Anyone But Me

Chapter Sixty-Four

Sick of having to hide under the gifted cloak, as much an oven as it was a liberator, she had pushed off their meeting until the Gryffindor team had a nighttime practice session. Ensuring Harry's total attention was centered on the players, not the map he continued to carry around in his pocket. Taking it one step further, Hermione had set up for their next meeting to happen in the Room of Hidden Things. That way she wasn't suspiciously hanging around the door if he did decide to check.

As she stood in the confined space that led to the twisted maze of broken oddities, she noticed that the papers she had thrown in her act of catharsis were gone. Lost to the unending piles of stuff. Someone had taken the time to clean and she had an odd feeling that she knew exactly who...

It was like a particular tricky part of the all black puzzle suddenly fit together and it sent a chill up her spine. Draco had to find something, something dangerous, inside of the labyrinth and fix it. He really had admitted his task to her the night of the confrontation over him being a Death Eater... Something she had come to doubt as his reaction to failure became more and more concerning. The context of just how hopeless his predicament was brought too much clarity.

Voldemort's plan wasn't to hurt others using Draco. Oh no, his plan was to draw out the Malfoys' torture by giving him something impossible to complete. A guaranteed death for Narcissa and Draco. While Lucius slowly wasted away in Azkaban with the knowledge of their demise being his only company. Undoubtedly, the family was to be used as a warning to others. Favor was fickle and even the most devoted had to comply... Or else.

Overwhelmed by the futility of his duty, her hands started to shake at her sides as her eyes roamed over the meager entrance to the cavernous chaos within. There were hundreds of possibilities in the first few feet... Hundreds of thousands, if not millions, throughout the whole room.

How could you find something specific if you hadn't personally placed it there?

And even then... Things moved...

Her hands instantly balled into fists at the sound of the door clicking open, her nails digging into the flesh of her palms to distract from the out of control racing of her thoughts. She tugged her lips up into her best approximation of a smile, hoping he would think it was due to nerves, and turned around.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Draco asked before giving any sort of greeting. His eyebrows were creased in concern, betraying his otherwise composed veneer. The show of tenderness after their argument, and his eventual surrender, over her request was unexpected.

She nodded. "I have to be, so... Yes."

"You do not have to do anything, Granger." He reminded her, parroting the end to his fervent appeal to change her mind.

"We've already been over this. I do. The risk of having their memories floating around inside of someone else's mind is not worth it. I will not pass this burden. Their safety will be in my hands."

"I could..."

"Draco, we are not doing this again." She said with finality. They had already gone over all of the different angles in this debate. None of which deterred her from her choice. It needed to be her.

He sighed heavily and his shoulders lifted into a shrug. "Fine..."

"Thank you." Hermione relaxed at his submission. A sharp pain that radiated from her palms up into her wrists had her glancing down. Where four perfect red crescent moons decorated each hand.

She hadn't meant to break skin... The sight of the self inflicted wounds had her transfixed, watching as the small dots of dark red bubbled over her flesh. Her blood traveled in thin lines to pool in her cupped palms. A comfortable numbness settled over her, an observation that should have set off alarm bells but they were only dampened by the unexpected detachment she felt.