A/N: Hey loves! Another on time chapter! Yay! Thank you soooo much for your comments. I'm so thrilled you guys are liking the way way this is going! So, remember how I told you to buckle up? Well, we're here. I really hope you like it!
Chapter 28
The morning light was filtering in to Hermione's room and she felt Draco shift behind her. She smiled and rolled over to kiss him on the shoulder sweetly before carefully climbing out of bed and tiptoeing to the bathroom. In the four months they had been technically dating, she had learned that Draco was a miserable morning person and it was just best to let him wake on his own. She quietly closed the bathroom door and started the shower, the room slowly filling with steam as she undressed and brushed her teeth. When she stepped into the shower, the hot water washed over her body and she let out a heavy slow breath. Their night at the Weasley's went well enough. It, of course, could have gone better, but considering that no punches were thrown and only a few jibes here and there, she marked it up as successful. She had never expected for Draco to instantly make amends with everyone, but no curses, and remaining civil were steps in the right direction. Baby steps, she thought to herself. She closed her eyes and started rinsing out her hair when a pair of arms snaked their way around her waist and started to drift down her hips. "Draco," she murmured, as his hands slid between her thighs, grazing her lips. "I have to go to work," she moaned as his fingers found her sensitive spot, his firm body pressed against her back.
"Then I suppose I should keep this short," he whispered into the shell of her ear, as his other hand drifted upwards to massage her nipple.
Hermione made another weak moan as Draco continued his ministrations on her sensitive spots, but before she knew it, her back was pressed firmly against the shower wall, the hot water falling over their bodies as they indulged in each other. Hermione made it in to work only slightly late that morning, but thoroughly sated.
"Good morning, Ma'am," Melody greeted.
"Good morning," Hermione smiled.
"Mr. Potter has requested a meeting with you, as soon as possible," Melody informed her.
Hermione's brows knitted together. "When did he ask to see me?"
Melody bit her lip. "He was here a bit ago, but you weren't here yet so he left a note with me."
Hermione's heart sank, of course the one time she wasn't here early. "Okay, thank you, Melody."
Hermione dropped her things off at her desk and headed back to the lift, punching in the floor of the Auror department. When she found Harry he was talking to a group of Aurors over what looked like a floor plan. "Harry?"
Harry's head snapped up. "Hermione!" He looked at the Aurors and excused them. After they left Hermione closed the door.
"There was break in at the Nott Manor last night," Harry said as he excitedly rounded the desk.
Hermione paled. "Is Theo okay?"
"Oh, yeah, he's fine, but apparently it was his father that broke in, and he saw him." Harry looked like he was about to jump off the walls.
"Okay," Hermione said slowly.
"Nott Senior wanted Nott Junior to join him in the uprising. They're planning a comeback and they're trying to recruit," Harry said seriously.
Hermione's stomach hit the floor. "Do you think they're coming after Draco?"
"That's the hope!" Harry spun back around, and it suddenly dawned on Hermione that this was a plot of the Malfoy Manor.
"Harry, no, you can't use Draco as a lure," Hermione almost yelled, as fear ran up her spine.
Harry looked up at her, utterly bewildered. "But, Hermione..." he drifted off.
Hermione was clenching her hands, her breath quickened and a cold sweat started to break out across her forehead, her vision narrowed and blurred and all she could think and feel was her heart racing, her pulse pounding in her ears. She felt the fear consuming her, she felt the complete loss of control of her body, her surroundings, and her mind. All she could feel was the terror, a terror she felt when they were on the run from Voldemort. Her body trembled as screams started to echo in her mind and the smell of burnt flesh invaded her senses. She felt arms wrap around her and holding her close and hard, and then Harry's voice started whispering in her ear, "I am here, you are safe," over and over again, slowly the words became louder and her pulse faded. She felt herself on the floor rocking slowly back and forth and her vision cleared and she realized that she was looking at black polished oxfords. She slowly looked up to find a horrified looking Draco.
"Draco," she mumbled softly.
Draco knelt down in front of her, cupping her face in his hands. He said nothing, but the look of concern told her everything she needed to know. She took his hand in hers, and he slowly pulled her up and securely wrapped himself around her. She heard Draco speaking but his voice was muffled and still fuzzy as her senses slowly returned to her.
"What do you mean, panic attack?" Draco's voice was sharp, and Hermione clenched his shirt.
"She had a panic attack when I started to tell her about a plan." She still heard Harry's voice clear as day.
"What plan?" Draco's voice becoming more and more terse.
"Look here, Malfoy, I have been dealing with these far longer than you have. Don't think you can come in now and..."
Hermione felt Draco tighten around her even more. "Piss off, Potter! She's my girlfriend and I'll do whatever it takes to protect her!"
"You didn't seem to care if she lived or died while Bellatrix-" Harry yelled but Draco cut him off again.
"You don't know shit, Potter! You were locked-" Harry cut in this time,
"Oh, sorry, who the fuck put me there?!" Harry screamed.
"Stop," Hermione whimpered, pulling away from Draco. She steadied herself on Harry's desk and the two men fell silent. "Draco, it was a panic attack, Harry didn't do anything to inflict it, they just happen." She looked at him pleadingly, then turned to Harry, "and Harry, we've established he was shit in the past but continuing to bring it up is only going to cause more hurt."
Hermione watched Harry as he bristled but then resigned. "Sorry, Hermione."
Hermione turned back to Draco, whose jaw was still set, but briefly softened. "Sorry," he muttered.
"Excellent, now I need to sit for a minute, and I could use a glass of water." Draco took her arm and held on to her as she sat down in the chair across from Harry's desk. Draco then knelt down beside her and his thumb rubbing slow circles into her knee.
"You scared the me there for moment," his voice soft and low.
Hermione took a deep breath and nodded slowly. "They don't happen often anymore and most of the time I can stop myself before they get bad, this one just blindsided me." Harry reappeared and handed her a glass of water and she nodded, taking a sip. Draco's brow furrowed, clearly he was concerned but didn't know what to say. Hermione smiled at him. "I'm okay. I promise."
Draco grimaced, but squeezed her hand to reassure himself more than her. He looked over his shoulder at Harry, who was still standing behind him. "Now, will someone please tell me why I needed to come in urgently?" His voice still edging on the harsh side, he slowly stood to face Potter.
Potter just stared him down for long moment, before breaking the tense silence. "Nott residence was broken into last night, and Senior tried to recruit Junior." Harry slid away from Draco and stood behind desk. "Luckily, it seems Junior has no interest in them and he came to us instead."
Draco eyed Harry, still not sure where he was came into all of this. "Theo never really cared for his father period and Voldemort even less. Still, this has very little to do with me, from what I can tell."
Hermione stood up behind Draco, who immediately turned to catch her in his stormy gaze. "Harry wants use you as lure."
Draco looked back at Harry. "Done."
Hermione's mouth fell open. "Draco, do you even understand how much danger you could be in?!"
Draco turned back to look at her, an almost sorrowful look on his face. "Hermione, I brought them to Hogwarts, they used the Manor as their headquarters, I know how dangerous they are. I helped them." Regret now overcoming his face. "And I did shit to stop them in the end. I need to do this."
Hermione pursed her lips, every fiber of her body was screaming this was a terrible, terrifying idea. She couldn't bear the thought of losing someone else close to her. The war had already taken so many from her, but Draco's look told her that he needed this chance at redemption more than she needed to protect him.
"Draco, please... just.." she trailed off, she wanted so much to beg him not to, "be careful." She wrapped herself around him again, fighting the fear that tried to consume her.
"Excellent," Harry said softly. "Now Malfoy-" Draco squeezed Hermione again, but then let her go to join Harry on opposite side of the desk both men craning over the map. What they were actually saying to each other was lost on Hermione, she hoped that eventually they would have been friends but this was not the way she envisioned it happening.
Several days had passed since Draco and Harry devised a plan to infiltrate the Death Eaters' headquarters. Draco went about his life like normal, all the while waiting for someone to find him. He saw Hermione, ran errands, met with friends, but always returned to the manor at night without Hermione. He was just beginning to think that all these efforts had been for naught when, one evening, he returned from dinner with Hermione to find someone sitting at his desk.
"Draco," the voice called as Draco strode into the office, "it has been quite some time," the smug-looking Nott Senior greeted.
"Mr. Nott," Draco said coolly, retaining his composure. "I was sure you had taken up residence in Azkaban."
"Ah, now, Draco, you must have read about my escape from the newspapers or at the very least seen the posters at Diagon. Surely you're not that daft." Nott's lips curled into a taunting smile.
Draco smirked. "Is that what those ugly posters are all over the place are? I just assumed they were early Halloween decorations."
Nott scoffed. "Oh Draco, always so clever, so intelligent, quick witted." Nott stood slowly. "And yet, we come to find out that you're dating a mudblood, and not just any mudblood," Nott rounded the desk "the mudblood." The words fell from Notts mouth like acid and yet Draco kept his cool. "What, nothing witty to say Draco? No sly little comment? Did you honestly think we wouldn't know? You have destroyed the Malfoy line with her," Nott paused for a moment, "filth."
Draco's jaw tightened. "Did it ever occur to you that I'm merely manipulating her? That perhaps I'm trying to tear her down from the inside, ruin her mind instead of her body?"
Nott tsked. "Ah, but Draco if that was the case, then why did you contaminate yourself?" Nott snarled.
Draco let the words fall over him and he fought the urge to retaliate, he needed them to believe him. "The best way to manipulate people is with sex, so yes, I did have to soil myself, but she needed to believe that I cared for her, that I," he let loose the shudder that he'd been holding back, "desired her."
Nott watched Draco carefully. "And pray tell, what did you intend to do with her once you had her at your feet?"
Draco smirked. "I knew eventually there would be a rebellion. I would bide my time and, when the moment was right, I would hand her over and Potter would be at our mercy. Potter would do anything for that mudblood." The word hung heavily on Draco's tongue.
Nott watched him. "And where is she now? Can you deliver her to us?"
Draco eyed him carefully. "Depends on who is "us"? Who's leading this siege?"
Nott's mouth curled up evilly again. "See, Draco, there's only one issue: We don't believe you. We think you fell in love with a filthy mudblood, and then my traitor of a son went to the ministry instead of choosing his family. That filthy mudblood convinced you to betray your lineage too, so here you are trying to dig information out of me to turn around and give to Potter. Really, Draco, did you think that we were that dumb? That we wouldn't see past this pathetic scheme?"
Draco heard shuffling behind him and his stomach hit the floor, he looked over his shoulder to see two other hooded figures standing behind him. Fuck, he thought, how was he going to talk his way out of this? But before he could even say anything, a flash of red caught his peripheral as Nott threw a spell at him. Draco leaped to the side, falling hard to the ground as the room erupted into chaos. Suddenly all three wizards were throwing spells at Draco and he was doing his best to deflect the curses. Draco scrambled to his feet, casting a new protego every time a new spell was thrown his way, but three to one odds were steep and Draco felt himself losing the battle. Draco started throwing his own offense spells. He managed to hit Nott with a reducto that sent him flying across the room into a bookshelf that collapsed on impact, but it was in that moment a stupefy hit him in the rib cage and Draco's world went dark.
Draco's head was pounding and his body aching. He rolled his head back but his head hit something. He groaned loudly and tried to rub the back of his skull only to find that his hands were tied behind his back. The image of Nott and the other hooded figures floated back into his head. Fuck. Draco steadied his nerves, this was not exactly the way the plan was supposed to go. He listened for any movement around him, when he heard nothing he slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, but across from him he see a pale white light illuminating a fuzzy figure, everything else around him was shrouded in darkness. He blinked and slowly the figure became clearer, it looked like someone else tied up. He shook his head, immediately regretting it as the pain in his head blossomed, but his vision cleared enough to see their hair was a dark color and they seemed to be wearing red. He blinked again and the figure became more defined and he realized dark curls obscured the figure's face, but that the red was the same dress that Hermione had worn to their dinner that night. Draco's heart stopped in terror. Draco struggled to get out of his binds, twisting and contorting his wrists, only causing himself more pain but he couldn't care less for himself. "Hermione!" His voice was low and slightly raspy. "Hermione, wake up!" he called, trying to keep his voice low enough not to alert their captors but loud enough to wake her.
"Draco, Draco."
A cool smooth voice came from behind him and Draco's blood ran cold. It couldn't be, his thoughts horrified at the familiarity of the voice. Draco heard the crisp clicks of steps slowly, methodically approaching him. His entire body stiffened preparing to see a nightmare come to life.
"A mudblood, truly you disgrace yourself and the Malfoy name. I thought I raised you better," Lucius drawled slowly. He came in to Draco's view, the pale white light barely illuminating him.
"You're fucking dead, this is a hallucination." Draco let his head thump against the metal pole he was bound to and scoffed to himself. Perfect, now he was delusional. Lucius leaned down and back handed Draco and as the metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, horror once again set in. Lucius was alive and he had Hermione.
"I'm not dead, you petulant fool," Lucius sneered. "I took Draught of Living Death to fake my passing then, after my burial, the Montague's son slipped into the family mausoleum and gave me the antidote. Did you honestly think I was dead, Draco? Driven to insanity at Azkaban?"
Draco smirked. "Well, one can only hope." This time, Lucius struck him with his cane and more blood rushed into his mouth. Draco spat it out and laughed. "So, you're the mastermind behind all of this? Or have you started sucking a different mad man's cock?" This earned Draco a very painful kick to his side.
"How dare you speak to your father like that!" Lucius seethed. "If it weren't for me you wouldn't have existed!" he spat.
"Congratulations, you did all of two seconds worth of work, do you want a fucking medal?" Draco provoked. Lucius kicked him again, and Draco was sure he had snapped a rib because breathing was became very painful.
"Keep it up, Draco, and this will only get more painful," Lucius warned, his voice becoming a growl.
Draco scoffed again. "There isn't shit you could do to me now that you haven't already done."
"That's probably true," Lucius admitted, and he moved slowly away from Draco. "But her," he sauntered towards Hermione, "she has yet to feel my wrath. And since you're numb to my discipline," Lucius stepped in to the pool of light that surrounded Hermione, "perhaps I should find other tactics," he leered.
Draco was struggling against his restraints, he had been trying to keep the attention off Hermione by provoking Lucius. "Don't you fucking touch her!" he thundered.
"Ah, see, it seems to be working already." Lucius taunted. He snapped his fingers and Hermione jolted to life. She looked around her widely then froze when her eyes landed on Lucius.
"Hermione!" Draco roared and her head snapped towards him
"Draco?" Hermione breathed, still trying to gather her bearings.
"Fucking leave her alone, Lucius!" Draco threatened.
Lucius ran a hand through her curls. "It seems to be the only way to get you to pay attention, Draco. You know how important it is for you to behave."
Hermione looked up at the man that was supposed to be dead. "What do you want, Lucius?" she breathed.
Lucius had no patience for her and yanked her curls backwards, bending down close to her face. "Don't you dare speak to me like that, you filthy little mudblood!" He spat.
Hermione tried to move her face away from his but only managed to pull her hair in his grip. She let out a pained growl.
"Leave her alone!" Draco bellowed again, but Lucius ignored him.
"I want what I was promised, before you and that halfwit murdered my Lord. I want revenge for poisoning my son, and lineage, with your filthy body." He twisted Hermione's neck back.
Hermione could hear Draco struggling and yelling from somewhere in the darkness. "Fuck off. This world was better when we all thought you were dead. Narcissa and Draco were both far off better without you." This earned Hermione a back hand but at least he had let go of her hair.
"Hermione, not another word!" Draco warned her, but Hermione wasn't concerned.
"You are a waste of magic, of life, and you dare to say that I was the infection of this world?" Lucius was uncomfortably close to her, she could feel his breath on her skin and her body shuddered at the thought.
Hermione smiled to herself. "Worse than Dragon Pox." Lucius struck her again and she felt a warm rush of blood fill her mouth.
Draco kept struggling to get himself loose enough when he head a small clinking on the floor. He looked down and a galleon lay on the ground just beside him and a small relief washed over plan could still work, but then another thought occurred to him: if he sets off his coin then Hermione's was likely to go off too, and there was no way that loud shrieking would go unnoticed. His jaw locked and, knowing Hermione, there was no way she didn't have it on her. He debated for a long moment, but decided that it was worth the risk to get them out of there. He focused his mind. Accio galleon, but the coin didn't move. Fuck. He took another breath and imagined the galleon in his hand. Accio galleon. The little galleon scuttled across the floor into his hand and Draco felt a pang of hope. He fiddled with it but slowly managed to turn the edge on the coin twice. Draco refocused his attention on Lucius, who was now slowly circling Hermione.
"Stop. Whatever it is you want, I'll do it."
Lucius looked up slowly at Draco. "You think I want something from you?" A cruel smile crossing his face. "Draco, you're dead to me. The minute you defiled yourself, I disowned you. I hoped that setting you loose would be enough to keep you in line, but apparently you were too daft and kept on with this," he looked down at Hermione, "impurity."
Suddenly, a door burst open behind Draco and hurried steps filled the room. Nott Senior rushed passed Draco to Lucius. He leaned into the Lucius and hissed something into his ear and Lucius' face narrowed at Draco. "Search him," Lucius demanded. Nott turned on his heel and stomped towards Draco. Draco tried to wedge to coin between himself and the pole, hoping that Nott was still as oblivious as he was when he and Theo used to play together as kids.
Nott dropped to his knees just before Draco and started to roughly search him, grabbing and pulling at every inch of his body. He ripped Draco forward, trying to get in to a pocket when a soft clinking sound came from behind Draco. Nott looked up slowly, a slimey grin on his face as he picked up the galleon Draco had tried to hide. "It's here."
"Excellent," Lucius intoned. "Can you reverse the message still?"
Nott looked hard at the coin, muttering to himself. "How did Jug get this stupid thing to work again?"
Lucius let out a very annoyed sigh. "He said the outside turns." Nott played with it a few more seconds and figured out how to use it.
"How many time does it need to turn?"
Lucius' frustration was clearly escalating. "I don't know, you fool. I didn't kill Hestia."
"You were behind Hestia's murder too?" Hermione asked, trying to figure out the reach of this rebellion.
Without warning, Lucius turned and swiftly kicked Hermione in the ribs. "Silence, mudblood." And Lucius hit her with another stupefy, knocking her out again. He turned towards Draco. "We have to move before the Aurors get here." And, with another stupefy, Draco's world went black.
A/N: Also we are very quickly catching up to the point where I'm still writing. So in a couple chapters, you may see some inconsistent posting just because I'm behind. I know, I'm sorry. I'm just struggling with how I want to wrap this up. I'm trying so hard to ensure that I'm not giving you guy a cop out ending. I'll let you know when I run out of chapters so you're aren't just left hanging.
Love, MommaBadger