Thank you all very much for your responses to the last chapter, I figured after taking so long I would lose a LOT of readers, but I didn't and that made me happy.
I'm sorry I made you all wait again for an update, I am so busy lately it's a miracle I'm even getting to sit and write this. I've been babysitting my boyfriends niece every single day, and I have all sorts of photoshoots lined up that it's overwhelming, and my grandma is being a wanker again because she doesn't like some of the people I take pictures of and blah blah blah.
BUT, I will not let that stop me from writing, I shall find time whenever I can to write my lovelies. :)
But before I start the chapter I have an announcement...Drumroll please... MY RAPIST IS GOING TO JAIL! THE POLICE FINALLY DECIDED TO ACTUALLY LOOK INTO THE EVIDENCE AND FOUND HIS FINGERPRINTS AND THEY HAVE A WARRANT OUT FOR HIS ARREST NOW! :D :D
Now, I shan't bore you with my ranting so ON WITH THE CHAPTER!
When Hermione opened her eyes she had to bite back a scream at the sight of Cilia bending over her, their noses nearly touching.
"Oh! Cilia, you gave me a fright." She said, stretching her arms up over her head, and wincing as she felt the baby give a sharp kick against her ribs.
"Cilia is very sorry ma'am, but master said Cilia had to wake up Miss Granger 'tis important." She said, scurrying around as she pulled out clothes for Hermione quickly.
"What does he need?" Hermione asked, trying hard to keep the malice out of her voice, she didn't want to make the poor house elf feel even worse about herself.
"Not allowed to say." She squeaked, tugging on her long ears nervously. "That's fine Cilia, I'll find out for myself soon enough." Hermione spoke kindly, Cilia was the only person she ever talked to anymore, the only time she spoke a word to anyone else was when asked a direct question, otherwise she tuned them all out and simply listened, trying to find something out that would work in her favor.
Slowly Hermione got up and pulled on the clothes, which was a knee length black dress that was tight around her chest. She glanced up at her reflection and sighed, her eyes were slightly sunken in from not sleeping well, and her hair was getting as ratty as it was in her first year, she'd been here for nearly a month now, thoughts of Draco and the child growing in her stomach were the only thing that kept her going.
"He'd like to see you now ma'am." Cilia whispered, breaking Hermione from her thoughts, Hermione smiled at the house elf kindly and took a deep breath, strengthening her resolve as she walked out through the door.
"Hello Miss Granger." Professor Klaus spoke to her kindly as she entered his study, his golden eyes gliding over her body quickly before sliding back to her face.
Hermione nodded her head in response as she sat down, waiting for him to tell her what he wanted.
"Well I'm sure you're wondering why I called you in here," He started, pausing for her response, and sighing slightly when she didn't give one, but he quickly carried on. "Well I'm not one to beat around the bush as you say, so we're going to get right down to it. You are going to Marry Mister Weasley in a weeks time." He smirked at her as her eyes widened, but she quickly schooled her features into a bored expression.
"And you really expect me to just so willingly agree, you might get me down the aisle but that doesn't mean I'll be saying any 'I do's'." She stated, arching an eyebrow as he simply laughed in response.
"Oh no, silly child, I know very well you wouldn't do this willingly, so I'm going to bargain with you, you either get to say I do, or your lovely mummy and daddy, will be killed." Her heart jumped up into her throat at his words, her hands clenching into fists so tightly her nails cut into her palm, and she shut her eyes tight.
"They would still be at Hogwarts.. When I disappeared they wouldn't have left." She spoke quickly, grasping at straws.
"You know as well as I do that Dumbledore couldn't allow that, they're muggles. It is against school rules for muggles to be in the castle for a certain length of time." He lied through his teeth, but he lied well, but all that mattered was that the seed of doubt was now planted in her mind, she wouldn't want to risk being wrong and losing her parents, he knew her well enough to know that.
"I'll marry him.. For the safety of my parents." She spoke monotonously, giving him an icy glare.
"Excellent." He spoke with a large smile, clapping his hands together and placing them under his chin.
"Henrietta!" He called, and only seconds later a large burly woman walked into the room.
"Yes master?" She spoke in a gruff voice, her face stern but her eyes showing her fear for the man before her.
"Today you will be taking Miss Granger to buy her wedding dress." He smirked.
(A\N: Very out of character Draco ahead.)
Draco paced the floor rapidly, taking long sips of fire whiskey, his movement followed by the eyes of Teddy. "D' you need to sit down, you're waring out the floor." He wasn't sure how many times he had spoken the words, but each time it fell on dear ears.
At any sound of footsteps Draco would come to a stop and race to the door, only to be disappointed when it was a mere student passing by, then he would resume his pacing and drinking as if nothing happened.
"Drake! Seriously, sit your ass down right this second, pacing isn't going to make Snape brew the potion faster, and waring yourself out is going to do nothing for Hermione when the time comes to rescue her." Finally Teddy received a response, and winced slightly as Draco's lifeless eyes connected with his own, he hated seeing his best friend like this.
"What else am I supposed to do? I can't just sit down and relax while knowing that everyone else is helping rescue my girlfriend and I'm pretty much useless." He plopped down on the couch next to Teddy despite his words, resting his head against the back of the couch.
"If only father could see me now, he'd probably say something like 'Sit up Draco! Malfoy's do not slouch, slouching shows weakness, and we never show weakness, are you a Malfoy or are you a Weasley. Blah blah blah.' And I'd be all 'Yes father I know' But on the inside I'd be all 'fuck you you slimy git you don't know anything.'" His words were slightly slurred due to the affects of the fire whiskey, and Teddy knew that when Draco started talking nonsense it was time to intervene.
"I think you've had enough to drink." He said, trying to pull the bottle away from his friend. "What are you, my mother?" He snarled slightly, pulling the bottle out of Teddy's reach.
"He isn't, but I am." A stern voice spoke from behind them, and Draco attempted to hide the bottle behind his back.
"Hello mum, just having a conversation with my good friend Teddy here." Draco said, talking very slowly so his words wouldn't slur.
Instead of replying Narcissa held out her wand and shot a jet of freezing water at Draco's face, causing him to cough and splutter.
"What was that for!" He shouted, rubbing his eyes roughly. "Sober yourself up Draco, what would Hermione think if she saw you acting like this, you should be ashamed of yourself, she needs you to be strong and you're drinking yourself to death!" Her tone could rival McGonagall's when she was angry, and even Lucius wasn't stupid enough to mess with her when she got in those moods.
Draco hung his head in shame as his mothers words sunk in, and he sat the bottle down on the table and stood up quickly.
"You're right mum." He said, and then walked out of the room determinedly, giving absolutely no explanation to his leaving.
"Should we follow him to make sure he doesn't do something stupid? He may have realized he was being an idiot but he's still drunk off his ass." Teddy was going to go after him whether or not Narcissa agreed to it, but he figured it was polite to ask.
"Yeah, last time I let him go off on his own when I had caught him drinking I found him lying in the bottom of a hole he had dug a few hours later claiming he was trying to find the entrance to the Ministry of Magic so he could go in and demand why they were withholding his acceptance letter to Pigfarts." They both chuckled slightly at the thought before leaving the room to trail behind Draco, only to find him absolutely nowhere in sight. (A\N: That is yet another A Very Potter Musical thing. And will be much more funny if you've watched it.)
"Well damn." Teddy said, trying to decide which way Draco might have went down the long corridor.
"I'll go left, you go right." Narcissa said, not waiting for Teddy to respond before walking off.
A couple corridors away Draco stumbled into the potions classroom, his eyes landing on the bubbling cauldron sitting upon Snapes desk.
"Heyyy Uncle Sev." He said, walking over to the cauldron and crinkling his nose at the scent.
"You reek of alcohol Draco." Snape said sternly, dropping in a few crushed Hippogriff feathers.
"Well you reek.. You reek.. Of potions stuff." Draco said with a smirk, as if he had just had came up with the best insult ever.
"It truly is amazing just how sharp your wit is Draco." Snape spoke sarcastically, not even glancing up at the boy as he continued to stir the potion.
"It amazes all." Draco said, throwing his arm out dramatically to gesture around the room.
"Indeed. Now as much as I enjoy our useless banter did you need something, or did you just come to get on my nerves?" He asked, crossing his arms as he arched an eyebrow at Draco.'
"I was wonderin' if I could help with the potion in anyway." Draco said, looking down at the instructions that Snape had stuck to his desk with a spell.
"You would be helping immensely if you would remove yourself from the room until the alcohol is out of your system." Snape muttered, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Well I never." Draco huffed, turning from Severus dramatically and leaving the room.
Hermione stared at her reflection disdainfully, she was under heavy glamor charms so she wouldn't be recognized out in public, her hair was pin straight and platinum blonde, her face had lost it's roundness and was now slim and pointed, but the most different were here eyes, instead of their usual brown they were a bright blue, in short she looked like she'd just stepped out of a magazine, and she hated it.
She huffed slightly as she turned this way and that, trying her darndest to find something about her that actually looked like her, craving just a bit of normalcy in her reflection.
And finally her gaze landed on her ink stained fingers and she smiled, no amount of Scorgify could remove the ink so permanently buried in her skin. Hours upon hours of furiously scribbling on her parchment led to it, and she wore it like a proud tattoo, she'd found her normal, and she would cling to it as much as she could.
She took a deep steadying breath as she heard the door open behind her, and turned to see Cilia walking in.
"You look lovely miss." The small house elf smiled, taking her hand as they walked out of the room.
"I look like a barbie doll." She said, earning a confused look from the elf. She smiled slightly and shook her head, not feeling like explaining what a barbie was.
"I like you much more as your usual self." The elf quickly glanced around as if someone was going to jump out at any moment and scorn her for complimenting their prisoner.
"Well thank you very much Cilia." Hermione smiled, squeezing her hand gently.
They stopped as Henrietta stepped out of Professor Klaus's office, looking sour.
"Ready?" She asked, not acting like she actually gave a care. Hermione smiled sarcastically, taking her arm as they disapperated into Diagon Ally.
Hermione's heart gave a lurch as the first thing she saw was a picture of herself smiling widely.
Missing, Hermione Jean Granger: Age: 17, Height: Around 5'5, weight:N\A.
She is currently about six months pregnant, and was kidnapped by Atticus Klaus
and Ronald Bilius Weasley. A 50,000 galleon reward provided by the Malfoy family
will be given to anyone who can bring her home safely.
She stared at the picture for a moment, her bottom lip firmly between her teeth before she was yanked to the side by Henrietta.
"Don't be getting any funny ideas now. There is all sorts of guards here right now, you try anything, one of them will grab you and take you back to the mansion." She growled as she drug her into a bridal shop.
Hermione was instantly overwhelmed by the shopkeepers swarming her and tried her hardest to understand everything they said.
"What's your favorite color?"
"Oh I think a gorgeous turquoise would really make your eyes pop!"
"Definitely no bows. Much too frilly for her figure."
"No veil, her hair is much too gorgeous to cover, a diamond tiara will do."
"Hey!" Henrietta called and they all came to a stop, one of them with a measuring tape wrapping around Hermione's bust.
"Oh.. A-are you the bride to be?" One asked, seemingly disappointed.
"No, but we're not going all out, Penolope wants a simple white dress." She said, squeezing Hermione's arm tightly.
"Y-yes. Simple." Hermione tried to gesture with her eyes that she was here against her will, but all of the shopkeepers were obviously a bit ditzy, and acted as if she wasn't doing a thing.
"White dresses symbolizes purity, it is typically worn by a virgin." One said, patting Hermione's stomach with a wink.
"Yes well this isn't a typical wedding." Henrietta smirked slightly, patting Hermione on the back a bit too roughly to be deemed as friendly.
The shopkeepers were obviously a bit intimidated by Henrietta so they said no more and walked off to find a dress they deemed suitable for Hermione.
"Sit." Henrietta commanded, gesturing to a chair by the dressing rooms.
"No thanks." Hermione said, hoping that if she stayed on her feet she could make a quick getaway.
"I said. Sit." She growled, shoving Hermione down onto the chair. Hermione winced as pain shot through her tailbone, and quickly schooled her features to hide the pain.
Only moments later the shopkeepers came out, each carrying at least three dresses, and with a flick of their wands each dress was levitated and slowly rotating.
Hermione looked disgustedly at each dress, it wasn't that they weren't gorgeous dresses, because they were, and if this were her and Draco's wedding she would be very happy to be here, but right here and now all of these dresses looked like prison outfits.
"That one." Henrietta said, pointing at a random dress in the middle and with a flick of her wand the dress was on Hermione and Hermione's dress was folded up next to her.
She stared at her reflection for the longest time, but no matter how long she looked she couldn't find it pretty. The dress was very elegant, much more so than Hermione was comfortable with.
The material clung to her bust, coming to a knot right below them, then flowed freely to the floor, covered in see through lace that had an intricate design all along it.
She tried to picture herself walking down the aisle, Draco waiting at the end instead of Ron, but she knew that if she'd had the chance to marry Draco she wouldn't wear anything like this, she preferred a much more simple style.
Before she had even realized it she had traitor tears sliding down her cheeks as she realized she'd never get the chance to become Mr.s Malfoy, but she wiped them away quickly, she wasn't going to break she was going to kick ass and take names, even if she had to do it in this wedding dress.
"I'll take it." She mumbled, closing her eyes tight and clenching her fists at her sides.
"Hell hath NO fury like a woman scorned." She whispered under her breath, a smirk on her lips.
Ooh bad ass Hermione is coming out ;) I'm doing my best to keep Hermione more in character, make her her tough self instead of the broken girl I was portraying throughout most of the story.
Finally a good length chapter. :) I hope you liked it. Reviews are greatly appreciated. Once again I know I made you all wait longer than I should for an update and I apologize, once I take care of ALL of these photo shoots I will have a lot more free time to write. Pinky promise. :)
Picture of Hermione's wedding dress is on my profile.