Chapter 46

October 1996

Hogwarts

Grunting, Hermione tossed the book that she was reading on the floor in frustration.

Nothing was working! She wanted to stomp her foot and scream, instead she took a deep breath and opened and closed her fists in an attempt to get her emotions under control.

"Mon coeur, I have never seen you treat a book so badly," Draco said from behind her. "Tsk."

"Well you may see me light this goddamn vanishing cabinet on fire, which would also be a first." Hermione sighed in annoyance, pulling her hair up in a scrunchie that she kept on her wrist.

Coming up behind her Draco wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her lightly on the neck. "It would not be a first. I distinctly recall that you set my godfather on fire."

"Ah but you didn't know it was me at the time," Hermione sighed, leaning into his embrace. "You would never have known if I hadn't told you. And you are going to know when I explode this thrice damned cabinet into a thousand pieces."

"I think the Dark Lord would be highly displeased if you did that, my bloodthirsty little darling." Draco kissed her softly on her earlobe, trying to distract her volatile temper. "I don't think it's good for my longevity to displease him in such a way."

Hermione sighed dramatically and Draco choked back a chuckle.

"Back to the drawing board then." The petite witch turned to steal a kiss from her soulmate, attempting to ignore the annoyance that was the vanishing cabinet for a while. "There has to be some way to fix this thrice blasted thing. Perhaps you should ask your mother to search for books at the Manor that could help us?"

His thumb stroking her jaw, Draco smiled at her, his face awash in adoration. "An excellent idea, mon tresor, I will write to her this evening."

Despite the small excitement of the discovery of Longbottom and Pansy's amorous nighttime activities, the quest to help Draco complete his mission was an ongoing source of stress for the three of them. Draco felt the pressure of his inevitable failure of his assigned mission weighing him down. Every time that he ate, he felt as though he was going to be sick. His portions had shrunk more and more. He could feel the weight loss in his body, in the weakness he felt on his broom.

He couldn't rely on brute force in order to complete his tasks, so it was going to be essential to utilise Unforgivables. The Imperius curse seemed to be the obvious choice so that Draco's connection to the assassination could not be traced as long as he obliviated the Imperius curse itself from his victim's mind.

Ready to do anything to support their beloved, Theo and Hermione had offered to help Draco practice by allowing him to practise the Imperius curse on them, but Draco was sceptical of taking advantage of such an offer. In fact the very idea made him feel nauseous. Although it seemed that everything was making him feel so at the moment. His existence was sickening. If it wasn't for Theo and Hermione, and his mother, Draco would Avada himself. This was truly more than he could stand. He needed to toughen up or the three of them would never survive the war.

"Can you make me do something naughty?" Theo asked, eagerly. "I give my full and unequivocal consent."

"Theo," Draco sighed. "I don't even know what I could have you do that you wouldn't do willingly."

"I can offer some suggestions." Theo grinned mischievously. "But I don't want to pressure you. How about you can have me kiss someone?"

"Someone?" Draco asked, raising a singular eyebrow.

"Well you or Hermione obviously," Theo clarified. "The idea of kissing someone else makes me feel positively ill."

"That's part of the soulmate magic I think," Hermione looked up from the book that Narcissa had sent from the Malfoy family library. "Ron tried to take my arm yesterday and I nearly got sick all over his shoes."

"Weasley tried to do what?" Both boys exclaimed simultaneously, their expressions murderous.

"He tried to take my arm, but it's so strange because both Harry and Neville have taken my arm, and I haven't had any reaction at all."

Theo and Draco shared a knowing look.

"What?" Hermione asked, annoyed with them for keeping secrets.

"I think Weasley fancies you," Draco stated in a disgusted tone, his mouth twisting as though he had tasted something foul. "And the soulbond doesn't like it."

"Oh that's disgusting," Hermione choked. "But it does explain why he's been trying to follow me around so much." Lavender and Luna had been right, she needed to trust her friends a little more she supposed. What was she going to do about Ron? "I'm going to have to figure out a way to distract his attention away from me."

"Please don't do anything too dangerous, please I beg of you." Theo's face was solemn and serious.

Hermione agreed with Theo to Draco's surprise. "No, nothing dangerous. But I have something to confide in the two of you." She exhaled heavily. "Both Lavender and Luna have figured out about the three of us."

"Hermione we need to oblivia -" Theo began, but Hermione cut him off with a wave of her hand.

"No, they can both be trusted," Hermione assured them. "And I think they may be able to help me deal with Ronald."

"If you are sure," Draco offered, his scepticism clear in his tone.

"I am," Hermione stated, confidently. "Let me handle this."

"Lavender," Hermione whispered, pulling the girl's curtain to the side, hoping that she didn't have any company in bed with her this evening.

"Mmmm?" The blonde witch mumbled sleepily.

"Lavender, I need some help."

The witch was immediately awake as Hermione's words sunk in. "What do you need?"

The Room of Hidden Things had been one of their secret hiding places for years, but they had contaminated their safe haven. All their conversations were about Dark Arts and assassination. Hermione felt less and less like they were children and more and more like they were preparing for a great battle, like the warriors and heroes of lore.

"I just don't think I can walk up to him and cast an Avada," Draco admitted, his eyes dark with purple smudges as the sleepless nights were starting to catch up with him.

"I could," Hermione offered. "If it's your life or that manipulative bastard, I'll choose you every single time Draco. I could go do it right now if you need me to."

Draco reached over and stroked her knuckles with his thumb. "My bloodthirsty princess."

"I've offered as well," Theo admitted. "But Draco is insistent that he needs to do it himself."

"The Dark Lord will punish me and my mother if I can't do this. I have to do it myself," Draco stated determinedly. "Summer was hard enough, I don't dare risk how angry he'll be if I fail him."

Draco pulled out a package and sat it on the floor between the three of them. Hermione reached for it and he grabbed her wrist before her fingertips could so much as brush the wrapping. "Don't touch it. There's a deadly cursed necklace in there. I'm going to Imperius curse someone to give to Dumbledore."

Hermione did not think the cursed necklace was a great plan but gets that Draco was not ready to walk up to Avada the man, so she refrained from tearing apart his current plan, not wanting to deal with damaging his currently fragile self-confidence, but that didn't stop her from offering an alternative option.

"I could use your wand and Avada him. I could probably even borrow Harry's invisibility cloak without him knowing." Hermione offered, not for the first time. "No one would know that it wasn't you."

"I would know and if he breaks my occlumency shields so would the Dark Lord. I've got to do this myself. It's essential." Draco ran his hands through his hair for the hundredth time, the usually perfect locks wild and unkept. Hermione restrained herself from pointing out that if his occlumency shields failed that all three of them would be dead, but catching Theo's eyes she could see that the same thought was playing through his own mind. It was clear in the tightness of his mouth and his clenched jaw.

Although it appeared that he didn't want to say anything about that either as Theo made a scoffing noise. "If you won't let us help with that part of your mission, at least let us take your mind off of it."

The kisses started tenderly, wanting to soothe Draco of all of his thoughts, and then it moved further than before, hands running under clothes, fingertips touching places that they had not yet. Hermione could feel that her knickers were soaked. Draco's hand between her legs was pushing her closer and closer towards some finish line that she could sense but hadn't yet reached. Theo's hands ran over her nipples. And Hermione felt like she was on fire, her back arching. Draco captured her lips. They were going to catch on fire. The whole room was going to go up in flames.

"Fuck," Theo grunted as he rolled against Draco and Hermione. "I'm gonna….I'm gonna…."

And then they all did.

Hermione thought she had left her body for a moment and only the bond brought her back to earth.

Draco watched Hermione talking with the Weasel and Potter as he came out of the back room. He could see the stiffness in her shoulders as she sipped her butterbeer. Hermione was well aware of what was happening today, but her companions seemed completely unaware of the anxiety that she was holding tight in her body.

The two of them were so bloody oblivious.

Draco exhaled through his nose, the tension in his own body overwhelming him. He needed to leave as quickly as possible. He needed to be spotted elsewhere.

Rosmerta was firmly under his Imperius curse so it was only a matter of time until she Imperius'd someone else and bid them to pass along the cursed necklace to Dumbledore.

He tried to go to Honeyduke's and the Quidditch shop, but Draco struggled to hold himself together. He ended up in the alley behind Zonko's, losing what breakfast he had managed to eat all over the snow behind the building. He sliced his fingers on a crate leaned against one of the buildings as he tried desperately to stop his retching. He couldn't stay delicate like this. The war was going to get more bloody, not less. He needed to toughen up.

He repeated that over and over in his mind as he continued to vomit until there was nothing left inside him.

He wiped his mouth and the tears that were coating his cheeks and headed back up towards the castle. His only goal was to be as far away as possible before the events that he set into motion had taken place.