tears in heaven | dramione

Hints and Confirmation

Hermione shut her eyes seeing the fireball come towards her and prepared herself to be hit, knowing she had little time to cast any spell.  The fire never came. Instead, when she opened her eyes, she found herself meters away from the door.

Draco released a long cry of pain. Running her eyes over him, she noticed he'd been hit by the fireball so that parts of his shirt had already burnt off, some were still burning, and his flesh on his back and on one side was red and bleeding. His voice gave out and he fell over her.

"Draco," she called as she held him. Her arms were around him, supporting him as he continued to sigh in pain, but carefully enough place as not to touch the wounds. She could hear the throbbing of her racing heart ring in her ears whilst trying to collect herself and raise her wand and brush it his back and side. "Vulnera sanetur," Hermione whispered and witnessed the blood streaming immediately stop, the marks of the burn losing the red colour, turning back to normal skin. Thank you very much, Snape, for the one good thing you've done your whole life...

"Merlin, that hurt like a -" he muttered, stopping just half a second before nearly letting out a word he wouldn't be later proud of. Whilst the circumstances may allow him such an ungraceful way of easing his mind of frustrations, he reminded himself he had been educated better than that, especially in front of a lady. Perhaps it was the thousandth time the very same thought crossed his mind, but he had never believed, not even at the start of their journey together, that Hermione would gain his respect, let alone his admiration this quickly.

"Say what you must," she told him, her arms slowly retreating, as he stood again on his own.

He looked at her, half of his mouth in some sort of smile. "Thank you."

She returned the half-smile, nodding her head, still a bit surprised by his choice of words. A rush of blood returned to her face, but, this time, it wasn't out of fear. Draco too noticed the change in her, but said nothing, considering the changes he saw in himself. "What are we going to do? Even if we passed the dragon, we don't know what we are looking for," she said, focused again.

"If it's really here, it must be behind the beast, I think. I don't really know this part of the castle."

"How much do we have before the Death Eaters arrive?"

"Almost none."

And almost in an instant, as if summoned by the words, the end of the corridor was lit up as wands, with the Lumos spell cast, were making their way towards the very same dragon. At least that confirmed one thing, if they first came to check upon their bloody creature, then Draco and Hermione's guess had been right. There had to be something hiding behind the dragon that was of interest to both sides. The Death Eaters could've looked anywhere in the castle, considering they couldn't have known where exactly the two wizards were but, no, they came down there.

That was actually bittersweet.

They were still there. If somehow they managed not being killed by the dragon, the Death Eaterssurely wouldn't miss the opportunity. Suddenly, they had targets on their backs and, so, they had to move quickly and make a plan and do something as to both finish the job and escape safely. Easier said than done, both thought as they scanned together the possibilities.

"We have to go back inside with the dragon. I'd rather bet he can miss a target rather than Aunt Bellatrix," Draco told her, taking her hand and slowly moving towards the doors again.

Hermione let herself be dragged along by the platinum-haired boy, her mind wandering a strange direction. It was as if she needed to process the information that Bellatrix was his aunt, despite having actually known that for some time already. It was simply... hard to believe it, actually, such a close family connection between such different people: a good guy, as she had come to think of him in the past few days, and the worst witch to have ever been.

As the entrance to the dragon's chamber, she focused again and they managed to dodge another incoming fireball. They split, trying to get around the beast on opposite sides, as to confuse it. It would shoot once at him, then spit fire after her, but unfocused enough to always miss and that came as a huge advantage to the young wizards.

When they finally got behind the creature, they finally saw a rather strange thing upon the reptile's skin. As if he had been painted in black on its back, the dragon bore a mark. Draco felt sick to her stomach realizing it was a Dark Mark, Voldemort's very own signature on all of his followers' skins. He knew in his heart that he'd rather have his arm cut off rather than bearing it any longer, knowing how much of a fool he had been to join the war he didn't understand at that time. Or perhaps Draco had started understanding it exactly as he stained his skin with the Dark Lord's essence.

Hermione, on the other hand, was furious. It wasn't the first confirmation of how inhumane those people were, but having that creature made that bloody dark wizard's pet for battle seemed appalling. They had to free it somehow and use all the soap in the world to erase that despicable tattoo, or all the cleansing spells if the soap didn't work.

Another realization dawned soon upon them. There was nothing behind the dragon, no chest, no box, no treasure he would guard. If they were indeed right that the dragon had something to do with the Horcrux hidden in the castle, then it had to be somewhere there, perhaps in the walls, perhaps under the beast.

The stream of thoughts was interrupted by hideous laughter. At the chamber's entrance, there stood Bellatrix, eyeing Hermione with a disgusting grin and a murderous look on her face. Hermione swallowed hard remembering their last meeting at the Malfoy Manor many days before but hardened herself at the thought of paying the Lestrange woman back somehow, soon.