The next morning, the Malfoys packed up their campsite quickly and efficiently. Lucius had returned at some point during the night. He was shooting Hermione suspicious looks as she helped clean up the site, all of which Hermione ignored. It was taking everything she had to pretend like nothing had happened the previous night, like she didn't know Lucius had been involved in kidnapping and terrorizing children.
When it was time to go, Hermione hesitated.
"We're all very tired," she pointed out, as politely as she could. "Is Side-Along Apparition really safe right now?"
Lucius and Narcissa exchanged a look.
"Probably not," Narcissa admitted.
"It's the only option we've got," Lucius said curtly. "Unless you want to wait in line for a Portkey for three hours…"
Hermione looked at Draco meaningfully, and his eyes widened.
"We're in the middle of nowhere," Draco told her. "I don't know the way home from here. What if I get lost?"
Hermione rolled her eyes.
"If you two Apparate yourselves home, you're less likely to splinch," she told the adults. "Draco and I will follow you from here."
Lucius narrowed his eyes at her.
"You're too young to Apparate," he said.
Hermione regarded him coolly. "And…?"
Narcissa looked like she was about to object, but Lucius gave her a look, and Narcissa fell back, sighing.
"I'll call that bluff," Lucius informed Hermione. "If you're not back within half an hour, we'll be back for you and meet you right here."
"Sounds good." Hermione gave him a jaunty wave. "Good-bye."
Lucius rolled his eyes and scowled, and both he and Narcissa Disapparated with a loud CRACK. Draco looked to Hermione once they were gone. Hermione immediately began striding off through the campground towards the ley line, Draco hurrying to fall into step next to her.
"Was that really necessary?" Draco asked, raising an eyebrow. "It's not like they've never Apparated when tired before—"
"If you think," Hermione snarled, "that I am trusting your father with anyone's safety, after last night, when I can do anything about it—"
"Got it," Draco said quickly. "Yeah, they were pretty tired. Better safe than sorry, right?"
They fell silent as they walked through the grass for a while. Hermione did her best to cool her temper and center herself as they walked, breathing deeply and taking in the beauty of the morning and nature as they went, letting her anger slowly flow out of her.
"I can feel the line faintly from here," Draco said, tentative. He fingered at his pendant, which lay unseen under his clothes. "How do I follow it home?"
"You connected to your home from The Yard?" Hermione asked, and Draco nodded. "Then we just need to jump to The Yard first, then to your home. Doing multiple nodes will make you throw up."
"I'm likely to throw up as it is," Draco muttered, and Hermione grinned.
"Don't be ridiculous," she told him cheerfully. "You haven't eaten yet – there's nothing there to vomit back up."
The look on Lucius Malfoy's face when Hermione and Draco trudged out of the glade behind Malfor Manor, side by side, was one Hermione would savor to her dying day. They calmly joined Lucius and Narcissa on the terrace for tea and breakfast, acting as if nothing was amiss at all.
Narcissa, to her credit, didn't flinch.
"We'll take you back to your parents' after breakfast," Narcissa told Hermione.
"That's fine," Hermione assured her. "I can just Floo — my parents are probably at work now, anyway."
Conversation at breakfast was incredibly stilted. Hermione and Draco were avoiding bringing up the awfulness of the night before, and Lucius was determinedly not asking how she and Draco had made it back without destroying their magic through premature Apparition.
Actually, Hermione mused, even if he did ask, they probably couldn't tell him. At least Draco couldn't, she reasoned – it was a secret of The Shadows, and to reveal it would be a betrayal. She might get away with it because it wasn't a secret she'd learned from The Shadows herself, but she'd rather eat rocks than willingly tell Lucius anything valuable.
She'd really rather make him eat rocks, actually. Or encase him in rock alive.
It was like there was a little fire, burning inside her chest – this cruel desire to hurt Lucius, to hurt him like he'd hurt those kids, to make him as scared as the muggles must have been... Hermione did her best to ignore and stifle it, but it wouldn't go away, still whispering ideas of the terrible vengeance she could wreak. Narcissa did her best to make idle chitchat about the upcoming school year, but even her social skills weren't up to the task of carrying on the conversation entirely that morning, and even Draco started sending Hermione concerned looks, like he was worried she might actually snap and attack his father at the table.
Which, Hermione supposed, she could do, even without any permanent damage, but her respect for Narcissa and social decorum held her back.
When it was finally time to go, Draco walked her to the Floo, where Hermione surprised him by stepping forward and giving him a hug.
"Despite what came after, attending the game was brilliant," she told him, smiling up at him. "I really am grateful. Thank you so much for inviting me."
Draco stiffened in shock, before his arms slowly came up to hug Hermione back.
"It was my pleasure," he said, and Hermione could hear the sincerity in his tone. "Thank you for coming."
After another moment, Hermione pulled back, and an expression of longing flashed across Draco's face before it was carefully masked. Hermione looked away, pretending she hadn't seen it. She'd had too much of an adventure with the Malfoys to even begin wanting to unpack that.
Hermione Floo'd home, where she quickly changed into clean clothes before immediately Flooing to the covenhouse. She tripped on the way out of the fireplace, and Harry was there a moment later, helping her up.
"You're late." He grinned. "Everyone else already made it here."
"Not my fault," Hermione objected. "I had to have a Breakfast of Intimidation™ with the Malfoys first."
Harry laughed. "Breakfast of Intimidation. I like it." He smirked at her. "Did you win?"
Hermione scoffed. "Me, intimidated by the likes of Lucius Malfoy? Please."
"Of course." Harry seemed amused.
Hermione followed Harry out of the living room, across one of the bridges that draped through the trees, and into one of the separate little huts. Susan, Luna, and Blaise were inside with a large cauldron in the center of the room, two smaller cauldrons bubbling off to the side.
"Hermione," Luna said cheerfully. "Just in time. Do you remember what comes after nettles in an Invigoration Draught?"
"Stir three times clockwise and add newt tails," Hermione said automatically. She paused. "Why are we brewing Invigoration Draught?"
"We figured it would be a good thing to have on hand for trying to get the next horcrux," Susan said, shrugging. "We've got Blood Replenisher and a Healing Potion going as well."
"Nice," Hermione said, approvingly. "Smart thinking."
Susan grinned, her eyes glinting behind her tinted glasses. "You're not the only one who can think ahead."
After adding the newt tails, all the potions needed to stew for a while, and conversation immediately turned toward the disastrous night after the World Cup. To Hermione's shock and horror, Harry had been right there where the Dark Mark had been conjured from.
"You heard it?" Hermione said, shocked. Harry nodded.
"This deep voice out of nowhere," he told her. "The incantation was 'Morsmordre', so store that away in your memory. The Ministry was Apparating in moments later and throwing stunners, trying to catch the person who'd done it. Almost took my head off – would have hit Ron if he hadn't ducked too…"
"Did they catch anyone?" Blaise asked.
"Well, they thought they caught us," Harry said, his tone wry. "Mr. Diggory was yelling at us, with Barty Crouch yelling as well. Took Ron's dad pointing out that we were just kids to get them to stop and listen. We told them where we heard the voice from, but all they found was Mr. Crouch's elf."
"His elf?" Hermione repeated, surprised.
Harry nodded. "She was holding Ron's wand. Said she found it on the ground and picked it up. So then there was another yelling session with Mr. Diggory, him first yelling at Ron and accusing him of casting it – Ron yelled back, said he'd lost his wand earlier and hadn't had it since after the match – before Diggory had a go at the House Elf, which made Mr. Crouch really mad."
"I mean, accusing a House Elf of conjuring the Dark Mark is fairly absurd," Blaise pointed out. "How would she even know how to do it?"
"That's what we said," Harry said emphatically. "As well as that it was definitely a bloke's voice who cast it, not an elf's. But Mr. Crouch took the accusation as a personal affront. They did a spell to verify that it was Ron's wand that did the spell – Prior Incantanto – but they were still posturing when Mr. Weasley eased us away from them and back to the campsite."
"I can't believe you were near the Dark Mark," Hermione said, shaking her head. "That's incredible luck."
"Incredibly bad luck," Blaise said. "If those Stunners had hit you…"
"But they didn't," Harry said cheerfully. "Quidditch reflexes, you know."
"If you're all done discussing the Death Eater's activities and ready to actually fight back against them," Susan said pointedly, "we can begin discussing our plan to get the next horcrux."
Harry grinned sheepishly, while Blaise sat unashamed. Hermione rose from her seat on the side of the room, stretching slightly.
"I'll go get Tom."
Planning to find a cursed Horcrux was harder than Hermione thought it would be. As they discussed it, she realized how very little they knew about what they would be up against.
"We can at least probably go during daylight," Tom pointed out. "That'll be helpful – easier to see the traps themselves."
Harry gave him a puzzled look. "Why would we have gone at night?"
There was a pause.
"Well… sneaking around and stealing things is generally done in the dark," Tom explained, awkward. "If you'd just presumed…"
Harry snorted. "I'd hardly call retrieving a ring from an abandoned shack 'stealing'."
It'd long since been decided that only the coven would tackle this particular horcrux. Until they knew what they might be up against, having only the most powerful people of the Umbra who could share magic and call on elemental magic present seemed like the safest option. The other Shadows had been a mix of visible disappointment and quiet relief when it was decided, and Hermione didn't press, letting them have their pride.
The plan was, roughly, that the coven would all take the Knight Bus to the nearby muggle village, then trek into the woods together. Tom would come with them, and they'd be trying to detect magic every step of the way.
"Dark magic has a sort of feel to it," Tom told them. "If you're unsure, act with caution."
"I can recognize it," Hermione added. "If anyone isn't sure, I can confirm."
"And then we decide what to do with each piece of it," Susan said firmly. "We might have to just accept some of it and break the curses after they've taken effect."
"Let's try to avoid that, mm?" Blaise said dryly. "Only as a last resort."
"As a last resort," Luna agreed, cheerful. "Nobody here wants to get cursed."
"But we will, if it will help us get the horcrux," Susan shot back. "Getting the horcrux is paramount. Getting not-cursed is not."
"We will if we have to," Luna said, shrugging. "But hopefully not."
They all let that sit heavily for a moment.
"Now, then: the Gaunt shack," Tom said loudly. "Let me tell you what I know…"
