She was alone. The clock on the mantle ticked.

Sitting, catching her breath, Hermione stared at his carpets and let her mind work its way back to her.

Kill one, save dozens. Hundreds, possibly. If Charlotte lived, her network would be obliterated like slicing strings on a marionette.

Dragging herself to her feet, she went to his bathroom to wash the stale taste out of her mouth.

She jumped at her reflection. Blood on her face that wasn't hers. Dust in her hair and streaks down her cheeks.

And her eyes were dull. Almost as dead as Cho's.

She rinsed with the mouthwash on the counter and wet a cloth. She washed the dirt and blood off her hands and face, watching it swirl down the drain in streaks of brownish red. Her arms and legs next.

She thought of George's eyes, intent on her. Cho's insistence that they'd come back for her. Viktor, his arm steady and mouth hard as he emerged from the shadows.

Whatever their aim was tonight, extracting her was part of it. She hadn't linked up with the True Order, but she'd gotten Draco out alive.

And then she'd sent him back there.

Hermione blinked at her reflection, her skin rubbed raw now.

What if there were more True Order members left at Edinburgh, looking for him?

What if he was caught killing Charlotte?

She gasped, her fractured voice bouncing around the marble tiles. Her Occlumency shelves trembled and tumbled down to the ground.

Charlotte was going to die. And perhaps she'd sent Draco to his doom as well.

She braced herself on the counter, forcing herself to breathe.

What if he didn't come back now? After they'd gone through hell together?

The room spun. The candles flickered. Her eyes slid closed, and she tried to focus on a lake hidden between mountains as her tears slipped to the tile.

A noise came from the bedroom. Her head jerked up, and she whipped around.

Draco was back—

She ran out, and found Lucius — his eyes wild and his hair falling out of its binding.

"Where is he."

Her breath rattled in her chest. "He's fine. He's alive—"

"Where is he," he hissed, stalking closer to her.

Her mouth opened and closed, words caught behind her teeth.

"They called him back to Edinburgh. He br-brought me back and then left—"

"He hasn't checked in."

"He just left. Maybe they just haven't seen him yet—"

Lucius Malfoy stepped into her, grabbed her by the jaw, and held her against the wall as he raised his wand and hissed, "Legilimens!"

A smooth knife sliced through her eyes. She panicked, shutting books and locking them away, but Lucius was vicious.

He swept through her library, slicing through the bookshelves and flipping through the pages of a shelf of books on Draco Malfoy.

She wasn't prepared. She hadn't centered herself or hidden anything away. He cut through her memories of the night—

Smoke and spells, the werewolves. Cho lifeless on the ground. Draco pulling her through the corridors, tucking her behind him.