Understanding

Disclaimer – Everything that is familiar belongs to J K Rowling and Warner Bros. and so on. The plot however, is all mine.

                    The Ford Focus belongs, unsurprisingly, to Ford.

This chapter is longer than the last couple, dedicated to those of you who asked for longer chapters. Enjoy!

Chapter 7 – Draco Dormiens Nunquam Tittilandus!

We stood in the middle of the floor, holding on to each other for what seemed like an eternity, my head resting against his neck, his head buried in my hair. I began to sob softly, shaking in his arms, for no other reason than sheer relief.

'What's wrong, Hermione?' He held me by my shoulders, so he could look into my eyes.

'Nothing….It's just….I was so frightened for you. I don't think I'm ready for this.' I looked at the floor. I was ashamed to admit it, but tonight had just been too much for me. He led me over to a sofa, and we sat down.

'Do you want to know something? I've never thought I was ready for what I have to do. I don't think I'll ever be ready. It can be so hard. But you've got to be strong. The Department of Mysteries needs someone as valuable as you.'

'I don't think I'm strong enough. I just went to pieces when you left. And there's nothing I can offer to the DoM that you yourself can't offer.'

'Do you want me to be honest?' He whispered, as if afraid someone else might hear him. 'I need you here. If only because you care, I need you. For years now, when I really needed someone, there was no one there, at least no one who could understand, no one who cared. You've given me such strength tonight, you really have.' He was looking at the floor. My heart was melting at how honest he was being. I knew how hard it was for him to say how he felt about anything, and he looked so self-conscious. I was blown away by how different this man was from the man I had thought he was. He looked so utterly beautiful, sitting there, staring at the floor, silky black hair shielding his eyes. All I wanted to do was gather him into a big hug. I restrained myself though, thinking he'd probably think I really had gone mad. I settled for softly covering his hand with mine.

'I'm lucky that I'm such a high ranked Death Eater really. God only knows what horrific tasks I'd have to perform if I wasn't. It's not what I have to do, that's not so bad. It's just an overwhelming feeling of cold that spreads over me whenever I'm in the presence of these monsters. It takes over me. You can't possibly know what it's like unless you've been there. And now, after so many years of being more or less alone afterwards, you can't imagine how it feels when there's someone waiting for me, someone who understands. I really can't thank you enough. You probably think I'm completely mad, but being so alone can get to you sometimes, even a greasy git like me.' I looked up when he said this last sentence, surprised to see that he was smirking at me, his face completely unguarded, as I had never seen him before. I smiled at him, and rested my head comfortably against his shoulder.

'Thank you.' I leant up and kissed him lightly on the cheek. 'You're not so bad yourself.'

* * * *

The following week passed without any great incidence. We got on well with one another in between working hard on the potion. However, after seven days of solid potion-brewing, I was feeling very trapped in this musty old muggle pub, so I was surprisingly glad when I discovered that we were in need of the Draconite shortly, which was illegal in the wizarding world, so was not available in even the seediest apothecary in Knockturn Alley. We would have to obtain it ourselves. Severus had obtained information from Hagrid on the current location of a number of dragons in Britain, so we decided we would go the next day. For some reason that was absolutely nothing to do with me, it had been decided that we would reach the Dragon caves in Wales by a muggle hire car. I couldn't see why we couldn't just apparate, but I supposed that the best decision had been made, so I didn't question it. However, I had passed my driving test in the muggle world the previous summer, and Severus could not drive, so it would have to be me transporting us through the winding hills of North Wales.

On the morning in question, I awoke bright and early and dressed in jeans and a jumper, since it looked quite cloudy outside. I wandered into the lab to check on the potion, which seemed just right in its 48 hour resting period. It was 7:30, the hire car place didn't open until 8, so I helped myself to the toast that had appeared on the table and sat back on the sofa to wait for Severus. He appeared in a few minutes, dressed incognito in faded blue jeans and a black wool jumper, and grabbed a slice of toast and a mug of black coffee.

'Good morning. Are you ready?' He asked, draining half of the coffee in one go.

'Yup.' I answered chirpily, gathering up my driving licence.

'All right then, lets go.' He drained the rest of his coffee. 'Come here.' I walked over to him and he wrapped his arms around my middle. He was apparating both of us to make sure we went to the same place. I relaxed against him and saw a whirl of colours rushing past us, although it didn't feel like we were moving at all, unlike with floo powder and portkeys. We came to a stop on the ground, and let go of one another. We were in a deserted car park, behind a brick wall so that the people on the road which seemed to be on the other side of the wall couldn't see us. Without word, I followed him out of the car park, across the busy street to a car hire shop. We both went in, I showed my driving licence and handed over a deposit and minutes later we headed out again with a set of car keys.

We climbed into a shiny red Ford Focus, and I adjusted the mirrors, while Severus fiddled with the radio, turning it to full volume and flicking through the various stations. I turned the key and started the engine, and we got on our way. I hadn't driven an awful lot since I'd passed my test, and I was relatively inexperienced, so it would be quite a challenge to drive through the twisting roads of the Welsh hills. Luckily, it was less than a hundred miles from where we were, so we set off down the road during morning rush hour.

We drove along for miles, more or less in silence. Traffic blocked the roads but before long we were in Wales, where the roads stretched into the distance, with no cars in sight. After an hour and a half, we were climbing a steady incline when Severus told me to pull over, in what seemed to be a tourist view point, halfway into the hills. I parked and we got out and stretched our legs. To our right was a metre high metal railing, about 25 metres long. I stepped over to admire the view. Below the railing was a sheer drop into a valley. Tiny houses with puffs of smoke from their chimneys were dotted around, like a model village, and beyond, some twenty miles in the distance, lay the Irish Sea. The wind whipped into my face, scouring my eyes, so I faced away from it, back to where Severus was rummaging in a leather bag he had brought along. He located a green glass vial, which he slipped into his pocket, then he slung the bag over his shoulder and looked back at me, his shiny hair dancing around like black flames in a roaring fire.

'Ready?' He asked, hair still flying around madly.

'Ready as I'll ever be. I think you could do with a hat.' I grinned at him. I had sensibly tied my hair up today.

'You could be right.' He had turned slightly and now his hair was blowing into his eyes and mouth. I noticed that I had a spare hair band around my wrist, so I took it off and handed it to him. He stared at it, looking revolted at the very idea. Of course, the hair band had two large, pink glass flowers attached to it, so I think that may have been the problem, looking back. I thought for a moment how funny we must look, standing half way up a wind swept Welsh mountain, me now laughing my head off, and Severus standing dumbstruck, staring with disgust at a pink flowery hair band in his hand. I closed my eyes to try and get rid of the image in front of me, only to find the same image, seemingly burnt into my eyelids, staring back at me. I opened my eyes again, to find that Severus had recovered and had now roughly pulled his hair back with the band, an evil look on his face, as if to suggest I had done all of this on purpose. I was still laughing as we got going, off the footpaths and onto bare, jagged rock.

Thankfully, the place where we were climbing was sheltered from the wind. If it hadn't been we would almost certainly have been swept into the valley below. After a while we came to a flat space of moss covered rock, and a fissure in the rock was visible about twenty metres away. Judging by the scorch marks on the moss around this cave, we would find the dragon in there.

'Stay here for a moment.' Severus told me quietly.

'Be careful.' I whispered back. He tiptoed around to where the cave was and peered in. Then he took the vial from his jeans pocket, swung his arm back and threw it in, before racing back to me as quickly and as quietly as possible, dragging me down behind a large rock. We sat there, squeezed into a small gap. It was really quite cosy.

'It was asleep.' He told me in a whisper. 'I threw in a strong sleeping draught. It should take ten minutes to take effect.' I nodded, and leaned back to wait. I didn't fail to notice that he kept his arm wrapped tightly around me as we sat and waited in silence. Around ten minutes later, we got up, dusted ourselves down and made our way to the cave. Slumped on the floor at the back of it was a huge Welsh Green, as big or even bigger than the one I had seen guarding the Department of Mysteries just over a week ago. It seemed dead to the world, so we approached it quietly. Severus seemed to know what to do, pulling his wand out from the sleeve of his jumper and transfiguring a rock into a small, sharp knife.

He knelt by the dragon's enormous head, steering clear of his nostrils which were emitting thick black smoke. He made a cut on the top of its head, then another across the first, in the shape of a cross. There was no blood. Inside the cut flaps of skin was a gleaming black gem stone, which lit up with flecks of emerald green as the light hit it. Severus picked up the stone, which was only about 3cm in diameter, but seemed to weigh an awful lot by the way he was struggling to lift it. He opened the bag slung across his shoulder and placed the stone in it. Then he took his wand and quickly healed the gaping hole in the Welsh Green's head.

'Dragons aren't so bad really, are they?' He said quietly, tickling it behind its ear. It shifted slightly in sleep, and we stood motionless for a moment, making sure it wasn't going to wake up. Then Severus nodded to me and we made our way to the open mouth of the cave.

I let out a sigh of relief as I exited the cave, but it was too soon to be relieved. I took one last look back at the sleeping dragon, immediately registering that it was asleep no longer. It was rearing up behind Severus, who was following me out of the cave and hadn't looked back.

'Sssseverus.' My voice shook as I tried to regain my speech. He was looking at me, smiling, he had not seen the dragon, and I couldn't get the words out of my mouth. 'The…the dddragon….behind you. Quick, move!' I screamed, regaining my voice at last. He turned at last and saw the immense dragon, rearing on its hind legs, its vast wings unfurling as we looked on in shock. Suddenly we both made a move for it, and at my last glance I saw what neither of us had seen before. Behind the dragon lay a massive pile of eggs, there must have been over a hundred of them, obscured by the dragon's bulk before, but now visible between her hind legs. I spun round and ran across the rocks. Rain was beginning to fall from the sky now, and the rocks were treacherously slippy. I ignored my feet sliding around on the rocks below me, and ran.

I had gone barely ten metres when I heard a yell of pain behind me. I stopped still and turned round. Severus was on his knees just out of the cave, his right arm horribly burnt. The bag with the draconite stone in it had slipped from his shoulder and lay perilously near to the sheer drop. I ran over to him, hearing the dragon roar, but knowing she wouldn't leave her eggs now we had left the cave. I grabbed the bag seconds before it would fall, its considerable weight taking me by surprise. With some effort I put the bag on my shoulder and took hold of his left arm, helping him up. The burn on his arm looked nasty, and neither of us had though to bring along any burn-healing potion. He glanced back at the cave, then back at me.

'It's okay. She won't come out. She's a nesting mother, I saw her pile of eggs. I thought you said that was a strong sleeping potion?' I said calmly, taking charge of the situation.

'Strong for humans. Obviously not strong for dragons.' He said with a raised eyebrow. We both started laughing, and set off more carefully this time, back to the car after some debate over who would carry the bag. Severus insisted that he carry it, which was a bit of a joke, since he obviously couldn't. When we reached the car, we were laughing and joking over our 'adventure', with the relief of both of us escaping alive and in (almost) one piece. I put the bag into the boot and we climbed in. I had to help him into his seatbelt, which was a difficult enough contraption for a wizard already, without the added barrier of only having one usable arm. Once we were settled in I started the engine and we drove off.

Severus fell soundly asleep on the way home, his hair spilling out from the pink hair band and the strands clouding around his face. I drove on in silence and didn't wake him up until we came to a stop in the car park of the car hire shop. We got the car checked out for any damage and made our way to a safe place to apparate from. We decided that I would apparate us this time, so I found us a spot behind a high brick wall and wrapped my arm around his waist. He put his left arm around me and seconds later we were standing in the centre of the upstairs lab inside The Hanged Man.

'Right, I think you need a potion for that arm.' I said. I went about preparing a basic burn potion, which we had learnt in sixth Potions. Severus lay down on the sofa, his burnt arm resting across his middle, and went to sleep. The potion was ready in under an hour, and I left it to cool while I ate some sandwiches and drank tea. When the potion was cool, I conjured a stool and sat next to Severus. I picked up the bowl of the potion in one hand and his arm in the other, and gently began to apply the thick potion to his arm. He remained sleeping peacefully throughout. I thought he probably hadn't had a lot of sleep recently, what with flying off around the Riddle House as an eagle every night, so I tried my best not to disturb him. When I had finished I laid his arm back across his middle, the burn marks now beginning to disappear. He opened his eyes sleepily, then smiled the most handsome smile I have ever seen at me, before closing his eyes and going to sleep again. It was late now, and dark outside. I went to my room and picked up a couple of blankets and a pillow from on top of the wardrobe. I laid the pillow beneath his head and covered him with the two blankets. Then I kissed him softly on the forehead and went off to bed.

A/N

A big bag of sherbet lemons and a chocolate frog to marina, Luna Writer, choco-tsubasa, becka and ChishionoTenshi, who took the time out to review! Thank you!

Thank you to every one else for reading!