Comfy. Cosy. Content.
That all rattled away in an instant.
"Wake up, love birds!"
Charlie's cry awoke Hermione and Draco with a startle. His bangs persisted on the door.
"C'mon, you two. Doru's looking for you, mate!"
"Hold your bloody Hippogriffs!" Draco shouted back. He leaned his head on the pillow with a groan. "You'd think he'd spare me one fucking minute when he knows I'm in here with someone."
His easy smile lit up Hermione's morning.
"Or he just wants to make sure you don't miss the big day."
Draco beamed. "Big day indeed."
He gave Hermione a short kiss good morning before he rolled out of bed and pulled on his pants and trousers. Hermione soon followed, but not before she lingered in the sheets to absorb the scent he left behind. A few seconds was all she had, though. According to Draco's estimates, Norberta's eggs were due to hatch before mid-day.
Draco was ready first and started to open the door when Hermione called out for him to close it.
"You can't come in!"
The door shut in Charlie's face and Hermione stared at Draco in disbelief. Not because she wasn't dressed—dressing was easy when her options were limited to the three outfits she had on rotation. The problem was everything else in the room.
She motioned towards their theory board and the gigantic map of the grounds and Draco looked immediately abashed. Clearly his brain took a little bit longer to reach proper functioning levels in the morning. Or maybe he had other things on his mind when he woke up. Like the hatching dragons. Or her.
An involuntary blush pricked her cheeks. Hermione supposed she could forgive Draco for his temporary oversight.
Transferring her coin for Mundungus into today's jeans and snatching her notebook off the desk, Hermione joined Draco at the door and they met Charlie on the opposite side.
"Do I want to know what you two did to that room last night?"
Hermione and Draco exchanged private smiles.
"That's better kept to us," Hermione said.
Charlie Apparated with them back to the sanctuary—Hermione had a feeling he didn't trust they'd actually return without his escort—and they landed outside the grounds' enchantments. All three of them walked through the split in the wards, but instead of guiding them towards the dining hall, Charlie went straight towards the supply shed.
"If you wanted breakfast, you should have woken up earlier," Charlie said when Hermione's mild confusion must have become apparent. "We need to head straight to Norberta. All of us."
Now Hermione was truly confused. "All of us?"
"I secured special permission from Doru for you to witness the hatchings. Couldn't let my little sis miss out on the big event." A knowing glint reflected in Charlie's gaze. "After all, that's the reason you stayed, isn't it? To see the dragons hatch?"
He raised his eyebrow an almost imperceptible amount, but that didn't stop Hermione from rolling her eyes. They both knew that wasn't the reason she stayed. But even if Charlie still didn't know her true purpose for being there, she must admit that Draco turned out to be a good reason to stay, too.
The shed door creaked when Charlie opened it, revealing a single room filled with dragon keeping supplies. Three rows of shelves extended to the back. Standard equipment like gloves, chest plates, and hip pouches were all towards the front, but in the distance, Hermione spotted specialised items: shrunken cages for transport, syringes for potion administration, chains for worst-case situations. Charlie disappeared to the back while Draco retrieved two pairs of gloves.
"We'll both need these today," he said, handing her the second set. "In addition to chest plates and full leg gear."
A small knot formed inside Hermione's stomach. "On a scale from one to Kymis during the Triwizard Tournament, how much fire should I anticipate today?"
Draco laughed. "In all my days at the sanctuary, I have yet to see anything like the spectacle Kymis put on when Potter stole her egg," he said before a frown quickly formed. "Until Norberta the other day." He shook away the brief melancholy. "But as a rule, the dragons know we're here to help. Including Norberta. Heat is a necessary element to the hatching of a baby dragon, so yes, there will be fire, though hopefully all contained this time."
Draco scanned the selection of leg protection options and chose the smallest size for Hermione. A few rungs over, he grabbed the largest ones for himself. Hermione strapped them around her calves and thighs then assessed Draco with a grin, something about this moment so new and yet ever-so-slightly familiar.
"All this talk makes me remember the first time I witnessed a dragon hatching. Which, if I'm not mistaken, was also your first time."
The buckle clicked secure around Draco's thigh. "What about it?"
The memory was fuzzy, over a decade passed since then, and yet certain elements remained as clear as the day they had happened. The jitters in her stomach when Hagrid's note arrived at breakfast. The rush from Herbology between classes to his cabin. The sweltering heat turning the wooden structure into a giant incubator. The cracks, the scrapes, the birth. And most of all, the pale face that watched it all from beyond the tiny window.
It felt like entire lifetimes had passed since then. They were so young, so unaware of the true tribulations life would bring them in the not so distant future. Yet in that moment, nothing in the universe felt more serious.
The thought made Hermione snicker, a relic of easier times, but it was something else about the memory that stood out to her now. Something she had never considered before.
"We were so horrified by the fact that you had caught us that none of us ever paused to think why you had been there."
Draco huffed. "I don't think it's any secret that I made it my personal mission to get Potter expelled that year."
"True," Hermione accepted. She pushed herself to sit on the edge of a counter. "And yet I can't help but note how interesting it is that you spied on us without Crabbe and Goyle flanked on either side—one of the rare times you were ever without them."
Draco froze mid gear attachment, and Hermione knew her suspicions were correct.
A smile pushed up her cheeks as she playfully kicked him on his unprotected knee . "Admit it. You overheard us talking about the dragon hatching, and you came because you wanted to see it too!"
Draco finished buckling the gear and rose up to stare at her with a pale lifted eyebrow. "Whoever said I couldn't have two motives?"
"So I am right!"
Draco tugged the shoulders of Hermione's chest plates and pulled her back onto the ground. "Congratulations, you solved the world's most anticlimactic mystery," he cooly remarked, but his words did nothing to disguise the hint of colour now streaked across his cheeks. With two more tugs, he tightened the straps on either side. "I already told you I wanted to be a dragon keeper when I was younger."
"And jealous little Draco Malfoy didn't want to miss an opportunity to see a real life dragon, even if that meant peering in through the window and having to witness the whole thing from a distance."
He threw one of his gloves at her and Hermione laughed.
"It's not too late for me to uninvite you to the hatching. Show you what it's like to be the outsider and have to find your own way to witness the fun."
Hermione feigned offence. "You wouldn't dare!" She snatched her gloves off the counter and smacked him on the leather chest plate. "Besides, I'd like to see you try. It was Charlie who got me the invite, not you."
"Oh yeah?" Draco smirked. "Then I'll just have to find another way to prevent you from going. Perhaps, a distraction?"
His fingers swept through her hair, eyes tracing downward, and Hermione instantly pressed her lips together. She certainly wasn't going to object to whatever he had in mind. The eggs still had time, right?
His touch was a breeze on her skin. His scent a wisp through her senses. His kiss less than a breath away…
"Oi! Save it for the bedroom!"
An armful of specialised gear clamoured onto the counter next to them as Charlie approached, half amused, half resigned.
"I walked away for two minutes and you can't keep your hands off each other?"
Draco folded his arms. "Need I remind you what I've had to unwillingly witness?"
"Hey, that's not my fault!" Charlie instantly countered. "You're the one who didn't knock."
"And you're the one who didn't lock his cabin door before you and Julia—"
"Rather not know!" Hermione cried out, much to Charlie and Draco's amusement.
"Yeah, well, no snogging in front of the dragon, you hear?" Charlie said before snatching the gear back into his grip. "Now let's get out of here before Doru starts wondering what's taken us so long."
Charlie exited the shed, Draco not far behind, but Hermione pulled him back before he slipped too far away. He turned to her with a dash of confusion, no trace of the distress she'd seen countless other times this week, but still, she needed to check. If this week had taught her anything, it was that Draco Malfoy knew how to build walls to protect himself. But there was no need for walls around her.
"Before we go to the eggs, I— I just needed to make sure you're actually okay this morning," Hermione said, staring straight up at his unblinking gaze. "That this isn't some facade you're putting on."
He inhaled deep, and for a heart-stalling second, Hermione feared she'd read him wrong, but those worries washed away when he took her hand in his.
"The way I see it, I have two options: be sad about the missing egg or be thankful that we still have six to hatch" he said, words calm and even. "I'm working on seeing the positive in things. Not letting harsher realities prevent me from enjoying other moments along the way." He unlocked their fingers and assessed her with a smirk. "Besides, how could I be sad when I have you right in front of me, standing in full dragon keeper gear?"
Her cheeks flushed. "This stuff is so clunky."
"I think it's sexy."
"I FUCKING HEARD THAT."
Charlie pulled the supply shed door shut and Hermione laughed into Draco's shoulder before calling back, "I thought you wanted me and Draco to get together!"
His groan carried through the wood. "Yeah, but that doesn't mean I want to hear things like that."
Charlie Apparated ahead of them, and Draco paused for Hermione.
"Shall we?"
He stretched out his hand, waiting for Hermione to latch on.
It was strange to think how much could change in a few short days. Less than a week ago, the mere idea of Draco voluntarily letting her touch him, even through a glove, was completely foreign. Today, the intertwining of fingers was nowhere sufficient.
It would do for now.
Fingers laced together, the visitor section swirled out of focus, and they landed in the clearing not far from Norberta's cave. Only a couple of days had passed since Hermione had last been to this part of the sanctuary, but already, Hermione found she had missed it. The landscape surrounding the visitor section was, of course, idyllic in all the ways Hermione had dreamed when first organising the trip: lush green as far as the eye could see, with jagged peaks stretching into the sky and sealing them within these confines of nature's paradise. But there was extra magic to this place where the dragons called home. An internal spark at the knowledge that living, breathing dragons roamed and soared through these very trees. As brilliant as these mountains had been at midnight, Hermione adored it all the same during the day.
As they walked closer, the landscape shifted. Wild grass became interspersed with dirt patches, while blackened tree limbs lay scattered across the ground next to the trees that had survived the flames. And there, right ahead, stood Norberta, neck craned tall and proud at the charred mouth of her cave, evidence of a mother dragon's wrath forever scorched into the rock.
Doru was already there, along with a keeper Hermione recognised as one of the Beaters from the Norwegian Ridgeback Quidditch team. They stood off to the side, keeping at least twenty feet between themselves and Norberta's eggs. In front of them, a shield charm hummed.
"About time," Doru said when they stepped onto the rocky terrain leading up to the cave. He gave Hermione a short nod in greeting before directing his attention back to the keepers. "Draco, you'll take lead of the hatching while Charlie casts initial diagnostics on the babies. Make sure that fire never goes out. Sebastian, prepare the brandy and chicken blood mixture for them to drink as soon as the imprinting is complete."
A twist wrenched Hermione's stomach at the reminder that one of Norberta's babies wouldn't be able to imprint on its mother today. That was too late to fix, though. Their priority now lay with the six other dragons about to enter the world.
Hermione remained with Doru behind the shield while the other keepers got into position. After taking a pouch from Doru and attaching it to a belt loop, Draco immediately slipped back into his element, cautioning towards Norberta with both hands lifted above his shoulders. Smoke puffed out Norberta's nostrils. Draco stalled and bent down on one knee.
"It's me, Norberta. We're here to help with your eggs."
Next to her, the remaining six eggs rested in the stone nest. Visible cracks showed on half of them while a fire raged underneath.
More smoke fumed from Norberta. Draco lowered one hand towards his holster and gripped the base of his wand.
"I'm not here to hurt them, I promise," he calmly intoned. "Just the Diagnostic Charm."
Blue wisps curled from its tip as Draco raised his wand. With her full neck fully stretched, Norberta was four times his height, yet Draco held firm, compliant but still in control. A willful partnership in which dragon and keeper recognised each other's strength and their mutual need for one another. But first, Norberta needed to comply.
Stagnant air inflated Hermione's lungs, new breaths unthinkable as they all waited. The world fell silent sans the rustle of leaves through the mid-morning wind. When a gust passed through and Norberta lowered her head down towards Draco, the wind felt like a collective sigh of relief.
"Good girl, Norberta."
The keepers immediately set to work. Draco reached into the pouch and threw Norberta a chunk of raw meat while Charlie cast an Incendio under the eggs, Sebastian conjured a cauldron, and Doru supervised. Small tremors shook the ground as Norberta came out of her cave, jaws snapping at the subsequent pieces of meat that soared her way.
Draco pulled the drawstrings closed and reattached the pouch to a belt loop. "All right, good girl, now let's do those diagnostics."
A cloud of blue mist surrounded Norberta and revealed the charts: heart rate, metabolics, blood levels. All normal. Draco then completed the same process on the eggs, Norberta's stern gaze on him with each motion anywhere in the vicinity of her beloved children. One wrong move and Norberta could burn Draco to crisp. The thought made Hermione's heart stutter. But Draco knew how precarious the situation was, pausing to assess Norberta before every action. The trust they held between one another held strong, and Norberta waited until Draco finished the diagnostics before she stepped fully out of the cave and breathed a new burst of flames beneath the eggs. New cracks appeared. Then, the first break.
"Get ready!" Charlie shouted.
A tug pulled at the back of Hermione's jumper, dragging her back to her original spot.
"Still need to stay back," Doru instructed.
The whole event had her in a trance. Last time, the process happened so quickly. Hagrid had written them before classes with the warning of the impending birth, and they had only been there a couple of minutes before Hermione had witnessed Norberta's own hatching. Then, Norberta had been no larger than a niffler. All sharp angles and crumpled black wings. Now, she was this powerful beast, about to welcome a new generation of little Norwegian Ridgebacks.
A small beak pecked through the black shell and the first egg startled to wobble. All eyes locked on that egg, no one's stare more intense than Norberta's. The wobble increased to full rattles until shards of shell splintered across the ground, revealing the small black creature. Feeble wings extended outward, so thin, sunlight basked through them. The dragon took one step out of its shell, then collapsed, letting out the world's softest roar upon impact. Hermione instinctively lurched forward, but Doru once again pulled her back.
"Can't interfere just yet," Doru explained. "Not until it recognizes Norberta as its mother."
The baby dragon pulled itself upright and turned to where Norberta had lowered to the ground. She released a gentle roar and the baby dragon hobbled forward, tail whipping in excitement as it approached its mother. It was so excited, it stumbled over the edge of the nest and toppled onto the rock below. The baby dragon let out a whimpering cry but mellowed as soon as Norberta nudged it with her stout, a mother's first assurance that she was there to protect her child.
"Remarkable," Hermione heard herself whisper.
Beside her, Doru grinned. "I can assure you, even after over thirty years at this sanctuary, the birthing of a dragon never gets old."
She pulled her attention from the dragons to assess the Head Keeper, admiring the way he observed the scene. For the first time that visit, Hermione saw the way he truly cared for these dragons, just as much as everyone else. After all, something must have kept him at the sanctuary for so long. The week was strenuous for all of them—and most assuredly, the Head Keeper felt the greatest strain when something was wrong. But here, in the joy of this moment, they could forget all that and celebrate the miracle of new life.
One by one, six new dragons entered the world. First came the cracks, then the shaking, then the break. Each one was just as small and feeble as the others, their slender frames covered in brownish-green scales that would shift in colour with age. Norberta made sure every one of her children arrived in the world under her protection. Whenever they fumbled out of the nest, she was always there to greet them with a motherly nudge before guiding the latest dragon towards its siblings. Charlie and Sebastian made sure each dragon was in proper health and received initial nutrients. A caring and efficient process. Yet the longer the process went on, the more and more Hermione found her attention straying.
She should have paid more attention to the hatching dragons, but after the first three, it was a bit repetitive—and it certainly didn't help that her gaze kept wandering towards a certain blond-haired keeper. While Charlie and Sebastian did their part, Draco directed the other keepers, checked the temperature under the nest, reassured Norberta when she appeared on edge. There were moments that the mother dragon seemed ready to remind them of just how powerful she could be—particularly when Sebastian took the first dragon to feed it the brandy and chicken broth mixture—but Draco talked her down.
"They're safe, Norberta. I won't let anyone hurt them."
Hermione knew how earnestly Draco meant every word.
And Merlin save her, she couldn't stop staring at how he looked in the dragon keeper gear. Hermione wasn't blind. Even back at school, Hermione recognised how much more attractive a wizard was when in uniform. It was the primary blame for her unfortunate streak of Quidditch players during her youth. But Draco in head to toe gear, with the study chest plate that accentuated the broadness of his shoulder, the leg shields that covered his muscled thighs, and the dragon hide gloves that only served to remind her of the tattoos hidden underneath, stirred Hermione in a way she had never felt before. A heat flared inside her, rivalled only to the heat Norberta could produce with her flames. It was made infinitely worse whenever Draco looked up and caught her staring, a smirk pulling at his lips each and every time. Amidst it all, one thought became undeniable: Hermione Granger was completely enamoured with Draco Malfoy.
She watched his every movement, entranced by the way Draco commanded control over even the youngest of dragons. Once they had all hatched and were deemed in full health, he retrieved small nuggets of raw meat from his pouch and kneeled onto the grounds so each dragon could take a piece from his palm. They snipped and snapped, eager for their first taste. The baby dragons were all too happy to follow Draco as he reached into his pouch for more pieces, already testing their wings as they flapped up and tried to reach the meat.
Doru lowered the shield and Hermione followed on his heels. He pulled out his copy of the grounds map and spread it out on a large, flat rock.
"All right, who wants to name one first?"
The keepers took turns naming the dragons, each of which Doru followed by casting a Tracking Charm and then tapping the map so the dragon now appeared in ink facsimile. Charlie went first, then Sebastian, followed by Draco and Doru.
"And how about you, Miss Granger?"
Hermione blinked. She hadn't expected to be included. The prospect of naming one of the little dragons, to have some small part of her remain at the sanctuary long after she left, was an offer impossible to turn down.
"Rubeus," she said, naming the last male dragon.
Charlie lit up, and to her delight, Draco showed no signs of disapproval. Even he couldn't deny it was fitting that Hagrid's influence should be commemorated in some way—even if Hagrid had been misguided for attempting to raise his own dragon. Without him, Norberta never would have ended up here.
While Doru completed the magic, Draco drifted behind her. His fingers curled around the slim part of her waist exposed between the chest plates, hands no longer covered by his gloves. Her heart stalled at the proximity, not sure she'd ever get over the way it felt when this wizard touched her.
"You really going to make me work with a dragon named Rubeus?"
Hermione snickered. "I'm sorry, should I have come up with something more pretentious like the name you chose."
"Said the witch named Hermione to the wizard named Draco."
Flutters filled her at her name on his tongue. "And the name Adonis?"
"Just like the sound of it."
Hermione doubted that was all, but she let Draco's lack of real reason linger for now, especially when the soft pad of his fingers distracted her from other thoughts.
His lips brushed the shell of her ear. "I noticed someone couldn't help looking at me earlier."
His whisper sent a shiver down her spine.
"You were staring, too."
"I don't deny it," he said. "I'm a very lucky wizard."
She peered back at him, expecting to find smugness, but all she found was sincerity.
With one dragon left, Doru gave the final honours to Draco. He paused before looking down at Hermione then saying, "Euphrosyne."
Hermione's heart skipped another beat. Neither name Draco had given was a coincidence. She was now sure of it.
Doru cast the final spell on the map then tucked it away. "Very well. Good work everyone. Why don't you all enjoy the rest of the day off? I think we're all deserving of a little break."
Draco didn't wait to be told twice. His hand locked with Hermione's and they Disapparted from Norberta and landed in Draco's cabin. She hardly had time to recognize their new location before he slammed their lips together.
"Charlie told us not to kiss in front of the dragon," he said, "But sweet Salazar, that was difficult."
Firm palms grasped her cheeks and pressed her closer with a desperation that fueled them both. The warmth of his lips spread through her like firewhisky on a crisp winter day. An intoxicating taste that filled her with a pleasant hum and a rush of exhilaration.
She deepened the kiss, and Draco followed in kind, tongue darting out to trace the seam of her lips. The sensation set fire to her blood, amplified even greater when she parted her lips and Draco stroked his tongue against hers. She threaded her fingers through his hair, keeping Draco never more than a breath away. The rest of the world felt distant. All that mattered was this moment right here. Everything else could wait.
His whole body shifted forward, the mere force of his kiss sending her flush against the wall. The bookshelf teetered beside them, wobbling the tombs and rocking the photograph of Draco and his mother. She traced his jaw, feeling the strong muscles as he angled his kiss ever deeper, neither one of them seeming to get enough. It wasn't enough, wouldn't be enough. But if they only had a few days, they had to make the most of it.
Metal clinked between them and Hermione heard the sound of Draco unclasping her chest plate. "As much as I like you in this gear, I can't stop imagining taking it off."
Long, slender fingers slipped the strap from its loop and Draco lifted the chest plate over her shoulder and dropped it onto the floor. His fingers tightened in her hair and he pressed his lips back onto hers, stealing the breath from her lungs. She couldn't put it to proper words, the way he made her feel. Like her whole body had been struck by a Feather Light Charm, chest impossibly airy, feet as if they weren't touching the ground.
He ground into her and Hermione hummed at the contact—his chest plate not the only thing firm against her. Her mind grew dizzy as he kissed up her neck. Heat coiled inside her stomach, close to burning away any other conscious thought, but she had to know. Her curiosity was too strong.
"Those names you gave the dragons." He sucked the sensitive spot below her ear and Hermione's head knocked back in open-mouthed pleasure. "They were both Greek gods and goddesses."
His chuckle tickled her skin. "Why am I not surprised you knew this?"
Large palms slid down her front, spurring a gasp when they trailed past her breasts and settled on the cool skin under her jumper. If he was trying to distract her, it wouldn't work. Mostly. But if he wasn't going to play fair, then neither was she.
Hermione unclasped the buckle across Draco's chest plate and the leather fell to the floor.
"Granger," he growled, two layers of fabric now all that remained between them. Even that was too much.
"Hermione," she corrected, lips brushing over his. "The feminised version of Hermes, messenger to the Greek Gods. Of course I know mythology."
She grasped the hem of his black shirt and tugged it over his shoulders. The sight of his toned chest and tattoo-covered bicep overwhelmed her just as it had the first time she'd seen it.
"And my governess made me memorise half of those myths before I was seven," Draco said, assured grin slipping into place. "Important for a boy in a family who prides itself in naming their children after constellations."
Warm touches slipped under her jumper and Hermione gasped when Draco dipped beneath her bra and found the supple flesh underneath.
"So tell me, Granger. What have you deduced about those names?"
Her mind was a blur. How did he expect her to form conscious thought when he touched her like that? His large hand grasped her breast, covering it entirely with his palm. This would be the death of her. Hermione was sure of it. He pressed and squeezed, and Hermione wanted little more than to know what it felt like for Draco Malfoy to absolutely consume her.
"The— the first one. Adonis," she somehow found the voice to say. "The God of beauty and desire. So beautiful that even Aphrodite lusted after him." She whimpered when he switched to ravishing the other breast. "But that's not why you chose it."
"Oh?"
He ground his hips into her, spurring another wave of heat, but Hermione held strong.
"When Adonis died, Aphrodite pleaded for his life so he spent half the year in the underworld, the other half with her. His return to the mortal world marks the end of winter and the start of spring," she choked out between enveloping touches. "He symbolises Rebirth. A fresh start. Just like the sanctuary has given you."
Draco assessed her with a smirk. "What a clever witch you are. I think that deserves a reward, don't you?"
She didn't have time to answer before Draco peeled off her shirt and unhooked her bra. His lips sealed around her nipple, and Hermione could swear the air grew denser.
He pulled away just long enough to peer up and smirk. "And the second one?"
Hermione managed her answer through panting breaths, mind growing hazier with each lap of his tongue. "Euphrosyne. One— oh Gods— one of the Three Graces. The one in charge— in charge of joy. Of happiness."
She whimpered at his sudden removal, only for Draco to smother the sound with a kiss more ardent than before.
"One dragon for me, another for you."
His words echoed through her like ripples in a fountain as a wished-upon Knut drifted to the bottom. It felt so surreal. All Hermione had hoped for when coming to the sanctuary was a couple of days away from the monotony of her other life. An opportunity to rediscover herself when the days had turned to muddled grey. Yet she somehow found so much more than she bargained for, emotion spreading through her in glimmering waves. She hadn't only brought happiness to Draco; he had brought the same to her.
He took her lip between his teeth and Hermione sunk into the kiss, never wanting it to end. One hand locked with the back of his neck as the other explored downward, trailing over the Ridgeback tattoo then over his firm chest. It should have been illegal the way his bare skin felt beneath her touch. All strong lines and muscled planes. He made a low rumble and rolled into her, arousal just as firm.
"You feel that, Granger?" he growled. "All of that is for you."
Hermione keened into him, desperate to feel him in his entirety, but grew distracted when a piercing heat burned between them. It was unrecognisable at first,but soon became the only thing of importance when she and Draco both realised what it was.
They reached into their pockets at the same time and pulled out matching Galleons. A message blazed on its front.
SS in 10
Draco clenched the coin in his fist, then looked at Hermione with a frustrated groan.
"Consider this a pause, not an end," he said. "I'm not done with you."
Hermione felt her whole body flush. "I'd be disappointed if you were."
He pulled away, and already, Hermione felt the tangible absence of his proximity. Inside her, though, remained a spark at the inherent promise of later—as soon as they learned what Mundungus had to say.
They arrived at the Shooting Star within minutes.
The dingy pub was more crowded than it had been the other night. At least half the tables were filled with witches and wizards of varying degrees of trustworthiness. Hermione and Draco walked past them all. Past the tables and through a back corridor, Draco led Hermione to a locked door marked in Romanian. He knocked three times in successions, paused, then knocked once more. The door clicked open to reveal Mundungus' grubby face, and Hermione worked quickly to cast an Obscuro Charm over his vision before Draco took hold and Apparated to their room at the Dennfyre.
Six feet landed with a simultaneous thud, and Mundungus' hobbled to stay upright.
"Could 'ave fuckin' Splinched me!" he cried. "And wha's up with the blindfold?"
"There's nothing in here that you need to see," Hermione said curtly. "Now what is it that you have to tell us?"
Mundungus frowned, but he complied anyway. "Not so much tell ya but show ya." He reached behind him and pulled a notebook-sized ledger out from underneath his maroon striped suit. "I met with the Potion brewer at the Apothecary tryin' ta find out if 'ey'd gotten any of 'at blood you's been lookin' for but Marty said he ain't got anything from them Brothers."
"And you believed him?" Draco scoffed.
"Use ta do business with him," Mundungus said with a shrug. "So of course I don't trust the bloke. Which is why I made a copy of his ledger when he wasn' lookin'."
Hermione reached out to examine the ledger but Mundungus quickly pulled it away.
"If ya want it, 'at'll cost you a few more Galleons."
Draco and Hermione exchanged aggravated looks, but Hermione was in no mood for playing games. She located her bag and pulled out ten gold coins. It was the best lead they had right now—even if that wasn't saying much.
The coins clinked as they fell into Mundungus' awaiting hand. Only after they were safely tucked in his pocket did he hand over the ledger.
"Fancy doin' business with ya," he started to smugly say, but his sense of accomplishment evaporated when Draco's clipped words filled the room.
"I trust you remember our agreed upon terms of our Binding Vow?"
Hermione blinked at Draco. He hadn't mentioned a Binding Vow to her. But based on the cowardice that replaced Mundungus' expression, he needed little reminding.
"'Aven't said a peep ta anyone. Promise," he affirmed. "Though, uh, now that you mention it, there is somethin' else I 'aven't mentioned yet."
Draco scowled. "Which is?"
"According to a buddy of mine, the Seven Brothers were spotted back in town last night."
"And you didn't lead with that?"
Draco fumed and Hermione had to place her hand over his wand-gripped hold to make sure he didn't do anything rash. The slimy dealer probably knew he'd only get those extra Galleons if he told them the less pressing information first, gambling on how desperate they must be for information.
"Get talking, Mundungus." Sparks flickered from the tip of Draco's wand. "What else are you holding back from us?"
"Nothin', I promise!" Mundungus instantly defended. He threw his hands up in surrender. "It was late, that's all I know. Had to be past midnight since we was drinkin' together 'til then. But 'at's all I know!"
Hermione's insides twisted, no doubt the same regret washing over Draco. If the Seven Brothers had been spotted after midnight, that meant that she and Draco had missed them while hopelessly searching through piles of nothing. If they had only gone to the Shooting Star instead. Or split paths and patrolled Verdell separately. Or—
"We couldn't have known," Draco softly whispered.
Equal frustration was evident in his gaze, but they couldn't change what had already passed. They could only move forward.
Hermione clung to the ledger with one hand, fingers tightly gripped with Draco's with the other. Hopefully, they just acquired one of their missing puzzle pieces.
Draco glared back at Mundungus, eyes as cold as steel. "You can leave now."
The floor creaked beneath him as Draco walked away and Mundungus scrambled.
"Oi, aren't you going to undo this Obscurus Charm?"
Draco scowled. "You're a wizard. Figure that out on your own."
A chill filled the room at Draco's word's and Mundungus clearly knew not to fight Draco. Having already tested enough limits, he Apparated elsewhere, no longer Hermione and Draco's concern.
The departing crack still lingered in Hermione's eardrums before they set straight to work. Hermione kept the ledger close to her chest as she approached their wall of notes, staring straight at the old wanted pictures of the Seven Brothers she had found last night in one of the old newspapers. Most of the faces that stared back were complete strangers, but one of them had a resemblance that Hermione couldn't miss.
"Do you think Tavian knows something?" she asked, staring at the moving image of his deceased brother. "Marjorie made it sound like the Seven Brothers previously approached him for something. Maybe they've been trying for years to get a source inside the sanctuary? He might be able to provide insight to their operations."
Draco's expression soured. "Even if he did, good luck getting Tavian to talk with me. He doesn't trust people who join what he deems 'magic cults.'"
Hermione's heart panged. "But you left the Death Eaters."
"That doesn't change anything," Draco sobered. "I already told you, Granger. Just because I changed my perspective doesn't mean anyone's perspective changed about me. Some people will never see me as anything more than my past."
Her breath caught in her chest. "I hope you know I see you as so much more than that."
A smile returned to his face. "I know you do."
She pushed on her toes to press a kiss to his cheek but grew distracted when an idea came to her.
"Tavian may not like you, but he does like Charlie."
It only took half a second for a twinkle to form in Draco's gaze. "And just what great plan are you brewing now?"
The plan was simple. Hermione had seen for herself how much Tavian enjoyed talking with Charlie. All they needed was an excuse to get Charlie back to the Dennfyre for an extended period, make sure Marjorie got Tavian, and then have Hermione steer the conversation in the direction they wanted.
Which was how she and Draco ended up with double date plans with Charlie and Julia later that evening while Markus and Aurel prepared for another night of patrol with Llewellyn.
Until then, they had something else to hold their focus.
Hermione set the ledger on the desk and opened it to the first page marked Wednesday, September 25th, 2002.
"Okay, ledger. Let's see what you can tell us."