AN: A little gory in this chapter but nothing too bad. Thanks so much for your continued support. It means the world to me. Thanks again to my wonderful alpha: LaDeeDaa and beta: astrangefan who really make this story soar!
Best Laid Plans
"Hermione, I understand the urgency," Padma replied calmly. Hermione wanted to strangle her. How could she be so calm when everything was going to absolute shite? "It isn't that I don't want to do it. It is that I'm not certain it's safe. I need to run more tests."
Hermione stamped her foot in frustration. "I'm not going to let him be called by the Rakov brothers against his will to Merlin only knows where because my iron levels are not optimal!"
"Hermione," Padma started patiently, "you know even better than I that 'non optimal' iron levels can have devastating results for you."
"Fine," Hermione sighed in frustration. "Run the bloody tests and put the magic dampeners up again. I want to move as fast as possible."
She'd chosen to have this conversation in private. The last thing she needed was the four men staying in the tower - mother hens, all of them - to get wind that Padma was concerned about moving up the ritual.
Padma nodded and pulled out her wand. Casting the now familiar blood diagnostic spells that Padma and Madam Pomfrey had created themselves, she watched as Padma took in the information and after a moment her friend sighed. Hermione held her breath.
Please. Please. Please.
Padma didn't speak for a moment. "Iron tablets today. The earliest I'll allow it is tomorrow afternoon."
Hermione breathed a sigh of relief and launched herself into Padma's startled arms. "Thank you!"
"Don't thank me," Padma said with a chuckle. "Thank the numbers. And please don't tell anyone outside this castle that I allowed this. It goes against everything in me to agree to this. I'm only doing it because I'll be there, and I trust Madam Pomfrey completely."
"Padma," Hermione said, probably for the thirtieth time since this whole thing began, "I don't want to die. I'm not doing this because I don't care about my life."
"I know that, Hermione," Padma said. "But you have to understand that as a Healer, this makes me very uncomfortable. I'm willing to try because I know this situation is unprecedented."
Hermione nodded. "I do understand that."
"I'll be making your plate tonight and tomorrow as well," Padma added.
"I assumed. Exactly how much organ meat am I going to be subjected to?" Hermione asked, feeling queasy already.
Padma laughed and the mood in the room lightened. "None," she promised.
"Mmm," Hermione moaned against Draco as his hands wandered up her shirt and over her lace covered chest. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as his mouth descended down her neck placing hot, wet kisses along her throat.
"I know what you are doing…" she panted, gripping his shirt in her fists.
"What's that," he breathed against her, sending chills down her spine.
"You are trying to distract me," she said.
"Is it working?" he asked, and she felt his lips curl up into a smirk against the sensitive skin of her neck.
"Absolutely not," she lied. He chuckled against her but rolled over, tossing his glorious hair out of his eyes.
"It's not your job to distract me," she said, rolling over to her side next to him on the bed. "In fact, it's very much my job to keep you from panicking."
"I'm not panicking," he pouted.
"Says the man who tried to turn himself into Azkaban over some Howlers," she replied ruefully.
"Look, I know you need to do the ritual. It's a matter of your safety now. It's a matter of the safety of everyone that the Rakov Brothers don't utilise me to help raise The Dark Lord. But part of me is hoping if we just stay in this bed we can avoid it a bit longer," he admitted.
Hermione smiled and snuggled in closer. "Avoidance does sound good," she admitted. "But the longer we avoid the obvious the worse it gets. Draco, I know you are scared. Believe it or not, I'm scared too. Padma has signed off on it, but it is a lot sooner than I planned to do this ritual. This never happens in the Muggle world because they don't have the potions to replenish blood, nor the magical regenerative cellular structure. And it doesn't happen in the Wizarding world because, as you know, Wizards simply do not do blood transfusions. The science suggests it should be fine, no different than with Theo - but things could happen."
Draco pulled her closer and shut his eyes as if closing them might change her words. "If anything happens to you…"
"We are planning for every possibility. In all likelihood, it will be just as simple as it was with Theo. We are taking extra precautions - but that's also why I can't afford to be distracted, as much as I'm enjoying the distraction."
Draco loosened his grip. "Fucking tossers," he muttered.
Hermione couldn't help it. She cackled. "What?!"
"Those Rakov twats," Draco explained. "Probably couldn't find their arses with both hands. They make Viktor Krum look like an absolute fucking genius."
Hermione laughed. "I don't know much about them beyond the brief. All three of them born to a Dark Lord sycophant in Bulgaria. Attended Durmstrang. I wrote to Viktor to see if he had some insights, but he said the only one he really knew at all was Alexi and he was nothing memorable."
Draco snorted. "That's an understatement. How they got to America I don't know. My suspicion is their mother. She stayed out of the War after their father had been killed in service of The Dark Lord, but she was crafty. She's the reason they missed the Battle of Hogwarts entirely."
"I had wondered…" Hermione said. "There's nothing in the paperwork about their absence except that it was noted. They caught a portkey to America the next day and were rounded up by MACUSA within a month."
"It's a wonder they lasted that long. I'm not being bitter, Hermione,' Draco said seriously. 'They are painfully stupid. They were completely devoted to The Dark Lord, but they'd never have had a chance to reach the levels they wanted. They idolised my Aunt Bella, but Bellatrix was shrewd - crazier than a sack of kneazles, but smart."
"Stupid or not, they are a risk," Hermione pointed out.
"Oh, absolutely. Possibly even more so because they aren't smart enough to bother with self-preservation. They will do anything to bring him back. He's their only identity," Draco explained.
"I understand," Hermione said with a nod. "That's a dangerous position to be in - wrapping yourself up in a madman."
"Viktor and Alexi Rakov were the brute force. Dobromire was smaller, wirey. He worked in Potions that last year, though he was only average. If there is a weak link it is him," Draco explained.
Hermione nodded, filing that information away for later. "Well, as much as I hate to - we'd better go eat dinner with the others. There is a lot to go over for tomorrow. Plus, I want to hear what news Harry and Ron have from The Ministry."
With a long sigh, Draco let her go and they righted their clothes before moving off the bed and out from behind the cocoon of privacy the beat curtains provided.
Harry and Ron pretended not to notice that she and Draco had come out of the same bed after having been in there, suspiciously silent, for over an hour. Padma just smirked to herself. Dinner had already arrived.
Theo patted the chair next to him for Hermione to sit in. "So, how much trouble am I in?" she whispered conspiratorially to him.
"Just a touch," he said with a wink. "Padma assured us all that your iron levels were essentially back to normal and your magic has returned to ninety-five percent. Given the risk of Draco being called by the idiot triplets, everyone agrees it really is for the best to move forward with the ritual tomorrow."
Hermione let out a long breath. Finally, something was going her way. She wouldn't have to fight Harry nor Ron on the topic.
"Here," Padma set a plate before Hermione and Draco slid into the chair on her other side. "Tuck in."
Hermione's eyes widened. "You know, I'm not certain that gaining ten pounds the night before the procedure is actually that useful," she replied, cocking an eyebrow at Padma.
"Just eat it," Draco said, pushing the plate toward her. She chuckled. Well, she wasn't going to turn down a double portion of Hogwarts' Shepherd's Pie.
As the group of six ate, they went over the plans for the next day.
"The Prophet has gone completely off the rails," Ron explained. "Hoganis and others are filling it with nothing but hit pieces. A back page editorial even suggests Hermione might be responsible for the Rakovs break from prison."
Draco clenched his jaw. Hermione quietly placed her hand on his thigh and squeezed. "We know it's not true. Everything will be rectified in the end," she promised. He just nodded but he didn't look convinced.
"Luna has put out another great piece though," Harry was quick to add. "She's looking into Hoganis' background and there is a lot there. Parvati has been listening to the rumblings in town - especially in Diagon Alley where her shop is located - and the public doesn't entirely trust The Prophet."
"The way I hear it," Padma added, "It's generational, just like at St. Mungos. The younger people, people under thirty-five or so, they trust Hermione. They assume there must be an explanation for whatever is going on. It's the older ones…"
"You mean the ones who couldn't even be arsed to fight in the fucking War," Draco spit out.
"Precisely," Padma said with a nod.
"Well, with the Wizengamot's average age being just a hair over four-hundred-and-ninety, I should be fine," Hermione said with a grin. Padma was the only one who laughed.
"Oh, come on," Hermione said. "If I'm not even able to laugh about it, I'll go insane."
"Anyway," she pressed on, "tomorrow may well be harder than the last time. I want you to know so that no one has a fit and tries to stop the ritual. We know it works; we have plenty of blood…"
"Speaking of that," Padma interrupted. "I thought you were going to bring twelve bags. We were only given ten."
Ron's ears went red. "I was preoccupied."
"Nevermind," Hermione quickly interrupted. The last thing she needed was for one of the boys to go getting hysterical. "We ended up using less blood than we prepared for during Theo's ritual, so it all works out."
"We hope," Draco muttered, but Hermione soundly ignored him.
"Now, I don't see a reason why Dumbledore nor Snape's portraits need to be moved this time, does anyone else?" They all agreed that there was no need. "Professor McGonagall is perfectly welcome, but again, not necessary."
Everyone agreed to that as well. Hermione turned to Theo, "You are also welcome to stay back here, if you like. It's really not that exciting."
"I'd like to be there," Theo said. "Draco was there for me, I'd like to be there for him."
Draco's own ears went red, but he just scowled into his mashed potatoes.
"That's settled," Hermione said, pleased that the conversation had not devolved into pleas for her to abandon her plans and just let Draco succumb to the curse. She'd grown tired of that argument.
That night, Hermione slipped into Draco's bed again. He was reading as he usually was - a book of poems by Robert Burns. His posture was tense, and knowing him as well as she now knew him, she could feel that tension radiating off of him in waves.
"Do you want to be alone tonight?" she asked, playing with the edge of one of the curtains on his bed.
"No," he said, putting the book aside. "Come."
Hermione smiled and crawled into his bed, pulling the curtain behind her. He smelled of the prefects' bath and she breathed him in as she wiggled under the down blanket and snuggled into his right side. "How's your arm?"
"Six," he said.
"That's kind of high," she pointed out. "Do you want the cannabis potion?"
"Patil suggests I don't take it. She thinks it is better for me to be free of potions for tomorrow."
Hermione nodded against him. "That makes sense."
"It's not so bad," Draco added. "Six is manageable."
"Will you be able to sleep?" Hermione asked.
"Probably not. But you need to. This entire thing is harder on your body than mine," Draco added.
"You keep reading," Hermione said. "I can sleep with the light on."
Draco's arm snaked around her hip, and he pulled her flush against him, resting his chin on her head. She was asleep moments later.
Hermione had convinced Padma that a wheelchair was not necessary for the walk to the Hospital Wing. Padma still inserted her IV in the common room just as she'd done the time before. Draco had already been escorted to the Hospital Wing by Theo. He'd been nervous when they left, Hermione could tell, but he kissed her cheek and gave her a weak smile before leaving.
McGonagall had decided to sit out of the ritual this time around, although she made it clear that if she was needed they needn't hesitate to call upon her.
When Hermione arrived in the Hospital where Madam Pomphrey was fussing over the medical beds in the centre of the room, she noticed they had thought of a solution for the amount of blood that had caked the floors last time. Eliminating the chair completely, Padma and Poppy had set up two adjoining beds with a reservoir basin between them. Hermione would lie on one, Draco on the other. Where their arms met and her blood would spill, most could be caught in the copper reservoir between the beds.
Smart.
Hermione gave Draco an encouraging smile as she wheeled her IV stand over toward him where he stood next to the united beds. "Ready?" she asked.
"Maybe there is another way?" he said, looking down at her through his fringe. "Maybe if we find the Rakov brothers before…"
Not this again.
Hermione shook her head. "No, Draco. We will find them, but we can't risk it. Remember? Besides, this curse is killing you. Please, let me just take this one, very big, thing off my mind."
With a sigh Draco nodded and sat on the edge of his bed, swinging his legs over then lying back down onto the soft mattress. Madam Pomfrey fluffed his pillow and fussed over him before going over to the other bed and indicating for Hermione to get in.
Padma helped her arrange the IV stand and guided her into the bed so that she didn't get tangled, then she set about putting the stickers on Hermione's chest and under her breast just as Madam Pomfrey had done last time. She hooked them up to the Holter Monitor and checked to make sure everything was in order.
Pulling her shirt back down, Hermione noticed that Theo, Harry and Ron had taken their places on the back wall sitting anxiously at the edge of three hospital beds. She turned to look at Draco and he looked back at her. There was an intensity to the moment that Hermione couldn't quite put words to.
"Draco…" she breathed. There were so many things she wanted to say to him. She wanted him to know how much weight he was lifting off her shoulders by letting her do this, by not fighting her. She wanted him to know that this was more than a convenience but her driving force - freeing him. But she didn't know how to put any of that into words, so she simply leaned over and kissed him gently on the lips.
He hummed against her lips contentedly and she smiled.
"Okay," she said, pulling back and reaching into her pocket for the knife she'd used last time. Rolling over on her side to face Draco, she looked into his grey eyes for strength. He looked back at her, the intensity of his gaze nearly knocking her over, but he gave a slight nod and it was all she needed.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered as she dragged the blade of the knife down the full length of his Mark.
"Fuck," he cursed, his fist clenching but he remained unmoving. He closed his eyes and breathed heavily through his nose trying to gain some level of control over the pain. Without wasting a moment, Hermione took the knife and slashed her wrist exactly as she had before.
She shuddered, but pressed her wrist to the open wound on Draco's left forearm. She took a very deep, centring breath trying to push the pain aside and raised her wand to their joined arms. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
A rush of magic rolled through her, and her wand twitched.
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." She repeated, and immediately the blood flowed quicker, spilling over their joined hands and into the basin below.
Padma was at her side, a new bag of blood ready. They were taking no chances this time. Hermione focused her attention entirely on Draco who was trembling under her.
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." she hissed. It felt different. The magic inside her didn't flow as easily, it was fighting something. That's when she realised that Draco was in significantly more pain than Theo had been. His breath was coming out in harsh pants as her blood flowed over his ruined flesh.
Madam Pomfry must have noticed as well because she moved closer to Draco's bed. Her hand went to his forehead, and she muttered something to Padma that Hermione couldn't make out. She focused all her attention on Draco, moving even closer. She reached for his hand and entwined their fingers, squeezing to let him know she was still there.
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." Her magic surged forward.
"Ahhhh," Draco cried out, squeezing Hermione's hand hard and the blood ran faster from her wrist..
"Another bag, Padma," Pomfrey called. "It's fighting."
Hermione didn't know what they were talking about.
What is fighting?
She couldn't do anything but focus on her job. Her job was to save him, to cast the spell, to give her blood. It was their job to keep them both alive while she did her job.
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
Draco was crying out the way he had the day she'd walked into the Janus Thickey Ward. It tore her heart into pieces.
That was when she saw it. The webbing was radiating out of his skin. When they'd done the ritual on Theo, the webbing moved in one direction, out of his body and up through The Mark. It receded. The curse inside Draco was fighting back. It was literally trying to rise out of Draco's skin to attack its attacker.
No. Come on, Draco.
Hermione sent up a silent prayer to a god she didn't believe in before grunting in frustration. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." she cried out, her wand vibrating harder. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
She felt lightheaded but sheer will kept her focused. "Blood, Pads!" she called. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." She couldn't afford to pass out. She had to fight. She had to keep awake.
"Her - mione," Draco bit out, his fingers began to go limp.
"Hold on, Draco," Hermione cried. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." She felt powerful and helpless all at once. The surge of her magic knocked Padma back on her heels as she hung another bag of blood. Hermione could feel her hair crackling with the surge. Still, the blasted dark curse fought her.
It was two steps forward and one step back. The webbing was receding, but it was slow, defiant. His skin was becoming cold and clammy as the black curse tried to keep hold of him.
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
Screams filled the Hospital wing and Hermione felt her eyes fill with tears. They splashed down onto her arm as she rested her face on her bicep. She was so tired, her breath felt hard to catch.
Leave him alone you fucking monster!
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
Hermione heard a lot of voices in her periphery. There was movement, and shouting. She blocked the chaos out and focused only on Draco. The webbing was beginning to falter. She could feel it weaken. She pushed her own magic forward. If this was a retreat, even a momentary one, she had to take advantage of it.
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
When Draco began to convulse, Poppy stepped in. "Help me," the older woman called to someone out of Hermione's vision and she realised it must have been Theo when he suddenly materialised beside Draco's bed. "Turn him."
Madam Pomfrey and Theo rolled Draco over, facing Hermione as he continued to convulse.
"Draco, please…" she begged.
Hermione felt weak but she kept going. She could feel she had the upper hand. Draco was fighting and she was fighting. They could and would beat this vile, disgusting curse. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium." she breathed against the damp skin of Draco's forehead.
Come on, Draco.
"Sanguine… abscissa; et debit solvitium…" she was fading. "Blood," she cried weakly. She was terrified she'd pass out before she finished. It was so close.
"San…guine ab-abscissa; et …debit sol…vitium et d…debit solvitium…" her words were slurred but the magic was still working. Her vision was becoming tunelled, her breath coming out in laboured pants. She saw the blood splatter between their bodies as she could no longer keep her arm still. Draco's convulsions had stopped but he was passed out cold.
Draco, please wake up.
"S-s-san…guine ab-abscissa…" She was tired to her bones. Her arm was numb, and she felt as if her heart was going to beat out of her chest. But her magic still surged forward. It called out to Draco and it fought the curse.
"It's receding," she heard someone say. The declaration gave her renewed life. "Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium," she whispered.
So close.
"Her heart," Poppy said from somewhere beyond her. Was that the incessant ringing in her ears?
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
"She almost has it!" Padma cried. "Look."
"Sanguine abscissa; et debit solvitium."
"Her heart!"
Everything went black.