Love of a Malfoy
Disclaimer: See Prologue. I now also own Samuel (Sam) Lucius Granger.
Thank yous: kittykatekat, EsScaper, WiccainWillow, MagicalAngel, llgeekgoddessll, orlin, Applekissis, musicangl107, lost angel92, mysticpam, vytiri, Allison, TrinityLayne.
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Chapter One
Hermione Granger lay on her bed, curled up and watching her baby boy sleep in her crib; she would be twenty years old in less than three weeks. The semi-famous, know-it-all of Hogwarts was now a young single mother, with no job and no income, no parents, and she only had a roof over her head now because she was certain that many in the Order felt sorry for her. Her current residence was Twelve Grimmauld Place, which was once again, the Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix, with Remus Lupin as the Secret Keeper now.
Her baby had arrived in the middle of March, nearly two weeks premature, this was barely a day after she had found out her parents had been murdered by Death Eaters.
Death Eaters… She was really beginning to think that falling for one had been a big mistake, after all, she had not seen Lucius since last summer in that park. All she had heard from him were two very short letters last Christmas and that had been it, he still didn't know about the baby – his son. Would he ever know?
There was a quiet knock on her door, Hermione sat up and ran her hand through her hair as she replied, "Come in."
Remus Lupin popped his head into the room, he immediately frowned slightly at the miserable look on the young woman's face, "Lunch is ready if you're hungry," Hermione gave a nod. "Are you ok?"
Hermione nodded again, "Yeah, I'm fine… I'll come down in a bit…"
Remus gazed curiously at the girl for a few moments longer before nodding, "All right," with that he left the room, closing the door quietly behind him again.
Hermione sighed and slumped her shoulders, as she turned her eyes back to her baby again; she had been trying to be careful around Remus these last couple of years. The werewolf was a fairly accomplished Legilimens, so she had been trying to avoid direct eye contact with him ever since she started her affair with Lucius. Then again, he had been regarding rather suspiciously since last summer when she had announced that she was pregnant to those close to her, after all, she wouldn't have been able to hide it from them for long. Had Remus figured out her secret? If he had, he was certainly keeping quiet about it…
The fact that Sam was half a Malfoy could have been very incriminating for, her but luckily, the little boy did not sport blond hair or grey eyes, which would have heightened the suspicion around her.
The brunette got to her feet when she noticed that her son was waking up, she went over to the crib and leaned over the side to pick up the wakeful child, "Hello sweetie, did you have a good nap? Yeah?" the little boy cooed happily upon hearing and seeing his young mother. "Come on, Sam, let's get you fed."
Hermione carefully held her son to her chest and left the bedroom, and headed downstairs to the kitchen for lunch; she entered the basement kitchen and found Remus, Molly and Arthur Weasley, Fleur Delacour and Tonks at the table. There had been no Harry, no Ron and no Ginny for a while now; the three of them, along with Bill were off searching for Voldemort's remaining Horcruxes. Hermione had originally decided to go with them, but she had had to opt out of the search when she found out she was pregnant and now she needed to be with her son.
Hermione sat down next to Tonks with Sam still in her arms, as Molly spoke, "What would you like, Hermione?"
"Um… I'm not that hungry, actually," replied Hermione; she gave an apologetic smile to Molly. "I think I'll just feed Sam," she started to get up but Molly stopped her.
"I'll get it for you."
Hermione gave a smile, "Thank you," she accepted the well prepared bottle of milk off her 'adoptive' mother. Everyone lapsed into silence for a while as they ate their lunch, Hermione feeding her son and thinking as she did so; she was pondering her plans for the rest of the week and whether she should tell the Order or not. It would probably be best if she told them what she was going to do, she didn't want them to worry unnecessarily, though she knew they would even if they did know what she was up to. "I… I'm going to go away for a few days."
Five heads turned towards the young woman and Arthur spoke up, "Hermione, I don't think-"
"No," said Hermione cutting him off sharply. "I need to go away for a few days, and no one is going to stop me."
Remus took a sip from his cup of tea before speaking, "Hermione, you know it's dangerous, we really can not afford to lose another member of the Order."
Hermione sighed and cuddled Sam to her as tightly as she dared, "I know it's dangerous, and I know I should stay here but… It's just something I need to do…" they were all frowning at her, Molly was even scowling. "…Sam needs his father, and I need to tell him he has a child; he promised he would come to me and he's not going to have a chance if I'm here. I need to be somewhere he can find me, or I need to find him."
"Where will you go?"
Hermione sighed, "If I tell you that you'll have me followed. I want to be alone, and I do not want to be tailed."
"What about Sam?" questioned Molly; she had been noticing changed in Hermione ever since the summer before the girl's seventh year at Hogwarts. Hermione was usually such a logical thinker, but now she was becoming more irrational, and Molly knew it all had to have something to do with the man that got the girl pregnant. "You can not just leave him, he needs his mother."
Hermione furrowed her eyebrows, "Who said I was leaving him? Sam is coming with me; he is going to meet his father."
Molly narrowed her eyes at the girl, "Hermione, you can not take such a young child out there! You and Sam need to remain here where you are both safe."
Hermione, too, narrowed her eyes; Molly always had been controlling, "I am not staying here. I am leaving whether you want me to or not."
Molly got to her feet, slamming her hands down on the table making everyone jump and causing Sam to start sniffling, "I will not allow you to take that child out of this house!"
Hermione glared at the older woman, but when she spoke, her voice was forcibly calm, "With all due respect, you have no jurisdiction over my life and the way I choose to raise my son. I am leaving today and you are not going to stop me. If you don't want me to come back, then fine, I won't, but I'm sure you wouldn't like it on your conscience if Sam and I were attacked or killed by Death Eaters," with that, the young woman got to her feet and stormed out of the kitchen leaving a very highly flustered Molly Weasley to be calmed down by her husband.
Hermione had made it back to her room and had placed Sam back into his crib so that she could pack, when Remus caught up with her.
"Hermione-"
Hermione spun around to face the greying werewolf, "Don't try and stop me."
Remus sighed, he leaned back against the wall and studied the girl before him, "I wasn't going to try again, I know how stubborn you are," Hermione glared at him out the corners of her eyes. "But you can't blame Molly for caring about you-"
Hermione scoffed, "She only puts up with me because I'm friends with Harry, Ron and Ginny," she started to stuff clothes into a bag. "And maybe she doesn't voice it, but I can clearly see her disdain for me. For one thing, I am a muggleborn, and she quite clearly has a problem with that. For another, she's been pissed off at me ever since I decided I didn't want Ron because I had found someone else with far more maturity than he will ever have," she took a deep breath to try and calm herself. "Like I said to her, it's my life, and she has no right to try and order me about."
Remus had his eyebrows raised slightly, "Are you quite finished?" Hermione practically growled at him. "I agree, Molly and the rest of us have no right to order you about, you're an adult. However, we do have the right to care and worry about you," he watched as Hermione sat down on the edge of her bed and close her eyes. "I know there is no stopping you from leaving and I won't try to, but I just want to make sure that you have thought this through properly. If it's something you have to do, then you should, but do you really think it's a good idea to take Sam along with you?"
Hermione sniffed and put her face in her hands, bending over almost double on the bed; she felt the bed shift a little before an arm went around her shoulders comfortingly, "…I don't know… I just need to find him, he promised me he would come for me, and he can't if I'm not somewhere that he can find me…"
Remus frowned a little and hugged the girl to him; this was sounding awfully like a fairy tale, like Hermione was waiting for her Knight in Shining Armour to come for her, her Prince Charming. "It's against my best judgement, but…if you think you can find him safely, then you should."
Hermione lifted her head and pressed it against Remus's shoulder, "Thank you…" he sniffed and wiped her eyes. "Please promise me you won't have someone follow me."
Remus sighed and reluctantly nodded, "I promise I will not have someone follow you," he really didn't want to let her do this alone, but now he had promised he didn't want to upset her by going back on it. Though if he had reason to break the promise then he would.
Hermione managed a smile before hugging Remus tightly; other than Lucius, he was probably the only other person who had some proper level of understanding of her. "Thank you."
……
Within the hour Hermione had packed up a bag, gotten Sam ready and left Number Twelve Grimmauld Place; as soon as she was out the front door, she Apparated straight for her old family home. The Death Eaters had attacked and murdered her parents in this place, but they had left the house intact, other than the few valuables they had taken.
Hermione had Apparated straight into the back garden, hoping it would lessen her chances of possibly being spotted; but as she headed into the deserted house, she failed to notice the dark eyed Death Eater watching from the bushes.
The Death Eater had been coming to this house every day for the last fortnight, not by order of his Master, but at the pleading of his oldest friend. He had never seen that man beg before, but he had done so the night he was nearly killed.
"Severus…please… Get her…"
"Luc-"
"You-oh hell, the pain is killing me! You have…you have to get her for me... I need her…"
"Where am I supposed to find her?"
A groan of pain sounded before the reply, "I don't know…her family home maybe…"
"Her parents are dead."
"Severus, you have to! Please…"
And so the dark haired Death Eater was here, hiding out behind the old home of the muggle Grangers and their magical daughter. Once he was sure that the girl was inside, he started creeping towards the door; he had wasted too much time doing this for his friend, he needed to get this over and done with.
…
Hermione placed her bag on the kitchen table and gazed around room; all the surfaces were covered in six months worth of dust, she had not been back here since about a month before the murders. In fact, the only reason she was here now, was because this house and the park down the road, were two of the most likely places that Lucius would look for her… If he had been looking…
"This would have been your home, Sammy," said Hermione quietly to the little boy still in her arms. "This was the home of your grandparents…they were killed by your daddy's friends…" she trailed off when she heard the sound of the back door quietly closing behind her. "Are you going to kill me?"
"If I was going to, I would have done so by now, Miss Granger… But Lucius would have my head on a platter if I did."
Hermione spun around, cradling Sam protectively; as she came face to face with a man she had not seen since the night of Dumbledore's murder. The dark haired man in question was Dumbledore's murderer, "Where is he?"
Severus Snape raised an eyebrow, his eyes briefly resting on the child in his ex-pupil's arms, before raising them back to the brunette's face, "Lucius is rather incapacitated at the moment and requested that I deliver you to him."
Hermione's eyes widened at that, "What's wrong with him? What happened?"
Severus frowned slightly, "I will tell you when we get to where he is. Gather your belongings and get outside, I don't have time to waste."
Hermione narrowed her eyes slightly; it seemed Severus Snape had not changed much, not that she had expected him to have done, "Fine," she picked up her bag and put it back over her shoulder, Sam held against her chest. "There. I'm ready."
Barely two minutes after following Severus outside, Hermione found Sam and herself standing in front of a large white mansion; with one look at the landscape surrounding them, she determined that they were certainly not in England.
"Come," said Severus; he started heading up the steps to the large front doors. "This is the French estate of the Malfoy family. Clearly our location is France, you need not know anymore than that at the moment."
Hermione huffed quietly, silently cursing the man leading her into the massive foyer of the Malfoy Mansion, "Why is he here? Why is he not at his Wiltshire home?" she asked as she glanced around. A marble floor beneath her feet, dark green carpet sweeping up the grand staircase complete with handcrafted banisters. The walls were adorned with expensive artwork and what appeared to be family portraits; there was also a large chandelier suspended above the foyer. So this was the lifestyle of the wealthy…
Severus beckoned her to follow him up the staircase; he had been quite surprised that the usually rational young woman had agreed to come with him straight away. After all, he had not expected any trust from her whatsoever, he had killed Dumbledore in front of the 'Chosen One'; he had been cruel to her through the six years he had taught her. Perhaps it was his mention of Lucius that had caused her to follow and not question him… "I think I will allow Lucius to tell you what happened," he said as they drew near to the grand master bedroom on the second floor. "I warn you, he has been in a bad way; there is no superficial damage however; though a fortnight ago the internal damage was quite shocking."
A quick glance behind him as he stopped in front of the bedroom door told him that the Gryffindor Know-It-All was shocked into silence.
Hermione drew to a halt just to the side of the Death Eater and glanced at him, to the door and back.
"With the state he has been in this last fortnight, I do not think it wise to give him the shock of a child on top of it all," said Severus, smirking slightly as Hermione's eyes, if possible, widened even more.
Hermione sighed; if Lucius really was in a bad way then perhaps Severus was right, "Is that your way of offering to baby-sit?"
Severus regarded the child in distaste for a moment or two before inclining his head slightly, "If I must."
Hermione smiled slightly, "Good," they went through a careful exchange of the child into the ex-Potion Master's reluctant arms. "His name is Sam. If he cries, let me know. He better remain unharmed."
Severus raised an eyebrow, "I maybe a Death Eater, Miss Granger, but even I would not harm a baby."
"Very well," Hermione placed her had on the door knob just as Severus spoke again.
"You are being very trusting, Miss Granger. Has Potter's foolishness finally rubbed off on you?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and glanced over her shoulder at the dark haired man, "I have never been afraid of you, Severus, even after you killed Dumbledore. I have also, as you seem to know, been sleeping with Lucius Malfoy and have remained unharmed. I also find present company far more pleasant, than what I left behind a little while ago."
Severus smirked, "Don't let me keep you."
Hermione gazed at him for a moment before looking to her son, "Be good, Sammy," with that she turned back to the door and slowly turned the handle, feeling black eyes watching her.
Hermione took a deep breath and pushed the door open; she quietly entered the dimly lit room and closed the door again behind her after one last glance back at her son. Turning her eyes onto the room, they soon fell on the slim figure propped up in the bed; she quickly registered the lank blond hair, the slightly thinner body and the unusually pallid complexion.
"Lucius?"
The man in the bed slowly opened his eyes and turned his head towards the young woman in his room, "Hermione…" he shifted a little and grunted in pain. "I was…I was starting to think…I would never see you again…"
At that moment and because of the pain in the man's voice, Hermione rushed over to him, she clambered onto the bed, and as carefully as she could she hugged him; she kissed him on the face and neck several times before replying, "I'm here now," she felt a very weak arm move around her waist. "I'm here now and I'm not leaving."
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Author's Note: Yes, a cliffhanger. I'm sorry! Hopefully I will get another update up before the weekend is out, I'm enjoying the foray into het :-D Oh, by the way, no one but Hermione knows that Sam's middle name is 'Lucius'.
Next Chapter: Chapter Two. Lucius, albeit painfully, explains what happened to him and why he had not tried to find her. Will Hermione tell him about Sam or will she wimp out?