A/N- I just want to thank everyone for reviewing this story! I haven't gotten more than like 35 reviews ever before so this is pretty much just mind blowing to me! Also to everyone who has favourited and followed as well, it's so wonderful!
Also thank you to my beta Nina and to KomeKozzy425 for continuing to push me with this story even though I sometimes get really stuck (like right now), thank you. I have up to chapter 29 written and then it's winding down and I think that's why I'm having a little trouble... I just don't want it to end!
Please review!
Chapter Twenty
Draco watched closely and waited for the opportunity to present itself. They'd acquiesced to the wishes of his parents and Tom, agreeing to spend a day or two at the manor for the grieving period before heading back to Hogwarts to continue their alone time.
Both Greg and Vince's fathers had held private ceremonies on their own properties for their children. Draco and Hermione had attended both, one after the other, the day after they were found. It was one of the hardest things Draco had ever had to do in his entire life and he was grateful he had someone to stand by him during it all.
Draco was sitting in the dining room alone at the table, thinking about what he and his wife needed to accomplish over the next few days – or weeks. Nothing could be done until they were able to locate the fucking horcruxes their monstrous master had collected months ago and moved somewhere else for safe keeping. He knew they needed to be quick about it because if Tom had the opportunity to kill Harry Potter he'd do it and according to the prophecy, well, according to his wife, Harry would be the only one able to kill Tom.
Draco wasn't buying it.
If the Horcruxes were destroyed anyone would be able to do the honours, in his opinion, but he still wasn't going to risk being unprepared when the time presented itself.
Hermione sauntered into the room a little later and shot him a quick smile. He stood from his chair as she approached and helped her to settle down beside him before he took his own seat again.
"Tom's gone," Hermione said casually. "He has business in Germany over the next few days and guess what?"
"What?"
"He didn't take your father with him." Hermione was grinning up at him, looking happier than he'd seen her since they found their friends in the cellar five days before.
He felt his love for her almost overwhelm him in that moment, and the thoughts he'd been having recently - his friends' death on top of everything they'd gone through - caused him to do something he hadn't done since he was a very small child. He cried. It wasn't the snotty, soggy sort of cry, but Hermione was alarmed all the same.
She watched his lips press together tightly into a thin line before his eyes welled up and two tears slipped from his silver eyes, sliding down his cheeks as more came to follow. His eyelashes were damp and clumping together as he sniffled and Hermione reached up gently to wipe his tears away.
"Everything's going to be fine, Draco," she said, saying the words he'd said to her repeatedly.
He'd caught her bawling in the shower twice and once in the library behind a few shelves. She'd gone there to collect all the books she could find about blood wards but was unable to take them from the library because a house elf was watching her too closely. Apparently she'd been overwhelmed by feeling like a failure and the fact that she and Draco hadn't figured everything out in time to save Greg and Vince; she couldn't help herself and broke down behind the stacks.
"I know it's a lot to handle right now but I swear everything is going to work out. We just need to stay strong," she whispered, rising from her chair and squeezing onto Draco's. She sat on his lap and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his face into the crease between her neck and shoulder as his hands wrapped around her small waist. "I love you," she whispered into his ear. "I love you so much and we're going to get through this."
She felt Draco inhale deeply against her collarbone, calmed by her familiar scent of almond and vanilla, and then let out a shaky chuckle. "I love you, too, and I know you're right. I was just looking at you and you were so happy in that moment and…I don't even know what happened."
"Don't be embarrassed," Hermione said cheerfully, leaning back and wiping his tears away for the final time – they'd stopped leaking out of his eyes moments before. She leaned in and pressed her lips to her husband's gently but determinedly, and he'd just opened his mouth when they heard a throat clear in the doorway.
Hermione squeaked and jumped away from him immediately and if she wasn't squeezed so tightly onto his chair with him she would have fallen to the floor.
"The dining room is probably not the best place for that," Lucius said, entering.
"I'm sorry!" Hermione yelped, jumping from Draco's lap and taking her own seat once again.
Lucius' eyes roamed over his son and it was very clear the young man was upset. Lucius could see that his cheeks were shimmering in the light slightly, like they had been wet previously, and his eyelashes were clumped together. He chose not to comment as he and his wife took their seats at the table.
"Tom won't be joining us tonight," Lucius said unnecessarily as he snapped his fingers for the elves to start bringing food out for their meal. Hermione and Draco had managed to take all of their meals in their own suite up until that point and they'd used the food Draco had purchased in Hogsmeade while vanishing food on the plates so no one would be the wiser. They exchanged a look now as their plates were laid out in front of them and Draco decided if he kept his parents talking they wouldn't realize the younger couple was avoiding their food.
"It'll be nice to have a family dinner, for once," Narcissa stated, and Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "I feel like we're never alone anymore."
"We aren't," Draco said seriously. "Hermione and I have decided to head back to Hogwarts tomorrow morning, though, and I'm not sure how long we'll be gone for."
"Oh," Narcissa said, sounding disappointed. "I was enjoying you being here, at home."
"I know, mum, but we need some alone time."
"It wouldn't hurt to have them at the castle anyway," Lucius threw in. "Lots of important things to guard there, for the time being."
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked curiously, shuffling her food around on her plate.
"Remember those random objects we had to go find all those months ago? Horcuxes? We got them all and brought them to the manor for safekeeping but once we'd taken over the castle Tom thought it would be better to take them there. The day you two showed up to ward the grounds we'd moved them all into the forest."
"The forest?" Hermione asked, confused. "Why would you choose to put them in the forest?"
"There're so many magical creatures in there, some completely terrifying, by the way, and Tom figured they'd keep people out."
"That's good thinking. Did you see the Acromantula?" Hermione asked curiously, hoping Lucius would continue talking. It was better that he'd brought it up because Hermione was having a tough time figuring out how to bring up the horcruxes without looking completely suspicious.
"Not when we were there this time but Tom was telling me where their cave was. We went in the opposite direction. I was just glad we managed to stay away from any centaurs."
"So what? He just buried pieces of his soul in the ground?" Draco asked, confused as to why Tom was seeming so careless with something so important.
"No, he placed them in an eerie cave in the middle of nowhere, I don't know, it was just a little unnerving."
Hermione figured that cave itself was fine but Lucius was feeling the negative effects of the horcruxes they were hiding. She had spent her day buried in books and researching the dark objects she and her husband were searching out. If they were actually in Hogwarts it would be the best case scenario because of the events that had occurred during their second year – events including a rather large basilisk and its poisonous fangs.
"How are you enjoying married life?" Narcissa asked, taking a rather long drink from her goblet.
"It's good," Hermione said somewhat shyly, but a look passed between her and her husband that had Narcissa smiling softly.
"What's it like being bonded?" Lucius asked, casually.
Hermione hesitated for a moment and could tell that Draco was thinking quickly. They didn't want to say too much because they didn't want to draw attention to the fact that not only had their power increased but they'd also managed to override the vow they took to their master and the adverse effects of that as well.
Hermione figured that because of their vows the poison that should have been seeping through their skin from their Dark Mark's was null and void – it went against their natural instincts to be kept safe and keep each other alive. Hermione didn't completely understand the ins and outs of it all because she'd had other things on her mind – more important things – but she wasn't going to complain about living through her defection.
"It's strange," Draco said finally. "It's weird being able to feel what she's feeling – I had to learn how to separate that from my own feelings, which was a very odd to say the least. I've never felt so… close to someone before… I honestly can't really explain it."
"How did you learn to differentiate the feelings, Draco?" Naricssa asked, and their curiosity was starting to rub Hermione the wrong way. Draco rubbed at his chest before glancing toward her.
"Hermione's feelings are always a deeper ache – always deep in my chest and she is very rarely feeling the same emotion as me. I thought it was weird at first when I'd be happy about something and could feel unease or even an upset emotion – and vice versa – it was so strange. I think I feel deeper now though and I love her more than anything."
"Sometimes I wish we had bonded," Lucius stated seriously.
Hermione wished her parents-in-law had too. At least they'd be free of the evils Tom had used against them if they had.
"Are you alright?" Draco asked, rubbing his chest again before meeting her eyes.
"I'm just tired," she said, pushing her plate away. She hoped it would cover for the fact that she hadn't taken a single bite.
"I'm going to get my wife to bed," Draco told his parents while helping Hermione to stand. "We might not even be here for breakfast so don't be alarmed if we don't show – we really need to get back to Hogwarts so we can ensure the wards are all in place and working properly."
Draco took Hermione's hand and they left the room quickly, the unease his wife was feeling was bubbling in his chest and making him antsy.
"What's wrong?" he asked as soon as they were out of earshot.
"I think I'm just paranoid. I feel like everyone is watching us closely or something, I don't know."
"My dad gave us a lot of information about the horcruxes without even realizing what he was doing, so I don't think they were watching us too closely. Their questions about the bonding made me a little nervous but that's only because I was trying to avoid telling them anything sensitive."
They stopped talking until they entered their room, then Draco turned to Hermione suddenly and clasped his hands around her waist, lifting her into the air and swinging her around in a circle. "We know where they are!"
Hermione giggled, his sudden mood change infectious. "I want to go now, but it's pointless. It'll be dark soon."
"There's no fucking way I'm stepping foot into that forest after dark ever again."
"Baby," Hermione teased, and Draco put her back on her feet before pulling her in for a tight hug.
"We're going to finish this."
/
Hermione lay awake most of the night trying to imagine what would happen when they came upon the horcruxes. She'd done enough research to understand that they were incredibly dark objects that wouldn't go down without a fight. They each held a piece of Tom's soul and Hermione had witnessed enough over the few weeks to come to terms with the fact that he was an incredibly dark, dangerous man.
Draco's breathing was soft and even beside her and she snuggled into him, desperate for his warmth and strength – he was such a strong man, nothing close to the coward she'd pegged him for in their school years. He automatically held her close in his sleep, his arm wrapped around her waist as he let out a contented sigh.
She'd do everything possible to find and destroy Tom Riddle's horcruxes in order to keep the man beside her strong and happy – not to mention Blaise and Theo, who were still under the curse of the Dark Mark and the mild amortentia keeping them malleable to Tom's wants and wishes.
She suddenly remembered that she'd have to make it to the library before they left in the morning – it wouldn't do to have the books about blood wards so easily accessible for Tom or any other Death Eater he'd recruit to research for him when he realized he was being kept out of Hogwarts.
Hermione lay still deep into the night, listening to Draco's breaths until she was lulled into a restless slumber.
/
They woke early and packed their things, taking as much as they could without making it obvious that they probably weren't going to be coming back. Hermione had placed undetectable extension charms on a few small bags and they were jamming everything they could into them.
Hermione had slipped out of the room early in the morning, earlier than anyone else would rise, and gave the library one last visit, a small bag in her pocket that would fit any books she deemed necessary. She took every single book she could find on blood wards, as well as books about horcruxes – didn't need anyone stumbling across that knowledge – and plenty about dark spells. If a person was looking they'd be able to tell that books were missing but Hermione noticed in her long hours in the library that even though plenty of people went there she was really the only one to actually read a book. They all seemed more interested in watching her than actually learning anything useful.
Hermione was just buttoning up her sweater to leave her husband's family home for good when a small elf entered their room, approaching them warily.
"Master and Mistress isn't coming back, is they?" he asked sadly, and Hermione realized that it was Draco's personal elf, Tiptop.
"Why do you ask that, Tiptop?" Draco questioned, lacing up his boots.
"Tiptop is seeing you pack," the elf admitted. "Tiptop doesn't want to be left alone." His long ears were pressed down the side of his head and he looked positively pathetic, his bulbous nose was running and big fat tears were leaking down his hollowed cheeks. "Tiptop isn't wanting to give his Master the potion," he said. "Tiptop didn't want to be freed or dead, either."
"You shouldn't be speaking about this," Draco said, standing from the chair he was sitting in.
"It was you, wasn't it?" Hermione asked simultaneously, her heartbeat picking up. "You left the journals for me to find?"
"Tiptop didn't want to ruin his Master's life anymore and he is seeing you in the library all the time. The great Dark Master gave Tiptop the journals many sleeps ago, Mistress, and told him to hide them away. He is forgetting that Master Malfoy," he gestured to Draco, "is Tiptop's true Master, though."
Tiptop turned toward Draco and began twisting his pristine pillowcase outfit through his hands. "All Tiptop wanted was for Master to be free."
"Thank you, Tiptop," Draco said in surprise.
"Alls the other elves is too scared to go against it, Master, but Tiptop couldn't do it anymore. You was turned into a different person."
"We appreciate it, Tiptop, we really do," Hermione said kindly, kneeling down so she was on the same level as the elf. "When we finish this everyone will know the hand you had in it."
"Don't listen to anything Tom tells you, Tiptop, and don't tell him anything you know. That's an order."
"Yes, Master."
"Let's go finish this," Draco said, holding his hand out to help Hermione to her feet. She nodded and bestowed the elf with one last smile of gratitude before they apparated away with their bags.
/
"I know you want to deal with the horcruxes but I really need to speak to Neville. Time's running out and I won't be able to forgive myself if he joins Tom."
"Do you think we can just send him an owl? We can arrange for a time to meet and he could even come here if we needed him to. I doubt there's anywhere safer for a meeting such as that to be held and I'm sure he won't be wary since he wants to join our side anyway."
"Can I send the letter before we go deal with this? It won't take me long."
"You send the letter, I'll start on breakfast – we need to eat something now because I have a feeling it's going to be a long day."
Hermione summoned a piece of parchment and a quill and began scribbling a letter to her friend, asking politely if he would be able to come to the castle the next day for a quick visit. She'd meet him outside the front entrance gates at two in the afternoon and escort him up to the school. Once she was finished she folded it up and sealed it with a spell, giving her husband a quick smile before apparating to the Owlery. The castle wasn't holding classes anymore and hadn't been for a few years but the Owlery was still packed full of barn owls – probably because it was a decent place to live.
"We need to enter the Chamber of Secrets," Hermione said as soon as they'd eaten the breakfast Draco had made.
"What?! Why?"
"There's a basilisk's corpse down there and we need the fangs. Basilisk venom is one of the few things that can destroy a horcrux."
"What are the other things?"
"Fiendfyre."
"Oh. I guess basilisk venom, it is, then. I don't feel confident using Fiendfyre."
"Neither do I," Hermione said. "So the Chamber it is. The entrance is in the bathroom that used to be haunted by Moaning Myrtle and the opening is in the sinks. Let's go."
Once they entered the bathroom Hermione and Draco started to inspect the sinks until Draco came across one that had a snake carved into it.
"What do I do?"
"Just tell it to open, I guess."
"It's kind of ironic that Tom taught us parseltongue," Draco pointed out as he looked at the snake and hissed out the commanding word that would open the Chamber.
The sinks started rattling and slid out of sight, revealing a large pipe that they could easily slide down. Draco turned toward a bathroom stall and pointed his wand at it, conjuring a rope ladder that attached itself to the crossbeam of the stalls and was probably fifty feet long. He picked up the ladder and threw the rest down the pipe, not wanting to be trapped under the school if there was no other way to get back into the bathroom.
"I'm going first," Draco said, stepping forward and draping his legs into the pipe. He pushed away from the wall and slid away quickly, Hermione following him hastily while trying their best to avoid getting caught up in the ladder.
"It stinks down here," she stated, wrinkling her nose as soon as they were at the bottom of the long ride. Draco ignored her and took her hand, casting a wandless lumos and leading her down through a wall of fallen rocks and then a lot of twisty passageways.
After what felt like forever they turned a corner and Hermione shuddered at the sight before them. The corpse of the snake was extremely rotted and since half of it had been left in a large pool of water it was all bone. Hermione averted her eyes from the water when she saw that it was a strange colour and the putrid smell alone was enough to make her gag.
"Fuck, let's hurry up and get the hell out of here."
Draco nodded and pointed his wand at his face, casting a modified bubble-head charm so that it only covered his nose. He repeated the same actions on Hermione and she smiled gratefully when she was able to breathe without gagging.
They rushed forward and Hermione immediately severed the snakes' fangs using wandless, non-verbal magic. She didn't want her or Draco to actually have to touch them, because with their luck they'd poison themselves. She hovered the fangs to an empty bag in her hand and dropped them in, pulling the drawstrings on the top of the bag tightly and tying them off.
"Great! Let's go," Draco said, not interested in wasting any time in the disgusting chamber.
"I want to try something," Hermione said once they got back to the pipe that would lead them back to the school. She looked at the bottom rungs of the rope ladder and then turned to Draco. "If our magic is that advanced I'm wondering if I can levitate myself."
"No one can fly without a broomstick, Hermione," Draco said, almost condescendingly.
She smiled at him before closing her eyes and focusing all of her energy inward. Draco gasped when her feet left the floor and hastened to try and levitate himself as well. He opened his eyes after a few moments and was shocked, and thrilled, to see that they were, in fact, raising themselves through the pipe.
"This is amazing!" he yelled, finding it easier to do every second.
They were at the top of the pipe and back in the bathroom within five minutes, Draco grinning like a mad man.
"I really think he underestimated how strong he's made us."
"Hermione," Draco said suddenly. "You need to alter the wards to keep him out. We don't need him stumbling upon us while we do what we need to do."
"We can't just keep him out completely, Draco! If he tried to come here and was unable to get in he would be alerted that something's going on and we don't have any sort of backing at this point. That would be suicide."
"We can't just have him traipsing in here and seeing everything that we're doing. That would be suicide. Having him kept out of the castle could be explained by saying you didn't understand the complexity of the wards."
"He's not an idiot, Draco. He's evil and completely psychotic, but he's not stupid. If he tried to get in here and was kept out he'd immediately think the worst – which in this case would also be true – and he'd come after us. We can't risk that!"
"We also can't risk having him realize what we're doing," Draco snarled, getting annoyed and angry with Hermione's stubbornness.
Hermione's face was reddening and she turned away, calming herself down. It wouldn't do for the two of them to get into one of their stupid arguments when there were so many important things to do.
"What if I just alter the wards to keep him out of certain areas of the castle? He has no reason to be going into our room at any point, anyway"
"Well we can tell him that our room is for us personally, maybe hint to bedroom things if we need to, and no one other than us has any reason to go in there."
"I doubt he'll stop by anyway but I do understand your concern for caution and privacy."
"Okay," Draco said, deciding to drop it and let Hermione do what she needed to do. She did have a point, after all. Hermione closed her eyes and focused on resetting the wards in order to keep Tom from entering their personal space.
"Do you think we're getting stronger as the days go by?" Draco asked curiously as they walked through the halls. "You were able to change the wards from the second floor bathroom without even a second thought."
"I'm not sure if I would have been able to do that a week ago," she admitted. "I don't think they're getting stronger, though. I think we're just learning how to use them better."
"That makes sense," he agreed as they stepped from the school and headed toward the hut Hagrid had lived in when the school was still open, Hermione clutching the bag of fangs in her hand tightly.
"We need to be quiet," Draco said nervously as they stepped into the Forbidden Forest.
"I've been thinking, Draco, and I don't think it's going to be all that hard for us to walk through here."
"Why not?! It's full of insane monsters! Never mind the centaurs, who couldn't give a fuck about anything we're trying to do."
"Yes, but we own this property now. Okay, as far as I can remember from Harry and Ron's stories the Acromantula caves are that way." Hermione was pointing to their right. "Deep in the forest, of course, but that way all the same. That means the cave where they've hidden the horcruxes are this way, according to your dad," she said, leading them in the opposite direction.
As Hermione predicted they didn't come across any animals or monsters of any kind. Draco could hear rustling in the trees every so often, which really made him uncomfortable, but nothing showed themselves.
"Do you think we're close?" he asked, feeling like they were wandering aimlessly.
"I have no idea," Hermione answered seconds before a large body stepped onto the path in front of them.
It was a centaur with a smooth, glossy chestnut body that connected to a nicely tamed tail. His human torso was rippling with muscles and his arms were alarmingly large and bulky.
"Who goes there?" he asked, his voice deep and oily.
"Hermione and Draco Malfoy," his wife answered immediately. It was weird hearing her refer to herself as a 'Malfoy'. She was, of course, but she'd never said it aloud before and neither had he.
"Malfoy," the centaur said, and he looked to be thinking hard. "You're the owners of the castle, now?"
"That's right," Hermione stated calmly. "The entire grounds and castle now belong to us and we're more than willing to turn a blind eye to whatever it is you centaurs do in here. We aren't looking to try and make any of you leave, so don't fear that."
The centaur seemed more than surprised. His eyes widened almost comically and he nodded his head once as more centaurs emerged from the bushes around them, Draco imperceptibly shifted closer to his wife.
"There was another Malfoy in here over a week ago. He looked a lot like you," a black bodied centaur said, gesturing to Draco.
His father, of course.
"He was accompanying the Dark Lord and they had some truly disturbing objects with them."
"Do you know where they took them?" Hermione asked, and it was clear to them both that the centaurs were not sympathetic to Tom's cause.
"We want to destroy them," Draco added, gesturing to the bag in Hermione's hands.
"You, faithful Death Eaters, want to destroy the pieces of soul that your lord has hidden in our forest?"
"Maybe we aren't totally faithful," Draco said nervously, unconsciously rubbing his left arm.
"You," the chestnut centaur said, turning to Hermione. "We saw your story in the stars many years ago. You can end this foolhardy war."
"I intend to," Hermione said, a small smile on her face. Her heart was beating frantically but she figured they weren't exactly on the centaurs' bad side, which could only mean good things for them.
"The horcruxes have been stored in a cave that we used to use to obtain our drinking water."
"Used to?" Draco asked.
"We don't go there anymore, not now that it's been tainted by the Dark magic within it."
"Can you lead us there?" Hermione asked hopefully. "This is the only business we have in the forest and after we destroy the horcruxes we'll leave you with the property."
"Take them, Magorian," another centaur cut in. He looked elderly; his dappled flanks were greying and no longer glossy, and his human aspect wasn't as fit and defined as all of the other centaurs around them. Hermione figured he was the leader of the herd.
"This way," the chestnut bodied centaur named Magorian said and turned quickly. Hermione couldn't believe their luck – they were being led straight to the objects they wished to destroy by a pack of centaurs who would most likely have killed anyone else who stepped into their part of the forest. Hermione was thanking Tom for his mistakes again and again – there was so much the man just did not understand – but so far, at least, it was in Hermione and Draco's favour, so she wasn't complaining.