A/N: Something I want myself to take away from this experience—after finishing a chapter, make a quick header for the next chapter and start taking notes. Anything at all that pops up when you think, What happens next? just write it down. Next time you sit down to write, you'll have at least one potential starting point. For example, this chapter's notes from my end-of-Chapter-7 brain started with:

- leader introduces herself (name)
- wtf happens between them?
- man I bet the walk back to camp is awkward
- afterwards: back at camp…

And I quite like where it ended up. So just… take some fucking notes, dear. It keeps working for you.


The three walked in silence for what felt like many minutes, Hermione's mind in a daze. The poison within you. She envisioned the slow drip of a putrid sludge.

Eventually, they stopped in a lush grove with a behemoth of a tree just off center. Hermione perked up, jolted by the faintest whisper of a buzz on her skin. She looked over at Luna, who had her eyes closed and her head tilted back, arms out as she spun in a slow circle with a serene smile on her face. The centaur turned to face her.

"This place is one of healing," she said. "If you allow it, you will find peace here." She paused, then continued. "I am Unn."

"I'm Hermione."

"Hermione," Unn repeated, nodding. "We know you as Hemera."

Hermione didn't really know what to say to that. She was still having trouble getting past the idea that this centuries-old colony of centaurs knew of her at all. Somewhere to her left, she heard Luna's soft exclamation of "Oh, how lovely!"

Her friend's presence centered her and she took a calming breath. "I'm afraid," she told Unn, her voice hollow. "I'm afraid of what this will bring up."

"What is brought up, then floats," Unn replied patiently. "You will feel lighter in the end."

Hermione nodded shakily, anxiety bubbling just beneath her pores. More to expend the energy threatening to overpower her than anything else, she took several purposeful steps around the tree in front of her, stopping when the massive trunk effectively separated her from the others. No, she didn't want to go through this alone, but she didn't much fancy it under observation, either.

"How do I start?" she asked the tree quietly. Unn's voice reached back to her through the grove.

"You start with what you know. Then you let your truth tell you the rest." Silenced stretched uncounted, and Hermione didn't know if she was expected to just start talking, but she couldn't for the life of her think of where to begin. After all, she knew an awful lot.

Unn's voice met her again. "Why is it that you came here all those years ago?"

Hermione swallowed. Start with what you know.

"It was getting harder to remain undetected," she said, trying to disassociate from the way her heart rate kicked into high gear as memories of living on the run bombarded her thoughts. "I had to take us somewhere we could stay for a time without being discovered. Someplace arbitrary." She felt a wash of guilt as she realized she was describing Unn's colony's ancestral domain. "My mind and instinct told me that place was here."

If the centaur took offense, she did not voice it.

"And what is it that you brought with you?"

DARKNESS

"Darkness," Hermione said lowly. "Evil. Despair."

Unn seemed to accept this, not pressing her for a more tangible answer. "Yes," the centaur replied. "But not for long."

"It felt like an eternity," Hermione whispered, unsure and uncaring if her words made it to the other side of the tree. "We had carried it for months before bringing it here. It had already taken so much from us."

"What did it take from you?"

Her snort of laughter somehow came out sounding like a cracked sob. "Over time? Everything I needed to keep going. Loyalty that I had never considered doubting. Trust and faith in someone I loved." Hermione angrily wiped away the tear that had slipped out at the memory of Ron accusing her, abandoning her, knowing how that moment had changed everything. "Plans for a future after the war." She wrapped her arms around herself, hunching forward against the sudden heaviness she felt. "Hope that we would even live that long."

It hadn't been Ron's fault. She knew that in her heart. Even her logical brain was well aware. That piece of Voldemort's soul had spread its poison, patiently draining their energy as they tried to withstand its sway. But when he left them that night, locket's influence or no, something in their beautiful friendship had broken and had never been repaired.

"And what of that was returned?" Unn asked, her voice calm and even.

Hermione turned the question over in her mind. "Hope," she said finally. "Eventually."

"When it was destroyed." It was not a question.

Hermione nodded, knowing the centaur couldn't see her. To have had so much taken and so little returned—she felt cheated. Sure, things had worked out for the greater wizarding world, but they hadn't worked out for her. Instead of following her post-Hogwarts dreams with her best friends at her side, she'd had to start fresh on a new dream, one she hadn't spent her entire school career planning. The sacrifices she'd made during that final year were astronomical. Hadn't she earned her peace?

She walked to the base of the tree and sank to her knees, running her fingers lightly along the roots that twined along the ground. "I'm sorry for bringing such evil into your realm," she said softly, speaking not only to Unn but to the tree itself, to the wildflowers, to the very air that filled the grove.

"No being escaped your war unscathed," Unn replied. "That part of the past was assured. And yet, we have lived through it." Slowly, Hermione heard her approaching. She did not look up.

"Feel your past, Hermione, and do not lose it, but do not let it compel your future." The centaur extended her hand, palm facing upward. "There is much of your story yet to be told, and it is yours to tell."

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\

The light was fading as they made their way back to the rest of the research team. After a few minutes, Hermione felt a warm hand slip into hers.

"You were very brave," Luna said gently. "During the war, of course, but today especially."

Hermione sighed. "Thank you, Luna. And thank you for… joining me."

They heard the murmur of voices before the clearing came into sight. Conversation quickly came to a halt as the group realized they'd returned. Hermione's eyes locked onto Malfoy's, which had been bouncing between Unn, Luna, and herself. She gave him a tight smile and a nod, vaguely aware of just how strange it was that Draco Malfoy was very obviously worried about her. The two centaurs who had stayed behind came forward to meet Unn.

"We will share our counsel with the newcomers in their quest," she informed them, her voice carrying. They nodded, and she turned to Hermione, eyes briefly flicking to Malfoy. "We meet in this place tomorrow mid-morning." Then she turned to David. "We request your pack's respectful distance."

David was visibly crestfallen, but there was no hesitation in his fervent nod. "Of course. We'll stay near to camp."

"Until tomorrow, then," Unn said to Hermione, and turned and left the clearing with the two other centaurs.

Several long moments passed in increasingly awkward silence before Char clapped her hands together, startling half the team into jumping. "Er—well, let's head back then, shall we?"

Hermione expected the walk back to camp to be uncomfortable after she and Luna had been gone for… how long had it been? It had felt like an hour, two at most, but the current angle and dimness of the light through the forest trees told her it had been much longer.

But Luna worked her unique magic, lightly starting small conversations with her colleagues, asking after some of the stranger points of their time while she'd been away. Hermione snorted softly as she heard a distinct "Oh, how is the forest breathing today?"

"Alright, Granger?" Malfoy had sidled up beside her on the path. She glanced sideways at him to fill the time as she considered his not-so-simple question. He was wasn't looking at her, eyes focused instead on the path in front of them. Hermione shifted her attention back to her feet and sighed.

"I honestly don't know how to answer that," she said.

"Fair enough."

They made the rest of the trip in silence. Hermione's peripherals kept catching Malfoy looking her way, but she felt too tired to face him directly at the moment so she pretended not to notice.

"Alright, team," Char said when they arrived back at camp. "Take some time to reset, then grab some food and we'll meet around the fire in 30 to debrief."

Luna had wandered back to them during the brief announcement. "The gents usually shower first," she said to Malfoy. "Not that you're expected to, of course, just thought you ought to know." Hermione wondered at how Luna carried awkward situations with such genuine grace as she watched Malfoy's lip quirk in a bemused smile.

"Thanks, Lovegood, that's my cue."

As Malfoy walked away, Luna turned her attention back to Hermione and placed a comforting hand on her arm. "Today was a lot for you already," she acknowledged sympathetically. "And I'm sorry to say there is a bit more coming your way."

Hermione nodded, having expected as much. "Of course," she said. "I can't imagine how this has disrupted the trajectory of your research."

"Oh, but in the most exciting way! It changes our research!" She smiled that dreamy smile again. "Come on," she said. "Let's have a break before dinner."

/\ /\ /\ /\ /\ /\

The two were the first to approach the fire with their trays of food, and Hermione was surprised to find it encircled by armchairs of all things. Big, proper reading armchairs that she had to actively resist curling up in.

"We can sit anywhere," Luna said. "It's different each night."

"Just sit next to me, yeah?" Hermione said, choosing a seat that allowed her to see who was approaching from the corner of her eye without forcing her to make eye contact with anyone.

"Gladly," Luna replied, tray in one hand as she levitated the chair on Hermione's right, scooching it closer until the arms were touching. "That's better," she smiled, sinking into the cushion with a sigh. "And it's always so nice to use magic again after a day with it intentionally away."

"Mm," Hermione agreed. "I suppose I should take advantage of it while I can. After tomorrow we'll be back to muggle methods only." She took her wand from her leg holster and levitated her tray in front of her, tucking her legs under her and wiggling to snuggle just right into the seat.

"Nonverbal magic, why am I not surprised?" Hermione glanced up to see a smirking Malfoy walking towards them, accompanied by David. She hesitated, searching quickly for the malice she was used to hearing from him with these sorts of comments but finding none. She smiled hesitantly at the pair of them, relaxing when David smiled brightly back before they settled into seats near the other end of the fire pit and picked up an earlier conversation. Good. She didn't like being fussed over, and she was glad Malfoy didn't feel the need to crowd her.

The rest of the seats filled in quickly and casually and before Hermione knew it, Christopher was clearing his throat. She willed her muscles not to tense.

"Hermione," he began, drawing more than just her attention if the sudden hush was anything to go by. "We'd love to get a little more context into what happened today. Few humans have earned the open respect of any centaurs—"

"Respect?" David was looking pointedly between Christopher and Hermione. "What happened back there was literally unheard of before today. No one has ever recorded witnessing such a gesture, let alone directed towards a human."

"Then how do you know of it?" Luna asked curiously. And just like that, if only for a few moments, the attention had shifted away from Hermione. Breathe now, that's it, she told herself, manually inflating and deflating her lungs in measured cycles.

"It's been identified in early artistic depictions, some of those dating back centuries," David said, slipping easily into lecture mode.

"How common is centaur art?" Malfoy was leaning back in his chair, ankle resting on his knee. "I'd never considered the creative cultural identities within herds and colonies." Hermione caught his eye when she looked his way and realized he'd probably been watching her since he sat down. Boundaries my arse, she thought with a huff, but at least he was buying her some time.

David looked torn between sharing knowledge about his passion and driving headlong into this first-of-its-kind experience. Hermione shook her head and couldn't help the chuckle that escaped at his predicament. She knew that feeling all too well. He locked eyes with her and his distress shifted to an apologetic grin.

"Well we can't really know, can we?" He began enthusiastically. "No human has ever been shown their art directly. All we know is what we've found left behind in places a colony has moved on from, like paintings on rock walls."

"If you don't mind, David…" Christopher interjected when his colleague had paused for breath. "What I meant was, clearly something happened at some point for you to have earned such treatment. If there's any information that you could share into your history with this herd, it would be massively helpful to our research."

"Yes, of course," Hermione said, as ready now as she would ever be to share this unhappy part of her life with a very random assortment of strangers, a dear friend, and a long-time antagonizer. "The first thing you should know is, there's something called a horcrux."

She went over the basics, providing an overview that was no more detailed than what one might have read in post-war newspaper articles. The researchers were watching her with rapt attention, Christopher writing as she spoke. Hermione swallowed.

"Voldemort had intentionally created six of these to ensure he could come back if he was ever defeated—which is how he was able to return in our fourth year after having been virtually vanquished thirteen years prior. For him to be permanently defeated, all of his extra souls had to be destroyed first.

"Harry, Ron, and I spent our seventh year trying to hunt them down. Two had been destroyed in one way or another by the time we started, but our work was still cut out for us. We only had one of the remaining four identified, and even then we still had to find it.

"Then when we did…" she swallowed again, keeping her eyes on the dancing flames. "For a long time, we had no way to destroy it. Spells and curses didn't work. So we did the only thing we could do: we carried it with us as we searched for the next one. And eventually, we carried it into the Forest of Dean.

"It was here less than a day before we finally found a way to vanquish it." She shook her head. "It must have felt like poison in their refuge." Hermione felt the latent regret she'd been too caught up in a war to even recognize as appropriate. "That's about all," she said quietly, setting her jaw. "We didn't stay in the forest much longer after that."

When she looked up, she was unsurprised to find almost everyone staring at her, some with their mouths hanging open. The only exception was Christopher, now scribbling away in his notepad. She flushed slightly and returned her gaze to the fire. To her right, Luna reached for her hand on their touching armrests, entwining their fingers and holding Hermione's with a gentle pressure. She clung to the sensation as an anchor and cleared her throat.

"The important thing," she continued, finding Malfoy's eyes and nodding once, "is that they have welcomed us. And they have agreed to aid our efforts."

He was staring right back at her, and she saw his eyes widen marginally as the magnitude of the opportunity before them slowly overtook whatever he was feeling about the day's bizarre events.

"Right," said Char. "On that note, looks like our crew has tomorrow off. Go ahead and sleep in! The rest of the night is yours."

The stunned silence and open-mouthed stares slowly dissolved into respectfully averted eyes and a relaxed murmuring about the academic impact of what they had witnessed. Hermione looked at Luna and squeezed her hand in thanks.

"I'm so glad you were with me today."

After a little while, Hermione bade Luna good night and stood up, making her way to where Malfoy was now sitting alone. She took the seat to his right quietly, both of them looking straight ahead.

"So," she said after a lengthy pause.

"So," he responded, stretching his legs out in front of him.

"I'm dying to know what happened while we were gone," she said finally, not quite realizing how true it was until she said it.

Malfoy looked at her sharply, then let out a surprised laugh. "You're serious?" She shrugged and he shook his head with a snort. "Of course you are." He sat up in his chair. "Alright then, Granger. You three left in that sudden, mysterious way and it got very awkward for a bit there, because we were all in absolute shock that the centaur leader had just swooped you away like it was the most normal thing in the world. But the other centaurs chose to stay with us and we had to get our shit together or we'd risk disrespecting them by being so clearly focused on what was happening with you."

Hermione felt herself flush a little at that and tried to keep her face neutral. She offered a thoughtful "Mmm" (oh yes, very convincing) and nodded for him to continue.

"Right." Malfoy rolled his eyes, lips twitching. "Anyway, Jodie got us back on track. She and David started… catching up, I guess you'd call it, with the two centaurs—Hulti and Trana, by the way. Jodie gave them more information about our time with the researchers so far and asked me to explain our Ministry research. David jumped in here and there to frame aspects in a more palatable way—like how our research for the historically untrustworthy Ministry is a positive sign that long-term peace and understanding is being sought.

"Then Hulti and Trana gave their own updates. It was… I couldn't really follow what they were saying." Malfoy's brow furrowed and his gaze shifted to somewhere off in the middle-distance. "They told us what had changed in the stars since their last encounter, and how the forest was breathing today." Hermione couldn't help the laugh that escaped at the look of genuine confusion on his face. She felt that look in her very soul.

His eyes snapped back to hers and he smiled hesitantly. Then he cleared his throat and continued more softly: "They said the beginnings of a great tranquility would be forged today, that the heavens had been hinting at it for years. And then everyone just sort of… shared in the novelty of experiencing such a significant shift side-by-side."

Hermione gaped at him, too shocked by the multi-faceted impact of what had happened today to realize just how intensely Malfoy was staring back. Finally, he looked away and into the fire, clearing his throat.

"It really is remarkable, the connection this team has built with the colony in just over a year."

"Er, yes," Hermione started, looking around. The other chairs around the fire were empty. "About that." Malfoy glanced sideways at her, eyebrow raised.

"It's just…" She took a deep breath. "You really risked quite a lot back there, stepping forward as a newcomer to address their leader—Unn, by the way," she added with a small smile. "If they had taken offense, it could have set back fourteen months of intentional relationship- and trust-building."

"I know that," Malfoy said evenly into the fire, catching her off guard. "I knew that."

"Malfoy," Hermione said seriously, "I appreciate what you did for me. But it wasn't worth the risk."

"Did it help?"

Hermione was quiet for a long while.

YES

"It helped."

"Then it was worth the risk," he said firmly.

She sighed and turned her gaze back to the fire. "I disagree," she said, and he snorted. "But thank you."

They sat in silence for several minutes, Hermione taking in the low crackling of the logs like bursts of comfort to a weary spirit.

"Was this… where they captured you?"

There it is.

There could be no mistaking his question. Hermione had been dreading this since the day of his trial, when he'd awkwardly delivered a rehearsed apology that covered (a) being an absolute garbage heap of a person to her at Hogwarts and (b) allowing her blood to be spilled in his home. It was a deeply uncomfortable experience (for both of them, she was sure of it) and Hermione had planned on never having to relive it.

"No," she said firmly, and she saw his posture relax slightly. "We were here at Christmastime." She shivered at the memory. "Down a wand and a friend."

Catching Malfoy's confused look, she admitted, "Ron left, at one point." Somehow, after sharing so much of herself with virtual strangers today, this came easily. "It was awful, the influence of that thing, we took turns wearing it around our necks and Ron… couldn't handle it." She shook her head sadly. "None of us should've had to handle it."

She glanced up to see Malfoy looking at her with… was that sympathy? Realizing just how much she was sharing with someone who was on the other side of the war at the time, Hermione went for a hard shift. "But," she said, her tone lighthearted, "this was where we found the sword that your aunt tortured me over during Easter hols."

She saw Malfoy's jaw clench and regretted her decision almost instantly, realizing she very well may have just triggered the bumbling apology she'd been so desperate to avoid, but there was nothing for it now.

"She was horrible," he whispered. Hermione nodded silently, shifting her gaze back to the fire. But then Malfoy's hand on her arm brought her attention back to him. "I'm so sorry you ever had to know her, Granger," he said with conviction. "I regret every day that I couldn't save you from her."

Whatever discomfort she'd been expecting, it wasn't this. Hermione felt a lump form in her throat as Malfoy's sincerity lodged somewhere in her chest. She nodded, a couple of tears escaping before she even realized she was going to cry. She wiped them away hurriedly.

"Thanks."

Well that wasn't so bad.

Hermione stood up. "I think I'll get ready for bed. Today was… busy."

"Sure, Granger," Malfoy replied, stretching his legs out and bringing his hands behind his head as he looked back toward the fire. "Want me to check in with the boss?"

"Ohhh no," she chuckled, "this one's all me."

After gathering her pajamas, toiletries, and water bottle from the tent, Hermione made her way to the showers. The hot water dragged the tension out of her pores as it rolled down her skin, and she stayed in there longer than normal, luxuriating under the spray. Finally, she turned off the tap and dried herself off, dressing quickly and stepping out of the stall. She wrote out an update to her chirpy department head as she brushed her teeth.

Incredible progress made today. Centaurs have offered us council! Meeting with them tomorrow to discuss our research.

Hermione spit out the toothpaste and rinsed her mouth, then gathered her things and left the blue tent. She made it to her shelter surprisingly quickly in the darkness and crawled inside the flap, closing it behind her quietly. She crept to her sleeping bag and slipped inside, glad that Malfoy didn't stir from where he was lying on his back, breathing evenly. He'll certainly miss these cushioning charms, Hermione thought with small smile as she snuggled more comfortably into her cocoon. And before she could so much as remember to put up a barrier, she drifted swiftly off to sleep.