Unofficial Portkey Archive

Shadow Walker

Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time.

-Bonnie Tyler, "Total Eclipse of the Heart"

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If I could find the years that went away, destroying all the cruelty of fate, I must believe that love will find a way, tonight.

-Trading Yesterday, "One Day"

Hermione felt like she was in the eye of a hurricane, immobile, but with endless, unstoppable motion surrounding her: streaks of light, snippets of sound, flickers of people gone so quickly that it made her head hurt as her brain struggled vainly to make some kind of sensible picture out of it all. She remained in the Department of Mysteries, but Unspeakables were in and out, the room's layout was rearranged - it grew and shrank and changed in shape - and it was as if she were watching all of it in high-speed fast-forward.

And then it stopped, as abruptly as though a great cosmic finger had descended and forced the spinning to desist. She wobbled on her feet, pinwheeling her arms, and trying desperately not to fall, as her inner ear fought to reestablish her balance. A couple of cloaked Unspeakables eyed her curiously before going on about their business, and she hoped that the tea she had shared with Harry wasn't going to end up all over the stone floor beneath her feet.

"You must be the right one," came an airy voice from over her shoulder. Hermione whirled on one heel, whereupon her equilibrium gave up, and she tumbled gracelessly to the ground. Luna's cowl fell forward, almost covering her eyes, as she reached down and helped the embarrassed traveler to her feet, as if she did it every day. "There have been others flickering through, but none of them stopped."

"O - o - others?" Hermione stammered. Her throat had clenched up, and she rather coughed out the word.

"Others of you," Luna clarified. "Or at least, I think they were you. They certainly appeared to be. There's not much mistaking that hair. I've been waiting for you."

"How could - how could you possibly know - ?"

"Know that you were coming? Oh, I didn't. But every so often, something happens - a `turning point', if you will - and we get movement. Other versions of you in other universes have made the same move you have, and they are on their way to … their particular destination, wherever that may be. Calpurnia figured that one of you would end up here eventually. Only in a blue jumper this time, apparently."

Hermione darted a distracted look at her jumper, but pursued the more important subject at hand. "If nobody's stopped before, then you - then you don't know why I'm here." Her voice was shaky and hesitant; she felt clammy and guilty, though she had as yet done nothing wrong. Why don't you just announce that you're here to commit a terrorist act or assassinate the Minister, or something?

"Oh, that's not my jurisdiction. If you wouldn't mind coming with me, we'd like to check your constant, document it if we don't already have it."

"You mean, you honestly don't care that I'm here. What if I - ?"

"What if you're here to kill the Minister?" Luna's laugh was high and musical, like a child's. Hermione figured that her own pole-axed expression probably spoke volumes. "You have a necklace, and you switched from the Ministry. The odds are that you were authorized to do so by an Unspeakable." She shrugged her shoulders, and her radish earrings danced from side to side. "Besides, if you really wanted to kill a Minister, wouldn't it be easier to just murder the one you already have?"

Hermione blinked at this bizarre path of logic, but supposed that it made a twisted kind of sense.

"I've - I've just got to find someone. A criminal who… who fled here, who doesn't belong here. That's - that's all." She wasn't sure why she felt compelled to justify her actions, as if she were going to be chastised by McGonagall or something. Maybe it was due to Lucius Malfoy's inherent oily elusiveness. He could somehow squirm out of this too, make it look like I'm the one in the wrong. Luna could not have looked less concerned, however.

"Name?" She asked in a business-like way, following a detached "hmm" in response to Hermione's stammered excuses. She reached for a polished door handle, yanked it, and the heavy door swung open noiselessly.

"Hermione Gr - Gran…ger…" Hermione's voice trailed off into silence, as she unabashedly gaped at the room in front of her. It was the size of the Atrium, at least, in one of those Wizarding impossibilities that made the inside of a place so much larger than the outside. Luna's footfalls echoed cavernously across the black tile floor, as she wove expertly through a maze of - were they transparent panels? some kind of charmed forcefield? Whatever they were, there were myriads of them, situated vertically like chalkboards, humming with a soft backlit glow, and covered in a profusion of colored lines, intertwining, then running parallel, then branching out at different angles to cover the room. Other Unspeakables moved about in the same erratic pattern that Luna did, occasionally manipulating the displays on the panels with precise flicks of their wands. Hermione was astounded; she had always seen the Wizarding world to be hopelessly behind the Muggle world in technological advancement, but this - this - was cutting edge, almost out of science fiction.

"What - what is this place?" She managed, still agog. She had never seen this room. She had never heard this room mentioned by any incarnation of Harry or Luna before.

"This is the Nexus." Luna's voice was cool and serene. Hermione was possessed of the sudden ridiculous urge to poke her, and make sure she was a flesh and blood human being, and not some artificial intelligence. "We map universes here, observe timelines -" Luna gestured toward the branching lines for added emphasis. " - congruencies… important people…" She met Hermione's stunned gaze with a look full of implication. "Scruto!"

She had directed her wand at Hermione, but the blue beam came from the nearest panel, issuing horizontally, widening at the end like light from a projector. It ran over Hermione from head to toe, though she felt nothing, and a new readout popped up on the panel.

Granger, Hermione J. Version 3.4.2, born 19 September 1979. Indigenous Universe: 4Q-122543-WL56Y. (Mapped: 28 February 2000.)

There were several pie charts beneath. Hermione squinted at the tiny font. The best she could tell, the charts explored some of the recurring statistical probabilities in her life, and the segments blinking in gold were the ones that applied to her personally.

"You seem rather inextricably intertwined with Harry Potter," Luna observed mildly, discerning some meaning that she could not fathom from the knotted strands of color careening through the panels around them. "In 72% of the universes we've mapped where both of you exist and have Magical abilities, you end up allying with him."

Harry… something exquisitely painful squeezed in the region of her chest. "How - how many times do I - do I lose him?" She rasped, trying and failing to sound natural. Something like sympathy flashed in Luna's winter sky eyes.

"These timelines are for correlative purposes only. I could tell you nothing that would indicate any causation on your part." She cleared her throat at Hermione's continued gaze. "You lose him during 19% of those alliances. The number increases to 35%, when either you or he is Dark."

"Am I - I mean, will I - ?"

"It is not advisable that these analyses be used for predictive purposes."

"Then what the bloody hell are they for?" Luna's clinical detachment was beginning to grate on Hermione's already jangled nerves. The Unspeakable flicked a glance at her…amusement. Hermione wasn't sure if that flash of liveliness made her more or less annoying.

"Strictly for the sake of knowledge… observation of patterns… possibly leading to conclusions about the fabric and nature of the multiverse."

"Conclusions about the fabric and nature…" Hermione echoed in a trailing mutter, tacking on a sarcastic, "Of course."

Luna stabbed her wand at the air in an intricate series of swirls and thrusts. A couple of the lines zoomed to the forefront, as they rotated and perspective changed. New pie charts blinked into existence on the bottom half of the panel.

"Is Lucius Malfoy the object of your search?" She asked abruptly. Hermione goggled at her, and she was pretty sure her mouth gaped open like a fish's for much longer than it should have.

"Why - how did - how could you possibly - ?" Inwardly she cringed. Well, if they were going to stop me, I certainly have done a bang-up job of misdirection about my plans!

"In universes where both parties exist and have magic, you directly oppose the Malfoys 81% of the time," Luna informed her blandly. "Even you and Voldemort are only enemies 74% of the time. It is a logical conclusion."

"Even if the percentages aren't to be used for predictive purposes?"

Luna arched one brow at her with a touche look.

"Yes," Hermione heaved a reluctant sigh. "I'm here for Lucius. He is from … our… universe - " She hesitated over the technically inaccurate pronoun. "He is wanted for murder, and fled here several years ago. I'm here to retrieve him, and bring him back for justice. Do you know where I can find him? I - I've noticed that - that Harry and I seem to have certain places that we… er, crop up. Do you catalog those? What about places like that for Malfoy?"

"Yes, those are focal points." More flourishing from Luna's wand. Hermione was struck by the ethereal grace inherent in her movements. "Lucius Malfoy has four places that recur a statistically significant number of times. Here you are." She prodded a symbol at the bottom left-hand corner of the panel, and a miniature scroll - tied closed with a jaunty bow - popped out of a slot immediately above. When Hermione remained still, as if hit with a Petrificus, Luna retrieved the scroll herself, and placed it in the other woman's palm, going so far as to curl Hermione's fingers around it. "I'd try his manor house first. Supposedly, his movement is restricted to the house and grounds. You are free to proceed."

"That's it? No cautions against taking the wrong Malfoy, possibly unjustly detaining a fellow Multiverse traveler…nothing?"

Something not altogether wholesome glinted in the dreamy blue gaze of the Unspeakable. "In this universe, our maps showed that Lucius Malfoy was missing, presumed dead, immediately following the Final Battle, in which Harry Potter and Seamus Finnegan defeated Lord Voldemort. Six months later, he resurfaced with a story that, unfortunately, kept him out of Azkaban. Lucius Malfoy is an honorable, upstanding member of the Wizarding community less than 8% of the time. I cannot see why anyone would want to go find an extra one, were they blessed enough to lose their own Malfoy." Her smile was tight and a little merciless, and Hermione suddenly found herself dying to ask what history Luna had with that particular Pureblooded family.

"But if you know that this Lucius Malfoy has arrived here from some other universe, why haven't you - ?"

"It is not our jurisdiction. You are free to proceed." Luna echoed her earlier comment, and turned back to the panel, wiping it of Hermione's information, with a few quick slashes of her wand. Hermione had clearly been dismissed.

"Er… thanks…?" Hermione mumbled, carefully pocketing the scroll and moving back toward the heavy door, through which they'd first entered. She made her way through the revolving doors, and entered the nearest lift, her spirits rising with it, as she made her way to the Atrium. Am I really this unused to things going right? she pondered. I have my wand, some money, a list of places to check out, and I'm authorized to be here. This is going to be a piece of -

She landed hard on her rear end, after colliding with someone as she exited the lift. Her face flushed red, as she staggered to her feet, and turned to her toppled victim.

"I'm so sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going, and - oh my God, I haven't hurt you - either of you, have I?" She had extended her hand to help the other person to her feet, and noticed immediately, even with the voluminous cream-colored robes, the woman she had knocked over was very noticeably pregnant. There had been some annoyance on her face, but it melted away with Hermione's flustered, obviously sincerely upset, apologies.

"Oh, we're made of tougher stuff than that, aren't we?" Masses of blond curls obscured the woman's face briefly, as she patted her rounded belly fondly. She then looked squarely at Hermione, with a friendly smile. "Please, don't think anything else of it. I'm quite all right, and so is Lily. And you look like you've already got quite a lot on your mind."

Lily, Hermione's mind seized on this name, and then began to spin tractionlessly. The other witch stuck out her hand, amiably, and said, "I'm Vega Potter. I'm the Muggle Liaison attached to the MLE. I'd be glad to try and help you, if I can."

"I'm … I'm Hermione Granger," Hermione rasped, after entirely too long of a pause. Yes, you can help me. I'm after your father. Only he's not really your father; he's from an alternate universe. You aren't on good terms with him or anything, are you? Would you mind if I took him with me so we can rip out his Constant and shove him through the Veil?

"Are - are you all right? You took quite a fall yourself, you know." Vega peered more closely into Hermione's face. "And pardon my saying so, but you look like you've seen a ghost."

"You have no idea," Hermione rejoined with a weak laugh. "I'm sorry. I've quite lost my manners, and you are going to think I'm absolutely mad. I've just come from the Department of Mysteries, and I've got a mission to complete. But I think I do know who you are. How is your father?"

Vega's soft expression of concern hardened, and she began to twiddle with her wedding ring, fluttering her fingers reflexively to turn the diamond around and around. One hand went to her abdomen, and she moved away from Hermione, as if suddenly remembering that the woman before her was a stranger.

"My mission involves him," Hermione admitted. "I assume he's not on good terms with you - or your… husband? I assure you he's no friend of mine."

"Would you like to come to my office?" Vega finally said, after a long, assessing look. "I've some time before my next appointment, and I'm guessing you have questions."

"I do have questions, and I would love to speak with you." Hermione's voice was prim, as she strove not to fall all over herself with gratitude. Of all people that she could run into - literally - outside of a lift!

"When are you due?" Hermione finally asked, after trotting silently in Vega's wake for a few moments.

"Six more weeks." There was something hopeful and yearning in Vega's voice. "Harry has already been after me to stay home, and - sure, walking around makes my back ache and all I want to do is eat - but I can still function. Why shouldn't I work for as long as I can? And Harry's so busy out in the field on cases - it's not like he'd even be there to hover, although trust me, he does enough of that when we aren't at work."

"That sounds like Harry," Hermione blurted, lulled into carelessness by Vega's friendly chatter.

"How do you know Harry?" Vega's voice was light, casual, but Hermione caught the undertone. She concluded that Vega was too trusting by nature, but she had been coached by someone - three guesses who, she thought wryly - that she needed to be more wary. Although, Hermione conceded, for the wife of Harry Potter, and the mother of his child, that was probably not an unsafe course of action.

"We were friends… a very long time ago," Hermione sighed.

Vega used her wand on a brass panel beside a heavy oaken door. The latch clicked and it opened of its own accord, where they were greeted with the sea of noise and motion that was the Auror bullpen. Several wizards and witches greeted Vega by name, and the rule-follower long dormant in Hermione began to worry that she had no Visitor's badge, nor any kind of written authorization to be there. Vega threaded her way through several desks, which appeared to be laid out in no kind of discernible pattern, until she arrived at another door, with a frosted glass half-panel inset into the wooden frame. Vega's name was inscribed onto another brass plate alongside it. Potter… Hermione wondered if that name would ever stop causing her to act like a patient with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Now," Vega said, as she gestured to the empty chair at one end of her desk, and closed the door. "You're clearly magical, but Harry has never mentioned you, and I don't recognize you from Hogwarts. So, how do you know my husband?"

"Have you ever heard of the Multiverse Room?"

"I know a bit about it. The Department of Mysteries has a fondness for secrets, but The Nexus was hailed as one of Minister Lupin's greatest achievements. They couldn't keep it completely under wraps. Are you - ?"

"I'm from another universe. One where Harry and I - where we were close. And I lost him. So I've been traveling through universes since then."

"But - but you said you were on a mission."

"I am. I've found a new universe where I'd like to make my home. In that universe, Harry is alive, but has also lost someone - you. The Lucius Malfoy who belongs to that universe escaped here, and I have come to bring him back."

"So, my father killed me." Vega said the words woodenly, as though she could not really make herself believe them. Her right hand stole down to her abdomen again.

"I didn't say that."

"You didn't have to. He tried to, here - I know that was his goal. We found ourselves face-to-face in an empty corridor. He missed, and I Stunned him. I probably - I probably should have done more… But then he just disappeared. I was - I thought maybe he'd died, and I was glad…" She looked shamefaced as she made the admission. "I don't think he ever forgave me for being a girl. Then for not being Sorted into Slytherin, for choosing the opposite side during the War. And - and he always hated Harry."

"What about after he turned up again?" Hermione asked her gently.

"He was put on trial, but his testimony was all disjointed. Most people thought he'd gone mad. Even under Veritaserum, there were things he claimed he couldn't remember. The spell record found in his wand didn't match the ones witnesses claimed he'd cast. The case fell apart. He had to pay reparations, and he's been sort of exiled from society. We don't speak."

"So… so, if I take him back…" Hermione was afraid to voice what she'd begun to fear most, as soon as she realized whom she'd knocked over in the hallway, that Vega would have repaired her relationship with her father, that there would be some kind of fight to save him.

"If he needs to atone for his crimes, be my guest." Vega's words were decisive, though with little heat behind them. "My father may never pay for what he did in the service of Voldemort. Apparently, we still don't know what happened to him. But if you can bring some other Vega justice…"

"Do you have time for lunch before you - hello." Harry had stuck his head in the door, and begun speaking to Vega, breaking off as he noticed that she was not alone. A wariness crept into his green eyes; no doubt he's wondering if I'm going to fangirl all over him, Hermione thought. "Sorry, I - "

"I've just been chatting with Hermione Granger," Vega interrupted, a look of long-suffering good-humor on her face. "Hermione Granger, this is my husband, Harry Potter, who is appears to be incapable of knocking on a door."

"A pleasure to meet you," Hermione offered cordially, standing and extending her hand for him to shake. His hair was cropped much shorter than she'd normally seen him keep it; he was without his glasses, and was wearing unfastened Auror robes, tie somewhat askew. She could see the edges of a leather wand holster peeking from the end of his sleeve.

"Likewise." The look in his eyes suddenly struck her. There were the shadows that she'd always noticed: the ones accumulated over the years of neglect and upheaval and heavy burdens, but when he looked at her, she saw only mild friendly curiosity. This was a Harry who had not ever lost her, had not ever longed for her, was completely happy without her. It was interesting, she mused. "Erm… you're welcome to join us for lunch, if you'd like. I've just got to collect something from my desk."

"Oh no, I couldn't intrude -" Hermione protested.

"Do come with us, Hermione," Vega interposed, then addressed her husband. "It turns out that Hermione has some goals which coincide with some of ours."

"Sounds good, then," Harry threw the words casually over his shoulder, as he moved out of the doorway, ostensibly heading to his own office.

"A background check on her isn't going to do you any good, darling," Vega called out good-naturedly, suppressed amusement glinting in her eyes. Harry darted such a supremely guilty look at Hermione that she laughed.

"I wasn't - " The denial was feeble at best.

"This is about the Nexus," Vega rejoined in a lower voice. "And I'm absolutely certain Miss Granger means us no harm." Harry opened his mouth, but his wife raised one finger to forestall whatever he'd been about to say. "No snide comments about my naivete, please." The glitter of amusement was back. "Trust me on this one."

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"What the hell, Vega?" Harry kept his voice at a conversational level, but he was clearly irate. "Have you absolutely lost your mind?"

"I thought it might be the easiest way!" Vega's voice was almost apologetic, as if she'd known what his reaction would be, and was already sorry she'd said anything. Hermione absently twirled her fork around in her pasta, eyes fixed on her plate, as she tried to pretend she didn't have a front-row seat to an argument she'd caused. "I could get you through the wards. It wouldn't even be illegal!"

"You aren't setting one foot within 20 miles of that manor!" Harry's blazing eyes shot over to Hermione, where she met them guiltily. "Tell her! You've brought this all up now, so you tell her how it is unnecessary and dangerous!"

"She doesn't have to come," Hermione began slowly. "It might be the easiest way to get on the grounds though. She could stay at the gate."

"I could stay at the gate!" Vega echoed triumphantly. Harry's eyes flared viridian at this further betrayal.

"I'm already going with you. Lucius has been under house arrest in that manor for how long now? I think I can handle him. And you… you're pretty good with a wand, aren't you?"

Pretty good with a wand. Hermione couldn't stop a smirk.

"In my universe, Malfoy is the Minister, and I was Undesirable Number One. What does that tell you?" Her stony gaze crossed Harry's and clashed.

"If either of you hack through those wards using your wand like a battleaxe, he's going to know. It is going to take a little more finesse, and I know how those wards work! Do you want to risk that he somehow eludes you? It will alert the Ministry too; they'll know. And while the Unspeakables have more or less sanctioned your mission - as much as they ever sanction anything, anyway - do you really want all the extra hassle and paperwork?" Vega was speaking quickly and professionally, now, and Hermione could see how she was so good at her job as liaison. "I can get you in. I'll stay in the lane. Seamus can stay with me." Her words were meant to placate, but Harry hardly looked mollified. He looked as if he'd been cornered by two unpredictable creatures, and as though he wholly blamed Hermione for instigating this situation.

"What if - what if you aren't allowed through the wards anymore?" Hermione ventured, trying one last time to prevent Vega from going, to remove that belligerent look from Harry's face.

"Blood dies hard," Vega answered, with a tight smile. "I'll still be allowed in."

Harry threw a few Galleons on the table to cover their lunch, and Hermione let it pass without comment. She realized that he was furious at her, and part of her could understand that. But most of her, the part of her that had become twisted and lonely following Harry's death, figured that the risk to Vega was minimal, and it would be the simplest way to accomplish her mission. You haven't always been this selfish, a tiny voice said. What if something happens to the child?

"Let me get Seamus," Harry finally said heavily, tension working in the muscles of his jaw and neck. When they reached the pavement outside the restaurant, he turned and faced them both, though he was zeroed in on his wife. "You will not step one foot on Malfoy land. You will not leave Seamus' side. For any reason. Promise me."

Hermione might have taken umbrage with Harry's tone, if she'd been Vega, but then she remembered that Vega had been sorted into Hufflepuff, where loyalty was paramount. There was trepidation in both of their faces, and Hermione belatedly realized that Harry was accompanying her so Vega would not, and that Harry was perhaps risking more than Vega was.

Blood dies hard.

He always hated Harry.

Lucius Malfoy was supposedly unarmed, his wand confiscated by the Ministry following his trial, but Hermione would wager the contents of Gringotts that he had alternate methods of attack and defense in that manor.

"And you," Harry directed at her, managing to keep most of his contempt from being blatantly obvious. "If anything happens to Vega, because we went to that manor, I - "

"Harry, stop." Vega put a flat palm on his chest, and he instantly lifted his hand to cup her fingers in his. "I'll be fine. Lily will be fine. When have you ever backed down from a fight?"

"This is not our fight!" Harry's voice was stricken, haunted.

"Any fight for what's right is our fight. And there is a man who is not my father, living in my family home." The corners of her eyes crinkled in fondness, and the look of love there almost made Hermione breathless in awe. "We've done things like this before, and come out victorious. We can do it again."

"You weren't pregnant before."

Vega lowered their clasped hands to her abdomen, and Hermione felt awkwardly as if she were intruding on a very private moment.

"This is his bloodline, after all… I mean, sort of. Besides, he's not even going to know I'm there. And even if he did, I don't think he'd hurt me. Or her." Her hand moved softly over her stomach.

"Until he remembers that she's my blood too," Harry muttered, dark humor sparking in his eyes.

"Listen," Hermione finally spoke in a calm voice, trying to keep the plaintive note out of it. "In my universe - my adopted one, that is - Harry lost Vega. This man killed her. The very Lucius Malfoy - not just a version of him - who sits in that manor. I am going to bring him back. I will do it with or without your help. I certainly do not want to put anyone in danger, but - " here she paused, and took a deep breath. "It would certainly be easier with help."

Harry's eyes flitted back and forth between the two women, and Hermione could see the moment that he reluctantly made his decision.

"Let me get Seamus," he repeated dully. "I can't fight you both."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Hermione moved stealthily through the corridor, her feet making no sound on the heavy nap of the expensive rug. Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness within, only occasionally broken up by moonlit windows; they had opted to go at night, in the hopes that they would catch Lucius unawares, already sleeping, and they dared not risk a light. She was about to round the corner, when something snagged at her arm, and she bit back a shriek.

Harry had wrapped his fingers around her wrist and stopped her from proceeding. She whirled to fix him with an angry, silent glare. He shook his head, gestured further down the hallway, and nodded toward the Auror-issued tracking device he held in his hand. Moving sideways, his back to the wall, he covered her, while she moved past the branching corridor, and continued straight. When they reached the next turn, Harry nodded, and held up three fingers. Third door. They were almost there.

Half the length of the corridor later, they reached the door, all but dripping with peeling and faded scrolled woodwork, with a heavy ornate door handle - at one time polished daily, Hermione was sure - as its proud adornment. She and Harry took mere seconds to cast Disillusionment charms on each other, as well as a Silencio on the door. It swung open noiselessly after one flick of Harry's wand.

An enormous bed took up a lot of space in the center of the very large room. Moonlight shone in through three floor-length windows. A curled body could be seen beneath the tousled bedclothes. Hermione felt her heart begin to pound with jackhammer quickness, and she forced herself to exhale a slow, silent breath. One spell, one quick trip, and this is over. Suddenly she wanted Harry, wanted to be in his arms, to feel his fingers ghosting over her face, to feel him kiss her again, to remove the angry grief from his ruined eyes.

Harry moved around to the far side of the bed, and let her know he was situated with a quick flick of his nearly invisible head. In nearly perfect tandem, they lunged and flung a non-verbal Stunning spell.

Red lights struck the form in the bed, and Hermione ripped back the coverlet, as something buzzed almost inaudibly in Harry's pocket.

"He's not here," Hermione hissed in alarm, looking down at the inanimate golem wearing Lucius Malfoy's dressing gown. Panic raced through her veins like quicksilver, as she met Harry's frenzied gaze.

"HARRY!" Seamus' voice crackled over the two-way connection. "HARRY, I DON'T KNOW WHERE HE GOT A WAND, BUT YOU'D BETTER GET DOWN HERE NOW!"

Harry let a string of blistering curses escape his lips, before he flung himself from the bedroom, running as if a furious Lethifold were after him, Hermione right on his heels.

Ahead of her, Harry was still cursing. From the few words she could catch, Hermione figured that his target was the Anti-Apparation wards installed by the Ministry. Her heartbeat pounded in her ears, and she found herself pleading inwardly for nothing to happen to Vega.

Harry hit the front door, still at a dead run, and took a flying leap to skip all five steps leading up to the sprawling front entrance, and landed on the bricked walkway, skidding into stride. Hermione all but stumbled down them herself, and then thought about the hole Vega had opened in the wards. Seamus was shouting over Harry's transmitter again, but she couldn't make out the words.

If I Splinch myself, I'll surely deserve it. And if I don't, and Vega's hurt, Harry will surely kill me anyway, she thought. Concentrating as hard as she could, willing herself through the surgical gap that Vega had opened, she Apparated. Even as she disappeared, she heard the booming sound of her displacement echo off of the surrounding hills.

When she rematerialized, the first thing she was cognizant of was fiery pain racing up her right arm, like she'd been burned with acid. She instinctively cupped her tricep, and her hand came away coated in blood. Splinched. She blinked away the spots dancing before her eyes, and forced herself to focus on the situation in front of her.

Seamus had taken cover behind a broken down wall just on the opposite side of the lane from the manor gates. He was periodically casting spells, but his wand was misfiring badly. Hermione wondered vaguely what had happened to it. He was working his way down the wall - toward where Vega was concealed, Hermione deduced. Malfoy had apparently come to the same conclusion, because his spells were hitting ahead of Seamus, although close enough to keep the Auror honest. A blast had boiled from the tip of Malfoy's wand, almost at the moment Hermione appeared, and chunks of rock flew from a section of the wall like shrapnel. Hermione barely heard a wordless cry of pain beneath the rattle of stone. Vega! She could hear Harry approaching, his frantic feet noisy on the lane leading to the gate.

Lucius became aware of her presence almost immediately, and whirled on her. Her instincts came roaring back to the forefront of her mind, and her spell left her wand at the same time as his. Malfoy dropped like a stone. She moved toward him cautiously, slinking on careful feet, and Summoned his wand.

"It's okay," she called. "He's down. He's down! Seamus, can you come restrain him, please?"

Seamus leapt over the wall, using one hand as a fulcrum, and did as she asked, giving her the same bewildered look Harry had when she talked too familiarly to him. He was ashen from dust of the exploded rocks of the partially destroyed wall, and blood was dripping from a laceration near his ear.

"Good thing you got here when you did. First shot the bastard got off did a number on my wand."

"Where is she? Where's Vega?" Harry yelled, sprinting through the gate at full tilt.

"I'm - I'm here." Vega stood from her hiding place behind the wall. She was disheveled and dirty, but otherwise looked unhurt. Hermione smiled wearily, wondering if that would be enough to save her from Harry's wrath. "I'm fine."

"How the hell did he know we were here?" Harry's voice ran the gamut from angry to distraught, as he carefully helped his wife over the low wall, running his hands over her hair, the sides of her face, her arms, her abdomen, as if making sure she was still intact.

"I don't think he did," Seamus answered. "He knew the wards had opened, and took the opportunity to try to get out. I don't think he gave a damn why they'd opened. He looked just as surprised to see me as I was to see him." There was chagrin in his Irish lilt. "He reacted faster than I did, damn him to hell."

"He's had help from inside the Ministry," Harry noted grimly. "There's no way he gets a wand and installs ward detection spells without Auror knowledge, unless someone helped him."

Wincing, Seamus daubed the blood away with his sleeve, and then used a spell to dissolve the resulting stain. "I'll open a file when I get back to Headquarters."

Hermione stood motionless in the middle of the lane, as Seamus prepared the insensate Malfoy for transport back to the Ministry. The terror and adrenaline were slowly leaching out of her, and her limbs suddenly felt like they had lead weights attached. Something warm and wet was soaking the side and sleeve of her jumper.

"Oh, sweet Merlin, Harry! Hermione!!" Vega's voice sounded frantic and terribly far away. Hermione lifted blurry eyes toward her. Was there another assailant? "She's wounded!"

Wounded? Hermione thought distantly. Oh, that's right. I was Splinched.

Then she heard Harry's voice, quite close.

"Did he get off a spell? Hermione! Did he get off a spell?!" He gently shook her shoulders when she did not respond as she should have. Her brain felt fuzzy and slow. Her knees began to buckle.

The three voices swam together, indistinguishable, as her world tilted. She felt arms catch her, and lower her gently to the packed earth of the lane. Someone was using magic. There was stinging pain down the length of her arm. A sudden rush of wind, accompanied by brilliant light behind her eyelids. Someone had sent a Patronus. That's Sectumsempra, Seamus' voice. Hermione, hold on! Then Vega, anguish clear in her words. Her jumper tore; she forced her eyes open to look at Harry, his forehead creased with urgency, as he ripped her sleeve off. She scrabbled at him with one hand; her limbs were not obeying her as they ought.

"I'm… I'm … " she struggled to say. I'm sorry.

Her world went black.

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