July 2003
She woke with a start and found herself lying on a low, makeshift bed, Draco leaning over her.
She jerked back and then stilled and looked around, realising she was in his safe house in Whitecroft. She looked back at Draco, and everything came rushing back. She drew a sharp breath and felt as though she were being crushed to death. "What—What happened?"
His mouth twitched as he straightened and stared down at her. His expression was a mask, but she could see the restrained rage in his eyes.
"Despite"—the word was bitten out—"your reassurance to me yesterday, you were at Hogwarts. When I discovered it, I tried to grab you, and you proceeded to apparate into a creek. I had to stun you; I thought you might drown yourself before you realised it was me."
She sat up gingerly, still slightly sore and dazed. She shook her head, trying to clear it of the remaining grogginess. "You were masked; I didn't recognize you."
She looked down. Her clothes were dry. Her lungs felt clear, as though it had been a long time since she'd been knocked out. She glanced at her watch, and her stomach dropped sharply. Hours had passed. It was nearly evening.
"How long did you leave me here, unconscious?" Her voice was disbelieving as she looked up at Draco.
His expression was cold. "I wasn't available to disappear with you. Once I had the water out of your lungs and you were safe, I had to return to fulfill my duties."
Hermione looked away.
Harry.
Ron.
Almost everyone had been at Hogwarts. Aside from Severus, she might be the only remaining active member of the Order.
She pressed her lips together for a minute, collecting herself before she looked up. "I don't understand. What happened? How did they find our prison?"
He looked away, his hands were clenched into fists. She could almost feel the seething rage rippling around him.
"I don't know the details of how precisely it occurred. I told you, the Dark Lord is suspicious now. He barely confides in anyone, and he provides different information to each general in an attempt to identify where the intelligence is getting out. I was informed of ten different plans for attack, and none of them were legitimate. I do know he was in Sussex last night, working alone according to all the reports I had. By the time I learned we had your prison, the Resistance was already at Hogwarts. There was no opportunity to send word."
Hermione sat on the edge of the bed as she absorbed it. She felt too dazed and devastated to even think clearly.
Draco was seething. His hands kept opening and closing as though he were suppressing the urge to break something.
He stood beside her for another moment and then turned and began pacing around the room as though he were a caged animal. "I thought this was supposed to be the Order's final blow? Did Potter think letting the Dark Lord kill him would somehow win the war? Or did he just decide to give up?"
Hermione twitched.
"Harry was a horcrux," she said in a dead voice.
Draco frozen and looked at her sharply. She dropped her eyes and stared at her lap. Her jeans were torn on both knees.
She swallowed and drew her feet back. "I didn't know—until today. I only realised it after the battle had started. There was a prophecy made twenty years ago, 'either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives.' Harry thought if all the other horcruxes were destroyed, that having the Dark Lord kill him would cause them both to die."
The sight of Harry's expression going blank flashed before her eyes. Her throat contracted, and her whole body shook. Her cheekbones and chest ached. She felt as though she were on the verge of breaking into pieces.
She was glass, only a breath away from shattering.
She gripped the edge of the bed and watched her knuckles turn white. "We missed one. There's another horcrux. I thought—I thought we'd found them all—but I was wrong."
There was a stabbing pain in the back of her throat as she swallowed. "We have to find it."
"The Resistance has lost," Draco said in a flat voice. "The war is over."
Hermione jerked sharply at Draco's words, and there was a flush of heat that burst through her.
"I know. You don't need to tell me. I know we lost!" Her voice was ragged.
She drew a sharp breath, and it burned in her lungs. She pressed her lips together and pressed her hands against her eyes as she exhaled and tried control herself.
"I'm not saying the war isn't over." Her voice was still shaking slightly. "I'm saying we have to find the horcrux. We have to find it. If we can destroy it, he'll die—maybe not immediately, but if he loses all his horcruxes, he'll die." She kept speaking, faster and faster. "The Death Eaters don't share goals with the Dark Beings, the regime will crumble without him. It's not as though he'll ever groom a successor. We just—we have to find it."
There was physically fractured sensation laced through her as she sat there. She felt as though her heart had broken, but she was still too shocked to feel it.
She dropped her head down and pressed her jaw against her shoulder. "The Resistance—is lost. I know. There are maybe a few cells left that were less involved with the Order, but most of our able force was at Hogwarts today. A few people may escape, but otherwise, Severus and I are the only active members of the Order left. We—" she felt as though she were being ground into dust. The weight of everything was too much. "Until we find the remaining horcrux, we can't try to rescue anyone. They'll all be traced, we can't risk both you and Severus trying to get them free. The horcrux has to be the priority. That's the only way for us to actually end this and really save them."
"There's no us. You're leaving Britain."
Hermione looked up at Draco.
His eyes were still burning with rage, but his expression was set. "I'll find it. You're leaving. There's no Order left to keep you. Potter is dead."
She flinched.
He paused for a moment and seemed to be weighing what he was about to say next. "Weasley will be dead within the week. There's no reason for you to stay. You can't remain active; it will be easier for me to work if the Dark Lord assumes a victory. If he thinks the Order is still a threat, it will make finding any remaining horcruxes more difficult."
Hermione's mouth twitched. "Fine," she finally said in a tight voice. "I can collaborate long-distance initially."
Draco's eyes flickered for the briefest moment, and she knew it was his intention to make the arrangement permanent. He would do everything in his power to prevent her from ever returning to Britain if he thought there was any risk from it.
She swallowed and stared at him.
"I'll go on one condition."
She watched Draco tense and calculate.
"Ginny Weasley, she has to come with me."
"No." His expression was cold. "You said no rescues."
"It's not a rescue. She's at a safe house. Only Ginny. I won't—" she wavered, and her throat caught, "I won't ask you to save anyone else. But I have to take Ginny with me. I won't go without her. She's just at a safehouse. I can go get her."
His jaw clenched, and there was something unreadable in his expression.
Hermione pressed forward. "I have to send word to the safe houses, make sure they know that the Order is compromised and tell them to go to ground. Then I'll get Ginny, and we'll—we'll go."
She stood. She was leaning so heavily into her occlumency she felt almost removed from her body. Physically, she was shattered with grief. There was a pain in her chest as though her sternum were refractured. A phantom pain that always seemed to occur when she was stressed.
But she was managing to occlude the mental aspects somewhat.
Draco shifted as she extended her wand to cast a patronus.
She flicked her hand in the familiar motion and said the words.
Nothing.
She swallowed hard and forced her occlumency walls more firmly into place, taking a deep breath before she tried again.
"Expecto Patronum." She said it firmly.
Nothing.
Not even a wisp of silver light.
She stared down at her wand.
Harry had taught her how to cast a patronus. Her otter.
As she stood there, she realised she'd probably never see it again. Her throat hurt from the effort it took not to cry.
Harry was dead. He was dead. There was nothing she could do to bring him back. Even in the magical world, calling back the dead was nothing more than fairytale.
Every happy memory she'd had was tainted, turned to ashes. Her past was an endless expanse of loss. Her childhood, with parents with new lives and new names and no recollection that they'd ever had a daughter they'd been proud of.
All her years at Hogwarts were defined by a war she'd now lost; by people she'd lost.
She gripped her wand until her knuckles turned white, and slowly lowered it, swallowing hard.
Don't think about it. Make it through the day. She had to get Ginny. She'd promised Harry she'd always take care of Ginny.
That was all she could focus on.
"I'll have to go to the safe houses in person," she finally said after struggling for a moment to make her voice work. "My patronus spell doesn't seem work anymore."
"No."
She looked up, her jaw set. "I have to warn them, Draco. I'm not going to run without warning them. I have to go get Ginny. None of that is negotiable."
Draco's eyes flickered. He looked down and gave sharp sigh, as though he were disappointed by something.
"Granger..." he said after hesitating for moment. "The Death Eaters have your prison. They have all the Order safe houses as well."
The room tilted under Hermione's feet. She stumbled backwards and nearly fell. "What? Why didn't you tell me?"
She started towards the door, and Draco caught her by the arm and wrenched her back. When she tried to break away, he pinned her against the door, his expression furious. "This—this is why I wasn't going to tell you. You idiot, you'll throw yourself into a trap."
She stared at him, and a cold sinking sensation came over her. Her fingers closed around his wrist as she stared at him, disbelieving. "You intercepted me and brought me here so I couldn't go back."
Draco's expression was hard. "That wasn't the Dark Lord's entire army at Hogwarts. He's been concentrating the troops here for the last month. Once the reports regarding the attack at Hogwarts came in, it was clear your safe houses would be vulnerable. Where do you think the rest of the army was sent?"
Hermione felt devastation flood through her, as though she were bleeding to death from it. "You kept me here, unconscious, for hours." Her voice was raw with grief and betrayal. "I could have gotten them out if you'd given me a chance."
Draco's expression was cold and unapologetic. "You couldn't have saved them. You would have died or been captured along with everyone else."
"Well, we won't know now, will we? Since you never gave me a chance—" Her voice broke.
His mouth twitched, and he looked away. His hand rested lightly on her shoulder. "I only had time to get you away. I left my post when I realised you were at Hogwarts, I didn't have enough time to do anything more."
Her jaw kept trembling, and her chest was jerking as she tried to breathe and not cry. "I was going to get Ginny. I have to get her, that's not negotiable. I won't leave without her. She was in one of the most protected safe houses. They might not have broken in yet."
Draco was unmoved.
"I won't leave without Ginny." Her voice was hard, and she met his eyes. "You can't make me leave without her."
His eyes flickered, and his fingers on her shoulder twitched. "Fine. We'll disillusion and check."
Hermione swallowed and nodded.
She held Draco tightly as she side-along apparated him to a spot down the street from Grimmauld Place.
They were immediately struck by the sound of blaring sirens. The air was mangled with Dark Magic and the smell of burning. There were Muggle emergency vehicles filling the streets, their lights flashing.
Number Twelve Grimmauld Place was in ruins. The front of the house was split open, as though it had been bombed or pried apart. The houses adjoining it on each side were damaged and there were paramedics carrying bodies out. There were already dozens of bodies lined up in the street; pedestrians, the Resistance fighters who stood guard at Grimmauld Place, several nurses and healers who had been in the foyer as Hermione had left.
Part of magic over the house still held, the Muggle emergency responders would move towards Number Twelve then stop and turn away, as though they were aware of the house but the Muggle repelling charms prevented them from approaching it.
Before Draco could stop her or apparate them away, Hermione bolted, ducking under the caution tape and running towards the door. The steps were split and uneven, and she stumbled as she made her way up them.
She heard Draco swear as he chased her.
She flicked her wand, the spell blasted the remains of the door off its hinges and into the foyer. There was a thud and the sound of a falling body. Several deadly curses shot out from inside. Hermione dropped and rolled to the side.
"Morsmordre!" She heard Draco snap, and she watched as the Dark Mark slid through the opened door and filled the foyer.
He pulled off his disillusionment and stepped into Grimmauld Place. Hermione stayed frozen at the door. There were dozens of bodies on the floor; all the injured that had been sent from Hogwarts to Grimmauld Place.
"Beg pardon, sir, we thought it was Order members," a lanky, vicious-faced man unfolded himself from the shadows at the sight of Draco.
"I gathered that," Draco bit the words out; his expression was of cold fury. He turned to survey Grimmauld Place. "I want a report on the building."
The man scratched his head with the tip of his wand. "We got a few dozen who fled from Hogwarts. Sent 'em all back." His mouth twisted into a cruel, satisfied smile. Several more Death Eaters appeared, emerging from rooms further in the house. "Once the runners stop coming, we'll inventory the building."
He kicked a hospital cot, and limp body fell off onto the floor. "When we finished with the ones outside, there was nothing much but the healers and near-dead. Finished off the dying and sent the prisoners to the Warden." He rested his foot on the body and rocked it.
Draco stood expressionless.
"There's a war room we found upstairs after we swept the building." The man gestured with his thumb. "Extra wards, took a bit of work to get in."
"Show me," Draco said.
They started up the stairs and were halfway up it when Draco suddenly whirled, his wand flashing. There were lights from a dozen rapid spells and the men surrounding him all froze for a moment before they dropped dead. Draco glanced back towards the door, and Hermione entered, stepping past the bodies, trying not to let herself look at any of them.
There was a tiny figure slumped at the foot of the stairs; Dobby's enormous blue eyes stared blankly where he lay fallen. Hermione looked away. The stairs rocked as she quickly ascended them, passing Draco, heading towards Ginny's room.
The door was blasted open, and Padma's body was fallen, facedown, across the doorway. A pool of black liquid was seeping out from what was left of her. Hermione's foot shook as she stepped over Padma's body and stared into the empty room.
"They must have taken her to Hogwarts," her voice was shaking. "We—we'll have to get her out of Hogwarts."
There was a gurgling sound behind her. Hermione turned sharply, wand drawn, and saw Padma move.
"Mione?" Padma shifted and lifted her head part-way up.
Hermione stared in horror and dropped her disillusionment. The curse Padma had been struck by was dissolving her. It was almost impossible that she was still alive.
"Padma," Hermione's voice was broken, strangled as she rapidly cast a diagnostic. What remained of Padma's organs were shutting down; the curse was minutes from her heart.
"Mione. They took—Ginny—to Sussex," Padma said. Her voice was slightly garbled, and she coughed, the black liquid spilling out of her mouth and down her chin. "Ginny. Said—diseased—good subject."
Hermione felt her throat close as violent, sickening horror swept through her.
Padma coughed again, and more acrid liquid spilled from her mouth. Hermione looked down at her; her heart felt like lead in her chest.
"Padma—I'm so sorry—" Hermione's voice broke. "I can't—I can't heal this."
Padma's mouth twisted. "I know. Is Parv—?" She choked and coughed.
"I'm sorry, I don't know where Parvati is." Hermione touched Padma gently on the forehead, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. "I'm sorry. I'll get you potion. It'll make it quick."
Hermione started to move towards her potion cabinet.
"Don't bother." Draco stepped forward from where he'd been standing.
Padma's expression was one of confusion and slow horror as Draco knelt beside her. Before Hermione could move, he rested the tip of his wand against Padma's forehead.
"Avada Kedavra." He said it in a quiet voice, as though he were speaking the incantation rather than casting it.
There was a flash of green light. Padma's expression turned blank, and she went limp in the pool of her remains.
Draco stood and looked at Hermione, his expression cold.
Hermione stood frozen for a moment. "You have to mean an Unforgivable."
"I never cared about the Resistance beyond that they were useful, and important to you." His voice was indifferent. "It was quicker than a potion."
She pressed her lips together and gave a small nod of acknowledgement as she knelt and gently closed Padma's eyes.
She drew her hand away from Padma's face, standing and making her way towards her potion cabinet.
Ginny was in Sussex because of the spattergroit glamours.
She felt dazed with horror.
The cabinet had been broken into and searched. The potion stores were a shattered, smoldering heap on the floor.
She drew her wand and started tapping spells along the walls until all the carefully concealed compartments opened. She pulled everything out, slipping them into a old beaded bag she'd put an expansion charm on.
"Granger, we're leaving." Draco had appeared at the door.
"I have to get all this," she said in a sharp voice. She gathered up all the potions she'd hidden. All the materials she had left over from the bomb. She put them all into her bag until there was nothing left. She pulled her knives out of the compartment in the floor.
"We're leaving now," he said, his hand closing around her arm. "Weasley is gone. The Resistance is gone."
He pulled her down the stairs and to the door of Grimmauld Place, his wand drawn. He disillusioned them both and apparated as soon as they were clear of the remaining wards.
They reappeared back in the shack.
"I have to get Ginny," Hermione said the moment they landed. She dropped to her knees and started rummaging through everything she'd brought.
"She's in Sussex."
"I know. I have to get her." Her chest jerked, and she fought to keep her voice from wavering. "Oh, god—" The words were a low sob, and her hands were shaking as she fought to stay calm. "We have to go now. You—you can use me—take me there as a prisoner, and then once we're in, we can try to find her. Or—I can create a distraction, and you can get her."
Draco's eyes were ice. "She is in Sussex. Subjects don't leave that building alive."
Hermione shook her head. "I'm going to get her. If you won't help me, I'll just go by myself."
His expression grew murderous, and he stalked towards her. "It would be suicide. You said no rescues. The horcrux has to be the priority. If she's so diseased they took her straight to Sussex instead of processing her at Hogwarts first, she's not worth saving anyway."
Hermione swallowed. "Ginny is pregnant."
Draco froze.
"She isn't diseased, she's pregnant, and I concealed it from the Order with glamours because—because it's Harry's baby." She was starting to shake. "If she's at Sussex—the glamours I used—they won't trick a diagnostic. They'll realise—and—and—" her chest started to spasm as she fought to breathe. "There are things Vold—that the Dark Lord could do with Harry's baby. Draco—I have to get her."
Draco turned pale and stepped away from her. Hermione reached towards him.
"He—he could use the baby to make another regeneration potion," Hermione said. "It would—it could give him another ten years. I promised Harry that I would take care of Ginny and her baby. It was—it was the last thing I said to him."
Draco went still as though she'd petrified him.
"Please, Draco."
He wouldn't look at her.
"Draco, I have to get Ginny back." She swallowed and forced herself to draw a deep breath. "I will—never ask anything of you after this. But—I have to get Ginny."
She tried to touch him, but he flinched away from the contact.
"Granger—" His voice was cold. Unyielding.
I'll take care of them, as long as I live.
Anything.
"I'll leave the war," she said, her voice desperate. "I'll stop—everything. If you get Ginny for me, I'll do anything you want, I swear. I'll leave. I'll never come back. Whatever you want—anything you ask—if you get Ginny for me."
She touched the back of his hand, silently begging him to look at her.
She was met with silence.
She could almost feel Draco weighing it, evaluating her offer.
"Will you?" he finally said, turning to look at her, his eyes intent.
She met his gaze and gave a short nod. "I will."
He studied her, his eyes narrowed and calculating. "Those are your terms? The Weasley girl, and you'll go?"
"I'll go. I swear."
His eyes flickered, triumph and something—something else.
He looked across the room and nodded slowly. "Alright. If those are your terms, I'll get her for you."
Hermione gave a low gasp as relief flooded over her. Her chest jerked, but she forced herself to stay composed. "Thank you. Thank you—Draco."
The corner of his mouth quirked.
Hermione squared her shoulders and studied him. "What do you need me to do?"
He eyed her and his expression twisted derisively. "Stay here."
She drew her chin down and furrowed her eyebrows as she stared at him. "Are you sure? I brought some things"—she gestured towards her bag—"I could—"
"It will draw less attention if I enter alone," he said, cutting her off sharply. "If you want me get her out, you'll stay here and let me work without succumbing to your desperate need to insert yourself into everything." His tone was cool and every word clipped.
He walked over to the far corner in the room and traced a series of runes into the wall. He slid his fingers across the wood paneling until there was a click. He pulled, and the wall shifted away, revealing a large selection of weaponry and dark artifacts.
He pulled several items off the wall and slipped them into his robes before turning to look at her again, his expression cold.
"I'll be back within an hour. Stay here."
That was all he said before he vanished.
Hermione waited. She organised the contents of her bag. She went through Draco's healing supplies.
She ignored the weight in her chest. If she paid attention to it, it would crush her to death.
If she didn't keep herself preoccupied, she suspected her guilt would swallow her whole.
She was leaving everyone behind. The Order, The Weasleys, DA, The Resistance. She was leaving them all behind.
"Do you really think we'll just die? Angelina, they're not going to shut down Sussex when they win the war. We're livestock. You didn't see the prisoners they brought from the last curse division. They were—They were dissolving, rotting, skinned and still alive, there were things crawling inside them—The ones that could still speak begged me to kill them."
She was leaving them to that. The lucky ones might die under interrogation, but Sussex would be the fate of everyone else.
Her stomach wrenched, and she pressed her hands over her mouth as she struggled not to panic or vomit.
She couldn't think about it. She couldn't. Draco couldn't risk his cover by trying to save them.
He and Severus were crucial for finding the remaining horcrux. Trying to get anyone at Hogwarts out would endanger the Order's only hope of actually defeating Voldemort.
Once Ginny was safely away, the horcrux had to be the priority.
Her hands shook, and she rummaged through Draco's supplies until she found a Draught of Peace.
The air moved, soundless, and Draco reappeared in the middle of the room, Ginny's limp body in his arms.
The glamours on Ginny's skin and stomach were gone.
Hermione flung herself across the room, pulling Ginny away from Draco and running dozens of diagnostics on her as she knelt on the floor, gripping her tightly in her arms.
There was no trace locked around either of Ginny's wrists.
"What happened? Did you knock her out? Where was she when you found her?"
"She was in a lab. They'd just removed the glamours when I arrived. I contained it." Draco's voice was calm. Flat.
Hermione cast a diagnostic on Ginny's stomach and watched the large, fluttering light with relief. Ginny's unconscious expression was frozen terror. She'd been dosed with a type of temporary stasis potion. Hermione cast several more spells to ensure nothing had been done to her.
"Once you've confirmed she's unharmed, we need to go. It will take a few hours to get you to the safe house and ensure everything is arranged."
Hermione was anxiously examining her diagnostics, but it slowly bled into her subconscious that there was something unnerving about Draco's tone.
Hermione looked up at him.
There was a long burn along his jaw, and he was staring down at Hermione with an expression that was both wistful and starved.
The way Harry had looked at her.
There was a dropping sensation in her chest as she realised it.
"What is it?" She laid Ginny's unconscious body on the floor and stood, reaching for him as she cast a diagnostic. "What's wrong?"
The corner of Draco's mouth twitched, and then it curved into a thin smile as she drew closer and her fingers ghosted along his jaw.
He stared down at the floor for a moment before looking up and meeting her eyes. "I've blown my cover getting the Weasley girl out for you."
Hermione stood frozen, her wand slipped from her fingers and clattered to ground. "What?"
She tried again. "You—you what?"
She looked into his eyes, certain she was misunderstanding him. But it was in his eyes.
He was saying goodbye to her. He was going to die.
She shook her head slowly. "No."
It was like the moment in Cambridge when he'd activated the artifact, and all the oxygen vanished. No air. No sound. Just silence.
The quiet space between slowing heartbeats, until the moment when the heart didn't beat again.
It was that sound. The negative space. The sound of nothing.
"No," she said again.
"There wasn't any other way."
"No." Her heart had started to beat again. Faster and faster.
"I told you, there are extensive counter-espionage measures in place. There are records that I was there, that I entered labs with highly-controlled access. I could hardly burn down the building and fight my way out carrying an unconscious and pregnant witch. Tomorrow—when the guard duty is switched over to a new shift, the lab will be found. The records will show that I was the only one who left alive."
She shook her head. "No."
"We should go now."
"No. Draco—we can go back." She turned towards her bag. "There must be a way to destroy the records—I can—"
He gripped her by both arms and pulled her back, his expression set. "You made the deal, Granger. I met your terms."
Hermione gave a low, pained sound in the back of her throat as he pulled her closer, looking in her eyes.
His eyes were intent as he stared at her, as though he were memorising her because it was the last time he'd ever see her. There was also a sort of vicious triumph in them.
"Anything I wanted, if I went and got the Weasley girl for you; those were your terms."
Her stomach had dropped until there was nothing but a chasm inside her. Her chest hurt as though Draco had reached in and wrenched her heart out.
No. He couldn't die.
There were black spots beginning to appear in her vision as she stood staring at him.
No. She wouldn't let him.
"Draco..."
There was a cold rage trickling down her throat. It wasn't an accident. He'd known. The calculation in his eyes the moment she made her offer. He'd known, and he'd taken it. He'd done it in order to get what he wanted, without giving her a chance to find a better option.
Never make a deal with a devil, his price will always be more than you can pay.
She stood mute and unable to breathe as she absorbed it.
Draco stood studying her for several more moments before his mouth curved into a faint smile. His hand rose up, and his knuckles grazed her cheek as he continued to study her.
"We had a good run, Granger, but we were never going to last." The corner of his mouth twitched, and she felt him slip a curl behind her ear before his hand ghosted down to rest briefly at the base of her throat. "You knew that."
"Draco, please let me—" she started, her voice shaking. She tried to back away, but he caught her arm.
His expression hardened again. "Anything I wanted. It was your deal."
Her lungs were beginning to burn. "Draco—Draco—don't—don't do this to me."
"They were your terms, Granger. I met them. It's time to go. You swore you'd leave."
She tried to pull away from him, but she couldn't breathe. Draco was beginning to swim in front of her eyes. The edges of him were blurring. He was speaking, but the words were growing rounded and difficult to decipher.
She tried to pull away again, but he was holding her too tightly.
Her hands and arms were beginning to prick painfully as though there were needles sinking into her skin.
Draco pulled her closer and the set, determined expression on his face was beginning to shift into worry.
"Granger—breathe." The edges of him were fading into black. His eyes were becoming tense and worried. He shook her slightly. "Hermione—don't—come on—breathe—Hermione."
She couldn't breathe.
She was going to lose him.
Her fingers grasped at the fabric of his robes as she swallowed and tried to speak.
"Draco—" her voice was broken, "—don't do this to me."
The devastation swallowed her like a tidal wave, and Draco vanished into its darkness.
When she regained consciousness, Draco was leaning over her once again. She stared up at him. There was the taste of something bitter and herbal in her mouth. Her whole body felt numb and her brain sluggish.
She blinked, trying to think. Everything came rushing back with almost violent anguish.
She'd passed out from shock and a lack of oxygen.
She swallowed, and her tongue tingled. He'd dosed her with a sedative while she was unconscious, so she'd be pliant and cooperative.
She stared up at him as she tried to find words.
"I'm never going to forgive you for this," she finally said. The words were vaguely slurred, giving the sentence an irregular lilt, as though her mouth wouldn't quite cooperate with her.
Draco didn't flinch, his hand ghosted along her cheekbone. "You'll be alive and away from the war. Those—were always my terms."
Hermione pressed her lips together for several seconds as she tried to think through the potion clouding her mind. Whatever he'd given her, it had been a large enough dose that she was surprised she'd managed to regain consciousness. The fact he'd dosed her while she was passed out meant the potion had activated fully before she was conscious to fight against it.
There was a cold rage seething through her that she couldn't quite reach.
She forced herself to think slowly.
The fanfare is in the light, but the execution is in the dark.
It was theoretically possible for an occlumens to make themselves immune to any mind-altering potions, although it was preferable if they were conscious at the time of dosage. Draco had likely known that fact and intentionally given it to her while she was unconscious because of it.
Veritaserum, sedatives, Love Potions, an occlumens could potentially wall them away if their mind was already compartmentalized enough. Hermione stared up at Draco as she laboriously gathered up the effects of the potion he'd given her and walled in it around the events of the day.
Her mind was suddenly crystal clear.
She studied him, calculating.
She could see all the emotion behind his carefully guarded eyes.
"If you force me to leave, and then you die, we may never find the horcrux," she said, still using the slow sedated lilt.
His eyes flickered, and his expression grew cool. "If the Order had wanted to win, they should have made better choices. If the Dark Lord kills them all, perhaps they will finally realise the consequences of their ideology. I did everything that was asked, but I cannot save an army that will never be willing to pay the price that victory demands. I am sick of watching you try to pay it for them."
Hermione sat up slowly on the bed.
Draco stepped back and offered his hand. "We're going now."
"No."
His eyes narrowed and grew flintlike. "Granger, you gave your word."
Hermione clenched her jaw. "I know. I will go—per your demands, but I need to speak with Severus first. He'll be the only one left who can find the horcrux, there's—research I need to share with him."
"No." The word was snarled.
Hermione stared up at him, her expression deadened but determined. "You know I will always choose the Order first."
He flinched. His mouth pressed into a hard line and his gaze dropped as he released a short breath and he stared at the floor. She saw his throat contract and the corners of his mouth twitch as he swallowed, his silver eyes looked away from her.
Hermione continued speaking. Slowly. Doggedly. "If you force me to leave without speaking to Severus, it could qualify as a violation of your Unbreakable Vow to aid the Order. You might just collapse and die before we get there."
Draco looked at her sharply, and she met his gaze coldly and continued. "And—the last thing you will do is betray me. If you let me do this, maybe someday I'll be able to forgive you."
He stared at her, and she didn't blink until he wavered.
"Fine." His voice was bitter, and he looked away from her again.
She nodded slowly and stood up, reaching for her wand and tapping twice on the charm on her wrist.
While they waited, she crossed the room to re-examine Ginny.
"You should take Ginny first," she said after several minutes. "The stasis she's under is going to last a few more hours, I don't have the materials to make the counter-potion, and it will be difficult if she wakes up and I have to explain everything to her here before we go. Especially when I'm drugged like this."
Draco gave a low scoff in the back of his throat. "You expect me to leave you here with Snape?"
Hermione shrugged. "She's pregnant, and when she wakes up she's going to find out that Harry is dead and her entire family is lost. I won't have much time to say goodbye to you if I'm calming her."
There was a muffled crack outside. Draco turned to open the door.
Hermione wondered if she could move fast enough to stun him. She shifted, and he immediately looked back at her.
Severus stepped through the door and looked back and forth between them. His mouth curled into a sneer, but she saw a subtle flood of relief in his eyes.
"Of course, I should have realised you somehow had her when she wasn't ever brought to Hogwarts."
Hermione slid her hands behind her back and curled them into painfully tight fists. "Do they have everyone then?"
Severus gave a infinitesimal nod. "Gabrielle Delacour was secretly caught a week ago. They used her to lure out Fleur."
Hermione shook her head slowly. "Fleur would never—"
All the safe houses.
Fleur had known every one. She'd warded and maintained them.
Hermione shook her head again. "She wasn't the secret keeper. That couldn't have been enough."
Severus' mouth twisted derisively. "With Sussex's endless ingenuity, the impossible becomes possible. Something related to the way Veela channel their magic it would seem. They've been working for months to perfect breaking through the Fidelius." The acidic disdain in his voice was muted. He looked tired.
She wondered if he were carrying equal despair behind his own occlumency walls.
Severus stared at Hermione, his expression wary. "What happened at Hogwarts?"
Hermione dropped her eyes. "Harry was a horcrux. I found out today, after the attack had already started. When I confirmed it, I tried to convince Harry to have the Resistance fall back, but he thought if all the horcruxes were destroyed that letting the Dark Lord kill him would fulfill the prophecy and kill them both."
Severus' expression flickered. "Just how did you come to realise that?"
"Poppy told me she noticed irregularities in his signature during first year, but Dumbledore dismissed them." She gave Severus a long look. "Did you know?"
His lip curled. "I did not. I wouldn't have endeavored to teach him occlumency if I had been aware he had a horcrux in his head."
Hermione gave a small nod. "Well, it hardly matters now. He's dead, and it didn't work. We missed a horcrux, and we have to find it." Her jaw twitched, and her voice grew tight. "Draco blew his cover getting Ginny out of Sussex. He expects he has less than twelve hours before the Dark Lord learns of his betrayal."
Severus looked sharply at Draco, who stared back with an indifferent expression.
Hermione swallowed. "I agreed to leave Britain and take Ginny to safety. Severus, you'll have to be the one to find and destroy the last horcrux. My research was lost in Grimmauld Place, but I can explain everything before I go."
Severus' expression didn't so much as flicker. "Indeed, and what will Draco be doing?"
Hermione steeled herself. "He's going to take Ginny to the safe house first and get everything arranged while I'm giving my research to you. Then he's going to take me and return."
Severus gave an audible snort and looked at Draco. "Really? That's your plan? And I'm expected to follow orders?"
Draco stared back, his lip curling viciously. "It doesn't matter to me what you do. Granger is leaving."
Severus arched an eyebrow and looked back at Hermione. "Really?"
The corner of Hermione's mouth quirked down. "Yes. I gave him my word that I would go."
Severus was silent for long enough that her heart began pounding in her chest.
He rolled his eyes. "Very well, given that I would seem to be the only one remaining who remembers the purpose of the Order."
Hermione conjured a table and then scrounged through her beaded bag for parchment and ink. She started writing and then looked up at Draco.
"You should take Ginny now. That way I'll be there by the time she wakes. I'm assuming it's not a quick trip to wherever you're hiding us."
Draco was staring at her, his eyes calculating. "I don't trust you, Granger. I trust Snape even less."
Hermione's heart stalled, but she just blinked slowly. "Alright. Stay then."
She looked back down at the scroll and resumed writing. There was a long silence.
"I want an Unbreakable Vow," Draco said abruptly.
Hermione's fingers twitched before she looked up at him. "From me?"
Draco sneered. "No. Not from you. From Snape. I want his word that he won't interfere or take you anywhere."
Hermione looked over at Severus, her heart pounding heavily in her chest. "Alright. Do you want me as Bonder?"
"You are both fools," Severus said, drawing himself up.
"Will you do it?" Draco's eyes were narrowed into slits.
Severus gave Hermione a sidelong look and then snorted. "Of course, I will make an Unbreakable Vow," he gave a dismissive wave of his hand, "given that it is the only way to get anything done."
It was made in a matter of minutes.
Draco didn't look at Severus as he extracted the vow, his eyes were locked on Hermione.
Then Draco stood, his eyes still on her face.
"I'll be back in a few hours."
He picked up Ginny. Just before he vanished, Hermione's lips parted.
To say—
To say—
"Alright. I'll be waiting for you," she said, turning back to the table she'd been writing at and picking up the quill again.
She didn't look up as he apparated silently away.
The moment he vanished, she dropped the quill and looked up, staring frozen at the place he'd disappeared from. She half-expected him to reappear.
He didn't.
Her fingers tapped on the table for a few moments, and then she turned and walked past Severus, snatching her bag up from the floor and using her wand tip to carve runes into the floor. The trapdoor glowed and appeared. She knelt down and began pulling supplies out.
Severus was silent as she began emptying several glass vials and then charming them into a multitude of delicate glass spheres.
She pulled a cauldron from her bag and conjured an intense flame beneath it before upending an entire keg of powdered silver from Draco's supplies into it.
"I never imagined Draco could be so easily fooled."
Hermione's jaw twitched as she pulled a flagon of resin out.
"He has always wanted to get me away from the war more than anything else." She was quiet for a moment before she added, "I told you before, my life is important to him. And—in spite of himself, he doesn't want me to hate him. I suppose you could say he has predictable weaknesses now."
She pressed her lips together and her throat tightened. "I've never broken my word to him, he trusts me to keep my word."
"He'll never trust you again when he discovers you lied to him."
Hermione didn't look up from her work. "No. I don't suppose he will."
"Are you going to tell me what you're planning? Off to kill the Dark Lord yourself?"
The corner of her mouth quirked downwards as she shook her head. "I'm going to blow up Sussex."
There was a long silence. "Really?"
Hermione shrugged a shoulder. "It's theoretically possible, and I don't have an abundance of options at the moment."
"You intend to kill everyone in that building to save Draco?"
Hermione started dripping resin into dozens of the spheres. Her hands were steady, her focus razor sharp.
"I need Draco to live. I can't—I need him to live." She swallowed and lifted her chin. "Besides, there's almost no one to save in that building. I tried to save the victims from the last curse division, and I couldn't. They all died." She pulled out box filled with over a hundred vials of highly concentrated poison. Aerosolised, a drop was enough to kill a room. "I can make it quick for everyone there. That—was the best I could do the last time."
She measured several drops into every glass sphere.
"If I blow up Sussex, I can save Draco, spare the victims whatever else would happen to them, and—I can kill the scientists working there. Maybe Dolohov will even be there. Tom probably won't build a whole new lab again now that Harry is dead. He won't have enough scientists to restaff to that scale, even if he wanted to. Which will mean he can't send everyone imprisoned at Hogwarts there. I'm sure he'll come up with something else—but at least he won't be able to have them all tortured to death in order to further his cause."
Severus was silent for several minutes.
"So—that's my plan. You should probably leave," Hermione said without looking up. "I've never made these types of bombs before. I may blow this building up."
"I'm sure it will be a much quicker death than what Draco will do if he returns and finds his safe house destroyed. Is this a suicide mission for you then, or are you intending to come back?"
Hermione sealed several glass spheres and placed them into larger spheres. "I have to come back. For Draco."
"If you don't come back, he'll assuredly try to kill me."
Irritation bloomed in the back of her mind, and her hold on a vial of crushed fire crab eggs tightened. "I'm sure you'll come up with something, Severus. You've been a spy for almost as long as I've been alive."
There was another long silence.
"If you don't come back, what do you expect him to do?"
Hermione froze, and her occlumency walls wavered. "I'm going to come back. I told Draco I'd be here waiting for him."
Severus didn't say anything else. He just stood watching her in disapproving silence.
She made dozens of bombs, each no larger than a snitch and encased every one of them in silver before dipping them into her invisibility potion and storing them inside the countless pockets in her cloak.
Then she stood, picked up the paper on the table and folded it in half, starting to put it away into her bag before hesitating and putting it back. She pulled out her knives and slipped them both into an empty pocket in her cloak.
She glanced over at the mess of bomb materials scattered across the floor. "Don't touch anything. I'll clean up when I get back. I'm off now."
Severus looked her up and down carefully. His onyx eyes inscrutable. "How are you intending to get there?"
Hermione's heart was pounding violently in her chest despite the sedative, but she lifted her chin, her mouth quirking in the corner. "You took me to Ashdown once for foraging. I used to go there every week until the wards kept me out."
Severus stared at her for another moment and extended his hand. "Give them to me. I'll do it."
Hermione's eyes widened. She hesitated for a moment before she gripped the fabric of her cloak and shook her head. "I promised Draco I'd leave and not come back. If this doesn't work and Draco—" her voice cut off briefly. She studied the floor. "There has to be someone to find the horcrux. Besides—these"—she gestured down at her cloak—"I didn't have much time. They're sloppy, I have to activate them."
His eyes narrowed. She squared her shoulders and began to turn towards the door. As she pulled the door open, her fingers twitched, and she glanced over her shoulder. Severus was standing and watching her warily.
"Severus—" she started, her voice wavered. She looked away, swallowed, and started again. "Severus, if I don't come back, tell Draco—Tell Draco that I—"
Her head dropped down, and she quickly brushed her fingertips across her cheeks. She cleared her voice and shook her head. "Never mind. I imagine he knows."
She set her jaw as she pulled the door open, stepped through, and apparated.