TWENTY-EIGHT
Antonin Dolohov's explanation sounded so noble. A thing so worthy of exploring. She'd had no idea the upir curse of this city was so completely undiscerning.
So not like anything she ever expected to hear from the mouth of a Death Eater.
There was something going on here between them, that was for certain. She couldn't quite wrap her might around what that might be. Her protectiveness over their dynamic which she didn't fully understand, the drastic shift in him that seemed as though it was happening as some sort of byproduct to his becoming a mythical monster.
This was all too strange, too much, too fast.
Pushing aside his strikingly heartfelt admission, she shook her head and dropped her gaze to the ground. "I still have some questions that need answers before I can even think about agreeing to do … anything that would benefit you."
"I understand."
Hermione repressed the urge to roll her eyes at how … sympathetic he sounded. But she had to keep going, had to be certain this wasn't all some elaborate show and that she was just some idiot falling for it.
"All right, good," she said, hating how she had to ignore his presence so completely to recall the questions that had gone unasked from just a little while earlier.
