Hermione laughed as she ran out of the room. She knew it wouldn't hit Rabastan until she left what she was planning to do. Sure enough, she could hear his footsteps pounding after her on the wood floor and the image of him scuttling after her wide-eyed and worried made her giggle even more. He caught up to her and stopped her in her tracks by throwing her over his shoulders once more.
"You know, you really shouldn't make a habit of running away," he said, teasingly. He continued to walk down the hallway with her strung over his shoulder. This time, she didn't fling her arms and legs around, but came right back with a sassy retort.
"You know, you really shouldn't make a habit of throwing people over your shoulder," she said, almost mimicking him. He laughed and carried her into the room that they had shared the night before. She slid from his shoulder, landing soundly on the floor. She looked up into his eyes, neither moving away from each other. They were standing so close, almost touching. Scanning his face from his eyes to his lips to his jaw line, he seemed more and more attractive each time she looked at him. She could still feel the magic of the bond and despite telling herself to keep away, she wanted nothing more than to jump his bones right then and there.
She knew it was partly the magic of the wizarding bond and some of their now shared blood making her lust this way after him. Despite the bond, she wanted him. Before she could make a decision she might possibly regret, she backed away wanting to keep her promise to herself…for the time being.
"We need to talk about contacting the Order," Hermione said, taking a seat in front of the fireplace. He took a seat across from her.
"To be honest, I am hesitant about contacting the Order. I am a very well-known Death Eater, infamous for torturing the Longbottoms into insanity," he said, a pained look crossing his face. "We both know I was subject to the Imperius Curse, but how will they be able to put their trust in me." He paused. "I can barely put any trust into myself." He hung his head, his shaggy hair falling about his face and Hermione could tell he was hurting.
She crawled into his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, hopefully comforting him. He buried his neck into her shoulder. They sat like that for a long time, neither speaking, just sitting.
"I trust you," she whispered. She thought she heard him return the sentiment, but didn't ask him to repeat himself. He was in a vulnerable state and she was lucky enough that he was confiding in her…even if it was so little. Eventually he leaned back into the chair and stared at the ceiling. Not wanting to disturb his thoughts, she laid her head on his shoulder, closed her eyes and let her mind rest.
Hermione awoke with a start, a little disoriented. She had just meant to rest her eyes, yet she had completely fallen asleep. She was situated awkwardly in Rabastan's arms in one of the armchairs by the fireplace. Their arms had become entangled and to her embarrassment, she had drooled on his shoulder. Looking up at him, she realized that he was already awake and was staring at her in amusement, the corners of his lips turning upwards into a smirk.
"You drooled on me," he said, jokingly accusing her.
"Hey!" she yelped, slapping his arm playfully. "It's rude to point it out."
He laughed and peeled her body off of his, setting her firmly on the ground. She stretched her legs languidly, trying to gain feeling in them after sleeping in an awkward position for several hours.
"I need to shower," she told him, heading towards the bathroom. She stopped at the door and looked back at him. "Also, could you get Milsey to move my clothes from my old room to this room?" She laughed at his lack of comprehension and then his sudden giddiness. When she returned back to the room after her shower and walked into the closet, all of her clothes were already there. He had wasted no time completely moving her into his room. She wasn't complaining of course, just mildly impressed how swiftly it had been accomplished. Dressing in her usual muggle attire of jeans and a tee, she went downstairs looking for Rabastan.
Finding him in the kitchen cooking, she realized he must have showered as well as his hair was still wet. Just as the day before, she was still mesmerized by how he moved around the kitchen. How he cooked looked so effortless, so unlike how she cooked. Just like in potions, she felt herself rigid, wanting the cooking to be absolutely perfect. It took the fun out of cooking really. Maybe eventually she would take up cooking extravagant meals, but for now, she didn't see the point. Before she could enjoy the simplicities of cooking, she needed to be free. The wizarding world needed to be free.
Shaking her head of dark thoughts, she turned her attention back to Rabastan who had just realized she was in the room. He began plating the meal, handing Hermione hers first and then walking around the island to join her.
After they finished their meal, they headed to the study to once again discuss the logistics of contacting the Order and deactivating Rabastan's Dark Mark. Hermione wanted to send her patronus to Neville to communicate, but to be honest, it made her a little uneasy and she knew it would unsettle Rabastan as well. A patronus charm had potential to be intercepted, although highly unlikely and she didn't want to think about what would happen after that. As for his dark mark, she wanted to take a closer look at it before she revisited her research from years before.
The firewhiskey was sitting on the table right where they had left it, uncorked sitting on the desk.
"Ahh, I was beginning to wonder if you might have left me," Florin's portrait said.
"Never," Rabastan replied, grabbing glasses from the cabinet, not giving the portrait another glance. Hermione moved her usual seat back to the other side of the desk and sat down. He slid a glass of firewhiskey across the desk to her and Hermione found herself barely catching it as it almost fell to the floor.
"You know," she said, pausing to take a sip of her drink. "I am beginning to think you have an alcohol problem."
He laughed. "Oh, I won't deny that, little witch. Being in the Dark Lord's service over the years, and my stint in Azkaban have exhausted this old man."
She frowned. "You're not old."
"Maybe not, but I feel like it." The conversation ended there. Neither of them wanted to dive down the rabbit hole of his experiences as a Death Eater at that moment.
"Okay, back to business," Hermione said, reeling them back in to the topic at hand. She had no idea why, but both of them had trouble staying on one subject for long periods of time. They hopped from one thing to the next, without hesitation.
"Let me see your arm," she commanded, walking around the desk towards him. He lifted up his left arm, pushing his long sleeve past his elbow, uncovering the black tattoo that made him a slave. She poked and prodded, whispering to herself, cataloging each aspect of the mark into her brain for safekeeping. She knew she possibly sounded crazy talking to herself, but verbally talking through knowledge had always helped her in school and she knew it wouldn't fail her now. Dropping his arm, she started pacing, her hand beneath her chin. Lost in thought, she jumped when a hand reached out grabbing her and pushing her into her chair.
"What'd you do that for?" she exclaimed, sighing in exasperation.
"You were pacing back and forth for at least ten minutes. It was making me anxious." Her face softened as he spoke. It had always made Harry's hair stand on end as well; he had threatened to tie her down once if she didn't stop.
"I'm sorry. I pace when I am deep in thought. Habit…" she said, shrugging her shoulders.
"Care to fill me in on what is running through your mind?"
Ignoring him, she burst out, "Ohmygosh, there is a library here right?" He nodded and she squealed in delight. "We have to go there now, Rabastan! A pureblood library like yours will have better texts than Hogwarts! I am almost positive it will have what I need to get rid of the mark on your arm." She grabbed his arm and pulled him to the door.
"Do you even know where you're going?" he asked her, laughing as she pulled him along. She stopped. "No, I don't. Lead the way," she said, pushing him gently forward. He was probably annoyed with her as she kept stepping on the backs of his feet in her hurry to visit the library. He must have gotten her subtle hint and sped up the pace until they reached the far end of the hallway on the first floor.
He opened the door and Hermione gasped. The library seemed to go on and on, expanding into eternity. It was at least as tall as the three floors of the manor, but she assumed it was magically charmed just like her beaded bag—an extension charm.
"Okay, so I am looking for a text called, Modifying Charms and Spells: Volume I, if I remember correctly. I am unsure of the author, but I do know that was the title."
Hermione attempted to summon the book, but was unsuccessful. She looked at Rabastan in confusion, not sure why the summoning charm wasn't working.
"The library is rooted in the house's magic. Only a blood relative can remove books from the shelves. A summoning charm won't work for me either. I have to physically touch the book to remove it from its place."
"Okay, well how is this library organized? It will make it easier to find if we started looking in the correct places," she said, looking for signs similar to the Hogwarts library, but finding none.
"You won't find any signs saying what is where," he told her. "It is also meant to hide the secrets of the Lestranges. They are books in here that our ancestors wouldn't want dark wizard catchers coming across."
She huffed in exasperation. "Well, isn't there any way that you can get the book without us having to comb through thousands of books?"
"There is," he replied, making his way over to the nearest bookshelf. As soon as he touched the shelf, a book flew out and sailed into Rabastan's open hands. Walking over to him, she saw that it was indeed the book that she was looking for. It must have been up there for ages as it was covered in a thick layer of dust.
"How did you do that?"
"It's the Lestrange magic. Since we knew the title of the book, I could place my hand on the shelf and it knew exactly what I was looking for."
She reached for the book, but he pulled back from her. She frowned. "Why won't you give the book to me? Don't you want to deactivate your mark?"
"I do, but I am taking precautions. My family is known for being blood purists and looking down on others with a different blood status. This book could be cursed against muggleborns," he said, turning it over examining it. "In fact, don't touch anything in this room. It is a strong possibility that they warded everything against muggleborns. You could be seriously injured or even killed."
She nodded and dropped her hands to her side. How cruel for someone to do this to a library and its' books. If an auror had come to check for dark objects and they touched a book, they took the risk of becoming permanently disfigured or even worse, dead. She was more and more appalled each day by the horrible people currently ruling the wizarding world. The faster her and Rabastan could activate their plans, the better off they would be.
Rabastan turned the book over several times in his hands, checking for any physical alterations to the book. Finding none, he retrieved his wand from the back pocket of his trousers and began a series of tapping on the book, murmuring to himself.
He held the book out to her. "This one seems to be okay. But still don't touch any others without me looking it over first. When this blasted war is over, I can officially remove all the dark artifacts from this home. What a glorious day that will be." He gestured to the reading area nearby and she sat right next to him on the sofa, knowing he would want to see what exactly she was researching.
Blowing the dust off the top, she flipped open the book and immediately found what she was looking for. Listed inside full were instructions on how to modify the blocked barrier charm.
"The blocked barrier charm?" Rabastan asked, interrupting her thoughts. "Like the charm that seals magical barriers and portals?"
"Yes. When modified, it would obviously alter the effects of the spell, but what I am going to do is more than modify. I am going to combine the charm with protective spell and a masking spell. That should cover up any and all traces that you exist." She turned her attention back to the book and refreshed her memory from her previous research. Slamming the book closed, she reached for Rabastan's arm, once more to examine the tattoo on his forearm.
She traced the outline of the tattoo and was disturbed to feel the dark magic radiating off it. "Is it always like that?"
He didn't ask her to clarify, but seemed to already know what she was asking. She had never had that type of connection with another human before...like the ones on muggle television where they finished each other sentences. The only conclusion she could come to was that it was because of the wizard's vow they took the day before. She wanted to ponder on the possibilities, but needed to focus on the task at hand.
"Yes, I can always feel the dark magic emitting from the mark. Though, I touched Dolohov's arm once and his seemed to be worse."
Hermione frowned. "Why do you think that could be?" she asked him, already drawing her own conclusions.
"I am sure it is because I was under the Imperius Curse at the time and took the mark unwillingly. It probably didn't take to my body as well," he frowned and looked at his mark. "Come to think of it, I remember it bleeding black for several days. I almost thought the tattoo would disappear with how much ink was leaving my body."
"That is interesting." After knowing the few small details about his mark, Hermione was sure that the modification of the charm and combining it with two others would work. Pulling out her wand, she was ready to test it out.
"Ready?" He nodded and placed his right arm underneath his left, bracing it for what was to come.
She took a deep breath and pointed her wand at his forearm. Looking at Rabastan, he was schooling his features to an impassive face, but knew he was probably shaking with fear on the inside. She was terrified. Performing this spell correctly would be a huge victory for the both of them and would help move their plans in the right direction. If she should fail, Rabastan and her lives would be in danger, unable to escape.
Her hand shaking, her wand couldn't stay pointing at the mark. Rabastan grabbed her hand and kissed the top of it. "I trust you, Hermione Granger," he said, looking into her eyes with complete sincerity. "You can do this." She nodded, soaking in his words of encouragement. Taking a deep breath once more, she steadied her wand on his forearm.
"Claustra obturavit abscondam, claustra obturavit abscondam, claustra obturavit abscondam," Hermione chanted in Latin. She continued the string of words increasing the pace and steadied her voice into loud, clear tones.
A soft green glow encompassed Rabastan's forearm, slowing dissipating, signaling that the spell was completed.
"How does it feel?" Hermione asked.
"Odd…my arm is tingling," he said, lifting his arm closer to his eyes, examining his limb carefully. "It isn't radiating Dark Magic like it did before." He dropped his arm and smiled at her as she launched herself into his arms.
Feel free to leave a review! xx