The room was dead silent and everyone's eyes were on Pansy's. She uncovered her mouth and held out her hand.
"Yes," she said, with tears streaming down her face. "Absolutely yes."
Grinning like a fool, Ron slid the ring on her finger and they kissed as Harry, Ron, and Ginny cheered.
Everyone except Draco rose to hug and congratulate the happy couple.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Ginny asked, happy tears streaming down her face as well. "I could have gotten champagne!"
"He only told us 10 minutes ago," Harry said, putting his arm around his wife. "We can celebrate at their wedding."
"We're going to go," Hermione cut in, giving Harry and Ginny a look.
"Oh, I hear James!" Ginny fibbed. "Must have woken up! Harry, help me!"
Harry let himself be dragged out of the room by his wife with a confused look on his face.
"You two head home," Hermione said, giving them a gentle push towards the door. "Go celebrate."
Seemingly dazed, Ron and Pansy walked out of Grimmauld Place ahead of Hermione and Draco. Hermione watched with a smile as Ron swept Pansy into his arms and apparated them away. Not to be outdone, Draco picked up Hermione and, fastening his mouth to hers, waited for her to apparate them away, which she did immediately.
They appeared outside of her building and Draco set her on her feet. They walked hand in hand into her building and, a few minutes later they settled themselves on Hermione's couch.
"You gave Ron your permission," Hermione said, moving so her head was against his chest and his arm came around her back.
"She loves him," Draco said, shrugging. "He's brave enough to want to marry her. Hard to say no."
Hermione's laughed vibrated against his chest. "What were you and Pansy talking about when we came back into the room? she wanted to know.
"She was saying that she was proud of me," Draco told her, toying with her hair.
"She should be," Hermione replied. "I am."
"Thank you," he said quietly.
Hermione placed a kiss on his chest and they lapsed into silence. Draco watched as a spider made its way across Hermione's ceiling then down the wall.
"There's a spider in your flat," Draco said. "He's on the wall, just over there."
Hermione followed his hand and stared at the spider. She immediately thought back to the Flint and the spider and shuddered. Draco tightened his arms around her.
"I'm sorry," he apologized. "I didn't mean to remind you of that."
Hermione took a deep breath and focused on Draco's arms around her. "It's alright," she told him. "I just feel terribly that I made the spider attack him."
"But you also saved him," Draco pointed out. "I think that makes you even."
"Yes, I suppose so," she murmured.
"I mean to ask you, how did you know that spell?" he asked.
"He taught it to me," Hermione replied. "So I could save him. Have you heard of it?"
"It's an old spell," Draco told her. "Invented by some pureblood hundreds of years ago. Voldemort would use it, taught it to a number of the Death Eaters."
"Why haven't I heard of it then?" Hermione wanted to know.
"There was only one version of the book it was printed in," Draco answered. "The first time Voldemort came into power he destroyed the book. He only wanted the people he chose to know how to use it."
"What did he use it for?" Hermione asked quietly.
Draco sighed and sat up, pulling Hermione into his lap. "If I say I don't know would you believe me and let the subject drop?"
"No," Hermione replied.
"He would poison someone," Draco told her grudgingly. "He'd let the poison run the majority of its course and then, at the last minute, remove the poison from the person's body so they didn't die. He would do it as punishment for Death Eaters who failed him."
"Did he ever do it to you?" Hermione questioned.
"No," Draco replied. "He only used it on the ones who really fucked up and did so more than once."
"So it removes the poison from the body?" Hermione asked pensively. "Through however the poison entered the body?"
"Yes," Draco said, looking at her. "What are you thinking?"
"Can you use the spell to remove anything?" Hermione asked, jumping from Draco's lap and beginning to pace.
"He removed a man's blood once," Draco told her, shifting on the couch and looking up at her. "He died. Why?"
"What if there's a piece of the Cruciatus curse left behind when you have it used on you that many times?" Hermione asked excitedly. "What if we can find a way to pull what's left of the curse out of the person using that spell?"
"That's possible," Draco replied, thinking carefully. "But there's a great deal of risk involved. You could end up pulling out something important or hurting the person further. Plus you'd need somewhere that the curse entered the body."
"The chest," Hermione said. "Every single patient described being hit in the chest with the curse, never anywhere else. What if it left a mark on their chest? Somewhere we can see. We never examined the patient's bodies for anything like that."
"You don't have a mark on your chest," Draco pointed out. "I would know."
Hermione stopped pacing and thought for a moment, then looked down. "My arm," she said, staring at it with a mix of excitement and horror. "Draco, Bellatrix carved this into my arm as she cursed me. What if that's my mark?"
"So what exactly are you suggesting?" Draco asked, getting up from the couch and walking towards her. "That we drag the remainder of the Cruciatus curse from your body through a mark given to you by a maniac using a spell that was originally intended to use for torture and punishment?"
"Exactly!" she exclaimed but then frowned. "But when you put it that way, it sounds terrible."
"Hermione," Draco said, leading her back to the couch and sitting her down next to him. "This sounds like a great idea but there's so much potential for it to go wrong. You could hurt or even kill one of your patients if you don't do it exactly right."
"That's why I'm not going to try it on a patient first," Hermione said matter-of-factly.
"Who are you going to try it on then?" Draco asked.
"Me," she said. "And you're going to do it."
A/N: With all the excitement, I bet you thought I forgot about Hermione's research. Never! This story ended up crazy long but we're finally winding down. Only a few chapters left!
Also someone wrote a review that the chapters come out of order if I upload more than one? So I'll do one at a time from now on and leave time in between if I'm going to upload multiple chapters so that doesn't happen! It may slow down the uploading of the last few chapters but I'd hate for them to end up in the wrong order.