On the Way to the End - Dramione

Chapter 8

Hermione felt her legs land on the ground again and breathed in deeply as her ears adjusted from the loud commotion of a battleground to the silence of the wilderness. She had apparated them into a small field, with the outskirts surrounded by trees. It was dark, but the moon was close to full providing them with light. The young woman took a deep breath before looking at her companion. 

"Granger?" 

Draco's head and upper torso were resting on her lap from apparating. His breathing was ragged and Hermione was already covered in his blood. She pulled his mask off his face and looked down at the young man. 

"Granger, I found you." A small smile graced his features. 

"Found me? I found you." She told him. Found her? Was he looking for her?  Hermione used her wand to remove his outer cloak, leaving him in his black button-down and trousers. 

"The whole reason I went there tonight was to find you, Granger." He coughed a bit. What was that supposed to mean?  Hermione furrowed her brows, she was about to ask why, but he continued. "What's happening?" He asked, his voice hoarse. He was losing blood far too quickly. Why he was looking for her could wait until he was stable. 

"You're bleeding, I need to figure out where it's coming from," Hermione explained, she was now in saving-a-life-mode. Everything else was out the door.

Draco pulled himself to sit upright, "I was looking for you." He told her. And back to it again. 

"Me? Why?" She asked, keeping him talking was good anyway. Blood. Everywhere. On her hands, her clothing, all over him, his face, hands, shirt.  Shirt. That was it. The blood was seeping from under his shirt. "We need to get this off." Hermione began undoing the buttons on his shirt.

"Woah, at least take me to dinner first." Draco attempted to joke but fell into Hermione instead, quickly losing his balance. Goddamnit, he internally cursed himself. This was not how this was supposed to go. His vision was going blurry. Shit. 

She held him steady from her seated position, his side leaned against her as she sat on her knees. "Malfoy, you're losing too much blood." His breathing was getting worse. She just let him lean against her and finished unbuttoning his shirt before carefully pushing it off his shoulders. It fell onto where his cloak laid under him. "Can you sit or do you need to lay down?" She asked. 

He didn't reply. 

"Malfoy?" She laid him down on his coat and shirt, using all her strength to lower him carefully. He was even paler than usual and that was saying something. "Malfoy, come on stay with me." She looked to his chest.

 A long deep cut stretched from his collarbone down his chest. His chest, stomach, and arms were clad in dozens of scars. Hermione suddenly wondered how many times he had needed to make something look "believable" for the Death Eaters and Voldemort.  

"Come on Malfoy," Hermione patted his face and he opened his eyes once again letting out a small groan, "there we go, okay talk to me Malfoy, why did you want to find me?" She asked and got busy. She needed to keep him awake. Hermione pulled out her beaded bag and fished around for a moment. When she found it, she grabbed the small vile that contained the potion she used on Ron's hand. 

"Is it bad?" Draco asked, not listening to her questions, his instincts kicking in. 

"Someone used Diffindo on you. They were clearly aiming for your jugular." Hermione got the vile open and poured it into his cut, he hissed slightly from the pain. "You're lucky they missed." Hermione used her wand and started healing the wound together enough that it wouldn't bleed anymore. He was still in pain though, a lot of pain. Hermione was rather impressed with how good he was doing with it considering what a wimp he used to be in school.

"That kid from school. He sold you out." He breathed in deeply, training his eyes on her as she worked. Hermione furrowed her eyebrows, suddenly realizing he wasn't talking about the condition of his cut anymore. Draco continued, "from school... Timmy? or Tony? Or-"

"Terry Broot?" She asked. Hermione remembered talk about him getting captured. 

"Yeah. Yeah him. He told them about Grimmauld and gave them a map of the safe houses. They're going to take them all out." Draco explained, remembering Voldemort's plans from just a few hours ago.

"What? The Order is evacuating into the safe houses right now! I have to warn them." Hermione exclaimed but Draco grabbed her arm. His icy gray eyes met hers and she stopped. The intensity of his gaze bore into hers. 

"It's too late Granger,  they went at the same time as us to Grimmauld... There's no way you're going to go to all twenty of those safe houses and... make it out alive." He reminded her, finally breaking their gaze. He breathed shakily from the pain. 

"Shit." She cursed. Hermione knew that she had to focus on one problem at a time. Her fellow Order Members know not to apparate directly into a safe house, they'd apparate a few hundred feet away and check it first, if it looked worrisome they'd go somewhere else. 

Hermione knew the odds. Some would be killed. Some would be captured. But most would make it out and find new camps. She had to focus on staying alive and keeping Malfoy alive. It was very dark out in the field and she needed a blood replenishing potion and something to stop the pain. 

She could figure out the rest in the morning. 

"Malfoy, I need to get you a blood replenishing potion and-" 

"We can go to my apartment, I have some there." Draco told her. 

"What? No, they'll find me-" Hermione began again. 

"The only people who even know about it is my mother and Blaise, who are both willing to help the order. I have wards." The Slytherin told her, his voice ridden with pain. He looked up at her and sighed, he was looking for her all night yet she managed to find him. Sounds like her. 

"Grimmauld had wards." She reminded him. 

"Do you want the damned potion or not, Granger?" Draco asked, beginning to lose his temper. 

"Fine! How do we get there?" Hermione asked. 

"The wards will only let me apparate there." The young man explained. 

"Oh no, no way you're apparating us! You're in no condition-" 

"I can do it," Draco told her. 

"Malfoy-" 

"Granger." 

"No!" 

"Too bad." And with that Draco sat up, groaning in pain while he did so. He was still holding his wand from earlier and looked at her. Ignoring her continuing protests, he grabbed her arm and apparated them out of the field.