Finding Hermione

By: eBookDragon


Chapter Nine

Missing

Monday, November 4th


Hermione burst into Draco's office at the Ministry a little after four o'clock with tears streaming down her face. He had been planning on staying late while Hermione went to go get Rose from school.

"What's going on?" he asked as he got up quickly and crossed to her.

"She's missing," Hermione sobbed, wrapping her arms around him.

"Who's missing?" he pulled her back and made her look at him.

"Rose. I went to pick her up from school and her teacher said that Ron already picked her up. I don't know where she is," Hermione started crying harder.

Draco pulled her into his arms. He wanted to tear the room apart, scream, and punch something. He wanted to rip that git limb from limb for daring to take Rose from Hermione without her permission. He couldn't do any of those things. He had to stay strong. He had to remain calm for Hermione. "It'll be okay. We'll find her. We know who has her at least."

"Tansy!" he shouted at the ceiling.

A minute later Tansy appeared. "Master Draco has called Tansy?"

"Can you sense Rose, Tansy?"

"Yes, I feel her," Tansy said. Bless that elf!

"Good. I want you to go to her. Stay invisible. I don't want anyone to know you're there, even Rose. Don't interfere unless she's in danger. If she is, do what you have to do to get yourselves out. Stay with her until I call you again. When I call, you'll take us to her. Got it?" he instructed Tansy.

"Yes," Tansy said as she disappeared with a pop.

"Why didn't you just have Tansy take us to her?" Hermione asked, close to panic.

"We need help. If we pop in there and try to take her, it could get violent. I don't want to risk you or Rose getting hurt. I don't think he'll hurt her, so waiting a few moments to prepare will be okay. Now come on. We're going to get Harry." Draco grabbed her hand and they walked quickly to Harry's office with the Aurors.

Draco explained the situation and why Harry was needed. "I can't believe that he would just take Rose. What's gotten into him?" Harry asked.

"We can discuss that bastard's poor decision-making skills another time. Are you ready?" Hermione said. Harry nodded.

Draco called for Tansy. She reappeared instantly and reassured Hermione that Rose was safe. They joined hands and Tansy took them to Rose. They appeared inside a living room and found Rose was sitting on a couch with her father.

"Mummy! Draco!" Rose said as she ran to them. She tried hugging them both in her excitement and ended up knocking them together. Hermione dropped down to her knees and pulled Rose in for a hug. Draco positioned himself so that he stood between Weasley and Hermione.

"Mummy, I don't want to live here. I want to stay with you and Draco." Rose said.

Draco glared across the room at Weasley. Draco could see red creeping up the back of Harry's neck, a sure sign of impending fury. Weasley managed to look both furious and apprehensive at the two of them standing there.

"You're not staying here. You're coming back with us," Hermione reassured her.

"What are you doing here? She belongs with me. I'm not with going to let her stay with you if you're going to keep shacking up with this Death Eater scum," Weasley said, coming towards the three of them. Harry moved to stand on Draco's left, the two of them forming a wall between Weasley and Hermione.

Hermione stood up, red and shaking with anger. "Take Rose, Draco," she said as she shouldered her way past the two of them to stand toe to toe with her jackass husband.

Draco picked Rose up and held her on his left hip. He held her so that his body and Harry's blocked her from full view of her father. Rose wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her head on his shoulder. He gripped his wand, ready to defend Hermione if Weasley tried to attack her.

"How dare you! You take my child from school without my permission or knowledge. Then you tell her she's staying here. She's my daughter. She belongs with me. You haven't even bothered trying to see her until now and you suddenly decide she's coming to live with you. This isn't about wanting what's best for her. It's about you and whatever fucked up logic you have going on. And you have the audacity to speak about Draco that way. He has been nothing but kind and caring to your daughters and me. He gave us a safe place to live when you were caught with your mistress. He protected me when you tried to obliviate me. He is a good man. A better man, a better father than you've ever been, Ronald Weasley, and I'll be damned if I let a hypocrite like you say one bad thing about him," she screamed at Weasley. He could see her shaking in anger.

Gone was the wilting flower, burnt to ash, in its place was a fierce lioness roaring to life and her fierceness was beautiful to behold. She was back, no longer the hurt, jilted wife, no longer defeated. She was the witch, who was a force to be reckoned with, burst free to protect her child and defend him. Canaries circled around her head. Weasley shrunk back away from her at the sight of the little yellow birds.

"I will not have my daughter living with a Death Eater's whore," Weasley spat at her.

"You dare call me a whore. Better to be this Death Eater's whore than your wife," Hermione shouted back at him.

"It's time to leave, Hermione. Go with Draco," Harry spoke for the first time.

"You're taking their side," Weasley rounded on Harry.

"Yeah, I am. I'm disappointed in you, Ron. Pull your head out of your ass and do the right thing before it's too late and your daughters and your friends want nothing to do with you. This kind of behavior is unacceptable. It's one thing to want to see Rose. It's a whole different issue to take her from her mother and start trying to fill her head with lies. I won't stand by and watch a child treated that way, even if we are friends." Harry said.

Draco wrapped his free arm around Hermione's waist. Just as they were about to apparate, the canaries dove at Weasley's face, pecking and clawing at every available bit of skin available. Draco smirked and silently aimed a slugulus eructo charm at Weasley, then quickly apparated them away. Let him spend the day vomiting slugs as well as dealing with his bird bites.

"Tansy, thank you for your help today," Draco said to Tansy. Tansy nodded and left the room.

Draco sat on the couch and set Rose in the middle of Hermione and himself. Rose climbed into Hermione's lap and clung to her. Draco slid closer and wrapped his arms around both of them.

"Rose, honey are you doing okay?" Hermione asked.

"Mummy, I don't want to go live with Daddy. I don't like it there and Daddy says mean things about you and Draco," Rose said.

"You're not going to go live with Daddy. You're staying with us."

"Good. I don't like it there. He shouldn't say bad things."

"No, he shouldn't."

"You should put him in time out."

"Uncle Harry put him in time out for us," Draco reassured her.

Rose calmed down after her ordeal and was reassured that Weasley would not be coming over to take her from them. Draco worried about the lasting implications of this incident. Children were resilient but he worried about how much Rose heard and understood about what was going on. Rose ran off to the kitchen to be with Tansy when she got bored with fussed over by her mother and Draco.

"Lioness, I can see you're still mad. Smoke is coming out of your ears." Draco said.

"Don't make a joke of this. He took her. He didn't plan on giving her back. Like he has any right to pass judgment on me, on us. The sodding hypocrite is shacked up with that woman and he calls me a whore. Expects me to just roll over and do what he says like a good little wife." Hermione had gotten up and was pacing around the room.

Draco stood in front of her and grabbed her shoulders to stop her. "Everything is fine now. We got her back. We'll take precautions at the school so he won't be able to take her again. And he doesn't know you very well if he thinks you're going to put up with his shit."

"Maybe he doesn't. I feel like I don't know who he is anymore. He was supposed to love me. You don't call the person you love a whore. You certainly don't cheat on them for over a decade. You don't take their memories away. And then to act like we're the people in the wrong after everything he's done. That's not love."

"No, I don't think that's love. I don't know where it went wrong for you and I'm sorry that you've had to go through this. You're free from him now though. You've got two wonderful daughters."

"You've got me now," he thinks.


After Rose was put to bed, they went to back to the study to relax. Draco grabbed the decanter of scotch and the glasses, sat on the couch, and poured them both drinks. He looked back to find Hermione pacing the floor behind him. He turned and kicked a leg up on the couch so he could watch her.

Draco watched her while he sipped his scotch. She was chewing on her lower lip. He was curious about why she was pacing. She wasn't talking. She didn't appear mad anymore. Well, she was probably still furious. He knew he would be in her situation, but he didn't think her current pacing had anything to do with today's events.

She appeared to come to some decision. She squared her shoulders and walked over to him and took the half finished glass of scotch out of his hand, drained the contents, and set it on the table. Draco quirked an eyebrow at her, waiting for her to tell him what was going on.

She knelt on the couch between his legs, placed her hands on his chest, and leaned into him. He stopped her just before her lips touched his by rubbing his thumb across her lower lip then cupping her face, "Don't kiss me because you're hurting and need to feel loved. Or because you're mad and you want to get back at him," he said softly, gazing into her eyes.

"You don't want to kiss me," she said as she tried to back away from him.

He held firm to her with his hand on the back of her neck. "More than I want my next breath, but I'm enough of a selfish bastard to not want you to regret it later. Kiss me because you want to, because you can't stand the thought of not having your lips on mine. Not because Weasley is a fucked up bastard."

She looked at him for about a second, then leaned in and gently kissed him. It was so light and tentative, like she was afraid he was going to stop her, like years of neglect made her doubt herself and her own appeal. He had been waiting for her kiss for years. She made her choice. Hopefully, this meant she was ready to move on because he wasn't going to ever be able to stop now.

The desire to kiss her had haunted him for years. Her being here, so close to him all these months was sweet torture for him. Having to resist the urge to kiss her had been hell. He'd gotten to hold her and prove to her how desirable he found her when they danced, but he'd been determined not to push her to give her the time she needed to move on from the wreck her marriage had become.

He'd let her kiss him first to prove to herself that she was ready to move on. It was time to show her just how much he desired her, hungered for her. He fisted a hand into her curls and wrapped a steely arm around her waist to pull her flush against him. He devoured her lips, ran his tongue along the seam of her mouth and when she gasped from the sensation he plunged in, caressing her tongue with his.

He poured all the years of hunger and desire that he'd concealed from her into that kiss until he was sure that she understood his desire for her. They were both breathing hard by the time he pulled away. He kissed her tenderly one more time and held her to him, desperate to prolong the moment.

It took some time before she pulled back slightly to gaze at him. She touched his face. He pulled her back to him and kissed her again. She tasted delicious to him, like scotch and apples. She was more daring the second time. He felt her plunge her tongue in his mouth. Her hands were in his hair. The scratch of her nails along his scalp sent shivers down his spine. She felt so good pressed against him, her hands in his hair, and her mouth on his.

She broke away from him then, releasing her hands from his hair and running them down his chest. He put his hands over hers to keep her there.

"When did it start for you? I know you said twenty years, but when?" she asked.

He knew he was going to have to confess to her eventually. Now the time had come. He guessed it was time she knew. "From the very beginning probably, when you came in the compartment on the Hogwarts' train asking about Longbottom's toad. But more so since third year, when you punched me and broke my nose. You never took shit from me and you never backed down. So strong and courageous. That was the moment you made me start to question my father's beliefs."

"Then why were you always such an insufferable git?"

"I already told you I was an idiot. I was angry because I wanted you when I knew I wouldn't ever be able to have you. I tormented you and your friends and I didn't know how to make up for it. I didn't think you would listen if I just apologized and I didn't think an apology was enough. I didn't know what to do. I knew the hell I would get if my father ever found out about my feeling for you. Then the war started and I wasn't worthy of you and it would have put us both in danger."

"I wish I had known. You've never really said why you became a Death Eater. You've hinted at it and I've never really believed it was because you really bought into those beliefs. I saw your struggle in sixth year."

"When my father was sent to Azkaban, my mother and I were ostracized by people who were once our closest friends. We had no one to turn to, no one to protect us. Voldemort took over our home. I had to become a Death Eater to protect her. I couldn't find any other choice that saved us both. Then Voldemort gave me the task to kill Dumbledore. He expected me to fail and he didn't care. Either Dumbledore died or I died. It didn't really matter to Voldemort either way. That's what our loyalty to that madman bought us. I realized that I couldn't do it. I couldn't kill him but I couldn't find a way out that didn't end up with my parents being killed and I couldn't sacrifice my parents' lives for the sake of my conscience."

"It seems we both made sacrifices because of our love for our parents. You've changed a lot. You aren't that same boy anymore. I think you've more than made up for the mistakes of your past."

He reached up and kissed the scar carved into her arm. "I'm sorry. I never said I was sorry. I was such a coward. I was so scared. I didn't lie well enough to save you from being tortured. I didn't stop her from hurting you. I didn't do anything to save you. I'm so sorry. I'm not worthy of you."

She took his face in her hands and forced him to look at her. When he lifted his eyes to hers, she said, "Draco, you were just a boy. We were all just children. You lived in a house with Voldemort and Bellatrix, saw them all the time, saw what they did to people all the time. We didn't fear them the same way you did because we didn't see first-hand everything they did. You did. Your fear was real and founded. You couldn't have saved me. You created doubt and that doubt bought us time. We wouldn't have been able to escape without that. You've more than proven that you are worthy to me."

He kissed her again, tenderly. He was humbled by her acceptance of him. He stroked her hair, touched her face. "I've worked for years to be a better man, to be someone you deserved. I never had any hope that you would ever notice or that it would make a difference to you."

"War changed me," he continued, "It made me really see what was important. After what happened to my family and me, after what I saw and was forced to do, after all the kindness we received from people I was taught to hate, after all of that I knew that I couldn't let it happen again. Astoria and I both agreed that we wouldn't raise Scorpius with those prejudices."

"Tell me about her."

"She was a sweet girl. They terrorized her and she was as relieved as I was when it was all over and our side had lost. We never loved one another but we got along well enough. Our parents arranged the marriage before the war started. My mother never really cared for her but she was good to me. We helped each other through the trauma. She helped me come to terms with my actions and seek forgiveness and learn to forgive myself."

"She was so happy when she found out she was pregnant with Scorpius," he smiled as he remembered the day she told him, "I was terrified. I didn't want to be like my father. She said that I already wasn't going to be like my father because I said I didn't want to. The pregnancy went fine. She was always so happy and never got sick. Then, one day during her thirty-second week, she started bleeding heavily. There was so much blood. I got her to St. Mungo's and they delivered Scorpius, but she had lost too much blood. There was no way they could save her. I took Scorpius home and buried my wife. I may not have loved her but we were friends, she was the mother of my son, and I mourned her loss."

"Tansy was a lifesaver," he cleared his throat and went on, "We wouldn't have made it through without her. Scorpius became my whole life. I refused to remarry any of the girls my mother paraded in front of me. I told her to stop. The only way I was going to remarry was if I was hopelessly in love. My mother knew it was no use then and stopped with the matchmaking."

She had laid her head on his chest while he talked. He felt her hand cover his heart and he placed his over it. He snuggled her closer, feeling like he couldn't get her close enough and tipped her chin up so he could kiss her softly.

"She sounded wonderful and I'm glad you had each other to lean on after the war."

"Why did you marry Weasley so soon after the war?" he asked.

"I couldn't stand to be alone. It terrified me. He was my best friend and he felt safe. We had always fought with one another when we were in school. We kept arguing, only then it wasn't stupid childish squabbles, and we never really resolved the issues we argued about. He was obsessed with the fame that came from being a part of the Golden Trio and a war hero. Harry and I just wanted to get on with our lives. He left me alone all the time, just the thing I was afraid of, until I just got used to it being the girls and I. It stopped bothering me that he was gone so much. I liked who I was better when he wasn't there. I suppose I must have asked him for a divorce sometime over the years."

"I'm sorry. I wish I'd known something was wrong. I would've whisked you and the girls away. I'm sorry you spent all this time alone and not being loved like you deserved." He rolled so they were facing one another on the couch. "Be with me. Give me a chance to show you how you deserve to be treated. You've kissed me, so I hope that means you're ready to move on. Give me a chance to make up for all the years we lost."

"I think I'd like that."

His heart soared. She was going to give him a chance. He brought his lips down to hers and kissed her. Her intoxicating smell wrapped around him, lavender and jasmine, as he buried his face in her hair and kissed his way down her neck. He smiled into the curve of her neck at the noises she made as he brushed his mouth across her collarbone. At long last, she was his.