Author's note:
Chapter 19 summary
Draco is relieved that Hermione is okay but he is fearful her action mean she doesn't want to be with him. Hermione recommits to him promising that she will keep her vow to stay with him. The promise is sealed with a kiss or two, or three...
Chapter 20- The Cat's Out of the Bag
The previous night they had decided there was no point pretending anymore. They would come out in the open about their relationship there was little point doing otherwise, what between 'The Prophet's' expose and Blaise's desperate rush to find a healer at St. Mungo's the Cat was well and truly out of the preverbal bag. Both had realised however they couldn't just let the gossip run its course if they were going to get Rose and Hugo back from Ron. They needed a strategy and they needed damage control. So it was that, even though Draco still largely wanted to murder his friend, they found themselves making their way to Blaise's office to enlist his help. But they had to reach said office first and that meant running the gauntlet of Diagon Alley.
It was only moments after they apparated into Wizarding London's premier shopping district that the crowds began to stare. Draco clasped her hand tightly as they made there way through the late Christmas Eve shoppers. The stares where expected but they had not prepared for the hostility.
"Ow!" Hermione hissed as an anonymous stinging jinx caught her calf. Draco spun a menacing look on his face. A look that had not appeared for many a year, a look that reminded those around them he was dangerous, for all they knew deadly. "Come on," Hermione urged worried that he might get embroiled in something that would get him into trouble if she didn't hurry him along.
Diagon Alley suddenly felt menacing in a way it had not felt since the war but it was only a few more doors to Blaise's office and they could leave there via the floo.
"Death Eater's whore!" A man's voice hissed from the depth's of the crowd. Draco went rigid;
"Draco No!" Hermione cautioned as she grasped his wand arm, "please don't do anything stupid, not now..." she didn't finished that statement but the implication was clear, not now we are finally together.
She watched as Draco visibly fought to calm himself.
"Let's go," he virtually growled.
Finally they made it to Zabini's offices.
"Draco," she said gently cupping his jaw, "we expected this," she reminded him.
Logically Draco knew it was true but he still felt very much like he wanted to destroy something, several somethings in fact but she was right and he knew it would do no good. What they needed was a plan.
"Draco, Hermione," Blaise greeted, "is everything alright?"
"Aside from the large part of me that still wants to murder you?" Draco responded curtly.
Hermione reached out a stilling hand.
"What Draco means is that we had a really unpleasant reception on our way here and it will most definitely be advisable for us to leave via your floo." She told Blaise calmly.
"Ah!" Was Blaise's minimal response, "well perhaps you should come and sit down?"
After they were all settled in Blaise's office, with many charms in place to avoid intrusion, they began to discuss their options.
"We could of course launch an appeal in the Wizengamot." Blaise was suggesting.
"Well there is no reason why we shouldn't but that should really be a ruse," Draco began starting to explain his strategy.
"A ruse?" Hermione questioned raising her eyebrows at him.
"Yes, our main point of attack should be Weasley's greatest weakness," he continued.
Hermione stiffened.
"Not the children," he reassured her, realising immediately that that had been her concern. "He is a gambler," he continued to explain, "it will only be a matter of time until he finds himself in financial difficulty again and then what wouldn't he give to get out of it?"
"He won't sell the children," Hermione insisted
"In the same way he didn't sell you?" Draco questioned.
"He didn't..." Hermione began but Draco interrupted her.
"I would never have sent you," he said silencing her.
"But if you are wrong?" Blaise asked.
"We go with the court case but also Hermione goes on a charm offensive in the media."
"Oh, no!" Hermione protested.
"Why not are you not a wronged wife?" Blaise questioned
"I can't play the wronged wife, not with what I have done," she said plaintively.
"What is that you think you have done Hermione? Fallen in love with another man after your husband betrayed you? Left a husband who even though you had secured your future betrayed you again?" Blaise enquired with a raised eyebrow.
Hermione knew what Blaise was trying to do but she could not lift the pall of guilt that she felt at breaking her marriage vows. Logically though she wondered if it mattered, even if she had waited until she had divorced Ron, waiting until she was no longer married before she and Draco became intimate, she had already betrayed Ron in her heart.
"That was why you ran wasn't it? Guilt," Blaise continued with his interrogation as if he had read Hermione's mind.
"I thought fate was punishing me," she confessed, "I thought Rose and Hugo were taken from me for my sins."
Throughout the entire exchange Draco had sat in stoic silence.
"It was never about leaving me?" He finally spoke seeking confirmation,
"I just panicked!" She told him in all sincerity
Draco pulled her into his arms tucking her head under his chin before saying;
"So do you think you can manage Skeeter?"
A few days later Hermione's interview with Skeeter was set up. 'The Daily Prophet' had been promised exclusivity and a sizeable advertising contract from Malfoy Industries in return for a truthful but sympathetic account. The story was published in the weekend supplement to everyone's relief it was well received. Well not entirely well received, Hermione received a rather unpleasant howler from her former mother-in-law but as far as the general populace was concerned Hermione was a wronged wife who had turned to a former school mate for help and the friendship they had developed had grown into something more. None of it was a lie and for once Hermione had cause to thank Rita Skeeter for the spin she had placed on her relationship with Draco. She had presented their relationship as a tale of love and reconciliation against all the odds and the Wizarding public loved it. 'Loved' them, the tale of the reformed Death Eater and his War Heroine lover.
Author's note
As always any feedback welcomed.