I don't own any of this, blah, blah, blaaaah.
AN: This chapter is best read while listening to Papa Roach. I recommend the ever popular "Last Resort."
Hermione was up in no time, argument completely forgotten in her panic for her horses, but even then she was surprisingly in control. She raced down the stairs, shouting to Lucius as he ran out of the house ahead of her and calling to Draco over her shoulder.
"Call Harry!" she shouted to him. "Then alert the fire department and come out with us- we have to get the horses-"
He could only nod and follow her downstairs. She snatched up the wand on the hall table by the phone, intent on putting out the flames, and ran into Lucius outside and he immediately put an arm out, blocking her path.
"Lucius, the horses!" she screamed and he turned and looked at her, caught her shoulders. She could hear terrified whinnies coming from the barn and she struggled against him. He gave her a shake.
"It's not a normal fire!" he shouted at her and she stared past him, to where flames were just beginning to lick up the outer edges of the building. One of them curled in on itself and the drew away from the side of the barn before darting back again.
"Oh my god," she whispered. "Fiendfyre. The horses." With an effort, she tore free from his grip and ran past him.
"Hermione-!" Lucius looked after her, started to follow, but Draco's cry made him pause. He turned and saw his son standing on the porch, phone in hand; a look of horror on his face as he watched the growing fire; as he watched the woman he loved tearing off across the field, headed straight for it.
"Draco, don't bother calling the fire department," he shouted. "Muggle water trucks won't work against this."
"Nothing will," Draco responded, dialing Harry. But Lucius didn't hear him, as he was running after Hermione in the next breath.
"Hermione!" he shouted again, reaching the barn in time to see her disappear inside what was swiftly becoming an inferno.
He hesitated briefly until the first of two horses came screaming through the open doors. Hermione had clearly cast some sort of spell to disperse them. Then she was at the door, pulling another one through.
"The paddock!" she yelled to him and Lucius responded instantly, running over to the fenced area, tugging the gate open wide and trying to herd one of the frightened creatures inside. Then Draco was at his side, calming the beast as best he could, taking over. Lucius glanced about, saw Hermione running back into the barn.
"Damn it!" he shouted and turned to Draco, whose face was stark in the bright glow. "Hermione went back inside-"
"I know!" Draco replied and headed the same direction. Lucius' heart leapt into his throat and he shouted at the horses, scaring them off to the far end of the paddock before he turned and followed the young idiots.
Hermione met Draco at the door, yanking another horse along behind her, trying desperately to coax it out.
"Draco!" she exclaimed. "Take her-"
He wrapped the lead around his hand without a word and ducked and ran, forcing the filly out alongside him. Hermione watched him go and then turned, running back down the aisle. It was unbearably hot inside the barn already, but miraculously, enough of the wards Harry had originally placed on the structure were keeping the roof from caving in; kept her horses safe inside their stalls from all but smoke inhalation. She yanked another door open, not caring about the burns on her palms, or her singed hair. The soot in her lungs. She had to save her horses.
She cast another spell at a pair of colts, sending them whinnying with terror as they raced down the aisle to the doors. She could just make out Draco meeting them through the haze and waved a hand to let him know she was alright. He raised a hand in return and she felt her heart squeeze painfully.
Everything before- she could see it so clearly, in the harsh light of the barn fire. In the face of what was so clearly Zabini's retaliation, his revenge.
Nothing mattered but her honesty with herself, with him, with Lucius. Draco deserved that from her. He deserved to know how much…she reached to open another stall and felt the metal latch burn her palm, blister her skin. She started to pull away from the pain, but pushed herself forward and tried to tug the door back.
It wouldn't come- it was stuck. She looked up and over the door and realized the problem. The metal was melting shut from the fire, the joists in the wood smoldering and collapsing, making it impossible to open. Inside the stall she heard the frightened horse screaming and she felt her heart contract again. It was her mare, her best girl. She wouldn't lose her- couldn't.
"Echo, I have you, girl!" she shouted and stepped away, leveled her wand at the door. She managed to fling it from its hinges and Echo exploded from the stall, whinnying and crying. Without warning, the mare reared back and a flying hoof caught Hermione in the shoulder.
And just like that, it was over. She lost the wand, lost her footing, went tumbling to the floor of the barn. She could vaguely hear shouts and whinnying around her; could detect shadows moving- the stamping of hooves, the running of feet. She felt strong arms lifting her and managed to open her eyes. Her vision was blurry. She tried to speak, but the air was too hot.
"I have to get you out," a voice rasped at her and she tried to focus.
"Lucius?"
"We can't save anymore," he yelled to her as he half carried, half dragged her down the aisle.
"The horses-"
"We have most of them, but we can't save-"
"Put me down," she protested. "I can…walk-"
"You need to run," he informed her and started them jogging towards the exit.
She dug in her heels. "The wand," she gasped and turned, summoned it to her. She felt faint. Lucius started to tug her along once more and she shook her head.
"Lucius, the horses- oh, the kittens-"
"Probably dead already!" he shouted over the roar of the fire.
Hermione felt tears streak down her red, stained cheeks and she paused in the doorway of the barn, staring back inside. An evil length of fiendfyre swooped towards them and Lucius forced her down in time.
"Damn it, witch-" he hissed in her ear and then she was being shoved out of the burning barn and into Draco's waiting arms as Lucius disappeared inside for what he hoped was the last time.
She fell against Draco, coughing and shaking. He held her tightly, putting out the smoking ends of her hair and kissing her brow.
"Where's Dad?" he finally asked and she looked up at him, tried to focus again. She shook her head.
"The cats- kittens," she breathed and started coughing again. Draco stiffened as he stared back inside the barn. A head of the fire snapped out at him from the open door and he stumbled back several feet, then scrambled back farther, collapsing on the ground with Hermione in his arms.
"Oh, god," he whispered and Hermione trembled as she tried to follow his line of sight. Something was wrong with her neck…her shoulder hurt. Draco looked down at her again as she gave a small moan and he gasped and tore the rest of her jumper away.
"Hermione, you're bleeding badly and your shoulder- you've dislocated it, at least- oh, god-" he finished in a hushed voice before he started to act, tearing her jumper to bits and trying to staunch the wound. She whimpered and he saw the wand was still in her hands. But of course she couldn't heal herself- not when she could barely see straight. "Hermione, you're still with me- stay awake, stay up for me. Potter will be here any minute, I'm sure of it, Hermione-" His voice broke on her name and he suddenly crushed her to him. She continued to tremble.
There was another roar from behind them and then, miraculously, his father was there. Draco looked up at him and saw he was shirtless, but carrying some sort of bundle in his singed and reddened arms. He set the bundle upon the ground beside them very gently and then collapsed beside it, lying on his back, one arm flung over his eyes as he tried to catch his breath- as he tried to breathe again at all. Half the ends of his hair had burnt away and there were sooty and blistering patches of skin all over his torso, but he was alive. Draco reached over to him, one arm still cradling Hermione.
"Dad?"
Lucius shook his head minutely and continued rasping air in and out of his burning, aching lungs.
The bundle moved slightly and in Draco's arms, Hermione made a small noise- but not one of pain this time. Lucius' arm fell back and he turned his head, sought out Hermione's face. Their eyes met across the bundle and he gave her the tiniest of smiles before he covered his eyes again, focused on breathing once more.
Draco stared down at Hermione's face, saw the tears shining on her cheeks again.
"The kittens," he said and she tried to nod. It turned out to be too painful. "Don't try and move," he murmured to her, kissed her forehead again. He looked back to the barn. The fire was raging completely out of control now, and there were no more terrified whinnies coming from inside.
There was overall a deeply unpleasant smell on the night's air. Draco gazed down at Hermione again and rocked her gently, making sure she was still awake. Across from them, air shuddered in and out of his father's chest. It was a tense peace as they waited for help to arrive.
So of course, it was broken again.
The curse hit Draco in the back, sending Hermione tumbling from his arms as his body was wracked with pain. He curled in on himself, gasping for air as he recovered from it.
"Crucio!" the voice yelled again- a voice they knew. Draco screamed and clawed at the ground as his limbs contorted under the curse. Feet away, Hermione rolled over in the dirt and tried to see who it was.
"Zabini?" she croaked and tried to pick herself up. The dark, blurry figure swept towards them and cursed Draco yet again. Hermione watched him writhing in pain and she felt tears fill her eyes again. First the barn, her horses, all the good things in her life- and all because this insane man had been after Draco? After his father? She wouldn't stand for it.
Except she couldn't even struggle to her knees, let alone her feet.
"Stay out of this!" Blaise yelled at her over the roar of the fire. She pushed herself to her knees anyway and tried to glare up at him.
Her shoulder hurt terribly.
"Leave him alone," she rasped.
"Granger, I'm not here for you!" he shouted and she closed her eyes, focused on standing. Draco screamed again. Hermione thought her heart would leap from her throat. She swallowed hard.
That hurt, too.
"So that's how you…got past them," she whispered. She needed to distract him, draw him away from Draco and Lucius.
"The wards? Pathetic," Blaise crowed.
Hermione perched on one knee as she continued to draw herself up. Draco's pain fed her anger, fueled her determination. She tried to focus on his crumpled, twisting figure as she spoke.
"But how did you-" she winced, "-find me?"
Blaise laughed maniacally. "My mother that Potter thought had abandoned me? Turned out she would do anything for her dear criminal of a son as long as he swore to stay far away from her. She knew how to find you, gave me a wand." He waved it about his head and Hermione was finally on her feet.
She was swaying, and her head throbbed horribly, but she was standing. She gripped Ron's wand tightly. Then she lifted it and fired at him.
The curse went wide and sparks showered the field behind him, lighting up the sky, startling him from his crazy laughter. He stared at her, face contorted with anger and fear.
But instead of firing back at her, he cursed Draco again.
"No!" Hermione screamed, voice completely gone. She stumbled towards Draco's limp body and Blaise chortled madly.
"Don't go near him!" he yelled to her, waving his wand about again. "He's mine!"
"Please-" she tried to speak, but no sound issued forth. Blaise's smile spread wider.
"Cat got your tongue?" he laughed merrily and then leveled his wand again.
Hermione fired another curse, and another. Both went wide and Blaise shook his head.
"You're only making it worse for-"
The next one hit him dead on- a lucky shot, Hermione was well aware, as she squinted at him, saw him lying in the grass several yards away.
"Stand up!" she managed to croak and he was on his feet again a minute later, shaking his head and looking decidedly pale.
"He'll pay for that-"
Another lucky shot. Zabini howled with rage and engaged her. She stumbled away from a Crucio just in time and fired back. She hit him, heard another howl of rage.
And so the deadly dance began, one partner insane with revenge and guilt; the other barely able to stand, but so full of righteous indignation and bitterness that it kept her erect when she should've been on the ground minutes before.
The duel was perhaps the most surreal Hermione had ever had. Blaise was so infuriated that many of his spells went wide, allowing Hermione to stumble along and duck them. She was still in awful pain and could barely see to respond, but she knew she had one chance for surviving this duel- two chances, really.
Either she avoided his curses long enough for Harry to arrive, or she killed him first. Another crucio hit the ground behind her and she tottered back, hid behind a row of bushes. The bushes burst into flames a second later and she cried out and crawled away.
Draco screamed again and Hermione's heart pounded. But at least the screams meant he was still alive, and awake again.
"You hear that?" Zabini roared. "For every minute you avoid me, every second you cower away and refuse to fight me like the fucking witch you are, I'll torture your boyfriend, here!"
Hermione gave a hoarse cry and ran forward on unsteady feet, firing at him again. Blaise fell away from Draco and held his wounded arm. But a second later the pain cleared from his face and he licked his lips.
"Fighting dirty now, Granger? I like it! Learned from some of the best, didn't you?"
"That's right!" she rasped and sent a spell slicing across his chest. He fell back again.
"What, no Unforgivables, Granger?"
She responded by ducking his next spell and pressing herself against the side of a water trough. The feel of the cool metal gave her an idea and she put the tip of the wand to the trough and chanted a spell. A second later the water bubbled and then twisted about, rising from the trough. It snaked through the air to Zabini and doused him good, crashing into him and sending him tumbling across the ground. As he sputtered for air and scrambled for footing on the now muddy ground, she pushed herself back up and leveled her wand at him.
"Expelliarmus!" she breathed, praying that her intention was enough, as she could barely make a sound any longer.
It worked, and Blaise's borrowed wand was flung far away from him. He shrieked with rage and again tried to climb to his feet.
"You good for nothing bitch!" he cried. "I didn't come here to fight you, you stupid woman! I want Malfoy! Draco and Lucius- if it weren't for them-"
Hermione didn't bother listening to the rest of the sentence. Blaise Zabini hadn't been guilty of much, but those few things that she and Ginny had been willing to forget, if not forgive, were compounded in light of tonight's tragedy.
Her horses, her livelihood, all the good things…and then to try and take those final two things from her, those good men, those idiotic, infuriating, brilliantly good men…she didn't have to think in order to finish it all, and her lips formed the words easily, though Blaise never heard them spoken.
Avada Kedavra.
His shocked figure slumped back down into the mud almost immediately.
A second later, Hermione followed him, collapsing to her knees and staring before herself blankly, Ron's wand finally clattering from her hand to the ground.
Meters away, Draco rolled over and pushed himself up, some- most- of his muscles still cramping from the repeated curse. He shuddered hard and shook his head, trying to clear it. He couldn't hear anymore sounds of dueling, couldn't see any sparks of magic. All he heard was the roaring of the fire as the barn was consumed, the frightened whinnying of horses from the far end of the paddock. He blinked several times, pressed his hands to his eyes. He tried to call out despite his strained vocal chords.
"Hermione!" he yelled. "Hermione!" There was a shuffling sound and he blinked warily into the flickering shadows. A faint whisper came across to him. He turned and saw his father lying there, arm still covering his face.
"Dad?" he cried. "Did you say something?"
Lucius didn't respond and Draco shuddered again and crawled over to him, put a hand on his shoulder.
Lucius was utterly still. Draco felt panic bubbling inside him again and he turned away, yelled into the shadows again.
"Hermione! Please, if you're there- Dad- he's not breathing- Hermione!" He shook the older man again and leaned close to him. Beside them, the bundle continued to move slightly and Draco could suddenly hear the sound of mewing.
His heart was breaking.
Harry arrived at the end of the drive a split second before Ginny; but the red haired witch was already yards ahead of him as they practically flew down the gravel path, feet pounding the ground wildly.
"Hermione!" Ginny yelled at the top of her lungs, cutting away from the drive, around the house, through the fields. Towards the smoke and fire. It lit up the surrounding farmland for at least a mile, Harry was certain, and their shadows trailed long behind them as they approached the towering, smoking blaze.
He joined Ginny's desperate cries and then they saw them, yards out from the burning structure. Was that…
"Hermione!" Ginny yelled again and put on extra speed, dashing towards their huddled figures. Harry followed quickly and the two of them fell to the ground beside the couple. Draco was hunched over, holding one of Lucius' hands, and Hermione sat on the other side of him, looking decidedly lopsided and ill, her face and neck streaked with blood and soot, one shoulder horribly swollen, eyes glazed over. Ginny took her in and gingerly touched her cheek.
"Hermione?" she murmured, afraid to even ask.
Hermione looked at her with some effort, then glanced back to Lucius, whose chest was working up and down with a great effort, taking the shallowest of breaths. She sought out Draco's eyes and he looked up at her as if he'd felt her gaze.
"He's breathing again," she managed to rasp, then licked her cracked lips. Draco hunched over again.
Without another word, Ginny took Hermione in her arms and then started attending to the wounded trio. Harry watched them for a second, then stood again and turned to the fire; and began laying spells to contain it until it burned itself out. It was all he could do, until the team he'd called together arrived, to help deal with the remaining mess; writing up injuries, and property damage; and most of all, making sure Hermione and the Malfoys lived through the night.
AN: Still trust me? Good. Stick with me, now.