Author's Note:
This is it. This is the last full chapter of a story that accompanied me through the better part of the last 4.5 years or so. It feels weird to bring it to an end, but I also feel satisfied that people now can read the complete story.
There will be an epilogue that deals with the aftermath as well as bringing other threads to a proper end...
Last but not least, thanks to everyone who followed me on this journey, with special thanks to all those wonderful people who helped me out in some way or other, from cheerleading to idea bouncing to feedback and beta reading. It was appreciated a lot! (Again, thanks to MusicLover19 for beta reading! You're a sweetheart!)
It's me, your dragon!
"Potter!" Draco stormed into the Auror Department with hasty steps the next morning, trying to find the Head Auror. He had a crumpled note in his hands, his knuckles white from the strength of his grip. "Potter! Now!"
"Stop shouting, Malfoy!" Harry appeared in the door to his office, his arms crossed, and his tone beyond annoyed at the disruption. "You know where my office is."
Draco only held up the note for Harry to take when he reached him, trying to keep himself under control as the urge to target his frustration at Harry was tempting. "Read this."
Before Harry had finished reading the short note, they were joined by Ron and Theo who had witnessed Draco's angry arrival. Theo furrowed his brows in confusion as he looked at the note then Draco. "What's up, mate?"
"She's officially out of her mind," Harry said as he finished the note, shaking his head in disbelief.
"I want to know where she is!" Draco uttered, a small growl escaping him before he turned around to pace a few steps. "Why do you Gryffs always have to go all the goddamn way?"
"What's going on?" Ron asked, eyeing them both sceptically before he reached for the note.
"Hermione went after The Hungarian." Draco faced him with an annoyed glare. "I told her that the plan was too dangerous, and she still went!"
"Malfoy, calm down, would you?" Harry moved between them to ease the tension a bit, holding up the note to point at a line. "She wrote that she took your cufflinks with her..."
"Yes?"
"Seriously, Malfoy? Use your brain!" Ron retorted, leaning in, only to be held back by Harry. "The ones that can be tracked?"
"What...? Ugh, Merlin!" In his disbelief that he hadn't seen that line, Draco let his head fall back and took a deep breath. He had used the cufflinks to give his position during the initial rescue mission.
There was a chance to find her.
"Ron, Theo, get the men ready. I don't give a shit about bureaucracy, we need to find Hermione first." After a nod from his two men who immediately turned around to leave for their desks, Harry turned to Draco. "I think I still have the receiver in my office. Come with me."
..
Impatient to wait for the Aurors to be all geared up and ready, Draco had left the Department as soon as the receiver had indicated Hermione's possible location, using several Apparition jumps to reach his destination. He still couldn't believe that she had done this, willingly walking into the dragon's den with open eyes.
To his surprise, the place they had located Hermione was a simple single-floor house in what he would call a dingy neighbourhood with many of the surrounding estates showing signs of neglect. A brief check confirmed that the house was warded against intruders, so just storming inside wasn't an option.
He let out a frustrated growl that grew into a primal scream, hurling his anger at the house. The broken fence posts separating the front yard from the street shook violently, just like the bush branches did behind them. His wand still in his hand, he buried his hands in his hair to help him focus as he paced up and down in front of the house.
The seconds felt like half an eternity until he remembered that Aurors had spells that were used to neutralise wards. He stopped in his step, closing his eyes to help him remember what Theo had told him about them.
Rubbing his temples, he finally recalled the details, even though he wasn't entirely sure about the incantation. He just had to try. Thank Merlin it wasn't an overly complicated spell, it just needed some strength.
So, after a deep breath to help his focus, he cast the spell at the entrance area, immediately hearing the wards crackle under the force of his magic. Wanting the wards to break as fast as possible, he put everything he could muster into the spell.
He was still in the process of bombarding the wards, with them cracking louder and louder under the continuous strain, when the Aurors finally arrived, appearing out of thin air within mere seconds.
"Malfoy!" Harry cried out when he saw what Draco was doing, immediately coming up to him. "What in Merlin's seven hells are you doing?"
"Don't Malfoy me, Potter," Draco retorted without breaking his focus on the spell he was still casting on the wards. "Just help me break those wards!"
"Guys!"
With the combined effort of every Auror present, the wards eventually broke and let them onto the grounds. Harry managed to stop Draco from mindlessly running inside, grabbing his arm.
"Let go of me, Potter!"
"At least wait until my men have secured the entrance!"
"Let go, for fucking Merlin's sake!" Draco roughly pulled away from Harry, forcing him to let go of his arm. He had no intention of waiting until the grounds were secure—Hermione was in there, and he didn't want to waste any more time. Gods, he didn't dare to imagine what she was going through right now; everything she had told him about her time as a captive at the fight pits was flooding his mind, only increasing his desperate need to find her.
And that was why he was amongst the first to storm into the building, ignoring any Auror protocols for a raid. He just wanted to be the first to find her.
However, once inside, entering what looked like the main entrance hall of a much bigger building, they were met by guards covering them with jinxes and hexes. Within a moment, Draco was pulled to the side for cover, even before he could react to the situation.
"Don't move!" a geared-up redhead commanded with an angry hiss, before returning to the chaotic fight; Draco only realised after another breath that it had been Ron who had saved him from being knocked out by a misfired spell.
The guards put up a good fight, knocking out a fair amount of Aurors before being finally brought down and arrested. However, as long as the fight went on, Draco was stuck in his corner, as every attempt to move away was stopped with stray jinxes missing him by only inches. The air was basically filled with shouts and spells until the last of the guards was on the ground.
The Aurors lost no time cheering, but instead split up in teams and spread out through the house to check the whole building room by room. For Draco, this was the chance to find his own way through the continuing chaos of a raid.
All through the building, the sounds of short, intense fights could be heard, followed by brief shouts that the room was secured. However, no Auror so far had found Hermione in any of the rooms, and it was fueling Draco's panic that they were too late.
He ran through most of the ground floor to find anything that would lead him to Hermione, through rooms that were decorated disgustingly lavish, with no eye for aesthetic. On his way through the rooms, he passed many Aurors who only acknowledged him with a quick glance while checking their corner for further traps or trying to heal minor jinx burns on their limbs.
Eventually, Draco returned to the main living room with its overly luxurious furniture, fighting to keep his disappointment bordering on sheer panic under control. The tracing had led them to this place, yet there was not a single sign of her to be found.
As he passed the walled bookshelf while pacing, he suddenly stopped. There had been a muffled sound that could have been a scream. Staying still, he tried to listen for more sounds, to make sure he hadn't just imagined it in his despair.
There was another muffled scream.
He hadn't imagined it!
His hope renewed, he searched the whole bookshelf for a way to enter whatever room was hidden behind it. So many books, and they all could be the trigger to open the door.
"Malfoy, I'm sorry. The house is—what are you doing?"
"Shh! There's room behind this wall, and I heard someone scream–"
"Hermione?" Harry immediately came up to him, nodding at Ron to follow him. "Was it her?"
"I don't know. But it sounded like someone being tortured." Draco continued checking every book to find the trigger, until he was stopped by Harry who tried to push him aside; the look on the Head Auror's face made it clear that he wouldn't accept any protest, so Draco stepped aside after a quick scowl.
Ron stood behind them, his wand raised. "I never thought you'd ever forget to use your magic..."
One precisely cast Revelio later, parts of the bookshelf creaked as they started moving, opening inch by inch to reveal a lounge room, a gaming table in the middle and a billiard table to the side. Like the rest of the house, it was lavishly decorated with an excessive amount of luxurious items. Those closest to the door showed signs of damage, but the further in they looked the more massive the damage and destruction became.
Over it all, the screams pierced through the air, no longer muffled.
It was indeed someone who was being tortured.
But it wasn't Hermione.
Spurred now by his urge to find her, Draco was the first of the three men to react and step inside. However, he had just enough time to turn around and cast a Freezing Charm on Harry and Ron, as he didn't want them to follow him, wanting to protect Hermione from being seen by more people than absolutely necessary.
"Expell–!"
"Stup–!"
As fast as their reflexes were, Harry and Ron were both immobilised before they could finish their spells to stop him. For a split-second, even Draco was astonished that his move had worked at all, as he barely had any time to think about it.
"I'm sorry, Potter." Draco shrugged apologetically before he set about casting one of his own warding spells to block the door. He wanted to gain enough time to deal with Hermione before they would come barging into the room. And his warding spells were not that easily cracked.
Not even by a horde of Aurors.
The room itself was completely demolished, as if a fight had taken place, leaving everything broken and shattered in its wake. Pieces of disgustingly luxurious items were strewn on the floor, as well as the furniture that still showed the lack of sophisticated taste of the owner. And cracks in the walls made other toys visible that hinted at a much darker side of this room.
Giving the interior design no more thought, Draco stepped further into the room; to his surprise, the room was much more spacious, with gaming tables and what looked like a huge sitting area in one corner. Another horrifyingly piercing scream finally pointed him towards one of the other corners where he discovered a bustling mass of feathers roughly pushing another person against the wall; the table in that corner was already completely demolished.
Hermione.
In her anger, she was still a sight to behold—her feathers were fiery red, almost as if on fire; even her hair had a more featherlike appearance. It was a mesmerising, yet utterly terrifying sight. But it was her screeching in delight at the man's screams and whimpers that made his blood run cold, it was such a cruel sound.
Even still standing a few feet away, Draco could sense the wildness of her magic at the edges of his own; it was a first small taste of the anger controlling her, the thirst for revenge. Carefully stepping closer, he braced himself for the full force of her magic, as loaded as it was. "Hermione... please, stop. It's over."
Holding the man up, she turned around to check out the intruder; the ends of her talons were slowly driven into the neck muscles, just enough to cause excruciating pain but not kill him. There was a dangerous glint in her eyes as she studied him intently; with her blackened eyes and the hardened face, she looked more like a bird of prey than anything human. "Mine."
His already racing heart made a jump at her possessive growl, but he didn't move away. "It's me, your dragon. Your mate."
"Mine!" The word was drowned in a guttural sound as she forcibly lifted the man further, only to send him into the wall to the side. "He hurt us! He hurt our mate!"
"I'm safe, Hermione!" He tried to catch her as she moved towards the man groaning on the ground, only to have her slip through his fingers. Not wanting to let her go, he followed her over. He briefly stopped in his steps when he saw the ring on the man's finger and realised who she was treating so roughly.
The Hungarian.
She was taking out her revenge on him, paying him back in kind what she had to endure while being his captive. The sheer force of her magic overwhelmed him, almost choked him even. But he finally understood how deep the pain really went, and even more so how desperate she was for that pain to end.
He should have seen it earlier.
"You filth!" she screeched as she kicked The Hungarian who was still lying on the floor before she leaned down to cast a jinx on him. "You won't hurt anyone else!"
"Hermione!" Without thinking twice, he reached for her winged arm to pull her away from the wounded man, but was surprised by her speed as she got up to push him back, causing him to stumble and eventually land on the ground as well. He didn't have time to react, as she was already hovering over him with her talons pressed on his chest, shredding the fabric of his shirt and leaving superficial scratches.
"Mate." It came out like a soft guttural whisper, surprisingly tender. Some of the harshness of her face disappeared as she let a taloned finger trail across his cheek in a caressing manner.
"Yes." Draco reached for the hand running over his cheek to hold it. His heart racing, he smiled when she tilted her head, glad to see her eyes slowly returning to their usual amber colour; even her magic felt less wild and more like the usual controlled calmness. "I'm safe."
Next to them, The Hungarian started moving again, groaning and coughing loudly, with a few blood drops running down from the corner of his mouth. He laughed when he saw them, although it was more of a gurgling sound that turned into a pained groan.
Within split-seconds, the creature had once more taken control of her, as she returned her focus on The Hungarian whom she sent flying through the whole room until he knocked into a wall on the other side, landing hard and with a loud crack.
"You hurt him!" she screeched as she moved over the debris to attack The Hungarian again with everything she had. The room was quickly filled with pained screams once more.
It took Draco a few more steps to reach her, scared that she might kill the other man before she could execute her plan. He faltered briefly in his step when he saw her torture the wounded man with what looked like a very intense Stinging Hex or something similar.
So much raw pain.
He wished he could relieve her of this burden.
His wand pulled from its pocket, he approached them once more, albeit carefully. "My lioness. It's... it's over. No more torturing."
"He hurt you. Hurt us." She finally stopped the spell, although she didn't let go of her hold on The Hungarian, her taloned hand wrapped around his throat.
"It's okay," Draco replied softly, even though his heart was once more racing. After all, she was still in full creature mode, and he was about to grab her hand; he didn't know whether he would fly into a wall too, but he had to risk it as there probably wasn't that much time left until the Aurors would be storming in here.
"We want our revenge."
He held his breath as he touched her wrist, only to be surprised that she allowed him to lift her hand even. "Remember the plan you had, my lioness. Remember why you are here."
"Plan... We have a plan." Nodding, Hermione's face began to soften into her human face, the eyes once more returning to their usual amber colour. However, the realisation hit her almost instantly, and she pulled away, even moving away a few steps from The Hungarian. "Oh my gods, I... I lost control. I thought I could do it, but... but then it took over."
"It's okay." With an understanding nod and small smile, he got a hold on her hand again, gently pulling her towards him, while he kept an eye on the man on the ground, ready to subdue him if necessary. "Let's finish this, then it'll be all over."
Hesitantly, she accepted his wand he held up for her to take, carefully weighing it in her hands, careful not to leave scratches. "I don't know if I can do it..."
Draco pulled the sleeve off the arm of The Hungarian to reveal the small tattoo that designated him as a member of The Organisation. The inked ferret was rolled up, covered in blood from the different wounds. He didn't care in the slightest about the pained whimpers and groans coming from The Hungarian who only put up a weak fight. That abysmal piece of crup shit had done enough damage, had others killed for pleasure, but above all, he had abused Hermione in ways that still made his blood boil.
However, the insecurity in her words stung in his heart, but he refused to take his wand back that she held up. Instead, he wrapped his fingers around hers and pulled her towards him. "Together."
She simply nodded and took a deep breath as she pressed the tip of the wand into the flesh of The Hungarian's arm, trapping the ferret underneath it. She closed her eyes and then started to murmur the words over and over again, louder each time she repeated them.
Draco joined her, repeating the incantation with her, knowing it would add to the strength of the spell. He didn't stop when he saw the tip of his wand start to glow in a green-ish hue, reminding him faintly of the sickly green of the Morsmordre spell.
And then, The Hungarian started moving and shouting, trying to get out of their tight hold. His screams grew louder the more they put into the spell, until the whole room was filled with it next to their still repeated incantation.
Draco struggled to keep his hold on The Hungarian while concentrating on the spell; however, The Hungarian was too weak for any further resistance.
Hermione was now fully concentrated on the spell, pushing the wand so deep into the arm that she was breaking the skin. The more energy and concentration she put into the spell, the hoarser and more pained The Hungarian screamed.
And then a wave of green light rushed through The Hungarian, tensing every single of his muscles before leaving his body again.
The room was suddenly silent.
Neither of them moved or even dared to breathe for eternally long seconds, trying to process what just happened. Draco could feel his heart beating hard against his chest, his blood rushing through his ears deafening everything else.
"He's... He's gone." Hermione was the first to break the silence, uttering those words in a hoarse whisper, even exhaling loudly. She slumped as the tension finally left her, the previous fight taking its toll on her body.
Even Draco felt the tension of the previous hours dissipate, making space for utter exhaustion, mixed with relief that they had made it through everything. He let go of his hold on her hand and brushed through his hair, taking a deep breath.
They had made it.
Seeing the dead body of The Hungarian next to them seemed so unreal, like a dream—yet, it was very much real. Slowly, he reached for her hand still holding his wand, carefully unwrapping her taloned fingers.
"The... The ring," she whispered, sounding tired but with a hint of panic in her voice.
The ring was on the hand they had been holding for the first spell, and after fumbling it off the finger, she shared a reassuring glance with him, and when he nodded, she repeated the spell with the same intensity as before.
A dark green light appeared, waving through the ring until it went out with a loud poof.
"What–?"
He had barely the chance to understand what just happened when the Aurors finally managed to break through his warding spells, pouring into the room like a flock of angry doxies.
"Malfoy!"
"Hermione!"
Shouts calling their names immediately filled the room, closing in on the table they were hiding behind. It broke the spell the last few seconds still had on both Draco and Hermione, and they both winced at the sudden increase of noise.
"No, no, no!" Hermione looked at him in horror, shaking her head repeatedly as she tried to find something to cover herself with. "They can't see me like this! I'm still...!"
"Malfoy, you are a bloody git!" Harry shouted angrily as he came closer, searching through the room. "You're going to pay for this!"
Seeing the panic in her face rise as she failed to return to her human form, Draco put off his jacket and transfigured it into a big cover, large enough to cover her entirely. "Here, take this."
She grabbed the cover as soon as he held it up and wrapped herself in it. With a sigh, she came to sit next to him, her head on his shoulder. "Thanks for being here."
He put his arm around her shoulder in a protective gesture, just as the Aurors arrived in their corner. Only now, a sense of relief rose in him, and he squeezed her knowing that now they had the chance to really heal. "It's over."
"Yes. It's finally over."