Author's Note: The past few days have been pretty busy for me because I've been trying to get everything done super early. And the reason for that is because I'm going to Show's concert tomorrow night! Yaaaaaay! :D Those of you who don't know who Show Luo is (and I'm quite certain that this applies to most of you, since he isn't exactly well-known outside Asian countries, I think)… well, then this doesn't mean much to you. But I don't think he's ever performed in the US before, so I'm extremely excited.

Yep, that had absolutely nothing to do with the chapter. Just felt like sharing! Heehee (:

Chapter 67

I gently rap my knuckles against the door to the infirmary and wait.

A moment later, one of the doors is pulled open.

"Oh hello, Hermione," Tonks says.

"Hello, Hermione," Teddy echoes, peeking out from behind his mother's leg.

I smile down at the boy. "Hello there, Teddy."

He blushes adorably and hides behind Tonks' leg again.

"Did you need anything?" Tonks asks me.

"Well… no, not really. I just wanted to see if you were all right. And if you knew about whether or not Lupin…"

"Yes?"

"Whether or not it's the real him. I'm really sorry—I forgot to check."

Tonks smiles grimly. "It's him. I know it is," she says.

"That's a relief to hear," I say.

"I guess I never thanked you for bringing him back. Thank you, Hermione."

I shake my head. "It wasn't really my doing. Malfoy was the one who handed him over to me."

Tonks bites her lip. "Looks like I'm eating my words, then. He probably had to take some risks to get Remus back to us. I'll have to apologize to him, if I ever see him again."

"Dora?"

Tonks immediately turns back. "Yes?"

"Is it… is that Hermione?"

Tonks moves back into the room, gesturing for me to enter. "Yes it is, Remus."

I tentatively step into the hospital wing and see that Lupin's still lying on the same cot that Tonks and Neville had eased him onto several minutes ago. Tonks moves back toward him and takes a seat on the edge of his bed.

"I saw Mundungus," Lupin says.

He seems to be much more level-headed than he was when I first saw him at Spinner's End. I'm grateful that Madam Pomfrey was able to do something for him.

"Where?" I ask. "Was he free?"

"He was in the cell next to mine. I saw them take him out of his cell and past mine. I don't know where they took him, but he never came back."

I look at Tonks. "I haven't heard anything about him. Have you?"

Tonks shakes her head. "No one at Hogwarts has heard from him."

"Do you think they killed him?" I ask Lupin.

"If they did, he certainly deserved it," Tonks says.

Teddy pats her leg a few times, and she leans down to take him into her lap.

"Mummy," he says shyly, "when can we go home?"

"We can't, Teddy," Tonks says softly. "This is home, now. Remember?"

Teddy pouts, and Tonks looks at him with a stern expression.

"We've talked about this, Teddy," she says. "Really, really bad people are waiting for us to go home, so we can't go back anymore. This is our new home."

"Patience, Dora," Lupin says. "Teddy, we'll go home when Daddy gets better, all right?"

"Remus, don't lie—"

"Daddy's going to go home and scare all the bad people away so that we can all go back. What do you say?"

A smile lights up the toddler's face at the possibility of returning home, but I can only feel sorrow. One look at Tonks' face tells me that she feels the same way. In all likelihood, Teddy won't get to go home for a long time. Not while the Death Eaters know its location.

Teddy fixes wide eyes on his mother's face. "Mummy, Daddy says—"

"Yes, Mummy heard," Tonks replies. "Mummy was wrong this time. Daddy's right. We'll be home soon."

She smiles valiantly, but the emotion doesn't quite reach her eyes. Fortunately, Teddy's too young to notice the hints of sadness in his mother's face.

"Could you take Teddy to your parents, Dora?" Lupin asks.

Tonks' eyes flit to her husband's face, and she frowns.

"I just need a word with Hermione," he adds.

Tonks nods. "Of course. Don't strain yourself, Remus. Madam Pomfrey said—"

"Yes, I know," Lupin says.

"All right, then. I'll come back in a few minutes."

She takes Teddy out of the room and turns to pull the door shut, pausing to smile briefly at me.

"Hermione?" Lupin says.

I turn back and take a few steps toward him. "Yes?"

"Is there something I should know about that's going on between you and Malfoy?" he asks.

I frown. "No, of course not."

"What was it that I saw in Snape's old house, then?"

"I thought you weren't—"

"Lucid? It comes and goes," Lupin says sadly. "I think I'm going insane. I don't know if Poppy will be able to help me."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I say.

"Yes, but there's nothing more to be done. However, I do remember what I saw when I wasn't in my right mind. Thinking back on your conversation, I feel that there is something you should tell us about your relationship with Malfoy."

I shake my head. "There's nothing going on, but I don't see how that's any of your business."

I'm with Ron, anyway. Why would he be worried about Draco? But then again, he can't know about Ron yet. Hardly anyone knows.

"Of course it is," he says. "You are his contact. If there's anything personal going on, it could affect his decisions regarding whether or not to give us information. What if he holds a grudge and chooses to betray us?"

I suppose I hadn't thought about it that way.

"What happened between the two of you?" he prods.

I sigh. "It's nothing. I can handle it," I say. "I'll talk to him the first chance I get."

"I think it'd be best for us to choose a different contact for him," Lupin says. "I don't want anything between you to compromise the information that we get from him."

"It won't, I promise," I insist.

Why am I so bent on working with Draco? It doesn't really matter to me that much… does it? But I don't really like the idea of him working with someone else. It's a strange thought, seeing as I don't even feel anything for him anymore.

Maybe it would be better if we spent some time apart, especially since he doesn't seem to want to talk to me.

Lupin frowns. "That's not for you to decide."

"But if Malfoy and I can sort things out, it won't be a problem anymore, is that right?" I ask.

He nods slowly. "It'd probably be best if you two could reach an understanding, but somehow that doesn't seem possible. Not from what I saw at Spinner's End, at least."

"I'll let you know if anything needs to be changed. You trust my judgment, don't you?"

"Tentatively," he replies with a small smile. "I think it'd be better if you told Minerva though, rather than me. I was half wolf already, and now I'm half mad."

He chuckles weakly, and I shake my head.

"Don't say that. Madam Pomfrey should be able to do something for you," I say.

Then the door opens, and the nurse enters.

"Yes, I may be able to help Remus, but not if you keep pestering him," she says to me.

"Poppy, she wasn't—" Lupin begins.

"It's all right," I interrupt. "I should probably go now anyway."

As I speak the words, I remember that Ron's probably waiting for me back at the house. How could I have forgotten about him?

"Take care, Hermione," Lupin says.

"I will."

I turn away and leave the hospital wing, passing by Madam Pomfrey in the process. She gives me a disapproving look but doesn't comment.

I make my way quickly through the castle, and a minute later, I'm walking through the grounds toward the nearest Apparition Point.

As I pass by Hagrid's hut, I wonder what's become of him. Last I heard, he had gone to France to support Madame Maxime and her followers against the Death Eaters who were after them. Beauxbatons fell to Voldemort's forces shortly after Hogwarts did, and Madame Maxime and her students have been fighting to free France ever since.

I wonder if they've heard that Hogwarts is ours again.

Then I cross the boundary and Disapparate. I appear in the living room of the cottage and see all three boys sitting on the couches, waiting—Ron must have woken up the other two after I left.

"I was beginning to think you weren't coming back," Ron says worriedly.

"Are you all right, Hermione?" Harry asks.

"Yes, I'm fine. Lupin's alive," I report.

Relieved smiles break out across Harry and Ron's faces. Blaise still looks solemn, and I wonder what's wrong with him. Is he still bothered by Ron and me?

Harry hops to his feet. "We should—"

"He's not in a good state," I say before they can get too excited. "Madam Pomfrey won't let anyone near him, except for Tonks and their family, of course."

"Do you know how he escaped?" Blaise asks.

"I don't," I say, shaking my head.

Some of the same guilt rises to the surface again—how could I have been so thoughtless?

"All he really said was that he escaped, and…" my voice fades.

"And?" Harry prods apprehensively.

"He said that he bit Alicia," I say.

All three boys look disappointed and saddened by the news. I suppose we all should have known that something like this would happen when the full moon came and went, and we still had no word from Draco on Lupin's potential whereabouts.

But to know that it actually happened is another matter.

Ron steps over to me and takes my hand. I look up at him to see a reassuring smile on his face, and again I begin to crave that feeling of satisfaction that I get whenever he kisses me.

"Sit down, Hermione," Harry says as he sits back down on the couch. "Naree brought a new book for you while you were gone."

Ron looks away from me, and I feel disappointed. Frowning, I move over to the couch, sit beside Harry, and pick up the new book from its spot on the coffee table. Ron takes his seat in the armchair and flashes another quick smile at me before picking up his own book.

I wish he would look back up at me again…

"I still don't think it's really Dark magic, Hermione," Blaise says, shaking his head.

I frown. "So you think it's all right to share minds like that? You wouldn't mind allowing someone into your head and sharing your thoughts and defenses with them?"

"If it's the right person, then no, I wouldn't mind," he replies.

"But that's not it," I say. "You can make that argument about the Imperius Curse, can't you? You could simply say that allowing the correct person to control you wouldn't be a problem."

"This spell clearly doesn't do the same thing, though," Blaise argues. "The host can still sever the connection, which means that this is mutual. It's not forced. How does that make it a Dark spell?"

"I do see Blaise's point," Harry says. "I think it's on the borderline of being considered a Dark spell."

"Read the description again, Harry," I say.

Harry sighs. "Again?"

"Yes, again."

He clears his throat and begins to read, "'Communimency is a skill, less well-known and much easier to master than its two brothers, that allows the practitioner to enter his target's mind. The practitioner will experience everything as his target does, and he can, to some extent, control the actions of—'"

"That isn't Dark enough for you?" I interrupt, looking at Blaise. "I'm fairly certain that most witches and wizards would agree that a spell that gives someone control over another person to any extent should be considered a form of Dark magic."

Blaise shrugs. "It doesn't seem like such an awful thing to me, that's all I'm trying to say. Besides, you interrupted Harry before he got to the good part. Any powers that a practitioner has, namely Occlumency, will transfer over to his target, if he so wishes. Why is that so horrible?"

"Well, consider this. What if a target wants to be freed and is trying to open his mind to a Legilimens who has the capability of freeing him? The practitioner could use Occlumency to keep the target's mind shut down so that the Legilimens has no idea what's going on," I reason.

"Yes, but that's just one scenario."

"One scenario is enough, don't you think?"

"Think about the benefits, though," Blaise says. "You know that Harry's an awful Occlumens—"

"Gee thanks, Blaise," Harry says, grinning.

"—but if you chose to use Communimency on him," Blaise continues without acknowledging Harry, "you could extend your skill in Occlumency over his mind and help protect him."

"Still, that's a major invasion of privacy," I say. "I'm sure Harry wouldn't want me reading his every thought."

Harry winces. "Yeah, that wouldn't be so fun."

"But what if you were facing off against Voldemort and you didn't want him inside your head?" Blaise asks Harry.

"Then I doubt having a bit of help from me would do any good," I say. "I haven't ever come face-to-face with him the way Harry has, and I'm pretty sure I'll panic."

"I don't think so," Harry says. "You need to give yourself some more credit. I've never seen you break down in high-stress situations. On second thought, maybe it would be helpful to have you there…"

"But it'd be distracting to have me in your head, wouldn't it?" I say.

"Actually, it wouldn't," Harry replies. "It says farther down on the page that the target will barely be aware of the practitioner's presence. And the target can't access any of the practitioner's thoughts, not unless the practitioner wants to share his thoughts."

"What, so do you think Communimency shouldn't be considered Dark magic, either?" I ask.

"I'm not sure. Like I said, it's on the borderline," Harry says.

"He's just saying that to humor you. He's on my side, obviously," Blaise says.

I shake my head. "I can't agree with you there. Giving up control over my mind… I would never be able to do it, no matter how little the practitioner could influence me."

"Well, it does say that the target can force out the practitioner if he has the strength of will to do it," Harry says. "Communimency is easier to master than Occlumency or Legilimency, so naturally, it's easier to overcome as well."

"There you go," Blaise says. "It's not—"

"Yes, but with enough so-called 'strength of will', people can also resist the Imperius Curse. That doesn't mean it isn't a form of Dark magic," I reply.

"But that's different. The Imperius Curse gives control over everything. The strength it takes to overcome that is monumental. Communimency can't be that difficult to throw off, if the practitioner only has to cast the spell and have the most basic grasp of Legilimency," Blaise says.

I open my mouth to rebut his argument, but I'm interrupted by the popping sound of Apparition.

Draco appears on the ground in front of the coffee table, beside Ron's empty armchair. Blood spurts from several wounds on his chest, and he seems barely conscious.

Blaise is the first to react—he leaps to his feet, hops over the coffee table and drops to his knees at Draco's side. Harry and I stand up as well and move toward Draco. The kitchen door opens, and I look over to see that Ron's come into the living room.

I start to feel conflicted. Should I check if Draco's all right, or should I go to stand by Ron?

Harry's squatting next to Blaise, and both boys have their wands out, working to stop the bleeding. Well, Ron's not in any danger right now, so logic says that I should help Draco.

But as I move toward him, a hand wraps around mine, and I glance down to see that Ron's holding me back.

"Let me help him," I say softly.

Ron frowns at me, and I immediately feel contrite. I bite my lip, unable to understand my reaction. I look back at the boys and see that Blaise has done the job well, and Draco looks a lot better already.

Harry's back on his feet, looking at me. "Why aren't you helping, Hermione?" he asks.

"Blaise has it under control," I say. "You aren't helping either."

Blaise glances up at me with one of his unreadable expressions but doesn't comment.

"We should probably move him into his bedroom," Harry suggests, moving to the door and pushing it open.

As Blaise levitates Draco's body and walks him into his bedroom, Ron tugs on my hand. I let him lead me into the backyard without complaint.

Once we're alone, he turns around to face me.

"Did you ever like him? Malfoy?" he demands.

I frown. I know Ron will be upset if I admit that I thought…

"Please be honest," he says.

"All right, I might have thought that I could have feelings for him," I admit. "But they're gone—completely gone. I don't feel anything when I see him now."

He looks displeased despite my clarification that I don't feel anything for Draco anymore, and I take a step closer to him.

"Ron… don't be mad at me," I say. "Please?"

Ron closes his eyes and releases my hand. I look down and see that he's balled both of his hands into fists. His anger only makes me feel worse, and a knot forms at the pit of my stomach.

I reach up and pull his face down to give him a light kiss. "I'm sorry, Ron," I murmur. "But it's all gone, I promise. It was only because he saved me so many times. Anyone would have been touched."

Still he doesn't respond, and I start to feel hurt. Maybe I should have lied to him after all. He's taking this really, really badly.

Then Blaise opens the door. "I wondered where you two had gone," he says. "Come back inside. I know the garden's protected, but it still makes me nervous to see you standing outside."

Ron and I reenter the house, and Blaise shuts the door.

"I can't wait until Malfoy wakes up," Harry says. "We need to find out what happened to him."

"Someone might have given him away—it might be the same person who let Mundungus escape," I say.

"I didn't—" Ron begins.

"Yes, we know it wasn't you, Weasley," Blaise says. "Calm down."

"I really hope he wasn't discovered. If he was, how are we ever going to know what Voldemort's up to?" Harry says.

"Well, we made it without him in the past," Ron says.

"Wait—Malfoy's in the house," I realize. "We should probably get out of the living room, in case Nott decides to Floo him again."

"Right," Blaise says. He starts toward Draco's room. "We should probably come in here—we'll want to speak with him as soon as he wakes up."

Harry follows Blaise into the room. I move toward Draco's room as well, but Ron seems reluctant to budge. I tug on his hand gently, and he follows me inside begrudgingly. I sit down on the bed that Ginny had slept on when she was staying here, and Ron sits beside me. Harry's sitting on a newly conjured chair, and Blaise is perched on the side of Draco's bed.

Harry waves his wand once, and our books come flying in from the living room. I catch the book that I'd been reading and flip it to the correct page.

Then I glance up at Blaise, wondering if he wants to resume our previous discussion. But he's watching Draco closely. I don't understand what he could possibly get out of watching his best friend sleep. It's not as though Legilimency works on an unconscious target. And if it did, I wouldn't be surprised if Draco had worked out a way to perform Occlumency even in his sleep.

Suppressing the intellectual side of me that wants to continue our debate, I turn my eyes back down to the page that I'd been reading before Harry had interrupted us with the description of Communimency.

Sometime later, a word slips from Draco's lips, one that sounds suspiciously like "Granger."

My head shoots up, but it seems that Draco is still unconscious. Harry and Ron are staring at me, and after verifying that Draco indeed has not awakened, Blaise turns his head in my direction as well.

I drop my eyes back to the page, willing them to look away from me.

The look on Ron's face when Draco murmured my name made me feel absolutely dreadful, but hearing Draco call for me in his sleep… in that moment, I felt a strange twinge in my chest.

I can't help but wonder what it is.

Author's Note: In case you're wondering why Draco isn't dying, it's because Aunt Bella didn't mean to kill him. She only meant to maim or seriously injure ;)

And yeah, I made up Communimency for fun. Maybe I'll find some use for it later...