Between Fine Lines

Nine

There were many things that did not surprise Harry or Ron when it came to Hermione. She was intelligent far beyond any level that either one of them would ever hope to reach, her mind seemed to be perfectly categorized with history, spells, incantations, and important facts. Harry couldn't even be surprised when Hermione pulled a fully functioning and set up tent out of her bag, briefly making him think of the tent they stayed in during the Triwizard tournament.

The irony did not escape him that they had run (essentially) screaming from death eaters back then, and now there was a death eater screaming outside.

When Hermione had landed them in the Forest of Dean, she briefly explained that her parents had once taken her camping there during a summer holiday. She had accio'ed what she needed from her bag to get Harry and Ron to set up while she set up a various amount of wards around their campsite. Spells to keep them hidden, protected and most importantly, quiet.

"Can somebody please bloody silencio Rowle or something?" Ron pleaded as he pushed a hand through his hair. They had been in the forest for hours and Regulus had not let up on torturing the old death eater. Ron had gone out of the tent once, looked at the amount of blood dripping down Thorfinn's face and promptly turned right back around to go back inside the tent.

Harry had tried to sleep for a couple of hours, casting a silencing charm around his bed that eventually fell when he had drifted into completely unconscious, the exhaustion of the day taking over him.

And Hermione? She stayed awake through the whole thing.

She watched with curious eyes as Regulus made quick use of getting used to Rowle's wand, secretly enthralled at the way his magic seemed to effortlessly surge back into his body, the incarcerous he had charmed onto the death eater never faltered or budged from where Regulus had him sitting in a chair he had transfigured from a pile of sticks.

"Hey, you're not passing out on me just yet," Regulus smacked the man across the face, unphased at the blood that now covered his hand from the cut on Rowle's forehead that he had created a few hours ago, oozing slowly with blood, covering the man's face, dripping over his eye lids, blurring his vision.

"Please... I don't know anything," Thorfinn tried to insist, coughing as he struggled to breathe properly against the ropes. "Just obliviate me and let me go," he begged quietly.

Regulus couldn't help but scoff, "Begging? This is what you've resulted in? Begging a teenage boy for your life? How does it feel to know you're like a cockroach under The Dark Lord's shoe, hm?" Regulus circled the man, his hand gripping Rowle's hair, tugging his head back so he was forced to look up at Regulus.

"You've had that mark longer than I've had mine, so don't think I'll be fooled easily," Regulus trailed the wand in his hand along the man's neck. "You know nothing?"

Regulus pushed the chair over with his foot, the man having no choice but to topple over with it. "Liar!" he snarled out, his boot now on the man's head, pressing against the side of Rowle's face, pushing him into the dirt.

"I should crush your skull right now, send you right back to your Lord-let him know I'm coming for him."

It was this moment, Rowle begging for his life, under the mercy of Regulus, that Hermione stepped forward.

"Can I try something?" she questioned, taking a few steps closer from where she had settled by a tree to observe.

"You're still out here?" Regulus' tone changed immediately as he stepped away from the shaken death eater, moving to stand in front of Hermione, reaching up with his clean hand to push a loose strand from her braid behind her ear. "You should go to bed," he insisted softly.

"Don't lecture me," Hermione chastised him, poking him lightly in the chest once, her fingers trailing along his torso as she went around him. Regulus smirked, turning to watch Hermione, interested to see what she wanted to do.

Hermione pulled her wand from her back pocket, using a levitating spell to right the death eater back into a sitting position.

"I've only done this a few times... but after Snape taught Harry last year, we've been practicing."

Regulus raised a brow in confusion-Snape was a good guy before he was a bad guy again?

Hermione pointed her wand at the tied up wizard, her eyes narrowing in focus, "Legilimens."

—

Ron and Harry were on the verge of exhaustion when Hermione and Regulus entered the tent about two hours later. Harry perked up a bit from where he sat on the table, "Anything? Can we go to bed now?"

"He's dead," Regulus informed them. Ron's eyes widened, "Dead!? What did you kill him for? Won't that draw attention? What are we supposed to do with his body?"

"First off, Weasley. I didn't kill him, Hermione did."

"Hermione," Harry looked at his friend in surprise. "You didn't..."

Hermione shook her head, "I didn't mean to, I was trying to practice my Legilimency...and I overdid it, just a bit," she admitted, going toward the bathroom to clean up.

"Overdid what?" Ron questioned, brows knitting in confusion. "She fried his brain," Regulus informed them, unable to hide the impressed tone in his voice. "He was basically a vegetable... so he's dead now. There's a hoard of acromantula about two miles west- they'll never detect us with all of the barriers and wards, but we got just close enough to levitate him into their area and they did the rest."

Ron shuddered at the thought, his brain immediately going back to the thought of Aragog-he was so glad that thing had died during their sixth year. "I think I'm going to be sick..." he muttered to himself, standing up from the table, pushing past Hermione, who was just coming out of the bathroom, having switched into clean clothes.

"Well... I guess at least neither of you used any unforgivables, that is... enough," Harry struggled to find the right words as he stood up from the table. "I'm going to sleep- is it safe enough for all of us to go to bed?"

Hermione nodded, "I have wards set up to alert us if anybody even gets within two miles of us. It'll detect what kind of intruders it is too, muggle or magical."

"Brilliant as always Hermione," Harry gave her a soft, sleepy smile before trudging off toward his bed.

"Hey..." Regulus whispered, nudging at Hermione's hand with his own. "Got room for me in your bed tonight?" he smirked at her.

"Not like that," Hermione referenced to his dirty clothes. "And just to sleep, Regulus."

"Just to sleep?" he questioned innocently. "Not even one small snog session?" he whispered playfully. "You barely let me snog you in the gardens at The Burrow."

"And how did you want me to explain essentially snogging a complete stranger?" Hermione raised a brow and Regulus gave her a playful shrug, pulling her a little closer, tucking his temporary wand in his pocket.

"Absolutely no snogging in bed, Black," she looked up at him, her tongue swiping over her bottom lip.

"Good, would rather kiss you right now," Regulus insisted, crashing his lips to hers, tangling one of his hands in her hair. He gave her locks a light tug, tilting her head back a bit as they kissed, nipping at her bottom lip as she let out a small gasp.

"Regulus," she whispered, pulling away a bit. "What if Ron and Harry saw us?" she questioned quietly.

"Maybe Weasley would get the hint," Regulus commented pointedly, stealing another quick kiss before he went toward the other bathroom, brushing past Ron in the process, who had just missed the whole encounter.

"Night Hermione," Ron gave her a small smile, disappearing to his part of the tent, the privacy flap falling behind him.

"Night," she called out softly, shooting Regulus a glance from where he stood in the doorway to the bathroom. She rolled her eyes as Regulus winked at her before going into the bathroom. Hermione quietly made her way to the area where her bed was, purposely leaving the privacy flap open so Regulus knew he was still welcome, by the time he had shown up, Hermione was already fast asleep, dreaming of destroying Horcruxes and spending time with Regulus.