Harry Potter and the Battle of Hogwarts

[seek_to_end]

A pregnant hush lay over the grounds of Hogwarts, the eerie quiet of early, dark morning when all good children and creatures should be fast asleep. But no one slept that night. Students, teachers, Order members, Death Eaters, house-elves and creatures of the forest alike moved with silent, purposeful tread, some in fear and some in anticipation

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[honestlyrubbish]

It was a mercy that Draco had approached Hermione carefully, and from where she could see. The very moment that she heard his voice, her hand had tightened further still around her wand, to the point that she wouldn't have been surprised had it snapped from the force. The thing about quiet, though, was that no one wanted to be the first one to break it. Everywhere around them were whimpers, some shrill and terrified, otherwise low with futility, but there was no sound of shattering glass, no spells immediately whizzing by, and so everyone seemed to speak in hushed tones. What otherwise might have been an initial impulse to hex the living wits out of Draco simmered low instead, until it was no more than suspicion.

"Draco," she replied, eyes narrowed. There was something a little too sure about his countenance. Steady enough that she suspected this wasn't a Draco pulled from the midst of war, but instead from the island. "That's a bit of a funny statement, isn't it? Given that your allies don't seem to have a habit of being merciful to the wandless."

It didn't hurt to be careful.

[of_badfaith]

"They're not my allies at the moment," he drawled, arching a brow, his hands still well within view, "If you'd like to hit me while I'm down, be my guest."

He knew she wouldn't. Was counting on that fact. The Order, for the most part, were noble and good enough to trigger his gag reflex.

"Honestly, I don't care what you do. I'm looking for Luna. Have you seen her?"

[honestlyrubbish]

"As tempting as the offer is," Hermione muttered, gradually lowering her wand, although her gaze lost none of its suspicion. Even if she had never believed Malfoy evil in the way that she would have described some of Voldemort's followers, she certainly didn't believe that she could count on him as a reliable ally in that battle. He had a tendency only to offer what served him in turn.

But the little fears were easily washed out as Hermione took a deep breath, somehow managing to keep it from shaking too much.

"No, I haven't seen Luna, I haven't found much of anyone in all of this chaos. Have you seen- have you seen Harry or Ron? I don't know where are, and..." She shook her head, running her free hand through her hair, dragging her fingers until the strands rested by her cheeks, having pulled out of her hairtie.

If there was one thing she supposed she could empathize with Draco over, it was fear.

[of_badfaith]

"No," he said, biting his tongue against the inevitable remark about being glad for it. He wasn't a fool. Picking a fight with her, here of all places, would be idiotic at best.

"He's here. You know that, don't you?" he said, knowing he didn't need to clarify. Voldemort was near, the world was coming apart around them, and he didn't even have a bloody wand.

[honestlyrubbish]

"Oh, of course I know," Hermione sighed, practically spat in her frustration, still fussing with her hair. "What else would have the castle so silent right now? What else would cause such fear in a place where, where everyone's always been braver than anyone should be expected to be?" She closed her eyes with the rest of the thoughts that passed through her mind, that even if she wasn't Harry and didn't have that connection with Voldemort, that the sense of him was still palpable in the air.

Feeling her breath grow a bit more shallow, Hermione bit down furiously on her lip, then turned around on her heel, expecting for Draco to follow along. "That's why I'm going to look for them. Harry, Ron, Ginny, Neville, Luna... all of them, I can't just leave all of them, I have to do something. You're coming along, aren't you?"

[of_badfaith]

"My apologies," he muttered with a sarcastic curl of his lips, pushing up his sleeve just long enough to give her a flash of the mark seared into his forearm. "I wasn't aware your knowledge would be quite as immediate as mine."

It was a risk, reminding her of his allegiance to The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters, but he saw no point in hiding something she clearly already knew.

Heaving out a sigh, his hands itching for a wand, he said, "I suppose I am. Besides, I haven't got anything better to do." A joke, whether she chose to take it that way or not.

[honestlyrubbish]

She didn't shy from the slight outline of black that slipped out from under Draco's sleeve. And, if Draco had ever come to know half of who Hermione was over the years, she knew that he probably didn't expect her to. All that the sight of it managed to solidify, in her mind, was how pressing the matter was, finding her friends and her peers, pulling together the strength that all of them only ever had when together as a group. An army.

Dumbledore's.

But what struck her a few seconds afterward was the fact that Draco was walking without a wand gripped in his hand- months on the island had made Hermione accustomed to the lack thereof, to the point where she hadn't even noticed right away. She looked directly up at him, brows knit. "You don't have a wand." A second later, she shook her head. "Malfoy, you don't have a wand, if anything happens out there, you won't stand a chance. Shouldn't you be looking for some place to hide?"

[of_badfaith]

"I have to find her," he said, shaking his head, unconcerned by how it might make him sound, "I know her. She'll run headlong into a pack of Death Eaters, looking for me, if I don't find her first. I'll... disarm someone and take their wand, if I have to."

He had no problem with that. The hard part would be finding someone suitable. A wand chooses the wizard and whatever he found would never feel as right in his hands as the one that had once belonged to him.

[honestlyrubbish]

It was surprising, how much Draco's words sounded like something Hermione expected to hear from Harry or Ron. Threw into perspective what she had suspected for so many years, yet couldn't truly confirm without seeing it in front of her eyes- that at the end of the all, Draco was acting in the interest of those he cared for. It didn't justify the means he'd used to achieve his ends, not by a long shot, but it was all that Hermione felt necessary for bridges to eventually be rebuilt after the war.

And optimism was something she snatched at those days, held close to her chest, used it to help her get by.

"Disarm someone?" Hermione asked incredulously, her eyes wide, brows raised. "Malfoy, even if Luna would take great risks to get to you- not something I'm in a mind to protest- how is it going to help matters if you end up getting hurt, leaping into the fray when you're in over your head? Merlin, just... if you must follow along, follow at a distance and try to remain unseen. Until I can find you a wand." Hermione whirled around then, just a whip of hair as she stalked down the hall, footfalls quiet.