Though it was not evoking the same unrivaled sense of terror in Hermione that it had all those years ago, Malfoy Manor was still an imposing sight. Darkness had fallen and the sliver of a waxing moon that hung in the sky did nothing to illuminate the outskirts of the manor's property. The shadows cast by the scant moonlight and dim rays from the manor's windows, twisted the gardens and woods around the estate into something out of a Lovecraftian horror: all tentacles and madness. It made the curly haired witch shiver despite herself.
According to the twins, the wards went up to the iron gate in front of the house, but not past it. So while Remus and Gideon slipped to the back of the manor, Hermione and Fabian went into the garden, wrapped in disillusionments and protected by Hermione's own adaptation of the muffliato.
The two settled into a spot behind a well maintained shrubbery, crouched low to the ground with an unobstructed view of the gate and gravel path leading to the front door.
The last time Hermione had been on a stake-out, her and Seamus's cover had been blown- literally blown- when her partner had accidentally set a muggle car on fire, causing a massive explosion. Hermione had heard something like 150 muggles had to be obliviated and the incident was reported by the muggle media as a gas line issue. The witch couldn't help but smile to herself at the thought of Seamus's stunned expression, his pale face covered in black soot. Fortunately, no one had been injured save, perhaps, Seamus's pride.
He would really be quite upset to be missing this. Late night stake-out, Death Eater meetings, plenty of combustible foliage.
"That's an odd smile you've got on your face," Fabian whispered from beside Hermione.
Creeper, why are you staring at me?
"I was thinking of a friend," the witch responded in her own low whisper.
"And who would that be?" Fabian pressed.
"Y'know," Hermione whipped her head, curls bouncing, to face him, "we probably shouldn't be talking, wouldn't want to give our position away."
"Aye, I'd be worried about that too, except you cast such a strong charm over Remus and Gideon that it was like they weren't even standing there. So I'd reckon you had an equally powerful spell to disguise any sound we might be making."
Tosser has a point.
Hermione's charms for various degrees of concealment had been developed during the war and nearly perfected by her time in the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She was quite confident in her ability to disguise anyone or anything.
"Maybe," Hermione shrugged, "I could lower the intensity of the charm though, to get you to stop talking."
"Tsk tsk, Granger," Fabian chuckled, "why so hostile?"
Hermione glared, mouth partially open in an obvious sneer, "Oh, this couldn't have anything to do with when you, I don't know, broke into my room while I was using the loo and then threatened me, could it?"
"I didn't break in, the door was open," Fabian pointed out, "and I never threatened you."
"It was an implied threat."
"Ha! Was it?" The wizard laughed. "I needed to get a feel for you, Granger."
Surprisingly honest answer.
"Well," Hermione scoffed, "did you get a feel for me, Prewett?"
"No," Fabian said slowly leaning in so close to Hermione's face, she almost flinched, "afraid I didn't."
Hermione gave a wordless grunt, pushing the wizard away, "Gods, what the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to give away our position? It's very clear that you don't trust me, so why in all of bloody existence did you want to be with me-" Hermione stopped, her eyes narrowed as realization dawned on her, "That's why you wanted to be my partner tonight, you want to keep an eye on me."
Fabian shrugged his broad shoulders, "That and Gideon is too kind."
"That's not a fault, y'know, kindness," Hermione hissed.
"In this line of work, with everything that's going on right now, it is," Fabian's voice caught Hermione off guard; it didn't hold any malice, just acceptance, and Hermione was reminded that this was a wizard who had also lost precious things to a senseless war.
Reign in the raging bitch, Granger.
"Yes," Hermione admitted, her voice softening, "sometimes it can seem that way, can't it?"
Fabian was quiet for a few moments before once again breaking the silence, "You're very strange, Hermione Granger."
The witch couldn't help but give a small laugh at that, "That's not the worst thing that's ever been said about me, so I'll take it."
"Oh really?" Fabian asked, "What's the worst then? Cunt? Bitch? Queen of the Harpies? I know Black favors that one."
Hermione thought for a moment, before very deliberately whispering,
"Mudblood."
And the word sucked away all the air between them.
Hermione knew what she was doing, she knew exactly what card she was playing. Fabian didn't trust her and the only means she had, in this moment, to gain at least a bit of that trust, was to give him something. So, she would give him this information.
With just the barest amount of emotional manipulation.
"You're muggle-born, then?" Fabian asked quietly.
"I am," Hermione nodded, subconsciously squaring her shoulders, "So you see, Fabian," she turned her amber gaze to his shadow lit face, "I know you have many questions, I'd be shocked if you didn't, but we're on the same side. These people, these monsters want me to not even exist. You pure-bloods are fighting for principles sake, out of moral obligation, but if we lose, your kind won't be hunted down and destroyed, you're not facing down the barrel of a loaded, genocidal gun or-or wand, I guess." Hermione took a breathe, "But my point is, you're fighting because you choose to, I'm fighting because I have to. I'm fighting to survive."
She looked away from Fabian to stare directly into the darkness, hoping maybe Dolohov or Yaxley would apparate onto the gravel road and save her from this conversation. Alas, no such luck.
oOo
Maybe I'll be struck by a crucio and spared the remainder of this fucking night.
Remus Lupin was not at all pleased with how this stake-out was going. It had been thus far three hours of absolutely nothing, perched amongst the branches of an oak tree next to his fucking ex-boyfriend.
Hex me in the fucking face. Remus gripped the protean charmed coin Hermione had given them in his left palm; she had instructed him to use it if they needed help. The werewolf idly wondered if being saved from Gideon's company was reason enough.
Probably not.
Gideon hadn't said a word, but he didn't need to. The feel of him next to Remus, the rise and fall of his breathes, the unmistakable smell of his skin, was threatening to drive the werewolf insane. Even this far from a full moon, the wolf in Remus was stirring. Whether out of passion or pain, Remus couldn't quite tell. The two feelings were quite similar then, weren't they?
Remus hated Gideon Prewett in the all encompassing way one hates someone who they once loved. Love is Hate's twin; the other side of the coin and when flipped, only Fortuna could say which face would land up. Hate is a passion; a slow burn that could erupt at any moment.
And right now, that was Remus, ready to erupt at any moment.
Gideon cleared his throat with a small cough and Remus considered strangling him.
"Remus, I-I'm-" Gideon spoke slowly, his voice cracking from disuse.
I swear, if he tries to talk to me I'm going to murder him.
"Shut up, Gideon," Remus snapped in a harsh whisper. He inwardly cringed with regret after looking over seeing the hurt look on Gideon's freckled features.
Which only angered him further.
Why should I fucking feel bad? He's the arsehole here, not me!
"I just wanted to say sorry," Gideon whispered pathetically.
Remus's face contorted in disbelief. "You're sorry?" He nearly spat. "Sorry for what exactly? Because I can think of a whole list."
Gideon sighed, rubbing his face with his hands, "I'm sorry for a lot of things. Right now I'm sorry that we're partnered together, I'm sorry I'm making you so visibly angry just by being near you."
"Fine, apology accepted, so stop talking."
"Remus, I know now is not the best time-"
You're damn bloody right it's not the best time.
"-but I've been trying to talk with you for months. You never returned any of my owls, I-I tried to get you alone, but you were avoiding me and James and Sirius wouldn't tell me how to contact you-"
"Yes, because they're good friends."
"I just wanted a chance to explain myself, Remus," Gideon pleaded.
"Explain yourself?" Remus asked indiginantly, "What the fuck did you need to explain?"
"I-I just-"
"Explain how you rejected me?" Remus continued, "Explain how you couldn't fucking look at me? Explain that when I reached out to touch you, you fucking flinched like I was going to hurt you?" Remus growled, he could feel his eyes flash yellow, "C'mon then, Gideon, I'm curious how you planned on explaining that."
Gideon closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "I-I didn't mean to make you feel like that, to hurt you-"
"Yea, well, you fucking did."
"But what was I supposed to do! What was I supposed to say?"
"You were supposed to love me!" Remus admitted desperately, the wound he had been working so hard to suture suddenly ripped open. "You were supposed to love me…"
"I do, Remus," Gideon whispered, reaching a hand up to Remus's face, "I do love you."
For a moment Remus nearly gave in to the urge to lean in to that hand, to soak up the familiar comfort of it, but he couldn't.
"No," Remus swatted Gideon's hand away, "no you don't love me, because loving me means you love all of me."
Remus hadn't always believed that, but over the course of years James and Sirius had helped him realize it. Loving someone means loving all of them.
"Remus, you can't- you can't expect me to…"
"Yes," Remus hissed, "yes I can. Do you think you were the first person I've ever told? The first person to know the truth?"
Gideon opened his mouth, but said nothing, just sighed.
"Well, you're not. My friend's know and my friend's love me. They love every part of me, because that's what love is, love is-is loving every part of a person even the parts they don't like, even the ugly parts, even the parts they have no control over." Remus said, gesticulating madly as he spoke.
"Well, I'm sorry, Remus, I'm sorry I can't love you the way your friends do." Gideon snapped, an old argument between them rippling to the surface.
"That's fine," Remus said coldly, "I don't need you to. I have them."
"Stop making it out like I'm the bad guy! How can you expect me to hear that you're a-a-"
"Werewolf," Remus offered, his voice full of ice and daggers.
"Yes," Gideon hissed, "a werewolf and not expect me to have some reservations about that? How could you not expect me to react that way?"
"Because no one else ever did!" Remus threw his hands in the air, nearly losing his balance for a moment, "Even when I did expect them to reject me, my friends accepted me. James and Sirius and-and even Peter and Hermione-"
"Hermione?" Gideon cut in, "Hermione knows?"
"Yes," Remus snarled, "she does and she doesn't care, she accepts me."
"Are-are you and Hermione," Gideon frowned,"...together."
"Oh for Circe's fucking sake, no."
Gideon's relief was palpable and Remus had to control the urge to push him out of the tree.
"But even if we were, it's none of your fucking business who I-"
Suddenly Gideon slapped a hand over Remus's mouth.
OH THAT'S IT, PREWETT, YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD.
"What the hell!" Remus hissed, pulling Gideon's hand down.
"Shh!" Gideon put a finger to his lips, "Do you hear that?"
oOo
Hermione and Fabian passed the next few hours in a welcome silence. There were many scenarios Hermione needed to work through without worrying about what Fabian Prewett thought of her on top of everything else she needed to worry about.
Would they enter the manor through the front or the back? Which way would they exit? Entering via one way didn't necessitate exiting that way as well. Once beyond the ward would they attempt to apparate? Would they be on brooms? Hermione hated brooms. Who would they be exactly? Hermione desperately hoped that it would be Dolohov. Yaxley she'd love to hex as well, but she had a special plan for Antonin Dolohov.
The witch's mind spun and whirled, following leads and rabbit holes down impossibly twisted scenarios. One could even go so far as to say Hermione Granger was an overthinker.
"Uhm, Hermione?" Fabian asked tentatively, interrupting Hermione's imaginings.
Hermione rolled her eyes, "What now?"
The witch looked down to see Fabian's hand outstretched, palm flat.
"What exactly is the coin doing?"
Amber eyes grew wide. "Remus!" She whispered.
oOo
If Remus hadn't been so worked up from his conversation with Gideon, he may have thought to cast a wordless stupify as the two wizards snuck up behind the two Death Eaters, but unfortunately he had not. The spell tore apart Hermione's disillusionment charms before hitting Remus's silver masked victim, but the sound of his voice alerted the other Death Eater to their location.
"Bollocks," Remus muttered, aware of his mistake too late.
Gideon grabbed Remus by the jumper and pulled him behind a tree. The Prewett twin leaned out, firing off spells as the remaining Death Eater cast hexes of his own while dragging his fallen comrade behind a bush.
"We have to draw him out," Gideon asserted, wand raised, "before he has time to signal for help."
Remus nodded, "Alright I'll run up behind and you-"
And that was when Remus caught the scent. He gagged for a moment, his nostrils caught off guard by the sudden and unwelcome intrusion.
Holy shit, holy fuck.
The werewolf grabbed Gideon's arm, nails digging in to the fabric of his coat, "He's here," Remus whispered, eyes wide with terror.
"Who's here?" Gideon asked, sweaty brow knotted.
Remus opened his mouth to speak, but wasn't given the chance.
"Boy," the sound of Fenrir Greyback's voice ripped through the night air and sent waves of dread down Remus's spine.
"Greyback," Remus mouthed, voice gone.
"Fuck," Gideon cursed.
"I can smell you, boy, I can always smell a member of my pack," Greyback called out. "Come out, come out wherever you are!" He laughed.
Gideon gave Remus a look full of panic and confusion.
Remus swallowed hard, his body shaking.
He lifted his wand.
"Lupin," Greyback growled, closer now.
Remus shut his eyes, willing his heartbeat to slow.
"Sectumsempra!" The voice that cut through the air like her spell was unmistakably Hermione Granger's.
Remus and Gideon burst from behind the tree to see Fabian and Hermione, wands brandished, rushing toward them.
"Pet!" Greyback bellowed, gripping his profusely bleeding right arm, "I cant-" he took a long inhale through his nose, smelling the air, "I can't tell you how happy I am to see you again."
"Eat shite and die," Hermione responded in a voice laced with a hatred Remus had not heard from the witch before. She flicked her wrist, "Stupefy!"
But even injured, Fenrir was inhumanely quick and the werewolf dodged the spell with an almost gleeful growl.
"I am so excited to see you're in fighting shape, pet," the large werewolf's smile was nothing short of feral and it made Remus's insides churn.
Stay away from my witch. Inside of him the wolf growled, teeth bared.
"Stupefy!" Remus called out, casting the spell from behind Fenrir, but it was deflected by a silent protego. The two Death Eaters popped out from behind the bush; the one Remus had managed to stupefy apparently having been revived by his companion.
"This is going to be fun!" Fenrir chuckled, pulling out his own twisted wand and deflecting the next spell Remus cast.
And just like that the area erupted into a fury of spells. Remus and Hermione concentrated their efforts on Fenrir while Gideon and Fabian were dueling the two masked Death Eaters. Remus soon grew exhausted from the effort, his magical core unused to the strain of a sustained duel. Hermione, however, seemed to only be growing more focused; her spellwork impressive to an almost terrifying degree in its precision.
"Silencio!" The witch called out.
Fenrir opened his mouth to roar and when no sound came out, he abandoned his wand and ran at the smirking witch. Hermione did not hesitate. "Incarcerous!"
Thick ropes appeared and wrapped themselves around Fenrir's ankles, tripping the giant werewolf before binding his wrists as well. He writhed on the ground mere feet from Hermione, furiously biting at the ropes.
"Stupefy!" Remus cast and the other werewolf stopped moving.
oOo
With Fenrir down and bound, Hermione turned her attention to the Death Eaters she assumed to be Yaxley and Dolohov. If memory served, Dolohov was the more sinewy of the two. Hermione swiftly analyzed the two Death Eaters, clad in black robes, and decided on which one she felt more likely to be Dolohov. Immediately she rushed to assist Gideon.
I need to see their faces. With a wordless motion of her wrist, Hermione hurled a blasting spell with expert exactness towards the potential Dolohov. The charm hit right as intended on the Death Eater's face, shattering his silver mask.
Bingo. Hermione didn't even attempt to quell the smile that cracked her face. Dolohov.
The Hermione of a few years ago would have been terrified to see that enraged face covered in blood, to stare into those dark eyes full of malice, but this Hermione, the woman she had been forced to become, had been dreaming of this night. The night she would take down Antonin Dolohov herself.
In her world he was rotting in Azkaban, but now here he was like a fruit ripe for the picking.
Dolohov hurled a curse towards Hermione, his whole body thrown into the effort, and there was no mistaking that purple light. Hermione dug her feet into the ground and deflected the curse with her own wordless protego. The two were evenly matched, flinging curses and hexes at each other in an intricate dance of skill and power. Hermione could feel the sweat on her brow, the quickness of her pulse, but she did not slow, she did not falter. Hermione was ready.
However, she had not prepared for the liability that was Gideon Prewett.
Gideon had mostly been staring at the duel in rapt fascination, but soon his Auror instincts kicked in and the ginger wizard rejoined the fray, casting a stinging hex at Dolohov. The Death Eater dodged the hex, but just barely, his face awash with rage, and Hermione saw, as if in slow motion, him whip his wand around.
Hermione knew that movement as intimately as she knew the purple light that it heralded; it had haunted her nightmares for years. The witch gasped, wide eyed, and fired off an expelliarmus. The counter spell hit Dolohov's wand just as that tell-tale purple light burst from the tip of it and Hermione watched in horror as the curse, though somewhat off course now, collided with Gideon.
The wizard let out an inhuman shriek and crumpled to the floor.
"NO!" Hermione screamed as a smile split Dolohov's face. "That," the witch rasped, hate filled bile rising in her throat, "was a mistake."
Dolohov put up his hands, "I'm unarmed," he pointed out smugly.
Out of the corner of her eye, Hermione saw Fabian rush to Gideon's side, while Yaxley, had Remus backed up against a tree. Hermione all but growled her impatience and lifted her wand to hex Dolohov, but a burst of light alerted her to an incoming spell.
The witch jumped to the side second before she would have been hit by what she knew was a crucio. Greyback, ropes chewed through and laughing, sent another Unforgivable spiraling towards Hermione. The witch shifted her focus to the werewolf.
Yaxley must have unstupified him at some point or the spell wore off damnit. Hermione knew incapacitating spells only worked on werewolves and other magical creatures for so long, she had just assumed she'd had more time. She was wrong.
Whereas before the Order members had the upper hand, with Gideon down it now became an evenly matched fight. Fabian stood protectively over his brother, dueling with a rewanded Dolohov as Hermione continued fending off Greyback's assault.
But Hermione knew from experience that they were short on time.
"You have to get him out of here," she called to Fabian between spells, motioning to Gideon.
Fabian nodded, but he didn't dare take his attention off of Dolohov.
Hermione bit her lip furiously. There was no way they were going to get the diary now; she could see Remus's exhaustion and Fabian's concern for his brother was making him sloppy. They needed to apparate away, get Gideon away from this and to an infirmary, but how?
A distraction, I need to create a distraction.
Hermione continued her casting while her mind flipped through the pages of books once read, searching for the right charm. She was running out of time and ideas.
Fuck it. The witch took a deep breath, as if pulling strength from the very air itself.
"Confringo!" Hermione screamed, aiming her wand at the ground just in front of Greyback. The werewolf was thrown backwards as the earth exploded, incapacitating him for a moment as the wind was knocked out of him. Quickly she whirled, sending the same curse at the ground in front of Yaxley and Dolohov.
"Get them him out of here!" Hermione screamed and Fabian, not needing to be told twice, took hold of his brother and disapparated with a crack. Remus ran up to Hermione grabbing her arm.
"Let's go!" He said, dragging her away.
"No- wait! I-" Hermione pulled from his grasp.
The three wizards were barely getting off the ground! She could still get the diary! She could still curse Dolohov! She could still-
"Now!" Remus growled, eyes yellow, grabbing Hermione with more force than she would have expected.
"No!" She screamed, but Remus had already waved his wand, disapparating them both.