As soon as Hermione was within hearing range of the man in a towering rage on the steps outside the castle, Severus ground out, "I am going to wring your little Gryffindor neck and then I'm going to put you in detention for the rest of your life."
She wanted to point out that that particular order of punishment was a little odd but decided regretfully that it wouldn't be wise to antagonize him when he was in this sort of mood.
"Sir," she therefore pointed out calmly as she came to a stop in front of him and cast appropriate privacy charms, "you were in the Forest looking for Draco. I didn't do anything you didn't do."
"Didn't do anything I didn't do?" he repeated in astonishment. "Did I use myself as bait to distract a group of ravening beasts? Did I take longer than everyone else to emerge from the Forest? Did I communicate with big, white, hairy denizens of the Forest?" He said this last in a fierce whisper; despite the privacy charms, he seemed to think that this particular detail should be relayed quietly.
"Actually, sir, you communicated just fine. Aila relayed your message to me," she said sweetly.
He positively glowered. "Don't take that tone with me, Miss Granger; you know exactly what I'm talking about. You are going to sit down and explain everything to me."
She shook her head. "First, I'm going to see with my own eyes that Draco Malfoy is safe. Then I'm going to speak with Albus, as he has already put in his request to have a word with me. You may attend this meeting if you wish, or we can speak privately later, at which point I will explain to you what I am at liberty to explain."
He didn't look at all pleased with her suggested program.
"I have to know that after what we just went through, Draco's all right," she said gently.
He wavered, and she realized that he had to be anxious to do the same. If she'd had more sense, she would have played up on that and suggested that they go for his sanity's sake, not hers. Although, on second thought, given that this was Severus she was speaking to, perhaps it was just as well that she'd not brought up any of his worries.
Without another word, he turned in a flurry of robes and passed inside, and she followed obediently at his heel. They walked swiftly to the hospital wing, and after a moment's consideration, Hermione informed Fawkes of this fact.
We're going to check on Draco; if Albus wishes to join us here, there is no doubt at least part of this discussion that needs to be in front of Draco.
I'll relay the message, Girlicorne.
She smiled to herself. Fawkes, at least, couldn't be very upset with what she had done if he was calling her by her nickname.
When they entered the hospital wing, Poppy looked up with the obvious intent of telling them off, but when she saw who it was, the impending diatribe was forestalled, and she beckoned them in.
"Let me get a look at you," she said, eyeing them up and down professionally.
"We're perfectly fine," Severus answered for them. "It wasn't we who were attacked by Death Eaters and then chased through the Forest by werewolves."
"No werewolves got anywhere near me," Hermione confirmed. "I promise."
Poppy didn't seem to find this adequate and insisted on scanning each of them to ensure that they were really in health. Hermione winced internally as she realized that Severus had been hit with the Cruciatus. He was studiously not looking at her and had evidently worked out that she knew how to read that much in a medical scan. She supposed that both he and Lucius had likely been targets if Draco had done something egregious enough to deserve death by werewolf.
Once Poppy had done her medical duty, they were allowed to cross over to Draco's private room, and Poppy gave the two of them permission to enter. Draco had been tucked into one of the well-warded rooms far at the back. These were the rooms that were used in quarantine conditions—not that they had been used in recent years—so Hermione knew that meant they could be well and truly sealed if Poppy wished it.
Severus glared pointedly at the matron until she huffed a breath and told them she would be back in a few minutes, leaving Hermione and Severus with Harry and Draco.
The small room contained a single bed, a chair, and a small table by the bed that was clearly for any prescribed medication, as a number of bottles lay on it. A doorway off the back led, presumably, to the loo. Harry was perched in the chair next to Draco's bed. He hadn't had the sense to transfigure his clothing back into its indoor variety; he had to be roasting, but he gave no indication of discomfort, his gaze pinned on Draco.
Her best friend had apparently given up on subtle. She took out her wand and fixed his clothing. He offered her a distracted smile of thanks and immediately looked down at Draco again. Hermione was pretty sure that if she'd taken her wand out and cursed him he would have responded in the same way.
Shaking her head bemusedly, she conjured two more chairs—dark purple fabric, no hint of Gryffindor colours—so that she and Severus could sit. Severus looked at her oddly but sat down in the chair without protest.
She cast a whole slew of privacy charms despite the protections the room already had; given what she suspected they would be talking about, they couldn't be too careful.
"How are you doing?" she asked Draco, who was awake and had been properly re-bandaged by the matron. He looked very wan tucked up in the bed covered in so many layers of white.
The blond shrugged. "I'm not exactly at my best, but I'm alive; that's a great deal more than I anticipated given how my evening was going until you showed up. Thank you."
"We were all happy to come."
Perhaps happy was a stretch, but she wasn't about to say that they all had felt it was their duty or something horrid like that.
"Fortunately, you had a plan," Draco said with a very serious expression. "You betrayed a sensitive and dangerous secret in order to save me." His tone became more formal. "Please know that I will never betray it. I am willing to make a Wizard's Oath."
She shook her head. "That isn't necessary. You've given your word, and that's enough for me." Harry nodded his agreement, and Hermione tried to ignore Severus, who looked as though he thought Oath-giving was an excellent option at this point. "Our secret isn't more important than your life."
"It's of extreme importance," Draco protested, frowning at her and Harry. "Everyone is desperate to find out, and now you're in more danger."
"It was bound to come out eventually, one way or the other," she answered reassuringly. "I trust you both with the knowledge."
She might not have wanted to share it, but what was done was done. Draco's eyes slipped past Severus's dark form before he asked pointedly, "Are you absolutely certain that's a wise choice?"
She glanced over at Severus; he was sitting as still as stone and didn't look approachable at all, meaning someone else was going to have to give the answer to this question. Since Harry wasn't talking, it seemed to fall to her once more.
"Draco, would I be correct in understanding that your presence here today means that you have repudiated Voldemort?"
Draco winced marginally at the name, studiously did not look at Severus, and nodded.
"Then you need to understand that that is the case for everyone in this room."
The blond couldn't seem to help where his eyes immediately strayed.
"More than seventeen years ago he realized that he had made a horrible mistake, and he hasn't wavered from our side since then."
Severus's face could have been hewn from marble, but he hadn't once tried to stop her from speaking.
"He's a spy?" Draco gasped. "I mean, for your side? For real?"
She gave a short nod of assent. "He's been a spy for almost as long as you've been alive. If I had to pick someone in this school to tell our secret to, I would choose him because then I would know it would remain safe."
Huh. Now everyone was staring at her—including Severus with unfathomably dark eyes. Perhaps that had been a little too earnest? It was only the truth, though, and she thought Draco was in need of some truth at the moment.
Fortunately, the charged moment was broken by the arrival of Albus with Fawkes perched on his shoulder.
"Good evening, sir," she greeted him hurriedly as he conjured another chair for himself, this one garishly patterned and much brighter than hers were. "May I inquire how your meeting at Malfoy Manor went?"
This successfully deflected attention from her, as Draco had not known this was where the headmaster had been, and Severus had evidently been Summoned before most of the action had occurred. If Draco hadn't been completely put at ease by her revelation, the fact that the headmaster spoke without the slightest hesitation in Severus's presence could only further reassure him.
Albus explained what had happened: "Lucius was not at home when we arrived, and it was Narcissa alone who received us. She was worried, and it became apparent that her son was her primary concern." The headmaster nodded at the pale boy. "She made it clear as circumspectly as possible that it was her belief that Draco's desire was to return to class and therefore if he had not done so, he was being prevented. She claimed not to know where Lucius and Draco were destined when they left on Sunday.
"At this point, an injured Lucius returned to the Manor. He seemed to be in shock and rather surprisingly allowed us to stay and accepted that our primary concern was his family. He was quite sure that you were lost to him, Draco, but Voldemort rather miscalculated when he planned your gruesome and undignified death. Malfoys are very proud of their families and titles as a general rule, as I am sure you are aware, and Voldemort's malicious dismissal of this helped convince your father of the necessity of rapidly reassessing his loyalties."
Draco was staring at the headmaster in astonishment. Harry actually stopped looking at the blond Slytherin for a moment in order to offer the headmaster a very similar expression. Severus's face remained expressionless, and Hermione made sure hers was schooled to polite attention. Family and the Malfoy name were very important to Lucius, as Hermione understood it, and if Draco's fate finally made him waver, it was about bloody time.
"Voldemort took out some of his displeasure on Lucius," Albus said. On Severus, too, Hermione was certain, but she was careful not to so much as glance at him, as he would only be angry if she called attention to him. "We were therefore concerned about the retribution that would result when word of your survival reaches him. For their safety, the elder Malfoys will be going into hiding. As we speak, Malfoy Manor is being stripped of its most precious effects and the Gringotts vaults secured."
Tonks had to be the one facilitating this; she made the most sense if Lucius and Narcissa were willing to work with her, and given their current position, it would be the height of foolishness to refuse to do so. Hermione wondered how the pink-haired witch was reconciling what she was doing with being an Auror, as Lucius Malfoy was still a fugitive and a confirmed Death Eater. On the other hand, putting him in Azkaban hadn't done a bit of good, and this way, Tonks—and probably by extension, Kingsley—would know where he was.
Hiding the two of them away would keep them from getting up to mischief with Voldemort and that really made more sense than a public arrest that would result in either Lucius's death or his being broken out again.
Albus concluded, "You need not concern yourself over the health of your mother or father any longer. Lucius indicated that he had no idea until you spoke out at the meeting that you did not intend to become a Death Eater."
They all looked to Draco now. He still seemed unnaturally pale and young-looking as he lay bandaged in bed. She'd often thought the same of Harry on all the occasions she had had to look in on him in the hospital wing over the years.
Draco spoke quietly. "My life choices seemed very limited. From a young age, I knew it was in my best interest to appear very willing to follow in my father's footsteps, and in the beginning, I generally agreed with him and accepted what that entailed. The older I grew, the more questions I had, but it was only recently," he admitted, his eyes flitting for a moment to Harry and Hermione, "that it seemed as though other options might truly be available to me. But I remained concerned about the ramifications of breaking with my family both for their safety and for my own.
"When—" He faltered for a moment, swallowed heavily, and had to start over. "I went with my father yesterday not knowing where we were going or why. Before I knew it, I was in front of the Dark Lord being told that I was to become one of his followers the next day. This seemed like the point of no return. If I refused in that moment, I realized I was going to die at that—that thing's feet. So I managed to appear appropriately pleased.
"Unfortunately, my hope of making a run for it as soon as I got home was quashed when I was informed that we would be remaining with the Dark Lord until the ceremony. I told myself that I would go through with it to stay alive. But today...." He shook his head, not looking at any of them. "I found that it was not within my power to bow to him and pretend to serve him. When I realized I was about to have that brand burned into my arm forever, I couldn't endure it. Malfoy's don't belong to anyone!"
He said this defiantly, colour burning in two bright spots on his cheeks, but he still did not meet their eyes.
Severus took over the narrative when Draco did not immediately resume. "Instead of consenting to be Marked, he took the opportunity to brazenly tell the Dark Lord what he thought of his bloodline, his half-blood status, the way he treated his followers, and various and sundry other topics that seemed of interest to him. I've never seen a more Gryffindor display of bravado in my life."
Harry was laughing softly into his sleeve. Draco glared at him, but amusement twisted his own lips as he saw how delighted Harry was with this behaviour.
"Regrettably," Draco resumed more seriously, "I had not considered the ramifications of it being a full moon on the night the Dark Lord decided to have the ceremony. I'd known I was to die from the moment I opened my mouth, but I hadn't considered being mutilated by werewolves as one of the possible methods."
When he stalled a little, Hermione interjected for him, "So before you knew it, you were beaten and in the Forest, trying to stumble to safety."
Draco nodded gratefully. "I knew I had no chance of making it; they'd snapped my wand already. But I refused to simply lie down and die."
"Resulting in several foolhardy Gryffindors plunging into unknown danger to effect a rescue," Severus said darkly.
"It was hardly unknown danger," Hermione protested. "Castina informed me of the whereabouts of Draco and the werewolves. I knew exactly what we were getting into, I just didn't care."
"Me either," Harry contributed staunchly. "We had to try."
It looked as though either Severus or Albus was going to take the floor, protesting something that was bound to upset her or Harry.
Hermione resumed before they had the chance. "We did more than try, as it happens, since you can all see that Draco is safe right now. We completed our rescue mission with no injuries of any kind."
"You were out of the castle longer than the others, Hermione," Albus observed.
You're not giving away my secrets, are you, bird? she queried.
He stuck out his tongue mentally. You arrived openly through the main doors.
Hermione briefly explained her role in the rescue scenario, assuring them, "I was never at any real risk."
Severus and Draco scoffed, the blond verbalizing, "You were covered in my blood, running away from a bunch of werewolves."
She shook her head. "Castina could outrun werewolves in her sleep, and unicorns don't lose those they consent to carry. It amounted to nothing more than a run through the Forest."
They still didn't look convinced of her veracity, and she wasn't sure what else she could say; Castina never would have let anything happen to her.
The argument was let go, however, in favour of a larger one, as her direct mention of the unicorns seemed to give Albus the opening he sought.
He gazed at them severely. "You should have informed me that you were the Pure Adults."
"Why?" Hermione asked dispassionately.
Albus looked taken aback for a moment at the straightforward question, turning to look at the equally blank-faced Harry before he managed to say, "We would have protected you."
"We have been effectively protecting ourselves," Hermione explained coolly. "Harry and I assessed the situation and came up with an appropriate plan of action. So far, we've countered Scrimgeour's attempt to find out who we were with a blood test that we refused. We came up with an adequate cover story to protect us from our peers, the Daily Prophet, and the public. We stymied the Ministry's attempt to ask and then to compel the answer out of us, and we blocked Voldemort's attempt to ascertain the answer in our blood as well. Why do we require more protection?"
"About that," Draco interrupted. "How did you fix the blood test? I know I got blood from you, Granger, and Vince got it from Potter. The Dark Lord tested each sample, and they all came up negative."
"You don't honestly think we'd wander around with unprotected blood when we knew that it was the necessary ingredient in the one conclusive test for virginity, do you?" Hermione asked scornfully. "I Glamoured our blood so that any test using it will give a non-virgin result."
"You did what?" Draco demanded incredulously. "But you don't know when it will be taken."
She explained the permanent-until-removed-by-her Glamour that was always on their blood.
"That's genius," he said, and he sounded absolutely serious.
Hermione's lips curved into a smile. "Thank you, Malfoy."
"While we're on the topic, how did you avoid the Veritaserum?" Severus demanded. "I saw it administered, and the officials were quite certain that no student had the opportunity to consume the antidote or any potions that might interfere with the results."
"We don't need an antidote," she answered. "We are no longer susceptible to Veritaserum's effects."
This wasn't one hundred percent true, of course, but it sounded damn good. Everyone but Harry stared at her in shock.
"It can't be done," Severus said flatly.
"It has been," she replied. "Harry and I are perfectly safe from forced questioning, and we will continue to be so."
Albus and Severus opened their mouths.
Her lip curled. "I'd tell you the same under Veritaserum, but that wouldn't do much good in this case, would it?"
"I could really dose you both right now, and you'd be able to lie?" Severus asked, eyes narrowed and glinting.
Harry glared at him. Since so much of what had happened was Hermione's idea, he'd been leaving the speaking up to her, but he couldn't seem to let this comment by Severus pass. "That's assuming a lot about your being able to get near us with a bottle of Veritaserum."
Severus opened his mouth, and she knew he was going to be scathing, so she interjected. "It took a special act of the Ministry to get us to take the potion last time, sir. We don't do it on a whim."
The moment the words were out of her mouth, she realized how ridiculous they were, and a glance out of the corner of her eye confirmed that Harry had found it just as amusing under the circumstances. Although it wasn't precisely on a whim, there likely wasn't anyone else who consumed as much Veritaserum as they did.
Draco was gazing at her narrowly. "Are you certain you were Sorted into the right House?"
Hermione blinked at him in astonishment, quite sure that he wasn't saying she should have been in Ravenclaw.
"It put me where I needed to go."
He continued to stare but finally said, "Perhaps it is more advantageous for you to be in Gryffindor, leaving everyone to think you're the nauseatingly good little know-it-all."
She smiled, not taking offence. "It's hard to be perfectly good with the company I keep."
"Yes, your company." Albus once again turned the conversation to the topic he wished. "How long have you been in contact with the unicorns?"
"Castina made herself known to me at the beginning of sixth year," she said carefully.
If that left most of them with the impression that the herd mare had done so when Hermione had her legal seventeenth birthday, that was all to the good. Much as she trusted that Albus's heart was generally in the right place, she wasn't sure it would be wise for him to have any sort of blueprint for growing Pure Adults.
"Since she dwells in the Forbidden Forest, that's a curious occurrence, Miss Granger," Severus observed.
"She called me there," Hermione answered, having a fair idea of where this was heading.
"You were called to the Forest and you just went?" he asked scornfully.
She smiled. "And here Malfoy was doing so well implying that Gryffindors weren't complete idiots. Of course I didn't just go, Professor. I spent a considerable amount of time worrying about what could possibly be trying to lure me out there to gobble me down and then I got a second opinion from a trusted source."
"Mr Potter looked as surprised as the rest of us when the unicorns arrived."
Very much so.
"Much as I love Harry, he's not exactly the creature expert I go to in such situations."
"Don't tell me you went to Hagrid," Severus said, still sounding derisive.
Harry coughed something that sounded remarkably like, "Follow the spiders," and she hid a smile as she shook her head.
"Well?" Severus prompted impatiently when it was clear that she wasn't giving anything away unless specifically asked. "Whose opinion were you so trusting of that you ventured into the Forbidden Forest?"
Well? she asked. It's only a matter of time, and I'd rather do it on my own terms.
As you wish, Girlicorne.
Fawkes flew the short distance between them and settled on Hermione's shoulder, petting her hair with his beak. She smiled at everyone.
"Fawkes seemed pretty reliable to me."
Harry was smirking at the looks on the others' faces. There'd been a moment where Albus had looked pretty close to flabbergasted again, although he was back to full twinkle mode in short order.
Albus cleared his throat. "Fawkes does not tend to communicate with people in general."
"He communicates at need, and he's … fond of Pure Adults."
They are such lovely individuals, Fawkes confirmed, and she could see from the widening of Draco's eyes and the slight narrowing of Severus's that the phoenix had made that comment audible to everyone.
We like you too, Fawkes, Harry responded as the magical bird fluttered to perch on the table with the potions.
"Don't tell me both of you can communicate like that." Severus sounded appalled.
"It's a skill that Harry recently acquired," Hermione admitted.
"You taught him how to do it, you mean?" Severus asked pointedly.
She shrugged. "I suggested to Fawkes that he was probably ready to learn. It's come in handy a time or two for the two of us, as it's great for emergencies. Or even for occasions like thanking unicorns for carrying you to safety."
Colour tinted Harry's cheeks. "Everybody heard that?"
"Oh, don't worry," she said dismissively, "it just gave them the chance to tease me about how I'd been at the beginning. It doesn't take that long to get used to when you're in an environment with lots of other MindSpeakers."
She was hoping that she was reassuring the others that this was not a totally bizarre skill, but she wasn't entirely certain that she was succeeding. Given her audience, it was hard to tell what they really thought from what she was seeing on their faces.
This left her with option number two.
"Fawkes seems to think that it's quite standard for Pure Adults."
Draco seemed to be considering something else. "How is it that the two of you can be the two Pure Adults?"
Harry bristled. "If you say one single word about Hermione's bloodline, I won't be responsible for my actions."
Draco looked startled for an instant, then he grinned. "Actually, I think it's fabulous. If only we could tell the Dark Lord, he'd probably expire from apoplexy. A Muggle-born and a half-blood are the two Pure Adults of this century."
They smiled back at him, the tension easing out of Harry's form.
Draco clarified, "I simply meant to inquire as to the chances that it would be the two of you who are the two Pure Adults when you're friends, go to school together, and are part of the same House at the same time."
They exchanged looks.
"It's better not to ask," Harry said hurriedly, shuddering theatrically. "We discussed it once. It took hours. There were Arithmantic calculations. There's no good answer, I promise."
Hermione suppressed a smirk. As far as she could recall, there actually hadn't been any equations evolved in her explanation, but it apparently still lived on as horrifically long in Harry's imagination.
"If you say so," Draco said, nevertheless sounding as though he really wanted to know, but Harry nodded emphatically to indicate that pursuing the topic was not advisable.
"You might have trusted us with this, Harry, Hermione," Albus said, managing to sound very disappointed in them.
"We might have," Harry agreed. "But the fewer people who know, the safer we are. As the only two people aware of our secret, we knew without question that it wasn't going to be accidentally leaked. It's a secret that we're willing to guard with extreme care because it means our lives. The Order has not always been known as the most secure environment ever."
Hermione was impressed with this circumspect mention of Pettigrew.
"Most of what you were doing to hunt for the Pure Adults involved listening to what the Ministry was doing and getting us to pick up what knowledge we could at Hogwarts," she continued. "You weren't expending untold resources on the project. It was clear to everyone that nobody knew the answer. That continues to be the safest environment for us."
"We don't need anyone acting like they're the cat who got the canary," Harry said darkly.
"But until someone does solve the mystery, do you think the Dark Lord is really going to stop looking?" Draco asked.
"I think Voldemort," Harry answered deliberately, "is unlikely to give up until he's harnessed our power for himself and made us die ignominious deaths. Fortunately, he's not actually so good on the follow-through when it comes to that one and me."
"There is the problem of what will happen if one of the werewolves brings back news of a woman astride a unicorn," Severus pointed out, eyeing her as though this entire thing were her fault.
Hermione considered this possibility. "I've spoken to Remus about what he recollects from his time in werewolf form. Once the bloodlust is on him, there is very little. Most memories are concentrated on smell. What few images he remembers are fragmented in the extreme. There's almost no chance they would be able to identify me specifically, especially since I was covered in Draco's blood at the time."
They were looking at her oddly. She raised her eyebrows. "What?"
It was Harry who answered. "You've discussed Remus's time as a werewolf with him?"
She nodded. It had been in the context of her research, so maybe she shouldn't have said, but it was too late now.
"I … can't believe he was willing to talk about it. He normally shies away from the whole subject." Harry still sounded shocked.
"I can be very persuasive," she said with a smile.
Harry shrugged, nodding his agreement at that. Severus was still looking at her very strangely, but when she looked at him specifically, he looked away.
"At worst," Hermione continued, "Voldemort's attention will remain focussed on the school. Realistically, this is where it was likely to dwell anyway. He's not been successful yet."
"But if he knows for certain the Pure Adult is here, and he knows he's been tricked in the past, he'll come up with other ways to test," Severus said with the certainty of someone who knew intimately what Voldemort was like. "There are ways that are far less pleasant than the ones that have heretofore been employed."
"I know," she answered very seriously. "But I don't believe that he will be absolutely certain that the Pure Adults are here even now. Besides, the students in general are protected at Hogwarts; he doesn't have the ability to commit the type of widespread capture that would be necessary to test all of us. That option is not open to him, and the seed of doubt about our even being here remains; as long as everyone else appears to be clueless as well, he won't be particularly incensed."
The headmaster was regarding her and Harry gravely from over the frames of his glasses as he pronounced, "You know you'd be safer still if it were not an issue."
Hermione turned on him fiercely. "Understand, Headmaster, that I will have sex when I'm good and ready to have it, not because Voldemort or anyone has forced me into it."
Albus's eyes weren't twinkling, but he didn't look nearly as cowed as she could wish. "I'm only saying—" he began calmly.
"I understand quite well what you're saying," she snarled back, causing Fawkes to sing reassuringly for an instant, "and this would be the other reason why we have not spoken of this matter before now. I will not be forced into this, do you understand me?"
Albus looked to Harry, who shook his head, stating firmly, "We're in this together."
"I would like you to think about it," the headmaster said, continuing to remain infuriatingly calm. "Consider your options and the danger that the other students are in while the Pure Adults remain unidentified."
Hermione's jaw tightened. "The safety of the other students at this school has always been a priority, Albus, and it will always remain one. I don't think I need to remind you what Harry and I were doing today or what we have done in the past to ensure that that is the case."
"Unless you want the two of us to paste giant targets to our heads by revealing ourselves by name, we can't take away the suspicion from the other students, anyway," Harry pointed out. "If we do that, you'll have the opportunity to see how much harder Voldemort tries to capture us, torture us, and kill us."
"We're trying to keep all our students safe, Harry, and that most certainly includes you and Hermione." There was a hint of censure in Albus's voice.
He may not have explicitly stated that it was their duty to lose their virginity as quickly as possible, but it had come closer than Hermione liked. At least he hadn't yet sunk so low as to point out what an asset the power would be to their side—although he might simply have realized how completely that would anger them right now.
Anything else he might have attempted to say was cut off by a knock on the door that was so clearly aggravated that Albus immediately let the mediwitch in.
"Mr Malfoy needs his sleep," she said, evidently at the end of her patience with them. "He's been through a great deal, and he will remain in the hospital wing under observation for several days."
None of them were about to deny the rough night he'd had.
Albus told Draco he would return the next day in order to discuss what was going to be done to keep the boy safe for the rest of the school year and then they allowed themselves to be prodded out of the room, splitting up in the hallway, Albus to return to his office and Hermione, Harry, and Severus to return to the dungeons.
"I know I offered you the opportunity to yell at me once Albus was finished, sir," she told Severus, "but do you suppose it could wait until tomorrow? It's been a bit of an action-packed evening, and I could really use some sleep."
Severus regarding her narrowly before he consented with a short nod. "I will see you on Friday evening at nine o'clock once I have finished with the detention of your classmates."
She opened her mouth to ask about her own detentions, but Severus's glare silenced her.
"Friday evening at nine o'clock," he repeated sternly before stalking off.
Once Harry and Hermione made it back to their quarters, they changed into their pyjamas; she might have Vanished Draco's blood, but she didn't particularly want to be wearing her current clothing any longer, and since Harry looked as though he'd been dragged through a hedge backwards, she imagined he could do with a change as well.
Once they were cleaned up, they settled on the couch with tea, Hermione with her feet tucked under her and Harry with his legs stretched out towards her and crossed at the ankles.
"You offered him the opportunity to yell at you?" he said incredulously.
He'd been holding that comment in for a long time, apparently.
She sipped at her tea and shrugged. "He was quite intent on doing it on the front steps, and that didn't seem particularly desirable. I had to get him inside somehow, and I wanted to see how Draco was first, and then I knew Albus would get wind of us, so that made Severus third in line."
"No chance you could convince him to snog you instead?" Harry asked hopefully.
Hermione let out a huff of pained laughter. "I don't think so, no. What about you?" she asked, switching the focus of the conversation. "Ashwin has started identifying Draco as your mate."
Harry blushed crimson, taking a hasty gulp of tea.
"Draco fell unconscious somewhere in the middle even though it was the smoothest ride I'd ever taken." Harry's face darkened. "Can't blame him, given what they did to him. I was holding on to him so carefully to make sure he didn't touch the unicorn, and I might have tried to reassure Draco that everything was going to be okay, and, er, maybe a comment about how soft his hair was sneaked in there somewhere. I guess Ashwin can put two and two together."
Hermione smiled softly. "Were you blocking your emotions at all?"
Harry's eyes widened and then he sighed. "Bugger. Forgot all about it. I'm sure he and half the herd could tell how I was feeling. I really hope Draco was unconscious the whole time."
"You were looking pretty attentive when we got to the hospital wing," she observed as mildly as she could.
"He woke up as I was carrying him in. I was upset, and I yelled for Poppy. I couldn't seem to let him out of my sight. Poppy actually had to physically turn me out of the room so that she could examine Draco and get him changed into hospital robes." Harry flushed. "I was totally out of my head."
She smiled. "But now you have your answer. Draco isn't going to follow Voldemort."
Harry nodded. "I wouldn't in a million years have wished this upon him, but I'm really, really happy and so proud of him."
"Make sure you tell him that," she advised.
"Sure," Harry said with heavy sarcasm. "In the middle of the bit where he's laughing in my face for being such an idiot last night, I'll be sure to bring that up."
"I think he's going to need a little reassurance right now, Harry. You're free to offer it."
Harry sighed. "Yeah, I'll maybe give it a try if the opportunity arises."
Meaning he never, ever intended to bring it up. She supposed that it would be up to her to ensure that Draco's morale was boosted whenever necessary. What was a little bit of meddling between friends?
"He seems to be all right, though?" she asked since Harry was the one who had actually been in the Infirmary during the examination.
"Well," Harry said with a frown, "I'm not sure why Poppy wants to keep him in there for so long apart from the need to hide him away, but I didn't hear anything bad from either of them."
She considered him for a moment. "So what time are you going to sneak up to the hospital wing?"
He blushed again. "I hadn't quite decided but probably in a few hours. Speaking of, I take it that's where you've been disappearing off to—the Forest and the unicorns?"
She nodded.
"And that's why you're so good in the Forest?" he pursued.
"Part of the reason," she conceded slowly.
He waited a beat and then finally just asked directly, "Were you ever going to admit that you could transform?"
"Eventually." She smiled faintly. "I knew from my first transformation that I could not share it indiscriminately, and there never seemed to be a terribly good time to bring it up to you."
And she had wanted something for herself. She was pretty sure he would understand this impulse but didn't want to hurt his feelings just in case.
"What's so special about it?" he asked.
Sighing, she rose from the couch, set her tea down on the table, crossed over to the bare half of the room, and transformed. The room suddenly seemed a lot smaller, the magic permeating it more tangible. Harry positively gaped at her.
"You look an awful lot like a unicorn."
She snorted. That would be because I am one.
But humans can't transform into magical animals, he said, showing that he really had paid attention in Minerva's class a time or two.
Regular humans, no, she agreed.
The proverbial light bulb clicked on. Oh, he breathed. Pure Adults. Magical animals. That's why I couldn't do it before and why you think I'll be able to do it now.
She nodded and transformed back into human form.
"I run with my herd in the Forest whenever I have the opportunity," she confessed.
Harry still sounded sort of stunned. "That's … amazing. You're really beautiful."
She smiled, having never heard a human's point of view on the subject before. "Thank you, Harry." She retrieved her tea and sat down again. "How is your training coming?"
He was now filled with renewed enthusiasm for his own change; he might have guessed about her before, but now he'd seen it with his own eyes, seen that she was magical. He gushed about what he thought and the feelings he'd had while he meditated, and he even hauled out her notes and began to question her more specifically on details and thought processes that he now assumed she wouldn't mind talking about.
She answered every question that he had to the fullest of her ability until he finally decided it was late enough that he thought he could get away with sneaking into the hospital wing and making sure that Draco continued to be all right.
She hoped that the Slytherin could read between the lines because knowing Harry, he wouldn't properly explain himself.
Hermione sympathized, though, because there were now a whole bunch of weird issues surrounding their relationship. Harry had helped rescue Draco. Draco was now faced with one of the two Pure Adults in existence, and it was hard to see how he wouldn't want to take Harry up on any offer that he might make.
She realized that they didn't even know for certain if Draco was interested in men. He seemed to be some sort of interested in Harry, but they didn't know the kind or degree. It hadn't come up before, she supposed, largely because there were so many other issues in the way first—like his devotion to the madman who was trying to kill Harry. It was only now that that giant impediment had been removed that all those other "little" questions were being asked. How did they get honest answers out of him at this point when he knew beyond question that Harry was a Pure Adult?
On the other hand, if this was what it took to keep Harry safe, and if Harry really wanted at least one night with Draco, this was probably a guaranteed way to get it. If all Harry got was that one night, it would get messy when Harry's heart was broken into tiny little pieces, but not getting any nights would likely result in the same given how strongly he seemed to feel for Draco. If he got one night, he'd have lovely memories to savour while he lived with her and her houseful of cats, and there'd be one less Pure Adult for Voldemort to have any chance of using for his own nefarious purposes.
She realized with a grimace that that argument could be used of her and Severus, as well. But Severus was still her teacher, and at least Harry didn't have to worry about detentions and point loss when he was spending time with Draco. There were still plenty of ways for them to hurt one another, but at least they were equals.
She wondered if Severus would take her up on her offer were she to ask. He was the Head of Slytherin, and she would be offering power at a pretty cheap price. Shagging her under the circumstances would probably not deter most Slytherins. Most people, she acknowledged; the whole school and most of the wizarding world had been mad to find them.
She stared into the flames absently. Was she a coward? Was she advocating that Harry try to be happy with Draco while she was unwilling to take the same risk with Severus? Maybe, but she still felt that Harry was safer placing his happiness in Draco's hands than she was in Severus's, although perhaps that was only because she could feel the sick feeling in the pit of her stomach at the idea that the Slytherin she'd chosen might not care about her.
Realizing her tea had gone cold, she Vanished it and made fresh. Admittedly, the situation was rather horrid right now, but it wasn't as though she could have confessed her feelings before this, right? She hadn't worked it out until the end of sixth year, and no matter what the charter said, she couldn't really see Severus having a relationship with an of-age student. No, if she'd confessed how she felt, he would almost certainly have disbelieved her, and it would have resulted in months of detention.
And now Severus was going to want to know why she was still a Pure Adult, and poor Harry was probably going to be asked the same questions by Draco…. Why did their lives have to be so complicated all of a sudden? Voldemort had thrown Draco and a bunch of werewolves into the Forbidden Forest, and it had affected her life more than she wanted to admit.
Harry arrived back at their chambers around half five. She'd been almost dosing on the couch, thoughts swirling madly around in her brain.
"You okay?" she asked.
He didn't look okay.
"Draco woke up and kicked me out," he said flatly. "He wasn't terribly kind about it."
"He's a Slytherin who's stuck in the hospital wing and injured," she said soothingly. "I don't think he wants you to see any weakness."
Harry shook his head. "No, it was more than that. He was really edgy. He yelled at me." From the depth of emotion on Harry's face, she began to doubt that this was merely hyperbole. "My hope was stupid and pointless, 'Mione. He doesn't care about me at all."
She frowned. It must have been really quite scathing to have driven Harry from tentatively optimistic to completely hopeless in such a short period of time.
"I'm sure it's not as bad as all that, love," she said, attempting to cheer him once more. "He's had a really rough night, and I don't think he reacts well to pain. You remember the scratches from Buckbeak, don't you?"
They spent an enjoyable couple of minutes lambasting the younger prat that Draco had been, and Hermione eventually convinced Harry to curl up on the couch with her, where they both fell asleep for a couple more hours before they gave in to the inevitable and rose for one more day.
Fawkes relayed to them the information that Draco was being kept under wraps in the hospital wing for several more days. By the time he was released, word of his supposed demise at Voldemort's hands would have spread amidst the Slytherins; his presentation alive and unharmed would have the most impact then, and he'd be in the best sort of health to enjoy the moment.
Even with the spotty recollection they had at that time, the werewolves would likely remember that they hadn't eaten anything human that night. As the day progressed, however, it became more and more apparent that they were unlikely to share this news with Voldemort, as Hermione and Harry learnt from the very helpful Fawkes, who informed them of everything that was happening even when Hermione was in class.
They had been run off their feet by Hermione's herd until they slept off their exhaustion in a stretch of Forest corralled by the unicorns. Shortly after half eight in the morning, they woke as very confused humans. Castina had contacted Fawkes who had contacted Albus who had contacted Hagrid so that he could retrieve the group of naked people, clothe them, and lead them out of the Forest.
By then, Albus had been in contact with Remus, and the haggard-looking man fresh from his own transformation had shown up and helped them to piece together what had happened. Compared to their other options, Remus was the person they preferred to talk to; he might not be wild, but at least he was a werewolf.
Greyback—who had sneaked off at the earliest opportunity—had given up the location of the largest werewolf enclave to Voldemort. The snake-faced bastard had sent Death Eaters to Stun, cage, and move all the soon-to-transform humans to strategic locations at the Forest's edge. They'd been left with blood-soaked rags that would give them a taste for Draco's blood.
They'd transformed with that smell in their noses, and they had immediately picked up the scent and headed into the Forest to hunt, just as Voldemort had wanted. Voldemort had evidently wanted Draco to be terrified and suffer as long as possible trying futilely to run from them because Draco had been dropped a relatively far distance away; there was still no way he would have made it to the safety of the grounds in his injured state.
These werewolves hadn't suddenly declared their love of the Ministry, but they were quite cross with Voldemort. As feral as some of them could be, they didn't like to be used as his private hunting team. Remus believed this was the Order's best chance to convince them not to join with Voldemort, whose claim that he would give them the rights which the Ministry denied them had just flown out the proverbial window.
Remus had hurried off again to help them find a new safe location, and his look at Hermione before he left had made it plain that he had to bite his tongue in order not to give them an even better reason to side with the Order.
She knew that they were all tired of the sort of lives that they were leading, and a cure would be a miracle that they were desperately desirous of. In less than two weeks, she and Remus would be finding out whether or not they had exciting news which they'd be able to share; until then, she was determined not to spread what could turn out to be false hope.
Having now heard all the details of the lengths to which Voldemort had gone to get the werewolves to the Forest, she thought it was an absurd amount of work to go to in order to kill Draco. She knew that Voldemort liked to come up with elaborate and symbolic ways to kill people, but this seemed like a ridiculously complicated plan implemented at the last minute.
Draco, when he heard, had explained that he had been given the treatment that was supposed to have been given to a group of Muggles as the crowning celebration of his Marking.
Apparently, Voldemort was still smarting from the loss of Bellatrix. According to Draco, he wanted to train up a new lieutenant. Displeased with Lucius as a result of the fiasco with the Chamber of Secrets and the disaster in the Department of Mysteries, he'd looked for fresher blood. Draco was young, clever, and primed to follow in his father's footsteps, making him the perfect first induction of the new generation.
Draco's refusal to be Marked had left Voldemort feeling especially vindictive, so the blond had fallen victim to the werewolf plan which was, Hermione supposed, quite dramatic.
Since Draco was now presumed expelled, missing, or dead—depending on whom you asked—Albus had free reign to remove his belongings from the Slytherin dorms without anyone asking too many awkward questions; everyone knew that the headmaster tended to know more than he revealed to the world at large.
Meanwhile, Hermione, Harry, Severus, and Draco were aware that Albus was really preparing other quarters for Draco in the dungeons. It would be just like Voldemort to get one of his "loyal Slytherins" to off Draco in his bed one night, and Albus was nipping that plan in the bud.
Draco was going to need a place to feel safe because his House was likely to shun him, and the other three houses were hardly about to accept him with open arms. The Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs had suffered through a great deal of his scorn for years, and a sudden change of sides was unlikely to be trusted by them.
Hermione thought that if the lot of them had been out in the Forest with werewolves after them, they'd see how his conversion could be in earnest, but she could hardly drop the memory in a Pensieve and share it around.
The headmaster was doing what he could to make Draco's situation comfortable, so he'd invented a valid reason for him not to be forced to sit at the Slytherin table if that looked to be hazardous to his health. Currently, permission to sit at any table for meals resided solely with the Head Boy and Head Girl. Given the political climate, she and Harry rarely availed themselves, as sitting with the other two houses but not Slytherin would have set a bad precedent, and they knew the Slytherin students emphatically did not want to dine with them. She and Harry had therefore agreed to remain at the Gryffindor table for the most part.
Albus had decided to extend the privilege to all the Prefects; they would now be officially encouraged, even, to sit at other tables. There was even going to be the occasional "Prefect Lunch" where an entire table would be set aside for them, meaning that all four houses would be forced to mingle.
Hermione and Harry had promised to sit at the Slytherin table occasionally if it looked like nobody else was doing it. Truth be told, she rather relished the idea of sitting down with Draco in between them; it would irk the hell out of the Slytherins who were on Voldemort's side, and between the three of them, she wasn't too worried about their safety. If they got a lot of amusement out of following one of the headmaster's directives, that was merely an added bonus.
Draco's new quarters turned out to be in the same corridor as Harry and Hermione's. She had to wonder if Albus had picked up on the feelings Harry had for Draco and had decided to push his agenda of getting rid of the Pure Adults. She found this interference galling, but if he had decided to endorse Harry's choice, that was a lot better than what he could have done; she would be eternally grateful that he hadn't tried terribly hard to force her and Harry together. Unless he thought Draco would break Harry's heart and he'd be driven into her arms as a result, it looked as though Albus was doing something right even if it was for the wrong reasons.
All the seventh-years who had been involved in the fight in the DADA corridor were beginning to serve their detentions now. Since the group was so large—twenty-five students, including her, Harry, and Draco—the detentions were being supervised by at least two of the four Heads of House each night as well as Filch.
Rumour had it that Severus had insisted that they serve a full seven days of detention since Albus hadn't specified whether or not it was only a five-day school week. Perhaps as a compromise, they weren't being forced to work on the weekends, so the "week-long" detention took a week and a half of school days to complete. Since the students had their weekends free and clear, not one of them complained where a professor might overhear.
Dorms, common rooms, classrooms, and corridors were being cleaned, suits of armour polished, portraits dusted, potion ingredients sorted and chopped, plants moved in the greenhouses, and all sorts of menial labour performed. Harry left from five to eight on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and came back in relatively high spirits. He was in good company, he said, and there were so many of them participating that it almost felt like a communal class activity, rather than a detention. He was used to doing unpleasant tasks for Severus, he added, so these detentions didn't feel even close to harsh and unusual.
Harry had tried to visit Draco in the hospital wing again on Tuesday and Wednesday, but the blond routed Harry both times. Last night upon his return, he had declared his absolute certainty that Draco hated him, so he wasn't going to try anymore. Hermione was having none of that, so late Thursday night, she sneaked into the hospital wing and let herself into Draco's room.
"Harry bloody Potter, can you not take a hint and stay the fuck out of my room?" Draco snarled angrily.