Chapter 5: Ginny's Turn pt. 2
" Where was I?" Ginny asked, plopping down in her chair again as Harry slid a comfortable hand across her knee. The table in front on her had been refreshed with hot tea and a new plate of scones, Blaise and Harry already digging in to the pastries. Draco still sat with his head tilted back, as if calling upon that higher power either to give him strength or smite the others sitting at the table, Ginny couldn't tell which.
"So . . ." Ginny said, rubbing her hands conspiratorially together,
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"Where was I." Hermione murmured to herself, running a finger across the crumpled paper in front of her. A series of 19 dots sat on the page, hooking sharply down before sweeping back upwards.
She recognized the symbol for what it was, an old code between her and her "Number One" that they used for communication during the war when prying eyes surrounded them on both sides. Hermione fumbled for her wand, quickly drawing it's tip along the line of the Draco constellation, muttering the required incantation, "Gamma Draconis".
Immediately the dots wiped away and a crude map revealed itself. Hermione was careful to keep her wand against the paper as her eyes swept the page. Luckily for the both of them, she was used to reading the chicken scratch that was a Draco Malfoy map. A snake and star in a box denoted the ministry safehouse he and Nott had been staying in, and several criss-crossed lines away from them sat a grouping of circles. One of the circles had been filled in while the remaining three were open and empty, which meant four enemies with one wounded.
Hermione memorized the directions and locations of the circles before removing her wand from the enchanted page and watching as the Draco constellation faded back onto the paper and the map disappeared. She stood up, quickly tucking the map into her back pocket as she moved back towards the fire escape. Draco had a habit of plotting out battlefields and encampments during the war, he must have done the same to the V-symp nest that he and Nott were staking out. It didn't explain what had happened to the two Aurors, but at least it gave Hermione information on how many V-symps to expect and where to find them.
Thank Merlin for Draco's anal-retentive diagramming habits.
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Draco scoffed, "Those maps were brilliant and you know it. Anal-retentive my ass-"
"Well that is the idea." Pansy intoned. Ginny giggled behind her hand.
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Thank Merlin for Draco's utterly brilliant and so like, tide-turning diagramming habits. Hermione felt a tightening in her chest as her feet hit the pavement of the alleyway and she began jogging south, as per the astoundingly helpful map instructions. Draco had to be okay if he could just draw those amazing maps like that, like wow. Hermione thought it might be best to frame the map immediately when she got home. Like, what was Draco doing as an Auror when he could be a map maker? She would have to have a talk with the Minister about how utterly wasted Draco's talents were tracking down dangerous criminals.
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"Okay, fine. " Draco dragged a hand down the side of his face and glared at Ginny as Harry snickered next to him, "You are entirely your Weasel brother's sister, did you know that."
"And a-thank you ." Ginny said with flourish, rolling her wrist in a mock bow as she tilted her head towards the frustrated blonde.
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Hermione slowed as she approached the location of the V-symp nest, as Draco's dead-average map indicated. It was on the outskirts of a seedier part of town, surrounded by abandoned buildings and warehouses that were in disrepair and need of either demolishing or gentrification.
The building itself was an abandoned shop front with a half caved-in roof on the second story. The shop itself appeared to have some fire damage and most of its street-facing windows broken as Hermione canvassed it from her concealed position across the street. Of course she could easily spot the shimmer of wards between the iron of the broken window panes, and began weaving a counter-ward as she ducked back into the alley, approaching the V-symp hideout after circling around to its side.
She ducked into a low crouch next to the building, easily sliding back into old habits despite the years since the war. Countering the wards was easy enough and the V-symp casters would be none the wiser as Hermione slipped into the front room, carefully stepping around burnt floorboards and keeping low behind crumbled and empty display stands. She neared the back room, noticing a dingy light from under the door now that the concealment wards were down. Despite the peeling paint and soot damage, Hermione noticed the door knob itself was clean—used. Someone or someones definitely lived here.
Casting a quick Quietus and disillusionment charm on herself, Hermione opened the door to reveal a small storage space and a long set of stairs leading up to the second floor. The storage space held a few boxes and canned goods, supplies for the V-symps, and she could hear voices filtering down from the floor above as she stealthily climbed the stairs.
"-We need to just get rid of them," A young male voice continued, with the tone of someone who's patience was wearing thin, "We need to just—throw them off a building. Somewhere. Somewhere else."
"Throw them off a building 'somewhere else'?" A female voice repeated, dripping with disdain, "Juvenile. Messy. No."
"Blackmail. Blackmail is the way to go." Supplied a gruff third voice with an accompanying slap against wood to underlay the finality of his choice.
"And your brilliant idea is to blackmail the largest wizarding governmental power in the world?" The second voice replied facetiously, "That'll for sure allow us to lie low, Fawley. Brilliant, truly."
"Let's just toss them ," The first voice spoke again with forced calm, "in the river -"
A fourth voice groaned and tried to speak but came out muffled, as if their mouth was full of cotton balls.
"Blackmail, Selwyn." The gruff man, Fawley, reiterated with even more conviction, "So we can move out of this horrid hovel."
The back and forth continued as Hermione finally reached the top of the staircase, chancing a peak in through the ajar door. On the top floor of the ruined shop was a flat; the stairs leading up into an open living space where Hermione could see four strangers arguing around a table off to her left. The gruff voice belonged to a large, imposing man seated at the middle of the table, his curled fist still resting on the wood. Across from him stood a woman in a black dress who held herself as if at one point her outfit had been the height of elegance-Selwyn. On her other side sat Rowle, a younger boy with a thin face and scruffy beard, chin in his hands and looking sullen. And at the head of the table—Hermione bit her lip, half in revulsion and half in awe.
A fourth man stood propped at the head of the table, half of his body looking crumpled and slumped, the other half appearing rigid with stone-like spiking formations erupting upwards and outwards from his skin. The stony formations were what was holding him standing upright, and he appeared to Hermione to be propped up at the table similarly to a muggle cardboard cut-out as his comrades bickered around him. He must have been the unfortunate V-symp on the receiving end of Draco's Skele-GrOhNo, and the injured enemy depicted on the map.
As he tried to talk, Hermione could see a bony formation erupting from his jaw that effectively prevented him from speaking and his words came out an intelligible, muffled mess.
"See, even Gaunt thinks that idea is stupid. We're in no position to bargain with the Ministry." The elegant witch scoffed, gesturing across the room with impatience. Hermione followed the motion with her eyes through the crack in the door and bit down harder on her lip to keep from reacting. On the other side of the room sat two ruffled Ministry Aurors.
Draco and Nott were both straight-backed and ridged in mismatched chairs, magically bound to the furniture. A garish bruise bloomed against Draco's cheek and he shot a withering glare at the conspiring V-symps, as next to him a bored Nott stared blankly up at the ceiling, stifling a sigh. Hermione chewed on her lip, judging her next move. She was faintly aware of the ex-Death Eaters still squawking.
"What bloody river do you expect us to find in Bucharest—please, Rowle, I'd love to know—"
"I—I don't bloody know! But I'm at least offering up ideas unlike you - -"
"—Salazar's tits , will the two of you just shut—"
Hermione physically interrupted their plotting, kicking open the door with so much force that it bounced off the wall and made enough of a slamming ruckus to cause the V-symps to startle and fumble for their wands. As the brutalized door swung back towards her, she caught it by the knob, using the wod as a shield while she leveled her wand towards the squabbling group and fired of a quick Petrificus and Stupefy , catching the scruffy young Rowle in a full body-bind while the errant stunning spell exploded one of the mismatched lamps behind them.
"Bloody hell—" A series of expletives flowed from the other side of the room as Hermione ducked back behind the door, letting it take the brunt of several spells and grimacing at the Avade -green glow that blew off a corner of the wooden barricade. Sparing a glance over at Draco and Nott, she slid out from behind the door again on one knee and threw another Stuefy that spiraled and struck Selwyn in the middle of the chest . At the same time, her free hand crossed under her wand hand to flick towards the two Aurors and conjure a bubble of her specialty wandless Protego around them, just in time to block another Avade aimed at Nott's still-bored expression.
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"How very American-action-hero of you." Pansy commented, raising her eyebrows at Ginny, who quickly reddened.
"Please," She scoffed to cover her embarrassment, waving off the other girl's comment, "Hermione pulled off way more dramatic maneuvers during the war. She's a dueling machine, I once saw her face against four Death Eaters and walk away with only a cut on her forehead."
"Such a fangirl!" Pansy teased, although not unkindly. Ginny's face became dangerously close to matching her hair as she floundered for a response.
"How do you know about American muggle action hero films, Pansy?" Harry asked, coming to his wife's rescue. It was suddenly Pansy's turn to blush.
"I—I, you know, see things on—hear about them in like, The Three Broomsticks." She stammered.
"Do you now?" Harry teased and propped his fist under his chin with a sly grin, encouraging Pansy to continue as she physically recoiled from the table, pushing back in her chair.
"American-whatsit-hero?" Blaise turned to Draco in confusion.
"No idea, mate." The blonde shrugged.
"So anyway , Hermione . . ." Ginny said loudly, steering the conversation back on track.
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Hermione dove across the room as the door was blasted apart by yet another Avade , thrown by Fawley as he rose to his full height. Selwyn dropped rather inelegantly to the ground, stiff as a board thanks to Hermione's S tupefy . The protective bubble around Draco and Nott held as Hermione quickly jumped back to her feet to face the ex-Death Eater that was easily twice her size and three times her weight.
"Hurruf." Fawley spit off the side, addressing her gruffly with his wand pointed dangerously, "I didn't realize they were hiring such small Aurors these days."
"I'm not an Auror." Hermione replied superciliously, slowly side-stepping in front of the two real Aurors and keeping Fawley square in her sights, "Draco, Nott, are you guys all right?"
"Peachy, love." Draco bit out at the same time that Nott replied easily, "Never been so relaxed. Think they do parties?"
"Somehow I doubt that." Hermione threw over her shoulder as she eyed Fawley's rising agitation, the grip on his wand tightening.
"If you're not an Auror, where are you from?" He asked suspiciously, glancing over at his fallen comrades.
"The Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures." She sniffed, as if the answer was obvious. Using her opponent's momentary distraction to her advantage, Hermione flicked her wand with a quick mutter of Impedimentia . Fowley slashed through her spell with brute force, firing off a Crucio that Hermione instinctively ducked under as it scorched through the wall behind her. Moving quickly along the perimeter of the room towards the table the V-symps had been huddled around earlier, she fired off a series of Stupefys to keep the beast of a man busy.
"Enough with the immobilizing spells, Granger." Nott inflected dryly, "This guy punched your boyfriend."
Fowley cursed again, having to quickly summon a Protego to weather the barrage of spells. As he aggressively stepped across the room towards her between impacts, Hermione swirled her wand above the broken lamp beneath her, waiting until Fowley's shield dropped.
With a swift Oppugno , Hermione sent the shards flying through the table at the V-symp, faster than he could re-summon the protective spell and the sharp ceramics slashed across his cheek and raised forearm.
"That's more like it." Nott drawled from across the room.
Fowley lowered his bloodied arm in cold anger, pinning Hermione with a murderous stare as he took another step closer, "Granger, eh? I know you, girl. You killed my nephew in Surrey when your lot attacked my family home."
"Fowley? I recognize the name." Hermione replied grimly, eyes still trained on his wand as he took another step in her direction. She needed him just a bit closer . . .
"The boy begged me not to kill him, promising to turn himself over to the Order if we'd only spare his life. He was still groveling when I Crucio'd him." She baited recklessly, hoping the larger man wouldn't see through her lie. She hadn't Crucio'd anyone on that mission, in reality all she remembered of that raid was freeing the dozen or so Order members held captive in the dungeons below the pureblood mansion. She'd cried when they found Lavender Brown, believing her to be dead, and although the girl was weak she had laughed and held Hermione's wet cheeks with both hands while they Potkeyed back to a safehouse.
Without even a word, the pureblood wizard lunged towards her—just the move Hermione had been waiting for.
With calculated precision, Hermione kicked the table up in front of her, flipping it to face Fowley's oncoming charge. She threw her shoulder into the underside of the table, further propelling it towards him as she poked her wand through one of the holes the lamp shards had made when she shot them through the wood.
"Impedimentia! " She shouted, hearing her spell strike true as the ruined table collided with Fowley's now-stiff body and she fell with him to the ground. Her jaw cracked sharply against the table as she landed on top of it, Fowley pinned beneath.
She took a moment to cradle her jaw, hissing in pain as she raised herself on a forearm.
"Granger, behind you ."
Draco's voice snapped her back to attention and she spun onto her back in time to avoid a hex that hit the table leg behind her and burned a hole straight through it. Gaunt—the unfortunate V-symp who had been hit with Draco's Skele-GrOhNo—teetered towards her, leaning from one side to the other to hobble awkwardly.
"Oh for Godric's . . ." Hermione Impedimentia'd him with ease, and he toppled backwards.
Taking a moment to steady her breath, Hermione rolled herself off of the table and up onto her feet, dispelling the Protego around the two Aurors at the back of the room who were still magically bound to their front-row seats.
Theo Nott—a lanky wizard who Hermione honestly believed had never been surprised in his life—for his part simply stomped his feet on the ground in lieu of clapping and commented dully, "And here comes the cavalry."
"Hello to you to, Nott." With a quick wave of her wand, Hermione freed the men and Draco immediately moved to step too close into her personal space, practically the Malfoy version of a hug. His eyes roved her person to assess any damages.
"Are you ok?" He murmured and Hermione felt her cheeks flush despite the lack of physical contact as she nodded.
"Lookie, lookie." Nott said in a sing-song voice, danging both his and Draco's wands from his fingers, having retrieved them from Selwyn's pocket. He joined Draco and Hermione where they stood over Fowley's still-struggling form.
"I supposed we should let Potter know we're bringing in four V-symps. Get ready for paperwork, Theo." Draco grumbled, swiping an agitated hand through his hair, "Let's make sure they're all bound and Silencio'd ."
Hermione nodded, raising a wand towards Fowley, catching the maddened look that glinted in his eye.
"I'll kill you for this you little mudblood bitch ." Fowley spat, hitting Hermione in the chin with sticky saliva. She flinched at the prejudiced word that she'd never quite gotten used to, no matter how many times and from who she heard it.
"Mm-mmm." Nott tsk-ed, shaking his head from side to side.
"Oh now you've done it." Draco commented cooly, one hand on his lapel as his other hand smoothly pointed his wand towards the struggling V-symp. His face was a mask of carefully controlled rage as he silently knocked Fowley out cold.
And in that moment, Hermione truly loved her boyfriend.
After binding and gagging the four V-symps, Draco ushered Hermione outside the building and left Nott to contact Potter through the half-ruined fireplace on the first floor.
"Are you ok?" Draco prompted again when they were alone, still scanning her for injuries, and Hermione gave him a smile as she leaned back against a brick wall in the alley next to the hideout. Despite his rumpled Auror robes and the purple bruise blooming against his cheek, he somehow still managed to look every bit the composed, self-assured Malfoy heir as he adjusted his cuffs and smoothed his hair.
"Are you? You were the captive of a group of vicious V-sympathizers for who knows how long." Hermione teased as he glowered, stepping towards her. She slid a hand up his chest as she felt the tingling of a healing spell, the ache in her jaw disappearing. She in turn dragged a finger down his bruised cheek, casting her own wandless spell and watching as the bruise receded before her eyes.
"It was only a couple hours." Draco mumbled, then adding with an air of hauteur, "They got the jump on us."
"You poor Slytherins should have paid better attention in Defense against the Dark Arts." Even as Hermione goaded him, she cupped his cheek, stroking gentle fingers along his hairline, relishing in the fact that Draco was safe and unharmed. For the first time in an hour, she felt the cold recede from her spine.
"Maybe we would have if you pathetic Gryffindors hadn't been such easy targets for mockery." He replied, leaning into her touch, his own fingertips brushing the back of her hand, "How did you know where to find us?"
"Katie Bell, Ministry sent me. You had Harry worried when you and Nott didn't check in at 5."
"Ah yes, charmed knut, the height of wizarding technology." Hermione smiled as Draco rolled his eyes dramatically.
"Well it's a good thing your neurotic habits die hard," Hermione pulled the enchanted map from her back pocket to wave under his nose, "so I knew where to find you."
"My neurotic—" Draco scoffed and caught her wrist wagging the map at him, his other arm snaking around her waist and pulling her close. He bent into her neck, brushing his nose against the soft skin under her ear, "It's a good thing you reek of swot so I know where to find you based on smell alone."
He gave a long, exaggerated sniff for effect that threw Hermione into a fit of giggles, her arms reaching up to wrap around the back of his neck as a memory surfaced.
It had been back in their early days at the Ministry, a few months after Draco had returned to being an insufferable, unshakable nuisance of a presence in Hermione's life. She had been headed down a back staircase on her way from her office to the coffee cart when Draco had appeared out of practically nowhere, following down the stairs a step behind her.
"You know, I really think you've reached peak swot, Granger." He said airily, hands in his pockets as Hermione grit her teeth, feeling a migraine coming on, "Those wand exercises you assigned us sound suspiciously like homework. What's next? Reading assignments? Essays on the history of the Auror department? Forgive me, but I left my favorite quill back in—"
"WHAT," Hermione cut him off, exploding, abruptly spinning on the stairs to glare up at his towering form two steps above her as he examined his nails, " What do you possibly want. You won't leave me alone, Malfoy! I feel like I'm back in Hogwarts!"
He looked down at her through half lidded eyes, a wry smile slipping up his cheek, "Well we can arrange—"
"A YEAR . You just waltz into my classroom after a year of silence and suddenly you're all quips and sunshine! You left mefor a year after we—" Oh Godric's rod, she was really doing this now, wasn't she? But Hermione couldn't help it as the words bubbled up uncontrollably, Draco frozen and staring at her with wide eyes, "After all the time we spent together on the battlefield and in the courtroom and—after months of, of looking after each other during the war—and now you're . . . you're just smarming it up like that never happened , and I can't take it anymore! "
"Oh." Draco replied, eyes still wide as Hermione glared up at him, hands on her hips, chest heaving.
"Well," He tried again, clearing his throat as he blinked down at her, "Hang on, you told me to leave—"
"NO I DIDN— I DON'T CARE! " Hermione yelled, cutting herself off as she felt her anger rise to dangerous levels at the gobsmacked look on Draco's face, "There was something—something between us and you just—you just—"
"Granger, after the trials I needed—needed some time. The war was . . . confusing and it turned everything on it's head, my life—" Draco shook his head, trying to sort his thoughts as he closed his eyes, "You turned everything in my life upside-down."
"Great. Thanks." Hermione snorted, turning sharply away from Draco to continue back down the stairs, "Would have been nice to know you were still alive."
"Bloody— wait— " Draco growled, grabbing her arm to stop her. Hermione froze but indignantly refused to turn around, receiving an agitated snarl from Draco. The blonde angrily spun away from her, stomping over to the edge of the staircase instead. She peered over her shoulder as he scrubbed at his hair with his hands, seeming to struggle with himself before throwing them out to either side and proclaiming to the empty stairwell, "I'm fucking trying to court you! This is me,wooing you!"
"Oh." It was Hermione's turn to say, her anger quickly draining. Draco slowly lowered his arms and nervously turned back to face her as she rested a hand on her hip, "Well you're shite at it. You did a better job wooing me during the war when you were covered in mud and hardly talking."
Something sparked in Draco's eye as he took a tentative step towards her, "But I did woo you?"
Hermione's cheeks burned as he moved into her personal space, and she rested an exploratory hand against his collarbone, his arms moving to carefully encircle her ribs, "Somewhere between the map-making and mission planning and blood, yes."
"Hermione Granger, I've wanted to do this for a very long time—" She closed her eyes as his face bent down towards hers in the empty stairwell.
And now, years later, standing in an alleyway next to a V-symp nest, Hermione squeezed Draco close as he laid a kiss on top of her head. The map crinkled in her hand where she pressed it against his back and she paused, an idea forming as she toyed with the paper.
"Malfoy," She said into his chest, "How long has it been since you kissed me in the Ministry stairwell?"
"Hmm?" Draco asked, looking down at her with amusement, "Three years I think, since you said I look better covered in mud."
"I mean, you do, " Hermione said emphatically, "but what about making this longer than three years?"
"Granger, are you breaking up with me or asking me out again? We are already dating." He quirked an eyebrow as she shook her head, pulling away.
"No—I mean, yes, we—Malfoy," Hermione looked up at him, "what do you think of marriage?"
To his credit, Draco paused for only a second before responding, "I think that if I was going to bail on this, I would have done it long ago." He smoothed a hand over the back of her head, "I'm in this for the long haul."
"Good." Hermione said smiling brightly and pulling her arms out from around him, holding up the enchanted map she had folded into a comically-large ring behind his back, the ends twisted together. Draco pulled a hand across his mouth to hiding a smile as Hermione held it up to him,
"Draco Malfoy, will you—" Draco cut her off with a kiss, his hand wrapping elegantly around hers, holding onto the paper ring together.
"Yes", He whispered, deepening the kiss, and Hermione smiled against his lips. It might have taken them a few years, a few bruises, and a few duels to get where they were but she wouldn't have changed it for the world.
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A/N: aaand end Ginny's turn. I've always liked action-hero Hermione fics. Chapter 6 up next week!
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