Despicable Souls

Chapter 7

The days blurred together when she occluded like this.

Emotions were inconsequential.

Time was meaningless.

And most importantly, her mind was safe.

There was still some awareness of what was happening around her; she just didn't care.

She knew George was in the testing phase, using willing Hogwarts students to trial "The Abolitionist" product to remove the Trace. All students were given one warning by the Ministry for underage magic before it moved on to a hearing and it was surprising (and alarming) how many students were willing to risk testing his product for only a few galleons.

Hogwarts Hermione would be mortified.

Current Hermione was sinking too deep to care about the legalities and morals of George's business practices.

There was a moment of feeling at lunch a few days ago when Susan made a comment about Malfoy's whereabouts (she hadn't noticed his absence which was admittedly odd), and Zabini said he and the undersecretary were in France for a few days on Ministry business.

Were they sharing a room?

She had immediately shut the thought out, her mind once again a blank slate.

However now she was receiving concerned glances from George, Susan, and Zabini on her stoic behavior as of late.

Her bond finally pulled her aside after another lunch of silence before she could reach the lift, seething. "What the fuck is your problem?"

Hermione only blinked.

"Snap out of it. We're dueling today and you're going to get yourself killed. I don't want to do the paperwork."

Zabini forcibly shouldered past her as the words processed and she mulled them over.

She'd be fine dueling having done so while heavily occluding but she needed to stay under her bonds' radar and apparently being too apathetic was doing the opposite.

Begrudgingly, Hermione began working on slowly dismantling a few of her walls while riding the lift so she could see through the fog and act more human.

Hopefully she could stick to defensive spells.

However when she entered the training room only her soulbond was present, anxiously pacing.

"I thought we were dueling?"

He immediately went still upon hearing her voice for the first time in days, the tension melting and being replaced with his arrogant smirk.

She preferred the brooding.

"We are dueling," he drawled, tilting his head. "I need to know if you can cast more than a tempus."

Hermione frowned.

This wasn't going to end well.

Her dueling partner quickly went from smug to irate once he realized she wasn't using any offensive spells, simply waving away or blocking his hexes.

"Stop holding back!" Zabini finally scolded, sending a hex that painfully grazed her ear. "Dark wizards won't give a fuck."

He would already be dead if she wanted him to be.

"Right," she grumbled as she casted a protego. "And when do you actually start teaching me something useful?"

He was such a dick, but Zabini was still her soulbond and she wasn't going to-