Author's note: Hello! I think I finally figured out the formatting stuff on this site! I'm ashamed at how long it took me but oh well. Uploading new chapters here is way more convoluted than on AO3. Anyway! We're finally getting to my second favourite plot point in the story! Did you notice we broke the pattern of the "two past/one present" chapter? Take it as a clue! I hope you enjoy!
His surroundings felt so hazy that Draco barely noticed the sudden pain on his jaw. He thought he could hear a woman crying —Weaselette, perhaps?— and recognised the all too familiar metallic taste of blood in his mouth.
His whole body went stiff, paralysed as everyone else's. Draco thought he was seeing a Muggle photograph, a scene that he wasn't part of. It was all so far away… was he dreaming? He must have been. Granger was there, in the middle of the room, an angry glare in her brown eyes. His wand was in her hand.
To his left, Neville stood with a raised fist, his face contorted with a rage so strong he looked just like he had when he sliced Nagini's head off with Gryffindor's sword. A courageous lion indeed. Right behind him, Blaise had circled his arms around Neville's torso in an effort to pull him away from Draco. The despair in his eyes spoke volumes.
Ginevra was kneeling on the floor, her hands covering her grief-stricken visage. And finally, a puzzled Theo and a calm Luna stood hand in hand on the entrance to the dorms. All in all, he thought the situation would make for quite an epic portrait.
"Seriously, Neville!" Granger shouted, gesturing angrily with her free hand as her dominant one clutched the borrowed wand so tightly Draco thought it would break. "From all of you, I never thought you would be the one to freak out without hearing an explanation first!" She huffed, violently scratching her head with one hand. "I will finite the spell, you are going to listen to me and then you'll get to ask questions." Her deadly stare left no room for complaints — not that they would've been able to.
"Finite incantatem." Hermione's firm voice wavered on the last syllable before she ran to embrace Ginny on the floor. Soon enough, wracking sobs came from the both of them.
The sound of her crying brought Draco back to the real world.
For a while, he watched them hug each other tightly, sobbing so loud they were nearly screaming.
"Oh, Merlin, I thought you were dead!"
"I'm so glad you haven't been taken—"
"You can never do that again to me, you hear me!?"
"I won't! I won't!"
Suddenly, both women were embraced by Neville, who joined in with quiet sobs. Almost immediately Luna approached from the other side of the room and knelt with them, one single teardrop running down her cheek.
The three snakes looked at each other uncomfortably, feeling like they were intruding on a terribly private moment. Nevertheless, they stayed, patiently waiting for the group of people who stood for the side of the Light.
All three Slytherins withdrew into their own world. Draco thought about the unfairness of it all, of how the war hadn't yet stopped. He thought about sleepless nights, his mother alone inside the manor that still was their prison, albeit in a different way. He thought about his father, rotting in Azkaban, and how maybe, just maybe, if pride hadn't got in the way the three of them could be free.
They were children still, all of them. Children who had been forced to fight a senseless war, to torture and attack other children like them. They were taught to hate one another from an early age under the justification that as they were "the others" it was okay to hurt them.
But it had never been okay, and the adults were filled with too much hatred or fear to rebel against "tradition." Families were broken, friendships were lost… lives were taken.
Once again the faces of the dead haunted his mind's eye. Severus, Fred Weasley, Lavender Brown, Colin Creevey, Professor Lupin, Dumbledore. Them, and all the others who had lost their lives fighting for what they thought was right. Huddled in front of the fireplace were the ones who survived, yet would never stop grieving.
Draco thought of his daily dose of Beatitudinem Eternum, the new batch he'd recently made safely nestled in his trunk. But how could he take it when there was so much to be sad about? Happiness was not something he deserved.
In time, the loud crying turned into muffled sobs. The group shared more secret whispers and watery smiles before Granger scourgified the mess and stood up, helping Ginny and Luna get up as well. She cleared her throat, uncomfortably directing her gaze to the trio of Slytherins.
"Right. Do you want a butterbeer before or after listening to the story?"
Ginny scoffed. "Fuck the butterbeer. Bring me a bottle of Firewhiskey right now."
Despite it being far too early for drinking anything other than hot tea or chocolate, the group huddled around the fire with a double dose of Firewhiskey in hand. The cold wind was never felt inside the castle, but the setting sun cast ominous shadows. Daylight hours were fewer with each passing day.
Draco eyed the room. Granger was sitting on her usual couch, which brought an amused smile to his lips despite not knowing if she was conscious of it. Ginevra was sitting on the armrest, refusing to let Hermione out of her sight. To her right was Neville, nursing his second glass of Firewhiskey. Beside him on the sofa, Blaise murmured in his ear and stroked his arm reassuringly. Draco decided to store that thought away for later.
Then came the lovebirds. Theo, still awkward with his new relationship and born in a family that refused to show an ounce of affection, nervously stroked Luna's hand with his thumb. She hummed appreciatively, clutching their hands tighter together.
The silence was broken only after Granger had downed a considerable amount of her liquor.
"Before you ask, no, I don't know who did it or the spell he used. I only remember snippets and what we could piece together with Malfoy. It was the day before school started. I wanted to come a bit earlier to get things sorted out and was running late because I was doing something at home." She furrowed her brow before continuing. "It was dark. I had just got to the apparition point in Hogsmeade when a strange man in Death Eater garbs pointed his wand at me."
Hermione tightened her grip on the glass. "From then on, I have brief images of getting to the school. I wanted to go to the library to research something — I can't remember what — but Mrs. Norris was around. She…" Hermione gulped, suddenly staring at the floor. "She attacked me."
"It was bad," Draco sighed at the memory. "Norris was vicious. There was blood everywhere, I…" he swallowed. "I barely got there in time."
"Then, as I said, there are only snippets. I remember playing with you all, helping Draco with his, uh, extracurriculars—" The young Malfoy heir felt so relieved after she kept the potion secret from her friends that he missed the casual way Hermione was referring to him. "—and I remember meeting Luna in the library sometimes."
The aforementioned young woman smiled at the memory. "Oh, yes. You snuck into my bag and I found you licking a sugar quill I had left inside. After that, I always carried some around for you."
"Thanks for that. Eating only feline-appropriate foods was getting a bit dull. No offence, Theodore."
"Theo," he clarified, "and none taken. I was only making sure these idiots didn't upset Lilith's stomach."
At the mention of her alter ego, the room froze and Hermione's smile wavered. She sighed before she emptied her glass and left it on the ground next to her. Suddenly, nobody wanted to speak anymore.
In the end, it was Neville who broke the silence. "It is so strange to think that Lilith was… you, this whole time."
Granger frowned. "I don't feel like I was. It just feels like I woke up from a very long sleep, or like I watched a movie about someone else's cat."
"Can you change back, though?" Ginny asked. "To Lilith?"
Draco thought he saw Hermione with a full-on Slytherin smirk for the first time in his life. His skin prickled with the now familiar feel of her transformation magic, and she changed into her cat form in a second only to quickly switch back into a human. Draco coughed to cover a laugh when he saw the amazement in everybody's faces.
"That's so cool!" Blaise said. "You're like an animagus without the whole mandrake thing!"
"Yeah, that's the upside of this," Granger agreed.
"Oh!" Neville exclaimed, an idea suddenly forming in his mind. "We should go tell Professor Flitwick! And the Aurors, they should also—"
"They can't know." Hermione's firm voice resonated in the stone walls of the dormitory. Her eyes were fierce, filled with determination. "We don't know who is involved in the disappearances. The less they know the better."
Everybody fell silent again.
The atmosphere felt oppressive. The young wizards and witches' faces morphed, some into fear and some into sadness again. Draco, for his part, was anxious to finally begin their planning.
"I know you're happy now that you're all together again and everything, but I really think we should move along and think about what we're going to do next," he said. "Granger, Weaselette told us about a diary of sorts you gave to Potter." She nodded. "Do you remember what it said?"
"I…" Hermione's face contorted into a frown. There was some hesitation, but it quickly gave way into a look of utter defeat. "I don't."
"Okay, that's fine," Neville said. "Maybe you were hit with some kind of Obliviation spell? Can't we just… un-obliviate?"
At the mention of the spell, Draco's heart clenched. He remembered Hermione's parents, and how he was glad she'd hidden them so thoroughly before the raids. Even so, he could see the pain in the brown eyes that were staring out of the window.
"It's not that simple," he said, trying to shelter her from answering the question herself. "Depending on how complex the spell is, it is harder to bring memories back. The usual consensus is that you shouldn't, or it could mess with a person's mind until…" he sneaked a glance at Neville as he saw him gulp. "Let's say it's just too dangerous."
"Yeah, and I know that you're the brightest witch of the age and all, but if you don't even know what the spell was, we're totally screwed," Blaise said.
"Actually, there might be a way…" Hermione interrupted, scratching her head. "In theory, we could access my blocked memories with a skilled Legilimens, but Severus and Voldemort were the only ones I know of and, well…" she hesitated.
In a second, Blaise's and Theo's eyes were on him.
Theo decided to test the waters. "What if I knew someone?"
Granger took a moment to think about it, but ultimately expressed her concerns about not being able to trust anybody out of the circle.
The young Malfoy heir was irked. He couldn't fathom being the one who permanently messed up with Granger's mind, but if they truly didn't have anyone… he might be their only hope.
After this, the conversation changed topics, but the thought would not leave as swiftly.
Draco continued to mull it over, even after the group had decided to look for a solution later and said their goodbyes. It was worse when his friends gave him the look, urging him to confide in Granger. They wouldn't say it in front of everyone, but he was sure he was getting an earful from them on the next day.
"Malfoy?"
Once again, it was her voice that brought him back to the moment. He was sitting down still, contemplating the fire. He looked up to her face, admiring her courage. Even after everything, she looked relieved, and it had been a few hours since she'd been forcibly changed into a cat. The magic was stabilising.
"Do you mind if I take a bath before bed?"
"No," he answered, puzzled, one of his eyebrows raised. "Why would I?"
"Ah, just in case you wanted to go to bed early. I don't want to wake you up…" she looked visibly flustered, her cheeks painted in a reddish hue he hadn't seen before in anyone. Her unsaid question lingered in the air.
"That's alright. I'll wait for you." And his unsaid answer lingered, too.