Chapter 37
Spring 2002
"Please don't cry," Theo whispered to Hermione. "I'll be alright." He steeled himself against the pain when her tear fell in his wounds and he didn't even flinch. He didn't want her to know that her sorrow was causing him more pain. Her face was red and blotchy in her distress.
"Yes, you will," She decreed fiercely, casting several cooling and healing charms over his blistered flesh. "Because I'm here and I'm going to make sure that you are."
She summoned that atrocious purple bag that Theo remembered from before the war and in the tent. Theo remembered so many nights in the tent, so many nights when they hadn't been sure if they were going to live or die, when any moment could be their last together. It almost seemed like a dream now, but he had to hang on to what he felt. Their love was real. Their soul bond was real.
He could feel Hermione's rage through the bond, she looked sad on the surface, but it was a lie. She was murderous. Disturbingly, Theo felt the darkness and desire for revenge coming through the bond was soothing because Merlin knew Theo was angry too.
As he watched her heal Draco's swollen hands, Theo's anger only grew.
...
Hermione wanted to smash things. She wanted to smash people. Instead she took several deep breaths before gathering the additional salves and potions that she needed for healing Draco's hands and the more recalcitrant blisters on Theo's chest.
She was going to make them pay. Terry and Dean were going to suffer for this. She was going to make it happen.
She wanted to slam her fist into the wall, but she held it in.
It seemed like all she did these days was swallow her rage. Swallowed her rage until she was choking on it. She was going to have to unleash it soon, soon people would have to begin to pay for what they had done.
Crimes such as these could not remain unpunished.
...
The boys spent most of the afternoon watching her, taking in every movement and sound that she made. She tried to give them reassuring smiles whenever she noticed them looking at her, but she was quiet and the bond burned with fury.
Draco did not know what to do when Hermione was this upset. Before his body was such a stranger, he might have kissed her until she melted into him, until he fucked her and filled her and made her scream with passion instead of anger. If he did that now, he might very well be the one who collapsed.
The wizards dutifully ate the meal that she prepared for them along with their tea. She put on a film and dragged them both to the sitting room, glaring at the couch as though it was responsible for the Auror visit. A quick transfiguration and both the colour and shape were different.
Placing herself in the middle of Theo and Draco, Hermione put her head on Draco's shoulders, her feet curled under her. She fell asleep like that, on the couch between Theo and Draco.
As the film finished, Draco looked over at Theo. The hours of silence between the three of them had been different than all the days before.
Hermione had been quiet because she was barely holding it together. Neither Theo nor Draco wanted to be the ones that caused her to fall apart or explode.
"I don't think this is a hallucination," Draco proclaimed calmly, "Because I am pretty sure that I could never have imagined the muggle film we just watched."
"Alice was a bit strange," Theo agreed. "Reminds me of Lovegood. Lovegood and Blaise were here? Earlier? Before?"
Draco searched through his memories from the last few days or was it weeks? How long had they been here at Granger's house?
"I think yes?" Draco shared, shaking his head. "I think I need more sleep."
Carefully rising, they took Hermione to bed again.
Once she was in the bed, Draco and Theo undressed her. She was boneless in her sleep, and they took turns running their hands over her body. Theo's fingers ran over the purple scar under her breasts from where Dolohov nearly killed her. It was more faded than it had been before they went to Azkaban.
"She's older than the last time we saw her. Would that be if we were hallucinating? Wouldn't she look just like we last saw her?" Theo's voice still held a tinge of non-belief to it. "What if they just forgot to cast the silencing charm and we are talking through the grate like that night when we first got to Azkaban….I think that was real? …I think that is a real memory. Isn't it?" Theo felt tired and out of breath. It was so difficult to keep his thoughts in order. Concentrating was difficult.
"Do you remember when we first found out we couldn't get married to each other?" Draco asked
Theo took a breath and closed his eyes, imagining it like it was only yesterday."We were six and playing at your Manor. My mom found us in one of the rose bowers pretending it was our wedding. You made me a ring out of a flower stem."
"What did your mother say, Theo?" Draco asked as he lay back on the bed, pulling the blankets over Hermione.
Theo wiggled under the covers too, putting his head on the pillow he looked over at Draco."No one can know of this. Never play like this again, but she wasn't angry. She was terrified."
"Theo?"
"Draco?"
"I am terrified now," Draco confessed.
...
In the morning when Hermione woke, it was raining.
Hermione made breakfast silently and alone in the kitchen while the men slept. She had all their muggle medications set out and the inhalers, because in the face of the Auror visit she'd forgotten. She was going to set an alarm on her wand to remind herself.
She brought them their breakfast trays and didn't linger.
Instead she opened the windows so she could watch the rain.
After the boys finished eating, she felt them behind her, watching the rain too.
Draco put his hand on the small of her back.
Theo's cheek pressed into her curls.
They didn't say anything out loud to her.
Hermione was afraid of breaking the spell, so she stayed silent as well, appreciating their touches.
Their awareness of her gave her a sense of safety that had been missing for so long.