Chapter Nine.
Once the decision was made to leave the south of France, things progressed quickly. Draco, Blaise and Theo all packed their belongings while Draco and Theo made arrangements to keep in touch via Blaise. Once everyone was packed Theo headed home to find out what was happening while Blaise, Draco and Hermione prepared to leave for Blaise's mother's cottage.
"Are you ready, sweetheart?" Draco asked, picking up Hermione's bag.
Hermione nodded as she stood up. "How are we getting there?"
"I'll apparate you." Blaise replied. "Draco knows where he's going, but because you've never been to the house before you'll need to be with me to get through the wards."
"Thank you for doing this." Hermione said as Blaise wrapped his arm firmly around her waist. "I know you don't have to risk yourself for me and I appreciate it."
"I'm not risking anything, I'm helping my best friend and the woman he loves in a time of need." Blaise responded, giving Hermione a warm smile.
"We still really appreciate it, mate." Draco said.
Blaise nodded as he announced it was time to leave. After double checking with Draco that he was alright on his own, Blaise turned to Hermione and checked she was ready. When Hermione confirmed she was ready Blaise took out his wand and apparated him and Hermione to his mother's cottage. Blaise and Hermione arrived in the middle of a small but cosy living room. Hermione had barely gotten a chance to look around before Draco arrived carrying the bags.
"What now?" Draco asked Blaise as he wrapped his arms around Hermione.
"We wait until dark before we cross the border into Italy." Blaise explained. "From there we go to my place and I have the perfect hiding hole for the pair of you."
"How are we going to get across the border undetected?" Hermione asked.
Since the war security around the wizarding world was tight and a witch or wizard couldn't enter a new country without registering in some way. The only reason Hermione hadn't registered in France was because she travelled the muggle way, but even then she was traceable through the flight she took.
"We're going to fly." Blaise answered. "And you two won't be detected because from now on you're not going to use magic. If you don't use magic there's no way the authorities can trace you."
"What do you mean, we're going to fly?" Hermione queried, suddenly even more nervous.
"I've got a couple of brooms upstairs." Blaise answered. "I'll take the luggage on one and you and Draco can travel on the other."
"Don't worry, I'll look after you." Draco told Hermione, knowing she hated flying.
"I know." Hermione whispered, leaning back into Draco and taking comfort in his arms.
Draco briefly hugged Hermione closer to him, before walking them over to a nearby sofa and settling them down. Blaise settled himself in the chair opposite and the three sat in silence as they waited for night to fall so they could continue on out of the country.
Darkness fell all too quickly for Hermione's liking and before she knew it Draco was settling her on a broomstick. Once Blaise was ready Draco climbed on behind Hermione and the two wizards began the flight into Italy. Hermione kept her eyes shut for most of the journey, trusting Draco to keep her safe. After a good few hours Hermione felt them coming into land and she opened her eyes, finding they had arrived in the garden of a small farm house.
"This place belongs to an Aunt, from here we can floo to my place in Milan." Blaise explained as they dismounted the brooms. "From there we'll travel to my villa on the coast."
"Aren't we putting your Aunt in danger by being here?" Hermione asked. She felt bad enough that she'd dragged Blaise and Theo into her mess, and she didn't want anyone else to break the law for her.
"Nah." Blaise shook his head. "She'll not even know we've been here."
Leading the way into the house Blaise quietly circumvented the wards as they made their way into the kitchen, where the fire was located. Setting the fire up, he let Draco and Hermione travel through the floo first. Both of them already knew the address as both had visited Blaise often enough in his massive penthouse in the centre of Milan.
Shortly after arriving at Blaise's place Draco and Hermione were joined by Blaise himself. Throwing his own bags and the brooms into his room, Blaise returned to where Hermione and Draco were waiting for him in the front room.
"For this part I'm going to have to personally apparate you both to the villa." He explained to the couple. "The wards are set so no-one can enter the property without me."
"Can you take us both together or will you need to make two trips?" Draco asked.
"I'll need to take two trips. The wards won't allow two new people onto the property together." Blaise said. "It shouldn't take us much longer though. I can drop one person off and come straight back for the other."
"Okay, take Hermione first." Draco said.
Hermione didn't argue as Blaise once again wrapped his arm around her and whisked her off for the second time. When they arrived they were standing in a dark kitchen and Blaise warned her not to turn on any lights. He didn't want to alert anyone to their presence at the villa.
"Stay right here." Blaise ordered Hermione as he prepared to go back for Draco. "I'll be back in two minutes."
Hermione heard Blaise leave with a pop and before she knew it she heard the sound again and he returned with Draco. The second he arrived Draco walked over to Hermione and wrapped her in his arms, checking she was coping with all the running.
"Now to hide the pair of you." Blaise announced.
"I thought we were staying here." Draco said, turning to his friend. The pair had managed a couple of quiet conversations since leaving his villa in France and Blaise kept mentioning his new villa on the Italian coast as the final destination.
"I don't know how safe you'll be here." Blaise admitted. "Until we speak to Theo we have no idea what's going on at home. If they make the connection between you two they're going to be searching for you both. As your best friend they might think you're hiding with me and they could end up searching this property."
"So where are we going?" Draco asked. "By that logic we can't go anywhere owned by me, you or even anyone we know."
"Actually you're going somewhere that's technically part of this property, only no-one knows of its existence." Blaise said. "Come on, I'll explain on the way."
Blaise led the couple out of the back door and down onto a deserted beach. The moon in the sky was the trio's only light as they made their way across the beach to a small dock. A small motor boat was sitting tied up to the dock and Blaise jumped aboard, followed by Hermione and Draco.
"So are you going to tell us where we're going?" Draco asked as Blaise started the boat and began steering them out to sea.
"We're going to a secret island about half an hour off the coast." Blaise explained. "There's a cloaking spell on it and unless I lift it you can't tell it's there. Anyone looking for it will pass straight by unless it's uncloaked."
After Blaise's explanation the trip passed in silence, until he suddenly stopped the boat seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Taking out his wand Blaise muttered a string of Italian spells and slowly a small island with a house standing on top of a hill shimmered into view. Now he could see where he was going Blaise guided the boat into the island's dock and tied it up. Once out of the boat Blaise re-cloaked the island and led Draco and Hermione up to the house.
"I'm afraid there's not much here." Blaise said as they entered the house. "But there's a fully functioning bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and front room. I'm still working on the rest of the house."
"That's fine, Blaise." Draco reassured his friend.
"Thank you Blaise." Hermione said quietly.
"You're welcome." Blaise smiled at Hermione, before turning back to Draco with a serious expression. "I'll keep the island cloaked apart from when I'm coming across and need to dock the boat. I'm not sure how often I'll be visiting, but I suppose that depends on how things progress from here."
"I guess it does." Draco nodded. "But for the foreseeable future I predict plenty of visits."
"So do I, starting with tomorrow." Blaise replied. "It's late now so I'm going to head back to Milan, I'll base myself there so I can keep in touch with Theo. It's easy enough for me to get out here when the need arises. I'll let you two get some rest, but I'll be back tomorrow afternoon and we can get started on working out what we're going to do."
"Do you have a pensieve?" Draco asked, guessing the house they were in wouldn't be equipped with the piece of magical equipment they needed to view Hermione's memories.
"Damn, no I don't." Blaise swore softly. "How are we going to look at Hermione's memories without a pensive?"
"There's one at the Manor." Draco said. "You can access it via the floo network in my wing. It used to be my father's but I keep it in my old bedroom. It's in a safe at the back of the wardrobe, the code to get into the safe is my birthdate."
"Won't I set off the wards?" Blaise questioned.
"You shouldn't if you stick to my wing of the Manor." Draco replied. "If however you see mother let her know everything's okay and I'll be in touch when I can."
"Okay, I'll do that tomorrow morning and I'll be back here tomorrow afternoon." Blaise declared, saying goodbye to the couple.
Draco and Hermione watched from the window as Blaise headed back down to the dock and got into the boat. They then watched the boat as it headed back to the mainland. While the island was cloaked from view there clearly wasn't anything that stopped the view from the island. Draco was rather impressed by that fact, this way he could keep an eye on their surroundings and they would get advance warning of anyone other than Blaise tried to approach them.
"I think it's time we went to bed, it's late." Draco said, when they could no longer see Blaise's boat on the dark sea.
Hermione nodded and let Draco grab the bags as he led the way upstairs. It didn't take long to find the only bedroom with furniture and while Draco slung their bags onto the floor beside the bed, Hermione peered into the en-suite bathroom.
"It looks nice." She said quietly. Any other time she would have loved to have visited the private little island with Draco, but considering the circumstances she wasn't feeling very cheerful.
"Yeah it does." Draco said, coming up behind his girlfriend. "But we'll explore properly tomorrow, for now we need to sleep."
One at a time the couple used the bathroom, before they crawled into bed together. Hermione immediately settled in Draco's arms and the blond held her tightly as she cried herself to sleep.