"Why do you think?" She pressed her torso into his, and Hermione felt violently ill as she reached to adjust his collar. "Tell me you still have it," she whispered, with a twist to her lips. "The dwarf wine."

"Pansy—"

"You remember what happened the last time we drank it."

Yaxley's eyes were dark as he grabbed her wrist.

"That's a five-hundred Galleon bottle, Pansy. What do I get in return?"

She bit her cheek hard enough to draw blood as Pansy laughed throatily and said, "A lot more than you could get for five thousand, that's for sure."

Hermione's eyelids closed, and her head spun. She breathed deep trying to block out the way Yaxley looked at Pansy's lips and neck.

She forced her eyes open just when she heard Yaxley huff. "One bottle."

Pansy's smile could have lit the dark corners of the room.

He pushed her back and cleared his throat. "I'll get it. You know where the bedroom is."

Yaxley reached for the doorknob, ready to shut the drawing room door. Pansy's hand shot to grab his wrist.

"I—" She laughed, shaking her head before taking a deep breath, like working up to a difficult question. "Can I interest you in an audience?" Her brow lifted, and she cast her eyes toward Hermione's body.

Hermione pressed her fingers to her mouth, swallowing down bile.

Yaxley followed her intentions. "Yeah?"

Pansy nodded and leaned into his ear. "Maybe she'll learn a thing or two."

Yaxley threw his head back and laughed. "Be right back." He turned on his heel and disappeared into the shadows.

The second he was out of sight, Pansy slipped into the drawing room and drew her wand, pointing it at Hermione's body. "Revelio!"

Hermione staggered as the spell flicked over her past-self. There was a familiar fire in Pansy's eyes.

Pansy quickly assessed the wards that flashed and flared around her body, hissing through several counter-spells.

There was a pause, and Hermione saw the moment her mind landed on the right spell. She flicked her wrist, and the shimmer around her body vanished. Darting her eyes at the doorway, Pansy pointed her wand at the one fireplace in the room. The flames didn't jump. It wasn't connected to the Floo network.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Pansy muttered.

She twisted to the closed door across the room. It flew open with an Alohomora. Pansy ran to it, Hermione just on her heels. It was a small sitting room. A fireplace in the corner. Pansy pointed her wand and it burst to life, the flames flickering shadows over the walls.

Spinning back, she called Hermione's floating body to her. Like a specter, it obeyed. Hermione felt her body shaking as Pansy found the Floo powder and reached for her lifeless hand.

A high whistle pierced the air as soon as Pansy touched her. Hermione's heart rattled as she and Pansy both spun to the doorway.

She hissed and tossed the Floo powder, dragging Hermione's body into the fireplace with her just as the door to the sitting room burst open.