A/n: Thanks to my beta Hunter's Heir!
14. If I'm Ready
"Is it a pretty house? Abigail asked, clinging to Hermione's arm. She grinned down at the young girl, gently shaking her off. The child simply couldn't cling to her hurt wrist; Hermione couldn't handle it. Liam stood about a foot away, smiling beneath his fringe. He was elated to be getting out of that place.
Three days went by surprisingly fast, and the brunette spent more of her time away from work buying adequate furniture for the children and creating a welcoming atmosphere than she did actually thinking about the entire situation. Draco handled the finances and even owled Hannah the day before reminding her that they were coming to pick up the children, the paperwork in order. An inspection would happen in about three weeks, the time unbeknownst to the fake couple. It would be a random viewing, one for the Ministry to simply come in and check up on them. In a month Hermione and Draco planned to turn in Hannah for her lack of care, but couldn't chance it immediately while walking on ice around all the inspectors. There were too many issues there.
"It's a perfect house," the woman reassured, ruffling the girl's hair. She grinned up at her new mother, the word still foreign to Hermione who could barely wrap her head around it all. To think that she and Draco were now mummy and daddy was too surreal. When she pictured having children as a child it was with a man she loved, in a marriage that would never end. It wasn't through adoption with someone she once considered the enemy. How the times had changed. "You'll love it."
"And I really get my own room?"
"Of course," Hermione laughed, glancing at Liam. "Your rooms are right next door to each other, across the hall from ours."
To that the boy brightened further, dropping his cool-boy attitude to grin broadly at the woman in front of him. "Really?"
"Yes. We're all quite close together."
"Does it have a window?"
"Of course it has a window, Liam," she replied, finding the question to be odd.
"We don't have windows in a lot of the rooms here," Abigail piped up, looking at the brunette. "I can't believe I get my own window!"
"There are many windows."
"Cool! Do we have a dog?"
Hermione crinkled her nose, her preference towards cats wanting to peek through. "No, we don't. Draco has an owl, and I used to have a cat, but we're not dog people."
"Can we have one?" Liam inquired, getting closer. She rolled her eyes, knowing right then that this wouldn't be the end of this conversation.
"We can ask Draco later- much later. Why don't we get to the house first?"
"Can we go now?" the girl asked, jumping up and down. "Please?!"
"When Draco returns. We can't just leave without him."
"He knows the way, right?" Liam asked hopefully. "He has to be almost done right?
"I am done," the blonde replied, appearing. He closed the door behind him, only to have it thrown open a moment later by Hannah's bristling form.
"Have fun now!" she called out the door as Draco joined the group. "You two be careful! Enjoy your new parents!"
"We will!" Abigail called back, excited that Hannah suddenly seemed so nice. "You will come visit, right?"
The three adults froze, exchanging glances. Poor Abigail didn't realize how awkward her question was for the three, and stood expectantly waiting for a reply. Apparently when Hannah wasn't being terrible, the child actually enjoyed her.
"I think Hannah is going to be too busy with things," Draco said as he slipped an arm around Hermione, creating the perfect false-atmosphere that they had rehearsed, foreshadowing the future with his words. "I don't think that she can visit."
"Right," the woman agreed, staring at the arm around Hermione. "He's right, I don't think I can visit honey. Besides, you'll want to spend all of your time with them."
"Oh," the girl replied, looking slightly disappointed. Liam hoped she would brighten up when they saw their new house. He would never miss this place.
"Let's go," Hermione said, grabbing the little girl's hand. Their bags were already shrunken and hidden in Draco's pocket, and he detached himself from her side to walk alongside the young boy. The four fell into step, bidding Hannah a quick farewell as they departed. The woman did not look upset to see them go.
"We're going to take a quick stop for lunch," Draco said after several minutes of walking, glancing back at Hermione to see her nod her head. They had planned this in advance. "Then we'll head right on over to the house, but not on empty stomachs, okay?"
"Awesome," Liam said, grinning at the other three. He looked quite content to get a decent, delicious meal in his belly.
"I want cookies," Abigail said, adding a bounce to her step. "And we can talk all about the shadows."
Turns out, Abigail was far too informed for a little girl. She knew that Hermione had been hurt, knew that the shadows bothered them, and knew that they would be watched in that house. It unsettled the former Gryffindor that this little girl knew so much, but it really bothered her that she was so calm about it all right now, and so scared at other times. Hermione wasn't sure how much she wanted to learn about the shadows.
The children were settling in now, dinner having been eaten in the new house. Since Hermione completely refused to have elves, the parents cooked together, with Draco nearly killing his bed-mate with some sizzling water. Needless to say, kitchen lessons were in order for the proud Pureblood.
Abigail and Liam thought the entire cooking fiasco was pretty fantastic. They got cool-points if nothing else. But now the children were settled in, and after Abigail's long conversation about the shadows, the children were supposedly in bed. Both the parents knew better than to think that though. These children were astounded by the size of the house and the amount of space in their bedrooms, and were likely wandering around looking at things and playing with stuff. The fact that they had their own personal bathrooms seemed to floor them, which wasn't too surprising- Hermione wasn't used to this in-room luxury either.
"Do you think there will be more activity from the shadows now that the four of us are concealed under one roof?" Hermione asked, rubbing her arm. It was still sore from the cut in her wrist, healed now although she still felt pains for it. Her arm was completely fine.
"I'm betting on it," he replied, stripping off his shirt. Her eyes widened and she laid back on the bed as to avoid seeing his chest.
"What are you doing!?"
"Um, changing?"
"Put some clothes on Malfoy! Good Merlin, you act like we're in a relationship."
The blonde shook his head as he snatched up a pair of pajama-pants, wandering towards the bathroom to finish. "In everyone else's eyes Hermione, we already are."
She blushed as the door creaked shut, memories of his muscular torso replaying in her head. So Malfoy was a fine specimen of man, big deal. It's not like everyone didn't talk about that already. What got to her was the fact that she actually agreed with those love-struck women. The sky must be falling.
No, you're falling. You've got a crush on your bedmate, and what's worse is that you're okay with it! You should be ashamed of yourself for thinking such things, but it's rather hard to do when he looks so bloody delicious. Oh Merlin, I did not just think that!
Groaning she rolled on her stomach, wondering when she lost her sanity. Really, the notion that Malfoy had a nice torso was a bit obscure. She really shouldn't be focusing on such minimal things when there were far more important tasks at hand, but she couldn't help herself. She did sleep next to that after all.
Trying to refocus on something important, she thought back to what Abigail said at lunch today about the shadows. Draco thought that they shouldn't talk about such things in public, but Hermione reminded him that the girl was young and they could pass it off as imagination. There were a lot of spectators that day as the four sat eating lunch, the press trying to sneak in and snap photographs. Talk of the Malfoy-Granger adoption was huge, and she could already see people making a big deal out of this. There would be several spreads by tomorrow morning for sure, and dozens more to follow. The poor children wouldn't get a normal life for quite some time, not while their parents were legacies.
At lunch Abigail said the shadows were quite restless the last week or so, and that sometimes they even seemed to taunt her at night. Mostly the shadows tried to scare her, but it didn't always work. She wasn't easily scared, not after being chased by the dark blobs for years. But the shadows were restless, intimidating, and frightful, as though they were trying to get the girl to stay far away from Hermione and Draco. She said that they warned her, but didn't go into detail about the matter. Her adoptive parents later decided that it was probably something she just said, but they would take her word for it nonetheless.
Liam said he'd been experiencing the same sort of thing. Hermione recalled being attacked only a few days ago and knew things would be rocky, tonight especially. This was their first full night together in the same house as a family, and she expected that it would cause a lot of trouble. They were going to keep their door open tonight, in case anything weird started happening.
Although Hermione offered that they all sleep downstairs that night, something that really irritated Draco, the children declined, saying that they'd been dealing with this situation for a long time. She was a bit in awe over how courageous these children were. She wasn't even that brave at their age, but they reminded her of herself during Hogwarts; brave and gutsy.
She didn't even want to sleep alone after the other night. For once having Draco sleeping beside her could be beneficial. She wouldn't have to spend the night alone. After being cut by the faceless shadows she wasn't looking forward to tonight.
She changed quickly as she heard the shower stop, opting to take one in the morning instead. She was simply too tired to bother tonight, and too worried about what would happen. Talking to Draco about the shadows might have to wait until morning when she felt better and wasn't so worried about the children.
She sounded like a mother already.
Climbing into bed, she ignored the eccentric beating of her heart. Yes indeed, she was concerned with a plethora of things, but tried to shove them out of her mind. With any luck, the night would pass by quickly.
"What did you want to talk about regarding the shadows?"
"Nothing," she whispered, rolling away from the blonde. He didn't push the point, and a few minutes later she could hear his heavy breathing as he slipped into the world of dreams. It took her several minutes longer to get there.
A heavy weight awoke her, landing directly on her stomach and causing her to sputter. She coughed and the weight shifted. Draco was up in a moment, a hand resting on her back. The room lit up and she realized the unpleasant weight was Abigail who had jumped on her. Liam stood in the doorway, hesitant to enter.
"What's going on?" the blonde grumbled, obviously not awake yet. Hermione smoothed the girl's fringe to the side, looking down at her frightened eyes.
"The shadows are angry," the child whispered, looking up at her new mummy. The brunette glanced over her shoulder at Draco, who sat beckoning the young boy to the bed with them. Liam came after a moment of hesitation, but whether he refused to come instantly because he thought it was awkward or inappropriate escaped Hermione's mind.
"Why are they angry?" Hermione asked, knowing that she shouldn't be asking such questions. Any other mother in the world would tell her children that it was simply bad dreams and let them sleep in their bed for the night or something. But no, instead she was coddling the young girl, having seen these horrors with her own eyes.
"They don't like you," the girl said, toying with her fingers. "They are really angry that we're here."
"I know dear," she replied, pulling the girl onto her lap, "But they don't get a say in that. You're staying with us."
"Why are they so unhappy?"
"I don't know," she admitted, stroking the girl's hair. Looking over the top of the child's head, she could see Draco studying the little girl as Hermione comforted her, Liam looking far more comfortable and calm now.
"Can I see your necklace again?" he asked, causing the girl to look up. She nodded to her adoptive father, and he took the necklace that was handed over to him. The 'B' and snake symbol stuck out in the light. Hermione still had an eerie suspicion as to where it came from. "Mind if I hold onto this until tomorrow?"
She shook her head, scooting over on the bed to hug him. It took Draco several seconds longer than Hermione to respond, but when he did he hugged her tightly to him, hugging the older boy as well when he looked left out. His fake-girlfriend smiled contently. At least he could show some true empathy when he needed to.
"Tomorrow we're going to go see Aunt Ginny and Uncle Harry," she said, piercing through the silence. She knew this news would brighten the children's day, as well as relieve the tension in the room. Abigail nearly started jumping on the bed.
"I get to meet the Harry Potter?" she squealed, clapping her hands together. Hermione nodded, before being crushed into another hug by the child. "He's quite eager to meet you."
It wasn't a total lie. Harry might think that what she was doing was a good cause, but he still didn't like the setup. But that wouldn't make him shun two kids who couldn't help who adopted them. The awkward part would be dragging Malfoy along to be ridiculed. She hoped that Harry and Draco could hold their tongues until the children were out of earshot, or she would skin the both of them alive.
Getting the two to talk civilly wouldn't be as hard as keeping Ron in check. That was possibly the hardest thing she would face the entire day. She'd taken off from work tomorrow and left her most-trusted employee in charge just to make sure she was there the whole time. Whilst the children thought this endeavor would be fantastic, she couldn't be dreading it more. But her friends would want to meet the children as soon as possible, and the children would be elated to meet her friends. She couldn't just ignore the situation.
She just didn't really want to face it.
"Ron too?" Liam asked, looking between the two adults. "And Blaise?"
"Erm," Hermione said, having not planned a thing with Draco's friends. That was all on him.
"He'll stop by later once we're back," the blonde said airily. Well, this was news to her! He hadn't said anything about his friends, much less about the children meeting them. She wondered if this was maybe an instantaneous decision on his part.
"Cool," Liam said, looking towards Abigail who nodded in agreement. The four spoke for several minutes longer before yawns began to erupt from the children and Hermione suggested that maybe it was time to go to bed.
"Back in our own rooms?" Abigail asked, and Hermione was reminded that for the longest time these children hadn't received any comfort for their fears. Of course they would be apprehensive about going back to their bedrooms.
"You can sleep here tonight," she reassured, ignoring the look Draco sent her way. But we're going to have to figure out a way to make those rooms tolerable.
"Okay," the girl replied, snuggling in next to her new mummy. Liam and Draco did not snuggle, but the boy sandwiched himself between Hermione and him for the night. She thought it was adorable how awkward they acted.
Tomorrow would be a busy day. And she had a feeling that she would be having a talk with Draco about the necklace. He seemed to have some thoughts on it that he wasn't sharing.
A/n: And there's chapter 14! I hope you liked it, and having the children back is exciting again. Obviously they'll be far more involvement with them in the story now that they're adopted, and we're going to find out a whole lot more about the shadows, necklace and Hannah in the coming chapters. Thoughts? Let me know :)