A pair of champagne heels attached to tan legs crossed into her view. Charlotte with the tray. She offered to fetch Draco a drink, and he declined, saying they were leaving soon.

Hermione barely heard them, slightly swaying on her perch. An overwhelming exhaustion pushed at her eyelids.

"Miss Granger?"

Looking up to find Charlotte still hovering, her vision clearing when she blinked. She frowned, confused to be directly addressed.

"Anything to eat?" Charlotte asked, long lashes batting slowly at her, her arm lowering to offer Hermione the basket of fruit. "Grapes, perhaps?"

Hermione stared down, finding a vine of thick, burgundy grapes — calling to her from another lifetime — something that used to mean something.

Her mind cleared like a shock. She looked up with wide eyes. Charlotte plucked one and extended it to her with a soft smile.

Hermione took it, tucking it away quickly in her hand, as though hiding a stolen good. Her heart hammered against her ribs, a memory of her shaking fingers spelling out with grapes against the Ministry floors what her voice couldn't express.

She searched for Charlotte again, but she'd moved away.

Across the room, Cho Chang met her gaze for the first time, her arms wound around Mulciber's shoulders as he kissed her collarbones. Cho pushed a plump, ripe grape between her painted lips, her eyes burning with the fire of a revolution.

Chapter End Notes

Updates on Sundays.

Pinterest board for The Auction here .

Find me on Tumblr , Instagram , and Twitter .

Facebook group for Auction followers and the Rights and Wrongs series called Rights & Wrongs . Come yell about socks with us.

Chapter 16

Chapter Notes

Apologies for the late update. I was sick all weekend and didn't get the chapter to my LOVELY Alphas until late. Much love to SaintDionysus and raven_maiden .

Please check an update to the tags.

See the end of the chapter for more notes

There was a ringing in her ears as Draco stood from the armchair, taking her elbow and muttering his goodbyes. The boys were heavily distracted by now, and let them go without too much of a fuss. Hermione popped the grape into her mouth as Draco turned her around, suddenly terrified that someone might see and discover her secret.

She allowed him to drag her through the room, her eyes darting wildly to take in every girl on a lap, every girl on their knees, every girl laughing and drinking. Cho didn't glance at her again. Charlotte had moved on. She swept the room looking for more eyes, more fire, more grapes.

Not alone.

She'd used grapes to spell out those words on the Ministry floors once. To give a shred of hope to the fifty terrified, bruised girls that had crowded around her, preparing to live out their worst nightmares. But had it been a coincidence? Cho knew what the grapes meant, but how could Charlotte? Had Charlotte truly meant to offer her a symbol of hope? Hermione didn't remember her from the Ministry. Who was she?