Manacled by Senlinyu

Chapter 57: Flashback 32

May 2003

It was near the end of May when the Death Eaters launched an attack on a Muggle town in Surrey. It was a trap. They didn't even bother to conceal the fact they were luring the Resistance out.

There was no need to. The Resistance would go anyway.

Hermione watched the Order depart to join the fight and worked with Padma to transfer the hospital ward down into the foyer and expand the walls of the sitting room. They called in several of the Resistance members who functioned as healers and nurses at the hospice safe houses.

Poppy Pomfrey had caught Black Cat Flu and was under quarantine. A disease that caused chronic bad luck was one of the last things that the Order could handle sweeping through the Resistance.

The clock ticked relentlessly on while Hermione paced, carefully and meticulously organising her mind. She gathered all her memories of Draco, shoving them into the furthest recesses of her consciousness where she kept her memories of her parents.

She could not think about Draco. She could not worry about whether he was fighting. Whether Kingsley or Moody had him doing anything that put him into extreme danger in order to give the Resistance a slight edge.

She had to work. Thinking about it wouldn't change anything.

She walled it all away.

Seamus appeared at the door carrying an unfamiliar woman and Michael Corner in his arms.

"Vampire," he said, nodding towards the woman. "I dunno about him."

He dropped them and quickly apparated away again.

The foyer began filling with bodies. Muggles, Resistance fighters; they were all being brought to Hermione and Padma.

Hermione poured Blood-Replenishing Potion and the antidote for the bite down the woman's throat before trying to quickly diagnose what had happened to Michael. A diagnostic charm indicated his organs were shutting down, but she couldn't figure out why. She started casting an analytic web on the curse signature in order to try to identify it.

Crack.

Kingsley appeared, carrying Tonks. Tonks was screaming at the top of her lungs; her eyes were rolled back in her head.

Hermione cast a stasis charm on Michael in the hope of buying time and rushed over.

Tonks' arm had been cursed; the skin was sliding away as her body flayed itself. Hermione cancelled the curse and cast a spell to soothe the pain before holding a vial of Skin-Regrowth Potion against Tonks' lips.

Blood and a black, acrid liquid spattered onto Hermione's sleeve. She glanced up sharply.

"You're cursed," she said, watching a growing stain spread across Kingsley's left shoulder through his robes.

"I have to get Potter out," he said, turning to leave.

She grabbed his arm. "It's close to your heart. Let me heal you."

He pulled her hand off. "There's no time. Get ready, we're bringing more your way."

There was a crack as Parvati appeared, weighed down with four bodies.

"Get them to Padma," Hermione said, chasing Kingsley as he swept out of Grimmauld Place. "Let me heal you, Kingsley."

She reached out to grab him before he reached the edge of the protective wards. As her fingers closed around the fabric of his robes, he apparated. They both reappeared in the battlefield. It was a town square, hazy with dust, blood and residual magic.