AN: Here's chapter 14, I hope you guys like it more than the last chapter, because the amount of reviews suggests that you guys really didn't like it much, not a review whore but reviews are the best way to tell and author that you like what they've written.
Thank to Astarte_Lydianna for taking time away from her own stories to look over mine.
Disclaimer: All recognized characters and situations belong to J. K. Rowling. I do not own anything in the Harry Potter Universe or make any money from this story.
Hermione's parents closed the surgery for the rest of the day and took Draco and Hermione back to their rented flat on the other side of town. The ride was silent and the tension could be cut with a knife.
When they reached their destination her parents led them straight into the living room. Hermione's mother bustled off to the kitchen to get drinks, the hot Australian sun had made the all thirsty.
When her mother had returned Hermione and Draco accepted their juices without argument and waited for the tirade of words to begin. Hermione's mother and father sat opposite the young couple and the silence continued, only broken by Mr. Granger tapping his foot against the wooden floor as he impatiently waited for Hermione to explain herself.
Hermione drank deeply from her glass, putting off the inevitable and trying to get her thoughts in order, she took a breath and began.
"Mum, Dad. As you know we were at war with Voldermort's forces. Harry, Ron and I had an important task to complete for Dumbledore, a task that would weaken Voldermort and aid Harry to end the war once and for all"
Hermione felt Draco give her hand a squeeze to show her some support, he knew how hard it was to talk about the war himself, and Hermione went through much worse as far as he was concerned.
"We had to go into hiding and I knew that the first thing the death eaters would do would be to kidnap my parents to force me out of hiding. I did it to protect you" she ended in a whisper.
"You had no right Hermione. You had no right to take our memories away, how dare you!" Mr. Granger bellowed, losing his temper.
"Jonathan calm down" Mrs. Granger told him but he ignored her and began to pace.
"Ever since she got the letter and went to that bloody school she's been pulling away from us and now she's making decisions for us, I've had enough!" he continued.
Draco could feel Hermione folding in on herself, her shoulders slumped and the juice in her glass began to slosh around as her hand shook.
Immediately Draco stood and pointed his wand at her father, "Mr. Granger, I suggest you calm down before I am forced to calm you down"
"Draco don't, the conditions of your parole, you mustn't" Hermione cried.
"Parole? Oh wonderful now she brings a convicted felon into our lives" her father said throwing his arm in the air.
Hermione got up and gently pulled Draco's arm down, "Draco please we're don't have a lot of time to get this all sorted" she whispered.
Hermione subtly raised her own wand, "Impedimenta" she whispered and her father stopped in his tracks.
"Hermione Jean Granger! Undo whatever it is you just did to your father at once!" Mrs Granger shrieked and Hermione flopped back on the couch and finally gave into her tears.
"I've had enough of this, Mrs. Granger shut up. You have no idea, none whatsoever what would have happened to you if you had been found by the death eaters. If and I do mean if you had survived you would be living with the memories of the worst kind of torture, almost certain rape and you would have watched as Hermione was viciously tortured, just like I had to" Draco whipped out his wand again and undid Hermione's hex on her father. "Now we came here to bring you home although from what I have seen so far you don't deserve anything from this wonderful girl who went to hell and back to keep you safe" Draco pulled Hermione from the couch and began to walk towards the door.
"She was tortured?" Mrs Granger finally found her voice. "Why did you watch her get tortured?"
"Because I was a death eater" Draco said and pulled Hermione out of the front door.
….
The next day Hermione sent an owl to her parents house, informing them that if they wanted to go back to England they needed to her let her know that day, if not then she would organise some protection for them and be leaving with Draco the following day.
She just couldn't fight anymore, and after all she had been through her parents reactions had just been too much.
"Sweetheart, what are we supposed to do if they decide not to come back with us? It isn't safe here anymore" Draco asked after she sent the owl.
"I Obliviate them again and move them to another country, and I never see them again" Hermione answered robotically, she was hoping against hope that they would at least agree to come back to England and then she could deal with the issues over time.
"Hermione I'm so sorry" Draco said, embracing her and placing a kiss on her forehead.
"At least this time they have a choice" Hermione replied and snuggled into his embrace.
They spent most of the day in the penthouse, Hermione reading and Draco finishing his Christmas Charms assignment after Hermione found out he hadn't done it and reprimanded him for a full twenty minutes, although Draco was sure she was just venting her stress.
Around four that afternoon the bell rang that told them the lift would be coming up to the penthouse. Hermione and Draco stood together with their wands drawn; they weren't expecting anyone so it was best to be prepared.
The doors opened and Hermione's parents stepped out, Draco dropped his wand arm but Hermione kept hers steady, "What was Grandma Patty's maiden name?" she asked, she had to be sure it was them.
"Who the hell is Grandma Patty?" her father asked and Hermione lowered her wand.
"Nobody, it was a security question, death eaters would have either panicked and attacked or read the name from my mind if they were able to use Occlumency" Hermione informed them.
"Occlu…what?" Her mother asked.
"Never mind mother, I assume you are here with your answer" she kept her voice cool and calm. She wasn't going to allow her emotions to complicate the situation.
"Hermione please, we didn't mean to react so unfavourably, it was just a shock, one minute we were working on a teenage boys braces and the next we had a daughter and twenty years worth of memories, it was disconcerting to say the least" her mother said.
"Yes I can believe that, but you didn't even give me a chance, I watched my friends die right in front of my eyes, I was tortured to within an inch of my sanity, I went for days without food and spent almost a year in a tent with one of the moodiest boys you have ever met in your entire life, I don't need criticism from you" Hermione ended her sentence almost shouting.
Hermione's mother quickly moved over to her and pulled her into her embrace, "My poor baby girl, what did they do to you?"
Hermione's father pulled Draco aside, "Now listen to me young man, your little wand doesn't frighten me, I don't know why you are here with my daughter or how you got her to allow you to be here, but I know what a death eater is, you stay away"
"No dad wait, he isn't a death eater anymore" Hermione said.
"Honey people like him don't change" her father said.
"Mr. Granger if I hadn't changed I can assure you would not still be standing in such an aggressive position, now back off" he said raising his wand.
"Draco lower your wand, we just need to explain it to them" Hermione begged.
Draco went over to the couch and sat down, followed by Hermione and her mother who was very unwilling to let Hermione go.
"Fine, I'll explain my part and you can explain what you, Weasel and scarhead did" Draco huffed.
"Oh Draco don't start throwing a tantrum, it's the last thing I needed" Hermione was exasperated by both Draco and her father,
Draco sneered and began, "In our sixth year at school, the Dark Lord gave me the task of killing Professor Dumbledore in exchange for my Mother's life. My father was in prison and out family had fallen greatly out of favour as my father had failed in his task of acquiring a prophecy much in thanks to your daughter"
Hermione's my mother held onto Hermione a little tighter and Draco continued, "I didn't want to take the Dark Mark, I didn't want anything to do with the legacy my father had left me when he went to Azkaban the first time, but my mother was all I had left, I kneeled I took the mark and I accepted my task. But when the time came I couldn't kill him, I couldn't be a death eater" Draco finished.
"You see, Draco had no choice, just like I had no choice but to do what I did to protect you and I would do it again" Hermione told them.
"Look we can explain everything once we are back home if you're coming, are you?" Hermione asked, looking to both her parents with hope that they would say yes.
"Yes we are, now that we have you back we won't accept losing you again" her mother said.
"Oh thank Merlin, I don't think I could've done it again" Hermione mumbled. "I will have to floo Kingsley, a letter won't make it in time, and then we will have to go to the travel agents to book our flight"
"Flight? Can't we Portkey?" Draco asked alarmed, he had never been on a muggle aeroplane and did not like the look of it one bit.
"My parents can't Portkey that far Draco, it exhausted us and we are used to travelling magically, besides we don't know who is watching out network of travel, I don't want to risk it" Hermione replied.
Draco went paler than usual if it was at all possible and Hermione struggled to stifle a giggle, "come now Draco, you're willing to fly around on broomsticks all day but you won't get on a perfectly safe and might I add enclosed flying machine"
"Fine, I fly on one of your muggle contraptions, but on one condition" he said with his best Malfoy smirk.
"What?" she asked.
"You have to agree to me teaching you how to fly a broomstick" he replied.
"I know how to fly a broomstick" Hermione argues back.
"Oh no sweetheart, I'm not talking about riding behind the boy wonder or gripping on for dear life and hoping you're not going down because your eyes are shut, I'm talking about flying as well as a professional Quidditch player" Draco said triumphantly.
"Fine, deal" Hermione agreed against her better judgement, it wasn't like she didn't want to learn, Hermione Granger always wanted to learn, but her fear of heights always made it so difficult.
The rest of the day was spent organising their trip home, packing up the Granger's house, which thankfully was made much quicker with the use of magic, and getting ready to go home.
….
At seven the next morning, the Grangers and Draco were sitting in a café in Sydney airport, ready to depart for the twenty-three hour journey home. Draco was dreading the journey, the thought of taking off in the piece of metal sitting on the tarmac was making him feel physically sick, then add the thought that they would have to stop on the way and do it again made it worse.
But he had promised Hermione he would do whatever he could to help her with her parents and had got her to agree to get up on a broomstick, something that he was desperate to do so he decided to suck it up and get it over with.
He had also insisted that Hermione allow him to pay for the plane tickets and had booked first class seats, not telling Hermione until they were at the airport and directed to the first class lounge.
"We might as well be a little comfortable on this awful journey" he had said when she began to protest that it was too much.
When their flight was called Hermione took his hand and led him to the tunnel that would take them to the plane. They got on and found their seats and Draco made sure his seat belt was secured before the others had even got into their seats.
"Oh Draco you do make me laugh, we haven't even taken off yet!" Hermione said, bending to peck him on the lips, pulling back when her father cleared his throat. He still wasn't happy that she was dating Draco.
Draco gripped the hand rests so hard he thought he might break them as the plane took off and once in the air he decided to just go to sleep and hope that a large amount of time would go by before he woke up again.
Hermione spent the time explaining the war to her parents, she allowed her emotions to show through finally as she talked about Remus and Tonks, Fred and the things she, Harry and Ron had to go through, including the torture.
Hermione slipped off her jacket and showed the scar on her arm as her mother cried. "Now do you understand why I did what I did, I could never live with myself if I allowed this to happen to you"
"One thing I don't understand Hermione, why are you with him? I mean I remember when you would come home in the holidays and tell us how he bullied you, and to have gone through what you went through in his house….I just don't understand it" her father told her.
"Dad I never expected to like him, you have no idea how different he is now, over the last couple of days you have only seen him angry but that is because he is so protective over me, even against you if he has to be, I don't know where it will lead if anywhere but right now I am just taking the opportunity to enjoy him" Hermione answered.
They went on to chat a little about what Hermione's parents had gone through throughout their year in Australia and eventually the plane touched down in Asia, where they caught their connecting flight to London, poor Draco having to handle taking off again and then eat the terrible food that the attendants brought them.
When they finally landed at Heathrow and collected their bags Draco insisted on apparating back to her parents' house, he had had enough of muggle transport without dealing with the underground and overground services back to the Granger home.
They found a little corner hidden by a pillar and a large plant and Draco shrunk their luggage and put in his pocket, which was amazing to watch for Hermione's parents, she had always tried not to do too much magic in front of them as they always insisted it was better to do things the muggle way.
"Hermione if you take your mother I will take your father" Hermione agreed and once they got outside and away from the crowds of holiday makers, apparated back to the Grangers house.
Once home Hermione made sure her parents were settled before having to say her goodbyes. They had to go back to Hogwarts…..
AN: So I hope you enjoyed, reviews always help the writing process so hit the little shiny button...