Chapter 25

"I do not think I can stand a lot more of this damn waiting," said Sirius as he brooded in the kitchen. All he wanted to know was how the hearing had gone.

A hearing that should not even take place... for Harry had done nothing he should not needed too. He had had to defend himself when the dementors had come to call. If he had not done... well it did not bear thinking about.

And if Harry had to be there then, he felt as if he should be there to stand at his side and to back him up. Obvious reasons prevented that from being the case.

It all felt so wrong.

"I am sure he is going to be and be back in the shake of a lamb's tale," said Jane from where she sat with Max at her feet and the Malfoy accounts before her.

She had been glad when they had arrived.

They were familiar. They were what she knew. And they distracted her from thoughts she did not want contemplate, even if... what had happened between her and her employer and best friend...

She had taken pleasure in it, but... she didn't know. She just wasn't sure it was the right thing to do but it would not change that it was done. And it might not have been wrong.

"But he should not be there to begin with."

"We all know that. But if they do not let them go back to school we are going to have a good case to argue against them surely? He is no more than a child and not responsible for what he does," she said as she looked at him.

"He knew what he was doing - but he had to do it, Jane," he said to her and she nodded.

"I know he did."

The two of them looked at one another and both sighed. It was their lot in their life to wait and to know the truth and to be frustrated or so it seemed at that moment.

It was then that the two of them were joined.

Sleepy eyed and in his pyjamas, Draco came entered the room. "Morning," he said to them through a yawn.

"Morning, darling. Come, sit down and let me get you a tea," Jane said and he did as he was told. "I take it Harry isn't back yet?" he asked as he sat down by Sirius.

"Not yet," his cousin said to him.

Jane got a mug out for serious to.

"It is all just a bunch of crap, I can't believe after everything else he has to go through this as well," he said to the two adults.

"Well, you are not going to find a single person in this house who disagrees with that," said Sirius. "And if you do then you can kick them out."

It was not long until the quiet kitchen became a loud one as one by one they were joined by the Weasley's and Hermione. The kettle, was as always in the morning, on a non stop boil.

"What time do you think we are going to be able to expect them back Sirius?"

"Well, the court hearing was at nine - if they make it home before half ten then I am going to be surprised."

And therefore he was surprised when five minutes later, as they were all on their second rounds of toast and tea they were joined by Harry and Arthur.

"Tell me the two of you getting back so soon is a good sign," Molly said from where she sat.

"If you mean tell you that Harry has not been suspended, then it is good news."

"Oh thank god," the red head said as she got up to embrace the boy.

He had not had a single peaceful year at Hogwarts but from what she was able to see, he had to be there. He had to learn and grow or else she did not know what was going to become of him.

And he had to be protected. There was no better protection from him than where Dumbledore was.

Ron and Hermione both looked at one another with a sigh of relief. The thought of their best friend not getting the education he needed at this moment in time was not one either was willing to entertain. It had never been so vital that Harry was at Hogwarts.

'He got off, he got off, he got off,' the twins and Ginny begun to chant.

Jane felt someone brushed past her.

The only one who had not mentioned how brilliant Harry staying on was Sirius and as he stalked out the room, she had a feeling she was not the only one who noticed.

X x x

"Well, now I know what my poor old father said when he told me he felt as if he worked like a house elf," Jane sighed as she walked in to Draco's room. He was sitting on his bed with a book in his hands.

He gave her a polite chuckle. "Got any washing need doing, love?"

"No, right now, Jane."

She had been about to leave the room when he called her back.

"Harry said he saw dad with Mr Fudge when he was at the ministry," he told her. "He was... working I suppose," he said with a shrug. Working for the Order...

"Well, I do not suppose it can all be done behind closed doors in the dead of night," she sighed as she sat on the edge of his bed and gave him a knowing look.

Doubt clouded his face. "Jane, you don't think..."

"No - no, I don't think that."

He nodded as she let forward to kiss him. "Your dad has loved and care for the two of us for years. He is not going to stop doing that now," She said as she got back up.

She was not sure she had time for such conversation when there was washing to be done.

"Jane?"

"Yes, my darling?"

"You said that he loved and cared for the two us."

"Well, I hope very much that he does care for me," she replied.

"No, but it is the way you said it."

"Don't be silly, dragon. There was nothing in it."

And with that she turned and left the room, leaving her charge with one thought in his mind.

'You're lying.'

X x x

"Molly, it looks as if the kids Hogwarts letters are here," Jane said to to her as she came into the kitchen later that week.

"I suppose it is about time."

"What are we going to do about getting there bits together. I do not think I like the thought of Draco going to Diagon Alley this year."

Even though she was his guardian, she did not feel as if she could send him out there when there was so much danger. That was something she would only feel she was able to do with permission from Lucius.

"Well, I will go for my children."

Jane shook her head. "In that case, when you do go, can I come and get Draco's things with you? After all there is going to be safety for the two of us in numbers."

The red head looked at her and she sighed. "I know the two of us have not always got on but do you not think it is time we put that aside? We are on the same side, after all."

Molly looked at her for a moment, and Jane wondered what was going on in her mind - but then she gave a short sharp nod.

Looking at Draco's letter, Jane noticed it was fatter than all of the other years so fast.

There was a bulk in the middle.

So her little sweetheart was made a prefect.

"Do you think it is going to be ok to write to dad and tell him?" he asked at breakfast that day as he looked at his new badge, secretly delighted he had been chosen, but trying not to show it too much.

He was not the only prefect, for Ron and Hermione were too.

"Darling, he is going to be so proud of you, but it is best you tell him face to face," she said as she smoothed down the back of his hair and then withdrew a little.

Old habits die hard.

Now he had a girlfriend he was not going to want her to mother him so much she told herself. He was a growing boy. Not the baby she had met.

She did not like that, but it is not mean it was any less true.

She was drawn out of her thoughts by the girl herself as she all but threw down the Daily Prophet. It did not matter what edition they seemed to read. They were all branding Dumbledore and Harry as liars and denying what was so obvious to all of them in that room.

"I do not know how they are allowed to print such rubbish. How can the Ministry of Magic allow it?"

"Do not be fooled, Hermione," Arthur said to her. "It is the Ministry who command it."

"But why on earth would they do that? How on earth are they going to prepare for war with an attitude like that?"

"Last time, they did not do a lot in the way of that. But I agree they should be telling the truth."

Harry shook his head.

He did not think they were going to be able tell the truth if they tried... they were like every single person who read and agreed with that paper. They wanted to stick their heads in the and deny everything which they knew to be the truth.

But he did not feel in any mood to defend Dumbledore. He looked back over all he had done since her had first gone to Hogwarts. All the good deeds he had done for the school as well as all the... all the fighting he had done.

And yet he was not prefect material when all three of his friends were?

Something was not right there.

Still he would get the answers he wanted when he went back to Hogwarts. He had more than one question for the headmaster which he needed to be answered.

"Right, I want you all in the living room today - it needs a real going over so can we all be dressed and ready soon?" asked Molly.

"Mum, we have only just got our prefect badges," Ron said.

"Well, then," Ginny smiled. "You, Hermione and Draco can make sure the rest of us slackers get there on time."

X x x

Hermione rolled her sleeves back as she scrubbed. "You know, I think it is going to be a relief to get back to school so we are able to get a bit of a rest."

"Isn't that the truth?"

"This has been the hardest summer we have known," Ginny agreed as she took a sip of her drink.

"But then we knew it was going to be."

It was only the three of them in the room, as the twins and Ron had skived off not soon after they begun and Harry had gone off to have a chat with his godfather while he was still able.

"Are the two of you hungry? I know I am," the youngest member of the Weasley family said to her companions.

"I could find a home for a biscuit if I have too," said Draco as he looked at the mantel piece he had been scrubbing.

It was clean enough to eat his dinner off. Time to move on to the next task.

Ginny left the room as he went onto the chest of draws in the room.

"Is it odd for you to be here?" asked Hermione.

"What in the home of my mother's family?"

She nodded.

"Well, it is not normal, but it is not as odd as I thought it was going to be. I am getting used to it. I know you guys find it dark and full off dark things, but you forget where I grew up. When I was younger... well, let us say in some ways this is a throwback to my childhood." He laughed as he put his hand on the handle.

"Do you not think we had better call someone before you open that?"

"Hermione, how many times has there actually been something lurking that shouldn't be?"

She rolled her eyes. Boys were so foolish sometimes... she shook her head as she thought of what he had just said.

"I don't know, which is why I do not want you to open it!" she said to him with a severity in her tone she had not expected.

She did not know why, but it did seem to her as if he was in a reckless mood that day. When she thought it through it did make sense. He might be a Ravenclaw but after all the time his had spent coped up that summer... an

She did not know how it was - but she knew even before he had opened it that there was going to be trouble.

As soon as the draw was pulled out there was a thud on the floor and for a moment not even she knew what it was. And then she saw. And then she understood.

But Draco did not.

"Dad? Dad?" he asked as he looked at the stone cold body on the floor.

If he had not lost his head, then she was sure he would have been able to identify the body on the floor for what it was.

A boggart.

"Please don't be dead. Don't be dead."

It was as if he was not even in the room. It was as if the two of them were some where completely different.

If she had a wand then she knew she was able to sort this situation out in a heartbeat. But the two of them were a long way from school. Thus, it was only with the help of an adult this was going to end.

"Jane!" She cried as she ran out of the room. "Jane!"

"What is it Hermione?" she asked as she came out of the kitchen.

"Draco and I cleaning. Bogart."

She nodded as she understood and together the two women ran back to the living room. Jane could be fast on her feet when she had to be.

"Darling boy."

Whether Draco had tried to fight off his father's dead body once he had understood what had happened, Hermione was not sure. There was no dead Lucius on the room any more. But she did know she didn't understand what was going on now. Not at all.

Instead, a woman with black hair and cold eyes stood before Draco.

"I don't get it," Hermione shook her head as Jane crossed the room. She had got why Draco had feared the dead body of his only living parent - but this was new.

Jane was under no illusions though.

"Get away," she said and with a wave of her wand the boggart was gone, as it shifted into something that looked suspiciously like an older version of Jane when she stood before it.

The woman fell to the ground beside Draco and kissed his head.

"Don't be scared sweetheart, it was nothing, nothing at all," she told him as she wrapped him in his arms. Much the way she had after he had had a scrap with the real Maria.

"She said I was never going to get to see him again," Draco explained.

He wasn't crying. But somehow that was worse.

"Of course, you are. Come on darling, you aren't six any more. She has no power, not over you," Jane soothed as she rocked back and forth. "Not any more, sweetheart."

There was something about the moment that made the young Gryffindor who had been standing in the corner wish to leave the room as well as something that made her want to stay.

She did not think she had ever seen the two of them so intimately.

Draco was clothed and naked at the same time.

"Hot chocolate, please, Hermione," Jane turned to her as she continued to hold Draco.

She nodded, and yet it was a moment before she was able to tear herself away from the two of them and walk away.

X x x

"Who was she?"

The rest of the day had after the boggart indecent gone slow for Hermione. Jane had insisted that Draco had gone up to bed to rest after what he had been through and Hermione had stayed down stairs.

Draco had done as he was told and yet she was sure embarrassment kept him up stairs longer than he had had to be there. He had never thought he was going to come face to face with that ghost again... but he would have hoped that he would handle it better than he had.

In the end, Hermione had accepted the fact he was not going to come to her.

"The lady who-?"

"I was so afraid of?" Draco finished as she came into his room. "You don't need to know," he said as he sat up on his bed.

"I did not think the two of us did secrets," she said as she took a place be his side.

"Some secrets don't need to be told," he shrugged as he put an arm about her and was glad that she responded to his touch. If he had ever needed her it was then.

Yet the distance between them felt massive to Hermione. His face was set and it was as if he was on lock down from her. There was no way in and that was in no way a pleasant though. She searched his face for a way in, but there was none. Not that night.

Sometimes, unspoken affection and silence were the only remedies, she thought.

X x x

A week later, Draco found himself packing his trunk to go back to school. As awful as it had been from time to time he could not believe summer was over. That he was not going to get to see Sirius and Jane every day. He was going to miss them.

Very much.

Leafing through his new text books as he put them in to his trunks one by one, he heard a knock on the door.

"Cavalries here."

"Dad!" Lucius laughed as he got up and flew right into his arms.

Ever since the incident with the boggart he had been waiting for the day when his dad was going to come back to him. He had once promised he was always going to do so. So far, he had always made good on that promise.

"You saw me a couple of weeks ago and you greet me as I have been away for years," he said as he embraced him. "I am not complaining though." He said as the two of them drew back.

Lucius cupped his sons face.

"You look tired."

"Nothing compared to what you are," Draco said as he sat on the bed.

There was a silence for a moment, and Lucius made no denial of that fact. He was tired. And now he did not have his family under his roof he found there was very little peace to be found anywhere.

But that was not an issue to burden his son with.

"Well, I do not know what you are doing sitting down on that bed. I have come to help you pack. On your feet, son."

Draco was glad his father was there that night when they all sat down for dinner but he knew Sirius was not. The two of them he feared were never going to get to be friends and that was something Draco was going to have to get over.

It was during the meal that he took the opportunity to observe his father and Jane together. Strangely, if there was one of them who did a better job of hiding the way they felt from him, it was the later.

His father looked on at her as if she was a proud young bride groom. Oh yes, there had been a change between the two of them.

She however, carried on as normal, serving dinner, smiling at every one and doing what she saw as her job.

But there was something different.

It was the way she let her gaze settle upon him from time to time.

Thus, as the plates were cleared away, Draco played a hunch and amid the noise, whispered to his father.

"You've kissed."

The look on his face confirmed what had happened.

Draco laughed but felt suddenly securer than he had all summer. Not all was darkness and doom.

It was clear his father wanted to talk to him after dinner, but with a quick half armed hug, his son had said goodbye for the term and went with his friends.

"Talk to her," he told him in parting.

"Draco, I am not going to get to see you for a while."

"Well, then. Christmas it is," he said as he gave his father a kiss on the cheek. "See you later... now talk to her," he repeated as he left the room. Draco could not have planned it better as nearly every other member of the house dispersed from the kitchen to the newly cleaned living room, leaving the master of the Malfoy manor with his old servant.

"He looks tired," Lucius said to her as he nodded to the door. "I hope Draco is getting enough sleep."

"Did he tell you about the boggart?" she asked.

He shook his head as his face darkened. "He did not."

"Let's just say the two of us had a visit from an old friend," she said with a bitter laugh. The look she gave him told him who it had been.

"I have to - " he made for the door, but she shook his head.

"The two of us got through it. He mostly turned to Hermione, and is I think, at last, out growing me... but seeing her so life like for a moment. It was awful."

"It could not have been easy... for either of you."

She turned away, nodding as she did so.

"Have you thought about..."

"I've thought about little else."

"And?"

"I need more time."

He nodded. He had known that, though he had never known her to be so indecisive. She was a practical woman. But this was one area where she was not very experienced. As such, he knew he was going to have to wait for a while.

Reaching out, he tucked a bit of her hair which had come away from her bun behind her ear.

"Take all the time you need."

"The only problem with that is time is not something we have to spare right now."

She knew that. They both knew that. And if she was capable of throwing herself into his arms and loving him then she would.

But Jane was holding back. For what she didn't know.

He brushed his lips against her cheek before he left the room, no doubt to seek out his son once more and make sure he was well after the incident.

As for herself, all she knew was she had a big decision before her. And it was a Pandora's box... which she feared she had already opened.

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