Divorce / Talk between husband and wife

Voldemort stood very still for a long moment, astonished and wary. She might set him free at the moment but how far would he come before she changed her mind ... or was it all a trap and Dumbledore waited for him? His eyes travelled slowly over Minerva's fighting stance and finally settled on her emerald eyes which held an unreadable expression.

Minerva was not at all sure if she did the right thing. In the spur of the moment it had felt right. But could she really set him free? What havoc was she inflicting on Hogwarts and the Wizarding Community by so doing? Her righteousness and determination began to waver.

Tom saw her mood change quickly. He would not go back into that cell. Before she could bring her wand up, Tom curled his right hand into a fist. He despised physical violence. A wizard like him shouldn't was to use his hands for anything.

Minerva had just decided to stun Tom and drag his body back into the cell when his fist met solidly with her jaw. She was sent stumbling back a few steps into the small desk and went down sprawling.

For a man who had never been fond of physical activities, Tom was very strong. He had hoped to knock her out. But Minerva was tougher than he had thought. She lay there on the floor, holding her cheek and blinking back tears of pain, but was holding on to her wand.

Tom was above her before the ringing in her ears subsided or her eyes focused. She felt his foot connect painfully with her abdomen and her breath was driven from her body in a gasp. Minerva felt his hands on her wrist, extracting her hand from her limb fingers, while she was still fighting to regain enough breath to stop the spinning room.

Tom looked down on the fallen woman, the woman he had once strived to make his Dark Queen. She was now weak and broken.

"You have nothing to give to me anymore", he said coldly before leaving the room.

Minerva curled up in herself and wept. Why was she forever making the wrong decisions?

----

Molly had a terrible nightmare.

She was thrashing around under the weight of another body on hers. Her hips bucked upward trying to dislodge the heavy body of whomever it was. She heard a cold laugh and a sneering voice.

"You can't fight me, can you?"

Molly suddenly slackened in her vehement fighting and starred at the face of her assailant. She had half expected and half hoped to see Lucius but instead she stared into the face of her husband.

"No", she whimpered. "Please, we can't ... the baby ... you hurt me ... please ... stop ... aaahhh!"

Molly gasped in pain as she felt her husband's knee come up between her knees and press painfully against her womanhood. He was inflicting pain and it excited him to see her trying to wriggle away from him.

"What makes you think that I care?" asked Arthur cold-heartedly.

He bent down and bit her neck until he drew blood. Molly screamed in agony. She felt Arthur's lips widen into a smile and his tongue to flick out to taste her blood.

"I couldn't care less", he growled and pressed her thighs apart brutally.

His face came nearer to hers and she felt him at her opening. He thrust himself savagely into her.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ... NO! Arthur, no ... I beg you! ... please ... oh, God, please ... don't kill my baby ... please ... stop ..."

Her pleas had started as screams but soon turned to weak whimpers, empty and broken.

"Wake up, you're fine. No one is hurting you. You are safe. You are safe", a soft voice broke through the fog of her dream and brought her back to the reality of the Hospital Wing.

Gentle arms were wrapped tightly around her shoulders, holding her to a soft bosom cushioning her head ...

Bosom?

Minerva?

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, Minerva, but I really ..." she began to stutter and tried to move away from her solicitor.

"No, it's fine, Mum. I'm Ginny ... see. I won't let anyone hurt you, not even dad", the soft voice of her daughter reached her ears and gentle arms enveloped her again, drawing her close and stroking her back.

Molly stared up into Ginny's face and was dismayed to see tears glistening in her brown eyes. Her daughter had obviously witnessed her nightmare and she felt disgusted by it. How was she ever supposed to face her little girl? How could Ginny not be disgusted and repulsed by her? What would her girl think of her now? And her relationship to Arthur?

Tears were welling up in her eyes again. But before she could say anything at all, she felt a hand touch her ankle. She shrieked in panic and drew her legs up protectively, curling into a tight ball around the new life in her. But the hand followed her leg's movement and was softly placed on her shoulder. Somewhere in her she found the strength to look up and meet the eyes of her assailant.

Instead she saw Hermione sitting down next to her and gently stroking her shoulder blades, easing the tension in them.

"I'm sorry if I scared you, Mrs. Weasley. Are you feeling a little better now?" she asked still massaging Molly's shoulders gently.

Molly nodded numbly and doing so noticed that Ginny sat behind her and held her still to her bosom, both legs and arms wrapped protectively around her mother. And that all her boys and Harry were sitting around her bed on chairs, the bed next to hers or the floor. Ron had his fists curled up and a murderous look in his eyes. The twins were uncharacteristically quiet and thoughtful. Fred came over to her and sat down on the chair next to her bed. No attempt was made to touch her but there was a loving look in his eyes.

"Mum, dad would never hurt you like that. You know that ... don't you? He loves you but he is hurting for you, seeing you so obviously hurt", said Fred softly, locking his eyes with hers and holding her gaze fixed on him, trying to make her see what he saw.

Molly was amazed. It was very unusual indeed to have the twins taking anything seriously. Had she really been that out of touch with her children? Carefully she reached out a hand and touched Fred's arm. He didn't shy away from her but placed his much bigger hand on hers reassuringly. Molly's eyes locked on their intertwined hands with a sad expression on her face. Her sons had their father's hands and the same firm but loving grip Arthur had.

"How can he accept this child? How can you accept it?" she whispered heart-broken. "I don't want to lose your father. But this child has already come between us."

Tears were running down her cheeks and her shoulders trembled with the effort to suppress her sobs.

This time Charlie moved closer to his bereft mother. He had been lounging near the door to Madam Pomfrey's office, ready to run in and get her should his mother need the healer.

"Only if you let it. Mum, we are all here, aren't we. I recall promising you to help you with our little sister. Come on now, Mum, it's not as if we have no practise ... well, Bill and me anyway", he said, smirking at his mother cheekily and trying to light the mood.

Molly thought vaguely that the world had gone topsy-turchy. The twins serious and her older sons chuckling softly over Charlie's quip.

"Besides", piped up Ron, "you don't want to tell me that I risked getting expelled because I snuck into the library for nothing. I read everything damn, bloody book there is about pregnancy."

Molly's eyes widened at that. And widened further as all children nodded their heads in agreement, even Hermione and Harry. A soft answering smile appeared on her lips, the first in many days.

"Watch your language, Ronald", she chided softly but almost back to normal, making Ron grin happily up to her and Harry shoving his elbow conspiratorially into Ron's side.

"Hem hem."

A soft clearing of one's throat was heard from the door. The four younger Weasley children were immediately on their feet with, to Molly's horror, drawn wands. Harry had jumped up as well and Hermione stood next to Ginny, shielding Molly.

"Might the father of the child say something too?" asked Arthur's voice.

He had clearly been the one with the throat problem. His children relaxed slightly but kept a wary eye out for their father as he approached their mother.

"Feeling better?" he asked and received a mute nod. Smiling ever so slightly, he sat down next to his wife on the bed and placed a tray on her bedside table. "I brought you something from the kitchen. With Dobby's best wishes that you get well soon." He waved a hand over the plate and steaming cup of tea. There was also a bowl of fruit salad on the tray and Molly eyed it greedily. She loved strawberries. She and Arthur had made love for the first time in a little clearing in the forbidden forest where wild strawberries grew in abundance. The colour of those fruits reminding her of the ruddy hair of her children.

Arthur saw his wife's gaze flicker to the strawberries in the fruit salad and he had to hide a soft smile from his children. He had told the elves to put as many strawberries in the salad as they had at this season. It was his way of silently begging his wife's forgiveness for their earlier argument.

"Open wide", he ordered with a twinkle in his blue eyes and Molly twinkled back shyly, opening her mouth obediently. Arthur reached over for a strawberry and popped it into her mouth gently. Their eyes locked and held each other as she chewed and swallowed.

"I-I-I'm s-s-sorry for l-l-lying to you", said Molly finally, not meeting his eyes this time.

"There is nothing to forgive ... I wasn't very cooperative. How are you feeling, love?" reassured Arthur, placing his large hand over her belly and spreading his fingers protectively over it.

"F-F-Fine ..."

Arthur just raised an eyebrow at her and Molly had the sinking feeling that he too had witnessed her nightmare. It was confirmed when he bent over her and whispered:

"Never in my life will I hurt you ... and not only because our children would kill me if I would but because I would rather cut off my hands than hurt you."

They shared a loving gaze into each other's eyes before Arthur spoke again.

"May I kiss you ... only kiss ... noth ..."

Molly nodded and closed her eyes, waiting for his lips to descend on hers. When they did, it was a soft kiss, speaking clearer than words what he felt for her and their unborn child. His hand returned to her belly, stroking gently over the light swelling of the future.

----

Narcissa went to see Lucius ... or that was what she planned to do. Right now she was pacing nervously up and down the corridor to the cells. She tried to build up her anger and frustration with her husband. He deserved being imprisoned! He deserved what she had come to deliver! He deserved so much worse!!

A soft tapping noise startled her and she whirled around, heart in her throat and wand in her hand. Severus stood there behind her with a sympathetic look in his black eyes.

"What are you doing down here, Mrs. M ..." he started to ask when her glare stopped him dead.

"I don't want to be called that jerk's wife!! I hate him!!" she yelled furiously.

Her anger dissolved into thin air as she saw Severus back away slightly. She hadn't meant to snap at him. He was a good man, other than Lucius ...

"Is that why you came here?"

"Yes ... at least that was the plan, now I'm rather nervous", she admitted sheepishly.

Snape nodded to himself. He could understand her nervousness. Lucius was an imposing figure even in chains and Narcissa had suffered at his hands.

"Would you like me to accompany you?" he asked chivalrously.

Narcissa nodded thankfully at him and saw Severus in a new light all of a sudden. He was not at all the slimy git and unfriendly jerk Lucius made him out to be.

Together they went down to the cells and Severus hand came down on the small of her back automatically, without thinking he supported Narcissa silently. Narcissa flashed him a very nervous but also grateful smile. Walking became harder as she came closer to her destination. Lucius had held her life in her hands since the day they were married. But now she was ready to change that.

"I will wait here", said Severus quietly, stopping at the door and smiling encouragingly at the slim woman.

She nodded back to him and squared her thin shoulders before walking to the cell which held her husband, head held high and regally. Every inch of her was a lady, from her straight posture to the almost haughty look in her eyes.

Lucius was more than surprised to see his wife coming towards him. He had hoped that she had escaped or had been insignificant enough to let go.

"I hoped you would be spared imprisonment. What are they doing to you?"

"Nothing", spat his wife. Something in her eyes kept him quiet and transfixed. She seemed so much stronger all of a sudden.

"They have been nothing but kind and considerate to me ... even though I am your wife", she hissed. "But not for much longer. I'm getting divorced and I will be taking Draco with me."

She had spoken faster than normal, betraying her nervousness. Lucius starred at her for a while. And then he started to laugh, hard and uncontrollably.

"You are kidding me, right? I mean you can't leave me you have nowhere to go!"

"I was the hooded figure who helped the Order! They invited me to stay with them. I'm respected among them. You, on the other hand, will end up alone and hated."

She stalked out before he could reply. But she wasn't fast enough. She heard him yell after her.

"You have nowhere to go because I will come after you! You will not lead MY son astray!"

Outside Narcissa sank against the wall and sobbed. She was afraid but felt strangely relieved that she had told Lucius the truth.

Strong hands grabbed her shoulders and cupped her face, lifting it up to meet black pools of comfort and sympathy.

"You will always have a suite in the Slytherin dungeons, Narcissa. And I'm sure Draco loves you and will come back to you."