Author's Notes

I don't think any content warnings are needed for this chapter. I think this one's relatively safe!

Thank you, champagneandliterature, for all your excellent Alpha/Beta work. It is very much appreciated. XXx

Beyond the Sea

Chapter Two. Sanctuary.

Almost a full eighteen hours after she'd lost consciousness Hermione woke up, blinked in confusion, then closed her eyes again, unable to believe what she had just seen. For the first time in what felt like forever she was lying in a comfortable bed, in a warm, dimly lit bedroom, with Harry Potter asleep in a chair beside her.

Laying completely still to process her shock, Hermione opened her eyes again and tried to take in her new surroundings. The bed was warm, the sheets were soft against her fragile skin, and the duvet was light enough not to cause her emaciated body any more pain.

The walls of the room were painted an elegant cream and the curtains fluttered in the gentle breeze that was blowing in from the open window. She inhaled deeply, feeling the salty smell of the sea tickle her nostrils. As she listened to the ebb and flow of the tide, the singing of the birds and the total silence beyond, she wondered how long she had been asleep and how she had gotten here. It appeared to be early morning, but on which day she wasn't sure.

Her entire body hurt. Her head pounded, her blood thumped in her ears with every beat of her heart, her stomach churned violently, and every limb ached as if it had just been freshly Crucio'd. She turned her head carefully to look the other way, then blinked once more in shock.

Ron Weasley was lying on a separate bed beside the one she was in, also fast asleep. His freckled face was relaxed as he slumbered peacefully, occasionally letting out a slight snore. The sound was so familiar that Hermione smiled to herself. A second glance, however, changed her smile into a frown. Ron had a large black eye, and one of his arms was splinted under a swathe of bandages. Hermione's tentative joy at finding herself asleep in a room with her two best friends descended into worry at how Ron had become so severely injured.

Hermione frowned as she turned her face back to the ceiling. What on earth had happened to bring them back together? Why couldn't she remember anything from the previous day, and where in the name of Merlin were they?"

Those questions burned over and over in her brain as she wondered what to do. The longer she lay in bed thinking, the more her mind ran away with her. Was it really Harry and Ron beside her, or was it Death Eaters under the influence of Polyjuice potion instead? Anything was possible these days, of course.

Hermione's brain was still fuzzy, but a few glimmers of memory were gradually starting to return. The last thing she remembered was two flashes of eerie green light, a light that could only have been caused by one spell. Two people had fallen down dead. She gasped as she remembered snippets of what had happened when she was held in the Death Eater's arms. Who was he, and how had she escaped his clutches? How was she laying here, alive and being cared for when the last thing she remembered was being captured again?

She sighed in confusion as she remembered that her captor had pulled her out of the way of yet another Crucio. While that was a relief, she wondered why he had done so. In Hermione's rather extensive experience, Death Eaters shot Crucios at her. They didn't hold her gently against their shoulder to shield her away from them.

She gave a small moan of pain as she tried to turn over in bed. Everything hurt so badly it was impossible to move silently. The slight noise woke Harry, assuming that it was Harry beside her, of course. "'Mione!" he whispered, "it's alright, it's me." He let out a long sigh of apparent relief. "Thank God! You're here. Finally. You're alive, I can't believe it!"

Neither, it seemed, could she. Hermione sighed again. Her addled brain was unable to process any more, so she closed her eyes and lapsed once more into unconsciousness.

A full twenty-six hours later, she awoke properly. Harry was sitting in the chair next to her again but Ron was nowhere to be seen. Harry was holding a small golden snitch in his hands. He released it to let it fly away before catching it in his outstretched fingers again. The action was achingly familiar, Hermione had seen him do this so many times in the past that right now it was both comforting and also strangely painful to witness. "Harry?" Hermione breathed, hardly daring to speak out loud.

Harry jolted in surprise, catching the snitch by the narrowest of margins as his eyes snapped to hers. She smiled. Yes, it seemed that it really was Harry Potter beside her, nobody else could catch a snitch like that. "Have you ever missed one of those catches?"

"Of course not." His green eyes lit up as she smiled gently. "Hi."

"Hi." She let out a long breath. "Where are we?"

Harry grinned. "Tell me how you're feeling and have a drink of water, then I'll fill you in. It might take a while."

Hermione nodded, sucking gratefully from the straw that he held carefully to her lips. The water tasted like heaven. It was cool, refreshing, and delightfully thirst-quenching. "I'm okay," she sighed, "I mean, everything hurts. Everything. I feel so weak I can barely move, but I'm alive, which, to be honest is a bit of a surprise."

"Thank Merlin for that." Harry trapped the struggling snitch in his clenched fist then turned his chair to face her. "Okay, so a group of rebel Death Eater's rescued you during a raid the day before yesterday. They brought you here to heal you and so you could be with us, but you've been asleep ever since."

"Myself, Ron, and Ginny live here now, in this cottage that belongs to one of the highest ranking Death Eaters." Hermione blinked, wondering if she'd heard Harry right, but he just smiled as he carried on talking, "it's fine, Hermione. I know you don't understand yet, but I need you to trust me." He leaned forwards and took her hand in his, "you can still do that, can't you?" She nodded as she bit her lip. It was Harry. Of course she could trust him. "The man who owns this house may be one of the highest-ranking Death Eater's, but he's certainly not one of the most loyal."

"Harry, the highest-ranking Death Eater's, as I understand things are Draco Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, and Antonin Dolohov." She frowned at Harry as he nodded.

"This is Malfoy's house."

"Are you feeling alright, Harry?"

Harry waved his wand, and his enormous stag Patronus erupted from the end. He shrunk it down to a half size then spoke to it. "Go get Ron and Ginny, please." The unusually small stag streaked away, and Harry smiled as it passed easily through the closed wooden door.

Minutes later, that same door burst violently open and Ron and Ginny Weasley stood framed by the bright sunlight outside. "'Mione!" Ginny cried, rushing towards the bed, "oh my Gods you look awful!"

"Thanks, Gin!" Hermione struggled with a rather painful smile. "It's good to see you too. Now, please, will one of you tell me where we are and what's going on? I think Harry's suffering some kind of Quidditch injury or something. He seems to think we're in Malfoy's house."

Ginny perched on the bed next to Hermione and leaned forwards to prise the snitch from Harry's fingers, then started to play catch with it herself. Ron sat carefully on the end of Hermione's bed, staring at her as if she was something out of a dream. The bruise around his eye was fading, but his arm was still heavily bandaged. "We are." Ginny met Hermione's gaze, and there was no hint of a joke in her clear blue eyes.

Hermione listened as between them they told a briefly condensed version of their story. By the time they had all finished, she doubted that her eyes could have grown any wider without permanently popping out of her head. "You can't be serious?!" she exclaimed as the room fell silent save for the distant sounds of the sea. "Okay, so you're serious. Then you're all clearly under the influence of the Imperio or something. Have you been checked for curses, all of you?"

"Hermione," Ginny said gently, "we're deadly serious. I can promise you that none of us are under a curse. You're alive. You were rescued by Blaise Zabini, then healed, and cared for by Pansy Parkinson. You're now living in a house owned by Draco Malfoy and currently being protected by the person on watch duty, who happens to be Theodore Nott. We're all living here together now."

"But! It just can't be true!" Hermione protested, wincing as the pain of speaking so forcefully hurt her throat, "Pansy Parkinson hates me. So do all of the people you're talking about-"

"'Mione," Ginny continued, loudly cutting her off, "as I said, you were rescued from the place where you were held captive for five months. Five. Whole. Months, a lot of things can change in five months. How do you think you got here the other day then?"

"I don't exactly know." Hermione thought back to the whirlwind of robes, masks, flashing lights and clashing spells that had accompanied her rescue. She remembered the pop of the apparition that she'd thought would kill her and the confrontation that had occurred when it didn't, but she couldn't remember who had carried her here, even though she felt she should have been able to.

"I don't know," she admitted. "I just remember seeing a lot of Death Eater masks."

"Exactly." Ginny's face flushed, and she avoided Harry's eye for some reason. "Blaise brought you here. He picked you up on a raid and rescued you on Draco's orders."

"Why wasn't it Malfoy that rescued me then, if he's in charge?" Hermione was just so confused. Nothing made sense in her still muddled brain. Why was Ginny looking so shifty when she mentioned Blaise, and why was Harry suddenly so tense beside her?

"Draco gives the orders. He very rarely gets involved in the raids himself," Ginny answered.

"Okay. So why did Malfoy give the orders to rescue me then? I remember that there were two other Death Eaters that followed us here. They put up a protest, but he, Zabini, if that's who was holding me, he killed them both."

Harry nodded. "Yes. They were newly signed up, real Death Eaters, not the defected kind. Blaise killed them because Draco told him to bring you here, whereas You Know Who wanted you taken to Malfoy Manor. We've been looking for you constantly for five months. 'Mione, Blaise killed the other two to protect you and to keep our cover intact."

Hermione just blinked owlishly up at Harry. It was all proving rather difficult to take in.

"Why? Why has Malfoy been looking for me as well as you three? I understand why you three would want to find me, but why are you working with Malfoy and Zabini? Why are they rebelling against You Know Who?" She pinched the bridge of her nose, blinking against her suddenly overwhelming headache.

Harry sighed, ruffling his hair with his hands as Ginny missed her next catch of the snitch and jumped into the air to catch it again. "There are several things you need to understand here. One, Malfoy's group have all secretly defected and are actively working against You Know Who. Two, we've joined forces with them to bring You Know Who down and to find you. Three, we all need you with us in order to win this war, and four-"

"If you tell her reason number four Potter, I'll Avada you on the spot and don't for one second think I'm joking." The door banged open once more, and Draco Malfoy himself stood silhouetted in the sunlight, holding what looked like a breakfast tray. Hermione pulled back into the pillows with shock as Harry laughed easily.

"You can try it, but no one's managed it so far, what with me being the Chosen One and all," Harry quipped, and Hermione's mouth dropped open as Draco smirked in response.

"That's only because you haven't faced one of mine. I wouldn't twat around chatting to you for half an hour before knocking you out. I'm not as stupid as him. Granger. You're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Surprised," she admitted. "Confused, I'm struggling to understand what's happening here."

"I'm sure Potter and the others can explain. I've brought food on Pansy's orders, although someone clearly needs to inform her that I'm not a house elf. I'm off to work. If anyone needs me, contact me in the usual way. But try not to, mind. It proves a little awkward explaining to my boss why I'm being summoned away by Harry Potter."

Ginny hopped up to take the tray from Draco as he gave her what looked for all the world to be a cheeky wink, spun around in a swirl of black robes, pulled on his Death Eater mask, and apparated away.

"Here you go then, 'Mione, toast and a boiled egg served with a wink from one of the "Dark Lord's" Ginny made air quotes with her fingers, "favorites. You can't get better service than that!"

"Did he just calmly bring me this, banter with Harry, put his mask on, and say he's going to work?" Hermoine frowned, suddenly feeling exhausted. It was all too surreal for words. "And who in Godric's name is his boss?"

"I suppose he's got to call You Know Who something, doesn't he?" Ginny giggled, helping Hermione to sit up a little more in bed then settling the tray carefully on her lap.

Hermione pulled an incredulous face. "I'm just checking here. Have I died and woken up in an alternate universe, or is this all just a very, very strange dream?"

Hermione felt a little better after eating breakfast. The others had left her alone, and she'd fallen back to sleep soon after eating. The click of the door woke her, and she blinked in surprise as Pansy Parkinson backed into the room carrying a tray laden with medical supplies. "Hermione." Pansy's smile was wide, if a little guarded, as was Hermione's answering one. It was common knowledge that the two hadn't got on at Hogwarts, what with Pansy screaming insults down the corridors every chance she got and Hermione constantly besting her at every subject they took, the girls had not liked each other one little bit.

Now though, according to Harry, Ron, and Ginny, things were different. It was a warm day, and Pansy was wearing a very small, black vest top. Her arms were completely exposed, and the skull and snake emblem of the Death Eaters stood out boldly against her tanned skin. Hermione's smile faltered as Pansy caught her looking at it. "Better get used to seeing these around here Hermione, there's quite a few of them."

Taken aback, Hermione gulped, nodding as Pansy sat on the bed beside her. Pansy made no move to cover her arm, and Hermione tried not to stare at it too obviously. "Right," Pansy said, "start by drinking this."

"What is it?"

"Pain Potion. Then take this one which is a blood replenisher, then this one which is an all-around health tonic, and finally, this nutrition booster. Once you've done all that, I'll change your bandages and check your injured arm."

"Where's everyone else, Harry, Ginny, and Ron?" Hermione asked, eyeing the vials of potion suspiciously.

"Merlin, Granger, I'm not trying to poison you!" Pansy exclaimed. We saved your life the other night. Still, you were unconscious then, so I suppose you're not aware of that. I'm a trained healer if that makes you feel any better?"

"Are you?" Hermione took the vial of emerald green liquid, from Pansy's hand, hoped for the best, and drank it down in one.

"Yes. I trained for a full two years at St. Mungo's before I got this monstrosity branded onto my arm and lost my job for the trouble," she poked her tongue out at the Dark Mark, making Hermione nearly choke on her next vial of potion.

"Umm…. I take it you didn't choose to sign up with the Death Eater's then?"

"Oh, I definitely chose to take the mark. I happily stuck my arm in front of the bastard and smiled sweetly into his evil eyes as he did it, too. We have a plan you see, and it's working very nicely right now, believe me."

"What was the plan?" Hermione pushed her matted hair back and winced at the sharp, stabbing pain in her shoulder.

"To bring about the demise of the noseless wonder," Pansy grinned at Hermione's look of shock. "Oh, come on, Granger, we might work for him, but that doesn't mean we have to like him!" Pansy took the empty vial back, then passed Hermione a new vial of bright red blood replenishing potion and the clear health tonic to take straight after. The blood replenisher tasted awful. Hermione spluttered slightly on it as she swallowed.

"Well done, now let's have a look at these wounds." Hermione let Pansy pick up her arm and carefully unwind the bandages. The cut on her upper arm was deep and long, and although it had clearly been expertly healed, it was still incredibly sore. Pansy ran her wand tip over it again, murmured a few more healing spells, and the pain lessened considerably.

"Thank you." Hermione looked up with a smile as Ginny knocked on the door.

"Can I come in?" Ginny asked hesitantly.

"'Of course," Pansy smiled, and Ginny bounced in to sit on the opposite bed.

"How are you feeling now?" Ginny stroked her fingers through her own poker-straight, waist-length hair and Hermione frowned, feeling the matted, grimy mess of hair on her own head and wondering how long it had been since she had felt truly clean.

"Tired but okay, thank you. Do you think I could have a shower, please?" she asked.

"Of course," Pansy agreed with a nod. "As long as you feel up to it. I'll leave the bandages off until you're done. I'll get you a towel, take all the time you want. The hot water is charmed to stay warm."

"Thank you," Hermione said as Pansy restacked the tray of medical supplies and left Ginny to help her wash.

"Come on, you, let's get you clean and fresh before Malfoy gets home, shall we?" Ginny's knowing smirk was a little disconcerting. Hermione eyed her suspiciously as she struggled to get out of bed, wondering what on earth her physical appearance had to do with Draco Malfoy.