There might have been some issues with the update notifications for last chapter, so please be sure you've read 45 first! xo
As it turned out, when Dagomir finally told Draco they'd arranged for him to join a patrol, several days after the night of the gathering wherein they'd set a wager, it was with Ben and Dagomir himself.
Draco hadn't seen Dagomir venture out of the barracks on any of the patrols, commanding things from the base, but he supposed he couldn't blame him.
Little by little, his magic was returning to him. He suspected that was part of the reason why Dagomir had waited several days—although the guards were still returning with fresh information quite often, and the more they knew, the less likely they were to run into trouble.
To his surprise, Hermione hadn't been upset he had failed to include her in his wager. Even though she was far more capable of defending herself—or maybe because of the fact that she'd been fostering a connection with the affiliation—she was fine to stay back.
It had been one thing, months back, to reveal the fact that he had been in control of the ancient lunar magic.
But if Avance discovered that Hermione had access to it, their biggest surprise advantage would be lost.
And if he was honest, Hermione had been manipulating the affiliation in ways he hadn't considered. She had begun using the magic for menial tasks, to the point where she didn't always need to carry her wand anymore because the affiliation was so keen to do her bidding.
Draco longed to feel the rich wealth of its magic again.
But more than that, he was glad that one of them could use it. He knew Hermione didn't use her magic to flaunt it but rather to test it and stretch it and draw out its uses—even more so than he'd ever done.
With his wand, he could cast basic spells with consistency, and he hoped it would be enough if they ran into trouble at the castle.
According to Dagomir, there hadn't been any issues wherein Nocturnus guards had been revealed, and the man had been stern with regards to the fact that their patrol would not be the one to go awry.
It had been weeks now since they'd arrived at the villa, and Draco hadn't left the grounds since. On several occasions, Hugo had Apparated into the nearest town, fully glamoured, to collect various provisions, but the rest of them hadn't gone anywhere. With the exception of their friends who had their own Portkeys.
He felt a slow creeping of nerves as he prepared for the day in his Nocturnus armour—staring at it, he could still remember the way he had felt, up on that fortress with flashes of magic chasing in every direction. The way it had felt to unleash the affiliation from his palm. The faces of those who had fallen by his hand.
Idly, Draco wondered whether he would ever forget the visages seared into the back of his mind.
Hermione came up behind him, coiling her arms around his waist as he sat on their bed. He shifted, dragging her beside him to meet her stare.
"Please be careful," she whispered, dragging her bottom lip between her teeth. "I know you will—but be extra careful."
A smirk tugged at his lips. "Extra extra careful."
"Even better," she breathed, her lips brushing his before she pulled away, her face serious. "I love you. I'm proud of you."
Cradling her face between his hands, he murmured, "I love you so much."
He still wondered, every day, how he'd been so lucky.
She caught his wrist within her fingers, ducking in for another kiss and deepening the kiss as her other hand swept through his hair. He felt a flicker of the affiliation infuse into his crescent, her magic coursing into him and drawing his own awake.
When she drew back, Hermione smiled at him. He returned the gesture with a soft, "Thank you."
She still dragged her fingers along his wrist in an idle gesture; a habit. "I need you to remember," she whispered, the smile fading from her lips, "that your magic is here inside you. If you get into trouble and need it—I believe it will come forth."
It was such a simple thought, and while they both knew it to be easier said than done, after so many days of slow progress, it was reassuring all the same.
"And for Merlin's sake, come home to me."
"I promise," Draco said, smirking as he planted another kiss to her lips. "Dagomir hasn't said how long we'll be—probably in case he decides to cut the patrol short. But I'll be back before you know it."
Her lips curled with a hint of a smile. "I'm sure I can trust Dagomir to bring you home at a respectable hour." As an afterthought, she added, "Have fun."
With a facetious roll of his eyes, Draco rose from his seat. "See you later."
One other guard contingent was patrolling the area around the Nocturnus Castle simultaneously, but on the opposite side. Every guard had been given a charmed galleon—an ingenious idea of Hermione's from Hogwarts—in case they needed to communicate with one another while in the field.
Draco felt a nervous sort of anticipation course through him as he trekked the route Ben and Dagomir had arranged for the day in order to show him as much as possible. He appreciated the effort.
They stayed well back from the castle, to the point where he could just barely see it on the horizon, but he knew they were just beyond the exterior edge of the wards. More than anything, he'd been interested to see how Avance was acting.
If they were nonchalant and unconcerned, it would fit with the narrative that Cosette was spreading that he had died and Nocturnus had collapsed.
But the fact that she still feared the former Nocturnus' defection left him wary.
He wondered whether she actually believed he'd died.
By all rights he should have, and the only reason he could think of why he didn't was because Hermione's fledgling grip on the affiliation had been enough to keep him tethered to her magic during those precarious hours he couldn't remember.
Glenneth might have believed the spell had drained him of not only his magic but his life as well.
It implanted a gentle seed of hope in his soul every time he thought of it.
Now that Draco was at the castle, however, he couldn't see much of anything going on. The only way to see further into the grounds would be to breach the wards, which would undo weeks of hard and stealthy effort.
"As you can see," Ben said as he led their small group towards a small grove of trees for cover, "there isn't a lot of activity. Sometimes it spikes but it seems random—or else we haven't discovered the pattern yet." Dagomir had let Ben take the lead since he hadn't been on any of the patrols—and all three of them walked with their wands carefully aloft.
Quietly, Dagomir added, "There are still many things we've yet to learn."
"At half noon, the nearest Avance patrol will come this way, but they rarely linger," Ben said, glancing down at his watch as he cast a disillusionment charm over Draco; Dagomir did likewise to himself.
Draco felt a sting of colour creep up into his face at the thought that he needed his spells performed for him, but disillusionment wasn't simple, and if he did it wrong it could be disastrous.
"Now we wait?" he breathed to the others.
Ben nodded. "Should be along any minute."
He wasn't wrong.
Shortly thereafter Draco could see a handful of people in the distance, but judging by the tightening of Ben's expression, it wasn't what he'd expected.
"Usually not so many," he bit out gruffly; Dagomir cast the guard a careful glance but remained silent. As he shifted further behind a tree he breathed, "There."
Draco followed his stare, squinting to see closer from the distance, but he could only vaguely make out people in Avance robes breaking off towards the perimeter.
At his other side, Dagomir froze, a low curse breaking from his lips. Instantly, his hand coiled around Ben's thick forearm, holding the man in place. Startled, Ben peered closer, and Draco watched as the blood drained from the man's face.
Through a clenched jaw—and with his wand clasped in white knuckles—Ben ground out, "Cynthia."
"Don't," Dagomir huffed.
As Draco observed the situation, he glanced back, realising it was Cynthia Bergen they'd spotted. She wasn't among the rest of the people who had emerged but the patrol. By the way Dagomir still held Ben firmly to the spot and the pained expression crossing Ben's face, the pieces fell into place and Draco blew out a breath.
"You and Cynthia," he murmured.
Ben's expression was contrite as he nodded his head. "I didn't think she was working with her father—Hugo wasn't, so..."
As the man trailed off, his lips thinning into a tight line, Dagomir released him but clapped a hand to his shoulder with a quiet, "Sorry, Ben."
Draco's mind skimmed through his past interactions with Cynthia Bergen. He'd never had any issues with the girl in the handful of times she'd visited the Manor, but now that Elias had betrayed them, all of those memories were coloured in doubt.
She'd always been so warm and kind, and she was Hugo's sister; he'd spoken highly of her, and Draco could only imagine the visceral hurt Hugo would feel if he'd been there in that instant.
"What if she isn't?" he whispered.
Two sets of eyes snapped towards him. Draco hesitated for a moment before offering a shrug. "I'm only thinking... what if she wasn't involved in Elias' plan with Cosette? You said yourself Hugo wasn't. Maybe she's being forced against her will or she believes that Nocturnus is actually dead and doesn't see another option."
"Dangerous speculation," Dagomir said. "What if she is?"
They all fell silent again.
Draco was the one to break the tension again, and he wondered whether his loyalty to Hugo pressed his words. Whether he was, once more, being too quick to trust.
"If she isn't," he said quietly, "and I don't know how we're meant to find out, either way—but… she's inside Avance."
He watched the moment the idea clicked with Dagomir, the man's expression shifting. But Ben growled a harsh, "No. You can't ask her to spy. They'll kill her if they find out."
"It's hypothetical," Draco murmured, holding Dagomir's stare. "If she holds loyalty to Nocturnus, it could be our best shot."
For a long moment Dagomir remained silent, absently scratching at his thick beard, and Draco could almost see the cogs churning in his brain. "The question is," he muttered at last, "how do we find out? And if she is loyal in her heart, how do we keep her safe?"
Ben sagged with relief, resignation written on his face. Despite his personal feelings for the girl, he was one of the most loyal of the Nocturnus Guard, and Draco knew he would recognise the opportunity for what it was.
In the distance, Cynthia and her partner drifted closer, away from everyone else.
"The patrol passes within range of the edge of this grove," Ben breathed, his hand still tight around his wand and thick tension in his shoulders. "If we're going to do anything, that's our chance."
As Dagomir scrubbed a hand down his face, he shook his head. "I have an idea but it's ludicrous. We should send the Lunae Ortus back to the villa."
"Not a chance," Draco snapped. He was tired of feeling useless and if there was a chance they could discover something useful, he wanted to do whatever he could. "If she is loyal to Nocturnus, she'll want to see I'm alive."
"If she isn't?" Dagomir asked, and the words once more hung between them.
"Then we wipe her memory," Ben supplied, his stare still haunted but back to business. They each shared a look before nodding.
Gazing once more beyond the edge of the grove, Dagomir drew his charmed galleon from his pocket and tapped it with its wand. The word Cynthia shimmered along the surface. With a grimace and a huffed expletive under his breath, he ducked out from behind the grove as the patrol neared and stunned the Avance man with Cynthia.
As the man crumpled Cynthia froze, wand aloft as she peered out, her gaze sliding towards the trees.
They were still fully disillusioned, but it made the most sense—especially when Dagomir levitated the galleon in her direction, the coin nudging her in the shoulder before it dropped to the ground.
The three of them watched in careful silence as Cynthia bent to retrieve the coin, her eyes wide and startled as she gazed upon the face of it. Draco could see a flicker of fear cross her face at the realisation that she was being watched, her partner unconscious on the ground beside her.
"Who's there?" she called, a slight tremble in her voice, even as she edged closer still to the trees.
While they could see each other, she wouldn't be able to see them unless they revealed themselves, and Dagomir quirked a brow at Ben, as if to give him a signal. Blowing out a breath, Ben lifted the charm from himself, leaving Draco's intact.
Cynthia stared in shock for a moment, her mouth falling open, before she cried, "Ben!" She threw herself into the guard's burly chest, her wand hand dropping to her side; Ben remained rigid until she drew back. "Are you here alone?"
Draco took a step back, careful to avoid crunching the brush beneath his feet as he shared a glance with Dagomir.
"No," Ben replied at last, frowning. "But that isn't important right now."
The air shifted when Cynthia realised Ben hadn't lowered his wand, leaving her on the wrong side of a potential altercation. Something flashed across her expression Draco couldn't quite place and he tensed, wondering if they'd made a huge mistake in revealing their presence. They would already have to Obliviate the man she'd been with, but if Cynthia was in fact loyal to Elias, they would need to erase the encounter from her memory as well.
"Ben, I—" She choked as she cut herself off, staring blankly into the woods around them. Draco felt his heart rate escalate in his chest; disillusionment wasn't complete invisibility and if she looked close enough she'd be able to see the shimmer of magic. Panic flitted across her face. "I need you to know I didn't know everything—"
"So you knew something," Ben returned, a heavy furrow in his brow.
Her countenance sank with despair. "I didn't know all of my father's plans. What he meant to do to the Lunae Ortus, or to Hugo or—" A stifled sob slipped from her lips.
Draco had learned a hard lesson about trusting Bergens, and as he glanced towards Dagomir, the man's tight gaze fixed on Cynthia, he suspected he wasn't alone in doubting the sincerity of her words.
Frowning, Ben plucked Dagomir's galleon from her palm, his other hand curling around her fingers to take her wand; she didn't resist. "Then what did you know?"
"Only that Father had plans of his own—he said it was best for my own safety that he didn't share the details with me. I did not know he was working with that vile woman!"
Draco noted Ben's care to keep his attention on Cynthia without drawing attention to him or Dagomir, but the man scowled into the bushes beyond even so. "You ought to have said something—under Nocturnus law—"
"I know," Cynthia sniffed.
Ben folded his arms, staring at the girl for a long, appraising moment wherein Draco held his breath for fear of giving himself away. At last he sighed. "I don't know how to trust you." His gaze flickered towards Dagomir. "We'll have to Obliviate her."
"No!" Cynthia cried, tears breaking from her eyes. "Please, Ben—Cosette said everyone else from the council was hunted down and killed after the battle. Can you tell me—do you know if Hugo is alive?" Even as she spoke the words, she followed Ben's stare to where Dagomir stood, her eyes tightening when she must have detected the charm.
Scowling, Dagomir revealed himself, stepping towards Cynthia. To her credit, she stood her ground in the face of two of the most intimidating men Draco knew.
"Dagomir." She swiped a hand beneath one eye. "I'm so relieved to see you both."
"Hugo is alive." Dagomir folded his arms as he towered over the girl, carefully contained fury on his face. "But unless you tell us the truth you'll never see him again."
Cynthia swallowed, her gaze flitting between them. "All my father told me was that he wasn't content with the way the Lunae Ortus and Lunae Amor were running the Order. He said that Nocturnus ought to have belonged to the House of Bergen." She paused for a moment, watching as Ben and Dagomir exchanged a glance. "But I didn't know he was meaning to do anything about it!"
"So why work for him now?" Dagomir asked, waving a hand towards her fallen partner. "Why are you out here patrolling like you're one of them?"
"I was frightened," she gasped, more tears breaking still from her eyes. "I thought everyone was dead and I thought if I didn't go along with what they said—look how easily my father was willing to sacrifice Hugo's life. I thought I'd be next."
Silence descended on the group of them; Draco still couldn't get a read on whether the girl was being honest or if she was simply a good actor. His cohorts looked equally uncertain.
As if she recognised the situation, Cynthia sagged. "I understand if you have to clear this visit from my memory. Will you please tell Hugo I'm alive and I love him?" Her voice dropped to a whisper. "And that I'm so sorry about the Lunae Ortus."
Pain was written in the tight lines of Ben's face as he stared at the woman, a deep frown curving his lips downwards. Still clasping her wand, he took a step back out of Cynthia's hearing range; taking his cue, Dagomir followed and Draco stepped forward.
"If she's lying," Dagomir began, "we're all fucked."
"But if she isn't," Ben muttered.
Tension hung between the three of them for an uneasy moment before Dagomir turned towards Draco and said in scarcely a breath, "If she still bears loyalty to Nocturnus—beneath the forced shift—you'll be able to command her."
Draco frowned. "I don't have the affiliation."
"That shouldn't matter," the man returned. "It's our only way of knowing for sure and if she doesn't respond to the command we'll know she's forsaken her oaths. If she's lying, we'll erase both their memories; if she's telling the truth… she may be able to help us."
Without any further hesitation, Draco nodded. "Fine."
He didn't know anything about commanding another person, as it wasn't something he'd ever sought to do, but he'd read about it in the old journals. Lunaes past had used the power for unsavoury means but Draco had never given it a second thought.
Ben and Dagomir strode back towards Cynthia, standing by the edge of the trees with misery written in her face, and Draco edged along behind them, his wand hand hovering by his waist on instinct.
Then Ben removed the charm concealing Draco from Cynthia's view.
At once she released an unintelligible cry, her head dropping into a deep bow. When she peered back up at him, as if in disbelief, tears streamed once more down her cheeks. "You're alive," she gasped.
Rolling his eyes, Draco muttered, "You should know better than to listen to a word Cosette says."
"Please," Cynthia said, her beseeching eyes turned on Ben once more. "Take me with you—I don't want to be here." Her voice dropped to a broken whisper. "I swear it, Lunae. I didn't know what they were planning."
"We can't," Draco bit out, recognising that nothing could be amiss if they were to trust Cynthia. "Your father can't know anything's wrong."
Confusion flitted across her face before giving way to understanding. "I can help you from inside."
"I command you vow it," he said, feeling a surge of something within his chest, palpable and alive as it mingled with the weak pulse of his magic. His voice came out stronger than he'd intended as he invoked a magic more ancient than he even knew. "On your magic and your life, Cynthia Bergen, that you remain loyal to Nocturnus. That you do not seek to cause us pain and that you will not betray us. If you cannot truthfully do so, remain silent."
An ambient tether of magic reached out from his aura, entwining with Cynthia's as she stared at him in awe.
Draco felt the raw magic surge through him from somewhere beyond him. He wasn't entirely comfortable with the sensation, knowing Lunaes had manipulated the power for darker means.
Her head sank down once more, and she spoke. "I vow it on my magic and my life, Nocturnus is in my heart and none other."
"You will not speak of seeing us today, or of anything you learned." Draco glanced towards Dagomir who nodded.
"I vow it," she whispered.
Draco waited until she looked back up at him, ducking down to meet her gaze, so similar to Hugo's. His voice softened at the tears shining in her eyes. "I will not command this of you, Cynthia Bergen, but should you choose to help us, you will provide great value to that which remains of the Nocturnus Order." He hesitated for a moment before adding, "And I'll arrange for you to see Hugo."
"Please," she breathed, "tell me what I can do."
At least Dagomir nodded, satisfied. Draco stepped back, eyeing each of the small group in turn.
Ben pressed the charmed galleon back into Cynthia's palm with a sort of gentle reverence that made Draco avert his eyes. "We'll use this to communicate with you. Keep it hidden and safe. To respond, only tap the coin with your message in mind."
Cynthia nodded, worrying her lower lip as she tucked the galleon into her pocket.
Leaning back against a tree, Draco checked his watch. They'd need to get back soon; but there was more information they needed.
"What is Cosette doing with the affiliation? Why did she want it so badly?"
All of them turned to stare at Cynthia, who only shook her head. "I don't know. I haven't seen her do anything significant with it yet. Her hatred for Nocturnus runs deep—I wouldn't be surprised if she only wanted it because she seeks some sort of self-righteous claim."
Draco frowned, even though he wasn't surprised. For a long while, the situation had felt personal and he'd wondered whether Cosette had something deeper against him.
Cynthia hesitated, glancing to Ben as if for reassurance. Her voice dropped to a whisper as she cast a brief glance over her shoulder. "Honestly, the problem isn't what Cosette is doing with the affiliation—it's my father."
His heart stopped in his chest, eyes shooting wide.
Cynthia sucked in a sharp breath before going on. "They did something somehow and split it and my father's—" she shook her head "—he's out of control. Threatening any Nocturnus who speak out; he attacked a man the other day, and a few have gone missing."
"He's mad," Dagomir snapped, fury creeping into his face with a deep flush.
But the words only reverberated in the back of Draco's mind, refusing to fit into place and make sense. "Split it?"
With an apologetic grimace, Cynthia nodded. "I'm so sorry, Lunae. They both took a part of the affiliation."
Draco's heart plummeted into his stomach.
Author's Note: Thank you as always for reading! I hope you're still enjoying the story. I know it's been a long ride so far but I love to hear your thoughts!
Alpha and beta love to Kyonomiko, LadyKenz347, and ravenslight.