3
Hermione stands in the Forest of Dean in front of an old, run down shack that's nearly in shambles. It looks as it if could cave in at any moment. She questions how safe it is to be inside.
Hermione's heart thuds against her chest like a prisoner bangs on their cell, demanding to be released. She can hear the blood in her head pounding through her veins and arteries as she approaches the shack. She has never been this nervous before.
It feels as if she's walking into the arms of danger, while blindfolded. She reckons that's exactly what she is doing.
Her talk with Tonks hadn't helped her. It might have made her feel worse, actually.
Hermione inhales sharply and walks into the shack.
Draco Malfoy is slumped on a grey couch. He immediately stands at the sound of her walking in.
She hadn't seen him since he fled after Dumbledore's death. He had changed drastically.
He was so tall he practically towered over her. His shoulders were extensively large.
The mean boy who was all talk in school had disappeared, he was replaced with a man who was deadly. Everything about Malfoy was rough and jagged.
As she drew closer to him his height increased. He was so much taller than the lanky, awkward boy she had known. Every inch of his body was manly. She noticed how his trousers hugged his hips superbly. The way he wore his jacket buttoned showed his slim stomach but extenuated his muscle tone. He was very fit.
Her eyes flicked to his face. Just like the rest of him, his face was no longer boyish. His face was cold and hard, but yet beautiful. His features were hard and set in an unbreaking serious expression. He still had the platinum blond hair she had known, but his eyes had changed. They were now a stormy grey that added to his coldness.
She felt shivers down her spine as he stepped closer to her, almost closing the space between them. She felt his hot minty breath hitting her face as he stared down at her.
He smelled like cedar and smoked bourbon.
Hermione could feel the dark magic seeping out of him and tainting the air around them.
After he'd killed Dumbledore at the ripe age of sixteen, Hermione had known how dangerous he was. But standing here, bathing in his poisoned air, she could feel all of his savageness.
They stood there taking one another in for several moments.
"Granger." He spoke coldly.
"Yes, Malfoy?" She said with an innocent tone.
"You understand my terms for aiding The Order?" He asks while staring penetratingly into her eyes.
She really wasn't sure what his terms were exactly. Kingsley hadn't been completely clear with her. "Not really. Care to elaborate?" She questions.
The corner of his mouth quirks into a wicked smirk. "You are my terms, Granger. I want you in exchange for information for your friends."
Her stomach drops and daggers shoot through her body.
He notices her discomfort and a mix of satisfaction and cruelty flashes in his eyes.
Hermione shoves her disgust to the back of her mind and straightens herself. She clears her throat and says, "As long as you can work around my responsibility, I'm yours Malfoy. I swear it."
Her words triggered something in him, she could tell by his face, but his mask of coldness slipped right back into place like it never left. He leans into her, now only inches away from one another's face. "Good Girl." He whispers and his hot breaths hit her face sending shivers throughout her.
His cold, stormy eyes beam into hers.
"What do you do? I don't see you during battles." He asks while stepping back from her.
"Classified. I don't fight," she replied. He didn't need to know what she did, it wasn't necessary for their arrangement.
"Have you been taught occlumency?"
"Yes, Severus taught me. I'm not great but I manage." She was a natural, but Severus had given her lessons to help her improve.
He steps back to her, grabbing her wrists and shoving them into a wall. "Managing is not good enough. This is both of our lives on the line." He growls with a deadly expression.
She had seen it a split second before it happened. She put her shields up as he dove in to her mind. He tried to force his way through them. His force was strong and painful. He refused to let up as she began to grasp for air. He continued forcefully fighting her walls over and over again.
He paused. "I'm impressed, Granger," he said with a genuine look.
She had been so taken aback by his complement that she let her walls down. All of a sudden he was back in her mind, slicing through everything.
She tried to fight him out with no success. He was fast and strong. There was no way to even slow him down.
He retreated suddenly, nearly making her fall backwards as she clutched her head. The throbbing pain continued to grow. Malfoy carried on without paying attention to the pain he caused her.
"You're pretty good, Granger, but not good enough. You'll need to keep practicing. I'll help with that. They'll use a lot of different tricks to get your guard down and dive back in before you can realize it was a set up. Most of the time if you're captured you'll be crucio'd while they sift through your mind" he says nonchalantly.
Hermione was still struggling with regaining her breath. She felt like puking from the pain. "If you're captured they will definitely want to get in. You're one of the most important Order members. The information you hold is crucial. You could be brought to me or Severus. Honestly, probably even The Dark Lord himself. You need to get better at occlumency."
"How? Is there books that could help?" She asks. Her throat feels like she swallowed razor blades. Her screaming did a number. She had never had someone in her mind. Hermione had always thought Harry was dramatic about how painful his lessons were.
Harry was terrible at occlumency. If he was ever captured it would be over for everyone.
"Give them something. Something important. Don't rush to hide the important stuff or they'll know its important. Go to a important enough they'll believe. Protect that information and then pretend to give up. The Dark Lord is very powerful at legilimency, but if you pretend to give up something he will take that as a victory and you can still keep the valuable stuff hidden.
It made sense. How hadn't she thought of that?
"You have time to think of it. Think of something about scar head or the weasel that would be important. Something that would feel huge to the Dark Lord. We will try next week." He says.
Hermione didn't want Malfoy in her mind but for what its worth, she could manage to live with it.
Malfoy hands her a scroll of parchment. She unrolls it to find floor plans of some inner circle Death eaters and what areas were protected by dark artifacts or magic. It also informed The Order that Voldemort put a taboo on his name. Anyone who spoke his name would have Death Eaters sent to their locations to be taken and held hostage and tortured for information.
Harry was an idiot and was always using the Dark Lord's name.
"See you next week," Malfoy says before turning to leave.
"Oh before I forget," Hermione says as she reaches in her pockets to grab something. She pulls out a galleon and throws it at Malfoy, nearly hitting him in the head. He bends down to grab it and snorts.
"Granger, you really should keep your money. Merlin knows you'll need it." He reaches his hand out to give it back.
Hermione rolls her eyes. "No you arsehole. Its a DA galleon. If you need to contact me for a meeting or anything urgent rub it and send a time. It will heat up if I contact you, vise versa." She sneers.
"Who made these?" He asks while lifting it to his eyes and inspecting it.
Hermione rubs her matching coin in-between her fingers. She watches as his eyes widen at her message.
"You invented this?" His eyes are staring immensely at her with a sort of disbelief and astonishment. "You always were the brightest witch." He says with a smirk.
Her cheeks flush and she turns away. Ew! She was blushing at something Draco Malfoy said. "Don't say anything important on them in case they get stolen. Think of some sort of cover that wouldn't be suspicious."
"We could be meeting for sex?"
Hermione whips around to find him with a wicked grin on his face. "You are absolutely repulsive Malfoy! Get that shit eating grin off of your bloody face!" She shouts.
She watches as he barks a laugh before she apparates out of the shack and back to Grimmuald place. The sex thing was a good idea for not raising suspicion, though the idea of talking about sex with Malfoy made her want to vomit.