A/n: Thanks to my beta Hunter's Heir! *Not yet edited

25. You Love

Honestly Hermione didn't know what to do when she returned to the house. Draco offered to go get the potion ingredients, leaving her to care for the children they had just picked up.

They left her alone for the most part as the trio sat in the living room. Apparently her mood was obvious, and they realized that she wasn't in the mood to talk. Which was good- she had to do more thinking than anything.

From the sound of things, they needed to get the children to stop believing the shadows, like parents normally get their children to stop believing in the boogy-man. But it's hard to make someone stop believing in something when you've seen what they see. It's hard to convince them that something isn't there when it actually is. And she didn't really know where to go from there.

Maybe the problem wasn't getting the children to stop believing necessarily, but to make them let go of whoever is lingering in the shadow world that they miss- in Abigail's case, it happened to be her parents, even if she didn't know it. And Hermione had no idea how to break the news to her. Maybe that was a truth she should keep private from the girl until she was fifteen or so, when she might be able to handle the news better.

There's a problem with that- they didn't have that long. The sooner they could figure out how to get the shadows to leave the children alone the sooner they could return to a normal lifestyle, and try to be a regular family. Until that time, Hermione knew things wouldn't get better.

She bit her nail nervously, staring down at her opposite wrist. Then there was the problem of healing her, granted that something else didn't harm her before the process was complete. With the blasted shadows, she never knew what to expect. They were completely unpredictable.

She rubbed her eyes, looking on at the two. They seemed so innocent and carefree right now, but what about the next time the shadows decided to act? What would happen then? Would it be another infestation of children in her bed one night or something else catching on fire? The situation got more and more dangerous as the days passed on.

Scooting onto the floor, she took a deep breath. "Abigail, Liam, come here a moment."

The pair dropped what they were doing and hobbled over, sitting across from their adoptive mother. She looked between the two just once, reading the expressions on their faces. Well, neither of them looked worried right now, which was good. That meant that the shadows probably weren't doing anything terrifying.

"Can you see the shadows right now?" she asked.

"The curtains are open," Liam pointed out. "This room's bright."

"Right, but the hallways and the kitchen don't have the lights on, and there's shade on the other side of the room. You don't see any of them right now."

The pair shook their heads. "Not one," Abigail replied, grinning. "It's lovely."

"I bet it is. Tell me, do you ever recognize any of the shadows from your newspaper clippings."

The girl frowned. "Not really… no. I never kept things on the villains, and only villains can be part of the shadows."

Hermione cringed, thinking of poor Fred. He certainly wasn't a villain. "Maybe everyone stuck in the shadow world isn't bad. Some of them have to be good."

The pair exchanged a glance. "Maybe," Liam replied with a shrug. "I don't know. Sometimes I don't see any of them at all and other times they are all around me."

That was kind of interesting. Maybe he was beginning to stop believing? "Do you see the shadows all the time Abigail?"

"When it's dark," she replied, nodding. "I always see them. They are always angry with me."

"Why are they always angry?"

"Don't you remember Hermione- my parents. They do not like my parents at all."

Right. Well, she was kind of hoping the girl would say something more informative and helpful on her part. "Do they ever talk to you?"

"Occasionally they've started to," Abigail agreed, nodding. "This lady talks to me all the time."

Hermione's eyes flashed. "Who is this lady exactly?"

"I don't know. She has crazy hair and talks really weird. I think she had black lipstick on or something before. Her lips are super dark."

Briefly, she felt her heart stop. That sounded like a description of Bellatrix, Abigail's mother. "And what does she say?"

"She tells me I'm a nuisance a lot," the girl replies, frowning. "And she says my life would be very different if she was still alive. I would be a different person."

She's right about that. "Anything else?"

The child shrugged. "Not really. She just says mean things and annoys me, but I don't really understand what she wants me to. I don't know what she's trying to tell me."

Hermione nodded, looking at the necklace around her neck. The snake still stuck out at her, and the 'B' never made her feel good whenever her eyes fell on it. This poor girl didn't realize her parents were monsters. Then again, Liam didn't know that his adoptive mother was frightfully afraid of his birth father.

She wasn't getting anywhere really. Aside from the fact that Bella was talking to her daughter more and more, she didn't actually learn anything new. And what Hermione desperately needed to do was learn something new. But it didn't seem like that was really going to happen.

She was about to give up entirely when Liam spoke up. "Sometimes the shadows talk to me when I am around you Hermione. One stands in the background and says horrible things. He's a really unkind person."

"Who is he?"

"I don't know, he won't tell me his name. He has short black hair and it's always slicked back and he's always talking bad about you."

She arched an eyebrow. "Do you know anything else?" He hesitated, his hands playing nervously with one another. She bent forward, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Liam?"

The boy sighed. "He said his name is… Dolohov? I don't know how to pronounce it."

Her breath hitched then, her disdain for Dolohov coming back tenfold at the mention of his name. "And what exactly does he do or say?"

"He has a message for you."

"Okay… what would that be?"

He hesitated, glancing at Abigail before looking back at Hermione. "It's a secret."

"So you can't tell me at all?" she asked feeling deflated. Well, now it would be a pain to get the truth out of him.

"I can… but I don't want Abigail to know," he hissed, startling her. Since she first met these children, she'd never seen them keep secrets from one another. Now he wouldn't tell her what Antonin Dolohov had to say to her in front of Abigail? How strange.

Poor boy didn't even know he was speaking to his father.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Abigail interrupted, jumping up. "I want to know the secret too!"

He shook his head quickly. "No. He said only Hermione can know."

"Well, can't we just keep that a secret? He doesn't have to know."

"But he would. They always know when we do something. Nope, I won't tell you Abigail. That was our deal."

The child pouted, crossing her arms. "Hermione, make Liam tell me the secret too!"

She'd never seen the boy look so determined to keep a secret. Abigail might be curious, but she got the feeling that it really would be better if they kept it a secret. If the shadows asked to speak directly to her, then there was probably a reason behind it. And she wasn't sure she wanted to take the chance of messing things up by letting her daughter listen in too.

"How about I share a secret with you later Abigail?" she asked, grabbing the girl's hand to give it a quick squeeze. "But I think that we need to keep Liam's secret between just me and him right now."

"No fair!" she pouted, "I want to know the secret too!"

"When it doesn't have to be a secret anymore I'll let you know what it is, okay?" The girl nodded, still looking upset that she couldn't know. Well, the two really didn't keep things from each other at all it seemed like. Liam must have a good reason for doing this it seems. Grabbing his hand she led him into the kitchen, crouching down to his height once there.

"Okay, so what's the big secret?"

Liam looked around nervously before responding. "He said you're going to die."

The fact that a child could say that so bluntly was alarming, but knowing that someone told her son that was even worse. She grabbed his shoulder with her good hand, searching his eyes. "He told you that?"

The boy nodded. "Yes. He said something touched you and now you're hurt. He said it hides under that bandage." The boy pointed at her other wrist.

"I-"

"Is that why you never take off the bandage, because you're always hurt?"

She paused, studying him. With a sigh, she nodded. "Yes, but it's nothing too serious. Draco is out now getting some things to help me. I'll be better soon enough."

"He also said you're going to pay. Why doesn't he like you?"

Her eyes flashed, memories of Dolohov jumping out vividly in her memory. "We never really got along. We weren't on the same side during the war."

"You were enemies?"

"You could say that, yes."

"Well," Liam says, "You are on the good side. The good guys always win somehow. So you would win again if he tried hurting you, or Draco would hurt him?"

Hermione wasn't quite sure how Draco would manage to hurt a shadow, but she didn't put it past him to try something like that. "Yes, he probably would," she said instead, hoping to keep the child's spirits up. "I promise I'll be okay Liam. When did this fellow Dolohov tell you this?"

"The last time we spoke."

"Okay, and when was that?"

"This morning. But there's something else too."

Now she wasn't sure she could handle anymore. "Okay, and what is it?"

"He says… he says Draco shouldn't have saved Abigail that first night. What does he mean by that?"

Her eyes widened. The first night… no. Antonin didn't mean to hint at the possibility that he was the cloaked figure who tried to kill Abigail and chased the girl and Draco down the street, right into her shop. Why would he reveal something like that to a ten year old boy?

How did he even hold the knife?

She pulled the boy to her, straightening out as she hugged him tightly. She wished his blasted father would keep talking to him. Why did he have to go and say things like that to a little kid?

Why was Dolohov even trying to kill Abigail? Did he have a grudge against her, or her parents? Maybe that was a question to consider. It might explain some things too. Perhaps he was even the one who touched her?

The floo in the living room roared to life, and she took a shaky breath as she continued to stand with Liam. Well, Draco was home. She would have to speak to him about this immediately.

Unless of course, she was expected to keep it a secret too. But how could she? It was something she should tell her boyfriend and counterpart in all of this. Clutching the boy tightly to her one final time she released Liam, telling him that he and Abigail should go back upstairs to their rooms for now. And she reminded him to not tell her about the secret, just in case Dolohov was still following him around.

"Are you alright?" Draco asked as he entered the kitchen, dodging Liam as he bolted from the kitchen. "You're whiter than I am."

She nodded, but he didn't buy her responses for a moment. Setting the purchases down on the counter he moved to stand beside her, massaging her neck.

"Darling?"

Hermione sighed, dropping her head down against his chest. He wrapped his arms around her waist firmly, wondering what was going on.

"I think I just received a threat," she said, and he immediately jerked her off his shoulder. "Abigail got one too."

His eyes were narrowed to slits as he led her to the nearest seat, crouching in front of her.

"Tell me everything."

A/n: Eh it's an okay chapter, but not the best I've ever written. I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and got stuck trying to figure out what direction to take this story in next. But there you have it. I told you guys I wasn't going to abandon this story!

Let me know your thoughts. Maybe I'll get inspired and figure out how to get to the end of this story. I already know what it's going to be, it's just a matter of figuring out how to make everything make sense.