Chapter 13

Welcome Back

-oOo-

Hermione landed on slightly unsteady legs. It had been so long since she'd Apparated long-distance that she felt slightly nauseous. The feeling quickly disappeared in the wave of other things clamouring for her attention. The very first thing she did, even before seeing where they were, was to dive into the box with her things and pull her wand out.

Once she held it, the long-missed throbbing of magic from her heart out into her wand arm seemed to set the world on fire.

The bright sunlight illuminated her surroundings until she could see each individual straw of grass, and the sound of the birds singing in the trees grew to a joyous crescendo Beethoven could have composed. The air smelled of autumn leaves; she could have followed the trail of the scent of decomposition down to each individual leaf.

A cacophony of suppressed memories and impulses hit her just a second later.

"That bitch!" she screeched suddenly. "The evil, conniving, spiteful, lying, back-stabbing bitch!" Hermione had her wand out and her hair seemed to be standing on its ends; she was on the cusp of Apparating back to Malfoy Manor and have it out with Astoria right there and then.

Ron and Percy exchanged looks, the latter opening his mouth as if to speak only for Ron to shake his head violently.

"It must have been part of the spell all the time," Hermione told them, in a rush, only slightly more composed. "It never even occurred to me to find a way of breaking the contract myself. And the house-elves... I had so many ideas when I came there, but then there was just so much work… That must be how they're kept enslaved!"

She was interrupted by a slightly dumpy projectile barrelling into her.

"Never, ever, ever, ever do that again!" Hermione was admonished in tones muffled by Molly's head being pressed into her hair.

The next hour went by in a haze of celebrations of Hermione's freedom and reconciliations with the Weasleys.

It hadn't escaped her attention that there hadn't been an actual reconciliation as such with Ron. She always had counted on him to have best interests at heart, even when he didn't deserve it. To be fair, the debacle on the Horcrux hunt hadn't been entirely his fault; the loss of their savings had, however. Nevertheless, it seemed as if Hermione was destined to put her faith in Ron. It hadn't even occurred to her to demur when he'd asked her to trust him at the Manor.

It was probably a character flaw.

Ron had mouthed,'Later' to her over his mother's head. As the massive cake Molly had baked was wheeled out in the kitchen at The Burrow, Hermione caught his eye to remind him.

They sneaked out as soon as they could, ducking into Percy's old room to escape from prying ears. Percy's old Head Boy badge hung proudly over the fireplace, its gleam only slightly diminished over the years. They sat down on his old bed, still immaculately made with a Gryffindor blanket on top.

"I know, I know – I've been a complete git and I'm sorry. Really, I am," Ron started off, and something in the expression on Hermione's face must have told him it wasn't quite sufficient, as apologies went. "OK, I was an idiot. I swear I didn't do it on purpose, whatever you think, but I acted like a troll. And I wasn't fair afterwards either, when you found out."

He certainly hadn't been, Hermione recalled; but then Ron had never taken kindly to being chastised for being stupid, and maybe she ought to have realised that pushing all his buttons would only make matters worse.

"I'm really sorry, Hermione. Would you forgive me?"

She'd fallen out of love with him months and months ago, but a truly contrite Ron shot straight for her heart just like he always had. She couldn't be bothered holding on to her grudges, not after everything that had happened.

"All right, then. I will," she conceded. "If only you could remember that if it sounds to good to be true—"

"—it is. I know. I know that."

"No, you obviously don't, but anyway. It doesn't matter right now. Will you please tell me what just happened?" Hermione had managed to restrain herself until now – they'd even made a banner saying 'Welcome back, Hermione' – but it only meant her curiosity was boiling over.

"It's a long story—" Ron began.

"Better start now, then, or you'll never finish," Hermione snapped. She'd had enough of waiting to last a lifetime. "Wait – do I still get the money from Astoria?" It had only just occurred to her. She couldn't bear having gone through all that, only to be back to where she had started.

"I was getting to that..."

Despite his apparent inability to actually start telling his story, it didn't take Ron very long to relate his tale of being approached by Draco Malfoy with a proposition to repay his life debt. Hermione held her tongue and resolved to save her questions until after Ron was done. Perhaps it would make more sense then.

"Now, this is the curious part," Ron told her as he had described the letter he'd written to Astoria and the following correspondence they had entered into to negotiate Hermione's release.

Hermione was enormously relieved to hear that she would be receiving the payment she'd agreed initially with Astoria; it made the last few months seem almost worthwhile.

Draco's role in the whole thing was still a mystery to her, however.

"Malfoy told me he'd have to be there when I destroyed the contract, to make sure it worked. But he wouldn't come down, he was hiding upstairs the whole time I was there. The git," Ron added routinely at the end; he had never believed Draco's change of heart after the war, and at this stage Hermione was almost inclined to agree with him.

"But why—" Hermione started, only to be interrupted by Ron who hadn't finished yet.

"Oh, and that was after he'd Apparated over to see me to tell me he'd leave it to me to tell you."

It took Hermione a second to untangle who had been telling what to whom.

"Tell me what?"

"What happened, of course. Or was going to happen."

"Well done, Ron – I could almost understand that."

Ron sighed and pulled a long face, looking the picture of exasperation. The effect was ruined when he stretched out a long arm to hug her shoulders.

"Malfoy made a big song and dance about how I'd be the one to tell you how you got out of that bloody contract- Hermione, what the hell were you thinking?"

"Never mind that, Ron. It's none of your business anyway," Hermione dismissed him, but privately she agreed with him. Never again would she make a bargain with a Slytherin.

"Anyway," Ron said, raising his eyebrows in a way that said louder than words that he wasn't buying it at all, "I think Malfoy's point was that I'd be able to tell you I'd engineered your release, so you'd be grateful enough just to fall into my arms."

That didn't sound like something Ron would say, but she could easily imagine it coming out of Draco's mouth.

"But you did," Hermione pointed out. "You used your life debt to set me free."

Ron looked at her like she had two heads.

"What life debt? It was Harry who saved his ruddy life, not me. I punched him in the nose, remember?"

She did, and suddenly it made even less sense than before.

"But—but why?"

"Damned if I know. Perhaps he wanted to piss Astoria off," Ron offered, and it struck Hermione that the simple explanations often were the best.

Occam's razor, her mind supplied automatically, while most of her attention was still in the orchard at Malfoy Manor. He had seemed—but all Malfoys are master manipulators, she reminded herself. Draco certainly had no love lost for Astoria.

As she walked down the rickety stairs at The Burrow, avoiding the wobbly step, two things were clear to Hermione.

Firstly, Draco Malfoy would never have given up the leverage ensuring her release had generated for no good reason. If he just had handed it over to Ron without the promise of as much as a favour in the future, it meant he had absolutely no interest in Hermione.

Secondly, she owed him her freedom. Ron, too, a little, but Ron was her friend and Draco…

Hermione had no idea what Draco was to her, but being in his debt was suddenly infuriating. She resolved to pay him back, whatever it would take. Preferably while getting her own back on Astoria, too; below the surface Hermione was still simmering with anger at the other woman fro tricking her.

Even though she was nominally free now, it appeared that she still was caught in the clutches of that cursed couple. They would regret it, Hermione promised herself, before she remembered that she ought to be grateful to Draco.

Paradoxically, that made her even angrier with him.