PROMISES Chapter 12
Chapter 12 : The hippogriff hunter
Now in the middle of the desert, she had felt so alone.
Was everything over?
"No... no, please..."
But Draco had closed his eyes, his hair was matted by sweat, and his breathing was slowing down. She burst into tears, not knowing what to do. For the first time in her life, she was radically powerless, and she felt overrun with despair.
She held him tighter, listening to his last breaths when another sound added to the gloomy sigh of coming death. She lifted her head warily and saw the man with the wooden-leg flying on a magic carpet. As she recognized him, Hermione gently released Draco's body and let it lie on the ground. Raebert McGregor landed near them, and jumped on the floor like a young gymnast provided with his two legs. Unaware of Hermione's presence, he collected Draco's wand and knelled down at him. After checking his pulse, he removed Draco's shirt to examine the wound. A spike of fear pricked Hermione's heart as his expression darkened.
Finally, Raebert took his own wand and tried a few ineffective charms on Draco's bleeding chest.
"Sorry boy, it will be extremely painful but our time is short... Accio bullet!"
And the bullet tore out of the chest with a jet of blood, eliciting a horrific cry of pain from the young man. Draco's chest was raising of ache.
Hermione held on herself, and stood beside Draco to seize his hand while Raebert was shooting hex after hex to stop the haemorrhaging inside and to rebuild the tissues. Almost one hour later, he was done. But Draco was weak and feverish, and the wound had only been roughly healed.
"Okay..." His voice was so low and so husky, that it sounded like a distant thunder. "You need to see a good mediwizard."
The hippogriff hunter carried the inert body to the flying carpet and raced in direction of Wizarzat.
It took Hermione many minutes to recover from her state of shock. She stood up, still looking into the sky to where Raebert and Draco were only a tiny spot in a perfect blue screen. She felt small. She took a step. She felt heavy.
She closed her eyes tightly.
Wizarzat was surrounded by a yellow clay fortress. Inside, the city looked like a big anthill, full of little artisans' markets. There, to Hermione's great relief they found Donia, a nurse. She was extremely beautiful, dressed in a colorful and floaty robe, contrasting sharply with her dark long hair and her olive tan. Although Hermione had never been a sophisticated girl, she was envious of Donia's grace and beauty. She wished she could wear such awesome dresses, or just take a bath, brush her hair, and perfume her skin. That would be one of the first things she'd do when she'd remove the curse : take better care of herself.
"What happened to him?" Asked the nurse with a strong Arabic accent, when Raebert brought Draco.
"He'd been hurt by a muggle weapon."
The mediwitch quickly led them to an empty room and palpated Draco's wound.
"Who did this?" She demanded, alarmed.
"Listen, I had to be quick. It could've been more tragic if I'd done nothing. Just do your job."
Donia nodded and opened a large staircase full of odd instruments, flasks and bottles of potions.
Donia wasn't just a beautiful woman; she was also an expert in mediwizardry. She watched over Draco during his four days in and out of consciousness and treated his wound perfectly. Raebert McGregor never left the place either. Some afternoons he visited the souks, but most of the time he stood in Draco's room, learning Arabic, reading books and tracing lines on a map. As for Hermione, she was totally absorbed by Draco's health, and never moved from his bedside. Some nights, she could hear him moaning, and it pained her so much to see him suffering and to be unable to comfort him.
At the end of the fourth day, Hermione saw their efforts rewarded.
She was alone in the room, caressing his hand with the tip of her fingers. She gently put her head on his belly, to listen to the reassuring sound of life, when she heard a hoarse voice and felt his body shifted.
"Merlin, Granger, move this mop you call your hair! I don't wannabe devoured by louses."
It was like bunch of daffodils had suddenly bloomed inside Hermione's chest.
She looked up at his face. His skin was paler than ever and he had blue marks around his eyes. He looked tired and a little bit disoriented; nevertheless he put a tiny smile on his lips.
A discreet tear slid down the witch's cheek. She approached him hesitantly. Then, finally she decided that she didn't care about what he would think and put her arms around his neck to hug him tightly.
At first his body stood still, but he surprised himself as he appreciated to feel her heart beating with worry against his. So he relaxed and embraced her frail body in turn.
He laid his head against Hermione's warmness, nestling his face in her hair, and let the regular rhythm of her breath soothe him. He could hear her heart beating, and his own heart started to sing in synchrony with it. He could feel the strength that was emanating from the girl. He'd always known that she had it. Where did she get it? He knew her fears, her questions, her suffering. However, he also felt a diffuse hope living inside her, which filled up her heart with an imperious willing to live and which hunted hesitations... this hope which changed every single worry into a solid stone for this unshakable wall of faith she put in herself, in the world, in him.
And suddenly, he felt something fill his chest, violent and sweet at the same time.
To his disappointment, Hermione released his body. She put her hands on his cheeks. For a brief second, he thought she was about to kiss him. Her lips were so close... But the door opened suddenly, and in entered Raebert McGregor, the hippogriff hunter. They both startled as his wooden leg echoed all around the room.
"Hey boy, just in the nick of time! How do you feel?"
"Fine, I think..." Draco hesitantly answered.
He inwardly thanked years of noble education to have taught him how to master his emotions. An instant was sufficient to regain his composure.
"Aah..." Raebert took a chair and sat in front of Draco's bed, grinning. "You shouldn't underestimate muggles. Their inventions are as vicious as their minds." He said that in a scientific manner, like he was an expert in muggle technology.
Draco just looked at Hermione, who was crossing her arms in discontentment. He barely remembered what had happened to him exactly. All he knew was he had the feeling that he had just escaped from death. He had no clue about Raebert's interventions and wondered why the man was there. And where were they anyway?
"Where are we?" Draco asked suspiciously. "What happened to me? And, hey, where's my wand?" he demanded, a menacing tone rising in his voice.
"Be quiet boy, be quiet..." Raebert seemed to find the situation funny, judging by the large grin on his face.
"Where's my wand?" Draco asked again insistently. "And why are you here anyway?"
"I've been following you since we landed near Canaan. No, in fact I've been spying on you since that night, on the boat, when you recounted the story of a cursed girl and a treasure kept by a dragon under a mountain."
Hermione gasped, and stared at Draco, who was trying to stay neutral.
"And?"
"And I caught that muggle shooting you, and immediately came to your rescue. That's how we ended up here, in Donia's home, in Wizarzat... Now listen..."
"No, you listen! Draco cut in. You're wasting your time ; the story I told you was a myth I learned when I was a child. That night on the flying boat, I'd had too much alcohol, and I told it to you erroneously. Now, I thank you for saving my life, but I need to get my things back and leave this place."
Raebert chuckled, and unfolded a piece of paper he took from his trousers' pocket. Then his chuckling quickly changed into a sneer.
"I have a deal to propose to you. I did some searching. There's a mountain, the Palestine Mount, also known as 'the prison of the cursed lady', situated twenty miles away. I'm going to hunt for this treasure. That muggle stole all your things, except your wand. You tell me what you know, and I'll give you your wand back."
Draco and Hermione exchanged a worried look.
"You have till tomorrow morning to accept or refuse my proposition. I'm going to find Donia to tell her you're awake," declared Raebert, before exiting the room.
This time, Donia arrived dressed in a turquoise dress decorated with oriental golden embroidery. She was holding an empty bowl on her beribboned head.
She was obviously aware of her beauty and, to Hermione's irritation, Draco seemed enchanted. It made her feel even uglier in her old clothes and dirty hair. So much so that she refused to follow them when Draco announced that he would visit the souks with Donia this evening to stretch his legs. They came back with some clothes, food and a magic carpet for Draco.
A/N : So what do you think about it? At first Raebert wasn't supposed to come back in the story. I hope I won't regret it cause it's difficult to add many characters in the main plot. I'm writing the 16th chapter, and sometimes I just want to suppress everything and make Draco and Hermione marry and have babies lol.