Chapter 38
Draco stared off at the empty space. How was it possible that he lost her after barely regaining Hermione? How did Marcus even make it out of the Ministry alive? Hermione had mentioned that he had come after her, but Blaise took care of him. After not seeing or hearing anything from Marcus after the collapse and slow rebuilding of the Ministry, something which was still very much in progress, Draco had assumed that the man had perished in the fight.
And because of his quick judgement, now Hermione was paying the price for his quick judgements. It wasn't fair; she didn't deserve this.
Scorpius was still thrusted behind him, but the young boy turned around and pushed his way forward, "What happened to Mummy?" Scorpius questioned, looking fearful. "Daddy where did she go?"
"I don't know," Draco said, feeling his throat dry up at the thought of not knowing where his girlfriend was. "I don't know, Scorpius."
He wanted to go after Marcus and tear him up, bit by bit. But the only problem was he had no idea where the man had gone with Hermione. He didn't know where either of them were.
If Marcus Flint was hurting her in any way, Draco was going to murder him. He didn't care if it meant an Azkaban sentence guarantee for him, he would do it anyways.
He needed help. That much was clear. There was no way he would be able to go after them on his own. And on top of that, he needed to keep Scorpius safe. He picked up his fallen wand from the ground, something Marcus had all but thrown at him before apparating, and held Scorpius tight to him. He couldn't lose his son too. He apparated back to Grimmauld place, unsure of where else to go.
He had failed Hermione; that much he knew. It was his job to keep her safe; as an Auror, and her partner.
"Did your date end early?" Ginny asked, as she had been sitting at the table when the two of them entered. "Where's Hermione?" Upon seeing the distress on his face, she sat up straighter, "What happened, Draco?"
"Marcus took her," Draco said, feeling empty as Scorpius began to cry softly. He pulled his son close to him as he rubbed his back. "We were coming home, and he took our wands, threatened Scorpius, then took her. She's gone."
"Harry, Ron!" Ginny shouted, as he saw her register what had happened. She looked pale at that, and she quickly filled in the other two as the men entered the room.
"What are we waiting here for?" Ron yelled, as he grabbed his wand, "Why aren't we going after her? Merlin, Malfoy, shouldn't you be the first one on this?"
"I don't even know where she is," Draco said miserably. "If I did, I assure you, I wouldn't be wasting my time here."
"I'm going to alert the Auror department," Harry said as he walked to the floo, "The more people we have on this, the sooner we'll find her."
"Scorpius, I need you to go into the other room, alright?" he told his son. "I promise you everything is going to be okay. Mummy is going to be okay." The boy looked like he didn't believe him, but reluctantly left the room.
"Can we perform some sort of tracking charm?" Ron asked as he sat down, on the edge of his chair, "Or a locating spell? Do you have anything that belongs to Hermione that can be traced?"
Draco racked his mind, searching for anything he could use. He could go over to their flat and grab on of her items, however if she hadn't used it recently, it would be harder to pick up a signal. Their best bet would be to track something his witch was already wearing.
"The bracelet!" Draco all but shouted, startling Ginny and Ron. "I gave her a bracelet before we went to dinner."
Ron rolled his eyes, "A nice gesture, Draco, but unless we had a bit of that then we can't exactly track it, now can we?"
Draco slammed his fist on the table, "It's an heirloom! All Malfoy heirlooms have tracking charms on them as a sort of security measure. We just need to activate it and it will tell us exactly where she is. The only problem is that it isn't exactly light magic."
"What does that mean?" Ginny asked, slightly fearfully.
"It involves blood," Draco said, slightly grimly. "We need parchment and blood."
"Are you sure something like that will even work?" Ron asked, sounding sceptical. "It doesn't exactly sound safe."
"It will," Draco insisted, "It might be dark, but it's fail proof."
Harry re-entered the room just then, "A group of Aurors are gathering and coming over shortly. Do you have any leads in the meantime?"
"He wants to use black magic to cast a tracking charm," Ron snorted, still sounding disbelieving over all of it.
"It's the fastest and most reliable thing we have right now!" Draco stood, shouting, "Every minute she's there is another minute she could be in danger. Do you even know what could happen to her in that time? Do you know how much harm she could come to? He could kill her in that time!"
Ron paled slightly, but a silent Harry spoke up, "Do it."
"Harry," Ginny said softly, "It's not the solution."
"We don't exactly have any other ones," Harry told her, "I would love to try something else, but what else do we have? Draco's right. We need to get to her now; even if her death isn't what Marcus wants, there's a lot of fates worse than death."
He felt his heart stop as he shuddered. Before anyone else could dispute him, he grabbed a knife from the drawer and sliced his hand open. He held the bleeding hand over a piece of parchment as it began to drip all over it. When a suitable amount of blood fell onto the page he closed his eyes, and muttered a charm onto the paper 'invenient Hermione'.
The blood began to shift on the page, and first formed the shape of England. Ginny inhaled loudly at that, as it meant she was still in the country. The blood began to move again and formed the words "Flint Manor".
"That bastard," Draco said, eyes flashing, "He brought her to his ruined estate because he wants her to restore everything; his wealth, status, and his line. And by bringing her there, he's beginning his claim."
Harry looked pissed at that, "He can't honestly believe that Hermione would go along with that, can he?"
Ron looked furious as he crossed his arms, and Ginny was silent.
"Not willingly," Draco closed his eyes, "But there are a lot of ways to force people to do things. Yes, threats work, but so does Imperio. All he has to do is get her to act like she normally would, and no one would suspect any differently."
"But we all know he has her," Ron protested. "We could just go arrest him."
"Before the spell is cast, yes," Draco said with a frown, "But if he casts it, and forces a quick union, then there is nothing we can do. It'll be our word against his. And even without imperio, there are a lot of older spells, terrible ones, which forces women to become compliant to their husband. He could remove it after and cast one of those. The problem is that only the spouse can remove them, and not just anyone."
"That's barbaric," Ginny whispered, as she rubbed her stomach, "You can't let that happen."
"I need to go," Draco said, "Now that we know where she is, there's no use waiting around. Every second we're here is a second longer she's with him. I won't let anything happen to her."
"At least wait for back up," Ron protested. "If you go alone, you could be killed."
"I don't care!" Draco yelled, "I need to go find her, and I don't care that I'm going to be alone. Wait for back up if you must, but I'm going after them, and I'm going to bring Hermione home."
Ron looked to Harry for support, but the man shrugged, "He's my partner. I agree with you, Ron, but he's going to go regardless if we go or not. Tell the Aurors where we're going and join them. But someone needs to go with him to make sure he doesn't get himself killed."
Ron looked worried, and Ginny pressed her lips against her husband's, "Bring her home," she told the two of them. "Don't let that bastard do anything to her."
Draco nodded as he grabbed Harry and apparated, before the man had a chance to protest it. They made it to the outskirts of the property.
"You could have warned me," Harry said.
Draco ignored him as he said, "The wards are probably up, but it's most likely basic ones. The Flints weren't the brightest, so it should be easy to bring them down. It helps that the Aurors brought most of them down when they searched the property after the war for dark artefacts."
Harry nodded as the two of them began to undo ward after ward. Thankfully the process was occurring rather quickly; Draco didn't think he could bear it if it took much longer.
Hermione felt her a pounding in her head as she began to come into consciousness. She didn't open her eyes right away, but tried to use her other senses to detect things like where she was located, and if there were others in the room.
Scorpius and Draco were safe; and that was all that mattered. She knew that going with Marcus was probably rather stupid of her, seeing how she didn't even have a wand on her. She had never received training for hostage situations like her friends would have when becoming Aurors. However this wasn't exactly her first kidnapping. Granted, when she had been taken to Malfoy Manor, she had the fear of not knowing if she would make it out alive. At least here she knew that Flint wanted her alive; for the time being any ways.
Her arms were tied behind her back as she rested against a pole. She was in an upright position, but due to the lack of numbness in her legs, she could tell that it probably hadn't been all that long since she had been tied up. Hermione tried to move her wrists around slightly to see if she could unbind herself. Unluckily for her, the ropes were tightly done with magic, making it nearly impossible to loosen by mere wrist motion.
She could hear steps being taken around her as she heard breathing, "I know you're awake, Granger," Marcus Flint grunted and Hermione reluctantly opened her eyes. "There we go. Eyes as beautiful as yours shouldn't be covered."
Hermione rolled her eyes at his words. Who was he even trying to impress?"
"So what now?" Hermione asked, staring straight into her captor's eyes. She refused to show fear; not in a situation like this.
"Brave Princess," Marcus smirked, "I love that you have that spark of fight in you. It makes you all the more desirable. Pureblood woman are all so submissive even before marriage these days. It makes the chase far less appealing. What's the point if they won't even fight back? But don't worry, I'll stamp it all out of you."
She felt her stomach lurch with disgust at that. Who did he even think he was?
"Don't worry, Granger," Flint leered at her, "Struggle all you want with the concept. It won't change anything. Besides, even if you don't agree to be mine, there are other ways that I can make you mine."
"No one will believe that!" Hermione all but shouted out, "Do you honestly think that you can just force me into this and that no one would suspect a thing? Draco knows the truth! He's going to fight to get me back, and he's going to bring a cavalry with him. You're not going to get away with this, Flint."
Marcus laughed darkly, "Malfoy come to save you? Granger, if you honestly believe that, then you're only deceiving yourself. Malfoy is a coward who runs behinds his mother's skirts at the first sign of danger. If you honestly think that he's doing anything other than saving his own hide at the moment, then you are seriously mistaken."
"You don't know him as well as you think you do," Hermione glared, "He wouldn't have fought against Zacharias Smith in the Ministry if he truly was a coward like you say he is. He's strong and he's brave. And there is no way he's going to let you get away with this."
If Marcus thought he was going to get a submissive woman, he had another thing coming. Sure, she wasn't exactly planning on making herself seem like much of a threat, but deception was her friend at the moment. Thankfully for her, Marcus was too caught up in his notions to even suspect that she may be providing a distraction by talking about Draco and riling him up.
She used his anger as he lashed out and cursed a chair to begin silently and wandlessly muttering a charm to unbind the ropes on her wrists. She kept her eyes focused steadily on Marcus, determined to make sure he wasn't going to catch on to what she was attempting to do. She began to feel the ropes get lose around her wrists and she quickly vanished the rope so he wouldn't notice as it fell to the ground. She kept her arms in place as she didn't want him to know she had gotten free just yet. As she began to focus her magic towards Marcus, she began casting a stunning charm. Despite the simplicity of the spell, she was growing tired from the exhaustion of the last few spells and after being stunned earlier. She knew that once the spell was cast, she wouldn't have long to try and escape, so she needed to time everything perfectly.
"Don't you see that I won, Granger?" Marcus asked her as he came close and stroked her cheek. She averted her gaze, not wanting to be as close to him as she currently was. She could feel his breath against her face, and when he yanked her chin up towards him, she had to resists spitting on him.
If the range was good for anything, it was that it made it much easier to cast a spell upon him without Marcus being able to react immediately.
As the light shot out towards him when the stunning spell was cast, she could see his eyes widen with shock as he realized just how much he had underestimated her. However it was too late for him to do anything. She pushed him off of her and began running towards the exit when she felt a sharp tingling feeling overtake her.
'Stop fighting,' a voice in her head said. She was confused at that, but she obeyed it anyways. Why did she even want to get away in the first place?
"You really shouldn't have done that," Marcus said softly as he approached her. "Wandlessly casting a charm, Granger? You should be smarter than that. After everything, you're not strong enough to cast a spell with that amount of power. But don't you worry, I'll take care of you now. And if you prove to be good, you may even get your wand back."
'Get away,' a fainter voice in her head begged out, 'Don't listen to him, Hermione. You're stronger than this. Over throw the spell!'
She frowned. Why would she want to do that? Marcus was right; he was going to help her. She didn't need to run away. Everything was going to be just fine now.
"Kiss me," Marcus commanded her, and as her feet began to lurch forward, she could hear the faint voice struggle inside her.
'Fight this, Hermione!' the voice cried, 'Throw the spell! Focus your energy on it and remember who is in power. You don't want this. You want to go home; to Draco and Scorpius.'
The names were fuzzy in her head, but she began to focus on it, and the images began clearer. The image of her son and boyfriend at dinner burned brightly in her mind as she began to struggle against the imperious charm on her. She paused, as she was mere inches away from Marcus' face, and he frowned as he sensed the hesitation. He used more force with his commands, and despite her foot begging to inch forward toward him, she resisted. She would not be giving into him, and she would not let this spell overtake her. She took a deep breath and remembered Harry's words of advice on overthrowing the spell, and she channeled all her energy into it.
As the remaining traces of the spell were lifted from her body, she looked up in triumph, knowing she had freed herself from the spell. The only problem was that Marcus was looking onto the whole thing, seeming furious. In her attempt to throw the spell, she hadn't thought far enough ahead to worry about what came afterwards, and how she was planning on getting away from him.
"Clever girl," Marcus murmured, "Overthrowing the spell like that. I bet that took quite a bit of energy, did it not? I bet if I cast it again, you would barely have the strength left to do it once more. But just to be sure, I'm going to crush any remaining fight you have left. Crucio!"
She fell to the ground as she felt a scream erupt from her. It was the last thing she remembered before everything went dark.
The two of them had just finished undoing all the wards when Draco heard Hermione cry out loudly. Her voice was echoing throughout the ruined property, and he felt his heart hurt at the sound.
"Hold in there, Hermione," Draco said softly, "I'm coming for you."