Of Love and Desperation
by Caged Sparkle Black

Summary: "How can you begin to defend yourself when you do not fully understand what you are fighting against or for?" In a short matter of time, the line between light and dark fades for Hermione. The past becomes the future. The future becomes the past. The present is entirely muddled.

Chapter Ten
United They Shall Live

Draco spun around on his left leg as he attentively pointed his wand toward the now wide open doors. His grey eyes narrowed as his body radiated anger. His eyes snapped upward to meet his father's livid ones. Draco inwardly grimaced and tightened the hold on his wand. Lucius snarled. "You failed to obey me on this one simple request. " Draco non-verbally performed the Expelliarmus spell and effectively unarmed his unsuspecting father. His father underestimated him.

"Do not begin to play the wronged party, because we both know that you are in the wrong here as you are in every aspect of your life." Draco seethed. "You were in the wrong forbidding me entrance within any Malfoy residence." Draco pursed his lips and crunched his nose in disgust.

"Draco." Lucius stated in warning.

"You were in the wrong by keeping them a secret!" Draco snarled as he pointed with his left hand to the muggle painting of his father, his father's first wife, and his father's first borne.

Lucius narrowed his eyes in anger as he waved his empty wand hand rather causally. The doors behind him slammed shot with much velocity. "Draco, you are acting no better than that common Potter. Do not let your emotions control you."

"I'd rather have my own emotions control me than that bastard you let control us all!" Draco stated vehemently.

"Draco." Lucius seethed. "You will monitor what you say to me. You will respect me. Do you hear me?" He stated as he walked closer to Draco.

"Respect is earned not given!" Draco spat. Lucius flinched as if someone had slapped him. Draco was almost remorseful of what he had said as he noticed the sorrowful look upon his face. However, Draco quickly remembered what all his father had done throughout his life yet more recently the actions he had done toward Granger. Lucius quickly composed himself.

"Draco," Lucius snarled. "You sound more like a Gryffindor with each day that passes."

"No father I am not. Standing for what you believe in, is not necessarily a Gryffindor trait. When you do it for yourself and only yourself it is a Slytherin trait. You of all people know this."

"That may be true, yet I know that you are not only doing this for yourself, but for a certain cause or should I say a certain witch!" Lucius accused.

"I know not what you speak of." Draco denied.

"Draco, do not lie to me, I know what you are doing better than you could ever realize!" Lucius growled.

"Pardon?" Draco asked.

"You understand me perfectly, do not pretend that you do not!" Lucius yelled.

"No, pray tell, what are you speaking of, because you are as confusing to me as Potions is to Longbottom!"

"Moinette is--" Lucius began yet Draco interrupted him outraged at both the facts that his father had kept the secret and managed to distract Draco from that.

"Moinette is the mother of my HALF BLOOD SISTER!" Draco bellowed. "How can you think and act the way you do when you loved a MUDBLOOD and had a HALF BLOOD child that you obviously adored!"

"Neither do you know what I think nor do you know why I act the way I do!" Lucius barked.

"Yes, I do father." Draco barked in return. "I know exactly what you think and the reason why you think the way you do. We were both told by our fathers what to think and how to act because the Malfoy name constitutes so much more than the love of a father and son or what is best for said sons!"

Before Lucius could retaliate both doors slammed open again. "Have you both lost your sanity?" Severus Snape stood at the entrance to the library with wand raised. Severus noticed that Draco held both his and his father's wands. Severus waved his wand hand and both wands flew towards him and caught them. Lucius and Draco began to answer the hypothetical question when Severus stopped them by continuing. "Do not answer that. I believe I already know the reason why the two of you are arguing so loud that I could hear it through the wards. Listen to me, you both need to calm down and play nice. The Dark Lord wants Ms. Granger moved to Malfoy Manor by nightfall Sunday, that gives us four days to prepare for her arrival and meeting with the Dark Lord. Draco, go to Remus" Draco narrowed his eyes in fear and anger. "Do remember that is days after the full moon. You will know where to find him." Severus elaborated before adding rather urgently. "Go with haste now!" Draco disapparated. Severus turned to look at and walk toward Lucius. "We must speak with Ms. Granger." Severus returned Lucius's wand to him as he paused and considered the wording of what he would speak next. "She must be enlightened where your loyalty truly lies, but not yet the reason. We need Hermione in order to end this war."

"Severus, we both already know that this war will not end the way we want it to." Lucius stated rather uncharacteristically melancholy. "Hermione Granger or Moinette Dagworth, regardless of which mudblood we have, we are doomed or have you forgotten that we have already been foretold the outcome."

"Foretold through the eyes of a traumatic memory of an eighteen year old witch. Did not that same witch, years after said memory, vow and make us both vow not to let that occur for the sake of both your son not yet born and her generation? Did it not occur that way or have I forgotten a key point?"

"Severus, you are correct in your recollection, but I must say that you are unfortunately incorrect about the outcome of this war. Everything, which was very little, that Moinette told me would occur, occurred. Nothing that I, you, or Moinette ever did, changed those facts!"

"Lucius," Severus sighed. "You must realize that what ever happened before she met us, was already in the stars to happen. She knew and forewarned this. We can still alter the outcome of this war because her exiting the presumed final battle did not end the war, it just ended it for her. We can not truly know that the battle she spoke of was in fact the final one." Severus paused and looked at Lucius.

From an outsiders point of view, one would not find fault in the aristocratic pureblood yet to Severus he realized that Lucius was almost at his breaking point. Severus hoped and prayed to Merlin that Lucius would not crumble at an inopportune time. At this point his, Lucius Malfoy, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Remus Lupin, and both Moinette Dagworth and Lucilla Harriet Malfoy's life depended on the unforeseeable facade of the Malfoy patriarch.

A/N: This was a bit shorter than what I would have preferred, but what needed to be said and done at this point in time was accomplished. Feedback would be greatly appreciated and cherished. I apologize for the long wait. Speaking of which, I have a new poll on my profile concerning some of my uncompleted fan fiction stories about which one my lovely readers and reviewers would like to see completed first. Please check it out and vote on which story you prefer.

Nathalie93, padfootsgrl79, Avalonhighgirl, lilo, moregoth, cytl101, and VTM Potter Crazy, thank you for reading reviewing the last chapter. To all that read last chapter or reada and/or reviewed previous chapters, thank you as well.

Also, I normally do not do this in author notes or my stories, but because I love the following story so much and the in which it is written, I have to recommend it, if you love my Lucius/Hermione story, you will absolutely fall head over heels in love with VTM Potter Crazy's story Objection Overruled. If you haven't read it yet (where have you been by the way) then go ahead and check it out, you will not be sorry.