AN – Ok, I'm a liar, you guys probably thought that this chapter was never coming!
Chapter 11
Draco held Diana close to him as he stood in what used to be Hermione's kitchen. It was just Weasley's kitchen now and Draco knew that he needed to help Hermione get her things out quickly, before Ron decided to come back. Ron would find things out eventually, but now was certainly not the time.
Draco tore his gaze away from Diana's perfect, little face to look at Hermione, she seemed to be getting over some sort of panic attack. Her hair was a frizzed mess, she had obviously worked hard today to get all of her things packed so quickly. She was breathing deeply, probably still from that close encounter with the Weasley's. The way she looked brought Draco back to the terrible morning that he had. He shook his head, he didn't want to think about that just now.
"Hermione?" Draco said quietly after a few moments.
"Hmm?" she looked up at him.
"Are all of your things packed? Are you ready to go?"
"I think so," she said, gesturing to the small pile of boxes in the corner of the room.
"That's it?" Draco asked, surprised. "No furniture?"
"None of it is mine," she said quietly.
"That's fine, I have plenty," he said with a smile. He was beginning to see just how hard this was for her.
"How did the trial go?" she asked suddenly.
"Oh, let's talk about it later, we should get this stuff out of here." Draco didn't want to tell her anything that would just make her day worse.
He handed the baby back over to Hermione and then pulled his wand out of his pocket. He waved it at the small pile of boxes, knowing that they would have appeared instantly in the guest room that he had set up for her the night before.
"Do you want to apparate?" he asked uncertainly, glancing again at Diana.
"No," Hermione shook her head. "I don't like apparating with Diana, we can use the fireplace."
Hermione led Draco through the modest, but cozy house into the living room. The furniture was shabby, but somehow fit with the rest of the house, seeming to make it a nice place to live. Draco hoped that Hermione would be comfortable staying in his home. It wasn't exactly grand, but not particularly modest either.
Hermione reached her hand into a pot above the fireplace. He saw her shake her head. "I meant to tell Ron to get more Floo Powder and I forgot, I guess we'll just have to use the rest of it."
Draco reached around her and used his fingertips to scrape the last bit of Powder out of the jar. He was about to tell Hermione the name of his home when he noticed that she had already thrown her Floo Powder into the fire. As the flames turned colour and she stepped into the fire, he realised that she, of course, already knew the name of their home.
With a smile, Draco threw his own Powder into the fire.
"Wildhaven."
When Hermione stepped out of Draco's fireplace, she was struck by the fact of how much things had changed since she had been here only a few days before. She still couldn't believe that she had come to Draco with that crazy story the way she had. It was nice to know that she still had some of her old Gryffindor bravery.
"What are you smiling about?" Draco asked, standing beside her and brushing the soot off of his immaculate shoulder.
"Nothing," Hermione said, still smiling. "Do you mind if we sit for just a few minutes before I start unpacking? These last few days have been just exhausting."
"Of course," Draco said, sitting down on the couch.
As Hermione sat down opposite him, she began to wonder just what the hell she was thinking staying here. Of course, she had no where else to go and didn't have much choice, but she barely knew Draco! She liked to think that she knew his dreamself, but she really didn't. All she knew was that her dreamself loved him, that would have to be enough for the time being.
The two sat in silence just long enough for it to become an awkward pause. Hermione knew that she needed to say something and say something quick. These first few hours in a house together would set the standard for the weeks to come.
"How was the verdict?" she asked finally. Almost immediately, she wished that she hadn't. Draco's shoulders slumped as soon as she brought it up. Things must not have gone as he had wanted.
"Not good," he said with a sigh. "I just don't understand how things couldn't have gone exactly how I wanted them too!"
Hermione watched as Draco stood up and began to walk around the room. He wasn't speaking but he kept running one of his hands through his hair as if he didn't know where to start with what had happened.
"Sorry," she said. "If you don't want to talk about it-"
"No, I want to talk about it. I need to talk about it," he said.
Hermione didn't say anything else, she just sat with Diana and waited for him to speak.
"It just doesn't make any sense! Lestrange's lawyer didn't even do anything! I don't know how Gumboil could possibly have come up with the verdict that he did."
"So, Lestrange won't be getting the Dementor's Kiss?"
"The Dementor's Kiss?" Draco said, throwing his hands up. "He won't even be spending the rest of his life in Azkaban!"
"What?" Hermione asked, feeling shocked. "How is that possible? He's going free?"
"No, he's going to Azkaban, but he might as well be free," Draco said. "They're given him ten years in Azkaban and then they will give him another trial with a shot at Redemption."
Although Hermione's legal knowledge was limited, she knew that Redemption was similar to parole in the muggle world. Rodolphus Lestrange could easily be out of prison and back on the streets in ten years.
"What reason did Gumboil give for his verdict?" she asked.
"Well, first he discredited half of my witnesses."
"I thought everyone was under magical oath to tell the truth?"
"They are, but strange things seem to have happened overnight. All of Dr. Hopweather's records were destroyed in a fire yesterday."
"But his testimony?" Hermione asked. "Wouldn't that still count for something?"
"Without those records, the physical proof of what happened, his testimony is completely invalid."
"What about the rest of your witnesses?"
"The Wizengamot decided in a closed proceeding early this morning that muggles are no longer allowed to be witnesses in Magical cases. Miss Brown has had her memory erased of all of the happenings at her animal shelter by now."
"What about the man who testified to being tortured?"
"He was admitted to St. Mungo's last night into the ward for the Criminally Insane."
"Criminally?" Hermione asked.
"Even I can't figure that one out."
"And…and your father?" Hermione asked finally.
"He's a Death Eater," Draco said bitterly. "No one would listen to what he has to say. So all Gumboil had to go on were my witnesses from the second day, the ones he himself asked me to 'tone down'. I know you didn't see the second day of the trial, but it wasn't good."
"I still don't understand," Hermione said. "Lestrange was a known Death Eater, a supported of Voldemort, which alone is enough to get him a life sentence in Azkaban."
"It should have been," Draco said, finally sitting back down across from her. "I was thinking before, and now I think I must have been right, that there is corruption in the Wizengamot."
They were both silent for a moment as the reality of what this meant sank in to Hermione. If the Wizengamot was free to do whatever they wanted to whoever they wanted…The implications were startling. Innocent people could be put in Azkaban or even killed, while the Death Eaters, the murderers, went free.
"How did that happen?" Hermione asked finally.
"Did you get a good look at all of the people sitting on that bench the other day?" Draco asked.
"Yes," Hermione said thoughtfully. "I didn't recognize most of them."
"No," Draco said. "You wouldn't have, I did. Most of them are people who are connected somehow."
"Connected?" Hermione asked.
"Connected to the Dark Arts or the Dark Lord in some way."
"How did all of those people get elected to the Wizengamot?"
"I don't know," Draco said, standing up again. "I need to talk to Potter."
"Potter?" Hermione asked, feeling confused. "You mean Harry?"
"You know any other Potters?" Draco said with a smirk.
"You're going to go and talk to Harry?" Hermione asked. "Right now?"
"Not right this second, first I want to show you your room."
Hermione stood up to follow Draco out of the room. As she carried Diana through the house, she wondered what she was going to do with her. She was going to have to let her sleep on her bed with her until she could find a cheap crib to set up for her. As they reached the landing, she looked up with a smile at the photo of Draco with his parents on his first day of school. He looked exactly as she remembered him looking when they had first met. His hair was slicked back and he had a smug look on his face. She looked from him to his parents, comparing their similarities in the picture. She had always thought that he looked more like his father, but she could see much of him in the pretty angles of his mother's face as well.
"Are you coming?" Draco asked and Hermione realised that she had stopped to stare at the picture and that Draco was nearly at the top of the stairs.
She followed him down the plush-carpeted hallway to a room that she knew was across from his bedroom. He stopped in front of the door and hesitated with his hand on the knob. Hermione couldn't imagine what he was waiting for.
"I hope you like it. It's just a guest bedroom and I didn't have much time to set it up for you, with the trial going on."
"Draco, you're letting me stay in your home, I have no where else to go. If you let me sleep in a closet I would be happy with it."
Finally, Draco pushed the door open and Hermione looked inside. Just like every other room in this house, it was very light and airy. The large windows on two of the walls let the light in gave her a beautiful view of the grounds. The house was surrounded by a field on all sides and beyond the field was dark, dense forest. She knew that the grounds were magically enhanced. From the front of the house, it appeared that their closest neighbours weren't that far away. From here, it looked like no one else was around for miles.
"Do you like it?" Draco asked.
Hermione tore her gaze from the window and surveyed the room. The furniture was white with dark purple accents. The bed had a luxurious, royal purple canopy and bedspread. She could see that all of her boxes were organised through the room. Her clothes were near the dresser, her books near the bookcase and her work things were stacked in their boxes beside a work table that sat under one of the windows.
"It's perfect," she said honestly. "But where are Diana's things?"
"Well," Draco said, suddenly looking embarrassed. "I don't know how long you will be staying here, but I hope that even after you leave, Diana will spend some time here."
"Of course," Hermione interjected.
"So I set up a nursery for her."
He gestured to a door that Hermione had assumed was a second closet. She now noticed that there was a lock on the door.
"You didn't have to do it right away," Hermione said. "We both could have stayed in here."
"I wanted to," Draco said honestly. "The other side of the nursery enters into my room, that's why I put you right across the hall. I put a lock on your side so that you don't have to worry about me."
"I trust you," Hermione said without thinking. She immediately realised that it was true. This man, who she barely knew, had welcomed her into his home and she trusted him completely with her life and, more importantly, her daughter's life.
"Would you like to see it?" Draco asked, breaking into her thoughts.
"Definitely," Hermione said, reaching for the door.
When she opened it, she got a glimpse into a nursery that was, literally, from her dreams. As she walked in she saw that it was almost near identical to the nursery that Draco had put together for her in this house in their dreams together. There was no rocking horse and there were no pictures on the walls of Hermione when she was pregnant or of her and Draco together, but other than that it was the same.
"How did you…when did you find the time…" Hermione trailed of in amazement.
"After the trial, I went shopping. I put it all together last night. I hope you were telling the truth in the dream when you said you liked it all."
"Like it? Draco, I love it! You shouldn't have done all of this. It's too generous!"
"Hey," Draco said, walking over and lifting the sleeping baby from Hermione's arms. "She's my daughter too."
AN – I know, longest break ever! I'm sorry, truly, truly sorry! Thank you all for the kind reviews and private messages, nudging me along to finally get this written. If it weren't for you, it probably never would have been.
I'm glad that so many people love this story and want to know what happens next. I was rereading it last night before I started writing again this morning to refresh my memory and I found myself dying to know what happens next as well!
Life has been crazy these last few months. I got married last month and then got promoted at my job right after. Things have finally started to settle down and I really want to start writing again. I don't want this story to be one of those stories that has months and month between updates.
Thank you all again for your encouragement, it means everything to me!
Also, somehow I managed to get two chapters written today. I guess six months of not writing builds up! I was going to tease you guys and wait a week to put it up, but I've decided that you waited long enough for this chapter. As soon as I've read it through one more time I will upload it. I really think that you will enjoy it! I certainly enjoyed writing it :)
