Kapitel 37: There's No Stopping Her
There hadn't been a week in his entire existence, Draco thought, that had taken this long to pass. It seemed stupidly insufferable. He glanced at the clock. Five minutes until the end of the day. Hermione had said that she'd scheduled an appointment for whatever she'd planned for right after work, and he was starting to get hit with nerves.
The clock finally struck on the hour and Hermione came in, curls let loose today and a black pair of slacks with a large white blouse, a bright smile on her face.
"C'mon. Let's go, yeah?" She took his arm and Disapparated into a back alley of some business, the place quiet and without customers. Hermione knocked three times and it was opened by a slim man with colourful pictures up and down his arms. He broke into a large smile when he saw Hermione, and wrapped her in a hug, provoking a low growl from Draco. The sandy-haired main raised a brow.
"Who's this? Someone new?"
Hermione scowled. "Ross, be nice or I swear you're not going to like what comes out of my mouth. This is my boyfriend, Draco."
Draco gave him a curt nod. Hermione nudged him. "Hey. Be nice."
"Who is this guy?"
Ross grinned lightheartedly, gray-green eyes reflecting something a tad bit darker than his smile. "I'm an ex of hers."
Hermione took a deep breath at the words, half-fighting a smile and glaring at Ross at the same time, willing him to shut up. "That is the absolute worst way to say it. We were 'together' for two days in elementary school. And then we 'broke up' because you said you like Monica. Speaking of which, how's she doing?"
"Good." The slim man smiled. "Anyways, you have an appointment, I think, so let's get going."
He beckoned them in, leaving Hermione and Draco to follow him. Draco bent down to Hermione's ear.
"Does he know?" She shook her head.
"No, but he's not stupid. He's knows there's stuff I don't tell him, and he doesn't ask too many questions. We're going to say your was a reckless decision." She gestures quietly to his arm. "This place is a tattoo parlour. You can put ink into your skin permanently, and it should be able to cover your Dark Mark." She explains in hurried, hushed whispers. "It might hurt a bit, but I think it'll be worth it. Try not to ask too many questions."
Draco nodded, looking around in interest as they emerged in a private room decked out with murals. Ross slipped in soon after, a laptop in his hands.
"Let's start. Is it one or both of you today?" Hermione spoke up.
"Both of us." Ross raised an eyebrow.
"Never thought I'd see the day where goody-two shoes Hermione Granger got a tattoo. Alrighty. So who wants to go first?"
"I will." Draco moved forward a little, instinctively shifting to half-cover Hermione. "I would like to get this covered up."
He pursed his lips before yanking his sleeve up to the elbow, revealing the Mark that stood out harshly against his pale skin. His grasp on his sleeve was so tight that his knuckles were white and he was trying not to look at it. Ross noticed but didn't say a word. Hermione wrapped her arms around his hips.
"It's okay. It's okay."
"A drunken-night sort of thing?" The laptop's pictures shifted as it lay forgotten in the moment. Draco sighed- if only.
"Yeah." He grinned a tight grin, and Ross didn't push it, only asking what he wanted to cover it with. Draco thought, unsure. Hermione leaned up to whisper in his ear.
"What about narcissus flowers? For your mum?"
"I want to do something for you too."
"A lion, then. A lion and a snake. Half narcissus flowers, half house pride." She smiled a half-smile and Draco nodded.
Ross glanced up. "Any ideas?"
Draco bit his lip before responding. "Can you cover half of it with narcissus flowers and the other half a lion and a snake?" He sounded strangely vulnerable, Ross thought, and then:
"Sure. Depends on how you want what covered, though." His lips were tight as he responded, resolving to have a moment with Hermione. Grabbing a piece of paper, he started to sketch, first the outline of the weird, snake-skull thing and then the design that would go on top of it. The flowers nestled in the lower left-hand corner, a lion emerging from that with a snake at her side. He glanced up at the riot of brown curls he remembered from so long ago and the platinum-blonde at her side.
A small, genuine smile came over the sharp features of the platinum-haired boy as he surveyed the drawing.
"Yeah. Just like that." He breathed, and a peaceful look flooded his face. Ross tapped Hermione on the arm.
"Hey Herms, can I have a word with you? Just a sec while I transfer this to the computer."
"Sure." The blonde-Draco, Ross remembered- whispered something in her ear, and she murmured back a reply. There was no missing the kindness in her words, the love in her eyes. Once he'd left the room, Ross grabbed her wrist.
"Hermione, d'you know what you're getting into? That on his arm is unlike anything I've ever seen. Gives me the damned creeps, like something's wrong with it. He could belong to a gang or something, I don't know-"
"It's fine. He's not dangerous. He's just.." Hermione trailed off, searching for the right word. "Lost. He's lost. He made bad decisions in the past. So did I. There's no escaping it or changing it now." She had a weird look of reminiscence on her face now, the one that matched her tone when she'd occasionally written letters. Something that implied she knew or was thinking of something else, some part of her he didn't know.
"It's okay. Don't worry about me." Hermione grinned, snapping herself out of it. Ross sighed resignedly.
"If you say so, Herms, if you say so."
***Draco grit his teeth as he felt the needle go through his skin, this time adding color to the black outline and covering up the Mark he'd hated for so long. Hermione squeezed his hand.
"Won't be long now, love. Almost done."
Draco sighed, mentally admitting that no matter how big of a dick this Ross guy was, he knew what he was doing. Hermione squeezed his hand again, to him from a random magazine, telling him stories from her childhood, anything to keep him entertained until it was over. He finally felt the pressure dissipate and sat up, forearm still sore. Ross had his back to them, but Draco could hear the smirk in his tone.
"Whaddaya think?"
Draco gasped as he glanced down, Dark Mark gone. In its place was a beautiful medley of white and yellow flowers, a golden lion emerging from the cluster of flowers and an emerald-green snake by her side.
"It's really good." Draco begrudgingly kept a slight tint of admiration in his tone.
"No problem. Herms, you next?" Hermione took a breath.
"Yeah." She flinched as she rolled up her sleeve, trying not to remember or catch a glimpse of the red lines that marred her skin, but it was a futile effort. Gasping at the recollections coming to life in her mind, she gestured frantically to her workbag. "Draco. In my bag. The bottle-" Draco dug around in it until he hit upon a small bottle, before he handed it to Hermione. She opened it gratefully and swallowed its contents, a potion she'd asked Astoria to make letting her catch her breath and prevent, if only for a short while, her scar from triggering and dredging up old memories.
Ross was staring at the word in a mixture of fear and anger.
"Herms... What the fucking hell have you been up to?"
"Please don't ask questions." Hermione's voice was quiet and unassuming but it still carried the obvious tone of authority. Ross shut his mouth, handing Hermione a piece of paper.
"I'm assuming you know what it is you want. You have that glint in your eye." She pushed it back towards him.
"Yeah, but I'm rubbish at drawing." Her smile returned briefly.
"A rose. A white rose, on a background of red smoke that fades at the tips and tipped with pearls at the top."
Ross's pencil moved, quick and light across the page, transforming the blankness into something else, a perfect visual representation of Hermione's words.
"Let's get this over with."
Hermione steeled herself for the pain, but had to physically prevent herself from crying out when the needle hit her skin, slamming waves of pain through her body, Ross's sandy-blonde hair and gray-green eyes blurring into Bellatrix's wild black curls and murderous glares as she screeched with pleasure, watching Hermione scream and plead for her life as she hovered over her, knife digging into her skin, tightening her grip on Draco's hand so hard it hurt. Draco's eyes widened and he dug around in Hermione's bag again, fingertips brushing up against a glass vial. He glanced at Ross, totally engrossed in his job and trying not to wince at Hermione's tears- and pulled it out, placing the edge of it against her lips and letting her drink.
Suddenly the pain subsided. Bellatrix faded away, the knife gone, her horrid voice snatched from the air, now silent. Hermione sighed in relief.
"Thank you, Draco." She smiled up at him. He squeezed her hand reassuringly, and smiled back
***
Hermione's eyes brightened as she saw the beautiful rose etched into her skin, surrounded by a vivid red backdrop of swirling smoke, fading out at the tips.
"Thanks, Ross." The corner of her lips quirked up in a smile. She pulled a credit card out of her bag, letting it process itself through the reader. Ross smirked.
"You know that you don't have to pay full-price, right?"
"Well, too late." Hermione nudged him back, grinning.
"Ah, well. Nothing I can do if you're going to do it, is there?"
Draco shook his head, a small smirk on his face. "There's no stopping her."
Ross smiled. "For once, we're in agreement."
***
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
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