Returning to the Order was easier than it had ever been. Hermione apparated in without receiving a second glance and she made it all the way to her bed without anyone noticing. When she woke up in the morning, she was quick to have breakfast then move to the medical wing. The work was dull as there hadn't been many lasting injuries from the ambush last night, so Hermione was able to lose herself to her thoughts up until lunch. It wasn't until she ducked into the tent during lunch to see Ginny reading that Hermione realised she should check the notebook Malfoy had given her. She couldn't very well ask him to send her information and then not check for it.

"Have a good morning?" Ginny asked, watching Hermione clamber up to her bunk.

Hermione grunted and pulled her notebook from her satchel, flipping to the front page as she said, "Yeah. Rather dull, but I suppose that's good, yeah?"

Ginny hummed and said something else, but Hermione didn't hear as she read Malfoy's note. She hadn't really expected something so soon, but clearly he had plenty of information about where they should target first if the detailed paragraph he'd written was anything to go by.

"—leave soon?"

Hermione looked up sharply at Ginny who seemed to know she'd not been listening.

"I'm sorry, Gin, what?" she asked. She stuffed her notebook in her pocket so Ginny wouldn't ask questions, making a mental note to scribble a note back to Malfoy in a minute.

"It's been a bit over a week," Ginny repeated. Hermione blinked. She'd completely forgotten about time, if she were honest. Everything just blurred together after the attack on Hogwarts. "Do you think I'll be able to leave soon?"

"I don't know, Ginny," Hermione sighed. She wanted to tell Ginny good news, but she also knew letting her back on the battlefield too early would be a mistake. "You'll have to have a healer examine—"

"You are a healer."

"A real healer," Hermione told her, giving Ginny a look. Ginny rolled her eyes. "I'm not official and you know Kingsley won't care unless it's Pomfrey who discharges you."

Ginny huffed and threw her legs over the bed to stand up. Hermione watched as she grabbed a jacket. Ginny looked up at Hermione expectantly and Hermione knew without having to ask that Ginny wanted her to take her to the medical wing.

"Fine," Hermione grumbled, already imagining the lecture she'd get from Harry or Ron. "But if Pomfrey says you stay, then you stay."

"Yes, ma'am," Ginny replied with a grin. She looped her arm through Hermione's and together, they walked across camp to the medical tent.

Hermione walked Ginny to an empty cot and had her sit down while she went to find Madam Pomfrey. She waited patiently until she was done with her patient and stepped forward when Madam Pomfrey finally looked up at her.

"Ginny Weasley wants to be discharged," Hermione explained. Madam Pomfrey looked up to where Ginny was waiting on a cot and sighed. "Kingsley needs you to be the one to dismiss her or else I would have done it myself."

Madam Pomfrey walked with her to Ginny's cot. She hadn't even reached the side of the cot before she was scolding Ginny for getting up without assistance and trying to get discharged early. Ginny only tried to argue once before giving up and looking at Hermione with a small glare. Hermione just snorted and waited for Madam Pomfrey to finish.

"Well, you're certainly not to go fighting for another four days," Madam Pomfrey announced, giving Ginny a very stern look. "I suppose you're free to do other things around the camp, but I'll make sure Mr. Shacklebolt knows you're not ready to fight yet."

Ginny looked upset, but Hermione could tell she was trying not to be. At the very least, she could roam through the camp and help in the kitchens or attend meetings now rather than stay inside the tent all day. Madam Pomfrey gave her a potion to accelerate her healing further then sent them out of the medical tent. As Hermione expected, Ginny went right to Kingsley to tell him she was cleared so Hermione took the time to return to the tent and check her notebook again. She ducked in, looking around for the boys before pulling out the notebook and flicking through it. She stared down at the elegant handwriting, reading it quickly before grabbing the satchel from her bed.

Grimmauld place tonight at midnight. Bring those bombs from Dortmouth.

Refusing to think about how she was actually going to do what Malfoy told her, she hurried through the camp and back to the forest where she'd first built the bombs. She wasn't sure how many they would need as Malfoy had been vague in his note, so she spent the afternoon carefully making two and placing several protection charms around them. If they ended up only needing one, she didn't want to forget about the other two during a fight. The last thing she wanted was to be blown apart by her own creation.

* * * * *

Hermione apparated to Grimmauld Place five minutes before midnight. With her bag slung over her shoulder and her wand securely in its holster, she stepped inside to wait for Malfoy. She did not expect to see him leaning against the wall sipping a cup of tea as if he'd been there for hours before her.

"I pegged you for a ten-minutes-early kind of person, not five minutes," he said, vanishing his tea cup and pushing off the wall.

"And I thought you'd be late," she retorted. Malfoy rolled his eyes and extended his arm to her. She raised an eyebrow at him and did not move.

"Do you want to splinch yourself getting there?" he asked irritatedly. Hermione scowled and took one step forward but didn't reach out to him quite yet.

"If you turn me in, you're dead, Malfoy," she warned, grabbing his arm warily. Without a word, Malfoy apparated them both from Grimmauld Place.

Hermione's head spun when they landed and she wobbled forward, but Malfoy yanked her to the left before she could right herself. Immediately assuming he'd betrayed her, Hermione slipped her wand from its holster and pulled away from him. Malfoy grunted and held her tighter.

"Let me go, bastard," she hissed. Malfoy glared at her and shook her roughly, only making her head swim more.

"Shut up or you'll get us caught," he warned. Hermione was about to bite back with something about how they didn't have to worry about that since he'd betrayed her, but she realised they were completely alone and in a small room.

Hermione paused, taking a few seconds to look around the room they seemed to be in. It was not large, hardly bigger than a broom closet and Hermione suddenly realised that Malfoy hadn't apparated them outside of the building they were going to destroy, but inside.

"Where the fuck did you bring me?" Hermione hissed, looking up at Malfoy. The room was not very well lit so she could hardly make out his face, but she could clearly see his form in front of her.

"The Dark Lord has a growing base in Bristol," Malfoy said shortly. His head moved and he asked, "How many of those bombs did you bring?"

"Three."

The room was silent and for the first time, Hermione wished Malfoy would say something. He knew how large the base was. If he could tell her, she could figure out where the best places to set the bombs they had were and if they were enough. Rather than tell her though, he raised his wand and a small replica of a building floated between them.

"This is the building, Granger," Malfoy told her, though she'd already figured that much out. "Where do you need the bombs?"

Hermione looked over the model of the building in front of her. Without knowing the exact size of the building, she couldn't be sure how close or far they would have to place the bombs to fully destroy the base. Deciding to play it safe, she chose three points to form a triangle then looked up at Malfoy.

"How many levels are there?" she asked. Malfoy flicked his wand and the three lines appeared through the building to show four different levels. "Any underground?"

"All except the top," Malfoy told her. Hermione blinked. Well, that was not ideal but it was good to know, she supposed.

"We'll set one on each of the three lower levels," she told him. Using her wand, she pointed to each room she wanted to set one of the bombs. Malfoy simply nodded, not saying a word until she'd finished speaking.

"There's a chance we'll get caught," he said, looking up from the building model. The glow from the model allowed her to see his face as he pursed his lips.

"Just don't get me killed and I think I can live with that," she said, wondering for a moment what Malfoy would do if they were discovered. Even with everything she knew about him from their school years, she couldn't be sure how he would act in such a situation. She hoped she wouldn't have to find out.

"You're placing a lot of trust in me, Granger," Malfoy said with a smirk. The map vanished but not before Hermione made out Malfoy's little smirk and the way he extended his arm to her once more.

"I'm just thinking about how if this is a mistake, I'll get to kill you," Hermione replied. She couldn't see his face, but she heard him scoff. As soon as she touched his arm again, he apparated sharply and Hermione almost cursed him.

They landed softer than the last time, but Hermione's head was still foggy and it took her an extra second before she reached into her bag and pulled out a bomb. Malfoy kept an eye on the door as she hid the bomb under a support beam and removed the protection spells. She jumped to her feet and walked quickly back over to him.

"Go," she said. Her eyes snapped to the door knob that began to twist, but Malfoy apparated them away before she could see who was about to enter.

When they landed in the second room, Hermione dug through her bag blindly for the next bomb. Malfoy left her side immediately and she didn't realise why until she looked up at a bright flash of green. Just a few steps ahead of her, Malfoy was holding his wand out and Milicent Bullstrode crumpled to the ground. Hermione blinked, holding the bomb in one hand as she realised Malfoy hadn't hesitated before killing one of his school mates.

"You—"

"Plant the bomb, Granger," Malfoy said tightly. "Bulstrode raised an alarm before I stopped her."

Hermione hastily set the bomb and removed the protection spells. Malfoy grabbed her arm before she had stepped back and she was abruptly taken to the third room. Their luck seemed to run out as they looked up to see three others looking at them.

Everyone seemed to raise their wands at the same time, but no one fired a spell until the alarm Bulstrode had set off warned about intruders. They all snapped to attention and Hermione barely got her shield up in time. Several killing curses barreled into her shield at once and beside her, Malfoy grunted.

"Drop it," Malfoy instructed as she removed the protection spells. Hermione removed the spells and deflected an angry purple curse at the same time before looping her arm through Malfoy's. Without further prompting, Malfoy apparated out of the room and they were dropped barely within sight of a run down shed.

"That's the base?" Hermione asked, staring at the dump of a shed. Malfoy nodded once and Hermione triggered the bombs. Beneath them, the ground rumbled and Hermione knew they were too close. "Run," she said, grabbing Malfoy's arm and shoved him. "Run!"

Hermione shoved Malfoy forward and the two took off across the empty field. Ahead, she could just barely make out a tree that should be out of range, so she grabbed Malfoy's arm and apparated them to it. As soon as they landed, the ground they had been standing on caved in and a loud boom echoed through the field. The shack was crumpled and the ground was a giant sinkhole where the base had been underground.

Her ears were ringing, but she still turned to Malfoy and asked, "How big was that base?"

Malfoy shrugged and glanced past her to the destroyed land.

"Big enough your Order should notice the difference," Malfoy answered. He returned his wand to its holster in his sleeve but Hermione kept hers at her side. "Now, is that enough to convince you that you need my help?"

Hermione scowled at him, but it didn't last long as she turned to look back at the destroyed land behind them. If the base was as big as Malfoy seemed to imply, his help would be vital. She could go around Kingsley and make this work. After all, Kingsley couldn't get too mad if it resulted in the Order winning, right?