Chapter 4
When Hermione woke the next morning, she didn’t immediately know where she was, but it quickly came back to her when she saw Draco Malfoy sitting at the small table in their cell, drinking a cup of tea.
She got out of bed and darted to the bathroom without acknowledging his presence. After taking care of her morning needs, she contemplated taking a shower but decided to settle for brushing her teeth and washing her face. Then, she changed into the clothes folded neatly on the counter—a pair of jeans that fit her perfectly, a long-sleeve shirt, a warm sweater, and a pair of thick socks. After she wrangled her hair into a single braid, she studied herself in the mirror. She looked much better than she felt. Deciding that was good enough, she left the bathroom, joined Draco at the table, and poured herself a cup of tea.
“Blinky,” Draco said. The elf appeared within seconds.
“Good morning, Miss Granger,” Blinky said happily. “What does Miss Granger want for breakfast?”
“Please, call me Hermione,” she said. “I’ll have what everyone else is having. Please don’t go to any trouble for me.”
“Master says Blinky is to bring Miss Granger whatever she wants. Blinky cannot follow Master’s orders if Blinky does not know what Miss Granger wants.” The little elf wrung her hands as she spoke to Hermione.
“Fine. I’ll have scrambled eggs, sausage, grilled tomatoes, beans, and toast.”
“Oh, that’s a lovely choice, Miss Granger. And for you, sir?”
“I’ll have what she’s having,” Draco said, keeping his eyes trained on his cup of tea.
“Very well, sir. Blinky will return soon.”
The silence that surrounded them while they waited for Blinky to return was awkward and stilted. Once again, Hermione found herself struggling between wanting to ask questions and not wanting to deal with Draco’s arrogance and disdain.
Hermione was close to breaking the silence with a question when Blinky returned with their breakfast. “Thank you, Blinky,” Hermione said. She did not like being waited on by the elf, but she knew she didn’t have a choice.
“Does Mr. Malfoy have an ingredient list ready for Blinky?”
“Not yet. I need to discuss the ingredients with Granger first.”
“Okay, sir. Blinky will come back when the list is ready. Does Mr. Malfoy or Miss Granger need anything else from Blinky?”
Draco shook his head. Hermione smiled kindly at the elf. “Thank you, Blinky. I’m fine for now.”
“Very good, Miss Granger. Blinky will go. Enjoy your breakfast.” With that, Blinky snapped her fingers and disappeared.
Hermione tentatively poked at her food with her fork, waiting for Draco to begin discussing the ingredients with her. What was he waiting for? Apparently, he was waiting for her to take a bite of food.
The moment her mouth was full, he asked, “What ingredients would you suggest for a potion to cure magicalysis?”
Hermione glared at him while she chewed her food. She considered answering him with her mouth full to ruffle his finely mannered feathers, but she didn’t want to lower her standards just to irritate him. No, she wanted to keep her composure, no matter how hard he tried to make her lose it.
She finished chewing and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I think it would be more prudent for you to tell me what ingredients and mixtures you’ve already tried. I’m assuming you’ve kept detailed notes of your trials over the last two months.”
Draco straightened in his seat and stared at Hermione. She didn’t know why, but he clearly did not like her suggestion.
“Of course I have,” he snapped. “Since none of them have been successful, I thought we could take the opportunity to start fresh, instead of trying to fix what isn’t working.”
“Maybe I could look through your notes first. I don’t think discarding two months of work is the best way to go about this.”
“No,” he said simply.
“Fine,” she said and focused on her plate of food. She knew he wanted her to argue with him, and she wasn’t going to give him what he wanted. Instead, she was going to do the opposite to get what she wanted.
“Fine? That’s it? You’re just going to agree to start over?” he asked incredulously.
“Pretty much.”
After several moments of silence, he said, “Well, at least you’ve learned that you aren’t always right.”
“Oh, that’s not it at all. Starting over from scratch isn’t the right way to do things, but you’re obviously insecure about your notes. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have an issue showing them to me. If they’re really that bad, then we probably should just start over.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my notes, Granger,” Draco snapped and got to his feet. He stormed into the bathroom while Hermione continued eating her breakfast with a small, satisfied smile on her face. She may not have accomplished anything other than getting under Draco’s skin, but that was enough for her for the time being.
Moments later, Draco marched back to the table and tossed a notebook onto the table. “My notes, Potions Master,” Draco sneered.
Hermione tried to appear nonplussed as she picked up his notebook and opened it to the first page. She didn’t mean to lose track of time as she got lost in the pages, but she couldn’t help herself. His notes were detailed and well-organized, and his ingredient combinations were fascinating. Some recipes were comparable to what she might have suggested, while others were creative and unique. If they could find a way to work together, they actually might have a chance at successfully brewing a curative potion.
Hermione didn’t realize how much time had passed until Blinky appeared in their cell with lunch. She also didn’t realize that Draco watched her intently the entire time she was reading his notes.
“Blinky, may I have a notebook and a pen or pencil?” Hermione asked.
“Yes. Miss Granger has those items in the potions lab.”
“The what?” Hermione asked.
“The potions lab. On the other side of the bathroom,” Blinky explained.
Before Draco or Blinky could say anything, Hermione jumped to her feet and hurried to the bathroom. She walked to the door she had assumed led to a closet and yanked it open. She gasped when the sight of a lab greeted her. It was small, but it had all the things she needed to brew potions. The familiarity of the equipment and the smells of the ingredients brought her a sense of comfort she desperately needed. She could feel at home in a lab, even if that lab was in a cell in a Death Eater’s basement.
She found a new notebook on the counter beside one of the cauldrons. Opening the notebook, she picked up a pen and started writing. She had so many ideas flowing through her mind that she was struggling to write fast enough to keep up.
She filled several pages with thoughts and ideas before she looked up to find Draco and Blinky watching her. “Does Miss Granger have a list of ingredients for Blinky?” Blinky asked.
Hermione wrinkled her forehead in confusion. “Aren’t the ingredients in the lab?”
Blinky shook her head, but Draco was the one who answered. “No, they’re not. I give Blinky a list of the ingredients I need, and she brings them to me. I guess they don’t want me using my knowledge to figure out a way out of here.”
Hermione frowned. She could get them both out of there if she could brew a batch of Gingerbread Juice, but it would be difficult to do without risking exposing the recipe. And the Death Eaters were the last people who should have access to Gingerbread Juice. She would have to wait and see what life was like in the cell for a few days. Then she could start planning how to secretly brew the potion that could save them both. Or at least her. She knew Gingerbread Juice worked for her, but she didn’t know if it would work for Draco. So far, it had worked for the three females who tried it, but it didn’t work for the one male who did. That was the only noticeable difference Hermione had been able to come up with as to why the Gingerbread Juice didn’t work for Minister Shacklebolt. If that was indeed the case, she would be able to escape, but she would have to leave Draco behind. The thought wasn’t all that unpleasant.
“Shall Blinky bring ingredients?” Blinky asked, pulling Hermione out of her thoughts.
“Yes,” Hermione answered. “Just a moment.” She quickly made a list of ingredients and handed it to Blinky.
“Blinky will return with your ingredients.”
“Thank you,” Hermione said as Blinky disappeared.
“Well, Granger, are you going to share your thoughts with me? Or do you plan to work on your own?”
Hermione swallowed thickly. “As much as it pains me to say, your work is exemplary. You made similar choices to the ones I would have made, yet there are a few times you made choices I’m not sure I would have thought of. Again, it pains me to say, but I think we could work well together if we can put our differences aside.”
“A backhanded compliment from the Golden Girl. I’m flattered.”
“Or we can maintain our differences and let competition fuel us.”
“Too late. You complimented me, and I heard it.”
Thankfully, Blinky returned with the requested ingredients, interrupting Draco’s gloating. “Does Miss Granger or Mr. Malfoy need anything else from Blinky?”
“No, Blinky, I think we’re okay for now,” Hermione said.
“Okay, Blinky will go now,” she said and disappeared, leaving Hermione and Draco alone in the lab.
Hermione didn’t wait for Draco to say or do anything. She got up and started inspecting the ingredients. She loved working in her lab at home, but she could be happy working in any lab. Before she knew it, she was preparing ingredients—chopping Wormwood, slicing Ashwinder eggs, grinding Asphodel. She turned to begin heating a cauldron and found that Draco had already done it. He gestured to her work area. “Are you going to tell me what you’re doing? Or were you serious about treating this like a competition?”
While she truly believed they would accomplish more working together, she had become accustomed to working alone. It wasn’t often that Hermione could share the details of her projects with coworkers. “Oh, my apologies,” she said and started explaining her thought process.
Draco listened intently and nodded at a few things she said. “I’m not sure about the Lobalug venom. I think that might cause the potion to curdle when added.”
“Not if we heat it first and mix it with Horklump juice before adding it to the mixture.”
“Really?” he asked in surprise. “You think that will work?”
“I know it will,” Hermione said confidently.
“How do you know? Because I’ve read every potion book ever written, and that’s not in any of them.”
Hermione grinned. She was delighted that Draco would be irritated by the fact that she knew something about potions he didn’t. “After having one too many brews curdle, I thought about other potion instructions. Many of them say to heat an ingredient and mix it with another of similar consistency before adding it to prevent curdling, so I gave it a try. It worked perfectly.”
“What other useful knowledge are you gatekeeping?”
“I’m not gatekeeping anything.”
“Yes, you are,” he insisted. “Information like that should be published so others can benefit from it.”
Hermione didn’t care for his tone. She looked up to glare at him. “And how would you suggest I publish this information, seeing as my job with the Ministry isn’t public knowledge? It wouldn’t make much sense for an employee from the research department to publish revolutionary tips and tricks for advanced potion making, now would it?”
Draco leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. Hermione watched the move and realized he was bigger than he was the last time she saw him. He was taller, and his chest was broader with what appeared to be a bit more muscle. He had grown into a man—a nice-looking one, even if she hated to admit it.
Draco’s condescending tone snapped her out of her perusal. “Honestly, Granger, to be so smart, you can be astonishingly daft. You could publish the information using an alias or have the Ministry publish it for you. I’m sure Shacklebolt would love to accept the credit and praise for your work.”
Hermione opened her mouth to fire a witty retort at him, but she quickly closed it. He was right. She could have published the information in a number of different ways while concealing her identity, but it had never occurred to her to share the information with others. She’d been solely focused on creating new potions, not educating others on new methods and techniques, but she could have easily been doing both.
Hermione swallowed thickly. She could be the bigger person, even when it meant admitting that her nemesis was right. “You’re right. It was an oversight on my part—one I plan to correct when I get out of here.”
Draco raised his hand and cupped his ear. “Could you repeat that? I don’t think I heard you correctly.”
“I could, but I won’t.”
“I would expect nothing less from you.”
Hermione gestured to the ingredients on the counter. “Can we get back to work?”
“Of course,” he said and gave a curt nod. “If this is what it’s like to work with you, no wonder they won’t let anyone talk about it,” he mumbled, but she heard every word.
“Piss off, Malfoy,” she snapped.
“Wish I could, but alas, I’m stuck here with you.”
She ignored him and went back to her recipe. She didn’t need him to help her, and she found his frequent mood changes to be exhausting.
It took her a while to get lost in the familiarity of the tasks, but when she finally did, she didn’t give Draco a second thought. She moved through the steps with a practiced ease, stopping occasionally to write something in her notebook. She was just about to add the final ingredient when Draco stopped her.
“That won’t work,” he said. Hermione thought she detected a hint of urgency in his tone, but his blank facial expression indicated otherwise.
“Why not?” she huffed.
“Because you already have dragon’s blood and unicorn’s blood in your cauldron. If you pour a vial of viper venom in there, the mixture could explode.”
“I highly doubt that,” Hermione said and tipped the vial of venom to pour it into her boiling brew.
Draco smacked her hand away from the cauldron, but it was too late. Several drops of viper venom splashed into the mixture. A loud boom echoed through the lab as Hermione and Draco were thrown back by the force.
Hermione groaned when she hit the floor, immediately followed by a yelp of pain as the boiling potion splashed across her arm. Draco reached out and grabbed her other arm, pulling her across the floor and under a table a split second before a large amount of potion landed where she had been.
“Are you okay?” he demanded.
“I-I th-think so,” she stammered as she cradled her arm against her body.
“Let me see,” Draco said softly and reached for her arm.
She flinched back and stared at him with uncertainty.
“Let me see your arm,” he repeated gently. “You were burned with a magical potion. You know how bad those can be.”
Reluctantly, she extended her arm for him to inspect. She couldn’t make herself look. With her eyes tightly closed, she asked, “How bad is it?”
“It’s not great, but it’s not as bad as I thought. Let’s get back to our room, and I’ll call Blinky to come help.”
Draco crawled out from under the table and extended his hand to Hermione when he got to his feet. Hermione took his hand and let him help her up. He let go of her hand and turned to walk to the door but stopped when Hermione grabbed a handful of his shirt.
He whirled around to see her swaying. “I don’t feel so good,” she mumbled. Draco scooped her into his arms before she had a chance to fall and carried her through the bathroom to their room. After carefully placing her on her bed, he called for Blinky.
“Hello. What can Blinky do for sir?” the ever-cheerful elf asked.
“There was an accident in the lab, and Hermione’s hurt. I need you to bring a numbing agent, something to clean her burns with, a salve that will heal magical burns, and gauze to wrap her arm in. Then, I need you to clean the lab with magic. Do not touch any of the potion, Blinky. Even when cooled, it might hurt you.”
“Yes, sir,” Blinky said and snapped her fingers.
Moments later, she returned with the requested supplies and went to the lab to clean up the hazardous potion.
Draco tore the sleeve of Hermione’s shirt to fully expose her forearm. The burns were already forming blisters filled with black fluid, which Draco knew was filled with toxins. He quickly sprayed her entire forearm with the numbing agent.
“I can’t feel my arm,” Hermione said, her speech slightly slurred. When she turned her head to look at him, he gasped. She was extremely pale, and small beads of sweat had formed on her forehead.
He schooled his expression and focused on the task at hand. “Good. We want your arm to be numb for the next part.”
“Why? What are you going to do to me?”
Draco sighed. “I’m not doing anything to you. I’m going to clean your arm and drain the toxins building up under the blisters. Then, I’m going to cover the area with a healing salve and wrap your arm in gauze.”
“How do you know how to fix this?” she asked.
“Personal experience.”
“Oh. Is that how you knew about the reaction?”
“Yes, Granger. If you must know, I’ve made that mistake myself and suffered similar consequences. For a short while, my Dark Mark looked like it had Dragon Pox.”
“Does it still work?” she asked, trying to keep her mind occupied while he tended to her arm. Even though she couldn’t feel it, she knew exactly what he was doing and preferred not to think about it if she didn’t have to.
“Does what still work?”
“Your Dark Mark.”
“No, it doesn’t. The magic died with him.”
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Are you glad that it doesn’t work anymore?”
Draco sighed in frustration. “Of course I am. I was a sixteen-year-old boy being used as a pawn by the darkest wizard to ever exist. I didn’t want the Dark Mark, but I wasn’t given much of a choice. I either took it and did what I was told, or I could watch my family be tortured and murdered before the same was done to me. Either way, my father would be punished, which was the main point.”
“I still can’t believe your father didn’t end up in Azkaban for the rest of his life.”
“I can,” Draco admitted. “He had amassed a large collection of dark magic artifacts and objects. He was willing to trade numerous rare and dangerous objects for his freedom.”
“I always thought he bought his way out of trouble.”
Draco snorted. “He did. Aside from the large donation he made to the Ministry, how do you think he acquired all those artifacts? He paid much more than he should have for most of them.”
Blinky reappeared, interrupting their conversation. “Blinky is finished with the lab. Oh, Miss Granger!” Blinky gasped as she caught sight of Hermione’s arm. “Blinky will bring a pain relief potion and a healing potion. And food. Miss Granger must eat with the pain relief potion.”
“I don’t think I can eat anything right now,” Hermione said. She still couldn’t feel her arm, but overall, she didn’t feel good, and her stomach was unsettled.
“Bring her some kind of soup with crackers or bread,” Draco said.
“Yes, sir. Blinky will do that.”
“Did you feel bad when this happened to you?”
“Yes. My body was sore, and I was quite queasy.”
“How long did it last?”
“I believe it went away a few hours after I got all of the toxins out,” he told her, continuing to work on her arm.
“Do you know why the potion exploded?”
“Yes. The reaction was caused by the dragon’s blood and the unicorn’s blood. As you know, dragons fall on the darker side of magical beings, while unicorns are the essence of light and happiness. Including blood from magical creatures on opposite sides of the magical spectrum made the mixture volatile. A secretion from a nonmagical creature, particularly a secretion that is considered destructive, made the volatile potion explosive.”
“Ugh,” Hermione groaned. “But we need the blood from the magical creatures to restore the cells that have been lysed or damaged, and we need the venom to permanently destroy the cells that can’t be repaired by the magical creatures’ blood.”
“I know,” Draco said.
“And we can’t use venom from a magical creature because magical venom won’t completely destroy magical cells,” she continued.
“I know,” he repeated.
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did tell you, but you added the venom anyway.”
“Okay, fine. Lesson learned. I’ll heed your warning next time.”
“We could avoid that altogether if you’d talk to me about your potion plans.”
“I could talk to you about my plans if you weren’t such a condescending prick,” she snapped.
Draco inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly. “It’s a hard habit to break, especially around people like you, but I’ll try.”
“People like me? What does that mean?”
“People who know about my past, particularly those who were there to witness it,” he clarified. “My arrogant attitude was nothing more than a defense mechanism, but like I said, it’s a hard habit to break.”
“So, your real personality, is it more pleasant than your fake one?” Hermione asked, hoping to break the tension.
Draco smiled softly and shook his head. “I guess that depends on who you ask.” He finished wrapping her arm with the gauze and sat back on his heels. “I’m finished with your arm. We’ll need to change the dressing before you go to bed tonight.”
Blinky reappeared with Hermione’s soup and crackers. She placed the tray over Hermione and snapped her fingers to raise the head of Hermione’s cot. “The vial on your left is the pain relief potion, and the one on your right is the healing potion. Would Miss Granger like some tea?”
“Thank you, Blinky. I’m okay for now,” Hermione said.
“And for you, sir? What would Mr. Malfoy like for dinner?”
“I’ll have whatever you’d like to make,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Blinky smiled. “Blinky will return.”
Hermione began to eat her soup but paused after a few spoonfuls. “Don’t you think it’s odd how well we’re being treated? I mean, you pretty much have full command over Blinky, our accommodations are much nicer than they could be, and no one has come to beat us or torture us with the Cruciatus Curse.”
Draco winced when she mentioned the Cruciatus Curse—the one his aunt had used on Hermione at Malfoy Manor.
“In other circumstances, I would find it odd, but they need us to be in good shape to be able to create the potion. We wouldn’t be able to think clearly if we were sleep deprived and malnourished. I assume Blinky was tasked with serving us and meeting our needs to ensure we remain at our best,” Draco explained.
“I have one more question,” Hermione said.
“That’s perhaps the biggest lie you’ve ever told, Granger. You will never have just one more question.”
“Fine,” Hermione admitted as the corner of her lip twitched with a smile. “It’s about the viper venom. You said you knew it would cause an explosion from experience, but I don’t recall seeing anything about that in your notebook.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
Hermione shook her head. “Why wasn’t there anything in your notebook about the explosive reaction viper venom could cause when mixed with blood from magical creatures?”
“Because that happened before I was brought here,” Draco said and moved away from Hermione. He didn’t say as much, but she got the feeling that she’d hit on a sensitive subject.
“How long have you been working with potions?”
“See? I told you there would be more than one question.”
“And I believe I agreed with you,” she said and gestured for him to answer her question.
“I guess it’s been about five years now. It took a little while for things to settle down after the war ended. We had my father’s charges to deal with, and then we relocated to one of our other properties.”
“That’s right. I think I remember hearing something about your family moving to France.”
“That was a rumor started by my mother,” Draco said. “We actually moved to our home in Italy.”
“It must be nice to have so many options,” Hermione said.
Draco’s forehead wrinkled. “I can’t tell if you were being serious or were covertly making a dig at my family.”
Hermione grinned. “Maybe a little of both.”
“You must be feeling better,” Draco observed.
“I think I am,” Hermione said. “My arm is still numb, but my body doesn’t seem as sore, and the queasiness has subsided.”
Blinky reappeared with Draco’s meal—steak, roasted potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Hermione sat up straighter and inhaled deeply. “That smells delicious, Blinky.”
“Oh, thank you, Miss Granger. Blinky hoped you would be feeling better, so Blinky brought extra for Miss Granger,” Blinky said and placed a plate of food on the tray beside Hermione’s empty soup bowl. “Blinky will take this away. Would Miss Granger like tea?”
“Yes, please. Thank you, Blinky.”
“It is Blinky’s pleasure. Blinky is so happy Miss Granger is better. Blinky will come back when Miss Granger and Mr. Malfoy are finished.”
“She’s really sweet,” Hermione said. “I wonder if we can take her with us when we leave here.”
“We?” Draco asked with an arched eyebrow.
“We, as in either one of us.”
“Well, regardless of you, me, or we, I think the answer is no. House elves are loyal to the homes and families they serve. She couldn’t leave, even if she wanted to. Surely you remember that from your SPEW days.”
Hermione sighed. “Yes, I remember, but I still want to take her with me. I like her.”
“You, Hermione Granger, want to have a house elf?” Draco asked incredulously.
“No! Of course not!” she insisted. “More like a roommate or friend, possibly a paid employee of some kind.”
Draco laughed. “No, you want her as a pet.”
“I most certainly do not.” She tried to sound firm, but she couldn’t keep the amusement out of her voice. And as she looked at Draco, who was still chuckling, she realized they were getting along and having a bit of fun. She also noticed how Draco’s face became even more attractive when he smiled and how his eyes sparkled when he laughed. Then she shook her head to clear it and blamed her thoughts about Draco on whatever was in the pain relief potion. “I want her to have a happy life.”
“How do you know she isn’t happy? She seems happy, doesn’t she?”
“She seems cheerful, but that isn’t the same as happy.”
“I think we have other things to focus on besides a cheerful but possibly unhappy elf.”
“Yes, I suppose you’re right. Because I do not intend on being here for two months.”
“You think you’ll be able create a curative potion for magicalysis in less time?” Draco asked, seeming very interested in her answer.
“I hope so,” she said, even though that’s not what she meant. “You’ve already been at it for two months, so it shouldn’t take us two more months to figure this out.” What she really meant was that it wouldn’t take her two months to acquire and hide the ingredients she needed to make Gingerbread juice. She hoped it wouldn’t take longer than a few weeks, but some of the ingredients were considered rare and she didn’t know what kind of access Blinky had to potion ingredients. As she was thinking about it, she decided she would start requesting the harder to find ingredients sooner rather than later in case Blinky needed extra time to find them. She was determined to get out of there as soon as possible.