Chapter Text
After all the royal troops are gone, they all run towards Hermione, who is still lying on the ground.
"Get the potions!" Cormac shouted; Dean apparated away to grab them.
Eve is running to her. "Hermione!" She opens her scarf from her face, some of the resistance gasping at her bloody mouth.
She coughs the blood out, "Help me stand," she said, whispering as her voice was low.
Eve helps her stand, while she is wincing and whimpering. Dean comes back and brings the vials of potions in a bag. Hermione gulps, "I need to go change. I need to come back before him" She is breathing heavily, panicking.
Cormac's face is bleeding, but his eyes shows determination to Hermione, knowing that even though She is hurting, she's still thinking about the most important thing for the resistance, like the true warrior.
He nods and apparates her to a room. "Eve, help me... faster!"
"Slow down, you're hurt!" Eve is concerned by her appearance.
"Just do it!" Hermione screamed.
"Oh Merlin!" she mumbled as she changed her clothes; Hermione hissed.
They apparated to the tea shop and back to the palace. Eve follows her from behind as she usually does; they start to act like their usual positions around the palace. She sees Hermione sweating and swabs her forehead right away with her sleeve.
"Inhale, breathe," Eve whispered. That's the problem; she can't breathe properly, her stomach prevents that.
Eve checks her face. "Lessen the frown."
She's leaning her hand on one of the palace walls, holding on for her dear life, saying, "I'm trying."
She has to walk with a straight back, not crouching, but her stomach has just received a massive blow. She starts to tremble as she's trying to straighten her back. Eve checks the hallway,
"There's no one in the hallway; quick, quick!" Eve whispered.
She sighs heavily and grunts. They walking until they reach the stairs, they both freeze for a while, looking at the stairs.
"You can do this, come on!" Eve said, still holding Hermione's elbow and guiding her.
"The quicker, the better; just until we reach your room" Eve begs.
Hermione puts her palm on her stomach, shutting her eyes as she takes each step of the stairs. Sweat falls all over her forehead from holding the pain. Eve swabs it again with her sleeve. When she reaches the last step, she falls. A servant from the corner turns towards her body at the sound of her falling, gazing from afar, and when she realizes it's Hermione, she bows to her from her place. Hermione suddenly walks with a straight back, clenching her teeth. Eve's eyes look at the servant's face and start to talk,
"You need to eat, my lady, for strength. You don’t need to go on a diet; you’re so skinny" Eve tries to distract the servant.
"Look what happens when you don't eat; you're getting dizzy; that's why you should eat." She keeps her act and talks louder for the servant to hear.
They turn to her door as Eve opens it for her and closes it afterward. She falls to the ground right away. She sighs and lays flat on the bedroom floor in front of her door; her chest spasms, and her eyes shut.
"I brought the vials; these potions are good for healing" as Eve explains while she takes them out of the bag she brought.
"My lady" Someone knocked on her door. They both stop breathing and look at the door, then turn to each other.
"Fill the bathtub" Hermione points her hand toward the bathroom as she's trying to get up, but failing miserably because she can't bend her stomach. Eve runs to the bedroom. Hermione turns her body slightly and starts to crawl towards the bathroom. She growls, pushing her body to move faster.
"Go open the door; whatever she says, tell her I'm in the bath," she whispers. Eve nods and walks to the door, grabbing the door handle. She's waiting for Hermione to get into the bathroom as she's crawling. When she reaches the bathroom floor, she opens the door.
"May I help you?" Eve said sternly.
"I just want to restock the soaps," the servant said.
"Oh, give it to me!" her eyes are on the bucket full of bottles of soaps.
"But I'm the one who usually stocks them from the order of the prince.These soaps are..."
Eve rolles her eyes "Oh, I know where to put it; I'm the one who grabs it for the lady to use" Eve cuts her off.
She shoves the servant away from the door after taking the bucket. She walks to the bathroom door and sees Hermione with her eyes shut inside the bathtub.
"Drink this!" She hurries, grabbing the potions earlier and shoving them into her mouth. Hermione drinks them all; her eyes are still shut.
"I'm gonna put your soap in," Eve said, grabbing it from the bucket.
"Smells so good, like... there's a hint of mint or something," she poured a bottle into the bathtub water.
Mint?
"Hmmm," Hermione was still closing her eyes, and her chest was rising and falling.
Eve, talking to herself, said, "Did they put jade rose extract in this?" tilting her head to the side and smelling the empty bottle.
She turned her head to Hermione. "How's the wound feel, Better?" Eve asked.
Hermione began trembling. "The water... it's cold," she said weakly.
"Sorry, but they said cold water is good for healing wounds; better if we put ice in here," she pointed her finger to the water.
"Don't," she sighed. Eve nodded.
"Let me help clean you up," she started brushing her body. Eve saw her right stomach, where the blow was bruising red and swollen.
After they finished, she was holding her to her bed. She grabbed the hem of her lingerie slightly to see her wound again, and it turned purple now. "I hope tomorrow it'll be less painful," Eve said.
She continued, "I saw you today."
"You're great in battles," she smiled at Hermione.
"Amazing, to be honest; you protected us," she beamed at Hermione, but her eyes were still shut.
"But look at what happened; you got hurt." She's scolding her like her little sister.
"We should be the ones protecting you. Next time, you stay in the back, alright?" Eve said to her.
"I can't just stand in the back while someone is trying to kill my friends," Hermione answered.
"Gryffindor, indeed," she scoffed.
"What are you?" Hermione asked as the pain slowly subsided.
"Hufflepuff! We're the most loyal house, patient, and unafraid of toil!" she proudly announced.
Hermione gave a little smile and fell asleep.
The next day they were standing in her wardrobe room in front of the mirror getting dressed. Eve took a peek into her wound and surprisingly the dark purple from yesterday turned into soft purple.
"Don't you think it's too fast to heal for just a night's sleep?" Eve asked Hermione.
"Good potions they have there in resistance," Hermione shrugged.
Eve shook her head, "No, no, I once got this kind of bruise; they don't heal overnight, especially purple bruises. It is known."
Hermione was gazing at her wound on her right side of her stomach. She pressed her hand to it and winced slightly; it was still painful to touch.
They walked outside to the lake for their tea, but there was a wall surrounding the lake; it looked like they were doing construction. Topsy was standing there with other elves and servants.
"My Lady," he bowed his head to Hermione as she got closer.
"What happened here?" she asked, looking around the lake that was now covered with walls.
"Topsy is so sorry to inform that my lady cannot come to the lake for now," his face was remorseful.
Hermione turned and started to walk back. "I knew it, I knew it," Hermione shook her head.
"He always does this: first the balcony, now this lake. Why can't he let me have a peaceful place to ease my mind from this chaotic life?" She was grumbling.
She clenched her teeth. "He always likes to torture me."
Topsy came at night after dinner to Hermione's room. "My Lady, the prince is asking for you to come."
"Where?" Her eyes flipped to Eve.
"He didn't say, but I'll show you," he stretched his hand to her.
"My Lady may want to get gloves; it's cold outside," Topsy added, smiling. He was too jiggly, which made him suspicious. Hermione narrowed her eyes at him.
He apparated her to one of the backyards of the palace and vanished. She saw the devil in a black royal coat with black gloves and his exciting face, the opposite of the grim reaper she saw yesterday in the district. Under the moonlight, his hair shone bright as white as the moon; she felt like she was looking at two different people in the same body, as if he had another twin with a different personality. But she knew she would not let him fool her with that face. He was still the devil in disguise as a prince, The Prince of Darkness.
She walked slowly, too slow, as if she was hesitating with each step she took. She held her gloves in her hand. Draco's head turned as she walked closer. His expression changed in a flash from excited to serious, then to a frown, and then he brushed it all off with a smirk as She stopped in front of him. He took her gloves from her hand and shoved them into her hand. She was staring at him, surprised by the sudden act.
"It's not that cold," she said.
"Yet," he answered. He finished putting her gloves on.
"Accio." A broomstick appeared; her eyes widened at the broomstick and she turned her eyes to Draco.
"I want to show you something" he stretched his hand to her.
"I'm... I don't ride..."
"Don't be afraid; aren't you a brave Gryffindor?" he mocked.
"I can be brave at something else." He reached for her waist, and she stepped back on reflex, shocked that he almost touched her wound. He was peering at her face.
"I... I'll hop on," she hurried herself to the broomstick, but then two hands grabbed her waist from behind to help her. She winced and bit her lips while holding her breath. He hopped on and took both her hands to wrap around his waist. She frowned, disagreeing with this act but say nothing to him. They flew in the night sky; he took it slow as they circled Hermione's castle. She could see everything from above; she thought what a good spot it would be to spy and see what the army was doing down there. She smiled at her own thought. She closed her eyes and felt the wind blowing on her face; the air felt fresher up here. She opened her eyes as they passed above the dark forest. She wobbled her body from the uncomfortable feeling.
Draco shouts, "Easy with the wobbling!" as they're about to enter the dark palace. Draco ascends higher, faster. Hermione holds his waist tighter on reflex from the height rush and buries her face in his back; she feels like they are about to reach the stars above.
"Do you see those stars?" Draco shouts. She nods her face against his back; he can feel her nodding. She watches his hand grab a fistful of the night sky.
"Close your eyes; I will descend at high speed," he says as he begins descending. She's squealing and closes her eyes tight as the speed increases.
When the speed slows down, Draco's voice comes, "Now open those brown eyes for me," he says. She can feel that he's looking at her face, and she can feel his warmth breath sweeping over her face.
She opens her eyes slowly and sees his fistful palm in front of her eyes blocking her vision, and he opens his fist. She gasps at the sight; her eyes widen as she sees the lake down below full of yellow lamps floating around. The water is dark from the night sky, It feels like she is seeing the stars gathered on the lake.
"I told you I summoned the stars for you"
"There are no limits to my magic when it comes to you."
He descends closer to the lake; she sees a boat standing by near the shore and a beautiful white gazebo with golden patterns beside the tree where she cried. They stop and hop off; her eyes turn to the boat. Draco's hand reaches for her palm as he guides her to the boat. The magic rows the boat by itself. She gazes around in awe, her mouth parted slightly as she is surrounded by the floating lamps in the middle of the lake until her eyes reach Draco's. He's not enjoying the breathtaking view like she is but looking straight at her.
"Keep shining like those stars Granger, because if I can't see you, I will cover this world with darkness until I see your light shining, if that's what it takes for me to find you."
One thing about The Prince is that he can also change people's lives.
In the worst way.