A wake-up call

[dragons_can_learn]

Draco was more tactile than either Harry or Ron, and after earlier events they were entwined together, naked and happily and relaxedly tired. On an impulse he'd had before he kissed her gently, open-mouthed, and then flinched as he broke the kiss and sat up.

"Fuck!" He balled his left hand into a fist even as he reached for his wand with his right. "Someone with the Dark Mark just cast Morsmordre. About sixty five miles that way." He pointed, eyes darkening and face closing down. "That's why it was feared of course." He frowned, then cursed. "Slytherin's serpent! That's probably Runton. Muggle village that contains the largest group of squibs in Europe! And if they've half a brain there'll be a standard anti-apparition ward slowing the Aurors down!"

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[mudblood_andproud]

The small village was quiet, almost too quiet when they first arrived. But Hermione could feel the sensation of dread all around them.

There were a couple of wizards in Dark robes that were moving around the streets. Every now and then, they would go into a house, and drag out a Squib to the streets. They were a small gathering of Squibs huddled in the middle of the town square.

Hermione stayed quiet, to ensure that her disillusioned spell wouldn't be broken.

[dragons_can_learn]

"Move on my signal." Draco's voice was a whisper and without moving his lips. "You'll know it."

And she could see him putting on the Malfoy arrogance and sneer as he stepped forward. "What's this? A muggle-baiting party and no one thought to invite me? I'm hurt, or was that signal the invitation?"

He smiled still walking forwards, voice pitched to carry entirely without magic and no visible wand in his hand. Obviously not a threat. Obviously. "You do realise the Aurors are going to notice a beacon like that. After all I did. That's part of the point of that spell." Of course he was pretty sure the Aurors wouldn't notice, but he just needed to keep talking. To keep their attention - after all there were a dozen of them and only one of him.

"That said I'm delighted to see some people are carrying on our Lord's work. Bulstrode." He nodded at one masked Death Eater. "Reynard. Strange name for a werewolf, but I suppose it was the runts of Greyback's litter that survived." He was met by a growl.

"And that can only be Gnarl." He nodded at the slightly taller than Hagrid dwarf giant who had a squib slung over each shoulder. Drawing them in as he approached Gnarl, hands still bare as more of those too low ranking in the Death Eaters to have been rounded up, but all dangerous.

He only wondered what Hermione was up to and hoped that she trusted him and would follow his lead even if he was currently in arm's reach of someone he'd pointed out as a werewolf.

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione watched as Draco put on his Malfoy airs, and stepped forward to challenge the other Death Eaters. She frowned to herself as he slipped into that role, so easily. And hoped that these Death Eaters wouldn't challenge him.

She kept close to the shadows of the street, so that she would not call attention to herself.

Hearing that one of Greyback's litter was here had Hermione feel a little panicked.

But she had to put her faith in Draco and his plan.

[dragons_can_learn]

It wasn't much of a plan, and Renard stepped forward, even closer to Draco. "So. Draco Malfoy come to join us as we cleanse the blood-taint from the Wizarding World. Didn't you turn your back on Our Lord?"

Hermione might be the only one to see the disillusioned wand slip into Draco's hand. If he was right this was a full coven of thirteen of the dregs of the Death Eaters. Only six here. Which meant that there were seven rousting out houses.

"You think that as an underage wizard I could go against my parents?"

"So. The young Malfoy admits he's a coward and a traitor to our Lord." The werewolf's grin appeared to have too many teeth. "Possibly you should join the squibs, where traitors belong." The lead werewolf was obviously psyching himself up for a fight.

Draco's voice was positively silky. "And you should Bello." Anyone sensible in combat cast non-verbally, but this was simply the first blast. And to cast the spell properly you needed to know that although it sounded almost exactly like the English word Bellow it was derived from the Latin word for war.

To everyone except Hermione Draco suddenly shone brighter than a magnesium flare, and there was a sonic boom that shattered windows. Hermione might see spots dancing in front of her eyes and hear something as loud as a jet engine but she was still largely protected. And a powerful Finite shot out from Draco, ending half a dozen spells (including those binding the squibs) and potentially her disillusion.

But it was confusion to the enemy and Draco took full advantage, lashing out with a sword in his left hand and slicing Reynard's wand and wand hand in half even as what looked like a serpent shot out of his wand and wrapped itself round the giant's neck. You couldn't cast spells directly on giants easily, but he hadn't. Instead he had conjured a couatl to blood-choke the giant.

And even without being blinded and deafened were Hermione someone other than who she was she'd probably still be standing there in shock.

[mudblood_andproud]

Even though Hermione is was not blinded or deafened like the others, she is still in shock for a brief moment. Draco is demonstrating a strength and power that is pretty remarkable. And it is a brilliant reminder of how amazing of a wizard he is.

With her disillusion ended, Hermione moves forward to where the Squibs were kept captive. Her first priority is to get them out of danger.

She watches her surroundings carefully, her own wand ready to cast any spells that might be needed.

[dragons_can_learn]

The spell had taken preparation and was fairly draining - but light and sound were two things to go straight through a standard Protego as one of the Death Eaters had found out to his cost.

Another thing to go through Protego was swords - which was why Godric Griffindor carried a sword that Harry could wield at twelve years old. It was an off-hand weapon that caught wizards by surprise and cut through their defences. Draco was making good use of his to render wands and sometimes wand-hands non-functional and following up with a Catalepsy spell other than on the giant; functionally it was little different from Stupefy other than that it slowed heart rate and breathing, but the counter-spell was much less well known and even with it cast the victim would still be groggy for half a minute. And blinded and deafened it wasn't as if they were fighting back, which was why Draco was moving fast.

Possibly he didn't have to destroy their wands but it was thirteen against two and it was a studied insult to destroy a wand while a wizard was holding it even if it would be terrible manners to destroy a dropped wand or a wand of a helpless foe. Indeed the sixth was just starting to cast a healing spell on himself when Draco cut his wand and cursed him.

"There should be seven more Death Eaters in the houses if this is a full coven." Draco's shout would be heard by Hermione but no one else had functional ears.

[mudblood_andproud]

"Seven more... right..." Hermione stands up and heads into the first house. Now that the village has been disrupted, there are people running around, and a lot of chaos.

In the house that Hermione enters she immediately finds a Muggle family huddled in the corner. Upstairs, she can hear a Dark Wizard arguing with someone. And she has a good guess that it must be the Squib of the family.

Quietly as possible, to get the upper hand, Hermione heads up the stairs. She can see their shadows first. And then slowly, the two arguing men comes into view. The Dark Wizard has the Squib up against the wall, with his wand at the throat of the threatened man.

"Accio wand!" Hermione casts her spell, so that the Dark Wizards wand flies out of his hand and into hers. She tucks it away into her robes, where she can be at an advantage.

[dragons_can_learn]

Draco meanwhile also knew that speed was important as although anyone inside would have ringing ears they would have been protected from the flash by not looking directly at it - but they would still be utterly disorganised - which was the only way to take on seven to two odds. And fixing ringing ears wasn't that hard. ​

Still, Draco recognised the first figure; the masks didn't conceal identities to people who already knew you - and he'd taught him how to stop ringing ears. "Greg? What are you doing here?"

"What does it look like?" There was a bit more bite to Goyle's voice than normal. "No one wants to hire a former Death Eater, and especially not one with my OWLs, the Ministry Mudblood Mandates prevent me getting a job there." He was of course talking about the preferential hiring practices for the muggle-born in the Ministry of Magic (even if they'd rapidly run into a glass ceiling) "And I don't want to rely on your charity. So I'm doing the only thing I'm good at. Now get out of my way Draco and cancel that Serpensortia you cast behind your back before I remind you how although it took your help to get an E at Potions I managed an O in Dark Arts."

Draco tried not to let Goyle having spotted that worry him. "We don't have to do this Greg. Leave now and I didn't see you." He apparently hadn't seen the second Death Eater sneaking round the edge of the house to outflank him.

[mudblood_andproud]

After ensuring that the Dark Wizard in the house was magically bound, to be collected later by the Aurors, Hermione headed back to the street to check around her surroundings. That was when she noticed Draco talking to someone, who he had identified as Greggory Goyle.

From her position on the street, Hermione saw the second Death Eather sneaking round. "Stupify!" With a quick reflex, Hermione cast her spell at the target.

And she moved forward slightly. "Watch your back Draco!"

[dragons_can_learn]

"Thanks!" Draco called back as his snake reared up in the grass, spread its hood and but the Death Eater who'd been sneaking up on him on the ankle.

"You're working with Granger?" The astonishment in Goyle's voice was evident although he visibly relaxed as the serpent found its mark. "And she's wearing your colours? If you're becoming a Dark Lord I'm in."

"Only in the classic sense, Greg. Now. Go!" Draco raised his wand.

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione bit her tongue slightly, not to respond to Goyle's jabs. Especially to not react to the claim that Draco is trying to become a Dark Lord.

"We still have a few more to round up." Hermione headed towards the next house, confident that Draco could now fend for himself for a little bit.

[dragons_can_learn]

"I'm not telling you where they went."

"I know and I didn't ask... Extonio." A flashbang hex detonated on the shield of the person Draco saw with a wand in one of the buildings; the shield wouldn't stop light or sound. This was followed by a shriek of outrage and he saw in silhouette someone bashing the person he'd just hit with a frying pan - and the wards preventing apportation fell.

Goyle teleported away just before the Aurors appeared.

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione paused slightly, when she felt the wards go down. And then steadied her shoulders, when the Aurors appeared. Hermione knew that there would be a ton of questions, but there was still work to do. There were still a few Dark Wizards to round up, and to make sure that no one was hurt.

Of course, she is a little worried about how the Aurors themselves might treat Draco. She was ready for a confrontation.

[dragons_can_learn]

Draco was aware of the risks, so he was going to try to do to the Aurors almost what he'd done to the Death Eaters as four materialised; he recognised Harry and Ron and guessed that the other two were their partners. "And what exactly do you think you are doing?" His voice dripped sheer aristocratic scorn of the sort he had sometimes tried for at school but never quite managed. "Coming to the scene of a Death Eater attack like this, wands by your sides. At least Scarhead and Weasley Number 6 are prepared for trouble." It was instinctive to both of them of course, half behind trees and taking cover - with wands pointed at Draco but scanning for any threat.

"But we..."

Draco cut them off. "There are your Death Eaters. And if I wasn't on your side you'd have lost your hands and wands the way they did."

Ron wasn't letting Draco get away with the stampede. "You mean you're not part of this, Malfoy? Then what are you doing here."

Draco's voice continued to drip scorn. "Where do you think the warning came from?"

And Harry joined in, pointing his wand at Draco. "That was Hermione's Patronus."

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione stepped forward, moving to stand beside Draco. She tilted her head, with a slight frown on her head.

"He asked me to send it to you, so we could warn the Aurors."

[dragons_can_learn]

The two Aurors stepped back. Harry and Ron they were used to, but Hermione had a reputation all of her own - but the two boys spoke almost simultaneously.

Harry was fractionally first "Hermione? What are you doing with him?"

Ron's voice was even more outraged. "Hermione? What are you wearing?"

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione arched an eyebrow at both statements.

"You immediately ask those questions? A cult of Death Eaters almost destroyed the village, and you ask about my clothing choices and my friendship choices, rather than to get a sense of what has happened?"

"These cloaks have protective charms woven in them. We had decided to help, and Draco offered me the extra protection. So I took it."

"And yes, before you freak out about that, I consider him my friend."

[dragons_can_learn]

Harry nodded. "Good point. How secured are the ones you caught."

Draco smirked. "That one's got about fifteen minutes to get his blood thinned. The rest I took down will take Ennervates and pepper-up potions or spells. I don't like stunned enemies getting back up."

Ron wasn't so easily swayed. "But. That's Malfoy colours. You're wearing Draco Malfoy's colours."

[mudblood_andproud]

"There are a lot of scared families too. I would advise that the Squibs that were dragged out of their homes get looked over by a healer. We don't know how much mental or physical damage might have been done."

Hermione tilted her head at Ron, with a slight roll of her eyes. "Do you expect Draco to be carrying robes of a different color in his home, Ron?"

[dragons_can_learn]

"Also a quick heal from the effect of really bright lights and loud noises might help. I used a flashbang spell because there were six Death Eaters in a group." Draco shrugged.

Ron persisted. "Do you know what it means if he's asked you to wear his colours?"

[mudblood_andproud]

"Bollocks the damn robes, Ron!" Hermione really didn't care if there was some hidden meaning to it, that she didn't know. She knew that Draco wouldn't expect her to abide by something foolish. And if he did expect her to... then they would have words later.

[dragons_can_learn]

Ron raised his hands. "You don't know what... For that matter why are you wearing Draco's robes? You're not...?"

[mudblood_andproud]

"They have protection charms on them, Ron." Hermione hates repeating herself.

"We just dealt with a cult of Death Eaters. And I wasn't about to walk into a situation unprepared, or unprotected."

[dragons_can_learn]

"So you and the ferret are a couple now?"

Behind her Draco waited for her answer, tense, and Harry's head snapped round.

[mudblood_andproud]

Hermione straightened her shoulders. And moved forward until she was closer to Ron and Harry. "Would you like me to answer that, using your nickname Ron? Or mine?"

"Or should we finally act like the adults that we are... and start realizing that there is a bigger world than what happened to us at school. And that we have to move forward to make our magical community a better one."

"I will not address Draco as a ferret. And I will considering it an insult if you do it."

"Draco and are exploring a new opportunity right now. It could mean we end up as a couple. It could mean we stay just friends. But it has no bearing on what happened here today. So act like an Auror and do your Bloody job!"