The heavy handle dragged across the wood.

"What's she got in her mouth?"

The sword froze. Her stomach twisted violently as the sound of choking filled the air, before being drowned out by the stumble of boots and harsh curses.

And then Cho Chang's body dropped in a tangle of limbs. Her eyes were open and staring vacantly at Hermione. White foam dripped from her mouth.

Every inch of her shook. The pill.

"Fucking bitch—" Dolohov chucked a chair across the room, and Hermione flinched as it collided with the wall, splintering. Several sharp breaths, and the kick of another chair. "We need to find Charlotte. The whores are in on it."

She listened to him stomp out of the room, calling for the other Death Eater to follow.

The door shut behind them.

Hermione lay curled under the table, her lungs seizing as she stared at Cho Chang's lifeless eyes.

There was an expression on her face. A smirk behind the foam. Like she'd beaten Harry to the Snitch finally.

That's not my mission, Hermione.

Her mind flickered through the pain, wondering what her mission was.

Hermione swallowed, and pushed herself to sit. Her body was cold and shaking. Her bones felt brittle.

The door blasted open again in the room next to hers, the wood bouncing off the adjoining wall.

She dragged herself from under the table, standing on unsteady legs and pushing down the bile in her throat.

Staring down the door, Hermione grabbed the fallen sword, gritting her jaw as she tested its weight between her hands.

Her chest was numb, her face wet. She heaved the sword up and waited for the door to open.

The door blasted off his hinges, and before the smoke had cleared, Draco was in the room, wand drawn, scratches down his face and cutting open his robes.

A cry ripped from her throat, her body sagging in relief. The sword fell from her hands as she flew into his arms, clutching his face, his shoulders.

"Are you alright?" His voice shook as he held her to him, his touch as frantic as hers.

"Were you bitten?"

"Just banged up." He pushed her hair back as he tilted her jaw, searching for bruises or cuts. "You're fine?"

"Draco, we have to get you out — we have to" — her words tripped over her tongue — "They think the only way to extract me is to kill you, so we have to go — we have to find a way—"

"I've checked every fireplace on the way here. Let's keep going."

She nodded and bit back a sob at seeing him alive, curling her fingers in the torn material of his shirt. He took her wrists and kissed her knuckles, just as he had before leaving for Switzerland.

He glanced over her shoulder and his gaze flickered. "What happened to Chang?"

"She took her suicide pill." Her shoulders trembled. "She — she knew they were coming tonight."

He brushed a tear from her cheek that she didn't know was there, and took her hand in his before glancing out the doorway in both directions.