A Forbidden Birthright

Chapter Twenty Three

Hermione didn't know what happened. She didn't know what caused the panic. She just knew that her reactions were slower, her movements like she was dragging herself through warm honey. The room lit with a green flash. 

"Granger!" Draco snapped, but his voice was carried away as he lost his grip on her wrist and the two of them were caught in the suddenly desperate crowd.

She could see him dematerialize into black smoke and reappear too far from her as he searched for her. She could see something like panic alight in his eyes and she tried to push herself towards him but couldn't weave through the crowd. It was too tight, too crushing. She thought she saw an elf on the floor, a thin, bony hand reaching out in desperation as it was trampled in the rush. Hermione fumbled for her wand and tried to disapparate but nothing happened.

An Anti-Disapparation jinx had been cast.  

This realization pulled her a little farther from the fog her brain was swathed in and she forced herself towards the wall where she could creep along it. A vampire snarled at her as she passed and fisted her sweater, dragging her back towards him, teether bared. She threw a spell at him, a blinding white light, and he recoiled, releasing her. Before his eyes had time to readjust, she bolted for the wall and pressed herself against it, inching towards the door where it was turning into a bottleneck as people tried to escape. From what, she didn't know. 

Spilled blood slicked the floor and stained the bottom of her shoes. She shook it from her thoughts and made for the door, getting ever closer, all the while frantically looking for Draco. She didn't have the time or the room to send him a message using a patronus. She grit her teeth and hoped he would be nearby and that as soon as they crossed the threshold, they would be able to apparate to her hotel. 

After several agonizing minutes later, she reached the doorway. She looked back at the stage and saw the scarred man surveying the crush with a blood-stained grin. Her eyes dropped to the ground where she saw the raven's body had been broken open and- consumed- by the man. He was a Death Eater, she knew, and not the only one in the room. 

White hair suddenly flashed in front of her. She was yanked through the door and stumbled up only a few steps before she was pulled through space and landed roughly on her hotel room floor. Draco was on top of her, and she got the feeling it wasn't accidental, but to shield her from any potential attacks as they apparated. 

He rolled off of her with a grunt and leaned against the wall with a heavy exhalation of breath, hair mussed. Dirt and blood streaked across his face. She felt the haze in her mind clear, and relief flooded her body at the sight of him. The panic in his eyes had eased, but they still glinted when he looked at her. 

She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her head on the briefly, breathing raggedly. 

"What-" she stuttered weakly, "What happened? Who was that man?"

Draco's jaw flexed as he bit down, as though first breaking down what he had to say before speaking it. 

"You're right, I did know him. He's a former Death Eater I've run into before. He's connected to Caspian." He spoke without pausing, but even he sounded winded. 

"Why... why haven't- you killed him?" 

"I haven't been able to." 

"But you've tried?" 

Malfoy nodded. "I've tried. Name's Gideon. Nasty dark wizard." 

"Did you never," she inhaled a shaky breath to steady herself, still recovering from her disorientation, "meet him while Voldemort was alive?" 

"Only once or twice. I didn't even recognize him when I saw him again." 

"What happened back there?"