They walked along the designated path, Ron and Eric didn't want them wandering around too far. Hermione told Ginny the story of how Harry and her got together...
"Hermione?" Harry looked at her as she was going over plans. "Hmm?" "Do...do you ever wonder what it would be like if you and I got together?" She stopped for a second, maybe it was one of those questions you just wonder about during stressful times? She decided not to answer. "Hermione?" "I...I don't know...I never really thought about it," she was lying. "You're a bad liar," Harry came closer to her but she backed away. "Why are you asking me this?" "Because I've been thinking... I just feel closer to you and I don't know exactly what it is..." "Don't," Hermione snapped. "Don't what?" "Don't do this...whatever it is. Ginny is my best friend and she...she loves you a lot." "I know," Harry looked down. "I feel terrible about this...but I just don't love her like I should, I view her as someone that I care a lot about, but more as a sister." "You're just under stress, Harry...it's hard being away from the people you love and...," before she could finish her sentence, Harry kissed her. Hermione tried to push away but he only held her tighter, forcing her to him, making her confirm how she felt about him and soon she was kissing him back as passionately as she could. All the feelings came pouring out and after the heated make out session that almost became something else...she started to cry. "Hermione," Harry said softly. "What are we going to do? They're our friends...and they care about us?" "We have to tell them the truth, no matter how much it hurts...I can't go on like this, I have these feelings only for you and I can't pretend anymore."
Ginny didn't know what to say but wanted to say something, "it makes sense, you know? His distance in his letters. At first I thought it was because of all that was going on, he was distracted...he said he had something important to tell me, and now I know what that was."
"Are you...okay?"
"I think so. Now that I realize he was going to move on without me, it's okay for me to move on without him. I've been seeing Neville Longbottom a lot lately and I felt guilty, but now I don't have to, I know Harry would have wanted it that way..."
Hermione nodded her head, but suddenly Ginny grabbed her arm...Hermione looked over in suprised and wondered why Ginny looked so nervous. Lucius Malfoy stood ahead of the path and he was livid.
"Oh God," Hermione whispered.
Ginny placed Hermione behind her, "what are you doing here! You're supposed to stay away from her!" She pulled out her wand.
"Really Ms. Weasley, I was just taking a walk...this is mere coincedence," he narrowed his eyes.
"Sure it is!"
"It is..."
"Then move on before I call the Aurors!"
"Ms. Weasley, do you think you're that fast?"
Hermione held Ginny's hand tighter, "Ginny..."
"You leave us alone! You can't do anything now...she's getting married! You can't touch her!"
Lucius's eyes widened and then narrowed, "congratulations." He looked fierce and dangerous, he didn't mean it...but that was obvious to anyone who knew the situation at hand.
"You leave us alone!" Ginny's temper flared, she wanted to curse this git into the next century. He was one of the reasons Harry was dead, one of the reasons why she lost her brother and her father...and one of the reasons why she almost lost her best friend. "Go on!"
"Fine," he started to walk past them, but quickly turned and disarmed Ginny, shoving to the ground and knocking her senseless, he grabbed Hermione.
"Let me go!"
"Tell me, my pretty little mudblood...do YOU THINK it's going to be that easy? DO YOU THINK you're just going to get away...no, my precious little girl, you won't."
"The Aurors will have your head!"
"Not if that can't find it...but trust me, when I'm ready...you won't know it until I strike," Lucius held her head to his face, his lips caressing her cheek, she could feel his breath. "I will take everything you have and you won't even know I've done it. You'll be mine forever, you can count on that. But until then...," Lucius dropped Hermione on her backside and apparated.
Hermione crawled over to Ginny, "GINNY! Ginny, are you okay!"
Ginny rolled over and groaned, "Hermione..." She shot up when she realized what just happened, "HERMIONE! Are you okay!" She looked all over Hermione like Mrs. Weasley always did. Hermione grinned for a moment.
"Yes, are you hurt?"
"No...we have to notify the Ministry and right now."
Hermione nodded.
Eric paced back and forth, "that's it...we have to get away from here! We'll have the wedding in both places right away and we'll go away. Ron said something about making our home 'unplottable'?"
Hermione nodded, "no one can find it unless they know the address..."
"We'll do that then, and the Ministry we'll take care of Lucius?"
"They're already headed to his house right now..."
... The Aurors and the Minister broke down the door and disarmed the protective charms, but Lucius Malfoy was nowhere to be found. His bank accounts were completely drained, special books were missing that they were sure contained family secrets, such as ancient and dark spells, the vaults containing other items were cleared out...Lucius Malfoy had vanished and they had no way of finding out where, he didn't use the floo network, that could be too easily tracked. He was gone.
... Hermione panicked when she found out the news, "what do we do now!"
"The only thing we can do is keep you under protection, he's a determined man...but for now we can only assume that you're safe because he's not foolish enough to strik right away. He knows we're looking for him, he knows that we have ways of detecting polyjuice potion and the like," the Minister crossed his arms.
"So, we can get married?" Eric asked quietly.
"Yes, we'll put the wedding under protective watch and watch over the honeymoon as well...but we'll be discreet as possible in that area so you can enjoy yourselves still. Like I said, he won't be foolish enough to strike so soon."
They nodded and immediately started to make plans. Eric's father was extatic of course, he hurried the wedding and booked the church as soon as it was available...one month from now. Eric felt it wasn't soon enough, but to Hermione, it gave her more time to plan with Ginny who was a nervous wreck because she had to get the wedding cake and plan engagement parties, "damn that Lucius Malfoy! Causing me to have to rush everything...how am I supposed to make a wonderful engagement party for you on such short notice!"
Hermione laughed as did Eric. Eric's mother gladly volenteered, though she couldn't really understand why they were in such a rush, but love was love. Eric and Hermione felt it was better not to give the details of 'oh...well, we have an evil wizard after us!' That may not come out quite right...or sane.
Ginny was having fun despite it and often made fun of Hermione when she kept practicing her soon to be new name, "Mrs. Hermione Tellini...Mrs. Eric Tellini...Mrs. Hermione Granger Tellini...What?"
"Nothing..."