When Hermione opened her eyes that morning, the first thing she noticed was that she wasn't in her room. As she sat up, she winced at the pain in her left arm. Luckily, she hadn't made any noise, because when she looked to her right, she saw Draco sleeping peacefully in a chair next to the bed.
She couldn't help but admire how handsome he was, even in his sleep. Even though she had her doubts last night, she now knew he was being truthful about his feelings. He had taken her up to his safe space and kept watch over her all night—in this moment, Hermione knew without a doubt that she returned his feelings. She may not have liked him as long as he had her, but she liked him nonetheless.
As if he could feel her staring at him, he slowly opened his eyes.
He looked at her with concern. "How are you feeling? I tried to stay up until you woke up, but I guess I must've fallen asleep at som.."
Before he could get the rest of his sentence out, she was out of bed, wrapping her arms around him. "Draco, thank you for caring for me. It means more than you could ever know," she said into his chest.
"Hermione, I would do just about anything for you. You are everything. I'll never be able to apologize enough for how I was in the past, but I want you to know that everything I've told you in the last few days, I've meant every word of it," he murmured into her hair.
She lifted her head and leaned forward to capture his lips in a kiss. While kissing him, she maneuvered her legs to a straddling position and ground down on him, causing both of them to moan in pleasure. Breaking the kiss, Draco moved his attention to her neck while she continued to grind against him.
"Love, if you don't stop doing that, I'm going to have to move us to the bed, and I'm not sure if you're ready for that yet," he said before resuming his kisses.
"Fine," she pouted. "I suppose you're right. Would you mind taking me back to my room so I can shower and put on fresh clothing?"
"Just use my shower. I'm sure I could find some clothing of mine for you to wear when you're done. Besides, I like having you in here, so I know you're okay," he said softly, planting a kiss on her forehead.
Moving off of him, she walked to the bathroom and closed the door. Once it was shut, she started to carefully take her clothes off. She looked down at her arm and grimaced. The dark mark, something she had been taught to be afraid of for most of her teenage years, was now permanently inked into her skin.
After her shower, she wrapped herself in a towel and opened the door to the bathroom. Expecting Draco to be waiting for her, she was a little upset that he was nowhere to be found. On top of the bed, there was a neatly folded Slytherin quidditch jersey and a pair of sweatpants—of course it would be something Slytherin .
As soon as she pulled the shirt over her head and sat down on the bed, the door opened, and Draco walked in.
"I know you just put those on, but I already want to rip them off of you. Slytherin green is a great color for you." He winked.
"Where did you run off to while I was showering?" She asked with a raised brow.
"I went to Father's study to grab these," he smiled.
When Draco pulled his hands from behind his back, she wanted to cry. In his hands were her beaded bag and her vinewood wand.
The moment she grabbed her wand, she felt that familiar rush of magic that she had been longing for rush through her. It was like every care she had, washed away at the fact she would be able to use magic again.
For the second time that morning, Hermione launched herself into Draco's arms, hugging him with all she had. "Thank you, Draco. I never thought I would see my belongings again after the snatchers took them."
"You're welcome, love." He kissed her then said, "Now, what do you want to do, being we have a free day, before we go on your first raid?"
Smirking at him, she asked, "Do you have a room for training in the manor? I know I'm supposed to be taking the day to rest, but after being without my wand for a while, I would like to practice a little."
"Yes, the training room is in the east wing of the manor, but I don't think the clothes you're wearing are fit to be training clothes." He chuckled.
"Oh! Hold on," she said as she reached elbow deep into her beaded bag.
"Undetectable extension charm? I am shocked that the Golden Girl likes to break rules," he said sarcastically.
As she pulled out black tights, some old trainers, and a ratty old AC/DC t-shirt she had swiped from Sirius' room at Grimmauld, she rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't be surprised at this point, Draco. The Golden Girl isn't so ' golden' anymore."
Deciding to be cheeky, as she walked to the bathroom, she slowly stripped off Draco's jersey, dropping it to the ground as she shut the bathroom door.
"That is so not fair, you evil witch!" She could hear Draco shout from outside of the bathroom.
After getting dressed and braiding her hair, she walked out of the bathroom. Draco was sitting on the bed wearing gray joggers, a black cotton t-shirt, and a pair of trainers.
"I think this is the first time I've ever seen you in anything besides a suit. The casual look suits you, Draco." She smiled at him.
After spending the day training, they both went to their separate rooms to shower and change. They then met at the main staircase to walk to the dining room together to have dinner with his parents.
When they got to the dining room, Hermione was sure he was going to drop her hand and make her walk in separately from him. In a move that shocked her, he kept their hands clasped as they walked in together.
When Lucius looked up from his drink and saw them holding hands, he rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath about losing bets to his wife.
Draco was shocked. "Wait, you knew? And you didn't say anything? I was expecting you to lose your bloody mind and disown me, but instead I find out you have a bet with mother?"
"Of course, I knew Draco. I'm not as dense as you like to think I am, and you aren't as sneaky as you like to think you are either. Ms. Granger may not be a pureblood, but as long as you are happy, I will try to be happy for you." Lucius tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace.
Narcissa patted Lucius on the hand with tears in her eyes. "Well, children, let's sit down so dinner can be served."
Dinky brought out dinner, and they all ate and sipped wine. Once dinner was cleared from the table, the men switched to firewhiskey as they all talked about the upcoming raid.
"We spent most of the day training using darker curses. I feel for the witch or wizard who is on the receiving end of Hermione's wand tomorrow," Draco said proudly.
"Ms. Granger, the Dark Lord wanted me to let you know that the raid will be on an order safehouse tomorrow. We have intel from our spy within the order that it's a house in which some of the Weasleys are hiding. I know this must be hard for you since they are people you know, but you must keep your feelings pushed down tomorrow," he paused for a second. "The Dark Lord is sending Dolohov, Yaxley, and Rodolphus with you tomorrow. If you hesitate in front of them, they will inform the Dark Lord, and you will be punished accordingly."
"I understand Lucius. I've been trying to work on occluding better in order to hide my feelings, so thank you for letting me know." She gave him a tense smile.
While the others continued to talk, Hermione started to wonder about who the spy in The Order could be. It couldn't be Snape, he was completely thrown out of The Order after he murdered Dumbledore.
Draco snapped her out of her thoughts when he started to speak. "Well, I should get Hermione to bed. It's going to be a big day for her tomorrow," he said in a tone that was anything but positive.
After saying goodnight to the elder Malfoys, they left the dining room. When they got to the hall and started the walk up to Draco's bedroom, he looked at Hermione, "Are you going to be okay tomorrow?"
"When they see it's me, they're going to try and curse me out of anger, so I think that will make it a bit easier to be enemies now," she said while trying to put on a brave face.
When they made it to Draco's room, Hermione slipped into the bathroom to get ready for bed. When she came out, Draco was walking out of the closet and stopped dead in his tracks.
"Love, I don't think I could ever get tired of seeing you in nothing but my jersey." He said as he walked over and gave her a kiss.
As they crawled in bed, Hermione scooted herself as close to Draco as she could get. "Goodnight, Draco."
"Goodnight, love."
Within moments, they fell asleep, wrapped in each other's embrace.
When Hermione woke up, it was still dark out, and Draco was still sleeping. As quietly as she could, she slipped out of bed and padded to the bathroom. Once she was inside, she quietly shut the door and turned on the lights.
She stood in silence for a moment, just thinking to herself, You cannot fuck this up today. Anything they say or do to you, you cannot react out of emotion.
After her little internal pep talk, she got dressed in her training gear. She walked out of the bathroom just as quietly as she entered and snuck out of the room.
"Dinky," she whispered into the dark hallway.
"Ms. Hermy called for Dinky?" The little elf asked as she popped into the hallway.
"Do you think you could take me to the training room? If you don't want to walk me there, you could just apparate us in," she said quietly.
Instead of giving her an answer, Dinky grabbed Hermione's hand and popped them into the training room.
"Will that be all, Ms. Hermy?" The little elf asked.
"Yes, Dinky, thank you." Giving a big smile.
When Dinky vanished from the room, Hermione conjured moving dummies that would throw hexes back at her. Better to be prepared for everything, she thought.
Standing in the middle of the room, she took a deep breath and then fired her first spell.
" Reducto"
"Incarcerous"
"Confringo"
"Expulso"
She shot out in rapid succession before the first four dummies could land a single shot on her.
As the last dummy's wand sparked red, attempting to shoot a Cruicatius curse at her, she screamed, " Avada Kedavra" .
Her first unforgivable, she could feel the dark magic coursing through her veins— she fucking loved it.
Out of the corner of the room, she heard clapping.
"Looks like my little nephew's mudblood girlfriend has claws." Bellatrix cackled.
"Was that a compliment, Bella? How hard was that for you to say?" She smirked at her.
"Don't look too far into it. I still don't like you, but I will commend your fighting skills. I was shocked to see that a former member of the light could use anything other than ' Stupefy'," she said, rolling her eyes at Hermione. "Care to practice against something other than a dummy?" She asked with an evil glint in her eyes.
After thirty minutes of dueling with each other, Bellatrix and Hermione were both covered with cuts and bruises. In a last-ditch effort, while Bellatrix was trying to turn away from Hermione's previous curse, she sent a non-verbal stupefy and hit her in the shoulder.
"Oh shit!" She said as she ran over to revive Bellatrix.
When Hermione revived Bellatrix, she reached out her hand to help her up from the ground. In a move that surprised her, Bellatrix took her hand and rose from the ground.
"You have my respect. Most people can't land any spells on me and are either incapacitated or dead within the first ten minutes of dueling. So for that, you have earned my respect," Bellatrix said as she limped from the room.
When Bellatrix left, Hermione went ahead and healed her wounds and gave herself a thorough Scourgify. Once that was done, she put the training room back to rights and left the room.
She didn't want to bother Dinky, so she started off in what she hoped was the right direction to Draco's room. After wandering the halls for fifteen minutes, she finally found her way to the main staircase of the manor. Hearing voices, she looked down the staircase, and there talking to Lucius was none other than Antonin Dolohov. Before she could be seen, she made a quick dash towards the side of the house where Draco's room was. Once she made it to the door, she yanked it open and went inside.
Slamming the door closed, she dropped to the floor, taking in heaving breaths.
"Hermione?" Draco ran from the bathroom in his towel. "Are you okay? What happened?" He asked, looking her over.
"Dolohov…" she panted out. "He's downstairs with your father."
She took a few seconds to steady her breathing before continuing, "He frequents my nightmares. The battle in the ministry—he almost killed me…" She pulled her shirt up to show him the angry purple scar that ran across her torso.
"I'm so sorry, love. If the Dark Lord didn't specifically request him, I would make sure he was never in your presence." He sighed.
"I'll be okay. Let's just get ready for this raid," she said with a tense smile.
Once they were in their full Death Eater regalia, they headed downstairs to join the others in Lucius' study.
"Welcome, Ms. Granger. I hope you're ready to prove yourself today," the Dark Lord purred.
"Yes, my Lord. Instead of resting, I've used my time to train, and I feel like I'm ready." She grinned.
"Ah, yes. Bella did tell me about your training session this morning. You actually bested her, one of my top-ranking Death Eaters. I do believe you will make a fine addition to the ranks." He looked at her proudly.
From the corner of her eye, she could see Draco staring at her with a raised brow. Whoops , forgot to mention that part of my morning, she thought to herself.
As soon as introductions were over, the Dark Lord pulled Hermione to the side.
"I have this for you." He pulled the most intricate mask from his cloak.
It was a beautiful silver Death Eater mask that looked like it had black swirls but were actually thorny vines—just like her wand.
"Thank you, my Lord. It is beautiful," she said softly.
They walked back to the others just as Lucius was passing out portkeys.
"You will all have individual portkeys that will take you to the safehouse. When you are done, or if you are injured, tap the portkey, saying, ' Portus Domum' and it will bring you back to the manor," he said, a serious look on his face.
Once they were all ready, with their masks in place, the Dark Lord spoke. "Hermione has already been to this safehouse, so she can get past the fidelus. I trust our spy met with everyone to give them the location."
The other Death Eaters echoed 'yes, my Lord' around her.
Once they were all in the woods outside of Auntie Muriel's estate, they applied disillusionment charms and waited for the signal from Antonin that he had dropped the wards.
When the wards were dropped, they advanced on the house. As they were advancing, they saw the Weasleys run outside, wands at their ready.
All of the Death Eaters dropped their charms and started firing curses. Greens, reds, purples, and blues filled the night sky from the wand fire.
Hermione was fighting Molly Weasley, who had yet to realize just who her opponent was. As much as she hated to admit it, Molly was a formidable fighter, just like Bellatrix.
Just as Hermione went to fire a Crucio , Molly threw a Reducto at her feet, causing her to fly back and hit the ground.
Scrambling to get back up, she heard Molly, "Hermione?"
Fuck my mask , she thought.
"How could you do this to us? I always knew you were a horrid little bitch," Molly screamed.
As Molly stalked towards her, she could see her wand sparking and glowing green from the tip.
"Sectumsempra!" Hermione bellowed from her position on the ground.
As Hermione got up, she stormed over to Molly. Her spell had hit her dead center, and she was already laying in a pool of her own blood.
"Get it right, Molly. You were the horrid bitch. Not me." She smirked.
"Not my mom, you fucking bitch!" She heard one of the twins cry from behind her.
Pain—all she could feel was blinding fucking pain—as she screamed her throat raw on the ground.
As the Cruciatus curse she was under came to an abrupt halt, she rolled over, and the scene in front of her made her laugh.
Draco was using hand-to-hand combat to wail on George while screaming, "No one, and I mean, fucking no one curses MY Hermione."
When George finally stopped moving, Rodolphus pulled Draco off, "Draco, it's time to go. We need to get Hermione home, and Yaxley is hurt pretty badly. They're all either dead or incapacitated."
Before they portkeyed out, Antonin looked to Hermione while pointing to the sky and said, "Do it, Krasivyy. You earned the right today." In his heavy Russian accent.
"Morsmordre"
As she tapped her portkey, the last thing she saw were the Weasleys sprawled across the front lawn with the Dark Mark hovering above the house.
At Shell Cottage…
Harry and Ron were awoken abruptly when Bill slammed into their shared room.
"Both of you get under the cloak and stay hidden. The wards were just triggered." He said before rushing out of the room.
Doing as they were told, they both stayed under the cloak.
"I wonder what's going on out there," Harry whispered.
"Who knows, mate? We should probably stay here until we are told," Ron whispered back nervously.
The door to their bedroom slammed open, revealing a bruised and bloody Fred Weasley.
"Ron, you need to get downstairs now. It's Mom. She's not going to make it," he cried.
Ripping the cloak off, Ron and Harry rushed down the stairs to see absolute carnage in the small living room.
Ron ran to his mother's side and let out an anguished cry. "Mom, what happened?"
"Herm…Herm..." Before she could finish the sentence, the light in her eyes went out.
Molly Weasley was dead.
The room erupted into chaos. Family and Order members were either screaming, trying to figure out what happened, or crying over the loss of everyone's beloved mother figure.
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!" Remus bellowed.
The room went silent except for a few sniffles.
"Now, Fred, do you mind telling us what happened so everyone can quit yelling over each other?" Remus asked softly.
"We were all sitting in the kitchen when we were alerted that the wards had failed. When we went outside, we couldn't see anyone until they had dropped their disillusionment charms. It was Death eaters," Gasps were heard throughout the crowd. "Antonin Dolohov, Rodolphus LeStrange, Corban Yaxley, Draco Malfoy, and… Hermione Granger."
The group in the living room erupted into absolute anarchy.
"Hermione?"
"She would never turn on us!"
"She's the Golden Girl!"
"She's Harry and Ron's best friend! There's no way!"
People shouted from around the room, and Remus put his hand up for everyone to quiet down so Fred could continue.
"They all had their masks on at first, so no one could tell who was who. Then Mum threw a Reducto, and it threw the Death Eater she was fighting to the ground. When the dust cleared, she realized it was Hermione because her mask had fallen off. Mum absolutely lost it, screaming about how ' she was a horrid little bitch' and when she went to curse Hermione again, she hit Mum with a Sectumsempra spell."
Harry was sobbing at this point. He couldn't believe that his best friend had stooped to being just the same as Peter Pettigrew.
How could she switch sides and turn on us? He kept asking himself silently.
"I'm going to KILL that fucking bitch. I never fucking liked her and put up with her just for Harry's sake. I always knew she was just a trashy fucking Mudblood," Ron snarled from beside his mother.
"That's not even the craziest part, I'm afraid. When George hit Hermione with the Cruciatus curse in retaliation, Draco Malfoy absolutely lost his mind and started beating George with his fists, screaming about how ' No one fucking curses HIS Hermione' . I don't know what happened after that. Rodolphus knocked me unconscious." Fred grimaced.
"Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me." Ron spat. "So she's some Death Eater's fucking whore now? Stupid fucking cunt is going to regret ever coming to the wizarding world when I get my hands on her."
Everyone in the room was staring at Ron, some with understanding and some with shock that the sweet boy they all knew was saying such things about the girl they thought he carried a torch for.
Harry backed out of the room and ran outside to cry. He heard the door shut and steps coming towards him before being wrapped in a hug.
"I'm so sorry, Harry. I don't think any of us could've seen this coming," Remus whispered.
"Remus, how could she do this to us? She knows what Peter did to my parents, and she turned around and did the same exact thing. For what? To get out of being tortured? I would rather die than betray my friends like a coward," he cried angrily.
At that moment, he came to a realization. Hermione was the enemy. She had already done unspeakable things to his family. He would do whatever it took to take her down with the Dark Lord, so it wouldn't happen again.