imprisonment

Chapter 27; H

Hermione was nervous to spar Draco. For all she knew he would probably take all his anger out on her. The days following his dementor attack her nerves were high. She didn't know when he would be fully recovered and ready to fight.

Every day they shared few words between each other, but nothing more. She created a glamour to cover the hole in the wall along with a silencing spell for their own privacy. They could cross the border of the wall, but any guards looking would see nothing. It took several days to create without a wand.

She should have done that from the beginning so dementors wouldn't hear them and follow the noise to attack. She felt dumb for not doing it sooner. After she broke the wall down it felt like she could do anything—like her magic was there again. Even without a wand, she had figured out how to conjure it with emotion: her emotion for him.

They barely exchanged words when she spent her time next to the wall creating the glamour. Every time their eyes connected, she would sheepishly look away, too cowardly to speak to him.

She was so frustrated. She thought they were making progress. She thought that their kiss on the balcony meant something, but she was wrong. She told herself that it didn't matter—that she shouldn't care if he wanted her or not.

But then she was reminded of her plan to manipulate him into falling for her. She wanted to abandon it completely. Her own feelings got in the way constantly, as much as she wished they didn't. She felt like something was wrong with her. But damn when she looked into his grey eyes, she felt butterflies in her stomach. She had never noticed how captivating they were.

It was about a week after the attack when he started speaking to her again.

"Granger," he said calling to her. The silencing charm could be broken when either of them wanted it to.

A deep pit grew in her stomach, she knew it was time for them to practice combative spells. She wanted to think he would never hurt her, but after seeing how angry he was when she fell asleep in his bed, she couldn't be sure.

"Yes," Hermione said shifting in her spot, grabbing at her sleeves.

"I'm feeling better if you are ready to practice," he said in a stern voice. He sounded so emotionless, unlike how he was in their visions. She had to remind herself that they weren't real. That version of him didn't exist.

"Okay, I'm coming over to your side," she said walking through the wall.

Their eyes connected for a moment before they both looked away. It was painfully awkward for her. It felt like they were enemies again in Hogwarts. They hadn't been this close since then. Sure, they were close in the showers, but it was pitch black then.

Now, she had a good look at him. They had always avoided each other, the only time she touched him was when she punched him in the face third year.

She hadn't realized she was staring at him. She looked down at her feet, avoiding his eyes.

"Okay, let's limit ourselves to non-lethal offensive and defensive spells. Since there is no way to cure ourselves here, nothing too damaging," he ordered her.

She didn't even know if she could practice magic like that. It took her days to fix the wall.  She figured he was strong enough to since he had been strong enough to use legilimancy on her.

She simply just nodded her head and said "Yeah, I agree. Only temporary hexes and jinxes."

He walked over to one end of the room, so she walked to the other end. Without a wand to aim, this was bound to end badly.

With no warning he shot a hex at her, causing her to jump.

"You could have warned me!"

"There will be no one to warn you, Granger. This is a war. They are aiming to kill."