Beauty From Pain

Chapter Thirty-Five

Hermione's knees nearly buckled. The relief she felt upon seeing Harry and Draco unharmed and in one piece was overwhelming. She made a desperate sound in the back of her throat, and Draco immediately looked up and found her.

His strides ate up the space between them in a matter of seconds. She had enough time to extinguish the light coming from her wand before she was gathered up in his arms, his face pressed against the top of her head, and reassurances being whispered into her hair. Draco's cologne filled her nose and settled the painful beating of her heart.

"I didn't know where you were." She choked on her tears and clung to his shirt. "I couldn't find you."

"I know. I'm so sorry." Draco ran a comforting hand over her back and said, "I should have told you. There were complications, and I couldn't get any word out."

Harry hung back, letting them have their moment. Realizing he was there, Hermione extracted herself from Draco and pulled Harry into a fierce hug. "Don't you ever do that to me again," she snapped. "You know what that does to me."

"I'm sorry, Mione." Harry wrapped his arms around her and gave Draco a pained look over her head. They had royally botched the entire mission. "I didn't mean to worry you."

Hermione pulled out of his arms and smacked his chest. "Well you did. You scared the hell out of me."

"After everything we've been through, you should know I can handle myself." Harry tried to say it as a joke, but his smile slipped as Hermione continued to wipe furiously at her tears.

"And you should know that, after everything we've been through, I would be scared out my mind if I can't find you." Hermione turned her glare on Draco. "Either of you."

Draco looked helplessly between Hermione and Harry. He wasn't used to someone worrying about him, other than his mother of course. Pansy, Blaise, and Theo always knew he could handle himself. But to come chasing after him, to another country no less, was a level of concern he was baffled by.

Harry set a firm hand on Hermione's shoulder and said, "Why don't we go back to the inn so we can gather our things and have an apparently very overdue conversation."

Hermione wiped away the last of her tears, took a deep steadying breath, and nodded.

The trio apparated back to Synge's Rest, Hermione riding along with Harry, and went upstairs to finish packing. Hermione hesitated at the top of the stairs, torn on which room to go to. Harry gently tugged on her hand and had her follow him into his room. She sat heavily on his weathered bed and watched him pack.

"He hasn't told you anything yet, has he?" Harry posed it as a question, but the weariness of his voice told her he already knew the answer.

"No, he hasn't." Hermione bit the inside of her cheek and tried to keep the second rush of tears at bay. "I've tried, but he—" Her voice broke.

Harry set down the shirt he had been holding and sat down on the bed beside her. He pulled her head to rest against his shoulder and ran his fingers gently through her hair. "It's not a reflection of you, you know that, right?"

Hermione nodded against his shoulder, but she didn't feel the truth in those words. It felt like Draco didn't trust her with something so incredibly important, something that he was able to talk to her best friend about instead of her. Was Harry more trustworthy?

"It's not you," Harry said more firmly. "This situation isn't a question of trust or a reflection of your relationship with each other. It involves the DMLE for a reason, Mione."

"I know, and I know it isn't about our relationship."

"But?"

Hermione sighed and tucked her face further into Harry's arm, as if she could hide from her problems in the warm flannel of her best friend's shirt. "It felt like when we were seventeen, and you went to face Voldemort, and I couldn't find you."