A week and a half passed by and it was the following Friday, the night of the full moon. Hermione's stomach was in knots as she landed in front of Draco's manor immediately after leaving the Ministry, and as she stared up at the large building she hesitated before swallowing the lump in her throat and walking inside.
She immediately went down to the cellar where she saw Draco pacing anxiously on the other side of the bars, while Blaise and the two men she recognized as the men that were in Draco's office the previous week were quietly speaking to each other in the right corner.
Draco looked up at the sound of her walking down the stairs and immediately perked up, but pulled back as he remembered the gravity of the situation.
"Hi," Hermione said quietly as she gripped one of the bars of the cage. "Are you okay?"
Draco scoffed slightly before taking a deep breath. "I suppose. About as okay as I can be with everyone here."
He glared towards the two men who were conveniently ignoring the blond and Draco growled quietly to himself, something that didn't pass Hermione.
"So when are you supposed to take this potion?" Hermione asked in an attempt to distract him.
Looking down at his watch, Draco said, "Soon. The sun went down around six-twenty so they wanted to wait until it fully went down. They said around I'll take it around seven."
He resumed his pacing as Hermione watched sadly before Blaise subtly pulled her aside. "Remember, he's moody every full moon regardless of who it is that he's talking to."
"I know," She replied quietly.
She heard the cellar door open again and when the red head appeared, Hermione looked over to Blaise and exclaimed, "No, absolutely not!
"What?" Ginny asked as she stopped at the base of the stairs, looking between Hermione and Blaise in confusion.
"Gin, no." Hermione shook her head before pointing back up the stairs. "Ginny, I can't have you here during this."
"Well I can't have you here taking on a full werewolf by yourself," Ginny rebutted, crossing her arms against her chest.
"What? What am I, chopped liver?" Blaise asked with a face of hurt and confusion.
"No sweetheart," Ginny said before walking over to him and kissing his cheek. "I'm just a control freak who needs to be there when my best friend is possibly risking her life to help her boyfriend find a cure."
Draco narrowed his eyes at Ginny before looking at Hermione, who didn't even so much as falter as she said, "Ginny, when I told you about this, it was just supposed to stay between us."
"Great, more people to leak about the possible cure," Draco muttered to himself as he continued to pace in the makeshift cell.
Hermione sighed and said, "Draco, Ginny is the last person on this planet who would say anything about this and if anything she is another person to help if things go badly. As much as I would rather her not be put in harm's way and be here, I trust her to keep quiet about this more than I do Blaise."
"Hey!" Blaise exclaimed with an offended look.
Putting a hand up, Hermione went on to say, "And you've been doing a wonderful job of making sure no one finds out about Draco as well as this project. So for me to trust Ginny to do better than you at keeping things quiet...?"
He was silent for a moment before his eyes went wide. "Oh!"
"There we go," Hermione said with a slight laugh before she looked back at Draco with a solemn expression. "Please don't be mad at me; she was probably going to find out sooner or later about this and like I said, she's another person to help just in case."
Draco took a deep breath and shut his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as his body stiffened from pain. He knew that Hermione meant well but now was really not the time that he wanted to find out about Ginny knowing about the potential cure.
"Sir."
One of the other men reluctantly stepped forward, grabbing everyone's attention as he said, "It's seven."
Draco nodded and reached a hand through the bars as the man dug through his coat, pulling out a vial filled with a silvery blue liquid. Everyone watched in silence as Draco uncorked the vial and immediately downed the liquid, his face scrunching up in disgust as he swallowed.
"Merlin, that's revolting," He muttered, wiping his mouth and handing the vial back through the bars.
"As bad as the Wolfsbane potion?" Hermione asked.
"Worse."
She frowned but watched him quietly, waiting for something to happen. It seemed everyone else had the same idea, including Draco, and the cellar was silent for a good minute or two.
Shifting her weight from one foot to the other, Hermione sighed and broke the silence by asking, "Do you feel any different?"
"A little bit," Draco said in surprise. "My headache went away."
Blaise's eyebrows shot up in surprise at this. "Really? No migraine?"
Shaking his head, Draco said, "None at all. Haven't had a wave of pain either yet; normally I'd have had one by now since they go from waves every minute or so to a steady pain. But I haven't had one since taking the potion and it's been at least a couple of minutes."
Hermione lit up slightly as she noticed that the tone in Draco's voice has changed and didn't seem to be laced with an underlying anger. In fact, he sounded hopeful.
"This is really promising," She said, unable to stop smiling as she tried to contain her excitement.
Draco returned the smile and stretched slightly, almost testing out his now-relaxed muscles. "This is the most...normal I've felt in a while. I don't even feel like this during the new moon."
Ginny was smiling at this point as well, Hermione's excitement catching on. Blaise was smiling also, only his was filled with more apprehension than the others' as he remembered how many failed potions it took to even get to this point.
"Yes, this is very exciting," Blaise said, genuinely meaning it. "But let's not get too excited before the night is over..."
"Right," Hermione said, though her eyes were still lit up as she took a few steps closer to the bars. "You don't look any different either. Draco, I think you may have discovered the cure for lycanthropy!"
Draco grinned and leaned forward against the bars to give her a kiss that she happily returned. Ginny leaned into Blaise and smiled up at him but noticed that he seemed to be more hesitant about his happiness.
"Everything alright?" She asked quietly, trying to make sure that Draco and Hermione wouldn't hear them.
Blaise didn't answer for a moment before murmuring, "It's just too easy. One drink and he's fine?"
"But you guys have been working on this potion for months," Ginny muttered back.
"That doesn't mean it's perfect." He took a beep breath and sighed it out before straightening up and asking Draco, "Still feel normal, mate?"
"Yeah!" Draco answered enthusiastically, grinning at the other wizard. "Isn't this fantastic?!"
"Yeah, fantastic," Blaise said reluctantly as he forced a smile. When Draco turned his attention back to Hermione, Blaise shook his head before rubbing his face in frustration. "It can't be this simple."
"Sometimes it is," Ginny said reassuringly, squeezing his arm. "There isn't always a catch and things don't always require multiple tries. This could be one of those times where things just happened to align and everything worked out perfectly."
He didn't answer as he looked over at Draco and Hermione smiling at each other as they talked through the bars. Draco seemed normal, more normal than he had looked in years.
With a sigh, Blaise tried to force himself to relax and he kissed Ginny's forehead as they smiled at each other. Hermione was still excitedly chattering on to Draco who was listening just as excitedly.
"This is so monumental!" Hermione exclaimed, squeezing his hands. "My clients are going to be ecstatic about this! Think about all of the lives you're going to be changing, Draco!"
He smiled down at her happily as he laughed at her excitement; she would bounce up and down slightly whenever she was genuinely excited about something and her reaction always filled him with happiness. At this point he hadn't even thought about the impact this potion would have on others. He was so focused on finally having a normal life with Hermione...
Thirty minutes passed by and Draco was still unchanged. He couldn't believe that the potion was actually working, and when it was confirmed that the full moon was in fact up and that it was past the point of him usually changing forms, his hope was renewed.
"Sir." The man cleared his throat to get everyone's attention again. "Would you like us to stay to continue to monitor your progress?"
"No, it should be fine," Draco said happily, waving them off. "After all, I have the Head of the Beings division here; who better to keep an eye on me?"
Hermione giggled at this while the two men nodded. "Very well, sir."
After they both disappeared up the stairs, Hermione turned back to smile widely at Draco. "I still can't believe this!"
"I know!" Draco grinned back and pulled her hand in to kiss the back of it. "I honestly would not have had the courage to even try finding a cure if it wasn't for you!"
She blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"
He smiled happily. "Hearing how passionate you were about your work, even going as far as to put together research papers to help everyone better understand werewolves and bridge the gap between us and the rest of society...that's not an easy feat. But you were so confident in yourself, and so confident in your abilities that it inspired me to help any way that I could."
"And you immediately jumped to a cure," She laughed.
"Well, it's not like anyone's really thought to try and have another go at it again after the Wolfsbane potion came around," Draco said with a grin. "I'm honestly surprised that you didn't try to come up with it."
"I thought about it," Hermione admitted. "But you know me; I love to plan things out way in advance before I even attempt to do them."
"Oh yes, I'm well versed in this particular habit of yours," He retorted, causing Hermione to scrunch her nose up at him in playful retaliation.
"At least it's a good habit that I have!" She said.
He tilted his head back and forth sarcastically, only laughing when she smacked his arm lightly through the bars.
Ginny wriggled happily next to Blaise before muttering, "This is too adorable."
Blaise simply chuckled before nodding towards Draco. "So, are you staying in there all night?"
"Well..." Draco looked down hesitantly towards Hermione before looking back up at Blaise. "I'm not sure. It's only been...what, five, ten minutes since I've taken the potion?"
"Yeah, but you've had no side effects," Ginny said.
Draco chewed on his lip before sighing. "I know, but I'd rather just play it safe for now."
Hermione smiled at him while Blaise shrugged, taking Ginny's hand and pulling her over to sit at the base of the stairs. As he sat down and looked up towards Draco and Hermione, he saw an odd look on Draco's face.
"Mate, you alright?" He asked, tensing up.
"Yeah, sorry, my stomach just feels a little weird," Draco said, cringing slightly. "Probably just trying to fully digest the potion."
Hermione stayed silent as she watched him, pulling back slightly and dropping one of her hands down to her side. The other three didn't even notice her begin to move it ever so slightly as she concentrated.
"Hopefully that's the only side effect," Ginny said. "An upset stomach. I'm sure that's a much better trade off than the alternative."
"Oh yeah, I would take this any day," Draco said in agreement before cringing again.
Blaise stood up at this, tilting his head slightly. "Are you sure that's all it is?"
There wasn't an answer from the blond as he shut his eyes and looked away, taking a few deep breaths. "Just give me a minute."
Hermione was still moving her hand as subtly as she could, only now she was moving faster. Ginny looked over at her friend and finally noticed this as she asked, "'Mione, what are you doing?"
Instead of giving an answer, Hermione simply shook her head. Then the three of them jumped as Draco fell to his knees with a groan, clutching his head in pain.
Blaise ran forward but was immediately stopped as he hit an invisible shield that separated himself and Ginny from Hermione and Draco. Ginny was by his side in an instant and she started yelling as Blaise put his hands up against the invisible shield.
"Hermione, what do you think you're doing?!" Ginny exclaimed, putting her hands against the shield as well.
"Keeping you and Blaise safe!" Hermione fired back, not taking her eyes off of Draco as he slowly began to change forms. "Get out of here!"
She grabbed her wand and immediately began to put up shields on the bars, muttering furiously to herself as she tried to work as quickly as she could. Ginny in the meantime was pounding on the shield as Blaise panicked and tried to figure out what to do.
"You can't take on a bloody werewolf by yourself!" Ginny yelled.
"That's kind of my job, Ginny!" Hermione yelled in return over her shoulder. "Go and get Harry! I'm going to make sure that he doesn't get out!"
Ginny's mouth dropped as she ran from side to side, trying to find a weak spot in Hermione's shield. "I'm not leaving!"
"Just go get him! I'll be able to hold Draco off until you get back!" Hermione aimed her wand at the bars again and called out more charms as Draco let out a roar of pain.
Blaise began firing off spells at the shield to try and get through but it was no use, and both he and Ginny watched in horror as a now fully transformed werewolf stood in front of them. He was snarling at the bars and charged towards Hermione, only to hit the shielded bars with a loud thump. This didn't seem to deter him though and he charged again, but Hermione didn't falter with her spells and she continued to put up enchantments as calmly as she could.
Her heart was pounding in her ears with every lunge of the werewolf that was just on the other side of the bars, and she didn't fail to notice the bars starting to bend more with every hit.
Ginny's panic only grew and she grabbed her wand as well, pointing it towards the shield between her and Hermione before shouting, "Finite!"
Hermione whirled around with wide eyes and for just a moment her concentration lapsed. When the teeth sunk into her arm her blood ran cold and she froze.
"Hermione!"
Both Blaise and Ginny were at her side in a moment, pulling her away as Blaise blasted Draco off Hermione's arm and back against the far wall. Hermione stared down at the bloody wound and tried to take a deep breath but was unsuccessful as she began to hyperventilate.
"No, no, no, no, no!" Ginny exclaimed, looking between Hermione and Blaise. "Hermione, I'm so sorry!"
Hermione couldn't get a word out as her vision began to blur from the lack of oxygen and she nearly fell backwards against the stairs as Ginny held her up. Blaise was completing Hermione's shield charm, concentrating heavily on finishing the charm as quickly as he could.
"Ginny, take her to St. Mungo's!" He yelled firmly over his shoulder. "She needs to be treated immediately!"
She wasn't able to respond but Ginny stood up quickly and grabbed Hermione, pulling her friend's uninjured arm over her shoulders and helping Hermione up the stairs. Hermione seemed to be in shock, muttering something incomprehensible as they walked and as soon as they stepped outside Ginny apparated them to St. Mungo's.
A/N: Don't hate me, guys!!