Over the next few weeks, Hermione and Draco worked tirelessly at mastering the spell. The first two weeks they'd done nothing but harmless or helpful potions, and, after successfully performing the spell, moved on to poisons. Hermione somehow managed to procure a number of different poisons which, while it concerned Draco a great deal that his girlfriend had such easy access to serious materials, ended up being for the best due to the fact that the poisons reacted differently to the spell than the harmless/helpful potions had. During the three and a half weeks they spent working with the poisons they had, to Ollivander's dismay, destroyed 16 wands, suffered numerous superficial injuries, broken seven potion bottles, and nearly destroyed Chuckles when they failed to fully remove one poison before injecting him with another. They could now, however, remove any poison or potion from Chuckles with ease and without injury, which meant they were ready to try it on live human subjects, a concept they both tried to ignore and continued to practice.
They also both actively ignored the fact that, in two weeks time, Draco's probation would be finished and he'd no longer be required to work with Hermione. They hadn't spoken about it. Hermione had no idea Draco intended to stay and Draco had no idea Hermione wanted him to stay. The pair had spent nearly all of their time together as they worked on mastering the spell, choosing to spend even their free time with each other. Draco hadn't slept at the Manor in over two months and even had a number of his things in drawers and the closet in Hermione's flat. It had never been a conscious discussion. He'd merely gotten sick of going back and forth through his mother's bedroom and he'd come back from visiting her one day to a portion of the closet cleaned out for him and three empty drawers. They went grocery shopping together and Draco had even learned how to use muggle money and Hermione's mobile. They had, for all intents and purposes, begun a life together, but hadn't spoken about it, both afraid the other would end it when Draco's probation ran out.
But their personal problems weren't the focus of their attention. Over the last week, with the help of Luna, they'd done full body examinations of the patients under the guise of checking for physical strain caused by the after effects. They found the same scar on all of the patients, on the left side of their chests, directly above their hearts. Hermione and Draco were certain that was the port, the exact location where the wand needed to be placed in order to perform the spell, but they had yet to inform any of the patients that the spell existed. Today was the day they would go, room by room, together, to speak to the patients and see if anyone would volunteer. They were both anxious. Hermione was anxious that someone would volunteer and Draco was anxious that someone would not. They had barely spoken as they got ready for the day. Hermione had burned the bacon and Draco had poured pumpkin juice into his cereal (Lucky Charms had become his favorite) instead of milk. They walked out of her flat in silence and made their way out of Hermione's building. Once they were outside, Hermione made sure no one was around and held out her hand. Instead Draco wrapped his arms around her in a hug and she hugged him back.
"We do this together," Hermione told him. "No matter what happens, I love you."
"I love you too," he said quietly. "More than you know."
Unable to think of anything else to say, Hermione apparated them to St. Mungo's. When they arrived in the patient wing, Luna was waiting for them.
"What are you doing here?" Hermione exclaimed, giving her friend a hug. "I thought you were at Azkaban today."
"I shifted my schedule so I could be here," Luna replied. "The nargles were everywhere, I knew I had to come."
Draco raised an eyebrow at her response but didn't say a word when Hermione gave him a look.
"Draco, you look well," Luna said, stepping forward and embracing him.
Draco awkwardly hugged her back.
"My, you're terrible at those," Luna told him airily. "Perhaps you should hug more."
"I'll...work on that," Draco replied uncertainly.
"Are you both ready?" Luna asked. "This is a big day."
"Yes," Hermione told her, looking to Draco for his affirmation.
"Yes, we are," Draco replied.
"Wonderful," Luna replied. "Let's go in."
The three walked into the wing and began, room by room, speaking to the patients. Draco stood outside as Luna and Hermione spoke to Jal Tigers, not wanting to cause him another episode. They finished the first corridor and Draco was feeling nervous and Hermione was relieved.
"It's quite a risk," Luna said, breaking through Draco and Hermione's thoughts. "I'm not surprised they haven't agreed."
"Let's keep going," Hermione replied, looking to avoid an argument with Draco.
The trio went to the right and moved down that corridor, with every room making Draco more nervous and Hermione more relieved. They reached the end of the hallway without a volunteer and turned around. They walked to the other end of the corridor, continuing to receive no's until they reached the last door, Greg Goyle's door. Hermione and Draco both took a breath before walking into the room. Luna chose not to follow and shut the door behind them. Greg was sitting up on the bed reading but when they entered he set down his book.
"Hello Hermione, Draco," he said with a smile. "It's a bit early in the day to check up on me, isn't it?"
"Yes," Hermione said, sliding the chair away from the desk so she could sit. Draco moved so that he was directly next to her. "We have something we want to talk to you about."
Greg looked from Hermione to Draco with concern. "Sounds serious," he answered. "What's going on? The new potion seems to be working really well. I can go almost the full hour without an episode."
"What if we could get rid of the Cruciatus related episodes all together?" Draco asked.
"That would be great," Greg replied, looking curious. "What's the catch?"
"The catch is we haven't ever done this to a live person," Hermione replied. "We believe that there is a part of the Cruciatus curse that remains in your body, that's why you continue to have the effects of the curse even though you aren't actually being hit with it. There's a spell we've found that removes poisons from the body as long as there is a clear entrance for the poison. You have a mark on your chest. We think that's the entrance for the Cruciatus. We would essentially be attempting to pull the remainder of the Cruciatus from your body."
"Waterson?" Greg asked, looking at Draco. Draco nodded in response and Hermione looked confused.
"I've seen the spell done," Greg explained. "It's brutal."
"Yes," Hermione replied. "You'll most likely be in a great deal of pain. We'll be literally ripping the curse from your body. There's also a chance that if we don't perform it correctly, you could die."
"There are risks," Draco chimed in. "But also a huge reward if it works."
"Would you be able to give me something to numb the pain?" Greg asked.
"No," Hermione told him. "We need you to feel everything so we know whether or not the spell is working."
"What if there's nothing left behind?" Greg wanted to know. "What if you're wrong?"
"If there isn't anything left behind, nothing will happen," Draco replied. "The spell only removes what it's created to remove. In this instance, we create it to remove the Cruciatus curse."
"We'll understand if you say no," Hermione told him.
"We also understand if you need time to make the decision," Draco added.
Greg sat in silence for a few minutes before responding. "I'll let you know tomorrow," he said finally. "I need some time to think."
"We'll be back in the morning then," Hermione said gently, rising from the chair and returning it to where it belonged. "But don't feel rushed to make a decision."
Draco moved past Hermione and shook Greg's hand. "See you tomorrow mate," Draco told him.
Draco and Hermione left the room. Hermione explained to Luna what had happened as they walked out of the wing. She hugged her goodbye and, without looking at Draco, walked towards the lifts. Draco nodded to Luna and followed Hermione. They stood in stony silence and, once the lift reached the floor of the lab, Hermione stomped off the lift and into her office. Draco followed and shut the door behind her. She cast a silencing spell before looking at Draco.
"How could you?" she exploded. "How could you do that?"
"How could I what?" Draco shouted back. "How could I give my friend all the facts? How could I tell him that this could significantly alter his life for the better?"
"You pushed him too hard," Hermione said angrily. "He would have said no."
"He was never going to say no," Draco replied just as angry. "You made the surgery sound as horrible as possible to scare him into saying no. I told him the truth, that this could work. Damn it, Hermione, you know it could work!"
"But what if it doesn't?" Hermione asked, dropping into the chair in front of her desk. "Draco, what if it doesn't work and we kill him? Or make it worse? At least if we do the spell on me and something happens I won't feel guilty."
"But I will," Draco told her, crouching down in front of her, taking her hands in his. "I couldn't ever risk your life Hermione. You mean too much to me. My guilt would kill me. Not to mention Potter, She-Potter, and Weasley would too."
"Draco, I'm so afraid he's going to say yes," Hermione said, looking at him with tears in her eyes. "What if he says yes?"
"Then we do it," Draco told her. "We both know this spell inside and out. We know exactly what to do, what it will do, and how to deal with it. Hermione, I believe in us, I believe this will work if we do it to Goyle."
"But not if you do it to me?" she asked.
"No," Draco replied honestly. "I'll be so worried about hurting you or killing you I won't be able to focus on the spell. You can't ask me to do it, not until we're certain it works."
Draco leaned forward and kissed her. "Let's go," Draco said.
"Go?" Hermione replied confused. "We just got here a couple of hours ago."
"If we're here the only thing we're going to think about is Goyle," He reasoned. "And if we practice that spell one more time, I think my head might explode."
"I have to check on the interns," Hermione told him. "I need to tell them about David, see what they've been doing. Flint probably compromised the majority of the research they've done, I'll need them to go back over anything he did."
"We'll go together," Draco replied.
"You don't have to do that," Hermione told him. "It won't take long. I can meet you somewhere in an hour."
"Last time I left you alone here someone kidnapped you," He answered. "I'm not taking any risks."
"Fine," Hermione replied with a small smile. "They should be in their research room. Don't be mean."
Hermione got up from the chair and they walked into the lab area then down the hall to the research room. Linda and Barb sat at separate desks, both with large piles of books surrounding them.
"How's it going?" Hermione asked, laughing when they both jumped.
"It's difficult," Linda admitted. "But we're not giving up."
"Where's David?" Barb wanted to know. "Why haven't we seen him?"
Hermione sat down in David's chair and Draco put his hand on her shoulder. Hermione briefly explained to them what had happened.
"So we've been working with a Death Eater this whole time?" Linda asked, worried. "He's not going to...get us...is he?"
"No," Hermione told her. "He's going to Azkaban."
"That explains why he never helped," Barb chimed in. "We never told you, because we didn't want to get David into trouble, but he never did one ounce of research. The most we could ever get him to do was carry books for us."
"So you're saying he never contributed anything?" Hermione asked, sitting up straight. "Nothing at all?"
"No," Linda replied. "We're sorry we didn't tell you sooner, we just figured he'd start doing work eventually and then we wouldn't have to tell you."
"Then what's on this desk?" Hermione questioned, pointing to the stack of books.
"That's what he kept saying he was going to read," Linda told her. "We've never even looked at those books."
"So what have you found?" Hermione wanted to know.
Linda and Barb briefly explained to her that they had found essentially nothing regarding any spells that were similar to the ones created by Voldemort.
"I'm sorry," Linda said. "We just can't find anything."
"Look through these," Hermione told them, gesturing to the books on David/Flint's desk. "I have a feeling there was a reason he was keeping these from you."
"We will," Barb promised. "After lunch."
Hermione looked down at her watch and realized it was in fact 12:30pm. "I'm going to leave for the day," she told them. "If you need to reach me, owl me."
The interns nodded and left the room. Alone, Hermione stood and held out her hand to Draco. "Let's go have lunch," she told him. "In bed."
Draco grinned in response. "Sounds like a perfect afternoon to me."
They quickly left the hospital and flooed to Hermione's flat where they spent the remainder of the day having lunch in bed.
A/N: The end is near, the end is near, ahhhhh, the end is near!