Draco stood still in the middle of the drawing room, rooted to the spot as he listened to Hermione's raging panicked thoughts. And it wasn't until he let himself look into her view and watch as Hermione cast a spell on Potter's face to deform it and watch them walk outside, that he understood what her panicked thoughts were all about.
He couldn't quite believe it at first, but after a bit of digging through Hermione's mind, he all too soon found out that it was because of Potter that their entire cover had been blown. Silently cursing the idiot for being so careless, he waited in horrified anticipation for them to arrive at the Malfoy Manor.
He was quite certain that they would be brought here instead of the Minisitry. After all, only Potter had been camouflaged by a spell. Weasley and Hermione would be easy enough to identify if the Snatchers used their brains.
Trying not to show his anxiety in front of his parents, he kept his expression in check as he waited rather impatiently for the three of them to arrive. And at last they did – brought in by his mother and Greyback, and the former asked him to identify the three of them.
Draco swallowed, slowly rising from his seat in the armchair as he approached them. "Well?" Bellatrix asked him, a little too eager as she held Potter up by the back of his shirt. Draco, please. Hermione begged him, and he hesitantly took in Potter's mingled features.
"I can't be sure." He replied, his voice a little shaky. Lying to his family was very tricky to do at the moment. As soon as they would find out then they'd all be in big trouble. "Draco," a hand grasping his neck had him momentarily startled, but he fought every nerve in his body to keep him from jumping at his father's grasp. "If we are the ones to hand him over to the Dark Lord, everything will be forgiven."
Greyback interfered, reminding him that it was him that caught Potter. Bellatrix broke the huddle apart, urging Draco to take a better look at Potter. Knowing he had to give something on to not sound suspicious, he opted for the safest remark he could offer as he stared at Potter's swollen face. "What's wrong with his face?"
"What indeed is wrong with his face?" Bellatrix asked, and went to the Snatchers to ask them. Obviously they had no clue, but to Draco's dismay his father managed to figure it out soon enough. "Looks like a Stinging Jinx to me."
Rising from his spot below, he turned to face his parents and Hermione as Bellatrix approached her, snatching Hermione's wand from the Snatchers' hands. Checking the last spell cast, she confirmed Lucius' suspicions.
"Come over here, Draco." His aunt urged him on, and Draco took a few careful steps forward. "Isn't this the Mudblood from the Prophet?" Draco hesitated, pretending to take a good look at Hermione to try and see if it was actually her. In reality, however, he was simply trying to figure out what in the world to do. "I don't know.. maybe.. yeah.."
Taking in Hermione's face, it was a little foreign to him after all those months. The time spent in the woods were clearly shown on her face – her features tired and her hair wild. Yet, she seemed to have matured greatly over the spread of months, something he hadn't been able to notice over the reflections he had seen the entire time.
Shooting her a quick apologetic look for giving away her identity, he took a step backwards. It's okay, we're doomed already, anyway. Her voice sounded so hopeless, but Draco didn't know anything to say to lift up her spirits. The only way to make her feel better was to lie, but he saw no use in that.
They both knew that Hermione and her friends were slowly being identified by his family, and it wouldn't be long before the Dark Lord would be called out. "Where did you get this sword?" The panicked voice of his aunt shook him out of his thoughts, and he watched as she eyed the sword in Greyback's hands.
The Snatchers didn't want to give it up so easily, though, but with an outburst of jinxes from Bellatrix, the sword now lay resting in her hands. "Cissy, put the boys in the cellar!" Bellatrix bellowed, and his mother forcefully grabbed Potter and Weasley by the shirts and dragged them away.
"I want to have a little conversation with this Mudblood." Draco swallowed as Hermione was now left standing there on her own, being surrounded by no other people than Death Eaters. Draco didn't dare speak, fearing that his concern for her would give away their situation and make matters far more worse than they already were.
Sharing a quick glance with Hermione, he saw the panic in her eyes as she knew that whatever conversation they were going to have wouldn't be all too friendly. Retreating with his parents into the back of the room, he sat himself down in the chair whilst all the while keeping his eyes on Hermione.
"CRUCIO!" Bellatrix shouted, a rather unexpected move she pulled. Draco flinched as he saw Hermione drop to her knees, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks as Bellatrix hunched over her, grabbing her forcefully by the shirt to demand her where she had gotten the sword.
He wanted to comfort her with words, but knew that nothing he would say would take the pain away. He, himself, had undergone the wrath of the Cruciatus curse before when he ended up not being the one to kill Dumbledore, and he still remembered how painful it had been.
Draco could almost felt her pain as he remembered the feeling; it had felt like thousands of daggers were being slashed into his skin, only to be pulled back out and then slashed in again. And on and on it went as long as the curse was being held up by the one casting it. And so far, Bellatrix hadn't let it go yet.
"What did you and your friends take from my fault?" Bellatrix screamed in her face, and with a vigourous push Hermione was sent to the ground, laying flat on her back. "We didn't take anything." Hermione cried, a horrible fear laced in her voice.
He didn't dare go into her mind and hear all the cries for help that he was sure that she was thinking, even though she must have been very well aware that he wouldn't be able to do anything. That was the worst of all, to sit there safe and sound in his comfortable armchair, his parents next to his side that had their backs turned on the display in front of them, as if it wasn't even happening at all.
It was sickening to see what their family was capable of to get what they want, and it was even worse to have seen how they were so willing to kill anyone lower than them and torture them. And here he was, as a Pureblood and heir of the Malfoy family saved from those fears of being caught and handed over to the Ministry or other Death Eaters.
Sure, the Malfoy name had been mudded ever since his father ended up in Azkaban, but at least they were safe from most of the terrors that were spreading through the Wizarding World.
Draco had to bite his cheek as he felt tears well up in his eyes the moment he focused back on the scene in front of him, watching as Bellatrix had taken out a knife and was currently bringing the blade to Hermione's skin.
A piercing scream filled the air as the knife was pushed into her skin, and Draco had to avert his eyes as he watched Hermione struggle trying to get from underneath his aunt's iron grip, tears washing over her cheeks as more screams followed, each one hitting him to the core.
"Please!" Another piercing scream followed, and Draco dared a quick glance her way to see if his aunt had stopped already. But hunched she had remained over Hermione's arm, the blade ever still carving who knows what into her skin, and Draco focused his eyes outside the window once more.
The screaming seemed to go on for minutes on end, and Draco quickly wiped away the tears that slowly began to fall from his eyes. It was beyond excruciating to not get up out of his chair and throw his aunt off Hermione and get her to stop whatever she was doing. But if he'd do that, she would most certainly end up dead and he would be killed by the Dark Lord himself for caring about a Muggleborn.
There came an abrupt stop to the screaming and, making sure that his tears were all wiped away, he turned to look if things were finally over. But his aunt still remained in the same position, and Draco figured that Hermione's body had most likely momentarily given up on her, the pain too intense to consciously bear.
At last his aunt rose from her position, and only now did he see what damage had been done to her arm. There on her left arm was the word 'Mudblood' visible ever so slightly through the blood that was seeping out of the cuts.
Hermione's eyes began to flutter, and she seemed to slowly regain consciousness again. Her eyes were full of tears, and she slowly seemed to scan the room until they at last landed on him. He swallowed hard, trying to keep his emotions in check as he saw her laying so broken on the floor, filled with exhaustion and the worst thing that could be said to her written on her arm.
I am so sorry, Hermione. Draco softly spoke, knowing they were quite empty words, but it's all he could say to express how sorry he felt that she had to go through this. Hermione's gaze lingered on him for a few seconds longer, and then they drifted off, leaving Draco with no clue on how he viewed her now.
Was she going to hate him for the things his family had done to her? Would this be the moment that Hermione would realize how foolish she had been to befriend someone like her and now break the friendship off?
A part of him wished she did. Someone like him who has done terrible things – and a family who has done even worse – didn't deserve someone like Hermione, who seemed to look for the best in people even though they had wronged her in the past.
But the other part of him really hoped that she wouldn't break it off. He finally had admitted to himself a while ago that he had grown fond of her in a way. After all the late night conversations and their daytime banters he had found the best company in someone he had least expected it from.
And what he liked the most was the influence she had on him. Months ago had he strayed from his family's path, not wishing to be a part of all that was happening right now. And even though right now there was no chance to prove himself yet that he could be a better person, or well, as good as a person like him could ever make himself out to be, he was all the more glad that at least he had been somewhat able to prove it to Hermione.
Draco focused back on the scene in front of him, where by now Bellatrix was questioning Griphook, only letting him off the hook when he said the sword was a fake. Draco, however, knew better than that. He knew that the sword had destroyed one of the Horcruxes – the locket – but didn't really feel like sharing that piece of information with his aunt.
"We call the Dark Lord." Bellatrix announced, and then threw a disgusted look at Hermione who was sprawled out on the floor. "Dispose of the Mudblood, you can have her, Greyback." Draco swallowed nervously as he watched Greyback approach her, trying to think of a way to save her without giving himself away, but it proved no need.
The roar of Weasley's voice bounced off the walls, and without time to defend himself, his father's wand flew out off his hands. Draco got up with his mother, throwing back curses at Potter and Weasley. He didn't mean to cause them anyway harm – any serious harm, that is – but he did throw enough to make his family believe that he was on their side, and enough to hope that one might hit them so they could pay for trying to curse his mother.
He might have strayed from their beliefs, but that didn't mean he didn't care about his parents anymore. If anyone were to harm them, he would make them pay. Even if it was Hermione's friends and she would hate him for it.
"STOP!" Bellatrix shouted, and Draco wheeled around to see what was happening and why Potter and Weasley so easily listened. "Drop your wand, or she dies." Seeing the knife pressed to Hermione's throat – who was held up by Bellatrix, limply hanging to her hold – Draco tried not to show his fear of her being harmed.
"I said drop them!" Bellatrix yelled, and Potter and Weasley were smart enough to drop their wands as Bellatrix pressed the blade a bit harder against her throat, a single bead of blood dripping down her neck.
"Draco, pick them up!" His aunt ordered him, and he quickly got them off the floor, not wanting to show any hesitation in front of his family. Taking a few steps back, he caught Potter's eye, who threw him a look that told him to do something. Shooting him a look back that said that he had no idea what to do, he averted his eyes back to his family.
"There he is, Harry Potter, just in time for the Dark Lord." Bellatrix smiled triumphantly, and Draco watched in time to see Potter's face go back to normal. "Call him." Feeling eyes bore into him, he watched as his aunt was looking expectantly at him, and even his father was resembling the look as he got closer.
Sharing a brief glance with Potter and Weasley, he hesitated as he knew what was at stake if he did. Potter would be caught and Weasley and Hermione would be killed. Without Potter the chance of winning the war was zero, and he refused to watch Hermione die, even if it would blow his cover. And Weasley, well, he didn't see much use of him in the first place, anyway.
When he took too long, his father stepped forward and lifted up his own sleeve, showing the Dark Mark. A grinding noise from above stopped him from doing anything further, and Draco watched in horror as the chandelier slowly began to fall from the ceiling.
Diving away to not be harmed, he watched in relief as Weasley had caught Hermione, preventing her from any further harm. Potter approached him in a hurry, and immediately dived for the wands. Draco gave just the slightest bit of struggle, to keep up pretenses for his family, but then let go of the wands and watched Potter go back to the others.
Draco's face turned into a scowl as Potter stupified his father, and only now did he notice that Potter had grabbed Draco's own wand as well. That slimy git. Watching the confrontation between Dobby and Bellatrix, he hoped they would hurry up already and get out of here while they still could.
When they at last disapparated with the house elf, he let out the slightest breath of relief knowing that Hermione would be okay.