Malfoy's injuries were not intended to kill him immediately; rather, they were meant to hurt, and corrupt his magic. A gradual death sentence. Dark magic like runic blood rituals was deep and old.
She read the oath.
It wasn't a typical runic oath. Voldemort, in his vanity, hadn't utilised a traditional vow of loyalty and honesty. Rather it seemed tailored to the specific failure. The runes bound Malfoy to be unhesitating, cunning, unfailing, ruthless, and unyielding; driven to succeed.
Hermione wasn't sure how effective runic blood oaths were; but she suspected that Voldemort's overconfidence in the Dark Mark had spared Malfoy's life. If Malfoy had been forced to have an oath of loyalty and honesty carved into his bones, he would likely have been forced to admit his betrayal. Instead Voldemort had accidentally used ancient magic to fuel Malfoy's drive to do whatever he wanted.
The excess in cruelty was horrifying. It wasn't like a battlefield injury; quickly inflicted, but slow to be repaired. The ritual had surely taken hours while Draco was strapped down and kept conscious for it. The precision and uniformity of the cuts. The steady invocation of the Dark Arts. Time taken to wipe away the blood before making the next incision. Driving the tip of the blade all the way into the bones was unnecessary; it had been done solely for the additional pain. It was an oath of the flesh; there was nothing that required it be written into his bones. He'd also been crucio'd, either before or after the ritual was performed, possibly at both points.
She felt she might vomit just thinking about it.
Hermione pulled out her Essence of Dittany. She only had a few vials of it left.
She pulled out her murtlap tentacles and crushed them together with ten drops of Essence of Dittany into a salve which she gently pressed into the cuts of the runes. She couldn't heal the incisions but she could ease the pain and reduce the potency of the venom so that they would recover faster. Then she cast a protective ward over Malfoy's back to seal everything in without bandages.
She ran her fingers lightly over his arms, feeling the rigid knots in his muscles from the cruciatus. It appeared he had at least gotten some therapy for that.
Voldemort clearly did not want to damage Malfoy to the point of ruining him entirely, but he had had no qualms about torturing Draco all the way up to that exact line.
Malfoy was a weapon for Voldemort. The decision to carve runes into him made Draco more deadly. They sharpened his edge, but also made him a short-term tool.
Heavy use of Dark Magic was eroding over the course of many years. There was a reason dark wizards didn't tend to reach a hundred. They went mad, or deteriorated physically. With the quantity of Dark Magic that had been emanating from the runes before Hermione treated them, Malfoy would be lucky to live a decade; possibly only a few months before his mind began slipping. He already tended to arrive drenched in Dark Magic.
Hermione's hand wandered up to her neck, and she twisted the chain of her necklace between her fingers as she stared down at him.
She drew his left hand into hers. His long fingers dwarfed hers. There were the familiar callouses from flying and dueling on his palm and fingers.
She lightly massaged his hand. The fingers spasmed slightly at her touch, even though he should have been insensate. She tapped her wand tip across his hand at the various pressure points, sending mild vibrations into the drawn muscles to help release the tension.
When his fingers fell open, she began bending and rubbing and massaging them until they could fully open and close without twitching spasmodically. Spasms like that could be life or death in a duel, interfering with a wand motion or a person's aim.
As she worked she tilted her head to the side and studied his face. Unconscious, his features relaxed from the hard, closed expression he usually wore. He looked sad.
She felt so guilty it hurt. She also felt like an idiot. She should have realised. He could have been killed.
Unlike her, he had to have known he'd be punished for the attack he'd enabled. His hesitation—
He could have prepared. It could have been a trap. He knew exactly which prisons they had information about.
How had he phrased his advice?
“
He'd given them their first massive victory in years. He'd handed it to them, and then paid for it. It was