The Silver Envelope

Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus

Chapter Notes
TW: graphic violence, blood.

By Draco's estimation, Umbridge had brought ten or so wizards. The disadvantage was unmistakable.

At least, it was until Ginny "Don't Fuck With Me" Potter lashed her wand out in front of her, shouted "Confringo!" and exploded the earth out from underneath the feet of their foes.
The ground rocked with the force of her spell, blasting everyone in the vicinity back, including Ginny herself. Draco hit the ground next to Hermione and Weasley, scrambling to his feet the moment he could breathe again
Umbridc's crowd had taken the brunt of the explosion. Umbridge herself had been thrown far back, nearly to the edge of the trees, and the back porch of the lodge was now one slight breeze away from collapsing in on itself, the edge of the roof having caught on fire. Flaming wooden debris rained down on their heads as Draco assessed the situation, holding his arms over his head and waiting for the ringing in his ears to subside. Four of Umbridge's wizards seemed to have been hurt in the explosion--they were either unconscious or clutching wounds and trying to staunch the blood flow. Selwyn, who appeared largely unscathed, advanced, targeting Ginny first.
Now was an exceptionally terrible time to be wandless, Draco thought as he dodged a bright orange hex that whizzed past his left ear. Especially considering that every wizard on Umbridge's side appeared to have enhanced their wands with Flint's Finest.
Brawling like a muggle wasn't an ideal solution either- -particularly not right after his soul had nearly been sucked out of his mouth-but he didn't have much choice. Running off to hide while Hermione stayed behind to fight was not an option.
Luckily, Ginny had his back. She was a force of nature as she fought, making liberal use of the Disarming Charm, which helped to level the playing field for him somewhat. He took a few hits from Umbridge's men. one in the gut and one across his law. though he managed to do more damage than he sustained. One unfortunate bloke served as a shield for Draco when he saw someone about to send a Sickening Curse at him. He yanked the wizard in front of him before it made contact, causing the man to immediately arop to the ground and empty his stomach.
"Draco! Wand for you!" Ginny shouted as she disarmed a wizard, causing his wand to zoom out of his hand and high into the air.
Draco snatched it before it hit the ground and turned it on the nearest of Umbridge's thugs, but his hex only produced an anemic puff of smoke. The man laughed, giving Draco the chance to change his grip and stab it into the man's eye socket. He howled, staggering backward off the bridge and
into the shallow river.
He stayed close to Hermione, dodging hexes and grappling with disarmed wizards. Hermione was
a decent fighter; if she wasn't stuck in defensive mode due to the sheer amount of people targeting her, she would be a deadly force.
Gritting his teeth, Draco fought a wave of dizziness beginning to overtake him as he lined up his next opponent, a short wizard with a snaggle-toothed, snarling face. Lungs heavy and limbs shaky, Draco was fighting to stay upright as much as he was fighting to keep himself and Hermione alive.
His heart was pounding hard, pumping his last remaining stores of adrenaline through his body.
More than getting hurt, Draco feared they would see his weakness. If they decided to make him their primary target, Hermione would certainly do something extremely stupid to try to save him.
He couldn't allow that.
Draco dodged a spurt of light ricocheting toward him, and felt his heart surge with horror when he heard Hermione cry out as it hit her instead. He hadn't realized she'd moved behind him
"Cover me!" she said, ducking to the ground and conjuring a liquid bandage for the large, blistering burn covering her arm. Draco was forced to interrupt her spellwork by yanking her out of
the path or another red-orange burning nex. Draco narrowed his eyes, looking around for the person who had cast it. It had appeared to come out of nowhere.
Johanna. She must be here in Potter's invisibility cloak, targeting Hermione.
"Johanna's invisible!" he hissed in Hermione's ear, keeping his eyes sharp.
Hermione jolted to attention at that, scanning the battle ground for any hint of her.
Out of thin air, another hex came rocketing for them both. Draco lowered his center of gravity and shot forward, lunging at the spot where it had originated and clumsily colliding with an invisible lump that let out a muffled, "Oohf!" as he tackled it to the ground.
"Lenitum Pulvis!" Hermione shouted, pointing her wand at the invisible figure on the ground.
Bright purple dust shot from the tip of her wand, descending in a cloud upon their grappling figures. Johanna struggled against Draco's hold on her, breaking herself free with a Disarming Charm that threw him backward harshly. The damage was done, however. Sticky purple dust now clung to the cloak, revealing her to all. With an enraged growl, Johanna threw off the cloak and bared her teeth as she faced the pair of them.
As a silver chain on Johanna's neck reflected in the light of the burning cabin, Draco's hand began to buzz maniacally. The elf magic from the wand polish called out to him.
Destrov the cham! it cried out in his mind.
The inexplicable urge to rip the necklace off Johanna overtook Draco.
Johanna saw where his fixated gaze had landed. With a sneer, she looped the silver chain around her finger, pulling it out of her robes for him to see. It looked ordinary, with no pendant or special design to pretty it up.
"Figured it out then, have you?" Johanna jeered. "Clever, isn't it? It was my idea, putting that spool of chain into the cauldron with the elf blood. Umbridge thought it was brilliant."
Destroy the chaaaaain! the magic in his hand howled.
Hermione shot an astonished look at Draco, her wand still trained on Johanna.
"The elves are bonded to that chain?" she asked.
"The wearer of the chains, yes. Don't tell me you didn't know, miss know-it-all?" Johanna taunted.
"Obviously we needed the elves to respond to the orders of more than just one of us. It's a growing
opera-
Johanna's little speech was cut off when an invisible rope caught her ankle and lurched her into the air to hang upside-down. Behind her, Weasley let out a shout of triumph, his wand still pointed at Johanna after casting his Levicorpus at her back. She flailed for a moment, trying to get her
bearings, but Hermione let loose an efficient stunner before Johanna could block it, and the woman
went limp.
Draco darted forward, thinking to grab Johanna's wand- but his hand had other ideas. His fingers caught around the delicate silver chain, which had nearly fallen off Johanna's head when she'd
flipped upside-down, and removed it from her.
His elf-magicked hand roared at him to destroy it, but Draco held back.
This wasn't the only chain of its kind. Everyone with the power to command the elves wore them as well, if he had understood correctly. Besides, Johanna had said they had a whole spool of chain no doubt potion-soaked and ready to adorn the necks of more elf masters. Destroying this one, just on its own, would do little good. He pocketed the necklace, silently promising the elf magic again that he would destroy the chain as soon as he could. His hand flared with heat in a brief
warning.
Dodging two more curses, Draco returned to Hermione's side. ready to take on any more disarmed men. But at that moment, everyone on the battlefield was distracted by a huge, crackling crash in the night sky. Above the lodge, a muffled explosion rattled the earth as bright red light radiated like lightning from a point in the invisible barrier Umbridge's team had put up.
"Harry!" Ginny breathed, her eyes fixing on the spot above them as another thunderous crash sounded. Potter was trying to break his way in.
"Ginny! Watch out!" Hermione shouted, but it was too late. Selwyn had used Ginny's distraction to
his aavantage.
Ginny screamed, doubling over and collapsing to the ground. Red, blistering welts were blooming
on her hands, rendering her wand useless
Weasley charged at Selwyn with a furious bellow then, but he was too late to block Selwyn's defense. Weasley was blasted back from the healer, landing with a hard thud on the stone surface
of the bridge. His howl of pain was drowned out by another impact on the barrier above the loage
Draco instinctively grabbed Hermione's hand, pulling her close to him as they backed away.
Umbridge, Selwyn, and three remaining thugs moved in on them, grinning as though they had already won. With a terrible strike of fear in his heart, Draco wondered if they already had.
It was five against only two now, and one of the two was wandless and inches away from blacking out for the second time that night. Potter was trying to break through, but they had no way of knowing how long it would take him.
Umbridge, who had finally found her footing again and was sporting a sooty grimace and a lopsided hairbow, advanced ahead of the others. She blocked Hermione's stunning spell as she pushed forward, her face glowing in the light of the burning cabin, the dark trees framing her from behind.
"How sweet. The Death Eater and the mudblood! Once enemies, now lovers, " she mocked. "I should have fed you two to the Dementors the moment you arrived. But don't worry, I have new plans now. Better plans. I'm sure you're both aching to hear about them."
Hermione's grip on his hand tightened in alarm. At his other side, Draco's shackled hand flared in warning. The elf magic wasn't enough to attack, he knew. It only served as a reminder. He had an obligation to defeat the people encroaching on them, not just for his and Hermione's safety, but for the elves Draco blinked, then felt his heart surge.
The elves.
With Potter blasting his way through the barrier in the sky, it was only a matter of time before all this was over, one way or the other. What he and Hermione really needed was to buy time.
With his free hand, Draco covertly reached into the pocket of his robes, the tips of his fingers grasping the delicate silver chain inside
His left hand began to burn with rage, the shackle weighing heavy upon his wrist. Draco tried to mentally soothe the elf magic. It would only be temporary. He was doing this for Ignoma. For Tillo. For every elf in need of freedom, he promised. The burn of the magic in his fingers subsided, tingling faintly with suspicion.
He waited. Once they got wind of his plan, he would only have seconds to execute it. He needed a
distraction.
Potter's sense of timing had improved astronomically, it seemed. For at that moment, a horrific, grinding, screeching, crackling sound rent the night air. As everyone covered their ears and looked up to see what was causing the racket, Draco slipped the silver chain around his neck.
"Ignoma! Elves! Come here at once!" Draco shouted loudly and clearly.
All at once, several dozen elves cracked into existence before them, scattered around the bridge and the battlefield, waiting for further instruction. Hermione jumped at the sudden sound, nearly falling onto an elf that had appeared behind her. Ignoma and Tillo had appeared close to Draco, their mouths twinning, both hanging open in shock as they stared up at him. Draco saw with satisfaction that Umbridge and Selwyn had both been surrounded on all sides.
Umbridge shrieked in surprise as Draco gave his command.
"Attack!" Draco barked. "Take them all down!"
"NO!" Umbridge cried out, bracing her hands out defensively as many pairs of large, angry eyes turned upon her. "Do not attack us! I command you to go back to your beds!"
He knew this would happen. Knew that the moment he gave the elves a command, Umbridge or
someone else would try to counteract it. He had been hoping that the first command would win out, but for what it was worth, Draco had been prepared to continually shout over Umbridge or find a way to silence her.
But it seemed that the magic of the Master's Bond didn't bind the elves to whomever had given the first or the most recent orders. Upon receiving two conflicting commands, the elves froze, whipping their heads back and forth between Draco and Umbridge, waiting for the magic to compel them in one direction or another.
After a beat of silence, Ignoma's voice rang out from next to Draco
"GET THEM!"
As a wave of tiny soldiers flooded towards Umbridge and her cronies, it became immediately clear that when the elves orders were contradictory. they had the ability to choose whom to follow.
Shrieking and snarling and crying out for blood, the elves descended upon their enslavers, forcing them to the ground and engulfing them. The little creatures were unexpectedly vicious; they had gone from meek and subservient to downright bloodthirsty in the blink of an eye. Selwyn got the worst of it; he stunned elves left and right, grunting with pain as many sets of teeth sank into his limbs. With a flash of amusement, Draco noticed that Tillo had climbed up onto Selwyn's shoulders and was attempting to bash at the man's balding head with a rock. Ignoma had taken
Umbridge instead. helping to pin her to the ground as many elves bore down on her at once.
"GET OFF ME! I ORDER YOU TO RELEASE ME AT ONCE!" she hollered to no avail. The
elves continued their assault. barelv deterred bv the curses she shot wild v into the air around her.
Hermione's hand left Draco's, causing his heart to lurch with fear as he whipped around to look for her. She'd run to Ginny's side, kneeling on the ground beside her to cast her water-bandage charm on Ginny's blistered hands. Nearby, Weasley was huddled on the ground, clutching at his leg and looking sick with pain.
Overhead, a crash reminiscent of lightning shattered the sky. Still, the barrier held. Potter would be frantic by now. Draco had to hope that it would mean he would break through soon. The elves could only hold their advantage for so long.
As if to underline this thought, Selwyn brought down his wand with an indistinct shout, casting a spell that forced all the elves in his vicinity to blast backward from him. With a hideous blow to the gut, Draco watched as Tillo was flung from Selwyn's shoulders and into the river. His feet darted in Tillo's direction, eyes searching for the elf in the dark water over the side of the bridge
He couldn't reach Tillo. He didn't have time.
Because at that moment, a sickeningly familiar sound met his ears.
Hermione screamed.
Draco whirled around to find her shrieking with terror, fighting the ropes that snaked around her from ankle to chin, her cries choking off as the rope cut across her mouth. Selwyn stepped up behind her, using the ropes to tug her close to his side as he pointed his wand at Hermione's throat.
"Call off the elves, Malfoy!" Selwyn demanded.
Brown eyes, wide with terror. Black water, blazing fire. Desperate, futile pounding in a starry sky.
Empty hand, reaching for a phantom wand, finding only the mangled chain of an iron shackle.
Draco had been naïve enough to believe that he would never experience a worse dread than he had at the moment a thousand Dementors had hovered over him. gunning for his soul. He had beer wrong. The sight of her, disarmed and immobile at the point of Selwyn's wand, was infinitely worse. Given the choice, Draco would have traded his worthless, defective soul in a fraction of a
neartoeat Ir it meant sparing ner irom their plans
And now, it appeared, was his chance.
"Stop," he croaked, barely able to speak the word. "Elves.. stop."
Draco couldn't tear his eyes away from Hermione long enough to watch them retreat, but he knew
the elves had complied as the panicked shrieks and shouts of Umbridge and her thugs died away With the rage of broken promises and failed protection, his shackled hand burned. Draco ignored
"Now," Selwyn said, still panting from the exertion of fighting off a dozen angry elves at once,
"I'll thank you to take off that necklace, Mr. Malfoy."
As Draco lifted the chain over his head to drop it on the floor, Hermione's eyes changed. One moment, they were frightened and pleading. Then, with a blink, they were suddenly hard.
Determined and focused. in that way she always was when she was thinking. Ignoring Umbridge's simpering laugh and the veers of the other men, Draco tried to focus on her, tried to read her mind without the use of Legilimency. He watched as her eyes flicked to a spot on the bridge, several paces away from where she and Selwyn stood
Draco followed her gaze, trying to find what she was looking at.
There, at the edge of the bridge, having rolled away from Hermione after she'd been disarmed, was
her wand
It wasn't a plan, not completely. He would need to figure out a way to get to the wand without getting himself stunned before reaching it, not to mention use it to single-handedly down five wizards at once. But it was a hope. Draco looked back to Hermione, lowering his chin in an imperceptible nod.
"Thank you, Mr. Malfoy," Selwyn said as one of Umbridge's men dashed over to collect the chain at Draco's feet. "It seems you're wise enough to take this seriously. Now. It's time you learned of our new plan "
Umbridge stepped forward then, her wide, toadish smile stretching her wrinkled cheeks.
"I think you'll be happy to hear that there's a way out of this for everyone, Mr. Malfoy," Umbridge "I think you'll be happy to hear that there's a way out of this for everyone, Mr. Malfoy," Umbridge said. "You see, now that we see how motivating Miss Granger's safety is for you, we think you can be of some use to our operation. With your Ministry connections and access, you could help us quite a bit indeed."
In other words, they would hold Hermione hostage and get him to do their bidding by threatening her. Of course, he wasn't stupid enough to believe that they wouldn't also carry out their earlier plan of impersonating her at the Ministry as well. He would be their puppet while Johanna would run free, undoing everything Hermione had worked so hard for. Draco glared at Umbridge, imagining wringing the life from her squashy neck.
"Imperious Curse too old fashioned for you?" he said.
Umbridge shrugged, lightly kicking an unconscious elf out of her way as she paced.
Unfortunately for you, Mr. Malfoy, you seem very strong willed. This method offers more certainty. So." She stopped pacing and faced him full-on. "I'll need your hand to perform that
Vow."
"Just do it, Malfoy!" cried a voice from the other end of the bridge. It was Weasley, struggling to hold himself off the ground enough to see Draco. "Don't let them hurt Hermione! Just do what they say!" Near him, Ginny looked on as well, silent and horrified.
Umbridge let out a short laugh at Weasley's words. She held out her pudgy hand to take his.
"Before Mr. Potter breaks through, dear boy. Or else you may never see Miss Granger again.
There isn't much time to decide."
Indeed, Potter's attempts to break the barrier were quickening in pace. Loud crashes of lightning assaulted their ears from above.
He had only one advantage left. One thing they didn't know about.
Please, he said in his mind, reaching out for the magic in his hand. Please help me. I need a wand to defeat the elf masters. I need help.
The elf magic tingled to life once more, suspicious of him.
Break the chains! Fulfill your promise! the magic raged.
I will break the chains when I have a wand! As soon I take down these people. But I can't do it without help. Please.
The magic went quiet then. Draco's heart sank. It didn't trust him. It had abandoned him.
"Mr. Malfoy!" Umbridge snapped, stepping closer to him. "Do I have your word or not?"
Draco felt paralyzed. He couldn't make a Vow to help them; it would conflict with his Vow to break the chains. Then again, if the magic had turned its back on him, was he still expected to fulfill his promise to it? Somehow, he didn't think it would let go that easily.
"Time is running out, Malfoy!" Selwyn called to him. Hermione let out a muffled cry as the point of Selwyn's wand dug threateningly into her neck.
Draco had run out of options. He had nothing left.
Numbly, he began to reach out his hand to take Umbridge's. She grasped it in a hard, triumphant hold, training her stout wand at their connected hands. Draco couldn't watch as she murmured the incantations to begin an Unbreakable Vow. His eyes were fixed on Hermione's, watching as horrified tears soaked into the rope that cut through her mouth, listening to Potter pound away at
the barrier above them.
Then, the most wonderful sound met his ears.
Umbridge screamed.
Her voice was joined by several others as she and all her men let out pained roars. Umbridge wrenched her hand from Draco's, desperately trying to pull her wand out of her hand. It was as though her wand was glued to her palm and, from the way she was shrieking in agony,
electrocuting her. Punishing her with some sort of localized torture curse
This was it. The magic was giving him what he had asked for.
As though lightning had struck him as well, Draco leapt into action. He shoved past Umbridge and dove for Hermione's wand, snatching it up and rolling himself back to his feet in one movement.
"Stop right there!" Selwyn snarled over the pained cries of the others. His wand appeared to be the only one unaffected by the elf magic. Draco wondered if the healer had known this could happen, and had purposely refrained from using the polish on the handle of his wand as a precaution.

Selwyn moved his wand away from Hermione just long enough to send a hex flying at Draco.
Easily, he blocked it, marveling at how well Hermione's wand worked for him. It was like she had
known it would work for him.
Umbridge and the others had finally managed to drop their wands now, whimpering and cradling their singed hands.
A tense silence descended as evervone realized Draco and Selwyn were now the onlv two people left with the ability to use magic. The melted chain swung from Draco's shackled hand as he faced down his last remaining opponent.
"Release her," Draco said, his voice deadly quiet.
Selwyn seemed unaware that the words were not a polite request, but rather a final warning.
Stubbornly, the healer jabbed his wand into Hermione's neck, causing her to let out a small,
choking yelp. Draco's hold on Hermione s wand tightened
"You can still take the deal, Malfoy," Selwyn said. "But as soon as Potter's through that barrier, it's over. We'll be taking a portkey straight out of here, and Granger's coming with us. This is your final chance. If you ever want to see your little mudblood whore again, you'll make that Vow."
It was those words-little mudblood whore--that sealed the healer's fate in the end.
Selwyn was testing him. Trying to see if they could come to a more peaceable resolution due to their mutual, pureblooded status. It was a link Draco had been raised never to ignore, and one that should have been a much more powerful influence than those lovely, intelligent, dread-filled eyes staring at him. Even knowing that Draco was involved with Hermione, Selwyn still assumed that his connection to her was based on mere attraction and mutual benefits, and that Hermione couldn't
possibly mean more to him than a beloved pet might.
The man couldn't conceive of the changes Draco had undergone in recent years. Couldn't fathom how the heir of the great and ancient Malfoy Legacy could ever fall in love with someone like Hermione, no matter how clever or beautiful she was. It didn't make sense to him and it never would.
Draco's eyes flicked to Hermione's. She was trying to appear unafraid, but he could see the terror hiding underneath it. Briefly, he considered stunning her. He didn't want her to witness what he
was about to do. But he knew she would never forgive him for taking the choice away from her.
Cold, liquid wrath pumped through Draco's veins, a ruthless smile slicing across his face as he looked at the man who had now made attempts to torture and enslave both of the only beings
Draco loved in the world.
Oh. He was going to enjoy this.
Obliviously, Selwyn gave him a grim smile.
"Fine," he said. "Perhaps you might be more inclined to listen once you hear your girlfriend beg you to." Selwyn drew a large breath. "CRUCI-"
His voice was cut off before he could finish the word. The spel Draco had murmured would never
reach Selwyn's ears, because unlike an Unforgivable, his did not need to be shouted or forced
Sectumsempra was like that. It was an abrupt slice of dark magic, requiring little more than a Slip of the tongue and passable aim
Draco's curse had grazed past the edges of the ropes binding Hermione, fraying them to the point of unravelling. Selwyn himself, however, sustained much more than a graze. A deep gash ripped through him from navel to throat, causing an unholy spurt of dark red blood to burst from his chest.
Hermione flinched as she was soaked with it, hunching her shoulders and freezing as she waited for some sort of impact.
"NOOOOO!" Umbridge screamed.
Selwyn looked down at the bloodied front of his robes in surprise. Slowly, his arms dropped, releasing both wand and hostage. Hermione stumbled away, gaping as Selwyn keeled over, hitting the ground with a dull thud.
Draco stepped closer to stand above him, looking down into Selwyn's glazed eyes as the healer stretched his mouth wide, trying to speak his last words without air.
"That was for Hermione," Draco said quietly. "This is for Ignoma."
Draco's wand slashed the air once more, finishing the job. The resulting warm spatter was accompanied by gasps and the silence of finality.
Hermione stared at him, her wide eyes bright in the flickering light of the burning cabin, face
covered in blood.