Pansy?"
Pansy decided she must be hallucinating if she was hearing Draco Malfoy's voice.
She'd been trapped in this dank, filthy dungeon for at least a few days. She couldn't see the sun, so it was a rough guess at best.
She was almost upset with herself. Only a few days of darkness and she'd gone round the bend.
"Pansy you deaf bint, are you alright?"
It was coming from the wall to the left. Not that she could see it of course. It was too much to ask for a candlestick apparently.
Pansy stretched her hands out as she walked so she wouldn't bash her face against the stone. She'd done that twice already.
She placed her hands on it and found it to be just what she expected. A wall.
"Down here you ridiculous woman!"
"If this is a hallucination, I'll have you know that I'll still kick your figment's ass I'd you don't quit insulting me." She snarked, going to her knees and feeling around. There seemed to be a whole in the wall, the size of a small brick.
She almost yelped when a hand closed over hers as she fluttered her fingers around the stone.
"Pansy, it's me! It's Draco!"
Relieved tears flowed down her face and she didn't even bother dashing them away. No one could see anyway.
"Draco, thank Merlin. Where are we?" She asked him, clutching his hand like a lifeline.
"You're at Malfoy Manor. Mother and I were just told you were here." Draco told her, grabbing her back just as tightly.
"Can you get us out of here?" She whispered, even as she knew the answer.
"Father has no wand and he's..he's not well. It's a quarter mile to the apparition wards and that's if we even made it out of the house. We are trapped as much as you are." He sounded like he was crying.
"It's alright Draco. We will survive." She told him comfortingly, like she wasn't the one in the bloody dungeon.
Well she supposed he was too, crouched in an empty adjacent cell so he could hold her hand. Technicalities.
"Who is with you?" He inquired, and Pansy realized they must have only told him about her.
"Luna Lovegood and Ollivander the wand maker." She informed him.
"I knew Ollivander was down there. Why did they take Luna?" He sounded confused. "They took you because of Potter."
"I know. They took her over her father's magazine supporting Harry, if I had to guess." She told him tiredly. "Can you find out if Blaise is alright? He tried to fight them when they came for her."
"I'll find out." Silence for a long pause, "I'm sorry, Pansy."
"It's alright, Draco. We are just two stupid gits who fell in love with the two most wanted people in wizarding Britain. I knew it was bound to come back and bite us at some point." She joked with a bitter laugh.
"I'll try to sneak you some food and bandages. I don't know how I'm going to get you out of here, but I'll figure something out, Pans."
"Maybe Hermione and Harry will storm the castle to save us damsels." She quipped, finally getting a dry chuckle out of him.
"I'd prefer those two stay far away from this place. It's dangerous here." Draco muttered.
"I'd prefer the same, but like you said. It's dangerous. Which means this is probably exactly where they'll end up."
Narcissa knew the basics of the portkey spell, but it was a tricky bit of magic.
She threw the fork into the pile with her other failures. The half completed or miscast pile of rubbish was growing.
She had to get this spell right though. If she could properly cast it, she could toss it into the cell and be surrounded by death eaters when the escape occurred.
A good enough alibi meant you didn't do the crime.
Her initial plan had been to use Plippin, but Bellatrix had suspicions about Narcissa still having a house elf on staff. She'd dismissed the others, including Lucius' personal elf Dobby.
The little creature was prone to not listening and it was a risk Narcissa couldn't take right now.
Plippin was Narcissa's last resort for herself and Draco. As much as she loved Pansy, she couldn't risk Draco's exit plan and the boy refused to go as long as Hermione was at risk.
So Narcissa's hands were tied unless she figured out this blasted spell. The only assistance she had was from an outdated tome she'd found in the library.
Apparently the Malfoy ancestors hadn't viewed portkeys as a necessary talent to learn.
Hermione had run until she couldn't run anymore. Harry was close to her, but Ron was further back, currently struggling against conjured bindings.
They were caught.
She made a split second decision, aiming her wand at Harry's face and muttering a stinging jinx directly over his scar.
He howled in pain, but the swelling concealed his features, including the scar, and that's what mattered.
"Let's take them to Malfoy Manor, this girl looks like the wanted one." One of the snatchers announced, and moments later they were all apparated to a familiar set of wrought iron gates.
It wasn't Narcissa or Draco that came out to meet them though. It was Draco's insane aunt, flanked by Fenrir Greyback and Rodolphus Lestrange.
Both men were easy to recognize from the wanted posters before the ministry had fallen. Hermione had made it a point to know each escaped death eater.
"I can't see anything with his face so deformed. I can't call him unless we know for sure." The woman gestured at Harry, then she turned to Hermione with a giddy laugh, "This one though. I've been wanting to get my hands on this one. I…what is that?"
She strode towards one of the snatchers as Rodolphus took Harry and Ron in hand. Fenrir came to Hermione, and she forced herself not to shudder when the man sniffed her hair and pressed his lips to her ear.
Suddenly, the snatchers were all down on the ground, the vacant stare of the one closest told Hermione all she needed to know.
"I think we need to have a little girl time, hmm?" The witch sneered in Hermione's ear, grabbing her by her curls and shoving her back to Fenrir. "Take her to the parlor, but don't touch just yet. I need information. Afterwards you can do whatever you want with her. Rut her. Eat her. I'm not picky when it comes to a mudblood."
Ron and Harry fought even harder to get loose, screaming for Hermione as she was dragged away from them.
Hermione could only stare back at them, trying to catch a final glimpse of her boys, knowing she most likely wouldn't see them again in this life.
Her only thought was that she would have liked to see Draco one last time as she was shoved into a small parlor she recognized as the room the family preferred to take tea in.
She fell to her knees, but shoved herself back up only to be knocked back down flat on her back by a spell.
"Immobulus." Bellatrix hissed before Hermione could try to get up again. Fenrir Greyback and Rodolphus were watching with eager eyes as the witch strode over to loom above Hermione.
Another wave of her wand and Hermione was able to move her body, but her wrists were still pinned to the floor. She was trapped.
"Now. You're going to how you got this sword from my vault, mudblood." She ordered, spit flying from her mouth she was so angry. Before Hermione could even respond the woman raised her wand a snapped a spell she'd learned in her fourth year from a disguised death eater.
Hermione's back bowed as she screamed, every inch of her feeling as if she was being torn apart and burned alive by the cruciatus curse. If her hands weren't pinned she'd of surely attempted to take her skin off. Anything to quell the burning lightning ricocheting through her veins.
The spell finally ended and she realized dimly that she'd wet herself. She managed to sob, "We didn't take it from a vault."
"Liar!" The woman snarled, "Do you think because you are Draco's little whore I won't kill you?"
Hermione shook her head, choking on tears and terror.
"Good. Now, let's try once more before I let Greyback enjoy your pretty flesh, what else did you take?"
"We didn't steal it. We didn't go to your vault. It appeared to us in a frozen lake." Hermione told the truth because what did it matter how they got it, the witch only cared that they'd stolen it.
"Crucio!"
Hermione lost all sense of being other than pain. Questioned again. Same answers given. Incorrect.
"Crucio!"
Questions. Rasped out answers. Wrong.
"Crucio!"
The pain was all she knew as her vision faded to black, but she still felt the knife as it began to carve into her skin.
She thought she might still be screaming.
"CRUCIO!"
Draco ran down from his room when his ring started going wild, waking him from his sleep. He intended to cast the spell to track her down once he was outside the wards, but it wasn't needed.
The screams echoed through the halls of the Manor and without thinking, Draco ran into the parlor to find Bellatrix carving into Hermione Granger with a silver knife.
Draco didn't even think about it as he blasted the woman away from his witch. He pulled back his arm to cast the killing curse when he was knocked to the floor by a heavy form.
He cursed his tunnel vision when his wand went skittering across the room and under the couch.
Fenrir Greyback had him pinned and Bellatrix was getting to her feet.
"Draco, Draco. I'm disappointed in you." Bellatrix tutted, "Mummy can't save you now. Put him just out of her reach. Yes. Just like that."
Fenrir dragged Draco over to allow Bellatrix to pin his arms, the fingers on his left hand just barely brushing Hermione's.
His witch didn't acknowledge him, her brown eyes flat and unseeing, tears slowly steaming down her cheeks. Only the rise and fall of her chest and the weak pulse in his ring told Draco if she was alive.
He called her name, trying to ignore the madwoman speaking above him.
"It's not a full moon or I'd let you turn him. As it is, Rodolphus darling!" Bellatrix cooed, "It'll be like old times! We are just missing Barty!"
Her husband smiled brightly at her, "Is Barty coming soon?"
Bellatrix patted his cheek indulgently, "of course, my darling. He told us to go ahead and begin our play instead of waiting for him. Fenrir, guard the door so we don't have anymore interruptions."
Then Bellatrix and Rodolphus stood over Draco, his aunt cocking her head and giggling like a little girl.
"Do you want to do the cruciatus or the slicing, dear?" She asked her husband, waving a silver knife around.
"You do the cutting, Bella. You always do it so beautifully." The man fawned at her, then raised his wand and pointed it at Draco just as Bellatrix descended onto his pinned arm.
The tip of the knife dug into his skin the moment his psychotic uncle screamed out, "Crucio!"
-
Harry beat against the cell door, Ron screaming and pounding on it as well as the screams ripped through the air.
Every time Hermione screamed it was like a knife to his heart. He began feeling the walls, trying to find someway out of this forsaken place.
The Longbottoms kept flashing into his mind and he pushed it away. He wouldn't allow it to happen to Hermione. She was too bright, too brilliant. Harry would die before he let her mind become her prison.
"Potter?"
Harry whipped around peering into the dark and seeing nothing even with the barely there light from the cell door, but then hands found his face, touching his glasses and tracing his features.
"Potter, what the bloody hell are you doing here?" Pansy Parkinson cried and Harry's stomach filled with dread.
"Pansy? Why are you here?" He demanded, fumbling around to grab her into a hug. She seemed frail, but she held him tightly.
"It's not just me, Luna is here somewhere. We can't see a damned thing." Pansy hissed, then another scream ripped through the air.
"Not her! No!" Pansy screamed, shoving Harry away to run to the cell door. "Hermione!"
"Hello, Harry." A lilting voice said from somewhere to his right.
"Luna? How long have you two been down here?"
"We don't really know. We were taken off the train on the way home for the holidays."
"Well Easter just started." He reasoned, relaxing a little.
"The winter holidays." She corrected.
Three months. Harry's stomach churned and another scream pierced the air, only this time it was a male's.
"No! Draco!" Pansy cried, her voice broken by sobs. "We have to help them!"
Harry didn't know what to do. He pulled out the shard of glass from his moleskin, begging for help, but it was dark and Ron's deluminator had been shoved into Hermione's bag.
Narcissa had several wands belonging to the snatchers and another from Peter Pettigrew shoved into her pocket.
She'd killed the grimy rat the moment she realized what was going on in the parlor.
As she ran towards the dungeons, she was still fighting the urge to run in with wand blazing. She assumed that was how Draco had fallen.
Narcissa had to be smart to save her children. Lucius was in one of his dazes and no amount of slapping had stirred him from it. She was on her own, unless her plan worked.
She stumbled down the stairs and ran to where she knew the prisoners were.
Narcissa opened the door and lit her wand, seeing Pansy's startled face covered in tears. She looked past her to Harry Potter.
"Please. Help me." She begged the boy, knowing he had no reason to trust her, "They'll die."
"We have to get them out first, they aren't fit to help us." Potter gestured to Pansy and Luna, along with the emaciated Ollivander.
"Plippin!" Narcissa called, waiting for the elf to appear, "Take them wherever they choose, then come back and keep out of sight in the parlor. Once we have Draco and Hermione in hand, you will take us out of here."
Harry looked at her skeptically, but the Weasley boy was whispering to Plippin and the elf nodded.
Pansy fought it, but Narcissa threatened to immobilize the girl if she didn't go along with the elf.
Soon it was just Narcissa and the boys. She handed them two of the spare wands and ran with them towards the parlor doors.
"There are three. Greyback. Rodolphus. Bellatrix. Cast to kill and the moment you can, grab Draco and Hermione." She hissed and then put her wand to the door and blasted it open.
Fenrir Greyback was knocked to the ground by the thick oak doors slamming into him, and she began flinging curses towards her sister and brother-in-law.
When Fenrir lurched to his feet, the boys were focused on him while Narcissa was dueling both Bellatrix and Rodolphus.
Narcissa knew she couldn't keep up with both of them for long, so she cut her wand through the air and a slice appeared along Rodolphus' neck.
The man clutched at his spurting throat, collapsing to his knees and Bellatrix screeched in rage.
Narcissa dared not glance at the two prone forms on the floor as she slowly pushed her sister away from her children.
The two boys managed to fling Greyback through the air with a joint spell, and as Narcissa kept Bellatrix busy, they ran to grab Hermione and Draco, dragging them away from the witch.
"I am your sister!" Bellatrix screeched in a mad rage, "You protect filth and a traitor over your own sister! A disgrace! A shame on the house Black!"
"You're no sister of mine." Narcissa spat, casting the killing curse, which Bellatrix managed to deflect. She was unable to avoid Potter disarming her and Narcissa caught her wand as it soared through the air. "Plippin!"
"Accio wands!" Ron Weasley cried, three more wands soared into Narcissa's outstretched hand. Rodolphus', Fenrir's, and Draco's. She shoved them into her robes just as Plippin appeared.
The elf had a hold of Narcissa and Ron who was supporting Draco, while Narcissa grabbed ahold of Harry who had Hermione cradled in his arms.
Narcissa saw Bellatrix lurch, grabbing something off the floor. The world began to twist just as the deranged woman flung a silver blade directly at Narcissa's heart, smiling triumphantly.
Narcissa had no time to move without letting go of Harry Potter, but it didn't matter because the knife never reached her.
Instead Narcissa let out a silent scream when Lucius Malfoy's gray eyes met her own as he moved his body in front of her.
As soon as his feet hit sand, Lucius Malfoy collapsed to his knees. The blade in his spine was burning, clearly cursed.
His wife fell forward to catch him as he dropped, screaming his name. She fell to her knees, clutching him desperately to her as she sobbed. She sounded so far away.
Lucius felt something on his lips, touching his mouth and pulling his hand back to see dark red.
He was dying.
He couldn't regret it though. He'd step in front of a hundred cursed blades for Narcissa.
He touched her beautiful face, stroking her high elegant cheekbones and her full mouth. Her blue eyes were red-rimmed and he wished he could feel the warmth of her skin, but his fingers had went numb already.
"Lucius!" She begged, "Don't leave me!"
He wished he could grant her wish. He always tried to give her anything her heart desired, whether it be jewels or bodies. He smiled fondly at the memory of how vicious she could be.
He coughed, and tried to wipe the blood that splattered across her cheek away, but only managed to smear it across her pale skin.
His vision was fading and he tried to focus on her face, wanting it to be the last thing he saw.
Lucius tried to say her name. He didn't know if he succeeded.
He thought he heard his name again as he gasped one last breath. Then he was gone.
Fleur opened the door to allow Harry and Ron to carry the two bloody bodies inside.
She enlarged the dining room table and gestured for them to lay the two onto it as she began casting diagnostic spells and screaming for Bill to get her medical kit.
Hermione Granger was ghostly white, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow. She'd lost considerable amounts of weight and her hair was matted horribly.
Her left forearm arm was dripping blood all over the table and it was too smeared to make out what had been carved into it.
Draco Malfoy wasn't in much better shape. His chest was exposed and there were multiple cuts across his stomach and abdomen.
His right arm was also carved up, and Fleur could make out what looked like the letter R.
She set about casting healing spells, Bill helping to pour blood replenishing potions down their throats.
Pansy Parkinson stepped into the room and went pale, but managed to keep it together to be able to ask if Fleur needed any help.
"Clean ze blood from zere armz. I need to see what I am dealing with."
"A cursed blade. A sanguis curse."
Narcissa Malfoy was covered in blood as she flung a silver blade onto the counter behind Fleur.
Her face was swollen with tears, but her hands were steady as she took a cloth from table and set to cleaning Draco's arm as Pansy was already doing Hermione's.
"We can break the curse, but the scars will be permanent." Bill grimaced.
"Better scarred than dead." Narcissa murmured, her jaw clenching as the last of the letters were revealed on Draco's skin.
TRAITOR.
Fleur looked to where Pansy had paused in wiping the blood away from Hermione's arm.
MUDBLOOD.
Fleur quickly finished her healing incantations, then with Narcissa and Bill's help, she managed to get the two into the upstairs guest room.
When she went to transfigure a separate bed for Hermione, Narcissa shook her head and just enlarged the single one.
"He will panic if he wakes up without her." She clarified when Bill gave her a surprised look.
The two women got them each cleaned up and changed into fresh clothes before going back downstairs.
Narcissa was still covered in blood as she walked to the door. She paused with her hand on the doorknob, "Thank you for saving them both. I will repay you somehow, but for now excuse me. I must bury my husband."
Fleur's heart swelled with love when her own husband pushed to his feet and followed the woman out, stating that he wasn't letting even someone like Narcissa bury her husband alone.
Harry and Pansy opened the door to look in on Hermione and found Draco Malfoy awake.
The blonde boy was on his side facing Hermione, stroking her curls softly and it was obvious that he been crying.
"Potter." He rasped, as if he'd screamed so hard his vocal cords were damaged. A flick of gray eyes that softened slightly, "Pansy."
"Draco." Pansy whispered, stepping forward quickly to climb into bed behind him and wrap herself around his back. "You're alive."
Harry shuffled uncomfortably at the display of affection, but slowly walked around to grab the chair from the corner of the room and move it to sit beside Hermione.
She was still pale, but her breathing was better and Harry gently picked up her hand to press it between his palms.
"Thank you." Draco murmured quietly, "For getting us both out of there. I don't remember a lot after the third crucio, but I do know you could have left me there."
"Hermione would have killed me if I left you back there." Harry tried to joke.
"She shouldn't have been there." Draco whispered, leaning forward to curl around her even more. "Why is she so thin?"
"We ran out of food about a month ago, but I think we actually got low two months ago. She was giving us most of her portions." Harry replied quietly, shame tearing through him just as badly as when he'd first caught her doing it.
"You let her do that?" A sharp glance from gray eyes.
"No. She hid it. I caught her doing it a few days before the food was completely depleted."
A watery scoff and Draco's hand was trembling as he traced her jaw, "That sounds like something stupid she'd do. Are my parents here?"
Pansy had been silent this entire time, and she looked over Draco's shoulder at Harry with wide eyes.
"Your mother is." Harry swallowed thickly, glancing down at Hermione's hand in his own. Her nails were chipped and bit down to nothing.
"My father?"
Harry didn't meet his eyes.
"I see."
Pansy shifted off the bed and walked around to tug on Harry's shirt, "We will go fetch your mother Draco."
Harry got to his feet, setting Hermione's hand down gently on the mattress before following Pansy out.
He didn't turn around or mention the sob that came from the room as he shut the door.
Draco's mother had left and the room had grown dark by the time Hermione's lashes fluttered open.
He sat up on his elbow immediately, gently turning her head to face him. Her brown eyes were confused for a moment, then slowly welled up with tears as she lifted her hand to touch his cheek.
"I remember you there." She whispered, her voice still raw despite almost two days of sleep, "You shouldn't have come."
"I'll always come for you." He promised, pressing a kiss to her forehead, "I couldn't save you though."
"Doesn't matter." She murmured, "Are we dead then?"
He shook his head, "We are alive and at Shell Cottage with Fleur and her husband."
"Then you did save me?"
"No. Mother came in with Potter and Weasley to save the two damsels." He tried to joke, but it came out a sob as he added, "My father was killed as we were escaping."
"Oh, Draco." She said sadly, stroking his cheek with gentle fingers. "I'm so, so sorry."
He shook his head, not bothering to wipe away his tears, "If he was going to die in this war, he would have wanted to go out the way he did. In mother's arms."
"Perhaps, but I wish he hadn't gone out at all." She tried to sit up and then looked at her bandaged arm with a frown.
"It still burns, yes. They broke the blood curse, but it'll take a long time for the lingering magic to disappear completely." Draco informed her, trying to grab Hermione's hands away when she started unwinding the gauze.
She pulled away the last piece and stared at the crudely carved slur. Her lip trembled but she managed to quip, "How unoriginal."
Draco scoffed, leaning over to rewrap it when her hand stilled his. He glanced at her to see her staring at his own arm.
"I'll just tell you what it says if you promise not to unwrap it." Draco told her lightly, resuming his attentions to her forearm.
"Then tell me."
"Traitor. I'm assuming she either didn't have room for the 'blood' part or maybe didn't know how to spell it. She was fresh out of the looney bin after all." He tried to joke as Hermione's eyes welled with tears.
"You shouldn't have tried to save me." She cried, clutching at his arm even as she was careful not to press on his bandage.
Draco grabbed her jaw and forced her to look at him as he told her firmly, "If I didn't save you, none of it would have mattered. Taking the dark mark. Fixing the cabinet. Dumbledore. It would have all been for nothing if you'd died in that room. I had to save you or nothing would have ever mattered again. Do you understand, Hermione?"
She nodded, leaning forward to wrap her arms around him, "I'm so sorry, Draco. For everything. I love you."
"You are everything." He promised, tilting her face up to kiss her for the first time in months. "I love you."
Notes:
I'm sorry. I had to do it.
At least I wrote Dobby out so he didn't die, right?
Chapter 19: Dragon Fire
Summary:
The Beginning of the Battle of Hogwarts
Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
The tremors hadn't stopped since they'd woke up.
Fleur had gently told them both that the exposure to multiple cruciatus curses could cause lasting nerve damage. Tremors. Numbness. Intolerance to the cold.
Neither Draco nor Hermione knew how many times they'd been subjected to the torturous spell. Hermione was sure it was more than four, but Draco had only been aware for three.
He stood in the shower, wincing as the water droplets hit the various slices across his torso. Bellatrix had sliced him to ribbons with that damned knife.
The sound of the door opening and shutting caught his attention and he watched as Hermione climbed into the shower with him.
Draco clenched his jaw when he realized he could count her ribs, see the exact shape of her collarbone, and the jut of her hip bones.
She'd always been petite, often forgetting lunch in favor of studying. Draco had to feed her by hand countless times over the years.
This was not that. This was months of starvation. How had Potter not realized when her cheeks became gaunt and her wrists started to protrude.
He didn't say anything about that though, he just reached for her, letting her press against him. He ignored the pain from the knife wounds, the feeling of her skin against his own worth any amount of sting.
He didn't do anything with her, she was too fragile and both of them were still recovering. He just held her and helped her with her curls, relishing the feel of her warm and alive with him.
When they went down to breakfast, he made sure to load her plate up. She didn't finish it all, but throughout the day he made sure that she had small snacks.
Pansy started helping with it too, bringing up fruit and little treats whenever she could.
Draco thought Hermione had caught on to what they were doing after Pansy returned with something a fourth time, but she just smiled at him and nibbled on the orange slice that Pansy handed her.
"Absolutely not."
Narcissa watched Harry Potter look to Hermione imploringly. The girl sighed and began to try reasoning with Draco, but Narcissa's son wasn't budging.
"I'm not trying to take away your independence or whatever you're about to be on about. I am telling you no because it will mentally break you, Granger." Draco snapped, making the girl look down at her lap. Then he turned on her two companions, "How dare you ask her to wear her torturer's face."
The two boys frowned at Draco, then looking at Hermione guiltily, as if they hadn't thought of that when they made this plan.
Hermione got up and walked out of the room, Pansy following after her. Narcissa just continued to supervise the boys, worried that tempers would eventually flare.
"Now that she's gone let me really lay it out for you two blithering idiots. You just asked her to wear the face of the woman who not only tortured her and her fiancé, but also fully planned to allow a rabid werewolf to rape her while he ate her. Bellatrix told you all she was going to have him do that. So what is going through those heads of yours?" Draco snarled, his gray eyes hard as the two boys flinched violently.
"I understand what you're saying. I do and I hate it, but it's the only plan we've got. I have to get into that vault, Draco."
Narcissa hummed loudly, making the three turn to look at her, "Or you can ask me to do it."
The three blinked at her and then Harry Potter winced, "We don't exactly have good reason to trust you."
"Don't you?" She scoffed, "You have two reasons to trust me sitting downstairs right now."
Ron looked skeptical, but Harry's face was contemplative.
"You'd do anything for your children." Harry finally said, "Even take Hermione's place to be your husband's killer."
"Glad we are on the same page now." Narcissa replied icily.
"Hermione isn't her child though." The ginger boy protested and Narcissa gave him a cold smile.
"Hermione is my child in all ways, but legally. Which can be remedied right now if she desires."
"You're going to adopt her?" Ron asked confused and Narcissa looked at her son with raised brows.
"I told you Hermione has literally kept them alive through sheer force of will. Their heads are empty." Draco shrugged as the two boys glared at him.
"Clearly."
"I've missed you like a limb." Pansy told the curly haired witch sitting in the sand.
"I've missed you too. So much." The girl whispered back as Pansy dropped down to sit with her.
"You probably shouldn't be out here with open wounds, but the boys are in there doing some phallic measuring so I won't tell on you." Pansy promised wickedly, loving the familiar snorting laugh she got in response.
Merlin, she was so glad Hermione was alive to laugh.
"Since I view two of those boys as brothers, I'm not going to contemplate who would win that contest." Hermione joked even as she gagged.
"My personal bet is Weasley. You can't be that big of a knobhead without having a big knob." Pansy mused making Hermione cackle.
"Please don't say that in front of the other two or they really will start measuring." Hermione giggled and once the laughter had passed they both stared out at the sea.
"Hermione?"
"Pansy."
"When this is all over, could you do me a favor and live a safe, quiet life where I don't have to cry over you anymore." Pansy pleaded. "I really almost lost you this time. You're my very best friend and I wouldn't recover if something happened to you."
"I'll try. I do know that once this is over, we are all going on a month long vacation to a warm beach using Draco's fortune." Hermione declared, putting her head on Pansy's shoulders. "Everyone one of the old group members."
"Oh he will hate having to pay for Harry and Weasley." Pansy snickered, leaning her own head against Hermione's.
"Yes, but he will do it anyway."
Remus Lupin's joyous visit went sideways when Narcissa Malfoy walked in from the beach and asked Fleur if she needed any help with dinner.
The man had his wand out and pointed at a bored looking Narcissa before anyone could stop him.
Harry was nervously trying to explain why she was here when Narcissa interrupted him.
"While I'm aware that observational skills and general intelligence is sorely lacking amongst you Gryffindor alumni, please at least try to use your brain." She said dryly, and then wicked fast she had her wand shoved into the front of Remus' pants.
"Now drop it wolf man or you'll really be howling." She sneered and Harry groaned.
"She's good! She's on our side!" Harry yelped, looking around for someone to help him.
"Mother, can you please not hex Professor Lupin's bollocks off?" Draco drawled from the stairs.
Remus slowly backed away with his hands up in surrender and Harry breathed a sigh of relief.
"I think you need to explain things Harry. This woman is not any form of the word good." Remus snapped, his eyes full of hatred as they stared at the blonde woman.
To her credit, she just raised an eyebrow and then walked over to fondly smooth down Hermione's hair before asking Fleur once more if she needed any assistance.
Harry pulled the man outside to explain things as much as he could. When he finished, Remus just sighed.
"Harry, that woman has probably buried more bodies than her crazy sister. She just knows how to hide them better. She isn't good."
"Maybe not, but she's on our side and she's the only reason Hermione is alive. That's enough for me." Harry insisted, wondering if the Harry from six months ago could imagine himself defending Narcissa Malfoy's morals.
"She saved Hermione because she was in the process of saving her son. If Draco Malfoy hadn't been there, she would have let Hermione die." Remus hissed.
Harry shook his head, "No. She loves Hermione and sees her as her daughter already."
"Already?" Remus asked.
"They never broke off the engagement." Harry admitted and Remus grew eerily quiet.
"Molly was right. They've got their clutches so deep in you, that you're blind to it. You let her be part of the order while engaged to a death eater." He muttered finally. Harry felt his temper spark.
"Molly Weasley can keep her opinions on my friends to herself." Harry snapped angrily, "Draco didn't have to barge into that room, but he did. Narcissa could have probably talked her sister down about Draco and left Hermione, but she didn't. They're on our side and that's two more wands against him."
Remus just stared at him for a long moment before he nodded, "I hope you're right about this Harry. I'm with you all the way."
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and hugged the man tightly. He then returned the conversation to Tonks and Remus' new baby boy.
Hermione snatched the polyjuice potion out of Narcissa's hands and downed it before anyone could stop her.
Essence of Bellatrix tasted rancid, but she'd gone this far with Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, and she wasn't letting them go without her now.
As she doubled over trying not to be sick, she grew taller and she watched her brown ringlets darken and transform into longer, tighter coils.
Draco was shouting at her and Narcissa didn't look happy at all when she straightened slowly.
"Why the bloody hell did you do that?" Draco snapped, but she noted he was averting his eyes and wasn't touching her.
This face held nightmares for him too.
"I trust you to take care of my boys, but if something went wrong and you couldn't make it back? I don't know how I'd find them again. I have to see this through." She told the woman who was so like a mother to her.
"If you insist. I suppose I will take your place with Draco and help provide an escape route once you leave the bank."
Hermione nodded, ignoring the fluttering feeling of panic in her stomach when the inky hair swished into her line of sight once more.
"You'll be needing this as well."
Narcissa held out the wand of Bellatrix Lestrange and Hermione had to swallow more bile.
Draco and his mother leaned against the shop across from the bank, polyjuiced into two random muggles and concealment charms cast.
The alarm had sounded, but the trio hadn't come out yet.
Draco was getting antsy, but knew he could do nothing except wait. She wasn't in danger just yet, his ring telling him that Hermione's heartbeat was a little fast, but steady.
About five minutes later, a dragon burst through the glass ceiling of the bank, it roar echoing down Diagon Alley and vibrating the windows of the shop they stood beside.
Draco's mother hissed an expletive and he followed her eyes to where Hermione bloody Granger was clinging onto a spiky scale protruding from the dragon's back, her boots scrambling for purchase against slick dragon hide.
Draco was moving, not knowing what his plan was when her heartbeat went erratic with fear as the creature beat its wings and soared into the air.
"Draco we have to go." His mother grabbed him, apparating them away.
They landed outside shell cottage and Draco stormed inside thinking of all the ways he was going to brutally kill the two boys and how loudly he was going to yell at his fiancée.
"Where are they?" Pansy asked, concern coloring her tone.
"On the back of a bloody dragon!" Draco snarled, even as his mind whirled with all the scenarios that could happen. She could be eaten. Or fall off. Or burnt to a crisp. Perhaps all of the above.
"A dragon?" Pansy repeated in shock, "Where did they find a dragon?"
Bill winced, "They keep a blind one in the lower vaults."
"Of course it's blind. That only makes sense given who is riding it." Draco groaned and collapsed onto the couch.
Narcissa signed, "I'm going to put her in an indestructible bubble when all this is over."
"You can't. Draco has to take us all to the beach." Pansy quipped, even as she fidgeted revealing how upset she was about the news.
"I'm not taking any one of you tossers to the beach."
Pansy didn't reply, pulling out a golden coin from her pocket and staring at it. She flipped it to him and he caught it easily.
Apparently it was time to go back to school.
Harry was about fed up with having to defend the Malfoys to every single person that entered the bloody room.
Did people think he wanted to be their advocate? Because he didn't, that task should have definitely fallen to Hermione.
Yet here he was, again, telling everyone to calm down. Then made them listen to him drone on and on about how the Malfoys were on their side and if anyone couldn't control their urge to hex them, it was best if they just left.
He wouldn't say what they did to earn his trust, that was private and he wouldn't expose Hermione's nightmare to anyone else.
Molly Weasley kept her head down the entire time, walking to the other side of the room, but she stayed.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief and then began discussing the missing Ravenclaw artifact with Cho Chang and Ginny Weasley.
As soon as Potter was done yammering on about the Malfoy family's supposed good deeds, Draco made a beeline for Hermione.
She smiled brightly at him and then pressed her lips together as if she were holding back laughter when she caught sight of his face.
"It's not funny, Granger!" He snapped, not realizing how loud he was being when he grabbed her by her arms, "A bloody dragon! I had to watch you almost fall off the damned thing and you're laughing!"
A hysterical giggle escaped her lips and he scowled at her. She stood on tiptoe to kiss him and he tried not to soften, but ultimately failed.
"I'm sorry Draco. I'll make sure you are a part of any future dragonriding." She promised and his eye twitched when Pansy Parkinson let out a wheezing laugh and high fived Hermione.
"Draco. Dragon. You're hilarious. Parkinson, quit corrupting my fiancée." He ordered the Slytherin girl who just grinned cheekily.
He was shoved aside and stumbled slightly with Hermione when Luna Lovegood ran past them instead of going around, calling out, "My darling fwooper feather!"
Draco watched as she was caught up by Blaise Zabini, who twirled her around and kissed her passionately, despite the boy having a rather nasty looking busted lip.
The only person missing from the room of their group it seemed, was Theo. Draco hoped he had come to his senses, but it looked like the war hadn't driven everyone from their ragtag group back together.
Draco and Hermione left Ron organizing the troops, his witch insisting his tactical mind would help prepare the castle better than anything else.
"Alright Hermione, but when you get back up here, I need you on barriers in all the main entrances. Nastiest ones you can conjure." The ginger boy told her.
Hermione nodded then bit her lip, "I can come help, but the one who taught me those barrier spells is here and you should use her."
She pointed at one Narcissa Malfoy who raised a brow, then nodded once and strode towards the door, "I'll start in the entrance hall and then move counterclockwise around the castle."
Draco let Hermione grab his hand and pull him along towards Moaning Myrtle's bathroom.
"Granger, how exactly are we supposed to get into a room locked by parseltongue?" He asked her and then jumped back when she calmly pointed her wand at the base of the special sink.
"Shield us! Bombarda!"
Draco was just barely able to throw a protego around them when the dust cleared and there was a small hole big enough for a mouse to crawl through.
She raised her wand again and this time he was ready. It took six more to create an opening big enough to fit Draco and he insisted on going first.
Instead of any type of ledge however, he screamed as he slid down a massive pipe, shooting off the slide and landing hard on a pile of jagged bones.
He was just getting up when Hermione's body plowed into him, locking back down forcefully.
"Sorry." She winced and the slowly got to their feet, her wand lit brightly as they looked around. He had his wand at the ready as she led them down a tunnel with an unbelievably massive snake skin shed and to a door that was slightly ajar.
"So what was the plan if this wasn't open?" He asked as he grunted, shoving the heavy metal door open.
"More blasting the stone around it. Notice the sink took no damage? It's magicked. I'd say the door is too. So we would have had to chip away at the bricks."
"Well thank god Potter can't be arsed to shut the door when he leaves a room, I noticed that at Shell Cottage." Draco grumbled and she laughed as they walked down a pathway lined with giant stone snakeheads.
"I'm pretty sure he was doing that on purpose just to irritate you." She admitted.
"Of course he was." Draco rolled his eyes as they came upon a giant snake skeleton laying half submerged in a pool of water.
"You know, I was really upset about you being petrified, but now I'm very glad you weren't here to fight this thing with Potter." He murmured as he stepped forward to pry a fang out.
"Get a few and we will put them in the bag. Never know if we lose the one." Hermione insisted and he collected four more. "I only saw it the one time in the mirror. It's quite a bit bigger than I initially thought."
"Should we just do it here then?" He asked looking around at the clear space.
"I suppose. It's not like it can physically harm us right?" She shrugged and placed a golden goblet with a small embellished badger onto the floor. She lifted the tooth and plunged it into the little metal creature.
A hissing sound released and it grew violently shrill, making them both cover their ears.
Since they were on the floor trying to protect their eardrums from the cup's whistling hiss, they didn't realize that a giant cyclone of water was forming until the hissing stopped and they looked up.
Hermione shrieked and Draco grabbed her, tugging her to her feet and dragging her away from the snakelike column of water, but they weren't fast enough.
It surged down on them with extreme force, ripping their hands apart and forcing Draco flat to the floor as he was effectively waterboarded.
By the time it stopped, he was vaguely aware of rolling, managing to push up on his hands and knees, wretching up water. Hermione was doing the same several feet away.
Both felt bruised and beaten when they managed to wobble up onto unsteady legs, and Draco ran a diagnostic on her.
She still had water in her lungs and apparently so did he. She winced as she pressed her wand to his chest and muttered a spell making him violently empty all the contents of his stomach and presumably his lungs onto the stone floor.
Then the mad woman cast it on herself instead of showing him how to do it after he recovered.
Both were panting raggedly when she offered to see if she had any vials of pepperup potion in her bag.
Draco shook his head roughly, "Give me a bit, Granger. At this point I don't think I can stomach even the idea of liquid."
She nodded, still looked a bit peaky, but they slowly made their way back out of the tunnel.
Making it back up to the bathroom was an entirely different matter and they pondered what to do before Draco grimaced at the bones strewn about.
"Help me make a ladder."
She had wrinkled her nose, but complied, unable to transfigure anything that required focus like the fine detailing of a ladder at the moment. She waved her wand, piecing together the white bones while Draco guided it up the tunnel.
By the time they made it back up and wiggled out into Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, a voice was hissing in their heads demanding the surrender of the castle and to turn over Harry Potter.
Hermione and Draco found Harry in the room of requirement, emptied of all students and searching for something.
"What are we looking for Harry?" She asked him as she come upon him spinning around frantically.
"Hermione thank god! Your brilliant brain remembers everything!" He crowed, kissing her on the forehead, "Where did we hide the book?"
"The book?" She frowned, "The Prince's book?"
"Yes! There was an ugly bust, and on it was the horcrux! It's Ravenclaw's diadem. I remember seeing it, but I can't find it again." He turned about again, looking down various paths through the junk.
"This way." She pointed to the right, leading both boys through a maze of precariously stacked items. It took some time, but they found it and Harry snatched the tiara off the bust.
"Put that down, Potter."
Vincent Crabbe came at them with his wand pointed threateningly, Gregory Goyle and Theodore Nott trailing behind him with their wands raised as well.
Draco stepped in front of Hermione and she scowled, trying to step up beside him, but he shoved her back once more.
"I'm disappointed in your three." Draco drawled in his most posh voice, "Following in your father's bungling footsteps, I see."
Hermione gripped his shirt so tightly she knew she was pinching skin. What was this idiot doing?
"Shut it, Malfoy. We aren't blood traitors like you." Goyle hissed, all three boys focusing on Draco, just as Hermione caught Harry's eye.
She swung around Draco's body to blast Crabbe back as Harry disarmed Goyle, Draco casting a repulso that sent the boy flying down a path where he lay unmoving. Then Draco pointed his wand at Theo who steadily held his own.
"Pick a side, Theo. Now." Draco told his oldest friend flatly.
"Or what? You'll kill me?" Theo asked, tilting his head slightly, "I'm your best friend."
"Yes." Draco agreed to both questions, not lowering his wand.
"Ah, well. I've never been one to fight a losing battle." Theo shrugged, pocketing his wand and walking towards them. "Tell Neville that I didn't fight you."
"The boy is disgustingly in love with you, Theo. You aren't going to have to beg." Draco rolled his eyes, grabbing his friend into a hug. They turned to walk away when Crabbe got to his feet, flames licking out the tip of his wand.
Hermione watched in horror as it took the shape of a dragon and grabbed Draco, screaming at Harry and Theo to run. Crabbe dropped the wand and ran too when the fire wasn't doing as he directed.
Her three boys followed without question thankfully, but the blaze was growing too quickly, the junk catching fire like tinder.
Draco dragged her over to where several rickety brooms lay and swung his leg over, "Hop on, Granger. You know what those flames mean just as well as I do."
She took a breath and climbed up, the broom wobbling, but once it got going, it stabilized.
Harry and Theo were on their own brooms when they glanced back. Crabbe and Goyle were climbing a large pile of tables, screaming for help as fiery chimeras leapt up to snap at their feet.
Theo turned back and Harry groaned, "Hurry up!"
She watched in terror as two of her best friends sped towards the two boys, Harry grabbing ahold of Goyle and hauling him up while Theo reached for Crabbe.
The boy jumped for his hand, but Theo screamed when their fingers only barely brushed, and Hermione closed her eyes rather than watch Crabbe fall into the flaming beasts below.
They sped forward once more, coughing from the smoke inhalation, almost to the door when a fiery dragon hissed a flame at them. It missed their bodies, but the ends of the brooms were on fire.
Draco gripped her hands where they were clasped around him with one hand and dove forward, throwing them to the floor just outside the room of requirement. Theo and Harry landed in similar haphazard heaps.
Hermione was already in her bag, tossing the basilisk fang to Harry who stabbed the diadem, allowing Draco to chuck it into the flames.
The doors shut and they all sat staring at each other for a long moment. Then Draco muttered something about trust and stunned Gregory Goyle, levitating the large boy to lay against the wall.
Sounds of battle slowly registering to Hermione's ears as she fished four small vials out of her bag when she noticed how off-balance Draco was.
"Pepper up. We need our strength and we have to go. Quickly now."
They all four chugged the potions, Draco and Hermione with a grimace. At least the heat from the fire meant they weren't wet anymore.
"All that's left is the snake." Harry panted as the steam subsided from his ears, "I don't know how we are going to get that close with a basilisk fang though."
Hermione gave him a faint smile, "We always manage. Let's go."
They ran towards the battle and found nothing, but chaos and death.