The Agreement
Annaleise Marie
Chapter Ten: Fury
AN: Thanks so much to everyone who read the last chapter and added this story to their alerts and faves! And special thanks to Priscina Alice Malfoy, Anonymous, HPfan29, Scarlet Dewdrops, helikesitheymikey, EbonySoul25, ultimanoapte, sm, Hans153, starlight-x-A-x, Bunny115, Alle, ApterousAngel, 4SnowWolf, PadfootObsessed329, SauerKirsche, Noree-Chan, -typing-pictures-, Pixie-Fate, Tsuki916, Ch3ckZz, and rec2527 for reviewing! We're over 100 reviews now, and I couldn't be happier! :D
As an answer to something a lot of people asked about: there is no reason in particular, in my story, as to why pureblood babies don't cry at birth. To be honest, I was at a loss as to what Draco and Hermione could talk about while waiting, and I let my (maybe strange and a little too subtle) sense of humour get away from me. It was supposed to be a subtle nudge at the strict social rules expected from purebloods, even as children, and nothing more. Sorry for any confusion I caused with that. D:
Thanks for reading, and without further adieu, please enjoy the new chapter!
/
Hermione sighed, resting her head against Draco's bare chest. The effects of the potion were finally wearing off, and she was exhausted. She was mildly surprised that Draco didn't send her to the guest room, but thankful that she didn't have to force herself to move.
"So, ready to talk about the dinner conversation?" Draco asked. Hermione wrinkled her brow.
"Why on earth do you want to talk about that?" she asked. Draco chuckled.
"I'm really interested to see if you noticed the same thing that I did," he said.
"Like what?" she asked. What could Draco have possibly noticed that she didn't.
"Well, everyone offered an opinion except the Weasel and his vapid little fiancee," Draco said. "I understand the Weasel, because like I said, he just parrots the ideals of certain others, and it would have been annoyingly redundant. But the fiancee..."
"Maybe Ron finally found someone who blindly follows a leader, same as him," Hermione said, shrugging, moving to fold her arms over Draco's chest, resting her chin on them to look up at him.
"Not as friendly with the Weasel as in previous years?" Draco asked, smirking.
"We have a complicated past," Hermione said in a tone that left no room for further questions.
"Hmm," Draco hummed, seeming to accept that explanation for the moment. "I don't think that's the case with Melaina Rogar, though," he said. "She was much too opinionated on every other subject for that."
"I didn't really notice," Hermione admitted. "I didn't listen to much of the conversation following creature rights."
"I'm not surprised. Don't get my wrong, she's opinionated sure, but dull as a flobberworm," Draco said. "I had to force myself to seem even mildly interested in what she was saying. But that's not what struck me as most odd, it more confirmed my suspicions."
"What suspicions?"
"Well, think about it: Potter is aways seated closest to the podium because of his hero status and his quick rise through the Ministry," Draco said. "I'm always seated at the closest table, as well, because I donate generously to most causes. It's good publicity. But Dekeyrel, Cipoletti, the Weasel, and Melaina had no real reason to be seated there. My guess is that either Potter pulled strings to interrogate Dekeyrel without raising flags, or Dekeyrel did the same to keep an eye on us. But the Weasel and Melaina..."
"Had no reason to be seated there," Hermione said, nodding. "Maybe it's because we're 'the Golden Trio', or something?"
"Weasel hasn't been given that seat for the last three years. His popularity faded pretty quickly as one of Potter's 'sidekicks'," Draco said, shaking his head.
"Then he was there because he's Melaina's fiance?" Hermione guessed.
"I believe so. But then why was Melaina there?" Draco asked. Hermione groaned. She didn't want to think about this now. Her mind was still slightly fogged, and she was tired. "I think she has something to do with Dekeyrel and Cipoletti."
"She seems too dim for that," Hermione said dismissively.
"Or she wants everyone to think that," Draco said.
"I think you're giving her too much credit," Hermione said, almost laughing at this theory. "She didn't even seem to have an opinion on something with as many parallels as creature rights."
"I think she did," Draco said. "Remember I told you we were being watched?"
"Yeah?"
"I think it wasn't that she didn't have an opinion, but that she would rather hear yours and Potter's," he said. Hermione thought about it. She supposed it was possible.
"Were you watching her?" she asked.
"Closely," Draco confirmed. "Most people who don't care for a subject, or don't know much about it, will tune it out, like you did when the topic turned to current wizarding theatre. But she was very aware, following the conversation, and she didn't seem to be trying very hard to keep her expressions in check."
"How so?"
"Well, she looked at Dekeyrel and Cipoletti as if they were preaching gospel, but looked almost frustrated with you."
"She looked frustrated," Hermione repeated dully.
"Like she was wondering how you could be so dim," Draco said, laughing softly.
"Draco!" Blaise's voice came booming from the other side of the door, accompanied by loud knocking.
"Christ," Draco groaned. Hermione jumped, suddenly completely aware, as though the last of the fog had been knocked from her head. She had been cuddling with Draco. Discussing things with him the way she would have with Harry or Ron. Like they were friends.
"It's sodding one in the morning, you great git!" Draco shouted as he got out of bed, grabbing his pants off of the floor and pulling them on as he hopped across the room. Hermione hurriedly followed suit, grabbing her dress and sliding it on before running her fingers through her hair, trying to make herself look as normal as possible before Draco opened the door.
"I know! I know, but you won't believe this, mate!" Blaise shouted back before the door was finally unlocked and opened. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said, a grin spreading over his face as he spotted Hermione over Draco's shoulder. "I didn't know I was interrupting."
"She's addicted, don't torment her," Draco said to Hermione's surprise. He was defending her?
"Well, I can understand that," Blaise said to Hermione. "I mean, he's quite habit-forming, isn't he?" He dodged quickly as Draco tried to slam the door where he had just been standing. "Okay, sorry, really this time!"
"What do you want?" Draco snapped.
"What?"
"Why are you here?" Draco asked slowly and deliberately. "What brought you barging into my home at one in the morning?"
"Oh! You're not going to believe this," Blaise said, his eyes widening. "They raided Ishya's place!"
There was silence for a moment and then Draco spun to glare at Hermione.
"Both of you," he hissed, "come with me."
He stalked from the room, leaving Blaise and Hermione to stare at each other in surprise.
"Ohhh," Blaise drawled. "You're going to get it."
They followed after him, Hermione wondering what Draco could possibly think she had to do with this - sure, he had just told her about Ishya that morning, but she didn't know anything about her business; where it was, or even the name of the place. And she had nothing to gain by telling anyone what Draco was up to. Actually, she had quite a lot to lose. Draco could expose her lie, or worse, could let it go on but tell everyone that they had slept together.
She nearly shuddered at the thought of her friend's reactions if they found out.
Draco led them down to the dungeons where, with a sweep of his wand, he cleared all of his notes and materials into a neat pile.
"Blaise, take these, and put them somewhere safe," he instructed, handing the pile of papers to Blaise. "Not your house, you hear me? And don't tell anyone where you're taking them, and don't say it now, either. You're to be the only one to know, got it?"
Blaise nodded as Draco turned his attention to Hermione, his fists clenching. He exhaled hard and turned away from her, going to the cupboard and taking out four vials of the powder that Hermione recognized as the finished formula.
"Now, Blaise!" Draco commanded, and the next second Blaise was gone, his footsteps echoing up the steps.
Draco lined the sink basin with parchment before pouring all four vials into it, pointing his wand at the mess.
"Incindio," he muttered through gritted teeth and the contents of the sink burst into flame. He let it burn out and then rinsed the ashen remains down the sink before turning to the cauldron, left undisturbed from Hermione's attempt at brewing the formula.
"Scourgify," he muttered. The couldron gave a soft kick, as if the potion was reluctant to leave, and then it stood, empty. Draco turned to her, his eyes bright with fury.
"You," he said. "You have something to do with this, don't you?" Hermione was silent, in shock at what she was witnessing. "Don't you?" he demanded, his voice growing louder. "You and that goddamned interfering fucking St. Potter!"
Hermione's heart raced as she eyed Draco's blackthorn wand, reminding her that she had left hers up in his bedroom. Draco crossed the dungeon to her, causing her to back up in her panic, her back hitting the stone wall behind her.
"Answer me!" Draco bellowed, his hands slamming down on either side of her head. She couldn't form words. She was scared, she realized. In just a few days, the idea of being scared of Draco had become almost completely foreign, but she was scared now.
"You seek me out. You come into my house, asking for my help," he hissed. "You make a deal with me. You sleep with me. You feel in a position to make demands of me and question my motives, and you sully my bed with your filth because I feel bad for putting you in a position to become addicted. And all the while, you're setting me up?"
Hermione couldn't answer him. He was wrong, but she was afraid to say so. He didn't seem to be in the right state of mind to listen to her, and she was unarmed.
She could hear his laboured breathing, feel it against her face as he glared at her, his jaw set.
"Get Potter here," he spat.
"But-"
"Now."
Hermione swallowed hard. How was she even supposed to get him here? She wasn't even entirely sure of what was going on, or what Harry was supposed to have to do with it.
"I'll need my wand," she managed to say. "And the card. I left them in your-"
"Use the Floo," Draco snarled. "You will not be setting foot in my room again. You'll get your wand back when I damn well feel like getting it for you. But I wouldn't hold my breath for the card."
"Draco, you can't just go back on our deal-"
"I owe you nothing, Granger!"
There was silence for a moment after this outburst, and Hermione felt her chest tighten at Draco's pointed use of her surname. After a moment Draco moved his hands from the wall, taking a step back and continuing to sneer at her.
"Go," he said, his voice quiet but harsh. Hermione dropped her gaze, turning and fleeing the dungeon while she could.
She entered the sitting room and without hesitation grabbed a handful of shimmering powder from the jar on the mantle, tossing it into the fireplace. Bright green flames sprang up immediately.
"Grimmauld Place!" she called out as she stepped into it, falling forward.
It wasn't long before she realized that something was very wrong. While she was definitely in the Floo network, with grates flying by her, she didn't seem to be going anywhere. In fact, everything seemed to be moving around her instead. She gasped in surprise at this realization, and inhaled a mouthful of ash.
She couldn't stop coughing for a few minutes as she swirled through nothingness, inhaling ashes. She tried to fix her gaze on a stationary point; any stationary point. Grates continued to fly by, too far for her to reach. She seemed to be drifting further away from them.
"Hermione!" she heard someone shout and she tried to twist around to find the source of the voice. It was more difficult than she had expected. A cold hand closed around her wrist, pulling her around. Her eyes grew wide when she saw who it was.
"Dean!" she gasped. He whipped his head around.
"They got you too?" he asked, sounding panicked. "Ginny said you were safe."
"What? Who?" she asked, feeling his fingers slip from her wrist as another hand wrapped around her free one, pulling her away from him. "Dean! What happened? What is this?"
His answer was drowned out by the roar of fire as she was pulled through a grate. She fell backwards into someone, knocking them both backwards.
"Hermione?" Harry's voice sputtered. "Are you okay?"
Hermione had to wait for her breath to return to her before she could physically answer him, but even once she felt she could form words, she wasn't sure how to explain what had occurred.
"Hermione?" Harry asked again, sounding worried. He stood and reached down to help Hermione to her feet as well.
"What happened?" Hermione managed to ask.
"I don't know, I just got home from some unexpected business and you were kind of flickering in and out in the Floo, like you were stuck or something," Harry said. "I'm surprised you managed to get that close to the grate, actually. The wards on Grimmauld Place limit the access under normal circumstances, and that maintenance is still going on."
Hermione vaguely remembered the article that she had skimmed over the day the census was announced, detailing the maintenance that would make the Floo Network inaccessable. Was that all that it was? Was that why she had gotten stuck? But then where was she? And why hadn't she been able to spot Harry through the grates, if he could see her? And...
"Dean!" she gasped. "Harry, I saw Dean Thomas in there! He must have gotten stuck, too!"
Harry stared at her in surprise for a moment before shaking his head.
"Dean was sent back to the muggle world, remember? He wouldn't have been able to access the Floo," he said.
"But I saw him!" Hermione protested. "He seemed scared. Maybe he's been stuck there for awhile; since everyone thought he left."
"That's impossible," Harry said. "He went back by train. Ginny and I saw him off."
"You actually saw him board?" Hermione asked. Harry nodded. "Then what was that?"
"Maybe you're tired, and then you panicked when you got stuck?" Harry suggested, but even he seemed to find that idea doubtful. "Why were you trying to access the Floo at two in the morning, anyway? You hate Floo almost as much as I do."
"Oh!" Hermione said, remembering why she was there. In the shock of what had happened in the Floo, she had forgotten for a moment. "Draco sent me to see you. He's really mad about... something," she said, deciding at the last minute not to let Harry know that she knew about Ishya and Draco's potion. If he really was behind the raid, she didn't want him to think she had witheld her knowledge of the potion to interfere in his work.
"You Floo'd here from Malfoy Manor?" Harry asked.
"We had some things to discuss after the gala," Hermione said. That part was true enough. She just chose to omit the part where she slept with one of his greatest enemies.
"But why the Floo?" Harry asked, still seeming confused by this aspect of the story.
"My wand is..." Hermione trailed off, embarrassed at the idea of telling Harry exactly where her wand was and why. "I didn't have my wand, so I couldn't apparate."
"I imagine this is about the raid tonight," Harry said calmly.
"Why did you do that, Harry?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself. "You know I need him to help me fool the Ministry right now. Why would you piss him off like that?"
"I have a plan," Harry said assuredly. Hermione stared at him, at a loss for words. "Don't worry, I'm not actually going to bring him or Madam Mishra before the ministry."
"You're not?" Hermione asked, taken aback. Harry shook his head. "Then why the theatrics? He's furious!"
"Because I need him to be afraid for himself to agree to what I want," Harry said. "He needs to be so desperate that he would sacrifice anyone else to save himself. As it is, that formula of his is an illegal substance, and a dangerous one at that, so he's facing time in Azkaban for that. Additionally, the ministry could shut Malfoy Industries down if they chose to. That should be enough of a threat to give me some leverage."
"What do you want from him?" Hermione asked. Harry shook his head.
"You'll hear soon, and it's best if you genuinely don't know about it before he hears it. He probably already thinks you're in on it, and I want him to see that you're not so he'll keep his deal with you," Harry said. "So he wants me to go to the manor?"
"Yeah, but if the Floo's not working..." Hermione said, motioning to the fireplace to indicate the futility of the situation.
"It doesn't matter," Harry said. "Assuming he doesn't have illegal wards up, I can get past them as an auror."
He grabbed Hermione by her forearm, turning swiftly on the spot and disappearing, taking Hermione with him.
/
Draco felt his wards break and cursed. It could only be Potter or one of the other Aurors.. A normal wizard wouldn't be able to actually break them, even if they managed to get through. He made his way down to the entry hall to find Potter and Hermione waiting for him. He felt like cursing Potter when he saw the smug look on his face. Hermione, for her part, looked a bit afraid as he descended the stairs to stand before them.
"Potter," he said in greeting, his jaw locked in irritation.
"Malfoy," the Auror returned. Hermione drifted away from him a bit, as though afraid Draco might start throwing curses at random and she would get caught in the crossfire. "You asked to see me?" Potter asked after a moment of silence.
"Call off your Aurors," Draco said, employing every last bit of the Malfoy aire of dominance that he possessed.
"Why should I?" Potter asked, smirking at him.
"Because if you don't, your muddy little friend will have to explain why she lied to Dekeyrel, and she'll be thrown out of our world before you have a chance to figure out what's going on," he said loftily, ignoring the pained look of shock on Hermione's face.
"Hermione has nothing to do with this," Potter said angrily.
"Maybe not," Draco said, not particularly caring to argue that point. "I don't see what that has to do with anything."
"I'll call off my men," Potter said. "Everything will go back to normal. Mishra's business will be left alone, and I might even be able to push your potion through the approval process at the Ministry, if you cooperate. But I want something in return."
"What's that, Potter?" Draco asked, narrowing his eyes. It had to be something big, if Potter was willing to do all of that.
"I want your parents in custody," Potter said. Hermione made a choking sound and Draco's eyes flashed to her shocked expression for a moment. "I want you to lure them back to England. I don't care how you do it, but I want it done."
There was silence for a moment as Draco considered this.
"I'll think about it," he said noncommitally. "But for now, as a show of good faith, call the Auror's off."
"I want an answer within the week if I do," Potter said.
"Done," Draco said, inwardly cursing Potter to every level of hell that he could imagine.
"Good doing business with you, Malfoy," Potter said, smirking. "I eagerly await your answer." He stepped towards the door but turned to address Malfoy one last time. "And another thing, Malfoy," he said. "Don't send Hermione through your Floo again."
With that he was gone. Draco wondered what that had been about, but didn't have time to dwell on it as he noticed that Hermione had remained behind. His blood seemed to boil as he looked at her. Potter had said that she had nothing to do with it, but then, Potter hadn't exactly proven to be the most trustworthy of sources.
Hermione opened her mouth to address him, but he cut her off.
"Do not speak to me," he hissed. Hermione lowered her eyes, her mouth snapping shut. "I'll come find you when I am ready to discuss this. In the meantime, I don't suggest you leave the manor."
He didn't know what made him want her to stay, but it seemed important that she did. He shrugged it off and turned away from her, heading back to his room.
"My wand..." Hermione started, but Draco ignored her, slamming the door behind him when he reached his room.
/
AN: Mmm, conflict. Thoughts? Comments? Questions? :D I'm really excited to hear what all of you think about this chapter!
For those who asked why Draco gave Hermione more of the potion: It's because she was in withdrawals, having been exposed to such an addictive substance. Draco sees her as slightly bothersome, and not all that useful in that state, so he opted to ween her off of it rather than let her ride it out. However, seeing as the stock was destroyed, I get the feeling we're about to see some interesting behaviour from Hermione.
Next chapter involves more Blaise, particularly his back story, for those of you who are fans! I hope to have it up by Sunday! See you then! :D