Living Proof

Chapter 16

Hermione let out a wretched scream when a broken branch pierced her foot.

She was doing her best at dragging the unconscious man as far away as she could take him from the wolves in case they were to come to life again. She started by pulling one arm and then out of fear of literally splitting him open again she reached beneath his arms and leveraged against his underarms to pull him. Draco was lean, but his body felt like a load of bricks. Hermione thought at any moment her back would break.

Determination was not a quality that Hermione lacked.

"Stupid git. Why am I doing this? WHY am I doing this? I should've left you there!" She spit out between her struggles at anyone who would listen. The pain in her foot was something she preferred over being eaten by wolves.

A distant crinkling of leaves and a few whimpers indicated the wolves were no longer frozen. Hermione froze and swallowed deep to listen closely. The sound of the whimpers and howls became more and more distant before she could barely hear them at all.

Hermione let out the breath she was holding and dropped Draco with a thud.

She threw her head back and felt the urge to scream. She couldn't afford it though. She had discovered right before the wolf attack that she didn't quite welcome death as much as she thought. Or maybe she just didn't like the thought of a suffering death. She did enough suffering as it was. That's what she wanted to escape. It would be pure irony for that to be the way she died too.

She looked down at Draco and contemplated kicking him in the head for being a main character in her suffering. Then she remembered he had also saved her on a few occasions and that she owed him a rescue or two.

A thought came to Hermione's brain and she felt like a complete idiot for not thinking of it before.

"His wand." She whispered the thought aloud to herself. She frantically dropped to her knees and began searching the man. She felt strange in the way she was patting and smoothing his body for any sign of his wand. Almost as if she was completely violating him.

Not in his pants. Not in his suit. Not in his coat.

Hermione took to his thighs and used both hands to rub down either side of both of them. She did the same to his shins. Nothing.

She felt a foreign object right before she reached his left ankle and jerked his pants leg up with anticipation. She found a wooden holster. Black stained wood of course. Hermione could see the butt of his wand sticking out of it. She grabbed it delicately and tugged. It remained in place. She thought possibly there was some type of button or lever she had to press but found nothing. She tugged again and when it resisted the same way she attempted to unlatch it as a whole from his leg. Only, she couldn't find a latch or a buckle or anything that indicated that it could even come off his leg. She tugged a few more times until her palm was nearly raw.

Frustrated and nearly in tears from the hope she had mustered being crushed. She huffed deeply trying to think of another plan of action. She had nothing. So she pulled again, only this time the wand shot an electric shock through Hermione. The shock traveled up her arm and felt as if it exploded in her chest. She clutched her jumper together right over her heart and lost her breath. She felt her head begin to bob and her eyes heavy.

No. No. You can not pass out Hermione.

She coached herself for a minute to fight off the light-headedness. She took a few deep breaths with her head in her hands.

She lifted her head when she heard a crunch beside her. A few groans directed her attention to Draco. He was attempting to lift his head but clearly wasn't strong enough to. Hermione shifted to stand up, Draco's eyes immediately met hers.