"Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it." - Kahlil Gibran
Chapter Twenty-one: So Simple
Nightfall came faster than they anticipated; they'd had a brief scare of a potential Death Eater, but it turned out to be muggle hikers trekking through the mountains. Draco had rolled his eyes and apparated them to a different location.
He managed to find a rocky water spot and dipped his hands in the water.
"Good god, that's cold," he muttered, shaking his hand off. He gathered some of it anyway in the water bottles and charmed it to purify itself.
"You know, you could just use aguamenti."
"Shut up," he countered. He looked over at Hermione, realizing that he'd just snapped at her for no reason, and backpedaled. "I know that. There are some things I don't like to use magic for, like food. It's weird."
Hermione frowned at the tone she remembered from their Hogwarts days and took out her wand. "Attula ringo." The leaves in front of her feet transformed into an apple.
Draco ignored her munching and made his way over to the side of the miniature valley they were in. After casting a silencing charm on the area, he said, "Defodio!" The rock carved itself away to form a cave.
"I guess we're turning in here?"
"Yes. Come on." He tugged her into the cave, followed by Loki, who looked around tentatively. Draco joined them after a minute, and immediately went to the bag to get out the blanket he'd packed.
Hermione turned her body in the direction the wind was coming from, figuring this to be the entrance, and pointed her wand. "Cave inimicum!"
Draco turned to her. "Since when did you know that spell?"
She shrugged, putting her wand away and continuing to munch on the apple. The spell probably wasn't necessary, but she was happy to get her wand back. "Harry and I used it while we were on the run to strengthen the defenses of our campsite."
Draco nodded and laid out the blanket - besides how he felt about her, she really was useful. He walked over to her and steered her carefully to the blanket. "I'll be back," he muttered after she got comfortable.
Hermione snuggled into the fabric, ignoring the hardness pressing against her from underneath it. He was clearly distracted - he'd forgotten to clear the rocky bits away before laying out the blanket. She allowed herself a small smile, the first one since the day before.
Draco came back before long, finding Hermione in the process of trying to force herself asleep; he removed his shoes and laid down beside her, turning away from her concentrated face.
Just as Hermione predicted, her breathing became unsteady.
Draco cursed at the blanket - it was thick and big, but not enough to mask the rocks underneath nor enough to allow them sufficient personal space. Hermione absently snuggled closer to him to avoid the sharp rocks at her back, and the warm smell of apples clouded his senses.
It was going to be an awkward night, he knew. He sighed angrily, wishing things could be simple again.
As he was beginning to drift off, he felt a flutter against his mind.
It was her, he knew - she was waiting outside the curtain, afraid to peer around it, yet knowing that it will reveal the occupant anyway. Draco repressed his panicked thoughts and considered her intentions.
:Are you awake?: came a quiet sound.
Well, yes, but that was beside the point of course. He stomped on what he wanted to say and focused on the connection, letting the partition between their minds dissipate so they could talk.
:Yes.: he answered, making sure he let the tiredness his body felt fill his emotional self so she knew that she was disturbing him.
Unexpectedly, she went through the now invisible partition and cuddled her mind against his. He was briefly surprised before he smiled an actual smile, letting its warmth fill his soul cavity.
Of course.
While she knew he didn't want to talk about this, she knew of course that he wouldn't mind doing it again.
Both of them had been confused before, but they were now sure of what this was. Her form was blazing with what seemed like happiness, though if Draco narrowed his mind and concentrated, he could sense something like… her heartbeat. It was beating like crazy.
She was excited, desire brimming just under the surface. And she would not be able to hide that fact in the morning.
He let this thought bubble to his mind, knowing that she would feel it; she was bashful for a few seconds before pushing it away.
However amazing it felt have his mind and soul shared with her, he knew that they were both afraid to try anything beyond this. She could press her naked mind against his all she wanted, but once they forced themselves back into their physical selves... things changed. There, it seemed a little more absolute, a little more final, and a little more nerve-wracking. At least, he figured it would be.
Although, everything in his life had always felt more real because of his emotions, not because of his senses.
The connection threatened to spill over into the physical after a while; even though he had detached from his physical self, he could still feel his heart begin to speed as Hermione's thin hand reached across his chest in an attempt to get closer. His mind receded a bit, merging slightly with his physical self, and his body started to react to the pleasure his mind was receiving.
The girl probably didn't realize that she had done it; being so absolutely close to him emotionally was obviously making her delirious again. This thrilled him a bit, and he consciously let go of the last shred of doubt and hesitance in his mind, allowing himself to feel happy that even if she didn't feel the way he felt about her, she was not opposed to connecting with him this way.
Hermione awoke slowly, noting that her back was exposed to a raw chill that came with the early morning. The warming spell that she had cast the night before had worn off, though it was supposed to last much longer. It was so much easier to stay asleep when she opened her eyes to darkness and closed them to vision... her dream had definitely not wanted to be interrupted by dull blackness and a cold butt –
Oh!
The warmth in front of her was Draco's back, which she was nearly flush against, her arm draping around him.
Her heart thumped wildly in her chest. When had she done that?
She carefully attempted to remove her arm, not knowing if there was anything in the way; she realized immediately that he was clutching her hand.
Well, there's no reason for me to get up if he's still asleep, she rationalized, secretly enjoying the warmth versus the cold at her back. She moved a bit closer and fell back asleep.
It was late morning when she awoke again; she was warm all over, but there was definitely nothing in front of her now. She kept her eyes closed and listened.
Draco was standing a few paces in front of the entrance to the cave, having a conversation on the mobile.
" - would be dangerous, and you know it... No, don't play dumb with me, Potter; the second you try to 'covertly' investigate the location, the rest of the department will be all over it, and then the Minister would get all pippy about it and demand search parties and whatnot... what? No!... no, that's not it... Look, you're just going to have to trust me. I've told you their weaknesses, and now you know... so? The least you can do is get some trustworthy and practiced people together and train them - wait, Hermione's awake."
Hermione sat up, wondering what gave her away. "Is that Harry?" she asked, stretching her repairing muscles.
"Yes, it is - hold on a second, did you hear what I said? Yes - get people and train them. You know that is what No Name would do... well, if you want a bunch of bumbling idiots to try to take her down, then be my guest, but you are not going to get Hermione killed because you think you can handle it... hey... shut it, I'm just saying... YES, I THINK I CAN DO IT BETTER!"
Hermione cringed as she heard some birds leave the trees in the distance. Hadn't he put a silencing charm on the area? "You're shouting around while our enemies are bearing down upon us - give me the phone!" she stood up.
Draco stalked over to her and thrust the cell phone into her hands. A confused look came over his face when their fingers touched briefly, but he was too angry to think about it now. He plopped down on the blanket.
"Harry? It's Hermione."
"... Hi, Hermione… how are you?"
"Fine... I just woke up."
"Well, I guess I meant to ask how things are as Malfoy's prisoner."
She knew that they would have this conversation sooner or later. "Hold on," she said quickly and removed the phone from her ear. "I need to talk to Harry, Draco. Would you mind?"
"Whatever you need to say, you can say it in front of me." Hermione's face hardened, and Draco knew he wasn't going to win this one. "Fine. But keep it short." He got up and left the cave.
"Okay... things are good with us."
"I guess I'm still in shock. I thought for sure you were in absolute hell and couldn't wait to get free... but you seemed fine."
Hermione's heart fell a bit - yes, she knew what she was supposed to feel around him, and what she was supposed to feel now that she'd been given an excellent opportunity to be rid of him and had blatantly ignored it. "Please don't make me feel guilty, Harry. You know how things can change."
"I want you to feel guilty, so I don't have to accept it... so I'm sorry; I know this is on me. Ron isn't taking this well though."
"How much have you told him?"
"I told him that you like each other."
Hermione was silent for a few seconds before she let him have it. "Are you completely mad? You know what Ron is like with things like this - he must be furious! Besides our relationship not being romantic, where is your tact, Harry James Potter? I ought to hex you where you stand!"
"Don't be like that, when you know it's your fault anyway," he snapped. "You should have told Ron yourself; instead, I had to watch him break apart."
"No," Hermione mumbled, shaking her head. "I won't let you do this to me because it's Malfoy."
"That's only a tiny part of this, and you know it. This has everything to do with betrayal, wasted effort, and making us look and feel like idiots because in reality, you two were just fine together, alone, shagging in the bloody forest!"
Hermione's faced reddened. She immediately thought of what she had done the previous night, and the guilt that she had rejected before began to seep into her heart. "It's not like that, and I can't believe you'd think that about me, Harry!" she retorted shakily.
"I don't care. I honestly don't. And here's another thing - " There was some arguing in the background, and the line suddenly changed tones.
"Hermione?"
Hermione forced herself to calm down. "Is this Nora?"
"Yes. I apologize about Harry's behavior; he's got more mood swings than - don't give me that look, Harry Potter! ... Sorry, he's just surprised about the change in your relationship with Malfoy."
"Really? I hadn't noticed."
"None of us can wrap our heads around it, but they are taking it exceptionally poorly since you all have a history with him."
"He's acting like we eloped or something, it's maddening! He knows me better than that."
"I wouldn't worry about it - he'll come around, as will your other friends. On a more serious note, I do have a few questions for you. I'm beginning to build a case for this, since I have a feeling it will inevitably lead to Master No Name's downfall. Is there anything you can tell me about you two's goal?"
"Just that we're going to find a way to take out her, only her, and thus leave the Death Eaters leaderless and unable to mobilize."
"In order to do that, wouldn't you need to know the location of the Death Eater's base of operations?"
Hermione knew where this was going. "He hasn't told me where it is, and even if he had, I couldn't tell you. The more people that know about it, the more chance there is that everything will blow up in our faces."
Nora clucked her tongue. "Jesse told us the same thing. So Draco is the only one who knows the location?"
"Yes."
"I see. Secondly, I wanted to ask about your relationship with Draco. How did you two come to like each other?"
Hermione wanted to refute the question, saying that they did not like each other like that... Harry's outburst still rang in her ears, and she felt her face begin to pink again... but even though she knew she could not admit it, it was probably true. "We're friends, Nora," she said, hoping the other woman would not find the response odd.
"Yes, I said that, but how did it happen?"
Oh no! She had been testing her to see how Hermione had taken the question; now she must know that there is something more going on. Hermione suppressed her panic. "I could probably blame it on the circumstances. I'm blind... so I need someone to make sure I don't smack into things; the Death Eaters want me for some plan, so in order to foil it Draco needed to keep me away from them."
"Ah... I'll touch on the plan in a second, but before I forget, I must ask you about the day you were kidnapped - how did it happen?"
Hermione sighed. "I was walking back to the house I was staying in after eating out, and two Death Eaters came around the corner and disarmed me. I ran, ran for at least ten minutes... and then they zapped me with the Noctulous Curse just as I saw Draco come from out of the shadows. And... I blacked out after that. The next thing I knew, Draco was carrying me through the forest."
"Okay..." Nora was obviously trying to make notes on a parchment pad. "What about after that? Where did you two go?"
"Hermione, I hope you aren't giving her a full synopsis of what's happened since that night."
She ignored him, wondering how long he had been standing there. "We had the occasional run-in with a Death Eater, but managed to avoid them until we supplied in Shandwick, a small village north of Edinburgh."
"You say 'we' as if you had some part in any of this - " Draco grumbled, looking away. Potter had put him in a foul mood, and he didn't want to think about how awful he had been to her in the beginning.
"And they found you, and tried to capture you there, destroying the place in the process. After that, we thought you had traveled south to London and went to France from there... or maybe apparated until you ended up in France somehow, because we had evidence that pointed us there. How did you get to Norway?"
"Muggle boat," she said, ignoring Draco's hand on her arm. "The family we were staying with when you came was the family of the boat owner."
"Don't do it, Granger," Draco whispered. "If they know that the Worthingtons were involved in dark artifact trafficking, they won't release Jesse to find your cure."
Hermione stopped. He had a point, but she thought that she knew Nora better than to think she would imprison Jesse. She covered the phone mouthpiece. "If I tell her and ask her not to imprison Jesse, she'll find a way. Besides, maybe the Ministry has access to such cures; she might not even have to search."
Draco shrugged. "Either way, be careful." Jesse was a decent person and a valuable asset to their cause; Draco did not want her to be under Ministry control for very long.
"Frank Worthington used the boat for dark artifact trafficking, though the family was supposedly muggle; we didn't find out that the daughters were witches until later."
"What about the mother, Sasha? Was she a witch? We did find faint traces of previous spell damage on her person, so we figured her to be a witch who traded her wizard lifestyle for a muggle one."
"Well, she knew about my - wait a second, what do you mean, 'was'?"
"... She died that morning. Rubinoff broke her neck."
Hermione's breath caught; she dropped the phone and let her tired body fall to the rocky ground, gasping.
Draco took out his wand quickly. "Anapneo!"
She choked briefly, her hand over her heart.
He picked up the phone. "Thanks, Constable. I was going to tell her."
"Please call me Nora - and I apologize; I thought you had told her already."
"No."
"... Well, in any case, forgive the whole inquisition thing, but since we have the means to contact you, we have our best witnesses for these events available for questioning."
"I thought you lot were planning on sending me off to Azkaban."
"If you had wanted to avoid Azkaban, then you'd have turned Hermione in immediately after rescuing her from her pursuers. You'd be in Azkaban right now, looking forward to a few months from now when your case could be appealed or you'd get off on good behavior and can start your life fresh. Now you are looking at years, possibly ten to fifteen if you turn her in, and if not, twenty-five to life imprisonment for riding this out."
"You're lecturing again," he informed her, his amused mask hiding the fear in his heart.
"I tend to do that. Anyway, I was asking her about your activities since her 'disappearance.' I wanted to know so that we can see the Death Eater attack pattern. I have other questions for her of course, whenever she is ready to tell me the answers."
"So it's not me you want to talk to, then."
"I never said that. You and I will have a serious conversation in the future, but right now I need to hear her side first. So whenever she's feeling up to it, call us back, and if not, we'll call again in a few days."
Draco nodded. "Alright then. We'll talk later." He closed the phone, disconnecting, and faced Hermione. "You know these mobile things suck, I could barely hear her... Hermione?"
She shook her head, tears falling from between the fingers covering her face. "It's because... the reception... in this area..."
Draco didn't really know what to do - he could count on one hand the number of times he had ever comforted someone, and he had never consoled anyone after a friend had died.
"Hermione..." Just as his arm encircled her tense shoulders, Loki came out of nowhere, rubbing her side against Hermione's leg, forcing the girl out of her fetal position. Hermione picked the cat up and hugged her, not being able to see Draco's disappointed look.