Watched Endgame yet? That movie seriously makes me want to go back to writing Marvel fanfics...

x Noelle

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Torture.

followed in the wake of Hermione's words. She swallowed hard. Had she been too presumptuous? Perhaps they didn't need her help.

"Granger," Draco's voice broke the tensed silence. His face was an expression of indifference, and his silver eyes were closed-off. She couldn't tell what he was thinking. "I need a word with you."

He stood and headed back to their room. She followed him and shut the door. Carefully, she settled down on the bed next to him. Draco was silent, the same sort of attitude he had when he'd tried to keep his distance from her before.

"You're not going to be a part of this," he said at last. "It's too big a risk."

"I know that."

"You are aware of the risks we take every day, aren't you?"

"Yes - "

"No, you're not. We carry out missions and patrols with the other Death-Eaters every day, not knowing when one of them might find out that we've gone rogue and hit us in the back with a killing curse. I stay by the Dark Lord's side, every single bloody day, not knowing when my skill at Occlumency would fail me and the Dark Lord would navigate his way through my mind in a second and know that I'm a traitor."

Hermione hadn't thought of it this way, because she hadn't known. But now she did - and frankly, it only made her resolve strengthen. "But - you still do it," she murmured softly, "you still stay by his side. For all these years."

He didn't answer.

She shifted closer and reached for his hand, intertwining her fingers with his. "That's why I want to help," she said softly. His gaze met hers, and she could see the intensity of desperation in his eyes. "I don't care much for this war," she continued, "It's not my fight anymore; it hasn't been for awhile now. But if ending the war means that you and your friends are safe, then I - I think it's a fight I'd like to be a part of."

Draco let out a sigh and buried his face in his hands. She didn't think he ever sounded this tired before. Like the three years of sleepless nights had come rushing back and everything was just exhausting.

When he spoke, his voice was rough and unsteady. "I just can't fucking lose you again, Granger."

She reached over to pull his hands away from his face. She saw the weary lines in his face, the tired frown between his eyebrows, and the hard line of his lips. She grasped his hands between hers and pressed a soft kiss to his knuckles.

"I can't lose you again either," she whispered, and smiled. "So let me fight your war."

He was silent for a long while. Then he sighed again and summoned his wand. "Hold still." He lifted the wand to her forehead and her eyes widened. "Memory locks," he hastened to explain. "Even if someone uses Legilimency on you, they won't find out what you know. Just in case."

Just in case we fail.

Just in case you get captured again.

Just in case I lose you.

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The screams of the tortured prisoners could be heard all the way from the basement of the Malfoy Manor. It was just one of those daily meetings Draco had with the Dark Lord and several other esteemed Death-Eaters, but Draco loathed those meetings more than ever, because he always felt completely outnumbered without Theo, Pansy and Blaise in the same room.

"What's taking Yaxley so long?" Bellatrix frowned as she clutched her wand tightly. Draco could tell that she was just itching to torture the prisoners herself.

"Patience, Bellatrix," the Dark Lord said. But there was a tick in his jaw that suggested he was just as aggravated.

Amycus Carrow leaned forward with an earnest expression. "My lord, these prisoners are trained to withstand the Cruciatus. It would take awhile before they give up information worth something - "

"Or," Draco interrupted bluntly, "Yaxley could be doing a shite job at torturing them."

"Yaxley knows how to use the Cruciatus - "

Draco rolled his eyes. "Obviously. But the extent of pain inflicted on a victim is proportional to how much you want to hurt them. We've been waiting for close to an hour now - seems like Yaxley's being soft about it."

"You bloody little - "

"That's quite enough, Amycus," the Dark Lord cut in. "Perhaps Draco is right. It's time to pay a visit ourselves."

He stood up and the rest of the Death-Eaters followed in an orderly fashion. Draco made sure to smirk at Amycus, just to rub the Dark Lord's blatant favouritism in the man's face. Frankly, what he really wanted to do was to hit Amycus with countless of Crucios, as payback for what he'd done to Hermione. Draco made a mental note to do that when the time was right. Revenge was going to be so sweet.

They soon found Yaxley in the dungeons with the prisoners. Several were bruised and bloodied, but none seemed on the brink of insanity or death. Draco instantly knew that Yaxley had been torturing them for.

The Deathly Hallows.

Thanks to Hermione, things were so much clearer now.

Yaxley's face went white when he saw the Dark Lord. "M-my lord," he stammered.

The Dark Lord turned to the other Death-Eaters. "Bellatrix," he directed, "Take over this interrogation. And Draco?"

"Yes, my lord?"

"For every Cruciatus that Bellatrix uses on the prisoners, I'd like you to use it on Yaxley over here."

Yaxley paled. And Draco smirked. "With pleasure, my lord."

"You may begin."

Bellatrix promptly hurled a Cruciatus at one of the prisoners, cackling with glee when the victim screamed, this time far louder than all the screams they'd heard over the past hour.

Draco didn't even flinch. Perhaps Bellatrix was right. Perhaps he was just like her-excellent at blocking out everything good in him.

So he didn't even feel a single ounce of guilt when he stepped forward and pointed his wand directly at Yaxley. He thought of Hermione and all the scars on her skin and all the nights she woke up screaming and all the tears she had shed.

This wasn't a show for the Dark Lord. This was going to hurt.

"Crucio."

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Hermione was pleased to find Theo sitting at the kitchen counter when she left the room that afternoon. He was having lunch and when he spotted her, he nodded amicably. "Afternoon, Red."

Hermione blinked. "What - what did you just call me?"

"Red," Theo repeated, and grinned. "It's far shorter than actually calling you Hermione, and Draco would probably hit me if I called you Frizzy-Haired Freak, so I'm settling for Red - because you blush. A hell lot."

She shook her head and smiled, before settling opposite him at the counter. He pushed a carton of food towards her and she eagerly reached for it.

"Aren't you going to work?"

"I'm done with the morning patrol," Theo spoke with his mouth full. Hermione thought it looked vaguely familiar but she couldn't remember where she'd seen it before. It definitely didn't come from Draco, who had impeccable manners when eating. "There's another in the afternoon and later at night."

Once again, she thought that her decision to join the fight was worthwhile. The war had forced all four Slytherins to grow up far too soon and, sometimes, it felt like they were over a hundred years old. They were just that tired.

And so Hermione thought the war needed to end so that maybe, just maybe, they could finally get that sorely-needed rest.

"By the way," Theo voice cut into her thoughts. "Draco told us that you're joining 17-65. He's paranoid about it but I think you'll have fun."

Hermione frowned in confusion. "What's 17-65?"

"Well, the four of us - sorry, five, including you - are in a fucking cool top-secret group, aren't we? So we obviously needed a fucking cool top-secret name. To be honest, I wanted to call us The Anti-Potters because, well, we're not bloody losers like him."

Hermione laughed and Theo grinned back, clearly pleased by her reaction.

"But Draco picked 17-65 instead which, by the way, are coordinates of the actual constellation Draco. So he basically named the group after himself, that bloody narcissist."

Hermione laughed again, then stopped as she thought it over. The numbers seemed familiar. "Wait," she said, suddenly remembering, "17-65. That number was part of the incantation I used to light the phial."

"Yeah, that number's part of our Protean charm. It's how we contact each other."

Hermione fingers automatically went to the chain around her neck, clutching the two phials that hung at the bottom. It was clever. The charm had practically saved her life. Well, Theo did, to be exact; but the charm really helped too.

"You know what we should do?" Theo suddenly said, and pushed his carton of food aside. "We could train you up."

"What?"

"I could teach you how to duel. It'll come in handy, especially now that you're one of us," Theo explained and grinned. "I don't like to brag - well, actually, I do - but I'm better than Blaise and Pansy at duelling. Of course, Draco's still way better. He's the one who taught me, after all."

"He taught you?"

"Yeah, back when I first started out as a Death-Eater. If it weren't for him, I would've messed up on a lot of missions." Theo stood up and picked up his wand. "But enough about that wanker, we'll train you now. It'll be fun, Red. Come on."

Hermione eagerly climbed to her feet. "I have to get my wand."

Without waiting for his reply, she rushed back into the room, found the spare wand and came back out. Theo was already shifting furniture aside with his wand to clear the living room. When he was done, he stood a fair distance across the room from her.

"Alright, I'm going to teach you a fairly simple spell. It's called the Knockback jinx. When you fire at me, it knocks me over, or back - depending on how steady I am and how strong the spell is. You moved your wand like this," he explained, doing a brief demonstration that she immediately mimicked. "And say Flipendo."

"Flipendo," she repeated.

"Right. I'll do it first." Theo summoned a green apple from the fruit basket in the kitchen. He took several steps away from Hermione, and threw the apple upwards, casting the spell quickly when it was still in mid-air.

"Flipendo."

The apple exploded into fragments that splattered across the walls and floor. He laughed. "Oh, well, Blaise will clean that up. Your turn, Red. No apples this time. Aim it right at me."

Her mouth fell open. "I'm not going to hurt you!"

"You wouldn't. That's just what the spell does to small objects. But it'll just knock me off my feet; probably send me sprawling on the ground. It's nothing I can't handle," Theo assured her, and dropped his wand. "Go ahead."

She took a deep breath. The wand shook in her hand and she felt guilty at the mere thought of possibly hurting Theo. "Fli-flipendo."

Nothing happened.

"Try it again."

"Flipendo."

A faint jet of light streaked out this time, but it didn't even reach him, let alone hit him. And Hermione was left shaking at the thought of the spell heading straight for Theo. It was a thought that terrified her.

Theo frowned. "You have to want to knock me back, Red."

"That's the thing - I don't want to!"

"You wouldn't hurt me."

"But I could," Hermione insisted. "I'm afraid I'm just no good at this. Sorry, Theo."

"S'alright." He watched as she sighed and returned to the kitchen counter. He followed and picked up his carton of food again. "You know," he said at last. "You used to be pretty good at duelling back during Hogwarts days."

"Really?"

"Yeah. There was that one time - in our second year, I think, when you and Millicent Bulstrode had to duel. You kept hitting her with the disarming spell until she lost her temper and put you in a headlock and the both of you were rolling on the floor screaming at each other."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Did I hurt her?"

Theo shook his head. "Hardly. But I've got to admit, that's one hot lesson I'll never be able to forget," he added, with an amused chuckle.

And when Hermione began to laugh, Theo tried to crack more stupid jokes, because hearing Hermione Granger laugh was the only way he could forget that this was a war, and that Millicent Bulstrode was now dead.

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"Crucio."

Yaxley spat out a mouthful of blood and glared at Draco. His glare was deadly enough to kill, but Draco didn't turn a hair.

"Crucio."

Bellatrix's prisoner looked far worse than Yaxley did. She thrived on making her enemies suffer, and the man had screamed himself hoarse four Crucios ago. He now lay in a quivering mess of blood, sweat and vomit.

"Well?" Bellatrix smirked down at him. "Still nothing?"

He whimpered.

"Alright then." She lifted her wand and aimed it at him. "Cru - "

"Stop!"

Both Draco and Bellatrix lowered their wands. The prisoner who had spoke was a younger man, barely older than Draco.

"Please don't - "

The one who Bellatrix had been torturing let out a cry. "Don't say anything! Don't - "

The words died on his lips as the Dark Lord shot the killing curse at him. The Dark Lord turned to the other prisoner and fixed his cold gaze on him. "Proceed."

The man kept silent. The Dark Lord nodded at Bellatrix and she lifted her wand again.

"Crucio."

He screamed as the curse hit him and broke immediately. "We - we were going to join the Order," the man gasped. "Neville Longbottom has been recruiting."

A chilling silence followed his words.

"The Order has not been active for years," the Dark Lord said at last. He turned to Draco, who tried to look startled. "Draco?"

"This is news to me, my lord."

"Bellatrix?" The Dark Lord looked over at the witch, who seemed confused. So did the other Death-Eaters. He looked back at the prisoner. "Is there anything else?"

"Promise you'll let us go if I tell you."

The Dark Lord laughed-an eerie sound that made Draco shiver. "Bellatrix?"

Bellatrix smirked and hurled another Cruciatus at the man. And mere seconds later, he was coughing up blood, holding up a hand as a signal for Bellatrix to stop. "They're - they're at the Forbidden Forest."

Draco's jaw clenched at his revelation. He wanted to kill the man for breaking so easily and for letting the Dark Lord know what he had spent three years trying to so hard to conceal.

"They have two other camps," the man added. "But we don't know where they're at."

The Dark Lord turned to Dolohov. "Take the other prisoners away. The rest of you - follow me, we have things to discuss. And Draco?"

"My lord?"

"Dispose of our informant."

The man paled and begged for his life as the Dark Lord turned to leave. Draco waited until the prisoners had been taken away and the Death-Eaters had left. He thought of Hermione, and how she'd suffered under Bellatrix's torture years ago. She hadn't said a word through it all.

Just like that, he saw red.

It wasn't the most righteous sort of rage, because Draco subconsciously knew that he himself was a coward. He'd always been one. But it made him furious that all of his, Blaise's, Pansy's and Theo's work had been for nothing. All smashed into fragments, just like that. It was their one job, their one job - to keep the Dark Lord from knowing about the Order. And this man had just given it away so easily.

When the basement had emptied out, Draco gripped the man by the neck. "What the hell was that?" He hissed furiously. "You couldn't have kept your mouth shut through two Crucios?"

"I-I - "

The man seemed incapable of speaking coherently through his tears, and Draco flung him away. "You disgust me," Draco spat, before standing up. He used a quick Legilimency on the man and found that he had, indeed, been telling the truth - Neville Longbottom was recruiting for the Order.

The Order was finally rising up from the ashes again and the Dark Lord was going to destroy it before anything could happen. Just that thought alone made Draco livid enough to kill.

And so he did.

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Draco returned in a volatile mood that night. He didn't acknowledge his friends in the living room. Instead, he strode to his own room and slammed the door shut.

Hermione looked up from her book, and her smile faded when she saw his grim expression. "What's wrong?"

"Just give me a minute, Granger," he returned shortly, and grabbed the telephone on the bedside table, dragging it towards the bathroom. Once inside, he sealed the door shut with locks and silencing charms, before punching in Andromeda's number.

After three rings, she picked up. "Password, please?"

"Dromeda, it's me."

"Draco? How're - "

He cut in before she could continue. "There's no time for niceties. The Dark Lord knows about the Order."

She gasped. "How?"

"One of the prisoners told him. The Dark Lord also knows that Neville is recruiting. Did you know anything about that?"

"Not at all." She sounded startled. "I thought the Order was helping people. I didn't know they planned to fight."

He wasn't surprised to hear this. His aunt was just as much a middleman as he was. They all played a dangerous game, not knowing when everything could explode in their faces.

And now Hermione was involved. Draco couldn't think of a worst time to involve her like the present.

He gripped the phone tighter. "The Dark Lord plans to launch an attack on one of the bases. I don't know the details of it and it might not even involve me, so send word to the Order to keep their eyes peeled at all times."

"I'll do what I can, Draco."

"One more thing." Draco shut his eyes briefly and wondered if he was going mad for even entertaining this idea.

"Do you know where Hermione's wand is?"