Ten
Committing an action, doing a deed.
"It is so hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world."
John Green, Paper Towns.
The woman must have been hit rather hard because she did not wake until sometime later. It was enough time for Hermione to shake the drink off. She sat unnervingly, facing the woman because Draco was off talking to the owner about something or another.
She felt her limbs tense as the drink wore off and the woman stirred. Draco was by her side faster than she could blink. The woman was everything that modern novels described as beautiful; blonde, tanned, legs for days and apparently cleavage for days too. She had seen Draco do a quick once over on her body as entered the room and somewhere in her mind she had to groan that it was typical of him.
But she was stirring and her eyes blinked open with a groan. She realised that her limbs were bound, both by magic and by rope, to a rusty pole jutting out of the wall. They had the owner to thank for the rope and the pole.
"I suppose you're going to get all high and mighty and torture the information out of me?" the woman said rolling her eyes and head to look to the side.
"I'm not like you," Draco retorted.
"Well the mark on your arm and stories tell me differently."
Draco remembered the acts he had done, poisoning Katie Bell, allowing Death Eaters into Hogwarts, torturing others in front of his father and Voldemort just to prove that he was loyal to the right side of the war.
"Well I'm not like you," Hermione said standing up just to make herself known to the woman.
"Ahh, Hermione Granger, the girl with all the brains." The woman purred looking at her with more stable eyes, "I'm surprised all that brain hasn't turned to mush after all the work we did to you."
Hermione had to force herself not to listen to her. If she did she would only get riled up.
"That's enough of that," Draco asserted and the woman chuckled.
"Don't tell me that you've begun to get feelings for that mudblood," her head jerked to look at him, "Oh that is classic, wait until you're parents find out."
Draco said nothing. He just looked at the woman. He had to be calm and he could not give her what she wanted.
"What is your name?" He asked instead.
The woman said nothing.
"He asked what your name was."
Hermione's voice was cold. Draco couldn't put his finger on what made it that way but it had an edge to it that he didn't like.
"You think you're all high and mighty just because you have a bigger role than researching things in boring books. But you're just the same old Hermione Granger, mudblood and a filthy little girl." The woman spat and Hermione stepped back. Her eyes shut and her face hardened.
"Furnunculus," the spell was hissed out by Draco and the woman broke out into boils and hives. The woman flinched.
"If you have to know my name it's Leyla Du Lac, at your service," Leyla tried to create some finesse and Draco surmised that she only revealed it because it would not be damaging to the Dark Lord. What would they do with her name?
"How did you find us?" Draco asked positioning his wand at her wrist.
"Like everyone else finds someone." Leyla was blunt and unforgiving.
They weren't getting anywhere. Hermione went forward and positioned her wand on Leyla's temple, a spell coming into fruition in her mind, heat and flame emerging from the tip of her wand.
Leyla flinched.
"What are you doing?" Draco hissed coming up to push Hermione away. She did not allow him, she did not want to be pushed around by anyone ever again.
"I get it," Leyla purred, hiding her flinches as the fire singed away some of the blonde hair stuck to her temple, "You're trying to be all mighty, all active and bad. Trying to get us back for what we did to you. Well do it little girl."
Hermione pushed her wand further into Leyla's skin and she could see the skin blistering and the woman's eyes watering. But not once did the woman scream, she held her tongue. Hermione wished she could have done that when she herself was tortured.
"Expelliarmus," the one word from Draco and the wand was flying out of her hand and into Draco's.
"What did you do that for?"
"Your sanity."
Hermione didn't like that remark. "Legilimens," she whispered underneath her breath. She didn't do this often and so it was bizarre to see the memories come to the surface and swim before her very eyes.
She saw Leyla Du Lac kissing the man that had been with her. Her having council with Voldemort, him explaining how when he created the Dark Mark a small locating spell was weaved into the spell work. Leyla going through Draco's room to locate a hair, the Malfoy's being tortured and blood being forcefully supplied. A spell being done with the mark, hair and blood, a magical signature showing that a Draco Malfoy was indeed in Ireland. Leyla and her husband Marcus, the male death eater, coming to Ireland with the mission of killing Draco and bringing Hermione back alive to Voldemort. Voldemort wanted to kill her himself.
Then a single image of Riddle Manor.
She emerged out of the memories with a gasp and a quick decision. Her wand found its way back onto Leyla's skin, "Duro Homo," and she watched as Leyla's tanned skin slowly started to turn to grey stone.
"Hermione!"
"There's a locator in the dark mark that led her to us, she was sent to kill you and bring me back to England." The words came out of her mouth quick, unable to be contained.
The panic washed over Draco's face. Leyla squirmed in her bonds as the grey stone crept up her skin. Hermione snatched the wand from Draco's lax grip.
"You were hiding something, how Draco's parents got tortured, tell me." Hermione was commanding as she positioned the burning tip of her wand back to Leyla's skin, the areas that were still tanned at least.
"I'll tell you nothing little girl."
The wand was pushed further into the skin. Leyla groaned, nearly screaming but she bit her lips to stop it.
"Narcissa got it first because it made the most impact, three crucio's, and a cut to the stomach. Lucius was next after he was forced to watch, his hair was cut, more crucio's. The Dark Lord was rather merciful with them if you ask me." Leyla gasped out and the wand was still on her skin after she said it.
"There was something about a ball, what about that?"
Hermione watched as the grey tumbled up an arm, and then to a shoulder. She pushed the wand into her neck, watching as the heat left blisters and redness in its wake.
"There's a celebration for the Death Eaters, we like to drink to the many muggles we've killed." It was said with a smirk and the wand was moved to below the lips. Leyla just repressed a scream. Hermione found that she liked the power that she now had, she felt in control and it felt great.
Draco waved a hand, frustration written on his face and Hermione was pushed back, the burning wand was removed from Leyla and she slumped to the ground. Something seemed to come to realization and a finger was lifted to her temple. The magical bonds had come undone and Leyla could move in the rope.
"Avada Kedavra," the words were whispered by Leyla herself and within a second she was slumped in different way, her eyes cold.
"Great now we have to deal with two dead bodies." Hermione muttered and pocketed her wand.
Draco seemed to arise out of the stupor he was in. "What was that?" He questioned, his eyebrows crinkling together.
"What was what?" Hermione played nonchalance and watched as Draco threw his hands up in frustration.
"I'll deal with this just head back to the hotel."
"You don't tell me what to do." Hadn't she just done them a favour? She got information from her, which was more than Draco was doing.
"I don't like this high and proper attitude you've got going on so you're going to go back to the hotel and I'll clean up this mess. It might help if we get hairs off them, you never know when Polyjuice will come in handy."
"You can actually think of something smart Draco." She left on that sarcastic remark and heeded his advice, going back to the hotel to run a bath. She needed not to think for a while. Thinking only brought trouble.
Draco hadn't liked the look in Hermione's eyes when she pressed her wand to Leyla Du Lac; it reminded him far too much of himself, cold, arrogant and unforgiving. He sighed, pressing his fingers more into his pockets as he made his way back to the hotel. The dead bodies had been dealt with, buried in shallow graves and he had paid the owner of the bar a lot of money for his silence.
Ardan accosted him on his way through Ireland's streets, "You coming to the celebrations tonight Young Dragon?" he asked, patting him on the back.
"We planned to leave Ireland tonight Ardan," he smiled still walking to the hotel to see if Hermione's mood had improved.
"Come anyway and leave at first light, we Irish sure do love a reason to celebrate."
"We'll see," he muttered and asked Ardan if he knew anything about a death eater meeting at Riddle Manor. Ardan knew more things than he should have and while he may have just been a wand seller he had more connections than anyone in Clochan an Dragon. Ardan explained that some news had went round about celebrating muggle deaths and the next celebration was the following night. Draco thanked him and promised to see him at the festivities.
"Tomorrow night," he began as he opened the door of their room, "We will go to Riddle Manor and retrieve the daggers that can defeat Horcruxes."
"I take it we are to leave Clochan then?" a voice called out from the couch, there Hermione sat scrubbing her wet hair with a towel. She had clearly been bathing, some water still dripping onto her pants as she looked up at him.
"Yes," Draco gulped and looked away from her, "There's some festival tonight so we'll stay for that but tomorrow we'll leave. We'll need some polyjuice potion first to put the hairs in and then we'll enter Riddle Manor like Leyla and Marcus Du Lac."
"I have the potion in my bag," she motioned to the beaded bag that sat on the table in front of her and continued to dry her hair. Briefly he mumbled that he would get ready for the celebrations and very nearly slammed his door when she made a remark that he was almost like a girl for needing so much time to get ready.
The Festival of Lights was what the citizens of Clochan an Dragon were celebrating. The streets were half decorated with muggle and magical lights, a bonfire was enchanted so that the flames shifted into different shapes and people were dancing, zooming through the air on brooms and buying trinkets from market stalls.
Draco had dressed fancy, not knowing anything else, and his shirt lit into different colours as the magic passed over him. Hermione had dressed modestly in comparison, wearing a dress that she would have called fancy and Draco would have called blasé.
"We'll socialise and you can even buy somethings if you want," he gripped Hermione's arm and was glad that the cold look that she had with Leyla Du Lac had disappeared and never came back. He left her in the crowd while he went to find Ardan.
"Don't tell me you've let that pretty lady go on her own Draco," Ardan tutted as he handed the man a drink, Draco didn't enquire on what the drink specifically was but he trusted the older man on his beverage choices.
"She can look after herself," he murmured back, downing the drink in one and coughing at the burn that trailed down his throat. Ardan laughed and clapped him on the back.
"That wasn't the point," Ardan replied, "That girl is fire, and it's best if you hold her closer than arm's length." He was cryptic but then again he nearly always had been, which was what Snape had liked about him. The man pushed him towards Hermione where she bartering with a market seller over the price of a glass dragon. It was spelled to flap its wings and roar and it reminded Hermione of the models the Triwizard champions had been given. Draco didn't push in and buy it for he, instead he stood back and watched as Hermione finally bargained down to a price and grinned at the glasswork, slowly putting it away into her beaded bag.
Why a dragon? Surely it must have been for the name of the Wizarding Street they occupied. That had to be it. A man on a broom barged into him, making him trip and push himself into Hermione's back. "Watch where you are going Draco," she chided and yet Draco was severely tempted to grab another drink.
They always knew how to push each other's buttons and that night was surely going to test him.
From then on he begged himself to have fun and he kept a close eye on Hermione, sipping more of the warm drink when the night turned cold and being taught how to personally shift the flames into a likeness of themselves.
Hermione danced at one point, not with a partner because Draco steadily refused, and her body was molten, swaying to the tunes playing down the cobbled roads. She tucked her face to the sky and screamed with the Irish, roaring her joy into the dark air.
"You'll regret not dancing with her you know?" Ardan murmured when both men watched her. Draco didn't reply, there would be plenty of dancing to do tomorrow and when the war was over. He could wait until then.
Finally as the night wore down, they both hugged Ardan and made their way back to the hotel to sleep and prepare to leave Ireland and their safety behind. They had a war back at Britain and it wouldn't rest even if they wanted it to.