Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love

Chapter 28: The Viking, Shameful Conduct of/Healing, Pleasures of

The things that had drawn them together were still at it; they brushed elbows, then leapt away from each other as though burnt, with more apologising.

Leaving the ballroom was an awkward jig of who would open the door and who would go first, without touching the other.

Draco walked Granger to the grand staircase but did not follow her up.

"Aren't you–?" asked Granger.

"No," said Draco. "Upon reflection, I've decided to throw myself into the lake."

Granger looked as though this was truly an excellent next step. "I'm going to go scream into a pillow."

"Good. Brilliant. Er – do enjoy."

"Thank you."

Granger hurried up the stairs without looking behind her.

Draco waited until he heard her door close.

Then he said, quietly, but with all of the turbulence in his soul: "Fuck."

-

The full moon was imminent.

The Ministry of Magic, attempting to balance public safety with public hysteria, published an advisory asking the wizarding community to stay indoors during the three nights of the hunter's moon, due to suspected werewolf activity.

Potter, the WTF, and every available Auror spent the hunter's moon on the hunt themselves, and caught thirty werewolves who had positioned themselves to transform where they could infect the most people. Seven werewolves were not caught on time, fifteen people were infected, five succumbed to their injuries.

Granger's work took on a new urgency. Draco's Legilimency had never been so in demand.

But Fenrir Greyback was careful. There was nothing of use in the minds of the captives.

The traps at the safe-houses and Granger's cottage yielded four captures: one witch, three wizards, all working under Greyback's orders, and all infuriatingly unaware of his whereabouts.

Security at King's Hall was tightened. Bemused scholars and students found themselves made to present credentials at the entrance, now guarded by DMLE operatives. Access to the third floor, which housed Granger's laboratory, was blocked off. The other Fellows were relocated elsewhere. Granger briefed her laboratory staff on the threat and gave them the option to discontinue their work, with pay, until the situation was resolved. None took it.

Days passed in a tense, anxious blur. When he wasn't with Granger, Draco's attention was obsessively on the ring, waiting to feel the panicked rise of her heart or the shrill call of her distress beacon.

So, of course, at the next incident, he felt neither.

It was Goggin's burly ram Patronus who alerted him that there was a problem.

Draco had been interrogating a werewolf caught at Granger's cottage when the silvery ram bounded into the holding cell.

"King's Hall," it grunted in Goggin's voice. "Quickly!"

Draco Apparated to Cambridge to find panicky wizards and Muggles running about along Trinity's quad. He fought his way to the entrance of King's Hall, where Goggin lay, sliced open from the sternum downwards, bleeding out.

Beside him were the limp figures of the DMLE operatives who had been on guard and the bodies of five unknown wizards. Further on, a scattered pile of books. No sign of Granger.