Lynx didn't have to look at the letter long to know that this is the one her mother was trying to prevent her from reading. The teardrops on the letter gave it all away. Jumping up from the breakfast bar in the kitchen, Lynx ran out the back door to a tree her father had shown her growing up. He had told her that he would hide in this tree from her grandparents and even shown her the only way to climb up into it. She hadn't sat in the tree for years, not since she started Hogwarts, but she still couldn't help but climb up here to read this letter, the forbidden letter.
August 29th.
My Dearest Hermione,
My love for you and the baby is strong, but I fear it is not strong enough to stop the darkness running through my veins. For that reason, I must leave. I don't know where I am going. Even if I did, you are too hard-headed, you would follow me to the ends of the earth to keep our family together. I can't have that. I can't jeopardize ruining our son's life. Let him know that his father was a good man. You know that I was. That his father got wrapped up in some bad decisions and for that reason alone, he can't be around. Let him know that his father will always love him and will always carry him in his heart, wherever he goes.
Forever you will be a Queen in my eyes, my love. Forever you alone will be what makes my heart beat.
Your Fiancee,
Draco Lucius Malfoy
The sunlight shined in the window of the guest house Narcissa had allowed them to move into, waking Hermione. Gently she rolls over, ready to face Draco and start her day just to come face to face with a rolled up parchment letter. Reading it once, she is suddenly wide awake. What does he mean he's leaving? Darkness? He's an Auror. Where is he seeing darkness in being an Auror? Why is he tearing our family apart? Silently a tear drops from her cheek as she apparates out of bed, still in her pajamas and into the Grande Entrance of the Malfoy Manor.
"Narcissa! Narcissa!" Hermione cries, not even fighting the tears anymore. She just lets them blur her vision, falling down her cheeks like waterfalls. Narcissa appears at the top of the stairwell, a nightgown covered with a robe. It was the first and only time Hermione had seen Narcissa without make-up, her face white with fear. Hermione never just barged into their house, she always apparated at the front door and then knocked.
"Merlin Hermione," Fear overwhelmed Narcissa as she wrapped her arms around Hermione, motherly instinct kicking in. Hermione simply cried onto Narcissa's shoulder, allowing herself to break down. "Hermione, calm down. Calm down." As soon as Hermione could stop crying enough to breathe Narcissa asked her the question she feared the answer to. "What happened honey? Where is Draco?"
Hermione sits at the breakfast bar in the kitchen, staring down at her cup of coffee as Narcissa reads the letter. Walking into the kitchen, Lucius huffs like a child and walks back out. He hadn't said a word to Draco or Hermione since they had announced their engagement. No, since they had announced that Draco was an Auror.
"No, this wasn't my Draco. My Draco wouldn't do this. Not two weeks before the wedding dear." Narcissa fingers the edge of the parchment paper, seeing the stains from where Draco had cried writing it.
"He did Mrs. Malf-, Narcissa, sorry." Hermione couldn't get used to calling Narcissa by her first name. "He left it there whenever I woke up, didn't take any clothes or anything."
"He didn't take any clothes?" Narcissa asks, her big brown eyes staring at Hermione, like a deer in the headlights. Slowly Hermione shakes her head "None at all?" Hermione shakes her head again. "I know where he is. He used to run away there all the time when Lucius and I would..discuss things." Hermione knew what she meant, Draco had told her about the arguing, about him running away so that he wouldn't have to hear his mother beg his father to quit his job, for her sake. For Draco's. "Take my hand." With that, Narcissa and Hermione apparate, showing up in front of a guest house next to a manor the same size as the Malfoys'. "If I know my son, he is in that house. This is your war though, not mine. You know your way back to the Manor?" Hermione nods as Narcissa disapparates.
Hermione takes a deep breath as she reaches for the handle of the door. Nothing could prepare her for what she saw as soon as she opened the door. Pansy's lips pressed hard against Draco's as he pressed his body against hers on the table, both of them groaning in pleasure. Pansy's hands clawing at Draco's back as she begged him for more, demanded more. Draco looking up at the sound of the door opening, his eyes meeting Hermione's the second before she disapparated away, leaving only a teardrop on the floor.