Harry Potter is dead. In the aftermath of the war, in order to strengthen the might of the magical world, Voldemort enacts a repopulation effort. Hermione Granger has an Order secret, lost but hidden in her mind, so she is sent as an enslaved surrog...
She traced her fingers over his back as she wondered what to do.
He had to know. She was almost certain he knew the runes were going to kill him eventually.
A gradual death sentence for his aid to the Order. Whatever he wanted by aiding them couldn't be a long term ambition. With the price he'd paid, she doubted he was planning to usurp Voldemort. If he did, it would be a short reign.
The Order needed him. The first Wizarding war had lasted eleven years. When she told Moody what had been done to Draco and said she had offered to heal him he told her to do what she could.
If Hermione couldn't find a way to stall the erosion, they would be extremely lucky to have Draco last that long. If he did, he'd barely be reliable at that point.
Hermione reached up and ran a fingertip along the chain around her neck for several minutes before pulling the amulet out from under her shirt.
She stared at the sun-disk. Then she unclasped the chain and slid the amulet off. She pressed the tip of her wand against it and reversed the series of protective wards and charms it carried before placing it on the floor. She stomped sharply on the amulet and felt it break under her heel. When she removed her foot, a small white stone lay amid the crushed red glass and twisted metal.
She didn't touch it. With a flick of her wand she levitated the stone so that it hovered in the air. She could feel the magic emanating from it. It made the air hum. She reached over and pulled Draco back into her arms, trying not to put any pressure on the runes.
Then she floated the stone over and lowered it to the left side of his chest, against his bare skin.
It started glowing, brighter and brighter, until she had to squint. Then she watched as the light slowly sank into his skin and faded away.
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Hermione stared, wondering if anything else would happen; if there would be any immediately noticeable effects. There wasn't an abundance of information about how to process worked.
She performed a diagnostic and inspected it, Draco was sleep deprived and living on a high dose of top quality pain relief; he had muscle damage from the cruciatus, and the runes were still an unintelligible, mangled concentration of wounds and poison and ritual curse. The diagnostic charm did not indicate anything else. Which was normal-she thought-that was how it was supposed to work.
After a minute, when nothing else occurred, she carefully leaned Draco forward in the chair again.
She reapplied the salve she'd made, pressing it in as lightly as she could before replacing the containment enchantment and all the protective spells.
Then she slipped the remnants of the amulet into her pocket and rennervated Draco.
He lifted his head sharply and stood. Hermione gently pulled his shirt back up over his shoulders. He stared down at her as she buttoned his shirt and then straightened the fabric before staring up at him. He had a tired expression on his face as he stared down at her.
