Author's Notes: This chapter was incredibly hard to write for some reason. I ended up rewriting more than half of it, so hopefully this version is better than the first version I had written. (The other was just a lot more wordy and seemed a bit boring to me) As always, thank you so much for reading and reviewing! Enjoy! :)
Chapter 25
At nearly four o'clock in the morning, there was a soft knocking on the library's thick door. It was so quiet that if he had been sleeping, there would have been no way for him to hear it from where he sat on the sofa, but the idea of sleep seemed like a cruel joke at this point. He had left the library hours ago to try to eat his dinner but the majority of his plate had gone cold before he could force any of it down his throat. He pushed the tall dining room chair forcefully away from the table and left without a single word to the small house elf who had been watching him from the edge of the room. With a worrisome sigh, Mimbi began to clean up all the plates from the table, the dishes that hadn't been touched, and brought them all back to the kitchens where they would be wastefully discarded.
But that was hours ago. Since then, Lucius had spent the majority of his night in the library. At first, he was waiting for Mimbi to come knocking, ready to announce that Miss Granger had arrived so that their night could begin, but the longer he stared at the clock, the slower time seemed to tick away. He distracted himself with a simple book, one he had read before so that he wouldn't have to pour his full attention into the words on the pages, but even then, he wasn't truly following the story whatsoever. It was something to fill his time, and of that, he had plenty.
By eleven, Lucius summoned Mimbi to the library. The nervous little house elf stood by the doorway, her long thin fingers intertwined in front of her as she shook her head silently to each of his questions. Lucius grit his teeth together in frustration as he watched the elf. "And the owl… has it returned?" Mimbi regarded his question for a second, knowing he wouldn't like her answer to this question either, and nodded. "And?… Was it carrying anything back with it?" Again, Mimbi shook her head, a mixture of both sadness and anxiety playing over her enlarged orb-like eyes. Lucius twisted his lips together distastefully as he mulled over her responses. He had been stood up. With a wave of his hand, he shooed Mimbi out of the library. "Finish cleaning the first floor. Don't bother with the second level…it'll just be trashed by tomorrow." Mimbi nodded and disappeared from the library door. She would not return until four o'clock, sweaty and covered in dust, to inform him that the task had been completed.
She tried not to sleep. Though muggle coffee was impossible to find in the Weasley's home, Hermione found no trouble making cup after cup of the strongest tea they had in the kitchen. Harry had finally come home not long after the rest of the household had disappeared upstairs to sleep and although she had hoped he would stay up with her a little longer, the bags under his bloodshot eyes told her that he needed to sleep more than she needed to stay awake. "Don't forget, I'm right upstairs if you need anything." He had said from the bottom step of the staircase.
Hermione knew he meant it, but she wouldn't ask him to stay when it was already quickly approaching midnight and he had to return to work in the early morning. "Thanks Harry. Good night." She smiled and he gave her a quick nod before continuing upstairs, leaving her alone once more. Hermione sipped at her tea and pulled a book out of her small handbag. A good story would help to keep her awake, though she knew she would have to sleep at some point.
She was walking. One foot in front of the other, and in front of them was Mimbi's oversized head bobbing up and down as she led the way down an unknown corridor. The stone and flooring was familiar though. 'Malfoy Manor,' Hermione breathed out as she stared around. Mimbi turned to look back at her over her bony shoulder. The witch must have spoken aloud. Hermione gave the elf a reassuring smile and they continued on their journey in silence.
They finally began to slow down as Mimbi brought them to a large, all black door. Even the knob had been painted to match the dark shading, and yet Hermione had somehow never noticed this door in all her time spent at the Manor. She looked down at Mimbi and asked curiously, "Am I dreaming?" The little house elf nodded with the same welcoming smile across her lips as always. She adored Hermione and it seems even in dreams, the tiny creature still couldn't help but love her. "Why am I here?"
Mimbi quietly brought a single scrawny finger up to her lips, a wordless gesture meant to hush the young witch. Hermione watched as the house elf gently placed both hands on the dark door knob and twisted it as carefully as she could, trying to keep the noise to an absolute minimum. With a soft click, it gave away from the frame and Mimbi pulled it open just as carefully. The room was black, obviously lacking in any windows or natural light of any kind. A quick shiver rolled down Hermione's spine. Mimbi motioned towards the open door.
"I'm not going in there." Hermione whispered, keeping one eye on the small elf and the other on the blackened room in front of them. Mimbi nudged towards the door again and Hermione repeated her response, firmer this time. "I'm not going in there, Mimbi."
"Leave us." A familiar voice came from inside the room, ringing out loudly into the hallway where they stood. As ordered, Mimbi let go of the doorknob and darted away from the room, disappearing further down the corridor. Hermione froze. The voice had definitely come from the room, which meant someone was in there waiting for her. She felt for her wand through the thin fabric of her pants pocket and began to withdraw it. "You won't be needing that." The voice informed her flatly. "Come in. We have much to discuss and not nearly enough time."
The more he spoke, the easier it became to place the voice with a face. "Malfoy?" Hermione called into the room, still remaining outside. Despite his warning, she had pulled out her wand and held it down by her side.
"Are we back on a last name basis? I wasn't aware." He remarked before repeating, "Come in."
Hermione tightened her grip on the wand. If this was just a dream, nothing could hurt her, but even so, she felt herself begin to tremble as the torches lighting the corridor's walls flickered ominously around her. "I'm dreaming. None of this is real. You're not real."
He laughed, the sound rumbling out through the darkness and reaching her ears quicker than she thought possible. "If none of this is real, then what harm is there in chatting with an old friend?"
His question threw her off guard. Was there someone else in there with him? Harry perhaps? One of the Weasley's? Maybe he even had her parents sitting in the room with him. But as she thought it over again, she realized he must have been referring to himself. "You're no friend, Malfoy."
"Ah, such cruelty, I see. And what have I done to deserve such a response? Have I wounded you in some way?" He was toying with her and despite Hermione knowing it was all a dream, it was her only way to vent her current emotions on the matter.
"You've joined them!" She shouted. "I tried to help you! I stuck my neck out for you, twice! With the Order and then with the scum you were entertaining at your home. But you didn't care what I had done." Hermione's fist was shaking down by her side as the one clutching her wand rose to aim blindly into the darkened room.
It didn't seem to bother him, or perhaps she was aiming entirely away from him. She couldn't tell, but as he responded, it still sounded as though he was sitting directly in the center of the room. "I've told you all of this before. I had no choice. You're not here to discuss this."
"It's a dream. I can discuss anything I'd like." Hermione spat out sharply.
She heard movement coming from inside the room, a shifting sound as though someone were getting up off a piece of furniture. She steadied her stance and braced herself for an assault. "True, very true. At least it would be…" His voice was moving, gliding from one side of the room to the other, impossibly fast. She couldn't keep track of where he was supposed to be standing and as she tried to guide her wand in the direction that she thought the voice was coming from, Hermione finally gave up and settled on the center of the room again.
"What are you getting at, Malfoy?" Hermione questioned loudly, the new surge of fear-based adrenaline forcing the words out of her throat rougher than she had intended.
He laughed again, this time a deeper, slower chuckle than she was used to. It sounded almost cryptic. "It would be, if this were in fact a dream." Hermione shook her head but before she could argue against him, he continued to call out to her from the depths of the room. "You didn't answer my owl, Miss Granger… and in your absence, I've been very…" he drew out the length of his words, knowing she was hanging on every syllable as she tried to squint some sight into the shadows where he stood. "Very busy."
Her voice began to waver as she took a single step forward, the tip of her toe just barely crossing over the door's threshold as her wand arm extended out further. "What are you—"
"This is no dream, Hermione." He announced coldly. The lights to the room suddenly flashed on, bright and blinding in contrast to the previous darkness that her eyes had just barely begun to adjust to. She blinked away the light's dazzling effects but the sights that found her weren't at all what she wanted to see. Red covered the room, a deep, sickeningly dark crimson shade. It ran over the expensive flooring, down the beautifully painted walls, and was all but soaked into the cushions and fabrics of the elegant furniture sitting in the center of the room. Lucius was standing just as she thought him to be, amongst all the slaughter and blood, his hands drenched in the sticky liquid all the way up to his elbows. Her eyes darted all over the room, examining in a matter of seconds what appeared to be bits and pieces of a body, if not multiple. She began to feel dizzy and although she knew this was only a dream, the rotten stench of the dismembered corpses assaulted the delicate senses of her nose, forcing her eyes to water. It took only half a moment longer before she narrowed in on one of the chunks of flesh and spotted it. Sparkling despite being sprinkled with drops of blood, Hermione noticed a familiar ring still attached to a severed hand lying only a few feet from the doorway. She knelt down in a panic, recognizing the piece of jewelry immediately as she lifted the hand off the floor. It was her mother's. "This is no dream." She heard Malfoy repeat, just as detached and chilling as moments ago. Hermione dropped the hand and lifted her eyes off the stained floor. To Malfoy's right stood Crabbe and Macnair, and to his left was Carrow. "This is a nightmare," he finished.
They were all smiling down at her— twisted, sadistic smiles. Hermione hurried up to her feet, the knees of her pants now stained with the blood that had transferred onto them from the floor. She shot off a quick spell into the room to distract them; it was her only hope of getting away when she was so outnumbered. But as she stepped back out into the corridor, she collided face first into a bony, emaciated chest. The impact matched with the slick layer of fresh blood that she had tracked out on the soles of her shoes forced her backwards, tripping down to the floor as she landed roughly back into the room of slaughter. She scrambled for her wand, trying to reposition it securely in her hand as it had been knocked out of her grasp during the fall. Her eyes tore away from the room, the blood, the pieces of her mother that surrounded her, and focused solely on the figure standing over her. The long dark cloak seemed to drape over his skeletal form as the red slits of his eyes bore down into her with such unmatched hatred. The torches in the hallway began to flicker and extinguish, one by one, as she heard the curse begin to rattle through his chest and up out of his throat. "Avada!…"
The Weasleys were all gathered in the heart of the Burrow— the kitchen. Hours had passed since Hermione had woken up from her nightmare. Her screams and cries must not have carried throughout the house as effectively as the previous night, as she only saw half of the Weasleys residents staring at her when she finally forced her eyes open. Even so, as she sat at the kitchen table and picked at the breakfast Mrs. Weasley had prepared for everyone, Hermione couldn't help but notice every time someone would yawn or rub at their eyes tiredly. "I'm sorry about this morning. I'm trying to work on it." She announced to no one in particular, and they all seemed to know exactly what she was referring to.
"It's quite alright, dear. We're just concerned, is all." Mrs. Weasley smiled down at her as she replaced the empty plate of toast at the center of the table with a fresh batch. The boys grabbed them up quickly without any further comment.
It was Ginny who decided to continue the conversation. "You weren't sleeping well after the war, before you left."
"Ginny," Mrs. Weasley began to scold her, shaking her head quickly as if to say the topic was off limits.
"I just meant, that was years ago. Has it always been like this, all this time?" The room seemed to quiet as everyone paused to listen to Hermione's response.
Hermione felt her cheeks flush a deep pink. She nodded. "There's been good night and bad nights here and there, but the majority of the time…yeah."
"What do you dream about?" Ginny asked.
Mrs. Weasley stepped in again. "Ginny, that's enough." Hermione heard Ginny begin to explain that she was only curious, that it was an innocent enough question, but as Hermione thought of the answer, an image from last night's dream recollected in her thoughts and clouded reality. She was back in the crimson room, her knees still planted in a puddle of blood beneath her. It felt cold and wet, sticky as she tried to shift back onto her feet. She lost her balance and ended up tipping forward with her hands stretched out in front of her. The palms met with the pool of liquid on the floor and as she drew them back up to her, turning her hands to face her, they were covered in red just like the knees of her pants. The smell of iron and rust washed over her, forcing her to try to hold her breath against the offensive odor, and that was when she saw it. The hand with her mother's wedding ring was lying on the floor in front of her. Hermione looked away, not wanting to think of how it managed to become separated from the rest of the body. 'Had they used magical means, as humanely as possible, or was it more of a ritualistic slaughter? Or was it just for…' Hermione choked on the thought. 'Fun?' She closed her eyes and tried to escape this room, this memory, this dream.
"Ginny, that's enough. Go get your things or we'll be late for the dress fitting." Mrs. Weasley's scolding brought Hermione back to reality, away from the flashback and the bitter nightmare. Ginny took another bite of her breakfast before running up the stairs to get ready. Mrs. Weasley shook her head and softly fretted, "That girl…She takes after you, Arthur. Entirely."
Mr. Weasley laughed as he folded up his newspaper. "Yes dear." He nodded, still chuckling. "Well, if I sit here any longer, you girls won't be the only late ones." Though Harry had already left for work an hour prior, Mr. Weasley caught sight of the clock hanging on the nearest wall and stood from the table to kiss Mrs. Weasley good-bye. "Will you be going out with them today, Hermione? Though dress fittings aren't exactly my sort of interest, I've heard they can be quite entertaining." He smiled wide as he began collecting his things for work. Obviously a dress fitting wasn't ever referred to as 'entertaining' but he was trying his best to make such a tiring task sound at least slightly enticing.
Hermione hadn't thought of what plans she would have for the day, but after how long it took for them to find her a bride's maid's dress yesterday, the last thing she wanted to do was spend another day stuffed up in a dress shop, this time watching Ginny try on dresses. It was exciting for Molly since Ginny was her only daughter, but from an outsiders view, it seemed like that excitement would fade after the first hour. Hermione smiled back with a small shrug. "Actually, I think I'll stay here. I've got some job listings that I'd like to look over."
"A job?" Mrs. Weasley asked, both surprised and proud of Hermione's quick determination to succeed. "How wonderful! What sort of job were you thinking of?"
Hermione shrunk back slightly in her seat. "I'm not too sure actually. Just something to keep me busy, I suppose. Something educational perhaps, but I'll have to take my exams first, since I didn't actually get to finish my last year at Hogwarts."
The Weasley couple nodded in agreement. "Good plan. I believe there's still a set of Percy's old Seventh year textbooks upstairs if you'd like to look them over. As for an actual job, I'm sure the Ministry would be thrilled to have you, if you'd like to go that route." Mr. Weasley beamed proudly as he grabbed the last of his work items and slipped on his light outer cloak.
"Thanks, Mr. Weasley." Hermione said before he left the Burrow. Ginny came back down the stairs and met with her mother. The pair quickly finished cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and bid Hermione farewell with the promise that they wouldn't be gone as long as yesterday.
"It's just a fitting, dear. Shouldn't take but an hour, two at the most." Mrs. Weasley had remarked, earning a polite nod from Hermione. "There's food in the kitchen should you get hungry." She added, despite just serving breakfast. Her maternal nature seemed to give her an uncontrollable urge to feed any guests that stayed at the Burrow.
"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." Hermione said, giving them both a wave from the front doorway before she was finally alone. She let out a heavy breath that she didn't realize she had been holding and looked around the room for where she should begin. Taking Mr. Weasley's suggestion, she headed upstairs to try to find Percy's old set of school books.
The Ministry workers arrived later than Lucius had expected. Part of him thought they would be knocking at his door at the crack of dawn just to spite him further, but when they came strolling by half an hour past eleven, he decided they had chosen this seemingly mid-day visit in an effort to perhaps interrupt his lunch. Mimbi showed them into his home, eyeing each one carefully every time they began examining or touching various items along their way to the second floor. Malfoy was waiting for them. "Arthur." He greeted Mr. Weasley coldly.
"Lucius. I trust you slept well since we last met." Mr. Weasley forced out a smile as his fellow ministry workers began to spread out down the hallway, going in pairs of two into each of the rooms.
Malfoy tried to ignore the fact that they were beginning to tear into his home yet again and focused in on Mr. Weasley. "Is this going to be an everyday routine, Weasley? Or will I be getting my peace back at some point? I was under the assumption that good behavior would be rewarded, not investigated."
Arthur shot the blonde wizard a judging glance. "Guilty conscience, Malfoy?" His arms crossed over his chest as he questioned Lucius.
The blonde wizard resisted the urge to roll his eyes and instead, grit his teeth back behind his tightened lips and forced them into a halfhearted smirk. "Not at all. However, I do have a life to continue with, so if you'll excuse me for a moment, I have business to attend to elsewhere." Lucius began to turn away from Arthur and the men still working in the hallway before a nagging thought got the better of him. He raised a warning eyebrow and announced in a loud enough voice for everyone nearby to hear, "I won't be gone longer than a few minutes. If I find anything missing in that time, I'll be sure to bring my concerns directly to the Minister himself." His eyes darted back to Arthur's as he raised his hand to point sharply at the red-haired man's chest. "I'll have your job stripped away from you if I find anything missing. I'll not have thieves in my home, Weasley."
Arthur straightened up, pulling his body back away from Malfoy's accusing finger, and remarked suggestively, "We've seen the kind of wizards you allow into your home, Malfoy. Azkaban's been treating them very kindly."
Malfoy frowned in frustration at the man's irritating smiles and insults before exiting the corridor, grabbing Mimbi roughly by the back of her skinny neck as he passed her. She let out a short yelp as he dragged her away from the ministry workers, especially Arthur Weasley, and pulled her into one of the few empty rooms left on the second floor. He closed the door shut and let go of his loyal house elf. The room seemed to be some sort of storage closet, mostly unused, although Mimbi still managed to keep it fairly organized and dust-free. She brought her palm up to massage the back of her neck where his hand had been and jumped slightly when he turned away from the door to face her. "I don't know how long these imbeciles are going to be here. It could be all day. I won't have time to send off another owl and even if I did, I've been given the impression that Miss Granger won't be interested in receiving it."
Mimbi nodded carefully, understanding his concerns but not fully understanding what role she played in the matter. Malfoy reached into the inner breast pocket of his cloak and retrieved a sealed and addressed envelope. "Bring this letter to Miss Granger and don't leave until she reads it. Is that understood?" Mimbi nodded again, her eyes wide as she recited her instructions in her head to commit them to memory. "I need to be sure she's not going to talk about what she saw the other night and the only way to do that is to get her here. Do you understand? You need to get her to come here tonight." He forced the envelope into the house elf's hands and the order was placed. Mimbi tucked the letter into a small pocket of her raggedy garment and gave Malfoy one last nod before hurrying out of the room.
Finding the stack of old school books was the difficult part, but once she had finally located them, Hermione drove right in. She curled up on one end of the sofa downstairs in the living room and began to skim over the pages. She had of course read the books before, having skipped ahead in her reading material during her last couple of years at Hogwarts, but it was good to refresh. The more she read, the higher her confidence rose that she would be able to pass the exams with flying colors. Still, it was unnerving to take an exam without even completely the courses. Although Ron didn't necessarily need to have finished his schooling to join the Quidditch team, surely Harry must have been required to take the exams before the Ministry would take him in. 'He's the boy who lived, Hermione. He defeated a dark wizard in front of hundreds of people. Do you really think a few exams would have stopped the ministry from giving him a job?' Hermione mulled over her thoughts and decided she would ask Harry tonight if he had taken the exams. Some first-hand knowledge of how rigid or lenient the scoring system was would be good to have if she planned to take the exams based on the textbooks alone.
She was just cracking into the second book—potions, when there came a knock on the front door. Hermione grabbed her wand off the small table beside the stack of books and quietly walked over to the nearest window. The Weasleys hadn't mentioned anything about visitors before they left that morning. She felt her heart beat quicken in her chest and pressed her cheek against the window's glass pane, trying to see around the side of the house, but she couldn't get a clear view of the front steps. The knock repeated, louder this time, nearly making Hermione jump. She rose her wand, keeping it at the ready, and approached the door. She yanked it open. Mimbi was beaming up at her, happy to see her after not seeing her for what seemed like forever in the little house elf's mind. When she caught sight of Hermione's wand however, she jumped back, down the steps and threw her hands up into the air nervously. Embarrassed and feeling slightly ashamed for startling the poor elf, Hermione quickly tucked her wand away. "Oh! I'm sorry, Mimbi. I wasn't expecting you." Mimbi relaxed and reproached the door with a forgiving glow in her cheeks. "Is everything okay?" Hermione asked, suddenly curious as to why Mimbi was standing at the Weasley's doorsteps.
Mimbi pulled out the slightly crinkled letter and handed it to Hermione. "For you."
"Oh, Mimbi…I'm really not…" Hermione started to explaining, handing the letter back to her, but she wouldn't take it. Instead, she tucked her hands behind her back and nodded towards the letter again, urging her to read it. Hermione knew how stubborn Mimbi could be and if she was dead set on getting Hermione to read that letter, she would stand there all day until she did. With a soft groan, Hermione tore open the envelope and pulled out the letter. It was short, incredibly short, and as Hermione read it over, she felt the urge to rip it into bits and sprinkle it on the ground.
I need to speak with you. This is very important.
8:00pm tonight, at the Manor.
Don't be late.
He hadn't even bothered signing it, and yet he somehow assumed that she would be completely available whenever he called upon her. Hermione crumpled the letter up into a ball and handed it back to Mimbi. "I'm not some owl who'll come whenever he calls." Mimbi took the balled up piece of parchment, looking down at it in her hands, unsure of what to do with it. Hermione continued. "I have no interest in seeing him tonight. You can tell him I said that. Tell him I'm busy, that I have somewhere to be and that I'm not canceling my plans just because he needs to speak with me." Hermione repeated the wording he had used, trying to mimic his aristocratic tone as best as she could. In truth, she had no where to be, but it was meant to strengthen her point that he couldn't simply summon her whenever he wished.
Mimbi shook her head quickly. "No. Miss Granger must come. Master Malfoy needs you tonight." She held up the crumbled letter and pointed at it before emphasizing, "Tonight. Master Malfoy said you must."
Hermione pulled her arms over his chest, insulted even further that he would dare use such commanding words in regards to her, as if she were herself a house elf for him to order around. "Well then that's unfortunate for him."
"Master Malfoy said you must." Mimbi tried again, shaking her head as she tried to get Hermione to see the importance. She wasn't sure how much she was allowed to say and with Lucius not giving her any guidelines to go on except to just somehow get her there, she was left to her own devices. "Wizards all over the Manor." She was still shaking her head, trying to make her words as clear as possible. "Ministry wizards. Mimbi cleaned all night." She lifted her calloused hands, still dirty from cleaning the entire first floor that the ministry workers had trashed the day before. "Ministry," the little house elf strained.
Hermione's eyes narrowed, confused by Mimbi's jumbled message. "What's the ministry doing at the manor? What has he done? It's only been a day…what could he have possibly done in a day?"
The house elf drew her hands back up and tried to correct her. "No, no. No trouble. Ministry." Hermione shook her head in disbelief. If Malfoy wasn't in trouble, then why was the Ministry at the manor? And why was Mimbi so upset about it? Something wasn't right and Hermione knew it all stemmed from Malfoy, whether Mimbi would admit it or not. She sighed out her frustration and apparated to the front gates of the Manor. Mimbi followed closely behind her with a sharp Pop!
Mimbi tried to explain again once they were inside the manor that Malfoy wasn't in any trouble, but that there were Ministry workers still in the manor. It wasn't until they reached the second floor that Mimbi was able to point at a passing worker and exclaimed, "Ministry!"
They rounded a corner and as if it had gone from night to day, the empty corridors they had been walking down were suddenly replaced with a crowded, busy hallway littered with various items from all sorts of different rooms. Hermione stared around at the scene. It looked like a raid. "What has he done?" She breathed out in disbelief. Mimbi continued to shake her head down by Hermione's side. They walked down the long corridor, peering into each room as they passed, until Hermione spotted the tall wizard with long platinum blonde hair. "What have you done?"
He spun around, her familiar voice catching him off guard as he stood there watching his entire second level get trashed. His eyes darted down to Mimbi, who was slinking back behind Hermione slightly. She had been told to deliver the message and make sure Hermione arrived that night, not now when the manor was filled with all sorts of chaos. Did the simple house elf truly think they could speak about his involvement with the VRS with all these ministry officials around? He took a mental note to deal with the insolent little creature later. "This isn't a good time. I thought I made myself clear enough that I wished to see you at eight." He said sternly, trying to draw as little attention to her arrival as possible.
Hermione scoffed at his domineering assumptions just as she had done when she first read the letter. But there was a bigger issue at hand. "What have you done, Malfoy?" She repeated, hardening her voice as her eyes shifted around at all the ministry workers.
Overtired and with his patience already becoming strained by the ministry's second unjustified inspection, Lucius paced over to Hermione and grabbed her firmly by the upper arm. "I haven't done anything." He began walking them back in the direction they had come. "Take Miss Granger to the first floor's study and I'll be there as soon as I take care of things here." He directed Mimbi.
"No!" Hermione pulled her arm away. Lucius let it go. "If you've done nothing wrong then what's all of this?" She kicked at a pile of discarded objects that had been placed by a nearby doorway. "What are they looking for?" He was shaking his head again but just as he was about to repeat his statement of innocence, Hermione caught sight of someone coming out of a room further down the corridor. "What…Mr. Weasley?" She sidestepped away from Lucius and walked quickly down the hallway to approach him.
Mr. Weasley looked confused. His eyes shifted from Hermione to Lucius. "Hermione, what are you doing here? You're supposed to be back at the Burrow."
Lucius followed Hermione and met with Mr. Weasley only seconds after Hermione had reached him. "What's the matter, Weasley? Didn't expect to have an audience as you raided my home?"
Arthur's eyes narrowed as he shot a glare at Lucius. Before either men could continue with what was sure to turn into a shouting match, Hermione stepped in. "Mr. Weasley, what are you doing here?" Hermione looked around at the dismembered rooms, the items and even the furniture spewed out all over the floor, and couldn't see a single muggle item in the whole lot. Muggle Studies were his specialty, not home inspections.
He began to explain but it became obvious from the start that he had no solid answer. "The Ministry has been short staffed lately. I'm filling in where I can."
Lucius exaggerated a burst of laughter as if Arthur had made a joke. "And what have you found? Absolutely nothing. I've done nothing and I'm in possession of nothing. Therefore, this inspection is unfounded."
"Under the rehabilitation program you agreed to, Malfoy, both regularly scheduled and unannounced inspections are permitted." Mr. Weasley corrected him.
Hermione watched as the two men exchanged coarse tones and insulting glares at one another. When Lucius brought up, rather loudly, the fact that this was the second all-day 'inspection' that he had been subjected to in the past two days, Hermione couldn't make sense of it. She cut them both off. "But what are you looking for?"
Mr. Weasley frowned. "Illegal items and objects of dark magic. Any contraband that Mr. Malfoy here isn't by law allowed to possess with his current status."
She shook her head. "No, I've been here during an inspection. It isn't…" she glanced around the room. "Like this." Every room this far into the second level of the manor had been gone through, thrown about, and then left in shambles. There were so many workers darting in and out of doorways that she couldn't even count them with absolute certainty, and apparently all of this had been done just yesterday to the first floor. Now it made sense why Mimbi was so upset and why she had showed Hermione her dirty hands. The poor house elf had finished rearranging the first level and now the second was being destroyed right before their eyes. "Who ordered this?" She asked, more so out of disbelief than by any sort of anger.
"Hermione, this is official Ministry business. I'm sorry if this seems unfamiliar to you, but Mr. Malfoy is under the supervision and moderation of the Ministry for his past offenses. This is what he agreed to when he decided not to go to Azkban with the rest of Voldemort's supporters."
She understood. She could comprehend that by joining the rehabilitation program, Lucius had given up most of his rights as an ordinary wizard, including the privacy of his own home, but what she couldn't understand was why. What had he done? As far as she knew, she was the only one who knew about him joining the VRS, so this raid couldn't possibly be because of that. What offenses had he committed recently that would give them reason to believe that he now held some sort of dark item that he wasn't supposed to have. "Have you found anything?" She asked.
Malfoy smirked and shifted in his stance as he prodded on the ministry employee. "Yes, go on, Arthur. Tell her what you and your crew have found." He raised an eyebrow, knowing the Weasley father had no way of talking his way out of this one.
"We've confiscated several items suspected to be of unsavory purposes." Mr. Weasley answered stiffly, trying to sound as official as he could.
"Unsavory?" Lucius mocked. "Family keepsakes. Photo albums. Books. My son's old Quidditch robes." He shook his head as the last example hit harder than the previous ones and Hermione saw him swallow down what looked to be a bothersome lump just barely beginning to form in his throat. As quickly as she had seen it, it was gone and he was back to scowling at the red-haired man.
Arthur brought a hand up to rub at one of his temples and snapped back at him. "You know just as well as I do, Malfoy, how dark wizards operate. Nothing is sacred when it comes to laying curses and hiding an object's true purpose."
Lucius ran his fingers through his long blonde hair and gave Arthur one final smirk. "If that's what you need to tell yourself, Weasley, then by all means, don't let me correct you."
To Malfoy's surprise, Mr. Weasley looked down at his watch and frowned. "It's getting late. Let's pack things up." He announced to the workers in the rooms around them and just like that, they began exiting the rooms with items tucked away in large bins that had been sitting by the doors. "Keep everything organized so it can be properly sorted and labeled." He advised before turning back to Hermione. "I don't know why you came here today, but you're making a terrible mistake if you think you can trust Lucius Malfoy." The concerned look was written all over his face.
She wanted to correct him, tell him that she could take care of herself and that she didn't need anyone to tell her who to trust, especially since Lucius was so low down on her list at the current time, but she couldn't be that rude. Mr. Weasley had given her an open invitation to his home, she was going to be a brides maid at his only daughter's wedding, and together they had all defeated a powerful Dark Lord. To turn on him now because he insisted that he was only doing his job when Hermione knew different would seem petty compared to everything he had done for her. She simply nodded and watched as they all packed up and shipped out of Malfoy Manor.
When Hermione and Lucius were the last ones left in the now abandoned, disheveled corridor, Lucius breathed out a sigh of relief. "They would have been here hours longer if you hadn't showed up."
Hermione frowned. If that was as close to a 'Thank you,' as he was going to give, then she would take it in full. "You're welcome," she responded sarcastically. "Is this why you wanted me here? To scare them off? I would have thought you could have done that by yourself."
The corners of his lips twitched subconsciously into a smile at her remark. "No, not at all." He shot a sideways glance at his house elf, still standing further down at the beginning of the corridor. "I wasn't expecting you until later tonight." He allowed himself to bring the conversation back to its intended purpose. "When you didn't respond to my owl, I was concerned. I had hoped that I didn't— to use your words, scare you off."
Hermione didn't know how to respond. She knew what she wanted to say, everything, but she couldn't think of where to start. Had he scared her off? What did he expect her to say when only nights ago, his buddies had not only threatened but also attempted to kill her. Did he really believe she could somehow overlook that? Hermione said the first thing that came to mind. "You joined them. You've picked the wrong side…again, and you expect me to forgive that small fact? I'm not like you, Malfoy. I can't switch off my morals when they become inconvenient for me. It doesn't work like that."
"I did join them." He admitted. "They have my son. What would you have me do? Fight against him should it come to that? If it came to war and I had joined the Order instead, let's say I were to encounter him during battle. Do you truly think I could strike down my own flesh and blood?" He shook his head and knew he didn't need to vocalize his answer. It was obvious enough.
"I don't know what you want with me, Malfoy." Hermione confessed, frustrated that he wasn't being as clear with her as she had wanted him to be. He had always been straight forward, an open book, especially during their conversations in the library, but now he was different. He wasn't speaking as honestly with her and it was making her uneasy.
Lucius hesitated. It wasn't like him to falter but she had asked something he truly couldn't provide an answer for. He had asked her here tonight because he was concerned about what she knew. He was concerned she would eventually let the Order know that he had joined the VRS and that he had entertained inappropriate guests according to his rehabilitation regulations, but he couldn't tell her that. "Just give me tonight to apologize for the other night. That's all I'm asking. After that, you can choose not to speak to me for however long you'd like."
"I can do that now." Hermione corrected him.
"Yes…" Lucius agreed, not fully wanting to admit it, but drew her back to his original point. "I'm not certain what you'd like me to do, Hermione. I'm here, offering you my apology and asking for forgiveness for what happened the other night. Are you telling me you won't accept it?"
Hermione knew she couldn't accept it, not with him still taking up arms with the enemy. An apology would mean nothing if he still refused to join the just side, the light side. "I can't possibly accept it, not when I know where your true allegiance lies."
Malfoy ran his fingers through his hair as he felt their conversation going around on a loop. As long as he was with the VRS, and she was with the Order, there could be no peace between them. "We've been through this already. What would you have me do? Abandon my son for a group that would rather kill me than allow me to join their ranks?"
"Then join neither." Hermione exclaimed. Lucius eyed her with uncertainty. "Join both." She explained. "It's possible. Professor Snape did exactly that." She reminded him.
Lucius nearly spat at the idea. "Severus was a fool. And in case you've somehow forgotten the most important fact in all of this, he's dead. Looks like the 'Join both sides' idea didn't exactly work out well for him."
The young witch stayed firm. "That's my only offer. We remain in contact, with you feeding me information to take with me to the Order, and in exchange, I won't force your allegiance with the VRS into the Ministry's view."
He was trapped, backed into a corner by something as simple as blackmail. He had been worried this entire time about her telling the Order and yet there she stood, blatantly blackmailing him for information. 'Not very Gryffindor of you, Miss Granger,' he mused silently. A thought passed through him as he remember what he had said about fighting Draco during any upcoming battles, and he wondered if perhaps she would feel the same way about the elder Malfoy male. They weren't blood of course, which was the main dividing point in the two scenarios, but would her righteous Gryffindor nature allow her to potentially kill someone she was meant to become so close with? Her very own informant, with whom she had already expressed numerous private memories, fears, and dreams with. She couldn't, and that was his way in. If it comes to the point of battle, she couldn't possibly let harm come to him, could she? It was too bittersweet to think of. "Should we come to war, my side against yours, do you truly think you'd be able to strike me down? This could go on for years." He paused, trying to gauge the expression on her face. She knew exactly what he was trying to say.
It took her longer to answer than it should have. Inwardly, she cursed herself for not answering immediately, possibly even before he had finished talking, but her damned Gryffindor spirit gave her doubt. Lucius chuckled, smirking as he knew he was right. She couldn't do it and therefore, he would gain some degree of protection, as little as it was, by agreeing to become an informant. Hermione's eyes narrowed in as her lips pressed tightly together. He was laughing at her, at her weakness, at her unyielding kindness, and it made her want to prove him wrong. "I could." She finally answered, and when he continued to smirk while staring at her, not believing her words, she corrected herself. "I will."
ANs: Ugh, I love the toughness that Lucius always seems to bring out of Hermione! She's pretty tough on her own but when the two of them get together, it's like two bulls locked at the horns! Anyway, let me know what you think. This upcoming week will be very busy for me but I'm hoping to have Chapter 26 uploaded within the week, if not sometime over the weekend.
Thank you for all the lovely reviews and PMs. I absolutely love reading them and hearing what you all think :) So thank you.
-WildBubblesRoam