Working for Malfoy

Chapter 44: His New Spell

In total, there were at least 17 people, not including Hermione and mother, standing in the backyard.

"Are you going to go out there?" I heard Aviana say from behind me.

"Are you crazy? Half of those people don't even like our family. Me in particular. Do you really think they want me out there with them?" I asked.

"Oh come on Draco. Are you really afraid of what they think about you?" She asked.

"It's not really that I am afraid of what they are going to say as much as what they are capable of doing. Especially if I were to get within 10 feet of Hermione."

"You know Hermione won't let them do anything to you." She tried reasoning.

"Yeah but that won't stop them from trying." I snapped.

"I know that Draco. I'm not going to force you to go out there." She said softly.

"Then why are you talking to me like you are wanting me to go down there?" I asked.

She just looked at the ground nervously.

"It's because you want to go out there isn't it?" I asked.

She nodded.

I sighed and walked until I was standing right in front of her.

"Ok, I'll go down there with you, but I am not promising that I will stay down there very long." I said.

"Really?" She looked up at me.

"Yeah." I nodded.

She smiled before leading me down the stairs and to the backdoor. Right before she opened it I stopped her.

"Why do you want me to go with you?" I asked.

"Because after what happened with that other red head, I don't trust them and I trust you more than anyone else." She explained. "No matter who the family member is, no one can replace the trust someone has for their brother."

I smiled and gave her a side hug before opening the door and letting her go out first.

I stepped onto the pathway and followed Aviana towards the group of people.

"He better not be hurting you Mione." I heard one of the Weasley brothers say.

"He's not, I promise." Hermione's voice sounded from the middle of the crowd.

Aviana and I stopped walking and listened to the conversation.

"How have you been these past couple months Mione?" Another Weasley asked.

"Not too bad. I have been given more access to the house so I have been-"

"In the library." The twins cut in simultaneously.

"You know me too well." Hermione said, which caused the crowd to laugh.

"I bet you feel a little more at home with books within your grasp." A deeper voice cut in through the laughter.

"I guess so." Hermione answered.

This answer caused the crowd to go silent.

"What do you mean you guess?" The deep voice spoke again.

"What do you think I mean?" Hermione asked.

"Are you hiding something from us?" The man asked.

"Hiding?" She questioned.

"Yeah. Are you sure they aren't hurting you." He asked.

"I'm not going to lie to you guys. If they were hurting me I would tell you. If they were hurting me, Narcissa wouldn't have invited all of you here to visit me because she wouldn't want to get into trouble." Hermione snapped, getting angrier by the second.

"Hermione, calm down. You can tell us the truth." The man with the deep voice, that I now recognized as Kingsley, stated.

"I am. Even if I was lying it wouldn't make a difference. You won't believe either answer I give you, true or not. You don't want to believe what I am saying because none of you trust the Malfoy's. I can see it in your eyes. You don't believe me and I bet 10 galleons that some of you are thinking I'm brainwashed." Hermione's voice began getting louder and the anger was much more evident in her tone.

"Why isn't mother doing anything?" Aviana asked.

"I don't know." I responded while searching the crowd for her.

"Hermione Granger, put the wand down now!" Kingsley yelled.

My eyes widened when I saw Hermione pointing a wand right at the Minister.

Without a second thought, I pushed through the crowd and grabbed the wand from the raging brunette and held her arms.

"Hermione, look at me." I told her.

She began struggling in my grip.

"Let her go, Malfoy!" One of the Weasley twins yelled.

I ignored them and finally managed to get her to look at me.

"Hermione, let's just go inside and get these people to leave." I told her.

Her expression turned blank and she looked as though she was going to pass out.

"Hermione?" I tried to get her to focus. "Hermione look at me. Answer me."

I began panicking as she started going limp in my grip.

I looked up and into the crowd to try and find what happened.

My concern was replaced by anger when I spotted him standing behind the rest of the Weasley's, somehow unspotted until just now.

"Draco what happened?" Aviana asked from my left.

"Take Hermione." I demanded before leaning her toward Aviana and stalking towards the group of red-heads.

They all watched me apprehensively as I neared them. When I didn't do anything and walked past, I could hear the gasps of the crowd behind me.

"Good afternoon Malfoy. How's mum and dad?" He asked.

"Don't act like you didn't just do something to your former friend Wealey! What did you do?" I was five feet from him.

"Oh just a simple spell I came up with. It causes the victim to go blank for a minute before blacking out and falling into a deep sleep. I don't know the remedy yet but I'm sure if you give me a few wee-"

I lunged at him and his back hit the ground. I aimed blows at his face and chest as he tried to fight me off.

I was too angry to realize that people were dragging me off of the red-head on the ground.

"YOU'RE A BASTARD WEASLEY! SHE DIDN'T DESERVE THIS! LET ME GO!" I screamed.

I kept kicking at the people pulling away from the bleeding mess on the ground.

I didn't stop until I felt something hit the back of my head and everything went black.