The Silver Envelope

A Thousand to One

The first Dementor took only a sip of Draco's soul before another greedily pushed it aside. The frenzy began.
Draco's knees gave out first, and he fell backward onto Hermione, pinning her to the ground. His
broad shoulders weighed upon her ribs, his head resting against her chin, forcing her to watch as his life was slowly drained from him right in front of her. The cloaked figures swirled above them, a hurricane of dread and defeat, taking turns draining the light out of Draco.
It was hopeless. She couldn't do it. There were too many and her Patronus wasn't strong enough to ward off Dementors without help, never had been. Harry had always been the one to get her through it before, and that had been a long time ago.
Back then, thoughts of Harry and Ron were sufficient, but now those memories curdled in her mind, spoiled by recent events, only making everything worse.
Draco was about to lose his very essence, right on top of her. And then she would follow soon after. She couldn't save him. The guilt and horror of it crushed her.
He'd sacrificed himself for her. Given his last breath trying to save her.
Anguish, raw and all-consuming, tore at her heart.
Draco would not be lost, not while she was still alive to stop it.
She pointed her wand skyward.
Happy thoughts. What did happiness even feel like? She couldn't remember.
Christmas with her parents. Hadn't that been happy, once she'd restored their memories?
"Expecto Patronum!"
The tendril of light was nothing close to an otter, but it did make the closest Dementor flinch back.
Her feeble attempt to protect Draco seemed only to excite them further. The feeding frenzy grew wilder, the air thick with fog as the Dementors crowded over them, bearing down on all sides, held
back only by a delicate cloud of silver light. Draco was limp against her, appearing halt-dead
There were too many. They never stood a chance.
The silvery cloud dissipated.
Hermione could barely breathe now. Her lungs felt frozen solid as she watched the light of Draco's soul begin to exit his body once more
Despite her seed of success, happiness still seemed a foreign concept to her as she gathered her
tougnts
Draco! Draco's hand in hers, leading her in a dance. Draco's voice when he called her darling.
Draco, making her tea.
Perhaps it wasn't much yet, but Draco was the brightest spot of happiness in her life right now.
"Expecto Patronum!"
She was close, she could tell. This cloud of silver, though still nothing close to a corporeal Patronus, seemed more solid. The Dementors reared back a bit, waiting for misery and doubt to settle back into her. She held it as long as she could, arm shaking violently with the strain of it, desperately trying to summon the best memories of her life.
Whatever it was, it had to be the antidote to the cold, empty feeling brought on by the Dementors.
Instead of hopelessness, possibility. Instead of despair, determination. Instead of this dark, frozen void- fire.
At that thought, images lit her mind, but they were not happy. They were not joyful, nor were they
They were ferocious.
Like the flaming whip she had once brought down on Ron, Hermione burned from within.
Memories welled up inside her, raging outward from her heart to the tips of her toes.
Stony defiance from the day she'd told Ron no.
Jubilant vindication from the day Draco had shown up at the ball to shock the world with his support for her.
White-hot rage from the moment she'd learned Ron had been manipulating public opinion about their relationship.
Vulnerable bravery from the day she'd told everyone about Ron's love potion.
Prickly tenacity from the time she'd made Draco promise not to take her wand from her.
Liquid lust from the time she'd pushed the boundaries between the two of them by vanishing their clothes.
Iron resolve from the moment shed decided to do whatever it took to escape her chains and save
Draco and Ignoma.
Excruciating, devastating love for the man who'd just sacrificed himself to save her.
There was more to life than feeling happy. There was a vast prism of human emotion to experience beyond happiness.
And all of it was ready to burst from the tip of her wand.
"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"
The scream ripped from her throat as light exploded from her wand, nearly blinding her. Horrible screeching filled the air as Dementors reared back, fleeing from the massive creature blasting up from the tip of her wand.
As great, glowing, bat-like wings unfurled, wider than the trees were tall, Hermione realized that what she had just conjured was no otter.
A dragon, massive and powerful, spiked from head to tail, reared its head back, sending a stream of
white-hot fire into the night sky.
It radiated with hope and courage and righteous fury, starkly contrasting against the terrorized creatures of despair whirling through the cerulean-streaked sky trying to escape it. Several of them were caught in the jet of vengeful fire, letting out piercing, raspy screams as they fell to the ground writhing in agony as they burned to ash and flared out, quick as tinder. The rest of the Dementors had scattered now, screeching and fleeing for their lives
The dragon was not done. With a powerful launch of its massive wings, it took flight, circling
gracefully once overhead before giving chase at breakneck speed
Hermione watched in stunned silence as the shining silver dragon skimmed along the spiky tops of the trees, blowing great jets of flame at the Dementors that were unlucky enough to be within its range. The fire didn't seem to be harming the forest itself, only the cloaked figures scrambling
awav from It.
The dragon soared in great circles around them, ever widening the radius of their protection. It caught several more Dementors in its fiery path, forcing them to drop like flies.
Awe-struck, watching the way it moved nimbly through the air and guarded her with a fierceness
that almost hurt to witness, Hermione knew exactly who the dragon was
Looking down at the face of the man who'd inspired this flare of unbelievable magic, Hermione saw color returning to Draco's cheeks. He was still unconscious, but she was almost certain he wasn't gone. A sob ripped from her chest.
They were going to be alright.
"Hermione!"
The shout came from behind them. Hermione whipped around to find Ginny and Ron descending from the sky on brooms. They both dismounted at a run the moment they touched the ground,
Ginny reaching her first in the middle of the bridge.
"Hermione!" Ginny shouted again. "Are you alright? Is that your Patronus?"
She didn't wait for an answer as she hauled Hermione to her feet, out from under Draco's limp body. His head flopped listlessly to the stony ground, causing her heart to twist.
Ginny grasped her face to check that she was alright, taking in the streams of tears wetting Hermione's face. She didn't know how they had found her and just now, she didn't care. Relief made her head spin. Hermione clutched at her wand, refusing to break the connection to her
dragon. which had returned to circle overhead. watching vigilantly for more Dementors to roast alive. It lit the sky, brighter than the moon.
"They took his wand," Hermione said by way of explanation, her voice shaky and small.
"Bloody fucking hell, Hermione," Ginny said with a slack jaw, watching the beast soar gracefully, high above them. "Is that a Hungarian Horntail? What happened to your otter?"
Draco had happened. Draco, who was still lying unconscious on the arch of the bridge, the fate of his soul and mind as yet undetermined. Purpose surged into her at the thought, straightening her back.
Instead of answering the questions, Hermione held out her hand.
"Chocolate," she demanded. "Have you got any?"
Ginny jumped at her sharp tone, scrambling in her robes for some.
"Er, no, I left too quickly. I should have-
Hermione interrupted her with a sharp, "Accio chocolate!" aimed in the direction of the lodge. As she'd hoped, a bar of Honeyduke's came whizzing towards her, momentarily smacking into a closed window before Hermione flicked her wand to clear the way for it. She snatched it from the air just before it struck her in the face, ripping the wrapper open with her teeth as she fell to her knees at Draco's side.
"Rennervate."
Draco's eyes snapped open and he gasped for breath. Her heart nearly gave out at the beautiful, healthy sight and sound of it. Hermione allowed him precisely three lungfuls of air before stuffing a piece of chocolate into his mouth.
"Eat," she commanded, reminding them both of the way he'd issued the same order to her on multiple occasions.
Draco complied wordlessly, his eyes not wavering from hers as his lips closed around the chocolate. At least, they didn't waver until a certain moon-bright creature passed overhead, causing the air around them to flutter with a strange, euphoric breeze as it went. His chocolate-filled mouth
popped open in surprise.
Hermione didn't feel like explaining. Instead, she broke off a square of chocolate for herself, leaning back on her heels. Warmth and peace melted through her at the rich taste, helping to chase the chill from her bones. She allowed herself one more sweet treat: a kiss placed briefly on Draco's cheek.
Finally. It was his turn to blush.
Getting to her feet, she brushed herself off and faced her goggle-eyed companions, leaving Draco to collect himself at his own pace. He looked as though he would need a moment.
"Harry's on his way," Ginny told her. "Flying here from Azkaban right now. He sent word to me a
moment ago.
"How did you find us?" Hermione asked, glancing at Ron. He was eyeing the dragon in the sky, comparing it to Draco on the ground with a resentful frown. He looked awful, she noticed, like he hadn't slept or showered in weeks.
"Kreacher said you'd gone to Ron's, so I went to his place and found him tied up," Ginny explained wryly. Hermione blinked. Draco hadn't told her that bit. "He said that Draco left with an elf who came to tell him you'd been kidnapped and taken to the Dementor forest. I almost didn't believe him. Imagine our surprise when we flew by to look for you and found you in a stand-off against a thousand Dementors, only to find that you had conjured a bloody Horntail! How on earth did you even do that?!"
Hermione was at a loss for what to say. She didn't know how to explain that she had somehow produced a Patronus from every feeling except happiness. In fact, by comparison, happiness seemed a rather bland emotion, and certainly not up to the task of fighting off nearly every Dementor in Britain all at once. Privately, she thought that even if all her friends had arrived in time to save them, it still might not have been enough
Distantly, the dragon looped through the air, lashing its spiky tail across the night sky like a whip, its protective wrath ever expanding around her.
Draco had saved her far more than once tonight
He joined the group then, his usual dignified gait marred by a slight wobble. He dusted off his elbows, then took the chocolate from Hermione s hand. Casually, he snapped two pieces off. popping one into his own mouth before softly feeding the other to her, allowing his finger to graze her bottom lip for a split second.
Ron's eyes bored into her. She kept her gaze staunchly away from him, feeling her cheeks heat as
she chewed the chocolate
Did Weasley also tell you that he's the reason Hermione ended up kidnapped in the first place?" Draco asked Ginny smoothl. "He's been feeding information to Johanna. who turned it right over to the people who've been kidnapping elves and forcing them to make wand polish. They planned to impersonate Hermione at the Ministry and overturn SOCKS."
With each word Draco said, their shock grew visibly. Ginny rounded on Ron as he threw up his hands in a show of innocence.
"I didn't know, I swear!" he said.
"You didn't know that Johanna Wolcroft, the woman who's been after me for months, might not have my best interest in mind?" The words felt acidic and raw on Hermione's tongue.
In the distance, bright white light flashed across the sky as her dragon let loose another deadly stream of fire. Ron flinched back from her, his eyes meeting the ground.
"I never wanted anything like this to happen," he muttered. "We came to get you back."
"Good of you two to come, but Granger's got it all in hand, as usual," Draco said with a smirk
draping his arm around her shoulders. The weight of it covertly told her how unsteady he still was
"We're going to take off now, I think. Potter can handle the rest from here." He took Hermione's
nana in his once more.
Several cracks echoed through the forest like fireworks then, causing all four of them to flinch and look around at the lodge as about a dozen people poured through the back doors of the home.
Hermione had been expecting to see Harry and his team arriving. Instead, she found herself being tugged behind Draco once again as Umbridge, Selwyn, and a small army of hired wizards faced them, wands drawn.
"Ah, Mr. Weasley. Miss Weasley," Umbridge said with a simper. "I assume Potter is on his way?"
She tsked. "Too bad. I fear he won't be able to get past the blockade we just set up around the forest. At least, not in time to save the four of you.
"Potter's already here!" Ginny said loudly, her wand at the ready.
Umbridge raised her eyebrows, looking skeptical. Ginny smiled.
"Mrs. Potter, that is," she added, before casting a spell that detonated like a bomb beneath their feet.