"History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." - Maya Angelou
Chapter Nineteen: Chase Down the Moon
Hermione's blood ran cold as she felt someone slither their way into her head. It was like having her soul licked by the Devil himself; images began to flash before her eyes.
"Draco!" she breathed, and he realized what was happening.
"Hermione, catch!" Neville tossed a wand up in the air and pointed his own at it. "Advenio Hermione!"
The wand zoomed into Hermione's hand, which she had thrown out on impulse. Her heart jumped at the familiar feel of the carved vines against her fingers as Draco moved the piano aside with a quick nonverbal spell and faced the dark figures moving into the room.
:Put up a brick wall. Use your resolve,: Draco whispered to Hermione, his repressed panic flooding her senses.
Hermione closed her black eyes and shut herself down, thinking of everything solid - prisons, walls, steel, anything to prevent the pictures from forming, anything to try and block the person out.
"Now, I expected to see you here, Draco, but what's with the guests? Mrs. Worthington, you should have mentioned that you were having a party; I would have invited more friends!"
Rage boiled in Draco's heart as he drew Hermione closer to him instinctively. Master's voice was strangely different from what he remembered, but it still held the alarming madness in its tone. Harry was edging his way around the room to get a better dueling position on the intruders, Draco's actions forgotten.
The speaker revealed herself, and Harry found himself gaping at her - she was wearing an expressionless geisha mask with rosy cheeks and black eyes, and was draped in a long, fitted purple cloak over a clearly beautifully androgynous body. He had never seen a creepier looking person in his life. Harry covered his face as a foul stench wafted after her, like rotting flesh.
"Don't," Draco ground out as he felt her try to slither into his mind; he immediately filled it with a list of the nastiest spells he knew and intended to use on her. He could feel her amused smile.
Before anyone else could respond, Amy's small form exploded from behind Draco in a fury of cherry red hair and screamed, "Glacivas!"
The room glowed blue as dozens of razor sharp icicles burst out of her wand point, angrily shooting towards the Death Eaters; Draco allowed himself a moment of surprise at the powerful spell before he pointed his wand directly at Master No Name.
Jesse was coming up behind them silently, her sword held high; Harry sprung into action, throwing curses without pausing for a breath. Draco knew immediately, however, that Master had one intention - apprehend the two of them.
Hermione was still twitching with effort as she tried to block out the violation in her mind, some of the most private images coming to life under her lids. She nearly vomited as she suddenly began reliving her night at Malfoy Manor, Bellatrix's high laughter mixing with her own screams.
Draco pulled her behind him. "Ignotus!"
A dark curtain enclosed Master, trying to smother her; it lasted only a moment before it evaporated, but that was long enough to weaken her attack on Hermione's mind. Hermione stood up straight and clumsily reached around Draco to point her newly repaired wand. She opened her mouth, just as Master twirled her wand.
Draco blanched as Hermione fell to the ground.
"Incarcerous!" Master shouted, and ropes formed around Hermione's weak form.
"Hermione!" Neville yelled, dodging an Impediment Hex.
"Nora, help!" Harry suddenly shouted.
A thunderous clap sounded in the middle of the room, halting Draco's next spell, and Nora Constable appeared, looking ready to kill. The Death Eater on Master No Name's right looked at her stupidly before pointing his wand.
"Fat chance," she muttered darkly, and he erupted in flames.
Master No Name's gasp did not escape her, and she turned to look at the other woman. "Ready, bitch?"
Instead of answering, she pointed her wand and sent a flood of black magic toward her. Nora countered with a blinding light as she attempted to fend off the darkness.
The space was much too enclosed to have a proper duel as Draco found; Jesse brought her sword hilt down on Neville's head by accident, sending him to the floor; Rubinoff, standing on Master's left, promptly tripped on a power cord and grabbed Sasha Worthington on the way down as she tried to take cover behind the fallen door. Her arms found their way around his neck from behind as she attempted to choke him the old fashioned, muggle way.
"Castigo..."
A bright red spell shot out of Hermione's wand and hit the furthest Death Eater in the leg.
Draco looked away as the Death Eater, who already had icy daggers sticking out of his shoulder, crumpled. "We're leaving," he muttered, getting a better grip on Hermione's shivering form and pulling her towards the kitchen. He used his wand to try to untangle the ropes from her body.
"No..." she moaned. "We have to help them... I must get to Harry!"
Draco shook his head and picked her up, ignoring her extremely weak attempts at removing his arms. Draco was immediately warmed by the feeling of carrying her; it felt like home now, he had done it so many times.
"They're getting away!" Rubinoff stormed, slamming Sasha against the wall and knocking the older woman out with a crack.
"DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE, MALFOY!"
Draco ignored Harry and lied Hermione out on the counter. Softness encountered his leg, and he looked down to discover Loki, the Worthingtons' cat, rubbing against his leg and completely unaffected by the noise in the next room.
He looked at Hermione's face, noting the green tinge; it was the same spell that Rubinoff and Krokesh had used to sap away her strength. She had probably reacted better to its effects the first time due to the adrenaline that kept her moving forward; this time, she seemed to be almost completely incapacitated by it.
Draco's heart raced as he shakily filled his palm with water from the tap and rubbed a bit on her face to keep her awake. Hermione looked up at him through half closed lids, her eyes rolling into the back of her head.
"Stay with me, Hermione; I know you're tired. I can't apparate you if you're unconscious."
"But Harry..."
"I know, I know. Accio duffel! We will contact him, okay? Will that make you happy?"
Hermione closed her eyes and nodded.
"I'll keep you safe, don't worry; I'll keep you safe..." Draco chanted as he frantically looked around for the cell phones Jesse had brought home, purposely shutting down his brain before he could think of all the reasons why this was a stupid thing to do. There were three of them; one was for Draco, one for Hermione, and the last for Jesse. He snatched one of them up and ran into the living area.
"Potter, catch!" Draco threw the mobile at Harry, promptly beaning the other man on the head with it.
With that, he went into the kitchen, catching the duffel on the way, picked up Hermione, then Loki as an afterthought, and disapparated.
"THAT BLOODY COWARD, I COULD KILL HIM!"
Nora shook her head, surveying the damage. "It's fine, Harry. At least we can contact them now, and when they call, we'll track their location."
"Them? I came here to get Hermione away from him, not give them another reason to stick together! And don't you think they will have thought of that? You know what he'll do; he'll say that he will destroy the phone if we try to track them!"
Neville stood up, rubbing the purple mark on his forehead where Jesse had hit him with her sword. His eyes were wide, making him look more like the boy Harry knew in school.
"Sorry about that, by the way," Jesse commented, sheathing the sword and rushing toward her mother.
Neville shook his head and waved off her apology. "It's fine, really."
Suddenly, Jesse paled. She put her head against her mother's chest, listening for a heartbeat, then checked her pulse on both her neck and her wrist.
"Ennervate!" Nora said, pointing her wand at the woman. The spell rustled her clothing, but did little else.
"Mum? Mum..."
"This one's out," Harry said, picking Amy's still form off the piano seat. "Finite incantatem." The full body bind released, and she hung limply in his arms, dropping her wand to the floor.
"MUM! Stop it, you're scaring me!" Jesse buried her face in her mother's chest, hugging her.
"Rubinoff must have... broken her neck against the wall," Neville said quietly, fearfully, noting the strange angle to which Sasha's head was turned.
There was silence except for Jesse's sobs; Harry picked the phone off the floor and flipped it open, searching the address book.
"There's nothing in here," he said quietly, leaning against the glass partition that separated him from the garden. "How are we supposed to call them?"
Neville shook his head as he rubbed Jesse's back.
Draco set Hermione and Loki against a tree, looking around. He had been dodging around for hours; it was nearly midday. They had managed to get into the mountains and lose the Death Eaters in the tall grasses and steely sharp rocks. He and Hermione were currently nearly halfway up a mountain; the air was frosty, scorching their throats as they gasped.
"I'm going to kill you," Hermione said, letting Loki climb off her stomach and shakily pocketing her newly repaired wand.
"I know."
"They're probably dead, or taken prisoner by No Name, and you don't care."
"I know."
Hermione paused. "You're a prick!"
Draco smirked, just shaking his head. "I know."
Loki, whose spirits seemed to be also unaffected by the onslaught of apparition after apparition, rubbed her head against Hermione's hand, and Hermione immediately simmered down enough to stroke her tiredly. "Being mad at you is too stressful," she muttered.
"Then don't be. We're alive."
Hermione huffed and got comfortable, trying not to aggravate her newly opened scabs. Her body was so stressed that she just felt like crying. Her eyes stung briefly.
"I've got the numbers. And the mobile. You can talk to Potter if you want."
"He can track us here with it, you know."
Draco nodded, his expression solid and cold. "Not if he wants to talk, he won't."
Hermione rolled her eyes and reached out her hand, which fell to her side after a second. Her eyebrows furrowed with effort.
He hated to see her like this. The cell phone dropped next to her on the ground, and she snatched it up, before remembering that she couldn't see the numbers. She tossed the phone back toward him, Draco barely catching it before it smacked into his chest. "Type in the first number string and press the big button," she said with a sigh.
Draco typed them in and handed the phone to Hermione.
"Is this ri - Hermione?" It was Neville.
"Yes, Neville, it's me. We're fine." There was some commotion.
"HERMIONE?"
"Ron? Ron!"
"I miss you so much, I can't even tell you, it's been SHIT here without you!"
"Oh my god Ron, I've missed you too! I - "
Draco snatched the phone away. "Listen here, Weasel. Don't even think about trying to - hey, quit it, Granger! - I mean it. If you try to track us I'll destroy the mobile! Where... am I talking into the right place?"
"How the hell would I know? I'm BLIND, remember?"
There was more commotion. "WHEN I GET THROUGH WITH YOU, FERRET, YOU'LL HAVE TO FUCK SIDEWAYS!"
"I heard that, Ron..." Hermione sighed, her head in her hands.
" - ENTRAILS WILL BECOME YOUR EX-TRAILS -"
"Shut it, Weasel, and get Potter."
A loud crash sounded, and then silence, before someone spoke. "Draco Malfoy? This is Nora Constable of the Department of Magical Defense."
"... Okay, and?"
"It might interest you to know that Sasha Worthington, the woman who answered the door, died this morning with a broken neck."
Draco's heart stopped. "She... she's dead?"
"Who's dead?" Hermione asked fearfully.
"Yes, and it appears the youngest daughter has yet to wake up; she's in St. Mungo's receiving treatment for spell damage and a few broken ribs."
"What of Jesse?"
"Jessika is here, answering some questions - she's emotionally scathed but otherwise unharmed. Do you want to know why I am telling you this?"
"Because you want me to feel guilty."
"About dragging people into your scheme, yes. But I don't want to lecture you; I have a proposition."
Draco steadied his breathing and reformed his emotional mask. "Shoot."
"You helped us this morning, and we are willing to return the favor now that we know your true intentions. Give Hermione back to us, and I'll petition the Wizengamot to pardon your crimes during your time as a Death Eater. The kidnapping, evading authorities, and use of dark magic I can do nothing about, nor can I help your reputation, but any sentence you serve in Azkaban could be greatly reduced."
Draco risked a look at Hermione, pouting against the tree. What would she say if he told her the proposition? She would agree; she would come up with a million reasons why it would be the best thing to do, and she would convince him to let her go... just let her go and face the inevitable future that he knew was coming anyway.
But he didn't want to.
He had to be crazy, absolutely insane, for even contemplating throwing this away. But... he wanted her to stay with him. He wanted her help, wanted her there to hit him, yell at him, roll her black eyes at him, laugh at him... he wanted her there to understand him and comfort him. If he let her go, he doubted that she would ever come back to him, ever come to see him or admit that she felt similar.
Draco nonverbally cast a silencing spell around himself.
"I want her with me, Ms. Constable. I don't want to give her back."
There was a few seconds of silence before the woman spoke again, sounding slightly interested. "You would rather risk spending the rest of your life in Azkaban than ensure her safety?"
"That's just it; she's safe with me. And I'm safe with her. And... I don't have a future, and I already knew that. But I still have a present."
"I don't understand, Draco."
"Neither do I... I just can't let her go right now. My life is already empty enough."
Nora was silent, obviously surprised by this admission.
"So... no. Maybe I'll change my mind later, but right now... no."
"I think I understand what is happening. If that is your decision, then when the time does come for you to stand trial - and it will - I will enter this conversation as evidence in your favor, if that's okay with you."
Draco couldn't even process her words. "Yes, sure, okay."
"In the meantime... just please keep her safe. And don't hurt her."
Draco nodded and said a quick goodbye before closing the cell phone, wondering how much Nora Constable could tell through his words.
Nora Constable closed her own mobile with a snap, ignoring the boys shouting at each other to her right.
She sighed, realizing what a giant mess she was in. Fucking teenagers.