CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
The fingers gripping her wand tightened reflexively even as she reminded herself magic might no longer work on him. Otherwise, he might just've gotten a stunner point-blank to his face.
She couldn't ignore that this might be the only opportunity to understand what was happening even if her present anger might tempt her to. And then, if it turned out magic did affect him, bam, stunner to the face!
Her glare no less lethal, Hermione exhaled long and low, collecting her wits. "All right, now you listen to me, upir, I'm going to ask a series of questions, and you're going to answer them. If I don't like what I hear, I'll hex your bits right off." All right, so she was sort of banking on magic still affecting him—or perhaps him not realizing the threat might not be as dire as it sounded—but if there was ever a time to bluff …. "If I believe you're lying, I'll hex your bits off. If you try to distract me or start rambling on about unnecessary things—"
"Bits hexed off, yes? Starting to sense a theme with that."
If her eyes could've narrowed any further without actually squeezing shut, they would have at his deadpan delivery. "We understand each other, then?"
Antonin nodded. "You'll actually listen to the answers I give you?"
"I can't imagine they'll make things any stranger than they already are."
Now it was his turn to narrow his eyes, albeit in a look of incredulity before he reminded himself she was born of the Muggle world. As such, she might still struggle to accept that no matter what the situation, things could always get stranger.
However … he thought if he even tried to explain that to her, well, bits hexed off and frankly he was rather fond of his bits. And so he merely asked, "What's your first question?"
