Adult-FanFiction.org : Harry Potter

The Paths We Take	By : Luckycharms Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 18436 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 4
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. That right goes to the AMAZING JK Rowling. No profit is made off this story. Shout out to Scorpia11 for being my awesome Beta!!

Chapter List
- 7
- 8
- 9
Chapter 8- Conflicting Emotions
Thursday, May 6^th, 1999
“How is he?” Narcissa questioned as she and Professor McGonagall entered the large black and grey bedroom Ron and Harry had chosen for their sleeping arrangements and closed the door gently behind her.
“He’s perspiring more fluids than we can put in” Molly replied with concern dripping on every word as she sat on the edge of the bed the raven-haired boy was laying on. His eyes were closed but beads of sweat riddled his forehead as his body soaked the sheets under him. “Cooling charms aren’t working, and he has a fever that refuses to break. I-I don’t understand. D-did something go wrong? I thought we did everything right…Did-did I mess up?” she inquired with a crack in her voice as she tried to stay strong for the boy she had practically raised since he was twelve.
“It wasn’t the ritual, Molly” Narcissa claimed in an almost whisper. “You did everything right.” She and Molly may have had many differences on how they viewed things in life, but they were both mothers, and she understood the overwhelming grief the redhead was feeling. There wasn’t a bone in her body that didn’t empathize with the woman doing her best to hold herself together in front of everyone. And for the first time since Narcissa had known the elder Weasley, she felt pity for the mother who didn’t have all the answers. “We found something…” she stated with a deep sigh while moving to stand nervously at the end of the bed. “A few things, actually…”
“What do you mean?” Robert asked while gliding his fingers through his dark brown hair before anyone else in the room had a chance to speak. “What did you find?”
Ten sets of worried eyes looked to the former Slytherin Queen while McGonagall lowered her head and calmly crossed her hands in front of her.
“Well…” the elder Malfoy began “Minerva and I looked at the blood Potter coughed up. T-there were strange black clots so…we used a spell to analyze them...”
“Just tell us, Narcissa” Arthur exhaled as he awaited the bad news he knew was coming.
“It was volcanic ash” she responded as she glanced around at the confused faces surrounding her.
“I-I don’t understand” Elizabeth stated with a hand to her chest.
“Neither do we” McGonagall chimed in. “The only thing that makes sense…is that Mr. Potter was possibly in an era where a volcano erupted. Which means-”
“Our children” Molly whispered with a quivering lip.
“Oh, God” Elizabeth muttered while clasping the hand resting on her chest, over her mouth. “Hermione…”
Robert pulled his wife into his arms and held her as Arthur placed a hand gently on Molly’s shoulder.
“There is good news though” the blonde mother quickly proclaimed when the room almost burst into hysterics. “However, it’s not the best…They’re in London, but-”
“London?” Theo questioned with a perplexed expression. “If they’re in London, then that means their okay, right? Right, Mrs. Malfoy?”
“It would seem so, but we won’t know until Mr. Potter is better and can tell us what happened” McGonagall uttered softly.
“I’m confused…” Pansy spoke with a raised hand and a scrunched brow. “The closest active volcano to London is Mount Vesuvius, but that’s just over a thousand miles away in Italy and it’s last eruption was in 1944. How could Potter be anywhere near it? Did he not end up in the same area as everyone else?”
“We don’t know” the headmistress answered with a deep sigh. “Again, Ms. Parkinson, we won’t know anything until Mr. Potter wakes up. I have sent an emergent Owl to Madam Pomfrey. Hopefully she can help the boy with his predicament. If not…we’ll have to call St. Mungo’s and issue a report, which I would rather not do. I don’t want this getting out. We have also floo’d Bethany Woodrow in as well to see if she can help in anyway. She won’t arrive however, until after her shift ends at the museum.”
“Wait…if they’re in London,” Ron cut in, obviously not paying attention to a word Pansy or McGonagall just said. “then that means their home, aren’t they? Why are we not going to get them? Why aren’t we happier about this?”
“It’s not what-”
“You just said they’re in London, Professor. We need to get them” he declared as his chest rose in fell in a steady beat, with a mixture of happiness and confusion filling his mind.
“In 1349…” Narcissa interrupted with sorrow emitting from her voice as she shut her eyes and folded in her lips before inhaling sharply. The room instantly went quiet as they looked to the Malfoy in bewilderment. “They are in London, England…March…1349.”
“But-but that’s when-” Luna began as her eyes darted back and forth unseeingly as she thought heavily about the year.
“The Bubonic Plague…” McGonagall proclaimed as the Ravenclaw lifted her widened eyes to the Professor.
“Also known,” Lady Malfoy spoke reluctantly “as The Black Death.”
March of 1349
“I swear to Merlin, that amulet is trying to fuck with us!” Ginny claimed while gritting her teeth in anger. She and Blaise had removed themselves from the hard dirt and began to look around the abandoned grey alleyway lined with wood and stone walls as droplets of rain drizzled around them. “That thing must think it’s funny to have us almost swallowed whole by a large ash cloud then suddenly dump us…wherever the hell this is, away from our friends…again!”
“I don’t think the amulet has a conscious that would purposely fuck with us, Red…Though for some reason I can imagine a tiny little man inside laughing his arse off…” Blaise claimed while trying to hold back a laugh at the description forming in his head.
“Ugh!” the redhead groaned in irritation while stomping her foot and exhaling sharply. “Is it too much to ask the damn thing to place us in a time period with a shower and soap?”
“It’s not a genie, Red. It’s not going to grant us three wishes.”
“You know what, let’s…” she inhaled a deep breath before letting it out slowly “let’s just find Mione and Blondie and figure out where the hell we are now. I am seriously getting sick of this guessing game” she claimed as she began walking down the alleyway. “Why the hell can’t that thing just tell us where it’s dropping us off at before it jumps us?”
“Would make things a lot easier but won’t stop the painful crashing to the ground part. That’s the only thing I really care about. My muscles are sore enough after fighting, I would greatly prefer not landing on my back every single time.”
As the pair rounded the corner to the right, they found themselves walking through another alley filled with stone walls. Frustrated and annoyed they continued onward through the maze as a rank smell filled their nostrils. They glanced around but there didn’t seem to be any source for the sour stench, so they kept going until they turned left and found the missing pair they were searching for in the back of a dead end.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Ginny began marching up to the duo staring at each other oddly as she mumbled about how much she hated the amulet. However, as they grew closer, Blaise could see something the redhead was obviously missing, and it made him question why his friends were looking at each other like they had done something neither of them wanted to talk about.
Draco and Hermione both had their backs planted hard against opposite walls with flushed cheeks as they panted heavily in confusion. Their lips were slightly parted, and their eyes told a story that Blaise desperately wished he knew. But as Ginny pulled Hermione into a hug, careful not to throw the brunette off balance due to her twisted ankle, the dark-haired wizard tilted his head while raising a brow.
Though the wavy-haired witch had removed her gaze from the blonde still intently staring at her, she slowly flickered her eyes back to him while hugging her best friend, almost like she wanted to say something, but couldn’t.
Ginny suddenly pulled away and surprisingly moved to hug Draco who still did not remove his fixed eyes away from the bookworm, even as he unconsciously embraced the redhead in return. Something was off, and Blaise was determined to figure out what.
“So, where do you suppose we are?” he asked, hoping to break the awkward moment between the Gryffindor Princess and the Slytherin Prince.
“I-I don’t know…” Hermione replied while slowly removing her brown eyes off Draco. “I-uh…I…” she paused for a moment to finally take in their surroundings before looking back to Blaise as she shook her head and raised a hand to her forehead. “I-I would need to see more of the landscape, before…” she unsubtly looked back to the blonde before snapping her gaze behind her “before I can say for sure where and when we are.”
“Oh-kay…Are you alright, Mione?” Ginny frowned with a slight tilt of her head. “Maybe we should find somewhere to sit down. Your ankle is really swollen, and we did almost just die.”
“I can carry her” Draco blurted out unintentionally. He didn’t mean to speak his thoughts aloud, but he was dying to get close to the Golden Girl after the kiss in Pompeii left him confused and wanting more of her. He couldn’t figure out why he enjoyed the feeling of her lips brushing his or her body pressed firmly against his chest, but his mind was begging for him to devour her fully between the sheets. He could still see the smear his fingers left through the soot on her left cheek and he had to fight against the painful urge to capture her lips once more, part the thin seam between the delicate skin of her mouth, press his tongue to hers, and taste her for the first time.
Everything about the idea however, screamed that it was wrong to want her, wrong to feel the need to run his fingers skillfully up her arms, to touch her in ways he knew she had never been touched before. “I-I mean, if she would like?” he stated as his thoughts drifted to if the brunette would even want him to touch her again after the reaction she gave when they arrived in the mysterious era.
She appeared shocked and a little scared when they’d landed in the damp alleyway and scrambled out of his embrace as they laid on the dirt ground. He had never seen a girl move so quickly just to get away from him, yet Hermione Granger acted as if he was about to kill her…instead of kiss her again.
“That’s okay, Malfoy” Ginny spoke softly, interrupting his thoughts and placing an uncontrollable frown upon his lips “I can get her. Thanks though” she smiled up at him before placing Hermione’s left arm over her shoulders.
As the girls began to walk slowly away, Draco watched as the wavy-haired witch turned her head and glanced at him with slightly parted lips before turning around and allowing the redhead to guide her back down the alley.
“Um, so I don’t want to interrupt your daydream,” Blaise proclaimed before pinching his lips together in curiosity “but uh…you wanna tell me what that was all about?”
The blonde Slytherin quickly snapped his gaze to his friend before answering ‘no’, shaking his head, and walking off, leaving Blaise momentarily alone to contemplate the thousand questions filling his mind.
“Well I’m glad we are all alive!” he shouted while cupping his mouth. “You’re welcome Blaise, for willing to die with me in that smoldering inferno heated wall of death!” His friends however ignored him, except for Hermione who waved a hand in the air before saying ‘thank you’, and he shook his head with a small chuckle before trailing after the trio.
As the group maneuvered their way through the twists and turns of the long alley, Draco had a strange feeling that he recognized the area they were walking through. But he quickly shrugged it off and followed slowly behind the girls limping steadily ahead of him. When they finally managed to reach an exit, the light drizzle began to fall a bit harder, forcing Ginny to transfigure their clothing into dark hooded cloaks.
Once they were fully covered from the wetness surrounding them, the group began to make their way down the semi-darkened street, lit by only a few oil lamps and the sun setting behind the grey clouds, as they tried to find somewhere to rest. After about two minutes of slow pace walking, the four students realized how abandoned the town was. There wasn’t a soul walking on the now muddy and puddle filled road to copy an outfit from, nor were there any stray animals out and about. It was a bizarre quiet enveloping the wooden cruck-like buildings and it appeared they were stranded in a ghost town.
It wasn’t until Draco spotted small flickers of candlelight in a few windows and one person even quickly closing the curtains in another, that he concluded humans were indeed around. An eerie feeling began to sit uncomfortably in the pit of his stomach as a putrid odor began to fill the air.
“Does anyone else smell that?” Blaise questioned while pinching his nose with his fingers, stopping the group from moving forward.
“Yeah…” Hermione replied while looking around with disgust written all over her features. “What is it?”
“I smelt it back in the alleyway before we found you” Ginny claimed with a scrunched nose. “It smells like death and…sewage.”
“Is that why this place feels so…empty?” the dark-skinned wizard inquired before glancing to Draco who was eyeing a couple with a small child walking down the foggy street acting very odd and secretive.
Though, no one had a chance to answer as Draco walked past his three peers and began slyly following the reticent pair whispering to the small boy as they started walking down a dank alley. Something wasn’t sitting right with him and he had a strong feeling that that couple would be able to give him a hint as to what the hell was going on with the town.
Hermione, Blaise, and Ginny looked to each other in confusion before Blaise threw Hermione’s right arm over his shoulders so they could walk faster and followed the blonde who was now peeking around a corner.
“Draco,” Blaise whispered as he released the brunette, “what are you doing?”
“Shhh!” the blonde declared while waving a hand behind him.
Blaise raised a brow but quickly nodded to the girls to follow Draco’s lead. Ginny immediately rushed to the other side of the entryway as Blaise followed so they too could peek around the corner and watch the strange family, leaving Hermione to awkwardly limp towards Draco.
Seeing the bookworm approach, Draco moved back slightly to allow her to lean against the wall for support before reaching around her to see over the top of her head. Her body stiffed slightly when his arm brushed against her shoulder before relaxing as his chest pressed up against her back, preventing her from falling over as she balanced on one foot.
Even through the rancid odor of the town and the scent of volcanic soot covering the Gryffindor in front of him, she still smelled amazing and he had to stop himself from nudging his cheek against her. He knew he shouldn’t want her, and he had to keep reminding himself that it would never happen in order to focus on the task at hand.
It’s not like he was trying to seduce her in anyway, but Hermione felt completely perplexed at the niceness he was showing her. Ever since they had been thrown back into the past, Ginny’s words about him possibly having feelings for her, kept resurfacing to the forefront of her mind. It didn’t help either that he was constantly there to protect her honor or save her life, which she was fine with seeing as they were becoming friends and she was thinking strongly about forgiving him. But after that kiss…the kiss that made her knees go weak and her stomach flutter, she felt utterly confused about if it actually meant something.
They were supposed to be enemies, they were supposed to hate each other. He wasn’t supposed to kiss her back when they thought their lives were over and he sure as hell wasn’t supposed to kiss her like he meant it. The only reason she felt the need to snog the Slytherin Prince was because she didn’t want to die without feeling another’s warm lips upon hers. However, no matter how much she told herself it could have easily been Blaise instead, she knew in her heart she would never kiss him. So, did she kiss Draco out of pure convenience, or did she kiss him…because she wanted to?
Though, in that moment of sheer terror standing in the middle of the grassy field, Draco had somehow numbed all the pain enveloping her. His stormy grey eyes looking at no one else but her, the way his calloused hand left feather soft tingles against her cheek, the way his lips felt gentle and smooth as his strong sturdy arms held her firmly against his powerfully sculpted chest. It almost made her dizzy just thinking about it.
And now she felt his impressive warmth pressing against her back as they peered around the corner of the alley, and she suddenly felt those same butterflies she felt in Pompeii, fluttering in her abdomen; flickers of want…she had never felt with Ron.
But she couldn’t like him, it was impossible; she hadn’t even fully forgiven him yet. She wasn’t supposed to feel this way…and yet she was. It was now a battle of logic verses emotion, and she knew in the end, logic would win…logic always won. Draco Malfoy would never see her as anyone other than a person he was trapped in the past with. They could possibly stay friends if they ever made it home to their own time, but now, in the yesteryear's…she was simply a convenience, just like he was to her. Someone to hold on to until they made it back, because once they were back, they would inevitably go their own ways.
“What are they doing?” Ginny inquired, pulling Hermione from the deep thoughts she found herself drifting through. “And who is that woman?”
Everyone’s eyes snapped to the elderly woman standing smug at the top of the stairs of a large stone nameless building with two large burly men in dark grey uniforms standing on either side of her, before witnessing the mother of the child quickly pulling her son into a hug. As the group grew curiouser, Draco squinted more at the faded writing etched above the impressive double doors and realized exactly what was happening.
“He’s a squib…” he muttered as he noticed the elder woman holding a long slender wand in her right hand.
“What?” Hermione questioned as she slightly looked back at the blonde leaning over her, just inches from her face.
“It’s hard to see, but that building…is an orphanage.”
However, as soon as the Golden Girl was about to open her mouth to ask another question, they all heard a loud cry, forcing her to look back at the family. The child was wailing, begging for his mother as the father ripped her away from the embrace she had on her son. The two brawny men held the sobbing boy as he cried and fought to no avail, to go home, breaking the hearts of everyone watching, before being dragged into the building…never to be seen again by his family.
As the woman trembled and fell to the ground in utter despair, the man everyone assumed was her husband, grabbed her by the bicep and forcefully yanked her upwards. Hermione could see the knuckles of Draco’s hand gripping the wall go white, and she half expected him to march down the alleyway just to beat the man for what he was doing. And even though she didn’t condone his short temper, in that moment, she would have let him.
A small growl emitted from the Slytherin Prince’s throat and if it wasn’t for the fact that Hermione was so close to him, she wouldn’t have heard it. She prepared herself for the rage of the blonde wizard to rear its ugly head, but what she didn’t prepare for, was him scooping her up bridal style, confusing not only her but Blaise and Ginny as well, before walking hastily down the alley where the couple no longer stood.
It wasn’t until he stopped just shy of the orphanage and pressed his back against the stone wall to their left that she realized he was following the duo. Peaking his head around the corner, Hermione caught a glimpse of the couple walking up to a wall and then suddenly…they disappeared.
“What the hell?” Ginny stated while peering around Hermione still in Draco’s arms. “Did they just-”
“Use a wizarding gateway…?” the blonde answered quickly as he gently set the brunette down. Given the witches’ size, he could have easily carried her with no problems, however, his arms felt weak from the strain they’d endured over the last several hours and he barely had enough strength anymore to hold even himself upright. “Yeah…but I don’t think you want to know where it leads.”
“Uh…mate?” Blaise began with furrowed brows as Ginny moved to help balance Hermione out. “What the hell are you talking about? Do you know where we are?”
“I thought I recognized the alleyways slightly, but I wasn’t sure until now…” he replied with a heavy sigh. “Apparently, this part of London hasn’t changed a bit.”
Thursday, May 6^th, 1999
It had been twenty painstaking minutes of waiting until Madam Poppy Pomfrey marched through the fireplace settled in the room Harry was staying in, with disappointment written all over her face. The strict matron shook her head in frustration as her white and crimson robes swept through the air as she advanced towards the raven-haired boy still sweating profusely on the plush grey sheets. Large bags of melting ice rested on either side of the Chosen One and the school nurse feared the situation was much more dire then she was told.
“No disrespect, but you should have floo’d me sooner, Minerva! Before you all decided to perform a ritual consisting of dark magic!” the matron declared fiercely as Molly moved out of her way and she hunched over Harry to get a better look at him. “He is as hot as an oven! What in Merlin’s name happened to this boy? Did he actually sit inside an active volcano?” she demanded while feeling Harry’s burning skin. “We need to heal him now before this fever boils his insides!”
Grabbing her bag off the floor she began pulling out various healing potions linked directly to her supply at Hogwarts, before facing the headmistress with a sullen look.
“What is it, Poppy?” McGonagall inquired with worry filling her eyes. She knew she would find a way to regret letting the Potter boy jump through time but was fully aware that there was no arguing against him. Which is most likely what happened when no one else volunteered for the mission.
Taking a deep breath, Pomfrey’s eyes darted back and forth as she thought about what she required, before it suddenly clicked that the Headmistress had access to anything she could need for emergencies, in Hogsmeade.
“I need Burn-Healing Paste, as much of it as you can gather. We need to make a bath large enough to cover Mr. Potters entire body. I also need to use the muggle ingredients, oh what do they call it…Apple Cider Vinegar, to mix in with a pepper-up potion before placing a cooling charm over it. Can you get me these items…and quickly?”
“Whatever you need!” McGonagall hastily replied as she summoned a quill and parchment to begin writing a note.
“I actually have that Apple Cider Vinegar in the kitchen,” Narcissa cut in, making the Professor stop writing and look to her in relief. “Keesy loves to use it to make all sorts of salad dressings, and after the Dark Lord took over our home, we had a lot of well…injured. We have plenty of Burn-Healing Paste stored in the basement next to the dungeons.”
“Right, very well” Pomfrey stated as she inhaled deeply. “We need to undress Mr. Potter, down to his skivvies. Keep the ice around him for now until we can get the paste bath set up and I can mix the vinegar with the potions. I will also need to know exactly what he has inhaled as well before removing the debris from his lungs.”
“As far as we know, only volcanic ash” Molly chimed in with mitigation tears brimming the edges of her lashes.
“In that case, I need everyone to leave this room immediately,” the matron ordered, “grab the supplies and meet back here as soon as possible. Anyone not obtaining the required medical ingredients needs to stay put on the other side of that door until I have cleared Mr. Potter’s lungs completely-”
“I don’t understand?” Ron questioned in confusion. “Why do we need to leave while you clear his lungs?”
“Because, Mr. Weasley, volcanic ash consists of extremely poisonous toxins that you can inhale when I release it into the air. Now please, everyone out!”
XX
The matron of Hogwarts covered her mouth with a white face mask and inhaled sharply as she looked down at Harry before bringing out her wand and aiming it at the raven-haired boy. Everything she was about to do was guess work because she never in her life had to deal with something so serious. Un-petrify students, easy, regrow bones, simple, but healing someone of rare dark magic after they have been thrown through time…never been done. At least not by her or anyone else in the medical field that she knew of.
She knew she had to clear the boy lungs first before anything else, especially if she was going to be able to administer any sort of potion before the bath, she hoped would cool his body. And she had no idea if removing the toxins, he had inhaled, would help cure him in anyway, but she had to act fast. It was now a matter of life and death and she simply had no room for errors.
Using the Anapneo charm, Madam Pomfrey siphoned the debris from Harry’s lungs as his chest rose off the bed and he released a painful moan from his throat. It appeared more like the Gryffindor was having his soul removed by a Dementor than having poisonous remains pulled from his body and the medic-witch had to brush the sorrow away as she stayed focused on her task.
The blackened ash spiraled through the air as she tried to contain it while forming it into a massive ball and vanishing it for good. Once every trace of the lethal fumes were diminished, she performed Tergeo and cleansed Harry of any remaining liquid, dust, and blood he had coughed up from his person before lowering her wand and removing the mask on her face with a large exhausted exhale.
XX
Ten minutes had passed; ten very long minutes of waiting outside the large arched doorway that lead into the room where Harry was being healed by Madam Pomfrey. It felt like forever as everyone lingered in the hall with the necessities that were vital to bring the boy-who-lived back to full heath and it remained quiet as a few paced back and forth; only the shuffling of their feet filling the silence.
The door suddenly creaked open, deeming the room safe from the ash and not a single person hesitated to enter. Pansy, Luna, Elizabeth, Narcissa, and Molly went straight to the en suite with their arms full of Burn-Healing Paste as Ron, Neville, Theo, Robert, and Arthur began to undress the raven-haired wizard down to his boxer shorts.
Professor McGonagall and Madam Pomfrey quickly began measuring out a teaspoon of the vinegar into six pepper-up potions before placing cooling charms over each one. Once the bath was full and ready, Arthur levitated Harry to the porcelain tub and gently set him into the paste. The girls worked rapidly to cover his body once he was fully settled, while Pomfrey began to administer the potions. It took a few seconds before she could get him to swallow the first one and after she was finished forcing him to ingest all six, she began to pour various healing potions down his throat as well.
The experience of watching the Golden Boy choke on the liquids was heartbreaking at best, but everyone who stood in the en suite knew it was the only thing they could do to help him. It still didn’t make things easy however, for the people closest to him, and Neville had to run to the toilet as he threw up.
An hour had passed as the group watched in painstaking torture for Harry to open his eyes, but the Boy-Who-Lived just laid there in the tub, unmoving; almost like a corpse waiting to be put into the ground. No one moved, no one breathed, no one even said a word as tears filled their eyes and Pomfrey checked his forehead ever few minutes to see if his fever had broken any…and each time, she shook her head in disappointment.
“How long is this supposed to go on for?” Narcissa inquired, breaking the silence and causing several pairs of eyes to turn to her as she paced back and forth near the door. “He’s been lying in that paste for just over an hour?”
“There is no time frame for this sort of thing” Pomfrey replied while once again checking Harry’s temperature.
“Is that all you care about?” Molly asked with a hint of venom in her voice. “That he wakes up because he just might happen to know where your son is? Do you even care for the boy o-or what we did to him?”
“I-I beg your pardon?” the former Slytherin Queen hissed as she stopped pacing and turned to face the redhead. “You honestly think that I’m asking because I am more worried about where my son is than Potter’s health?”
“I wouldn’t doubt for a single second that you have no care for the boy and only wish to gather the information on where Draco is that Harry, might or might not hold!” Molly retorted in anger.
“How dare you! How dare you come into my home and accuse me-”
“NOT…here!” Arthur demanded, cutting the women off as they stared each other down. “You two want to sort your mess out, fine by me, but you will do it in another room!”
“This is my home!” Narcissa sneered as she flashed an angry scowl at Arthur.
“So, you keep saying!” Molly jabbed as she stood up from the bathroom floor and clenched her fists at her sides.
“That is ENOUGH!” Elizabeth shouted as she breathed heavily, forcing all eyes to turn to her before chuckling mirthlessly and rolling her eyes while shaking her head in displeasure. “Our children are missing! And Harry…Jesus, we have no idea if he is even going to wake up from this and all you two seem to care about, is arguing! Grow up! You want to act like children fine, I will treat you like children!” she claimed while taking a step forward. “A boy might die by our hands and neither of you can seem to get past your spiteful history! We get it, we are all worried, and tired, and confused, but arguing is not helping anyone! You can either hash your shite out later or you can both march into another room and hex each other for all I care, but you are NOT doing it here! You are NOT doing in front of all these people who are afraid for the life that is at stake! Do I make myself clear?”
Both women stared stunned at the muggle daring to reprimand two powerful witches in front of everyone who were glaring at the three women, waiting for what they might do next. However, Narcissa simply clicked her tongue against the inside of her check before crossing her arms and moving to lean against the door. Though animosity for the red-headed witch still flashed across her eyes.
Molly, however, began to open her mouth to retort when a loud gasp echoed across the room, forcing everyone to look to the tub. Harry’s back arched as his chest rose from the paste covering his body, his mouth agape as he sucked in a large breath, and his eyes opened wide, terrified that he had awoken…still in the cloud of billowing fire.
London, England, March of 1349
“Wait, wait, wait, hold on just a second… Blaise stated with a stunned head shake “I think I might have heard you wrong. Did you just say…London? Like London, England?”
“Yeah, I did” Draco answered as he glanced around the corner at the wall before looking up to the orphanage. “Sometime before 1666.”
“How do you know it’s before 1666?” Ginny inquired while redistributing Hermione’s weight so they could both stand more comfortably.
“The Great Fire of London…” Hermione spoke in a low tone after playing the year through her mind.
“Exactly” the blonde sighed heavily. “The fire that took out that specific building.” He pointed to the stone orphanage. “Except, muggles closed it in 1665 after the last major epidemic of the Bubonic Plague killed over half of the children inside. It was then used for a few months, as a temporary hospital, before shutting down for good. And I know all this because that orphanage was well known to Pure-bloods as the place to relinquish squibs born into the family…”
“Relinquish squibs?” Hermione inquired, completely thrown off.
“It’s unfortunately still something Pure-bloods do. When a squib, someone with no magic but born to those with it, is identified around the age of seven…the family technically has no use for them. So,” he sighed heavily as he bit his bottom lip, disgusted at his own bloods’ history, “they…get rid of them, usually by dropping the child off at an orphanage to possibly find a muggle family to care for them.”
“That’s…That’s-you’re serious?” the curly-haired witch asked in bewilderment. “That’s horrible!”
“But he’s right” Ginny delicately claimed. “My family never partook in that practice, at least not that I’m aware of, but I know a lot of families in the sacred twenty-eight that have. It’s barbaric, but a squib is basically just a muggle who can see magic…that’s it.”
“And that wall…” Draco pointed behind him, hoping to distract Hermione from judging him on something he would never do, “is an entryway to…” he sighed once more, “to Knockturn Alley.”
“Knockturn Alley?” the redhead asked in astonishment while raising a brow. “That shady as hell, dark magic, ‘you will never step foot into that place, Ginny, so help me’, dodgy shopping area that is home to sinister and dangerous wizard folk and contains the shop where you purchased the necklace that cursed Katie Bell during your sixth year?”
“Do you even breathe when you speak?” Draco asked with a tilt of his head.
“You mean Borgin and Burkes?” Blaise questioned inquisitively, cutting Ginny off from answering his best friend. “That’s where that hideous necklace came from? That place is grotty as fuck, how did you manage to even walk in there?”
“I really would rather not talk about it, alright?” Draco appealed with a lick of his lips as his brows furrowed in anger for yet another past deed he regretted, and he crossed his arms while holding back a wince from the wound still extending across his abs to his left shoulder.
“Can you find us somewhere in there…to rest?” Hermione inquired, sensing his anger and trying to deflect the sorrow she knew he must be feeling. “We can use magic in the open in there and heal up.”
“I-I can try” the blonde claimed with a shrug before looking back to the entrance. “Though, you’ll have to keep your hoods up. I don’t know what year it is, but I do know Knockturn Alley is not somewhere you want to be caught aimlessly walking through; no matter the time period.”
“Should we heal Mione’s ankle now then? So, she won’t draw suspicion?”
Draco looked to Ginny before looking down at the brunettes swollen ankle as he thought strongly about the question he was just asked.
“Ye-actually…no. Her limp will most likely deter people away from us. She’ll appear disabled and they will try to keep their distance. No one in there likes to deal with people who may be crippled as they are always begging for money. I’m sorry Princess, but it will help you blend in more.”
“That’s okay” she half-smiled through a wince she couldn’t contain. “I can make it through a little while longer, but we will need to at least clear the ash and soot from our lungs before going any further. I don’t know about you guys, but it almost hurts to breath.”
Without giving it a second thought, the group nodded their heads in agreement before Hermione painfully siphoned the debris from all their lungs and placed her wand back into her bag.
“Okay, here’s the plan” Draco stated after inhaling sharply. “We need to split up but still stay close together. Red you take lead and Blaise you take the back. We need to make sure no one thinks Granger is actually injured, just that she simply has a creepy limp. Otherwise they might try to rob us if they see her as an easy target. Red, you’re the best actress between all of us so, I am going to need you to…well act-”
“Like an old woman who has seen some shite back in her day?” Ginny smirked. “Piece of cake! Now, are you looking for Nicolas Flamel old or like, Dumbledore old?”
“Uh…” he raised a brow in confusion while a blank look formed over his face, “just…act like you belong, Red…” he stated in bewilderment.
“Got it!” she replied with a nod before gently passing Hermione over to Draco.
Taking the Gryffindor into his tired arms, Draco wrapped her hands around his torso and under his cloak, so she could resemble an elderly woman limping next to a younger family member. Pulling her hood further over her face, he wrapped his left arm around her to help hold her up and then reached for his wand when he remembered…he didn’t have it. He never saw Hermione pick it up back in Pompeii, and therefore assumed he lost it during the fight with the guard.
However, he didn’t want anyone to know just yet that he was weaponless and hoped he had enough money in his pouch, he knew for a fact the bookworm had taken off him, to buy a new wand. Though it would be risky to buy a wand in Knockturn Alley, he figured they were in a year where his family fortune was at least semi decent.
Pulling the brunette witch closer to his body, the group began walking, and limping, towards the stone wall. Luckily for the blonde, Blaise had already brought out his wand to open the entryway, so Draco didn’t have to explain why he couldn’t. The dark-skinned wizard turned his head to his friend and waited until Draco and Hermione slowly approached him. He could hear the small sobs of the bookworm as she painfully tried to walk on her injured ankle, grasping tightly to his best friends’ torso, forcing the blonde to wince as her nails dug deep into his skin.
But Draco powered through, perceiving her pain to be much worse than his own, before looking to Blaise and cringing slightly when one of Hermione’s nails scraped a wound on his ribs, he didn’t even know he had.
“Ah,” he grunted as his body twitched involuntary from the sharp pain, forcing them to stop.
“I’m sorry…” Hermione whimpered as she moved her hand down and off his ribs.
“You’re fine, just…” he jerked slightly, “uh, here…” moving her left arm that was wrapped around him, Draco steadied her with his right hand, holding his forearm close to his chest in an effort to keep her from brushing against his deeper wounds. “Are you okay like this?” Nodding her head, Draco inhaled quickly before turning his attention back to the waiting pair in front of them. “Four taps from the center brick, two East, one West, four South, five North.”
Blaise nodded once before turning around and following Draco’s instructions of the password. When he was finished, he took a few steps back as the wall rippled and Ginny hesitantly walk through. Without uttering another word, the blonde Slytherin escorted Hermione through the barrier, leaving Blaise to slump his shoulders and sulk.
“I am so going to regret this later” he mumbled aloud before following his peers.
Emerging on the other side into Knockturn Alley, the dark-skinned wizard immediately halted his stride before he crashed into the pair directly in front of him and looked around curiously as to why they suddenly stopped.
“What…the hell?” he questioned as he took in the view of the dark and greyed out cruck buildings. Not a single person was in sight like he had expected, and the repugnant odor had returned full force. Except, this time it smelled like burnt flesh and death. Covering his nose with his cloak, he looked to his friends and raised a brow. “Where is everyone?”
Draco, who was unable to cover his nose as he held firmly on to the Gryffindor Princess, shook his head in confusion as he glanced around the Alley that should have been full of witches and wizards.
“I have no idea, but the less people to travel through the better. Let’s get going before we’re seen.”
As instructed, Ginny walked in front and cautiously began leading the group through the twists and turns of the creepy Alley. The blonde had told her which way to go as they slowly wandered through various passageways, and only ran into a few people who were coughing and eyeing them wearyingly, before darting in a different direction as if they were miscreants, they wanted nothing to do with. But after turning left twice, the redhead quickly cut her stride short and stared wide eyed off to her right.
“You sort of need to warn us when you are going to abruptly stop, Red” Draco claimed while taking a step forward to see what she was looking at. “We can’t…just…Mother of Merlin…” he gasped as his jaw dropped when he saw the hundreds of burnt bodies piled in four separate mounds, alight with flames in the open courtyard. The smell of burning flesh and tattered clothes filled the air as they stared at the lifeless eyes and contorted faces of the deceased.
“Are those real people…this place burns people?” Blaise questioned with a large hint of disgust in his tone.
“Nooo, no, no, no, no!” Hermione chanted in utter defeat, making three set of eyes snap their gazes to her as she looked at two men wearing unrefined long billed medical masks, while carrying a dead body to one of the large mounds. “Godric, this is so…fucked!”
“Whoa there, Princess” the blonde stated with furrow brows. “As awesome as it is to hear you curse, would you mind sharing with the rest of the class what the hell is going on?”
“Everyone needs to cover their mouths now! We need to get to safety! I’ll explain everything later!”
“Mione, you’re scaring me…”
“And don’t touch anything!” she finished before trying to walk away from the horrid site.
Shaking their heads perplexed, the group did as they were told, with Ginny conjuring masks over Draco and Hermione mouths and noses, before they continued as quickly as they could down the cramped street.
After a few minutes of wandering, they stumbled upon an abandoned small curved timber house with dark beams and off-white plaster walls sitting almost crookedly at the end of the path. After checking to make sure it was actually abandoned, Ginny went to open the door when Hermione stopped her and told her to cleanse the handle first.
Raising a confused brow, the redhead brought out her wand and cleansed the handle before opening the door slowly. Illuminating her wand as she stepped inside, she quickly flicked her wrist and cleaned up the place before her best friend could open her mouth.
“It’s cleansed! You can come in now!” she shouted to the group standing just outside the doorway.
Stepping into the house filled with large wooden cross beams hovering just above their heads, Blaise took note of how scarce the single room was while they all removed the masks covering their faces. A small fireplace and a table with two wooden chairs were all that occupied the space, almost as though the previous owners had packed everything they possibly could and bolted.
“Did you check for rats and fleas?” the Golden Girl questioned while Draco lead her to one of the chairs across the room.
“Okay, enough with the orders” Ginny snapped as she glanced at Hermione with her hands resting on her hips and the blonde Slytherin knelt on one knee to look at the swollen ankle. “I’m not doing anything else until you tell us what the bloody hell you think is going on!”
“It’s not obvious?” Hermione replied as she winced when Draco began to untie the sandal wrapped around her bruised calf. “No one is around, Gin, people appear to be more scared of us then we are of them, the smell of death, bodies being burned in mass quantities…those medical masks?” Draco’s eyes suddenly snapped to Hermione as a grim expression flickered over his features. “Ginny…I-I think we are in the thirteen hundreds. With how those masks looked…I-I think we landed during the first epidemic of the Bubonic Plague.”
“You’re joking right?” the redhead laughed before a thin line formed between her lips and her eyes shown worry. “You’re-you’re not joking…”
“FUCK…MY LIFE!” Blaise shouted with a loud groan as he threw his head back in frustration before reaching for his wand and re-cleaning the place with a flick of his wrist…twice more. He then transfigured two giant metal tubs from the table and extra chair before turning back to the group with a serious expression. “Alright, everyone strip right this instant and get in! We are scrubbing ourselves raw and I don’t care if we bleed while doing it!” Everyone looked at the dark-haired wizard as they all blinked, shockingly perturbed. “Okay, I care a little if we bleed-”
“I’m not getting into a bath out in the open, Zabini. Especially not with you and Blondie around to see me naked!”
“Trust me, Red…” Draco smirked as he shook his head, “I would rather not see you naked either.”
“Oh, like I would want to see you naked?” she claimed while crossing her arms and clicking her tongue against the side of her cheek in offense.
“Probably” he chuckled jokingly. “I mean who wouldn’t want this?” he flicked his hand over his body. “I’m a fine specimen if I do say so myself, or did you miss the way the women cheered in the stadium?”
“Yes, pale and bloody is just how I like my men. I love seeing the grime covering their dirty skin as their hair looks like it was just struck by lightning” she snickered with a roll of her eyes.
“Rude, Red…” he placed a dramatic hand over his chest, careful to avoid his wounds. “My hair looks more like bed head thank you very much!”
“Yeah, like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. That hair does not scream ‘I just had the best sex ever’ at all.”
“At least mine looks like I woke up in a bed and not on the straw of a used mattress in a dirty brothel.”
Ginny’s eyes widened as her mouth gaped open at the memory of Rome, while Blaise and Hermione tried their best to bite back the laughter struggling to break free.
“Alright you two” Hermione chuckled while bringing out her wand as Ginny and Draco stuck their tongues out at each other like they were children, “we need to get cleaned up” she rolled her eyes as the pair silently bickered back and forth before scoffing slightly and summoning a tub to her side of the room.
When only Blaise noticed what she had done, Hermione flicked her wrist and conjured a wooden partition wall with a door between the duo. However, Ginny was notorious for making sure she had the last word and quickly opened the entrance, stuck her tongue out once more, and then swiftly shut the opening, preventing Draco from responding.
Shaking her head with a small chuckle, the brunette witch was about to apologize for her friend’s childish behavior when her wand was suddenly snatched from her hand. She didn’t even have a moment to retort as Draco pointed the Vine wood at her ankle and slowly healed the sprain before gently setting her leg down. Idly, she wondered how long he had been holding it in the first place. Half-smiling while handing back her property, the blonde Prince stood up as Hermione internally questioned how her wand had worked so easily for him, and why he didn’t use his own, when she abruptly remembered he didn’t have it.
“Wait, Malfoy…” she began as his hand rested on the door handle that he was about to open. Reaching into her beaded bag she pulled out his money pouch and wand before watching his grey eyes grow wide in surprise. “You dropped it while fighting that guard. I-I didn’t want any muggles to see it, so I grabbed it for you.”
“You…you held on to it?” he asked in astonishment as he took a step forward and gently reached for the Hawthorn wood and pouch.
“Well, yeah. We can’t have you protecting us by only beating people to the brink of death” she smiled with a small chortle. However, when she noticed his eyes turn somber and his lips fall to a frown, she realized he didn’t understand what she was trying to say. “I-I didn’t mean it like that. I do really appreciate you sticking up for me…even though it landed you in a horrible position.”
“I didn’t wanna kill those men, Granger…I-I had to” he claimed sorrowfully. “I didn’t want to” his voice cracked while his bottom lip quivered as he repeated himself to make sure she understood.
“I know” she answered tenderly as she tried to reassure him that she didn’t blame him for the actions he took to protect himself…and her. “We all have our roles that provide something to the group, is all I meant by my statement. I understand you had to do what you could to survive.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean by roles?”
“Malfoy, if you haven’t noticed already, you’re the muscle of our little team, our protector of sorts. You fight for us” she explained while trying to hide the blush forming over her cheeks; happy that her face was dirty enough to cover the embarrassment she felt when she pictured him with his shirt off.
“That doesn’t excuse what I did. I killed people, Granger. I lost control and almost beat a man to death just-” he stopped himself short before he admitted that he only attacked the man for simply touching his…friend. Clearing his throat as he diverted his gaze he concluded, “Just for laying his hands on a woman” hoping all the while that she didn’t see the fire brewing in his eyes because he had a strange urge to kill anyone who dare touch the Princess.
“You have a short fuse, yes, but if you didn’t fight that cave man in the Ice Age, he would have attacked me. A-and the guard in Pompeii…you were doing what I couldn’t in that moment. But it wouldn’t have happened if I had never hit you and…and I’m sorry. I was scared, I wasn’t thinking. I was just so mad that you almost died that I-I snapped.”
“Are you blaming yourself for Blaise and I ending up in that arena?” he asked in disbelief. “I already told you I’m not angry with you about that. I would have been just as pissed if the roles were reversed, Granger. I wouldn’t have hit you though, but that’s because I would never hit a woman.”
“I figured as much” she stated while lowering her head to look at her hands before glancing back up to him. “We’re friends…right? I mean after everything we’ve been through as of late, I-I consider you a friend. I know I said back in China that we weren’t, but after you defended me and protected me…” she sighed as she looked off to the side for a brief moment. “You make it hard to not care about your safety.”
“So, you’re forgiving me?” he questioned while taking a step forward with a raised playful brow. “Hermione Granger, Saint Potters’ right-hand girl and former enemy of Slytherins’ most egotistical, self-centered, deceitful little cockroach…is forgiving me?”
“Well when you put it like that, maybe I shouldn’t” she giggled softly as she looked up at him with a small smile.
Draco scoffed with a slight chuckle before kneeling to her level and placing a hand on her right shoulder.
“You make it hard…to not care for your safety too…Princess.”
XX
“So, we are just going to leave them in there…all alone…where they can potentially kill each other, and we are powerless to stop them?” Blaise asked while looking to Ginny filling the tub with water from her wand before she placed a heating charm over the cool liquid.
“We haven’t heard them hex each other yet” she replied with a shrug as she looked to the wall separating her and the Italian from Draco and Hermione. “I’m sure they are just fine. If they really wanted to kill each other they would have done it back in the museum. Now if you’ll excuse me, I would like to clean this disgusting shite off my body.”
“Need any help?” Blaise smirked while crossing his arms and winking at the redhead.
Ginny ran her tongue against the inside of her bottom lip while squinting curiously at the dark-skinned wizard and crossing her own arms in front of her.
“Sure, Zabini” she jeered with an impish smile. “Why don’t you come over here and check the temperature for me. Make sure it’s safe enough for me to strip before getting into the warm water that will soak my body and moisten my delicate skin.”
Picturing the redhead stark naked, Blaise walked over to the tub without removing his gaze from her sultry one and leaned down to touch the water; completely unaware of Ginny’s sarcasm. As the tips of his fingers merged with the water, Ginny discretely pointed her wand at the tub and sent a minor hex to shock the Italian, forcing him to yelp in pain as he stumbled backwards.
“Bloody hell, Red! You could have just said no!”
“Where’s the fun in that?” she questioned with a tilt of her head as she shrugged with a large smile plastered on her face before conjuring a wall that separated Blaise from her.
Removing her filth covered clothing, Ginny inhaled deeply before stepping into the clear water and sitting down with a wince as the liquid seared the cuts, she didn’t even know she had. Now that she was alone and able to finally think about what they had all been through, her emotions and thoughts began to run wild.
However, it wasn’t until she began scrubbing herself with her hand and dirt mixed with blood began to turn the water an abhorrent shade of dark brown, that everything finally sunk in. A sudden wave of anguish, dread, fear, and turmoil began to fill her soul and uncontrollable stream of tears began to fall from her brown eyes as images of fireballs, dead civilians, and a tsunami plagued her memory.
She began to scrub harder at her arms and legs, turning her pale skin red before giving up momentarily and sobbing into her hands. Unbeknownst to the red-headed Gryffindor, Blaise stood just outside the door with a hand and his forehead pressed firmly into the wood as he listened to her gut wrenching break down. Heartbreak was all he could feel for the girl weeping on the other side of the barrier, but he knew she needed to have her space.
Even though none of them wanted to talk about the moment they thought was their last, they had all suffered through the same torment in Pompeii and tried to hide it with jokes and laughter. But as tough as each one of them was, pain like that, could easily overwhelm a person and it was heavily eating them alive from the inside out.
Blaise might not have fought in the Battle of Hogwarts, but after witnessing people he didn’t even know die, he could only imagine the aching feeling his friends bore witness to a year ago and he began to respect the three people he was lost in the past with, even more. Though nothing prepared him for the agony of listening to Ginny weep and he could do nothing to help her. He just hoped she could feel his presence and when she was ready...he would be there for her.
XX
“Okay, turn around…” Hermione requested after she finished healing a large slash on the back of the blonde Slytherin. He apparently had more cuts and bruises coating his pale flesh then any of them had realized. Draco had already healed everything on the brunette, and she was now finishing up the last of the cuts on his body when she gasped in horror at the broad gash running diagonal from the tip of his naval to his left shoulder. She saw when he had obtained the brutal cut, but she hadn’t taken the time to get a good look at it until now. It was long, just slightly over a foot in length, and bright red. There was debris embedded into it as small trickles of blood dripped from the torn skin.
Her shoulders hunched in sorrow as Draco frowned and ran his tongue on the inside of his cheek, uncertain as to what to say. He watched as Hermione studied the wound, clearly, trying to figure out the best way to proceed.
“I can grab Blaise to heal it if you don’t want to attempt it” he spoke low, ashamed that he had received the slice from the axe in the first place and flustered that the girl he was apparently lusting after was staring fixedly at his chest. “He’s studying to become a Healer and helped alleviate my sore arms in the dungeons before we fought” he rambled while trying to shake the awkwardness he was feeling.
“No…I can do it” the witch replied without looking up at him and continued to examine the deep injury. “But it’s gonna hurt.”
“I can take it” he shrugged before looking around for something to bite down on. However, Hermione beat him to it and quickly handed him his cloak she had cleansed before they started healing each other. “Thanks” he stated with a half-smile as he began to clump up part of the black fabric.
“Do you want to lay down for this or sit?”
“I’ll stand. If I sit or lay down now, I might not get back up for a while” he chuckled before shoving the material into his mouth and moved the rest of the dangling cloak over his right shoulder, so it wasn’t in the way.
Though Hermione knew the pain would be worse if he stayed standing, she didn’t want him to fall over, so she walked over to the chair the blonde had sat her in when they had arrived, and dragged it over to him so he could use the back for support. Nodding his head while gripping the top rail of the wooden furniture, the bookworm lowered her apprehensive gaze from his and down to his chest. Pointing her wand at the wound, she exhaled a quick breath and began to first clean the debris from the gash.
Draco’s eyes shut tightly as he bit down hard on the fabric in his mouth and his hand gripped the chair like a vice. It only took a moment to clean the damage that was inflicted on his skin, but that moment felt like an eternity of torment as she debrided the area of grime. Hermione then flicked her wrist once more and began to slowly and very painfully, heal the slash. Releasing a groan, he was trying so hard to hold back, Draco’s knees went weak and he was suddenly grateful for the chair the Golden Girl had provided him.
After a minute of agonizing pain, the wavy-haired witch lowered her wand and looked at the reddened area the gash once laid. Satisfied with her work, she went to take a step back when Draco’s strong hands suddenly pulled her to him, and she felt his lips against hers. Instinctively, she started to kiss him back, but when she realized what was happening, she quickly pushed him off her.
“What are doing?” she immediately asked as she looked to him with widened eyes.
Draco shook his head as he looked at her confused. He had thought after their first kiss and the fact that she had let him touch her, that she might have felt something too, but now he was starting to question if it was all in his mind.
“I-I-” he began to stutter while trying to come up with a reason, any excuse, as to why he had kissed the shocked witch before him.
“Malfoy…I-I, that kiss in Pompeii…It was just-it wasn’t real…I thought we were dying and the last thing I wanted was to feel fear and-and pain. You understand, right?”
His heart stopped and all he could do was blink as his breath grew heavy and her words ripped him apart. It was in that moment, Draco realized he didn’t want Hermione because of lust, he wanted her…because he actually liked her, and her confession stung like a thousand knives cutting him from the inside out. He wanted to run, he wanted to scream, but all he could do was stare at the witch as he held back the despair he wished to release upon the world and slipped behind his unfeeling mask.
“I-I know” he finally stated through the shock he was experiencing. “I just…I just-I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry” he lied as he spoke so low, he didn’t even know if he could hear himself. “I don’t really know what came over me” he chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. Seeing the pain behind his eyes, Hermione softened her shoulders and moved to touch him, but Draco quickly stepped back, unable to bear the feel of her hands upon him after being rejected. “Um…th-thanks for healing me…” he stated before grabbing his cloak off the ground where he’d dropped it, and then promptly turning around to walk out the door.
Closing the exit behind him, Hermione stood frozen in place as she contemplated what the hell had just happened as Draco looked down at the ground in the hallway. Stepping off to the side of the door, he inhaled a deep breath before looking up to see Blaise sitting in front of him on the opposite wall with sorrow etched in his brown eyes. Hearing the soft sobs of the redhead in the other room, the blonde slid down the wall as tears of his own begged to be released and both boys waited, never once saying a word to each other, as they all tried their best to hide the hurt.
Draco lowered his head as he rested his arms on his propped knees and did his best to not show how upset he was at being bluntly turned down. He had never once had a woman in his life turn him away. Females almost begged to receive attention from him and he always happily obliged. Then again, he had never felt feelings for any of the girls he had ever kissed, let alone slept with, and it confused the ever-loving piss out of him. He didn’t want to want the Gryffindor Princess and he sure as hell didn’t fancy the idea of being hurt by her either. But something was preventing him from being fully angry at her and he found himself unfortunately, wanting her even more.
XX
A few hours later, after everyone had washed and cleaned up for the evening, dressing in pajamas for the night, Hermione was found sitting upon an expanded windowsill. She looked out over the damp and dark town through the glass windows she’d erected to keep the rain and potent illnesses out, while trying to hold back the aching grumbling of her stomach. They had all agreed after cleaning up that it was too dangerous to go outside into the disease-stricken town, so for the time being, they had to go without food.
Ginny had fallen asleep about an hour earlier due to exhaustion, and Draco laid on a mattress that used to be a tub with his back facing the wavy-haired witch as he tried his best to ignore the aggravating snoring of the redhead near him. Blaise however couldn’t find sleep just yet and walked over to the brunette who appeared sullen while looking out the window unseeingly.
Taking a seat beside her, he lifted his right leg and rested his arm upon his knee as he used the wooden wall, encasing the window, behind him for support. They had all talked about conjuring items as Draco did his best to ignore Hermione and concluded that using magic to place wards or transfigured objects, would disappear when they left.
The curly-haired witch told her peers about how she had noticed her wards beginning to dissolve in the cave before they jumped, and they all figured that the man who tried to attack Hermione and fought Draco, was going to die anyway as Ginny mentioned she had seen a few Dire Wolves mixed in with the pack of Sabers just outside the entrance. The wolves most likely followed the brute, who had killed one of their own, therefore rendering the life the blonde Slytherin had taken, on the hands of the wild animals.
It still didn’t make Draco feel any better, but at least knowing they didn’t fully mess with the past helped ease all their worries. So, they began to create objects they could use from the time period they were in, knowing each of them would revert to their original form once they left. However, Hermione was still anxious about the walls they had conjured and removed them once everyone was cleaned and healed.
But as she sat by the window and watched a stream of rainwater run down the clear glass, her only thoughts were on the new friendship that had possibly ended as quickly as it had started.
“What’s wrong, Buttercup?” Blaise inquired as he looked the bookworm over with a tilt of his head.
“Nothing…” she answered softly, while lowering her gaze to her fingers resting in her lap.
“You can’t lie to me, Hermione. I know something’s wrong. Not even Draco, who is the best liar I know, can deceive me.”
“He told you what happened…Didn’t he?” she raised her eyes to the wizard sitting in front of her, both completely unaware that Draco had yet to fall asleep and could hear everything.
“Not in so many words, but yeah” he admitted after witnessing the strain between the pair since Draco had exited the make-shift bathroom a few hours earlier. It’d taken catching him alone while they started a fire to gather the finer points of what had occurred between them.
“I didn’t mean to hurt his feelings, Blaise. I just-I’m confused.”
“You trust him, don’t you?” he questioned as he looked to Draco who was still facing away from them, but silently hanging onto every word. “I mean the guy basically saved your life numerous times when he didn’t have to, and he told me you forgave him.”
“I trust him. It’s just that…I don’t know…” she sighed while turning her gaze back to the window.
“You’re conflicted” he claimed more as a statement than a question. She nodded her head as Blaise lowered his leg and leaned forward. “You think that if for some reason you two, I don’t know, get together, that it would be out of convenience because we’re trapped in the past and it’s the only way for something like that to actually happen?” she nodded once more before looking back down at her hands again. “Listen to me, Buttercup, and listen to me good. Just because we’re stuck, does not mean Draco didn’t already feel something for you. Why do you think he beat that guard to an inch of his life after he hit you? How do you think he was able to produce extremely rare raw magic to shield you in Pompeii? Or better yet, why would he stay behind when we all know he had every reason to run when that ash cloud came at us?”
“He has a temper” was all she could think to say as she ran each question over in her mind. “I-I just…I want to be his friend and I want to get to know him. I just think it’s ruined now. He won’t even look at me since he kissed me.”
Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of the look of pain and rejection held in his silver orbs. She hadn’t wanted to hurt him…but she couldn’t be with someone who normally would have never looked twice at her back home.
Blaise scoffed as he shook his head and pondered the best way to put what he was thinking into words she would understand, instead of just questions she would try to pick apart later.
“Don’t tell him I said anything but come on. The bloke’s embarrassed after you rejected him. Also, he is a pure-blood” he began while scratching the top of his head and then resting the same hand on the back of his neck. “We all had to go through sword training once we reached the age of ten. It’s tradition in the richer society. I have no idea why, but it is. He was also a Death Eater who was forced to duel and fight other Death Eaters or be punished if he denied the demand from the Dark Lord himself. But Salazar, Hermione, Draco is a puppy dog. He has a violent history and yes, he has a temper, but can you really blame him? The training he received turned him into a man that can destroy a person in a blink of an eye, which you have witnessed. Open him up and you’ll watch a dog fight. But he wouldn’t hurt a fly anymore. Not unless he knew that fly…was hurting someone he cared for” he claimed, unwilling to specifically indicate her, in case she assumed he was full of it.
Draco lowered his head slightly as he listened to his best friend stick up for him. He felt indebted to the man who was willing to speak on his behalf because he was too ashamed to do it himself. However, he was fully aware that he usually let his anger get the better of him, but he didn’t realize it would affect the way Hermione viewed him.
It didn’t help either that he had been rude to her the rest of the evening from the embarrassment he had endured. Anytime she tried to speak with him he either ignored her or spoke sharply enough to make her frown. He wanted her to feel the same pain she had forced upon him, though after hearing the conversation between his best mate and Hermione, he was now beginning to think he’d went about everything all wrong.
However, if the brunette thought the only reason he wanted her was because they were stuck together, and she just happened to be there, then he would need to prove that she wasn’t just a convenience to him. Not that it would be easy. Once Hermione Granger had an idea in her head, it was almost impossible to remove. But he would do everything in his power to show her that she meant more to him…than even he was aware of.
XX
As the sun began to rise and shine a faint light into the dark and greyed out house in the wee hours of the morning, the group of friends laid in a peaceful slumber while Blaise and Ginny snored loudly next to each other. It was the first time in few days that any of them found a comfortable rest and they took the tranquility to the best of their ability.
Unfortunately, however, for the four taking as much relaxation as they could, a loud piercing noise awoke all them from their slumbers and they sat up straight in utter confusion. Before any of them had a chance to figure out what the hell was happening, the familiar glow from the amulet resting in Hermione’s beaded bag, still attached to her wrist because she feared if they suddenly jumped through time it would be left behind, began to surround them. The one thing they all desperately wished would never happen during their journey became reality as the ancient beetle blasted them backwards before sucking them into another swirling vortex.
Although, this time, the feeling was a lot different than any of the four were used to and the events of the jump seemed to have happened much quicker than normal. The amulet never gave them time to grip on to each other before throwing them into the next era, though, if any of them had looked at the necklace earlier, they would have seen the crack in the scarab was over seventy-five percent sealed. Signifying the amulet was mending itself before apparating them unwillingly…and it was almost complete.
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The Paths We Take