Finders Keepers

Hermione stood there, ears still ringing from Christopher’s words. They had no choice but to keep this relic away from Raul, but how in hell were they supposed to escape? She needed to warn Draco that somebody had stolen the Grindle Chest and what he had strapped to his rather muscular chest was now the hottest artefact on the earth.

The wizard in front of her was holding her wand up, ready to strike – Hermione once again had no idea why he hadn’t used it against them. It would take two seconds to immobilise them and steal the artefact from Draco. It made no sense, none what so ever. But, she wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth – if he didn’t want to use her wand then so be it. She wondered idly if she could snatch it from him but a loud roar from the bushes stopped her, it sounded like an army had pulled up.

He stepped closer and Hermione felt bile rise, she told her stupid stomach to settle down. “Please, give it to me, I won’t ask again politely.”

“I have nothing,” she replied steadily; then swallowed the thick sickness in her throat. She continued to stare at her wand, he saw and sneered slightly.

“Thank you for the wand – it’s most…unusual.”

She tried not to feel offended at his apparent dislike of her wand. It was fitted to her and no one else – that’s why it felt wrong to him.

“So, Raul, what do you want with the Chest?” Hermione gambled.
The man threw his head back and barked out a short round of laughter. “I’m not Raul, but thank you. I am merely his servant, and what Raul wants – he gets. Now hand over the piece you found.” The two men cocked their guns, Hermione gulped.

She needed an idea, something to get them away from these men – bloody hell, she wasn’t a damn Ministry super spy; her brain just didn’t work that way. Draco had gotten closer to her and suddenly his hand was on the small of her back – why in hell was he touching her, her heart was beating enough in fear to add something else like lust to it. Mental, Hermione – you are damn mental and not in control of your thoughts and feelings.

Suddenly the wizard in front of her gasped and began to look around like he was crazy. “Where the hell are they? Find them; they shouldn’t be able to disappear or Apparate.”

What? Maybe Hermione was not the mental one; she was standing right before him. The two men who flanked the robed wizard walked towards them, she felt Draco tug her to the side – away from the man who’d walked into the space she’d just vacated. His hand never left her.

One of the men turned to the wizard, “Use that thing in your hand.”

“I can’t – I might kill them and Raul wants them alive – I haven’t quite mastered this bloody wand yet.”

Hermione gasped and the men spun around to look at where she was standing – but instead of them yelling out ‘ah-ha, caught you’ they looked right through them where they were standing. Draco tugged her a little and wrapped a hand around the curve of her waist; it sent tingles all the way to her toes. Must be the cold water making her shiver, she thought.

It seemed obvious that this wizard couldn’t use her wand – is that what he was trying to say? Surely she wasn’t misunderstanding.

Suddenly another ten men armed to the teeth flew into the area, and even though these men did not appear to have wands or have any form of magic about their person – they knew how to hold a gun. Hired mercenaries, Hermione thought then panicked slightly. If they saw her and Draco – they were toast. But, Draco was tugging her into the bushes; she could do no more than follow as the men in front of them started to methodically search the area

As they quietly escaped, Hermione grabbed Malfoy’s head and pulled his ear down to her mouth, ignoring the way his wet hair slapped against her face. “What the hell?”

“Not now.” He whispered back and slanted his head at what lay just before them. Three large jeeps were parked with four men guarding, each of those men held a very big gun. Hermione didn’t utter another word, apparently Draco had somehow turned them invisible – how, who knew. She was fighting down admiration at his quick thinking - until his next move.

“Distract them,” he yelled and pushed her away from him.

“What?” Hermione skidded to a halt, right in front of the four men, who could now see her in her entirety. She was going to kill Malfoy – if these men didn’t kill her first.

They looked at her like she was a ghost, seriously though, who expected a wet bedraggled woman to just appear out of nowhere right before your eyes? Unfortunately it didn’t take them long to recover from their shock. What in hell was Draco doing…unless – he left her for dead and was escaping with the relic. Dread and hurt filled her chest – that’s what he’d done, she knew it as sure as she knew her own mind.
But, Hermione Granger had faced worse odds in the war and even though she’d only really had a few self-defence classes and three punches over the last 24 hours to her name, she would fight like a wild-cat until they over-powered her, which judging by the size of two of them could be three to four seconds.

One sneered at her and strode forward, oh goody, they were going to take turns “Are you the small fry William has been trying to catch? Doesn’t seem like a huge task to me.”

Hermione had a moment to register that the wizard who had her wand was probably William when the large man flew at her. She ducked under his arm and swung around to face him again – he looked mildly amused. When she did this manoeuvre again two more times, he looked less pleased and a little pissed off.
Hermione couldn’t help if she was good at ducking and weaving.

The next time she tried this; he slammed out his arm at the
last minute and clotheslined her. Luckily she also jumped a little as he did this, because instead of it hitting her in the throat it caught her collarbone and shoulders. Why this was lucky, she couldn’t tell as it hurt like a mother. She landed flat on her back on the muddy ground. The rain still hadn’t let up and it was really starting to piss Hermione off. As if this wasn’t bloody hard enough in the first place she had to contend with the elements as well. The man stood above her smirking, Draco did it better.

“See, William should have sent a man for the job.”

Hermione hated pigheaded morons and as he leant over to drag her upright, she flipped herself up onto her feet and spun towards him, dropping to her knees and punching with all her might. The big guy squealed like a stuck pig and fell to his knees holding his groin. Hermione pushed aside the feeling of smashing her fist into a man’s junk – it was soft, squidgy and just not polite.

The shock on the other men’s faces was apparent – but it didn’t last long – they all flew at her at the same time. Hermione resisted the urge to scream like a girl, and instead made a run for it. She passed the first jeep, and they were hot on her heels, the second jeep and they were gaining – Hermione felt the exhaustion creep up – there was no way she could keep up this pace, she was done. She swore at Draco with everything in her – she had started to believe he was different but he turned out to be the same selfish bastard she always knew him to be, the same idiot….who pulled her around the last jeep – making her disappear again. The men ran past into the brush still chasing her, thinking she vanished into the bushes.

It took all of one second before Hermione slapped Draco as hard as she could, his eyes grew narrow as his grip intensified in anger; she interrupted him. “You fucking deserved that and much more.”

His eyes widened in shock, at her swearing or the fact she was right, she didn’t care. Then surprising her completely he nodded. “Maybe you’re right, let’s go.”

He dragged her to the jeep sitting at the front of the others and quietly clicked open the door and pushed her inside first, she scrambled to the passenger seat and watched as he flung himself inside, started the engine and took off. Hermione looked out the back window and saw six or seven men barge in from the riverside and jump into jeeps, they all started to give chase, until they got bogged down into the mud. Hermione frowned and looked at Draco as he smiled slightly, eyes on the road.

“I punctured their tyres; it will take them a good twenty minutes to use all the spares to give chase.”

Hermione tried hiding a small grin, that’s why he disappeared and thrust her out like a lamb to slaughter. It was still a dick move, but once again it worked. Somehow it seemed somebody was watching over them, she could hardly believe they had escaped yet another ambush. They were tempting fate holding onto the relic, but who could they call…Herbert? Christopher? Harry?

Draco had the wipers on full trying to make the rain splatter less obtrusive, but it was almost a torrential downpour now, and he had to be careful over the terrain in case they also got bogged down. Hermione watched as he mastered the gear lever and checked his mirrors constantly for a tail.

“You’ve done this before?” she found herself asking.

He gave her a sharp look and didn’t answer. Each to their own, she thought - they all had secrets, but she desperately wanted to know a few more of his - for purely professional reasons of course. Her eyes slid to his lips again and she averted her eyes almost immediately.

As the jeep crashed through small trees and mud-piles, Hermione tried the Comm again, dead. She was going to contact the company who made them and put in a formal complaint at its inconsistent performance, although, it had been through quite a lot of non-compliant situations.

“How did you turn us invisible?” She finally asked, curious.

“The wand – like I said it can’t do damage but it has some uses. Not just anyone can do an invisibility spell with them.”

Hermione grimaced a little, he was such a cocky bastard – then she was mortified to realise she was starting to get used to his arrogance. The world had definitely started spinning the opposite direction.

Thinking it was best to fill Draco in on what Christopher had screamed in her ear, she noticed the air in the cab grow thick as she relayed his message.

“What do you mean Gringott’s has been broken into?” Draco asked squinting as he slid the jeep sideways trying to miss a huge mud pile.

“Exactly what I said,” Hermione replied snippily.

“Impossible.”

“We did it at Hogwarts.”

Draco’s eyes narrowed slightly, “but you were kids then.”

“Well doesn’t that imply adults could do it better?” Her eyebrow rose in a perfect mimic of the one he usually gave her.

“That’s not what I meant – I mean after your attempt...”

Exasperation set in, “It worked; it wasn’t an attempt…”

“Whatever, Granger that’s semantics – after that, Gringotts went into lock-down and made sure nobody could ever break in again.” He ended with a flourish of his hand, a gesture she found old worldly and slightly appealing. Get a grip, woman.

Hermione couldn’t help the heavy sigh she let out; at Draco or her inappropriate reactions to him she wasn’t sure. That damn kiss had messed with her equilibrium; don’t think about that bloody now. “Well, obviously they still have a problem with wizards getting in.”

“Obviously,” he drawled.

They drove in silence after that.

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~~~

Draco ignored Hermione for as long as possible, which unfortunately was proving to be difficult. His cock was obviously in charge of his brain at the moment and all he could think about was her hot open-mouthed kisses as she playfully grasped his hardness through his pants. Draco grumbled and adjusted himself surreptitiously. He did not like the fact he’d discovered Granger was actually a sexual creature, one he was starting to want to experience first-hand. Maybe the Weasel was onto something all those years ago. Before he did something ludicrous like proposition the witch he heard a small ping on the back of his jeep.

“What was that?” Hermione asked as she spun in her seat. “Oh shit…” she breathed at the same time Draco looked in the rear view mirror and said the same thing.

Two jeeps were after them. Fuck, there were more men on route, Draco had hoped they would have had a better head start but didn’t count on this Raul wizard to be well financed to afford all these goons.

Another ping sounded, followed closely by two more before the back window suddenly shattered in a hail of glass. He didn’t even think – Draco threw his arm over Granger and pulled her down in her seat while he dodged the next hail of bullets by almost driving off the side of the road into the trees. He was getting sick of being chased.

As Draco drove as fast as he humanly thought possible on the treacherous path – which he swore was the first time it had been driven on in years, he looked out for other intersecting roads. He found he was at a complete loss on where the fuck they were. They needed to find a way out of the forest – quick. They also needed a town to disappear into before they made their next move, which he already had an inkling on what it would be.

Hermione reached over and started scrambling with the belt on his trousers: he couldn’t help the almost ironic bubble of laughter which fled his lips. “I get I’m impressive, Granger – but now’s not the time.”

She scowled up at him muttering something about being a ‘conceited prat’, then finally undid his belt, sliding the EMS off of it, how stupid – he’d all but forgotten the device. Draco decided he liked Hermione’s face in his lap – a thought which disappeared as bullets slammed into the side of the cab; one of the jeeps had managed to gain on them.

As Hermione booted up the device he hoped like hell it hadn’t been water damaged – although he knew it had been tested for the worst conditions – he’d tested it himself. But being thrown around in the water and crashing to the bottom of a fall was something he hadn’t tested – who could have believed a mapping system would need to do that. He watched as she shook it and slammed her palm on the side a few times and he felt an uncomfortable feeling well up – it was disappointment. One of his devices wasn’t up to par. He’d have to talk to his head researcher when he got home – if he got home.

“Finally,” Hermione breathed; then started to tap out things on the screen. “The screen has a small crack, and it’s got condensation on the inside, but it seems to be working.” He breathed a small sigh of relief.

Draco wrenched the wheel and headed down another road which he saw from the corner of his eye, Hermione threw her hand out to stop herself from falling into him – she grasped his shoulder pushing her weight against him. He gunned it, and they straightened. She didn’t let go immediately, and he didn’t ask her to.

“Right, the GPS has connected – go left in about three hundred metres, then a sharp right about ten metres after that, then head straight, before a another lefty.”

Draco nodded not questioning her directions, “Is there any land-marks or anything useful we can use on that thing?”

He watched as one jeep overshot his sharp turn and the other followed on his heels – he noticed in the distance the other jeep spun around – damn it. He then saw a man climbing up onto the passenger window of the jeep, a large gun perched on his shoulder.

“No fucking way…..” Draco whispered.

Hermione spun again, “What the fuck is that thing – is that a grenade launcher?”

“No, but it may as well be at this distance – we need to do something,” Draco’s eyes never left the man holding the gun while he felt Hermione’s hand help guide the wheel, keeping it steady for the moment as he watched. He saw the moment the man fired and after a nano-second ripped the wheel to the left – the road before them exploded in a shower of mud and dirt, Draco swerved around the divot and kept going, seeing the turn Granger had pointed out.

“Shit, crap, bugger – there is nothing bloody on this damn thing that can help us.” Hermione kept punching things into the EMS. Draco almost laughed – her swearing was ridiculous, especially when she let out the F word when not realising it. He squashed his thoughts – she was not funny, appealing or interesting – fuckable, yes – but nothing else. Draco knew the adrenaline of the situation was playing games with him; that was the only explanation for his sudden interest in the witch – and the fact she’d grabbed his cock – get your head in the game Malfoy.

“There is more forest, then more forest – the only other thing out here is a huge expanse of open ground – like I mean huge, we’d be sitting ducks.”

“Anything out there – like a town?” Draco was still hoping to hide in civilisation.

“Nothing but a damn train track, no town for miles and miles, do another right in about two hundred metres.” She pointed out in front of them; he glanced in the mirror.

Draco swerved again as another shot of dirt flew up and above just to their right. “We can’t stay here – we need to get out of the forest – take our chances in the open.”

Hermione eyed him warily, “you have a plan don’t you?”

“Not at all - I’m just hoping to catch the next train out of here.” He said with a grin while ripping the jeep down another path, narrowly missing another spray of gunfire.

“Merlin help us.” He heard Granger whisper and he smirked.

~~~~*~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~~*~~~~

Hermione was in a perpetual state of panic, unease and fear for her life. This jeep ride was the scariest experience of her life, she kept watching out the back window – seeing only one jeep at the moment. They had taken so many sharp twists and turns she was completely lost – although that wouldn’t have been hard as she’d been lost since Draco had thrown her off the mountain.

God had that only been a day or so ago – so much had happened since then. She felt like she’d lived and learned an entire lifetimes worth of things in that space. She chanced another glance at Malfoy – she had started to discover things about the enigmatic wizard next to her, but questions still barged around her head. Questions she wanted answered.

They hit the open space a few moments later, Draco still weaving away from the bullets where he could; Hermione once again glanced behind her, then let her gaze drop for the first time to the back seat – for the love of….

A gun sat there – a shiny new looking gun – she threw herself into the back seat amidst Malfoy yelling at her.

“What the fuck, Granger, get back in the front – you’ll get yourself killed.”

She ignored him as she looked at the gun – she’d used rifles in the past with her dad, surely this wouldn’t be too different. She wasn’t shooting to kill anyway – she just wanted them to back off a bit. Hermione was infinitely glad in that moment her dad always wanted a son and got her instead – he’d still taken her camping, shooting and fishing – her tomboy childhood could just save their lives.

Lining up her shot was hard as they were no longer on a road – just bumping across land, wet land with huge puddles of water Draco was avoiding. She let off a few shots – the kick back was a bitch and she felt her shoulder crunch, what was one more injury, she thought wryly. The jeep did back off slightly, she could see the second jeep finally follow them in the distance.

Suddenly a loud hooting noise rammed through her eardrums, turning around she felt her mouth drop open – a train – a massive huge locomotive was up ahead, Draco spun the wheel so they started to drive adjacent to it.

He pulled it back a gear and she heard the high whine of acceleration and he flattened it – slowly, carriage by carriage they were passing the train.

“Keep shooting…” he yelled over the infinitely loud clacking of the train less than two metres away from his window.

“You are fucking crazy,” Hermione retorted, but lined up another shot, and ducked as she saw the muzzle flash of returning fire heading for them. Draco jerked a little to avoid most of the bullets, but it was starting to take its toll on the poor jeep.

She fired back at them and watched in amazement as a bullet hit the radiator, steam started to flow from the hole, but it didn’t stop them – not yet – and she was out of ammunition.
As she climbed back into the front seat Hermione saw they had passed five of the six locomotives pulling the train – it must have been massively long to require that towing power.

“What’s the plan?” she yelled over the noise, he glanced at her smirking, and she looked once more at the position they were in. Then squealed, “Oh no you don’t”

Her voice was lost as they finally pulled out in front of the main engine; she saw in the distance a crossing and swallowed her heart which somehow was now lodged in her throat. “You have got to be bloody kidding me.”

Draco hadn’t replied to her at all and she knew why – he was concentrating, he was focused and he was going to get her killed. But as much as fear and adrenaline was choking her, she somehow felt a calm respect that he wouldn’t be doing this unless he was sure it was the only option. Here she was, openly trusting the biggest pain in her arse to save them. She shut her eyes and sent another prayer to the goddess.

“Come on, come on…” she heard Malfoy whispering under his breath, they were now a few meters before the train and the crossing was coming up fast – too fast. In a last ditch effort Draco slammed it into the last gear and held on for dear life. The jeep shook from the bumpy land, from the speed from being shot up beyond all belief – but it held and still had more speed left in it. Hermione knew as soon as she made it back to England she was selling her car and buying a Jeep – they were almost indestructible.

She couldn’t help the scream which left her throat as Draco jerked the wheel and they flew up the small gravel incline and with a whisker of space between them and the train they flew across the crossing on an angle – jumping off the other side. The train blew its whistle furiously at them, but Hermione’s vision was completely on their airborne status. The jeep touched down and almost rolled as Draco wrestled it back under his control.

“Holy fucking shit – I can’t believe that worked,” he whooped, while twisting the wheel and stepping on the accelerator, once more lining up next to train on the other side. Hermione was too angry to wonder why they weren’t escaping across the land in the opposite direction.

“What the hell does that mean? You didn’t think it would work?!”

“Doesn’t matter, it did in the end.” His sparkling grey eyes met hers and she itched to slap him – but couldn’t due to the fact she didn’t want their jeep to slam into the train if he lost his grip on the wheel. She kept staring at him and his smile dropped – although his eyes still twinkled and Hermione tried desperately to ignore the tightening in her stomach at his unguarded excitement. What a stupid time for rouge
hormones to take hold. “Hand me the gun.”

Hermione frowned, and at his impatient gesture leaned back and grabbed it. “What do you need this for…” she trailed off as she watched Draco shove the back of the gun against the accelerator and pushed the muzzle into the seat – he slowly lifted his foot away, the jeep slowed marginally but kept going.

“Now don’t get all pissy with me – I need you to listen.”

Hermione had stopped listening – eyes wide as saucers, knowing what was about to happen. She’d seen enough Muggle movies in her time; and to hell if she would be doing it – especially without stuntmen.

“You got that?”

She wanted to shake her head and say no, she hadn’t heard a word, but Draco was already crouching on the driver’s seat while holding the steering wheel in place. He gestured for her to move up to the window – she was going to die, she was certain.

Having no idea how she got the guts to slide out and sit on the open window from, her blurry vision looked at the train next to her, they were going a tiny bit slower than it, so she would have to time this right. Hang on – she wasn’t going to be doing this at all, but why was her fingers balling into a fist and loosening in anticipation of grabbing one of the metal hand holds? She felt Draco’s hand on her leg and started – god, don’t touch her now, her nerves were just frayed endings.

He watched her, seeing the panic in her eyes and something shifted behind his penetrating gaze. “Granger, you are the most infuriating witch on the planet, yet you bloody helped take down Voldemort who was a fuck-load more dangerous than jumping onto a train. Now stop being a pussy and fucking do it.”

Fury rose, it basked through her body – Draco Malfoy was an absolute wanker. And before she thought about anything else she had pushed herself out of the window of the car, balancing precariously on unsteady feet on its sill as her hand wrapped around the roll bar on the top to keep her balance. Taking in a shaking gasp of breath she flew through the air hitting the train hard. Her grip almost didn’t hold. Jerking your entire body weight is a hell of a lot easier on gym equipment. But she managed to hold on to the small hand hold, finding a foot hold was worse and she didn’t have time to look back at the jeep as she scrambled to place her legs somewhere – she finally felt a protrusion and rested her weight on it while she spun around.

Draco was still sitting on the window – his leg outstretched holding the steering wheel in place – although not very successfully – the jeep kept jumping around. As the car lost speed Hermione panicked – what if Draco didn’t get on board.

Then he suddenly pushed off and grasped the next carriage down from her – the jeep thankfully due to Draco’s foot pushing on the wheel started to bump across the plain away from the train. All they needed was for it to hit the train and create an explosion, one they wouldn’t be able to escape from. She felt relief flood her that Draco had managed to get across – only because she didn’t want to be alone in a foreign country hanging on the side of a train who knows where. No, she was lying – she somehow didn’t want to lose Malfoy, he was surprisingly resourceful and her only link to a normal life. Hell, when Malfoy became your only link to the known, things were bad.

He gestured for her to climb to the top. It was the only way to go so she complied. Once on the roof she stopped, and waited until he motioned for her to climb his way and meet him between the carriages. Wind whipped around her body, her braid slapping into her face as the train barrelled across the landscape – what the hell was she doing? Living – and surviving, she answered for herself, it was a heady sensation.

She climbed down between the carriages – it was an old train and they were near the back – hopefully not anywhere near passengers – explaining themselves would be hard. Their clothes were mud-caked, ripped in places and they looked like terrorists. Draco opened one door – it was full of luggage, Hermione hoped no sensors went off at the door opening, although judging by the age of the carriage she was sure no one saw.

Once they were inside and safe, Hermione rounded on Draco, but before she could get off her third slap of their two day ordeal he had her pushed up against a stack of suitcases. His hands grasped her elbows, and held her still. She was furious with him and he knew it.

“Calm down, Granger.”

“You goaded me into jumping, you prick.”

“It worked didn’t it?” he said with a hint of exasperation.

She didn’t want to answer him because it was true. Draco sighed, the last of the adrenaline fading away as they had finally stopped running. She slumped a little, no longer wanting to hit him. Then she realised he was still holding her upright, pushing himself slightly into her. She looked at his mouth without even meaning too, how could she go from wanting to throttle him to devouring his lips in the space of a
minute? Draco noticed.

“What is it Granger, you still thinking about that kiss?” Malfoy leant in closer and her stomach began to quiver, his fringe fell in his eyes and he let go of one of her arms to tuck it behind his ear absently all while never losing her gaze. She didn’t try to escape. He was so close the puff of his breath tickled her lips – somehow this was more erotic than his mouth actually pressing against hers. His hips aligned with hers as much as they could with his height, and held her against the wall of bags. “Remember, it was just one small insignificant kiss…”

His lips barely touched hers before he smirked against her, and she couldn’t hold her tongue. “It seems more than insignificant if you’re coming back for more.”

He chuckled and she felt it all the way to her groin. “I’m merely a man, Granger – if it’s flaunted in my face I’m going to take it.”

Suddenly Malfoy pulled back, making her almost topple over. He was such a prick, she was not flaunting anything, and he knew it. How in hell did he get to her – how did he manage to make her lose her mind? Hell if they were back in London, back in her office even, the sound of Malfoy’s name being said within her earshot was something to scowl over. But here, in the middle of nowhere fighting for their lives, fighting to stop a crazy wizard from getting the relic they’d found, he seemed to be able to make her knees weak and her heart stutter with just a whisper of a kiss. Merlin, she just might want to sleep with this wizard – just the once, just to get it out of her system. Before her thought had finished she had already vetoed it, sleeping with Malfoy would be a mistake, a very big one. But, don’t you learn from your mistakes another voice asked? See, this is why you never let people save your life, she told herself - you felt a connection with them, warranted or not. Two days ago she wanted to slap Malfoy into oblivion now today after a few near misses and high adrenaline she let the errant thought of sex creep in.

She watched as Draco stripped off his shirt and unbuckled the relic from his chest – bloody hell, she was already fighting with herself, she didn’t need Draco’s body…she averted her eyes – his perfect body she realised, tempting her any more.
But she was a glutton for punishment and she looked at him again, that was when she saw him wince as he turned his back towards her while he felt around his side – there was a huge blood splatter marring his pale skin. She ran to him.

“Malfoy – you’ve been shot – why the hell didn’t you say anything?” Hermione saw the tiredness take him over as he slumped a little, his face going pale. “Where’s that damn healing kids wand you had.”

“In the Jeep I think,” his eyes closed then opened again as she slapped his arm.

“Sorry,” she said hastily, “but you’re a moron.” Hermione was furious, she knew she had to see if the bullet was still in there – but how on earth was she supposed to do this. She glanced at her surrounds – they were in a damn luggage carriage not in first aid. Draco slumped and she left him on the ground. She couldn’t believe he’d manage to pull off that escape while having a bullet lodged in his side. He was made of more than just arrogance and superiority. Damn this many layered man, she thought as she started to go through bags.

Ten minutes later she found what she wanted, a bottle of absinthe, some tweezers and a sewing kit. There was clothing strewn around and personal belongings everywhere as she tore through the bags – she was glad she wasn’t on this train as a passenger.

Looking at the wound again she saw it was small, and was thankful it was a clean entry wound – shrapnel she might not be able to handle. Pouring the alcohol over the tweezers and the wound she ignored Draco’s small semi-conscious hiss, and began to probe. She almost threw up twice, pushing a small metal spike into a fleshy wound oozing blood was horrific – she couldn’t even watch any Dr series on TV. She felt the clink of the bullet and it took three go’s to get a hold of it, each time Draco flinching without knowing.

She had no idea whether anything major had been damaged inside of him, but the blood wasn’t gushing, so it seemed ok. Stitching him up was much easier on her stomach, but she wasn’t good at sewing either – he’d have a scar most likely – but it was something he could fix at some point if he wanted.

Exhausted she sat back leaning against a large feminine fur-coat and placed Draco’s head on her lap to monitor his breathing. Glancing down at his body she noticed a few other marks and scars; she frowned slightly – they didn’t look like childhood scrapes, some actually looked quite pink and recent. What had Malfoy been getting into – trouble when relic hunting? She had a few scrapes but nowhere near the amount he had. She soon had to avert her eyes again; she didn’t want his chest to be ingrained in her memory, although somehow she knew now she’d seen him semi-naked it would be hard to forget it.
As her eyes closed, she felt Malfoy snuggle into her lap and she dropped off to sleep – finally feeling safe for the first time in days. She didn’t even notice when he slowly opened his eyes and watched her for the longest moment, as if he were seeing her for the first time.

~~~*~~~~*~~~~*~~~*

A/N – thanks so much for reading and the kind reviews! Much appreciated!