Chapter 10 - Found
I said I wouldn't panic.
I promised.
But that's exactly what I'm doing.
The frozen state is over and my fight or flight response is kicking in.
My heart is pounding; I can feel myself starting to hyperventilate.
This can't be happening.
It can't be real.
But Malfoy confirmed it . . .
No, it can't be . . .
Harry fixed it . . .
"Granger."
He saved us . . .
"Granger."
Everything was supposed to be fine after . . .
"Hermione."
I stare at him.
He used my first name.
"I knew it was a bad idea to tell you before you remembered everything," he says, more to himself than to me.
"What?" I finally reply.
"Are you back?" he asks, brows raised.
"Back?"
"Deep breaths," he tells me.
And I feel my heart rate declining, my mind settles, just a bit.
Is he. . .
I look down to see his hand grasping mine.
He pulls it away.
I open my mouth to ask why he keeps doing these things, but think better of it.
"You weren't fully. . . present," he explains quietly. Answering my previous question?
He changes tones. "Can you at least keep part of your promise? Try to remember what else happened? Or you could completely disregard it and continue to freak out in your head."
"Sorry," I say. "It's quite a lot to comprehend."
I can't do anything.
I just have to remind myself that I can't do anything.
Not here, not now.
And it's hard.
I feel so helpless.
"I know," he replies in a softer voice. "Just . . . remember."
I take one more deep breath, feeling my lungs expand with mentally conjured air.
I have to.
Remember.
I still don't know everything.
And I do want to know.
But can I focus enough? Can I focus my thoughts enough to get back out?
Yes.
Well, I really hope so.
I'll try.
And Malfoy's relieved.
Once more, those walls, the dark, the pain; they surround me.
It's just us.
Almost just me.
Malfoy isn't doing well. Barely conscious, breath uneven.
Bellatrix is gone.
I have no idea how long it's been since he took that curse for me, but I can feel my body, and even more so my mind, gathering strength.
There is a thumping above us, screams, cries, blasts of curses.
My mind is still quite foggy and I can't seem to understand what might be going on.
Light.
Why is there light?
There's a very large hole at the top of the stairs.
Those dreaded stairs.
I hear a yell; the voice is familiar and fills my heart with hope.
We've been found, but they haven't gotten to us. Perhaps they don't even know we're here.
But light.
Some curse has blasted through the door.
And there is a path to escape.
But Malfoy.
I don't see how he could make it that far.
With all my strength I try to drag him towards the stairs.
"Draco!"
I call his name.
Why am I calling is first name?
"Draco!" I scream again.
But he doesn't respond.
And I know I am too weak to get him up the stairs.
I don't want to leave him, I really don't, but I know I have to.
"I'll come back," I say to him. "I'll tell them you're here. I'll save you. I promise."
And I'm crawling; crawling up the stairs because I don't yet have the strength to stand. It feels so far, as though the stairs are never ending, but they do, they end, and I reach the top.
Harry.
I see him.
He's battling someone, and they fall to the ground.
He sees me.
He calls me name.
And he's rushing towards me.
Curses are flying over my head, lighting my vision with various colours.
I'm not even afraid.
Nothing could be worse than what I've already faced.
I need to tell him about Malfoy.
He needs to find those stairs!
And I try to yell, I try to speak, but the world around me is so full of noise and my own voice is so soft and broken, I can't even hear it myself.
I'm hit.
I don't know what it was, but my back is on fire and I am flying through the air.
My head seems to explode as it cracks against the wall.
Blackness.
The end.
I know that was the end of my memories.
There are still missing spots here and there, but that was the ending of what happened to me.
I don't like what I saw.
And for a moment, I'm disgusted with myself.
"I left you," I whisper, shocked at my revelation. "You saved me, took the curse for me, and I left you there."
"You did what you had to do," Malfoy tells me, staring out at the sea.
"Did they find you? Did they search the place and find you anyway?" I ask, desperately hoping that the answer is yes.
But he shakes his head no and my heart breaks.
"I'm sorry," I tell him, tears welling in my eyes.
"I got you into this mess in the first place. I'm the one who should be sorry," Malfoy says, still not looking at me.
And I remember the package I received at my flat, the one with the code.
The location.
I was going to tell Harry at the ministry, but I knew that someone might be after me, so I hid clues for the aurors to find in the case of something happening. This was important, the location of the escaped Death Eaters. I couldn't risk it dying with me.
And something did happen.
"You sent the package," I realize. "Why?"
Malfoy turns to me.
"Because someone had to stop them," he explains. "And you were the only one I knew could decode it and get the information to people who would listen, who would do something about it."
"No one would listen to you?" I ask, already knowing the answer.
"Not about this. Well, not about anything really, but especially not this." He takes a deep breath. "They'd assume I only knew in the first place because I was a part of it. Which I wasn't."
"So you sent it to me." I understand now.
"And in so doing, became the betrayer," he adds quietly.
"What?" Now I'm confused again. He has said it before, that he's the betrayer, and I didn't think much of it then. But he isn't talking about the defection, the trial. He's talking about something different.
"The spell," he begins to explain. "the significant object of the deceased, some part of their original body, and the blood of a betrayer." He takes a breath. "The last time I went back. . . they found the fang. They have all the pieces. They just need a large body of water - something about the power of waves - and a full moon. We all know the power of that."
They have the parts of the spell.
They found the fang.
They're going to bring Voldemort back.
And they're going to kill Malfoy to do it.
My heart races.
"How do we stop it? How do I get back to Harry and Ron? Tell me what to do!" I demand.
"That's the tricky part, remember? It's the part we can't really do anything about at the moment," he says.
"Why? Why can't we do anything? You left! Why can't I?"
"We have to wait for you to wake up."
Author's Note:
Hello my amazing readers! I hope you had a really great week! Mine was super relaxing, but now, I must return to the usual busy insanity of University life.
Things are starting to come together in the story now. What do you think of these most recent revelations? How can Hermione save him when she's trapped?
Let me know what you thought! Have you been guessing correctly?
Thank-you so much to those few who reviewed the last chapter, they really mean so much to me!
Thanks so much for reading! I'll post chapter 11 as usual next Sunday.
