Paramour

Chapter 4

Hermione followed closely behind Moody, her chest still heaving and mind whirling with confusion.

"Moody—" Ron called, poking his head around the corner of the door ahead of them both, "— Harry was just wondering if we could borrow you for a short while? He just wanted to finalise some details regarding tomorrow." Moody halted, his mechanical eye shifting and focussing on Hermione. Ron stared between the both of them. "Sorry, did I interrupt something?"

"No." Hermione replied, quickly. Moody quirked an eyebrow at her, frustration apparent on his face. "It's fine Alastor, speak with the boys, we can discuss my—" she searched for the following words carefully, "— research soon." The words came out strained, tainted with an enormous amount of uncertainty, whilst being  evidently, a massive lie; Ron chose to ignore the obviousness of it all.

"If you're sure?" Ron asked, once again. Hermione gave a small nod, pulling the items in her arms impossibly closer to her chest. "Brilliant, Harry's in here now—" Hermione didn't wait for Ron to finish, instead turning and heading upstairs towards her bedroom.

As she ascended the stairs, Hermione found the familiar twisting sensation returning to her stomach. She bit her tongue and focussed on each step in front of her.

Hermione reached her bedroom and muttered a wandless incantation, deactivating the numerous wards she had placed on her bedroom door. Using her foot, she pushed it open and stumbled into the room, before finally dropping everything onto her bed. Hermione sighed and stretched, kicking off her shoes and slumped down onto her mattress, relishing the feeling of it under her.

She clung to that feeling desperately, attempting to ground herself and make sense of everything that had occurred in the past week.

With little exertion, she removed her wand from her pocket and pointed it towards her door, muttering 'Expecto Patronum'. Hermione's patronus, an otter, bounced from her wand and danced around her room before settling in front of her. She relayed a message for Harry and the others attending the raid with him tomorrow.

"Harry, please leave the hairs you and Ron mentioned collecting on my station, in the lab. I'll prep the vials in the morning and they will be ready for you to take." The otter nodded, before transforming into a ball of light and shooting through her bedroom door, intent on delivering Hermione's message.

Hermione twisted in her bed, settling on her back. She sighed and placed her forearm over her eyes, engulfing her senses in darkness. She debated dosing herself with 'Dreamless Sleep' but decided against it — she didn't want to become too reliant on the potion.

Upon her patronus' return, Hermione flicked her wand and turned off the lights. She didn't bothered changing out of her day clothes — she was too tired. She settled under the covers and focussed on her breathing, the words of The Marquis still raging in her mind.

***

Hermione awoke earlier than the rest of The Order — she always did. The quiet of the morning washed over her like of wave of serenity. It travelled through her body and allowed the tension in her muscles to relax; although fleeting, it was nice.

Heading to her laboratory, she found Harry had received her message, evident by the multiple vials of hair left at her station.

She hastily set to work and grabbed sixteen clean ampules, dividing up the Polyjuice Potion, and filling each one. She proceeded to add the hairs, and watched the potions begin to bubble — her stomach churned. Memories of her first taste of Polyjuice during second year invaded her mind, and for a moment, she tasted it on her tongue, grimacing.

Muttering 'Aparecium', Hermione conjured labels onto each ampule, assigning one per Order member. She stepped back and inspected her work. She had managed to do it, and still acquired enough time to provide each member with a few essential potions to take with them: A Wiggenweld Potion, a Blood Replenishing Potion, both a Burn-Healing Paste and Bruise-Healing Paste, as well as a sparing amount of Essence of Dittany.