The Agreement
Annaleise Marie

Chapter Eleven: Complications

AN: As I was writing the last chapter I was like, "Yay! Revealing major plot point! Woo!" But then no one commented on it. XD Nevertheless, I greatly enjoyed hearing from you guys! You make my day every time! :D

Special thanks to bookoholic me, IGOTEAMEDWARD, starlight-x-A-x, Aletto, Pixie-Fate, -typing-pictures-, Stella Cosmopolita, HPfan29, Hans153, Anonymous, and Bunny115. I especially enjoyed Bunny's story about how her son didn't cry at birth, but instead stuck his tongue out at her and peed. XD Also thanks to all of the alerts and faves I recieved!

/

Hermione growled in irritation, pulling the top two buttons on her blouse open as the temperature in the manor continued to climb. Why the hell was it so damn hot? She turned her attention back to the books spread out in front of her in Draco's study, trying to force herself to focus.

After a few seconds she gave up, unbuttoning her shirt the rest of the way to shrug it off, draping it over the chair next to her. At first she felt like her camisole might be too skimpy, but then nearly laughed at that worry. It had been three days since the incident after the gala, and Draco had skillfully avoided her. There was no one around to see her, and so what if he did? It was his own damn fault for keeping his house so warm.

She leaned over the book closest to her again, furrowing her brow in concentration as she rested her head in her hands.

"As with apparition, Portkeys allow wizards to move through the fabric of time and space, appearing almost instantly at the alternate point of the caster's choosing. It should be noted that..."

Who was Draco to ignore her anyway? And on top of that, to forbid her to leave the manor? What did he think she was supposed to do, just sit around and wait for him to call for her? Maybe she had a life of his own, had he ever considered that?

"It should be noted that..."

Of course he hadn't considered that. He was just an arrogant, spoiled little brat, upset that someone had gotten the upper hand on him for once. What he had been doing was frowned upon at best, and most likely illegal! So he had decided to punish her for his mess, although it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that she hadn't been involved with Harry's hijinx.

"It should be noted that..."

And Harry! How dare he pull those shenanigans under her nose, without warning her? It was his fault she was stuck here now. And why was he worrying so much about bringing Lucius in for things that had happened five years ago when something possibly just as serious was going on right at that moment? It was ridiculous. And since when did Harry do things like this on his own, without talking it over with her or Ron? It wasn't like him to just jump into things like this. Not unless it was serious. Why had he even asked her to come back if he was just going to do all this on his own? If he hadn't asked her to come back, she wouldn't be stuck here now! She'd be happily back at her home, with or without her magic.

"It should be noted that..."

But would she? Dean was supposed to be back in the muggle world, wasn't he? So how had she seen him in the Floo. According to the books, she might have seen into another place, but it didn't sound like it by what Dean had said. And why wasn't Harry concerned about that? As far as she could tell, if Dean was in the Floo, it might have something to do with the census, and wasn't that what she had been called back for?

"It should be noted that..."

That's right, this was all Harry's fault! But wait, when had she gone from being angry with Draco to being mad at Harry? Well, they were both acting like idiots! Men! She would be better off without them, back home. But even that wasn't completely true, was it? She couldn't remember the last time she had been happy... It was like she couldn't exist happily in the wizarding world or the muggle world. Maybe all of the pureblood bullshit was right - people like her shouldn't be in the wizarding world. It meant that only half of them belonged to each world, didn't it? Wasn't that what happened to her? And Dean? Dean had chosen the muggle world, hadn't he? But he was a wizard...

"It should be noted that..."

No, she had done this to herself, right? She had felt like she belonged in the muggle world until she went to Hogwarts, and she felt like she had belonged in the wizarding world untill after the war. It was her own fault for leaving.

"It should be noted that..."

Now she was blaming herself? She nearly sobbed in frustration, and slammed her book shut angrily as she realized she had been reading the same half of a sentence for nearly twenty minutes. This wasn't helping her figure out what had happened to Dean. But then, even when she could focus she wasn't finding anything useful about the Floo Network in the Malfoy library. She knew she had seen text before on how the network worked, but she couldn't remember anything specific. It had been in third year, when she first got her Time-Turner. But she hadn't paid much attention, as the book hadn't contained much information on Time-Turners. She wished she had now.

She smoothed her hair back, wiping the sweat from her brow, trying to calm down.

"Bit stressed?" a voice asked from the doorway and Hermione jumped, not having heard the door open. Blaise was leaning against the facing, his usual robes abandoned in favour of a sleeveless top and shorts. The dark hair framing his face was damp with sweat.

"Duh," Hermione said irritably. Blaise smirked at her.

"Just the response I would expect from the smartest witch in our year when she's got her research face on," he drawled, walking towards her and taking a seat in front of the desk. "Duh."

"I'm irritated," Hermione said unapologetically.

"Unsurprising," Blaise said.

"Why is it so hot in here?" Hermione asked. "You'd think a giant drafty stone house like this would be freezing this time of year."

"Oh it is," Blaise replied. "We're both in withdrawals. I'm surprised you haven't gotten sick yet."

"Yet?" Hermione asked warily.

"Oh yeah, give it time," Blaise said. "Before long you'll be curled on the washroom floor, feeling like a hinkypunk is trying to claw its way out of your stomach."

"Great," Hermione groaned. "Isn't there any way to stop it?"

"Well, the potion," Blaise said. "Duh."

"I meant other than that. You know it's all been destroyed."

"You know how to make it."

"I'm not making any more of it," Hermione snapped. "Why did Draco even make that potion?" she asked, letting her head fall back to rest against the back of her chair. "It doesn't seem to have caused anything other than problems. And all for what? A lust potion?"

"Well, it wasn't originally supposed to be a lust potion," Blaise said. "And he made it to save Pansy's life."

"This potion saved Pansy's life?" Hermione repeated, sure she must have heard him wrong.

"Like you wouldn't believe," Blaise confirmed. "You see, by all rights, Pansy and I should not be stuck with each other. We don't like each other. We don't even get along."

"It can't be all bad," Hermione said. "I mean, you got Zane out of the deal, right?"

"No," Blaise said, smiling. "I got Pansy out of the deal. Zane would have been born whether or not we bonded."

"So why did you two bond?" Hermione asked. Blaise shrugged.

"Family properiety and all that I suppose," he said. "Anyway, it was pretty bad for the first few years, but that's to be expected. But then one night..."

/

"I'm home!" Blaise announced, dusting his robes off. No one answered him. He shrugged it off at first, assuming that Pansy wasn't talking to him again. It wasn't unusual, given that they fought almost daily. She may have even gone to her parents.

"Edy," Blaise called, a loud crack following his words to announce the house elve's arrival. "Did your mistress leave a message when she left?"

"No, sir," Edy said, twisting his hands nervously. "Mistress left no message but..." He stared up at Blaise with large, frightened eyes. Blaise groaned.

"Edy, you will tell me whatever it is you're hiding," he commanded. "Remember, I am the master of this house."

"The young master is very upset," Edy blurted. Blaise froze.

"Zane is home?" he asked. Zane was only three at the time, he shouldn't have been home if Pansy was gone.

"Mistress asked Edy to keep an eye on the young master. Mistress left quite suddenly and the young master was upset, and Mistress wouldn't stop yelling, and Edy was just doing what he was told, Master," Edy said in a rush.

"Where is Zane, Edy?" Blaise growled. Edy took a step back, his eyes watering as Blaise towered over him.

"E-Edy is a good elf," Edy said pleadingly. "Edy was just doing as he was told, Master."

"WHERE IS MY SON, EDY?" Blaise bellowed. The elf cowered, this hands clasped protectively over his large head.

"Y-Young master is out in the g-garden," Edy stuttered, visibly shaking. Blaise hurried past the elf to the back door. He could see Zane through the glass, sitting on a stone bench in the garden, as the elf had said.

"Edy kept the young master safe, Master," Edy continued, his voice still pleading.

"Go away, Edy," Blaise growled before wrenching the door open and walking out to Zane.

"Daddy," the little boy said quietly when he saw Blaise. He looked up and Blaise sucked in a breath at the sight of his face. A light purplish bruise was spreading across his cheekbone, the rest of his face red and tear-stained.

"Zane, are you okay?" Blaise asked, squatting down in front of his son, moving his hair out of the way to get a better look at his face.

"I made Mommy mad," Zane said. "I didn't mean to."

"I'm sure you didn't do anything," Blaise said. "Mommy's a very angry woman."

"What's a mistake?" Zane asked abruptly. Blaise wrinkled his brow, surprised at the sudden turn in conversation.

"Well, it's something that you did, that you wish you hadn't, because something bad happened when you did it," he said. Zane's lip trembled.

"Am I mistake?" Zane asked. Blaise worked to keep his face calm as his temper rose.

"Is that what Mommy told you?" he asked. Zane nodded and Blaise exhaled slowly, feeling his grip on his temper slipping.

"You're not a mistake," Blaise said softly. "You're the best thing that's happened to Mommy and me. She's just-" an uncaring bitch "- a little upset right now, and she said something that she didn't mean."

Zane nodded, his lip trembling, and Blaise stood.

"Edy will help you get ready for bed," he said. "I'm going to find Mommy and we're going to have a talk about this." Zane nodded again as Edy appeared at the mention of his name. Blaise pulled Zane into his arms for a quick hug. "I love you," he assured his son before letting him go.

"Do you think Mommy still loves me?" Zane asked, and Blaise felt his heart break.

"Of course she does," Blaise said. Zane smiled and gave Blaise one last hug before following Edy back into the house. Blaise watched him go and waited for a moment before letting out a roar of anger, spinning on his heel and brandishing his wand at a set of rose bushes a few meters off. The bush burst into flame, quickly burning into nothing but a smoldering pile of ash.

"Effy!" he bellowed, hearing a crack that announced the immediate arrival of Edy's sister.

"M-Master called?" Effy stuttered, twisting her hands in her tea towel.

"Where is your Mistress, Effy?" Blaise demanded, causing the elf to jump.

"E-Effy doesn't k-know, Master," Effy answered, her voice rising in terror.

"Find her!" he ordered. Effy squeeked and, after a few shaky tries, snapped her fingers and disappeared with another loud crack.

/

"It got pretty ugly after that," Blaise said, leaning back in his chair and resting his feet on the table. Hermione glared at him for a moment and pulled one of her books out from under his heel. "You know that each family has different bonding rules, right?" he asked, ignoring her aggitation.

"Right," Hermione grumbled.

"Well, the Zabinis have a few rules of their own, but the main one is that you are bonded forever. Unlike some of the older families, there are no loopholes created by modern magic, and no way out," Blaise explained. "Unless, of course, someone dies."

Hermione dropped her quill in surprise at what Blaise was implying.

"You don't mean you were actually going to kill her?" she asked. Blaise just blinked at her. "But, she's your wife!"

"That doesn't mean anything in our situation, except that I'm stuck with her," Blaise said. "Maybe it's hard to understand just by hearing the story, but at that point I had been through almost four years of hell with her. She had begun abusing my child, the one thing in the world that I love, and that she should have, by all rights, loved as well."

"But killing her..." Hermione said, trailing off as she searched for words.

"Is a little extreme?" Blaise supplied. "Yeah, that's what Draco thought, too. So he suggested a potion that Malfoy Industries had been working on. In the beginning, the potion was pretty much a love potion with a mild sedative. It was actually intended to be marketed as a marital aid of sorts. But well, there were problems with it."

"What sort of problems?" Hermione asked.

"Well, as a generic love potion, it wasn't strong enough to overpower my bond with Pansy," Blaise said. Hermione looked at him blankly. "The bond encourages fidelity, so I could only... satisfy the potion with Pansy," he elaborated.

"Oh," Hermione said in understanding. "And you don't want to sleep with Pansy."

"Well, not exactly. I hate Pansy, sure, but as far as the potion is concerned, sex is sex. I didn't want to risk having another child with Pansy," Blaise said. "But it all leads to the same end. So anyway, Draco had to strengthen the potion, which required more unconventional ingredients. That in turn led to the change in its manufacture and form to a powder, and well... Here we are."

"So this whole potion is a giant fumble," Hermione summarized. "To save an evil woman's life."

"Pretty much," Blaise said, nodding. "But Draco has always had a soft spot for Pansy, even if he doesn't actually like her that much. I think he sees her as another casualty of the pureblood upbringing, rather than your average everyday run-of-the-mill bitch."

"That seems strangely nice, for Draco, anyway," Hermione said suspiciously.

"Draco's a pretty nice guy, to be fair," Blaise said. "He's just a bit of a spoiled prat and gets upset when things go wrong."

"Understatement of the century," Hermione muttered.

"Hmm," Blaise hummed, turning his attention to her books. "By the way, you're in the wrong books. Floo works strictly through space, not time. Time continues in the network, it just skips through space. These books have more to do with apparition and Portkeys."

Hermione gaped at him in amazement. She didn't think Blaise wouldn't know anything about this.

"The early potions made me goofy, Hermione, not stupid," Blaise said, laughing. "Give me some credit."

"So, whatever happens in the Floo, is happening at the same time that it would happen outside of the Floo?" Hermione asked. Blaise nodded. "So Dean was trapped in the Floo. It wasn't some sort of glitch in time. Although, it would still be worrysome, even if it was happening sometime and somewhere else. But still, he was right there, right then, right?"

"Most likely," Blaise agreed. "What'd he say to you again?"

"He asked if they got me, too, and said that Ginny had told him I was safe. He seemed really scared," Hermione said. "But then Harry pulled me out of the Floo, and I couldn't talk to him anymore."

"Well, there's one way to see if he's in the muggle world or not," Blaise said.

"How?" Hermione asked, interested in his ideas after his last offered bit of information.

"Go to see him yourself," Blaise said. "I mean, you must know your way around there, living there for five years, and the time before Hogwarts."

"Blaise, I lived in England, that doesn't mean I know my way around Wales," Hermione said dully. Blaise shrugged. "I suppose Harry and Ginny would probably have his address, though. I could probably find my way."

"I think you should," Draco's voice sounded from the doorway. Hermione and Blaise both looked up as he strutted in, looking much more pieced together in his robes than either of them, his cold eyes fixed on Hermione.

"You're telling me to leave now?" Hermione asked, surprised. "You don't talk to me for three days, and then you just tell me to leave?"

"You want to stay here?" Draco asked, his expression unchanging.

"No, but I think we have things to discuss."

"I don't," Draco said simply. He reached into his pocket and produced Hermione's wand, holding it out to her. She reached for it hesitantly, worried that it might be a trick, and felt relief wash over her when her fingers closed around it.

"So this is it?" she asked. Draco stared at her for a moment, appearing completely unfazed.

"No, Granger. I, unlike you, have morals and stand by my word. Our agreement stands. You may return in a week. No sooner," he said.

"Why?"

"My parents are coming," Draco said.

"Why does it matter to you if they're coming back?"

"It doesn't matter to me if my parents come back," Draco said. "I don't give a damn."

"Then why do I have to-"

"Do you know what it would mean for you if they came back?" Draco snapped. "They wouldn't just be a little disappointed in our relationship, you know. They would kill you. And they wouldn't lose any sleep over it."

There was silence for a moment following this announcement and then Blaise cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Harsh, mate," he said, looking from Draco to Hermione.

"Fine," Hermione said, ignoring Blaise. "I'll go, then. It's not like I'd want to be confined to this damned house for another day, anyway."

She slammed another book for good measure and stood up, grabbing her blouse from the chair beside her and stalking past Blaise and Draco, slamming the door of the study behind her.

/

AN: I know this chapter was a few days later than planned, and I hope all of you will forgive me! My personal life has been very hectic lately and I fell a bit behind, but I want to assure you that it won't happen again. I may not always be able to promise an update day, but I promise I will keep it if I do give you guys one!

Also, this story is now being posted on Hawthorne and Vine. For those of you who read there as well, please know that I am the one posting it, and please don't report it for plagarism! It's already been reported once. I appreciate you guys watching my back though. XD

So, thoughts and comments on this chapter? I love hearing from you guys! :D