Marked

The Bargain

She nearly screamed with relief when a brief spark of his usual self slowly began to resettle itself in his eyes. "Okay," he mumbled inaudibly, his mouth forming the words while he struggled to find his voice.

He blinked again, and after a moment she watched as his cooler demeanor began to spread across his face like a frost. "Okay," he repeated, clearer, putting his hands on her shoulders and nudging her gently aside so that he could resume facing Harry and Ron.

"If you're right - if it is Theo," he said, expressionless, "then I want to know what happened, because this doesn't make sense." He took a deep breath, and they watched him with curiosity. "I'm not on the same fool's errand that you three are. I'm not in this to fight a war or to bring down the Dark Lord - but I'll go along with your stupid, reckless plotting as long as I know I can keep her safe," he said, gesturing to Hermione and squeezing her fingers, "and on top of that, I want your word that you'll help me find out what he's done to Theo."

It was an unexpected bargain, and Hermione questioned briefly whether she should be grateful that he seemed to have found a purpose in their mission, however different from her motivation it might be. Harry, too, considered him for a moment, his green eyes narrowed with thought. "Okay," he said finally, before offering Malfoy his hand. "You have my word."

Hermione took a sharp, deep breath as Malfoy gripped Harry's hand tightly, offering a single shake. "Tomorrow, then," Malfoy said, his eyes flitting briefly to Ron. "You and Granger get that book from Dumbledore's office and Weasley and I will check the Room of Hidden Things. And when the day comes that we get close to him - "

" - we'll get Theo," Harry finished, nodding.

Aware that he hadn't yet spoken, Hermione looked questioningly to Ron, who had an unreadable expression blanketing his face.

"Well," Ron said, clearing his throat. "Should we talk about what You-Know-Who's after? Whatever was stolen from Gregorovitch?"

Hermione's eyes slid back to Malfoy, frowning as he seemed to slip into an embattled trance. "We can talk about it later," she said crisply. "We have time."

She held her hand out to Malfoy and he took it slowly, following in her wake like a man in a dream.

"Draco," she said, putting her arms gingerly around his neck the moment they were alone in her tent. "Are you - "

"I don't want to talk about it."

She bit her lip. "But - "

He cut her off with an urgent kiss, his fingers hungrily pressing into her hips as he slipped his tongue into her slightly parted mouth.

Neither of them said another word that night, from that moment until they fell backwards against her bed, enraptured. He was on some kind of dire mission with her that night, touching her with a desperation she'd never seen in him before, an inexplicable voraciousness that somehow drove him to take her hard, take her deep, take her fully - take her any way he could to make her cry out with shaky pleasure. It seemed like hours before he finally shuddered in her arms, where she held him the rest of the night. Despite her physically sated state she was wretchedly discontented, pretending not to notice the way he tremored against her body, his eyes open and his mind clearly restless.

"You're sure," she whispered to him in the morning. "You're sure you want to do this today? I could just stay here with you - we could just - "

"I'm sure," he intoned emotionlessly. "Do what you need to do."

She nodded uncertainly, frowning, though she slipped out to find Harry as soon as she was dressed. It seemed the room had produced a seating arrangement in the shared space between the tents, and Harry was sitting in a soft leather armchair with his head bent over the Marauder's Map.