the magpie // tomione

x. (M)

"Frantic in my fury I had no time for decisions;

I only remembered that death in battle is glorious."

― Virgil

The door opens with a creak. Hermione grits her jaw as she recognizes the grinning face. He lets out a laugh, eyeing Tom's still body slumped across the floor. His murky grey eyes are again on her, slowly scanning her body from head to toe.

"We have unfinished business, fräulein."

"You should have burned," Hermione seethes, noticing with a hint of satisfaction that parts of his skin do seem irreparably scarred from the fire on the boat.

The man clicks his tongue in admonishment.

"You're with another man." Grindelwald's Soldier glances back at Tom. "Where is that tainted mudblood ?"

(No matter how many times she has heard it, the word still feels like a slap across the cheek.)

"Wouldn't you like to know."

Hermione dares him with her eyes, filled with anger and steel. He crouches down to meet her eye level, brushes a long rough finger across her face. She shudders and he lets out a laugh.

"Fräulein, do not play so hard to get." His finger rakes down her arm, traveling further. "It will hurt my feelings."

Her hand reaches out to swat his away. He backs away in a rage as he realizes that she has freed herself from the rope. The man's body is pulled back by a sudden force, a rope yanking at his neck. Tom holds the rope in his hands, pulling it tight, his eyes never leaving Hermione. She watches in horrified satisfaction as the man's face turns blue. His eyes roll into the back of his head from the lack of oxygen.

"That's enough. He's unconscious."

Still, Tom holds the rope.

"Enough."

She meets his eyes, the expression she finds within them sending chills down her spine.

"We don't have time," she finally lets out. "Please."

With the mention of their brief timeline Tom lets the rope fall from his hands. She can see where it burnt his palms, bright red from the friction of flesh against fiber.

"That man is one of Grindelwald's soldiers." Hermione tells him in a whisper as they sneak out through the door. She can hear the sound of footsteps in the distance and she gives him a meaningful look. "One of several."

They enter a room that appears to be a makeshift meeting space, with a small table and a few chairs. Tom pulls her arm, bringing her to stand with him behind the opening of the door. Another man walks out from the door, and receives a swift chair to the face. Hermione winces at the crack of wood against bone, even as she holds what remains of the chair.

Tom rustles through the man's pockets, turning them out and letting their contents fall out. Hermione follows suit, tearing through anything else in the room. She notices a box under the table and almost can't believe it when she finds their wands hidden with other objects. Hermione picks up her wand and tucks away a switchblade found within the box. She breathes a sigh of relief to see them both intact, but it leaves her feeling even more confused. Why would they go through the trouble to drug them and take their wands? Were they planning on selling the wands?

And why aren't there any wards? It all seems too easy.

A moment after the thought enters her mind she realizes that they are trapped. The room had opened up to an underground tunnel, within which they have been walking for what feels like hours (but is perhaps less). The more they walk the more Hermione realizes that they are without magic, without any supplies, and without any clue as to where they might be.