A/N: Here is Chapter six. As promised, I did try to make this one extra-long to atone for the short chapter in five. I really want to thank the many reviews and favorites I have been receiving from my readers, it means the world and I'm really glad that you are all enjoying the story. This chapter will be a series of flashbacks to the so called honeymoon between Hermione and Antonin, and a sequence of episodes of her return to school.

Hermione sat at the end of the Gryffindor table in the massive hall. She was alone, save her book, which she was currently 'reading' though it was more just an act. She couldn't concentrate on the words to save her life. The only reason she still had her nose buried inside the large tome was to put on the charade that she was actually preoccupied and allow her to continue avoiding her friends.

Said friends were sitting in the middle of the table, animatedly speaking and laughing, with occasional worried glances in her direction. She was getting frustrated with them, after her return to the castle after her leave of absence, they had flocked to her like vultures with a million questions, accusations and concerns.

Hermione realized that they wanted to make sure she was okay, however, still was rather sore about the fact that they got out of this whole marriage law thing simply because they had serious relationships. Then they stood there on their high horses and looked down on her for trying to make the best out her situation.

Truthfully, Antonin wasn't that bad. He had done nothing to harm her in the weeks since the wedding. He seemed to be more enthusiastic about their union that she was, and she intended to figure out why exactly, but he gave her enough space to work through her feelings. He didn't force her to do anything. He was infuriatingly annoying, his constant smirks and his smugness, and his ability to manipulate her into things frustrated her to no end, but it was also oddly endearing.

She found that in the 10 days where she was completely alone with him, that she had begun to grow comfortable with the older wizard. She didn't completely trust him and she certainly didn't let her guard down around him, but she did think that's he could grow to care for him. And she did desire him, she desired him in a way she had never done for anyone else.

So while Hermione sat in the Great Hall, feigning catching up on schoolwork, her uneaten plate of breakfast in front of her, she let her mind wander to the handsome, dark man she called husband.

Flashback

Hermione opened her eyes and was startled to see only darkness. Was she dreaming? No, her other senses were heightened from the lack of sight and she could hear her husband's footsepes as he shuffled around the room.

"Antonin?" she called out shakily, frightened. She didn't like not having all five of her senses, and did not appreciate waking up blindfolded when she was alone with him. The fear of what he could do to her was very new.

"Good morning dorogaya. It is about time we depart for our destination, but I want where we are going to be a surprise. You don't mind do you?"

"I would have preferred that you asked, instead of waking up this way, but no, I don't mind really." She answered, surprised by the accuracy of her words. She did mind didn't she? Or was it just that she thought she should mind? She was less frightened once she heard his voice and knew it was him in the room with her. His calm voice put her fears to rest, but she did keep her brain on high alert.

"Good, then if you would take my hand please, I shall help you up."

"Antonin, I'm not dressed in anything other than my night clothes." She protested, feeling the thin material of her silk negligee with a very low cutline. Funny, but she didn't remember putting that on.

"Oh, yes little wife, I know. And I assure you that will not be a concern where we are going." She didn't need to see to know that he was smirking, and she glowered at him but gave him her hand none the less.

He led her to the massive fireplace and stepped in behind her, wrapping a strong, muscular arm around her torso. Dropping a bit of powder, her muttered something in Russian and they were pulled from the fireplace and deposited in another.

Antonin once again led her by the hand into a drafty room. Hermione shivered against the cold, and then was instantly warm thanks to a simple warming charm and Antonin wrapping his cloak around her shoulders. In the next instant, he removed her blindfold.

Hermione blinked at the sudden influx of light, even if it was just flickering torches and candles. Once she could see clearly she was awed by the beauty of the large hall. It was an entrance hall, she could tell, because to her left was a doorway that opened into a small parlor and to her right a hallway which had a fireplace against one wall and a stone path that must lead to other rooms on that level. Directly behind her was a large marble staircase.

"Welcome to Dolohov Manor." Antonin breathed in her ear.

End Flashback

Hermione's memory was interrupted by the sudden presence of someone sitting on either side of her.

" 'Mione, look, we want to apologize." Harry said.

"Oh?" she replied questioningly.

"Yes, it was wrong of us to treat you differently because of your recent marriage. We are just worried about you, but we know that you can take care of yourself. We shouldn't have made you feel like we didn't know that. We just wanted to let you know that we are here for you, and that we will keep you safe." Harry continued.

"'Mione, He's right, we didn't handle things great, and I'm sorry. I'm not happy about this situation at all, but it wasn't right of me to treat you like I did because of it. I really can't blame you for wanting to not be miserable." Ron added.

Tears formed in Hermione's eyes. Her two best friends didn't usually apologize about anything, ever, and she was grateful that they were now. But she was still very upset with them.

"I appreciate the apology, you guys, I do. But I need space right now, I will always come to you when and If I need help, but, I'm not going to sit here and pretend everything's okay when it's not. I'm mad at your lack of support, and it will take me some time to get over that." She finally said through tears. She didn't miss that hurt expressions on her friend's faces, but they nodded and left the table leaving her alone again.

She rose from the table and darted from the Great Hall. She hoped that if she made it to class that she would be able to distract herself. The dreadfully dull lecture in her history of magic lesson was not the distraction Hermione had hoped for. So she turned her mind away from the lecture and back to her honeymoon, in an attempt to not overanalyze Harry and Ron's sudden change in attitude.

Flashback

"You brought me to your home? I mean, won't I be spending plenty of time here over the coming years? It's an odd location to honeymoon in, but if that's what you want." Hermione found herself baffled by her husband's choice, only to become even more so by his boisterous laughter.

"You misunderstand moya dorogaya. This is Dolohov manor, not where we will be living? The Dolohov estate is in Russia little wife. St. Petersburg. This is where I grew up before we moved to England. I currently reside in a much smaller house in Kent."

"Oh. I did not realize." She flushed embarrassed by her initial assumption.

"Obviously," her husband chuckled. "But no matter, I wanted to share a piece of my history with you. I am sure that you would appreciate getting to know more about me, as I would about you, and I also wanted a location where we could be alone together." Hermione recognized the double meaning in his explanation. He wanted to whisk her away somewhere they would not be interrupted and could enjoy the pleasure of one another's company, but she was honored that he chose to share such a large piece of himself with her. His ancestral home.

"I am, I don't know what to say Antonin. It's very generous of you to share this with me." She whispered, looking into his eyes, after several long moments had passed in silence.

"I plan to share a lot more with you, dorogaya. You are my wife, after all." He spoke softly as he stepped closer to her. "Do you want the tour now or…"

"I think a tour can wait husband." She allowed before she even knew she was spoken. His mouth closed in on her own in the next instant and all thinking ceased.

End flashback

"Miss Granger!" exclaimed the seemingly exasperated voice of her professor, jarring Hermione from her daydream.

"Yes Professor Binns?" She called

"Did you have a question for me or were you simply unaware that class ended three minutes ago?"

"Oh. I'm sorry, I was caught up in my thoughts."

"Well do try to be present both physically and mentally the next Class Miss. Granger. It doesn't do to sit there and space out all morning." Scolded the man.

"Yes professor." She said contritely as she hurriedly packed up her belongings and rushed from the room for her next class.

She managed to stay on task in Transfiguration and in Muggle studies, and was greatly relieved when it was time for lunch. Since she had not eaten that morning she was famished and made quick work of her sandwich and soup before darting to the library. She had a free period directly after lunch before her double potions NEWT, and figured that she should utilize the period to actually attempt at catching up on her work.

Flashback

The tour of the large manor did in fact wait, a full 24 hours. Once Antoni has pressed that hot kiss to her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck in kind, one thing led to another. She had eventually twisted her legs pretzel style around his hips, and attempt to grind against him in their snogging session. He had taken her upstairs and to the master suite, and they didn't leave the room again until past eight o'clock the next night. And only then because she was starving.

Following a somewhat large meal, Antonin had insisted that they take a tour his family home. It was quite large, housed the master bedroom suite as well as 12 other guest suites, a nursery, a library, a large study, impressive dining room, a ladies tea room, a ballroom and three private drawing rooms. In the basement there was a potions lab as well. The grounds of the manor were equally extensive, it had acres of gardens, a stunning view of the city's skyline, its own small quiddich pitch, and herb ology greenhouse, and a small lake. Antonin referred to it as a pond, but the size of it was larger than any pond she had ever seen, so Hermione had taken to calling it a lake.

The manor was really magnificent. She was sure that it held many more secrets that her husband let on, but appreciated that he did not feel it prudent to include any darker elements the home might conceal.

End Flashback

"Bloody Hell." Hermione cursed under her breath when she realized that she had once again drifted off into dreamland. She was supposed to be catching up on her reading for ancient ruins.

"What's the matter Granger?" a taunting voice called from the chair across from her. Draco Blood Malfoy, fantastic. While she had saved his life, and old blood purities had been let go of for the most part, the end of the war had seldom improved their relationship.

"Nothing, Malfoy. Don't worry your pretty little head about it." She sighed with an eye roll.

"Oh, come on. Do tell. Is Marriage life already treating you poorly? You do look rather perplexed. Hmmm. What were thinking about just then, how your husband is in the sack? Tell me Granger, how is the fucking your pureblood husband? Is it the best sex you've ever had? I'm not sure a little mudblood like you would understand." The ferret continued his relentless teasing, until Hermione had tears in her eyes. Snapping the book closed she ran from the library to get away from him and straight to the third floor girls bathroom.

Eventually she came out and made her way to Potions. It was her last two hours of the day, and she worked diligently on her brewing, alone, ignoring glances from her red headed girlfriend.

Flashback

"What else would you like to see today?" Panted the voice of Antonin Dolohov next to his wife. They had just toured the Church of the Savior of the Blood, after they had already done St. Isaac's cathedral. Antonin had underestimated Hermione's resilience when it came to sightseeing, she wanted to study every nook and cranny of each place she went. They had been at it since seven o'clock that morning. And they had not slept much the night before.

"The Winter Palace." Hermione stated. "I swear, it's the last place."

"Fine." Antonin acquiesced. It had been his idea to show her some of the city after all. And she really did seem to be enjoying it.

End flashback.

She set the bottled potion of Slughorn's desk and retrieved her belongings. She was already halfway down the dungeons corridor hen Ginny stopped her.

"Hermione wait." Her friend called and Hermione stopped walking. She recognized an angry Weasley when she saw one, and really wasn't in the mood to deal with one now.

"What is it Ginny?"

"I think that you should give Ron and harry the benefit of the doubt. They really are trying to help you in this. We all are. Look I know they can be idiotic in their choice of words sometimes, but do you have to be so cold in reply to their attempts to condone for it? I mean really, is it necessary or did you just pick up on a few extra traits from your death eater husband?" The redheaded shouted at her.

"I see that as always, you are so wrapped up in your bigoted opinions, to see that maybe, just maybe, I'm too angry to forgive you lot right now, Ginevra. I needed support, weeks ago, when I found out about the match, and instead you were all too busy with each other to really care what it meant for me, and then too angry when you thought I didn't try hard enough to stop it, and then too worried to see that I've accepted my situation and am trying to move forward. Never once did anybody ask me how I was, or what they could do for me, and right now I'm honestly preferring the company of my death eater husband as you called him who actually seems to care about how I feel about this marriage. It's at least better than fighting my friends on everything." Hermione's voice dripped ice, and rage flashed in her amber brown eyes. She continued her walk back to her dorm, angry and in pain, sobs threating to wrench themselves from her body. She made it back to her chambers and threw herself onto the sofa, and just cried the whole day away.

Sometime later she sat up, wiped her face, and stood to walk toward the fireplace.

Flashback

"Dorogaya. It is the last day before you return to school. I would like to show you our home. Would you be up to one more tour?"

"Of course, Antonin. You did say our home is much smaller than this right."

"Indeed."

The couple took a portkey back to Britain and flooed from the portkey station to his, no their, home in Kent. It was a cabin type build, which sat near a forest. The home was much smaller than Dolohov manor, but still quite large by comparison to her muggle home. It had three stories to the lodge. It was made of wood and stone.

The main level of the house was made up of a sitting room with a whole wall full of books, much like her common room at Hogwarts, a kitchen, a dining room and Antonin's study. The second floor was the master bedroom, a guest room, and three additional bedroom suites. The third level housed the attic which was currently used as storage, and then the lowest level was the basement where Antonin practiced his charm and curse creations, as well as the house of quarters. There was also a back patio which overlooked a small garden and the land space between the property and the forest.

It was a beautiful structure, not magnificent, a little big for one person or even two, but homey and a good size for raising a family.

After he gave her the tour, Antonin suggested they go out to eat somewhere as a couple, so they are a late lunch at a restaurant in Diagon Alley. When they returned back to Rosewood Cabin, the name of their home, Hermione leaned in and whispered seductively in Antonin's ear.

"Husband, might I suggest that we Christian the bedroom?"

She didn't have to suggest it twice.

End flashback.

"Rosewood Cabin!" Hermione enunciated as she dropped floo powder. She arrived moments later in the little sitting room. She padded her way quietly across the carpeted floor to her husband's study. He explained to her that he spent a great deal of his time researching for his spellwork in there. She figured that it was a good starting point. She found him there, sure enough, bend over an exponentially large, ancient looking time. He didn't seem to notice her standing there, and she debated announcing herself as he looked peaceful. His long dark brown, wavy hair hung in his eyes and he wore a solemn expression.

She turned in the doorway deciding to wait for him upstairs, but just as he did the floor freaked rather noticeably.

Antonin jerked his head up, wondering who was there. The elves never disturbed him at night, and he was alert to who might be intruding. When he caught the familiar glance of brunette, frizzy curls, he knew that it was only his witch.

"Dorogaya, I wasn't expecting you tonight." He greeted his wife.

"I didn't exactly plan on coming either. I'm sorry for interrupting your work." Hermione replied in kind, but as she turned back to face him, he could see that she had been crying.

Red streaks adorned her pretty face and her eyes were swollen. It took mere seconds for him to cross the room and pull her into his embrace.

"What's wrong dorogaya?" He asked concerned.

Hermione broke down again at his words and cried into his crisp, whit shirt. When her terms finally stopped again, she noticed the Antonin had moved them to the sitting room and had her on his lap. She told him all about her day and all the encounters that had lead her to him. Antonin grew more and more furious with each passing story. How dare anybody upset his witch.