Bound By Blood.

ch.100~ We don't do that.

"I didn't run,

and I don't know why."

Recovered Translated correspondents between Order Member Alexandra Brooks, to Death Eater Mattheo Riddle, 2004.

Potter's House, 2004.

Alexandra.

"Talk. Now, quickly!" Hermione's voice boomed through the small room, and I could tell by the look in her eyes, the wheels in her head were working overtime. 

"Hermione, I... I made an Unbreakable Vow," I stammered, the weight of my confession pressing down on me like a physical force. "I exchanged it for something that didn't even matter in the end! I had to give him the Horcrux, there was no other choice!"

Hermione's eyes widened, disbelief mixing with a fierce determination. She stepped closer, her hands clenched at her sides. "What were you thinking? You can't just give him that! We've been fighting to stop them from acquiring those—"

"I know! I wasn't thinking clearly—" My heart raced as I glanced at Ron, unconscious on the floor, and the reality of the danger we were in tightened its grip around me. "I thought I was protecting someone, but now...now I don't know how to get it back!"

Hermione took a deep breath, her brow furrowed in concentration. Her messy history with Draco was clouding her judgment, but she pushed it aside. "Okay. Let's think this through. If he has the Horcrux, we need to find a way to sever it, or at least delay him."

As she paced in front of me, her mind racing, the air in the room shifted; I felt a heat that was unnerving. 

The flames licking around the baseboards caught my attention too late. 

Without warning, the walls began to glow in a fiery orange hue. 

Hermione's eyes darted to the flames, and panic rippled through her.

"Merlin, no! We need to get out of here!" she yelled, but I could barely move. 

My throat was dry, my mind still trapped in the horrors of what I had done.

"Hermione," I choked out.

"Just run!" she shouted, grabbing my hand and pulling me toward the door. 

The smoke thickened, wrapping around us like a living thing, and the heat intensified as the fire roared contentedly, devouring the small room that had held our frantic conversation moments before.

But I fought against her grip, my feet rooted to the ground. "I can't, he got—"

Suddenly, a realization flickered in Hermione's eyes, and the fury that erupted in her gaze was palpable. 

"He hexed you!" She clenched her fists, frustration coiling tightly in her muscles.

"He swore!" she spat, her voice a mixture of disbelief and anger. "He swore he wouldn't—" There was a fire in her voice, one fueled by a deep-seated rage against the betrayal that Draco had orchestrated.

"Stay here!" she yelled, her tone brokering no argument as she turned her back on me, her decision made. 

With a determination that radiated from her, she hoisted Ron onto her shoulder. "I'll get him out," she asserted, her voice steadier than the chaos around us. "I'll come back for you, I promise!"

In one swift movement, Hermione disappeared along with Ron, leaving me alone in the inferno, the air thick with smoke and the shrill screams of my own fear echoing in my ears.