Forged

She felt the wards before she saw them.

Over the years, Hermione had become especially adept at creating, disarming, and locating wards. Hermione was of the opinion that anyone could do it if they paid close enough attention, but those around her swore that she had a sixth sense.

The key to locating and identifying the wards was guessing who cast them. Every person who used the spell left behind a signature. She could almost sense the person when she encountered the magic. The strength of the barrier often coincided with the strength of the caster. That was why she knew Draco Malfoy had cast the one in front of her.

It was stronger than most could conjure and its energy buzzed with a foreign kind of magic. Ever since he had gotten the dragon, his magic felt… different.

He had always been a powerful wizard, but now it was more than that. It was as if White Fire boosted his abilities in some way. But as far as Hermione knew, while dragons were innately magical, they could not harness magic on their own.

The reason for their shared strength was a mystery to her and to everyone else it was simply conjecture that couldn’t be proven. They couldn’t feel the wards the same way she could and therefore didn’t feel the difference between Malfoy’s magic before and after the appearance of White Fire. It was one of the reasons she tried so hard to teach the others her warding abilities, but none had caught on quickly enough in a world where time wasted on learning the wrong skill could mean death.

They were all at least somewhat adept at disarming and creating wards. Theories on Malfoy’s powerful magic would have to wait.

Hermione forced her brain to redirect its thoughts to her current task. She needed to find a weak spot in the wards to slip their team through. If Malfoy was alerted even a second earlier than they wanted him to be, the opportunity would be lost.

The group crept along the perimeter as quietly as possible. The wards were set in a perfect circle that stretched almost a kilometer in diameter. They had apparated to a heavily wooded area north of London. Seamus had scouted the area after Neville discovered Malfoy’s wearabouts. Apparently it had been Ruby who slipped him the location.

Hermione didn’t trust Ruby as far as she could throw him, but she did trust Neville.

Neville was good and gentle with everyone in the group. Despite his witnessing of Ron’s death, his easy demeanor and smiles were freely shared. If anything, it was as though he took it upon himself to be the cheer in the Order after everything happened. For a while, Hermione often found herself envying him.

How could he not be as affected as they were?

Against all odds, he had continued meeting with the informant. One day, about six months after Ron’s death, she followed him after he reappeared in Grimmauld from a meeting with Ruby. She had only intended to eavesdrop on his report to Kingsley, but as he exited the room, she noticed the distant look in his eye and the twitching in his hands. She subsequently found him hiding under the stairs, shaking and crying. She had simply held him for an hour before working up the courage to ask what was wrong. Neville told her that every meeting with the informant set off a panic attack. He felt flames around him at every moment….like White Fire was breathing down his neck.

Hermione and Harry had each questioned Neville a million times about what had happened and why Ruby would save him but not Ron. Neville, patient as ever upon each interrogation, always gave the same theory.

In his opinion, Ruby hadn’t meant to save him either. He’d simply been lucky enough to be standing closer to the informant when he threw his shield up.

This often led to an intense discussion on just how “far” Ron had been away and many test runs on how far a protego expanded when one didn’t have time to think before casting. The studies yielded inconsistent results and pushed Hermione and Harry to the point of insanity. It just didn’t make sense.

Hermione was currently scouring the wizarding black market for a pensieve so they could simply watch Neville’s memory. The skilled Legilimens in the Order, including Luna, had already seen it. But their accounts to Harry and Hermione did nothing to ease the need to see it themselves. They needed to scour the memory inch by inch and moment by moment before they would be satisfied nothing else suspicious had happened. In their opinion, Ruby acted intentionally, but they couldn’t reason why.

The group continued their slow creep around the dome shaped ward. Hermione had taught each of them to gently prod for weak spots along the perimeter. After a quarter of an hour, a low whistle signaled someone had found something.

The group made their way over to where Ginny squatted in front of the invisible barrier. This was where Hermione needed to take over.

She joined Ginny on the ground and got to work. Malfoy’s work in particular was meticulous and near impenetrable. Luckily, Hermione knew a secret to breaking through without alerting him. She was positive that he was growing furious with her and his inability to discover how she was circumventing his wards. The idea made the corner of her mouth lift. She had a sneaking suspicion that he knew it was her who was to blame. Hermione was often the one to place protection around safe houses and the like. Every time Malfoy encountered her magic, he seemed to learn from it and implemented it for himself. She could feel some wards of her own creation mixed in the bunch.

She thought it was very big of him to admit her wards were better. Imitation was the highest form of flattery afterall.

She nodded to Harry to join her. He held up his wand and waited for her signal. She closed her eyes and focused intently on feeling for the weak spot. Once she’d found it, she began taking note of all the intricacies of the magic. There was magic for blocking visibility, sound, an alarm for intruders, nasty curses when the barrier was touched, anti-muggle wards, notice-me-nots, and much more. She focused on creating the perfect replica in her mind. It mattered less that all the enchantments were included, and more that she duplicated Malfoy’s magic and the feel of all the enchantments combined. She just needed to trick the wards into thinking the magic belonged to their creator.

She took a breath and nodded to Harry. He cast the spell to break the ward while she infused her own creation simultaneously. It required perfect timing, but she and Harry were nothing if not practiced.

No alarms went off, so the group surmised they were still undiscovered. Now there would be a small gap they could fit through where Hermione’s replica magic lay. The only problem was that it was also the only exit point until Malfoy decided to break the wards.

They all slipped through single file. As soon as they emerged on the other side, they were greeted with more trees. As they crept in towards the center of the dome, two shapes began to slowly reveal themselves. The first was a tiny cabin, probably used for a park ranger or a rest stop for hikers. The second dwarfed the tiny building. Its giant mass was curled around itself with the head pointed towards the building entrance. It’s breaths were enough to cause vibrations through the trees and it’s side heaved up and down in time with each inhale and exhale,

Every member of the group took a shaky breath at the sight of White Fire sleeping peacefully in the clearing just outside the cabin. It was almost blinding to look at the dragon from certain angles. Its coloring refracted the filtered sunlight like a diamond, but from other angles the green scenery could be seen reflected on its smooth surface.

As much as Hermione hated the dragon, she allowed herself a moment of awe. Feeling anything but respect for the raw power and size of such a beast promised a swift end.

Harry nodded to the group to split up. They had a plan and each person had a role to play.

Over the past couple years, the Order had studied White Fire meticulously. Bullets from guns and even blasts from tanks seemed to have no affect. It was unclear whether it was the dragon’s scales that protected it, or Malfoy’s magic. Simple spell fire similarly bounced right off. Hermione had seen an Order Member hit the dragon directly between the eyes with Avada Kedavra to no avail. They had been repaid for their attempt by the courtesy of being torn in two by White Fire.

Hermione theorized that Malfoy had found a way to protect the dragon. What she wanted to test was whether the protection was permanent, or whether the dragon was vulnerable when Malfoy wasn’t prepared for an attack.

If that theory was false, she had a second one. Perhaps the dragon’s armour was impenetrable, but its weak spots were not.

In order to test both theories at once, the group planned to hit the dragon in the eyes. If the spells bounced off, they would know Malfoy had found a way to protect the dragon indefinitely, and if they hit their mark, they would have to guess whether it was due to the eyes being a weak spot or Malfoy having let his guard down.

They would only have one shot and Hermione did not plan to waste it by trying each theory independently.

While it certainly wouldn’t kill the dragon, a blind beast was better than a whole one.

Each member of their team took positions around the building and dragon. Dean, Seamus, and Luna would throw their own barriers around the cabin in case Malfoy tried to defend his dragon. Ginny and Neville went to the left side of the beast, where Ginny would throw a diffindo at White Fire’s left eye. Hermione and Harry took the right side. Harry would throw the spell while Hermione covered for him.

As each of them tiptoed closer to the white beast, they cast silencing spells on their feet.

Hermione glanced towards the cabin. A heated discussion was taking place within, but she could only just make out words. Malfoy’s low and drawling tone was easy to catch. The other sounded so familiar…. deep and cutting…. it almost sounded like…

“… please spare me the dramatics.”

“Severus, you know what is expected of me!”

Malfoy’s voice suddenly reached new levels, making it easier to hear.

“I know exactly what is expected of you Draco,” Snape said solemnly.

“Then you know it’s my duty to see this through. I won’t leave her behind… I wish I could explain properly…. but it’s not possible.”

“Give her to the Dark Lord, Draco. It’s that simple.”

“Gah! You stupid, old man. This is outside the scope of your old potions books. Nothing is simple when it comes to her.”

Hermione wanted to listen longer, but the team had each hit their marks on the playing board. It was time to move.

Harry and Ginny made eye contact across the lowered head of the dragon. Harry counted off his fingers from three…. two…. one.

And all hell broke loose.