Chapter 69: A Moment of Warmth
Tamara's mouth twitched.
Even if the system was usually infuriating, she had to admit that this time it had done her a tremendous favour.
Tamara took a deep breath, and the red light in her eyes quickly faded back to black.
Then her vision began to blur.
Her knees turned weak, and her body swayed. She braced herself against a nearby tree before she could collapse.
"Tamara!"
Draco rushed over and caught her.
Tear streaks still marked his face, but his eyes were filled with fanatical admiration.
"You... you drove it away!"
Draco was so excited he could barely get the words out.
"Merlin! What was that spell? That fire serpent... it was incredible! You saved me! You saved all of us!"
He clutched her arm tightly, as if he were holding onto the only thing he believed in.
At the moment of his greatest terror and despair, Tamara had stood in front of him like a god and crushed that monster.
For a Malfoy, someone who worshipped power and strength, such an impact was fatal.
"Cough, cough..."
Exhausted, Tamara gave a weak cough and leaned against Draco.
"Keep your voice down, Draco... I'm tired."
"Sorry! I'll be quiet!" Draco immediately shut his mouth and supported her even more carefully. "Are you alright? Are you hurt?"
On the other side, the sharp pain in Harry's forehead finally began to fade.
He struggled to his feet, but by then it was already over.
Harry looked at the scorched ground, the snapped trees, and Tamara leaning weakly against Draco.
Even through the pain, he had seen everything clearly.
To protect them, Tamara had faced that terrifying monster alone, to the point of collapsing from exhaustion.
"Tamara..."
Harry walked over, his emotions tangled to the extreme.
Gratitude, guilt, shock.
"Thank you," he said quietly. "If it weren't for you..."
"Enough, Potter."
Tamara closed her eyes, not wanting to hear those useless words.
"Stop saying pointless things."
But Harry did not step back because of her coldness.
He looked at Tamara's pale face, and at the slight trembling in her shoulders even as she leaned on Draco. It was the weakness that followed complete magical exhaustion.
A strange and powerful sense of responsibility rose in his chest.
"I'll help."
Without another word, Harry strode forward and grabbed Tamara's other arm.
"Let go, Potter!"
Draco glared at him viciously.
"I can manage on my own! I don't need help from a hypocritical Scarhead like you!"
"Shut up, Malfoy! Can't you see she can barely stand?"
Harry glared back, refusing to yield.
"She ended up like this because she saved us. It's my responsibility to get her back!"
"If you felt responsible, you should have stood up and fought just now instead of lying on the ground groaning!"
"And weren't you the one screaming and running away?!"
The two of them started bickering over her head like a pair of fighting cocks.
And Tamara, trapped between them, fell silent.
She felt less like an injured person and more like a hostage, or some kind of prize they were fighting over.
On her left was Draco's robe, carrying the scent of expensive perfume. On her right was Harry's sweater, smelling of grass and earth.
Two completely different body temperatures pressed in from both sides, pinning her in the middle and leaving her no room to move.
"...I said."
Tamara spoke weakly, trying to push both idiots away.
"I'm not dead yet. I don't need two people carrying me around like some funeral procession."
"Don't force yourself, Tamara."
Harry stubbornly tightened his grip on her arm, his eyes full of concern as he looked down at the muddy ground and the tangled roots beneath their feet.
"The path through the forest is hard to walk, and there are traps everywhere. And... your hands are shaking."
Harry's tone was not negotiable.
Instead, he held her arm even more firmly, his voice stiff.
"This path is full of mud. It'll look awful if you fall. No matter how much you call me an idiot, I'm not letting go. Not until we reach the castle."
"That's right, Tamara."
Though Draco loathed Potter, he unexpectedly agreed with him on this point.
He pulled Tamara more firmly toward his side and cast Harry a look of pure disgust from the corner of his eye.
"Even though it disgusts me to agree with this Scarhead, he's right for once. As a Slytherin, I absolutely refuse to let you fall in such a filthy place."
And so, these two people who could barely stand each other reached a bizarre temporary understanding.
One on each side, they forcibly supported Tamara as they moved forward.
Her feet were nearly off the ground.
Tamara looked up speechlessly at the dark night sky, feeling as though all her dignity as the Dark Lord was being dragged through the mud by two eleven year old idiots.
In the past, anyone who dared touch her like this would have been cut into pieces and fed to Nagini.
Unfortunately, her beautiful and powerful female snake had become a stupid cat that could do little more than hiss.
The three of them had only walked a few minutes when Hagrid came crashing into the clearing, followed by a panting Hermione and Ron.
"Are yeh all right?!"
When Hagrid saw the Unicorn lying dead in a pool of blood, he let out a cry of anguish, and tears sprang to his eyes at once.
But when he saw the dishevelled students, he forcibly swallowed his grief.
"What happened here?!"
"It was a monster!" Draco blurted out, with even a trace of boastfulness in his voice. "It wanted to kill us! But Tamara drove it away!"
Hermione clapped a hand over her mouth in shock, staring at Tamara, who was being held up by the two boys.
"You... you drove away the thing that killed the Unicorn?"
Tamara did not answer. She only gave a faint nod.
"Tamara!"
With a cry thick with tears, a bushy haired figure rushed over with the force of a small cannonball.
Before the two boys supporting her could react, Hermione had already slammed straight into Tamara's arms.
Caught off guard by the impact, Harry and Draco stumbled and were forced to let go of Tamara's arms.
Without their support, Tamara's knees buckled, and she began to slide helplessly toward the ground.
Just as Tamara thought she was about to land flat on her backside, Hermione did not let her fall.
On the contrary, the little witch who usually only knew how to hug books suddenly exploded with unexpected strength. She wrapped both arms tightly around Tamara's waist and held her upright.
This was not like the brief hug from before.
Hermione held her tightly, desperately, her whole body trembling with the fear that still had not left her.
She buried her face in Tamara's shoulder, her voice thick with tears.
"When Hagrid and I heard Draco scream, I thought... I thought something had happened to you!"
Tamara's whole body went rigid.
She could feel Hermione's bushy curls brushing against her neck, the ticklish sensation making her skin crawl.
More importantly, Hermione's body heat kept passing into her, along with a scent that mixed ink and some unknown floral fragrance.
Tamara instinctively wanted to push her away, but Hermione was holding on too tightly, like someone who had just found driftwood after being lost at sea.
"You're always like this..."
Hermione lifted her head. Her brown eyes were full of tears, and the rims were red, making her look like a frightened little rabbit.
"Always rushing to the front, always ignoring your own safety to protect other people..."
"The last time it was the troll, and now this..."
Hermione sniffed hard, and the admiration in her eyes only grew stronger.
"You're the bravest person I've ever met, Tamara. Even braver than a Gryffindor."
Tamara looked into Hermione's eyes, so sincere that they were almost difficult to face, and felt as though a stone had lodged itself in her throat.
Brave?
Ignoring her own safety?
A Gryffindor mudblood was actually praising her like this.
"...Let go."
Tamara turned her face away, her voice dry. Contact this direct and this close made her instinctively want to escape.
"You're getting tears all over my robes."
"Sorry!"
Only then did Hermione realise how badly she had lost control. She hurriedly let go and wiped at her eyes, embarrassed, though her hands still clutched Tamara's robes as if she could not quite bring herself to release them completely.
"But I was really worried about you... what if you'd been hurt?"
"There are no what ifs."
Tamara pulled her sleeve free and smoothed out the wrinkled fabric, her tone cold, yet carrying a certainty that sounded strangely reassuring.
"That thing couldn't hurt me."
"And..."
She glanced at Hermione's still trembling hands and gave a faint sigh.
"If even I fell, were we supposed to rely on the rest of you, who only know how to cry, to deal with that monster?"
It was clearly a taunt, yet to Hermione it sounded different.
If even Tamara fell, then who would protect them?
Hermione's heart skipped a beat, and shame burned hot across her cheeks.
She looked at the girl in front of her, someone the same age as herself, and then thought of the fear that had gripped her moments ago.
A strong unwillingness rose in her chest.
"I... I know I'm still not good enough."
Hermione lowered her head, gripping her own hands so tightly her knuckles turned white. Her voice still trembled, but there was a stubborn determination in it.
"But I'll go back and memorise Defensive Magical Theory again, and The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection..."
She lifted her head suddenly. The fear in her brown eyes was gone, replaced by a fire of determination and hunger for knowledge.
"Next time... next time I'll at least be able to cast a few Shield Charms for you, or cover your back."
Tamara looked at Hermione's serious, almost ridiculous expression, and the corner of her mouth twitched very slightly.
"...Do as you like."
Beside them, Ron scratched his head in confusion.
"Since when did the four of them become so close?"
[Ding! Mission Complete: Pure Guardian.]
[You successfully repelled the main soul and protected your classmates, though the Unicorn still died.]
[Because you demonstrated extraordinary courage and decisiveness in battle, especially by standing up to protect your teammates.]
[Reward: Courage +10.]
[Current Courage: 27.]
[Congratulations, host! Courage has broken through the twenty point mark!]
[Advanced reward unlocked: Specific Spell Mastery: Expelliarmus.]
[System note: Although this is a defensive spell, in the hands of a true master, it can decide the outcome of a duel. Harry Potter's future signature move is now yours.]
"...I already knew that one," Tamara said through gritted teeth.
.....
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