. "I saw it happen."
The implication was clear as the accusation was lain out between them.
Hermione turned away from Seamus, refusing to let him try and punish her in this way, guilting her for that moment with Draco.
It was odd, since it had been a massive moment in the middle of a battle, with many witnesses, but that action of throwing herself in front of the curse for Draco felt private.
A private moment. A momentous private decision.
It felt like a momentous choice she hadn't realized she was making.
And now, without him at her side, she had to tell the group. It felt like bearing her soul.
"It was during the battle," she whispered, but her voice carried. "I had just knocked out Lucius and I…I don't know, I just knew something was wrong. And I turned around just in time to see a Death Eater raise his wand at…at Draco and cast the killing curse."
She took a breath, knowing that the reaction to her next sentence would be damning.
"I don't know what came over me, but I just started running. I pushed him out of the way, turned, and the curse hit me."
"But," Fred started, gawking at her. "Hermione, you're alive."
"I noticed that," she muttered. "It hit my mark and…and it rebounded towards the Death Eater that cast it. The spell killed him."
The silence that followed her statement was suffocating.
"That's why all the Death Eaters were knocked over," Lupin said, wonder evident in his face. "I didn't see the cause, I just saw the outcome."
Hermione nodded. "When the spell rebounded, it took everyone out. Then we ran."
Kingsley spoke, for the first time. She had forgotten he was there.
"We are lucky to have you on our side then, Miss Granger."
A few more moments of silence passed.
"Did you even get a fun token lightning scar?" asked Fred suddenly.
A smirk played at her lips. "Not that I've noticed."
He sighed dramatically. "Then what was even the point."
The tension in the room decreased.
Hermione hugged her arms around her chest. "I'm not sure what any of this means," she said to the group. "I still don't understand the mark, but I feel like I can control it a bit more. And even if I don't know what to do, the mark….it leads me. What happened with Draco, it wasn't a conscious decision. It was like the mark took over my body and knew that I could survive taking the curse for him."
After a second, Seamus scoffed. "Your mark has bloody bad judgement then."
The anger she had felt earlier towards Seamus had somewhat dissipated, but it came back with a vengeance at his words. She glared at him. "I saved everyone's life."
"By laying down your own for him," Seamus retorted, disgusted. "I swear, Hermione. It's like that mark is an infectious disease. It's clouding your mind."
Lupin frowned. "I don't quite think that's fair, Seamus."
"No, Lupin," Hermione said. "This is between Seamus and I. Tell me then, Seamus, what should I be doing, if my judgement is so clouded?"
"You shouldn't be putting yourself at risk for the likes of him!" Seamus said, his voice rising at the same rate as her anger. "Merlin, Hermione, how could you let him get under your skin like this?"
"You have no business saying any of this, Seamus," Hermione said sharply.
"Yes I do, Hermione," he replied. "You took the killing curse for him, for Draco Malfoy of all people. You didn't know that it would rebound. You…you did that…for him."
An image popped into her brain, of another time and another battle. In her mind's eye, she saw a man jump in front of Seamus, taking the killing curse for him. As Dean hit the ground in her memory, as he had in real life, she realized why Seamus was so upset.
She had done for Draco what Dean had done for him.
"Seamus," she said, trying to keep her anger down. "I'm alive. I listened to you today. I didn't take the deal and I could've. I chose not to."
"So, it takes me screaming out in pain for you to listen," he shouted, finally losing it. He stood up and slammed his hands on the table. "Doesn't make me feel good about your mind, Hermione."
"You can't just make things go back to the way things were," Hermione said, knowing deep within her that that's all her wanted. But not just her. Dean. "Yelling at me won't change anything. The mark is a part of me and so is…and Draco is here now."
"Not anymore," Seamus sneered, sitting back down, and leaning towards her. "Your new lover boy got captured today, remember?"
If the dynamics of the conversation hadn't been clear to all at the table already, they certainly were now.
Seamus's words, simultaneously confirming their old relationship and her new one with Draco, hung in the air for a moment that felt like an eternity. She wished so badly that she could snatch the sentence out of the air and bury it deep within her.
However, it had been said and there was nothing more to be done.
Hermione, refusing to turn red or face the rest of the Order Members, kept her eyes locked on Seamus. The man in front of her, shaking and shouting in his chair, this was not the man she had known. This was not the man she had loved, at least in the physical sense of the word, longer than any other partner she had ever had. This was not the man who had held her when she cried over the war, or the man she nursed back to health after he lost his best friend. This was not the man she could've loved, in another place, at another time.
Her feelings of anger disappeared with the realization and all she felt was pity.
"I'm sorry, Seamus," she said, keeping her focus on him. "I'm sorry that you feel this way about Draco and myself."
"You don't deny it," he accused.
"I didn't say anything about that," she said, focusing on her breathing. "I said I'm sorry. And believe me, I am."
She stood up from the table.
"I'm sorry that I was able to do what Dean did and survive," she whispered, not caring if the others heard but knowing the words were just for him. "And I'm sorry that you feel this way about Draco. But that is the extent to which I will apologize for this."
Seamus stared up at her. He had turned ashen.
Was it too much for her to have said? She wasn't sure. However, it was true and she knew that now.
"Dean isn't here anymore," Seamus said, after a moment. His voice broke on every syllable. "And neither is Malfoy."
She shook her head. "No. Dean is gone. Draco is just not here."
"He's probably already dead."
"He's not," Hermione said, knowing as she said the words that they were true. She would know. She would've felt it. That much she was certain of.
"Well, he's still not here."
"Not right now," she conceded, before turning her attention away from Seamus and staring at Lupin.
Her old teacher was watching her with a searching expression, as if trying to read a text he just couldn't seem to grasp. "What is it, Hermione?"
She took a deep breath, her resolve building with every moment. "No, Draco isn't here right now. But he will be."
Lupin raised an eyebrow.
She held her head up high, feeling her strength return as the words formed in her brain.
"I'm going to save him. That's our next mission. The Order of the Phoenix is going to find Draco Malfoy and rescue him."
On her arm, her willow tree mark turned from grey to gold.
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