Author's Notes

Sooooo, I did a thing! I signed up for a fest called Twistmas and had a little idea, which turned into a bigger idea and then this 12.5k, 3 chapter monster happened! I hope you enjoy the story, posting will be on Sundays for the next three weeks.

My prompt was sleigh ride, and the idea was to take a light and fluffy prompt and to put a dark twist into it. There's nothing too dark in this, so there's no content warnings needed, just a bit of a surprise at the end. Hopefully!

Many thanks to champagneandliterature, I know you weren't convinced on this pairing at the start, I'm hoping I may have converted you now!

A Very Unexpected Yule, Chapter 1

Hermione Granger gave a tight smile, read the official Ministry flyer she had just received, then looked up as her office door opened. Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy were both looking exasperated as they led a clearly unrepentant Antonin Dolohov into her office. Antonin's face lit up in a slow smile as he saw her. "Exactly what have you done to infuriate the Aurors this time Dolohov?" she asked as his smile turned into a predatory grin.

She chewed distractedly on her bottom lip as she watched him sit down, feeling strangely disconcerted as she always did in his presence. He was almost 20 years her senior, and a notorious dark wizard to boot, but he was also in her opinion, an extraordinarily sexy man. When he was fired up and infuriated over something like he was now, she found him mesmerizing. "I simply told them that if any harm befell my witch I'd kill the bastard responsible." He said, staring straight at her without a flicker of regret. "And then I explained exactly how I planned to do that. Apparently that, and the fact that I had my wand pointing directly into Potter's face was enough to make the whole department come running." His lips flicked up into another amused smirk as he watched her reaction. Hermione sighed as her eyes flickered to Harry, and then to Draco, Draco rolled his eyes while Harry merely shrugged.

"Yes." Hermione swallowed, trying to remain unaffected by his sudden outburst of protectiveness, "I can see why that upset them, particularly with the threat coming from you. I also see that they've slapped your restraint cuffs back on, which should have settled their hysterics, and, I will point out yet again, that I am not your witch."

"Yet." His gaze was heavy and his eyebrow twitch purposeful as he made sure that she broke eye contact first. "If the Ministry wants to use my curse-breaking services then they need to understand who they're dealing with." His accented voice was low, feral, and almost growling as he continued to rake his grey eyes protectively over her. "No one threatens my witch and lives to tell the tale." He had been holding his wrists together as he spoke and when he brought them apart he dropped the pair of Azkaban grade magic dampening cuffs that had supposedly been subduing him onto the desk in front of her. Harry and Draco were both staying uncharacteristically quiet. Hermione knew neither of them had worked her strange relationship with Dolohov out. She couldn't blame them, she hadn't worked it out herself either.

"Indeed." Her voice was rather wobbly in comparison to his. She eyed the cuffs, a mixture of frustration and amusement on her face. "I take it Head Auror Robards doesn't know you can take those off?"

Antonin shrugged, still smiling broadly. "I've no idea what he knows. But I'd have thought you'd have known better at least, Kotehok. Imagine the Ministry trying to restrain a man such as myself with a warded object. Curse breaker, remember? Don't presume you can hold me, any of you." He glared at Harry, and then at Draco who seemed unable to meet his eye, "I'm here through choice and my own volition."

"We remember," Hermione said, trying not to break his latest stare down as Harry cleared his throat awkwardly. "Now can you please lower the testosterone, remember I've kept stroppy boys in line all my life and I'm not about to be intimidated by you now." She attempted to hold his eyes threateningly but admitted defeat as he merely smirked back at her and her insides did an untimely flip-flop of lust.

Giving up on trying to be intimidating, Hermione turned to Harry and changed the subject. "Tell me exactly what's happened with this case, right from the start. I remember some of the details of course, but I need to understand this whole thing properly. Especially if you're saying I'm now personally involved."

She closed her eyes, taking a steadying breath in through her nose and then blowing it out slowly through her mouth. She wished she felt as confident inside as her outward appearance portrayed, but in reality, Dolohov turned her to mush every single time she saw him. Harry and Draco sat on either side of him and Harry kept his wand pointed at him at all times. Draco was a little more relaxed but he kept his wand in his hand nevertheless. Hermione eyed her own, sitting just out of easy reach on her desk, but she refused to give Dolohov the satisfaction of seeing her reach for it. "Myself and Draco are taking over the unsolved case of Ginny's attack. The case was reopened this morning." Harry said. "The unidentified suspect has already harmed four people as you know. Prior to each attack, he sends a series of clues as to who his next victim will be. His victims are all from our school year, and consist of one woman from each Hogwarts house with a romantic link to myself."

Harry broke off, looking rather nauseated. "Victim number one." Draco said, taking over, "Cho Chang. Ravenclaw, dated Potter in school. Victim number two, Tracy Davis. Slytherin, dated Potter after school while Weasley was away. Victim number three, Hannah Abbott. Hufflepuff. This one was slightly less obviously linked but she was Potter's personal assistant and they had a brief affair while he was seeing Tracy. I've already hexed his bollocks for this since Tracy is a friend of mine. Victim number four. Ginevra Weasley. Currently engaged to Harry. A minor team of Aurors investigated this case as the hexes were considered relatively light until Ginny's attack. As would be typical of the halfwits investigating, the trail ran dry. They failed to apprehend anyone and since the attacks had ended they decided to close the case. Not my team and not my decision to do so. Today it was reopened because It would appear that the attacks are not over."

Hermione nodded as Antonin opened his briefcase with a wave of his hand. He pulled out four small statues, three of them bronze and one silver, and lined them up on her desk. This was all old news, Hermione knew the case well and had seen the statues before. "Prior to each attack, Harry received a statue by owl post." Draco continued. "This was the first one." Antonin handed her a bronze statue of an Eagle. "It came with a note, quoting the Ravenclaw lines from the sorting hat's song, and a photograph of a swan."

"Cho's Patronus." Hermione breathed as Harry nodded. She stroked the little statute, shivering at the prickly feeling it caused in her palm. "This feels…."

"Cursed," Antonin said. "It's safe now, I broke it." He said, summoning the eagle wandlessly as Hermione abruptly dropped it. "As if I'd hand you a live cursed object Kotehok," he tutted, "Anyone would think you didn't trust me.

"Back up Dolohov," Harry said crossly but Antonin merely smirked.

"Statue number two." Antonin took over. "A snake. Slytherin. Another quote from the hat's song and a photograph of a kitten. Tracy's Patronus." Hermione nodded, mesmerized by his body language as she took the snake he passed her. He was quite the storyteller. "Third," He handed her a statue of a badger and took the snake in return, stroking it almost lovingly before placing it back on the table. "This one came with another quote from the sorting hat and a photograph of a wisp of silver vapor. This confused the braindead Aurors on the case until Hannah was attacked; she was never totally able to master the Patronus charm and could only conjure a noncorporeal version. So we have three bronze statues, three minor hex attacks on three minor girlfriends of Harry's. Now it gets interesting."

Hermione held her breath as Draco picked up the silver lion on the table and Harry looked disgusted. "The quote accompanying this was from the Gryffindor part of the song, and the photograph was of a white mare."

"Ginny." Hermione breathed, taking the lion statue from him. She knew all about this attack of course, as well as a personal account from her best friend, Ginny being slashed with the Sectumsempra curse had been splashed all over the Daily Prophet for weeks. But, Ginny had recovered and in true Ministry style nobody had been caught and the trail had run dry. "I still don't understand what's brought all this up again today. I got your note, Harry, and I authorized Antonin to be involved based on my trust in you. I just don't have the slightest clue why you wanted or needed him specifically. Why wouldn't an ordinary curse breaker have done?"

Harry paused for a moment, considering her as Antonin chuckled. "The case reopened today and we needed a dark curse specialist because things have changed significantly. We think the metals the cursed statues are made from, as well as the curses themselves, are more significant than the original investigating team believed." He leaned forwards and lined the statues up on the desk. Three bronze statues, three minor relationships, three minor attacks. One silver statue, one more important relationship, one more serious attack. And then-" Harry swallowed as he broke off.

"There was another statue, photograph, and note delivered today, and this one considerably upped the game," Draco said.

"So they owled me because I'm the best there is." Antonin leaned back in his chair, crossing one leg nonchalantly over his opposite knee.

"You're certainly the most arrogant," she muttered with a frown.

"What's that prekrasnyy?" his smirk was slow and sinful and she was trapped yet again in his gaze.

"Nothing." She hid her amusement, not many people would take being called arrogant as a compliment, but she should have known that he would, and his ego really didn't need feeding. "What was the development?"

Antonin's expression changed. The playful smirk fell and his features took on a look of cold, hard fury. The bottom felt like it had dropped out of Hermione's stomach and she didn't know if she was more afraid of what he was going to tell her, or of the man himself. Her fingers itched to hold her wand and she comforted herself with the fact that Harry and Draco were here. "This arrived." Antonin reached into the briefcase and pulled out another statue. It was identical in shape and size to the silver lion but was made of gold. "There was no quote with this one, only the words "this time she dies." And, it was accompanied by this. He placed a photograph onto her desk and Hermione gasped, her hands flying to her mouth in horror.

Time seemed to stop as she looked from the little statue to the photograph of an otter. She opened her mouth and closed it again, feeling as if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room. "But, thats…."

"Kotehok, you're safe. Nobody is going to get anywhere near you, believe me." Each attack took place twenty four hours after its corresponding statue was sent. Every Auror in the Ministry is on this case and until the suspect is caught I will personally not let you out of my sight. Do you seriously expect anyone to attempt to harm you in front of me?"

Hermione was too shocked to respond straight away. She stared at the gold lion as if she still expected it to spring to life and to attack her. "What curses were on the statues? Why is the metal significant? And why didn't the original team realize this?"

"Total ineptitude-" Harry had clearly had enough. He hit Dolohov with a silencing spell and Antonin grinned.

"We think gold is a reference to your nickname." Draco usually never missed an opportunity to tease her about this, but today his eyes were somber. "You're known as the golden girl. Potter's golden girl to be precise."

"I thought it was Potter's Mudblood?" Antonin raised a dark eyebrow as Draco glared at him and Harry raised his wand again threateningly, "Easy Potter, I only asked a question, no need to overreact. We all know what can happen when I'm silenced and I don't want my soul tethered to anyone else's. I'm a one witch man." Antonin looked thoroughly amused at the reaction his words had caused. "Each statue arrived by owl, addressed to Potter. When Harry unwrapped the first statue he was hit by an overwhelming urge to visit Cho Chang. Happily for her, she was out of her office at the time. Her colleague suspected something was wrong due to Potter's mania with finding her and took him to the Ministry curse breakers who thought he'd been dosed with amortentia. When the antidotes failed to work and the inept curse breakers failed to do anything productive, the statues were warded and stored securely. Malfoy contacted me this morning. I broke the multiple curses each one was carrying."

"And what did they turn out to be?" Hermione stared at the statue as if it would bite her.

"A charm which compelled Harry to visit the intended victim and give them the statue, which would then kill them. The statues carried the same curse as did an opaline necklace that little Malfoy here is rather familiar with."

Draco closed his eyes and sighed. "The necklace I tried to get Katie Bell to give to Dumbledore carried the same curse. This version is a little more refined though, it only works on its intended target, and Harry alone felt the compulsion to pass it on. The original Auror team thought they were dealing with minor curses and attacks, when in fact, they weren't."

"And did you receive this statue this morning?" Hermione asked, still staring at it in disbelief.

"Yes," Antonin said as he scooped the statues back into his briefcase. "This is one of the many curiosities of the case. The first statue alerted everyone to the fact that it was cursed. It failed in its task and yet the sender continued to send four more, knowing that each further statue would fail in its mission. He has also identified each intended victim in advance and thus it is only due to the total incompetence of the original Aurors that the attacks succeeded. Also, we don't yet understand why the statues carried a curse capable of murder yet the corresponding attacks were so light." He set the briefcase back down on the floor. "As I said, Kotehok, you are safe, but you are not to leave my sight."

"But I can't do that! I mean, Harry, what the hell?!" She stared at Harry and Draco wondering if they'd both lost their minds. Antonin Dolohov existed on the murky grey edge of the law, one of seven non apprehended Death Eaters still at liberty. Two were free simply because they hadn't been caught yet, one was apparently dead, and the remaining four, Antonin Dolohov, Thorfinn Rowle, Lucius Malfoy, and Rabastan Lestrange, traded Ministry favors for their heavily guarded, relative freedom as part of a program that Hermione herself had designed. Although she was happy to deal with the increasing amount of dark wizards being signed over to start her rehabilitation scheme, it did not mean that she trusted any of them enough to consider this.

"Hermione," Harry sighed. "This has Death Eater activity written all over it. It's evil, it's twisted and you are, we believe, in grave danger. Draco and I are both on this case and will be working obscenely long hours now, there is no one else I would trust to protect you-"

"I can protect myself-" she bit out furiously but Antonin just laughed.

"Oh please Milaya, you can't."

"How the hell would you know?!" she stood up, her fingers twitching to hold her wand and hex him.

"Hermione, I watch you all the time and you leave yourself open to everything. If someone wanted you dead it would be as easy as this." He clicked his fingers and conjured a little ball of eerie green light in his hand, bounced it onto her desk then waved his hand and dispersed it as Hermione squealed and Harry jumped in front of him with his wand raised. Draco just closed his eyes and let out a long exhale as Antonin grinned, he'd obviously seen the trick before. "Jumpy little Auror aren't you Potter?"

Hermione had had enough. "Out!" she leaned forwards, slamming her hands on the desk. "You!" she pointed at Antonin, "come here." Still smiling lazily Antonin stood up and approached her desk. She picked up the useless magic dampening cuffs and he held his hands out with a half-grin. She yanked the cuffs tighter than she should have done, knowing that they were pointless but wanting to assert herself anyway. "I will contact you, Dolohov, when I've made my decision. You too Draco. Harry, stay."

Ignoring the amused looks Antonin and Draco both threw her she opened the door with her wand and unceremoniously threw them both out into the corridor before slamming the door shut and locking it once more. She turned to Harry and sighed. "Of all the people you could have contacted, Harry, why in the name of Circe did it have to be him?

She had almost calmed down by the end of the day. She understood why Harry had contacted Dolohov, and in his position, she would have done the same. Despite the edgy snark he constantly displayed, Antonin had proved himself trustworthy numerous times. He had spent four years linked to the ministry, dismantling the very worst dark curses that no one else had the skills or the confidence to attempt. He and Rowle worked well together and they were glowing, if improbable, examples of what Hermione had hoped to achieve with her Death Eater rehabilitation program.

Hermione had watched the trials of the Death Eaters closely and had designed a program to harness their skills in a safe and effective way, allowing a selected few to repay some of their debt to society. The highest ranking Death Eaters were all highly intelligent and powerful wizards, and most of them had skills which were badly needed in the post-war world.

The program had started by successfully recruiting Lucius Malfoy and Rabastan Lestrange, before adding in Thorfinn Rowle. Rowle had then brought in the elusive and mercurial Dolohov and he had proved to be the best curse breaker the Ministry had ever seen. He remained in the program due to his sheer brilliance and usefulness. Although his steadfast refusal to comply with the program's mandatory therapy and interventions was causing Hermione a big problem. So far she was managing to look past most of that with the head of the DMLE but she didn't know how long she could get away with it for.

Dolohov also happened to be soul tethered to Hermione.

It had happened when she was sixteen, during the Battle at the Hall of Prophecy. She had silenced him at the exact second a curse aimed at her had left his lips. Instead of killing her outright, the curse had mutated and somehow tied their souls together for life. This, he had previously admitted, had been the reason that he hadn't harmed her when he and Rowle had been sent after her, Harry, and Ron in Tottenham Court Road. And it had been the reason she had saved his life by healing him in the Forbidden Forest after the Battle of Hogwarts. It was, he claimed, why he was so outlandishly protective of her, and she suspected it was the reason her insides felt like a scorching inferno the moment he came near. She was beyond attracted to the man and he knew it. He also knew that she refused to act on that attraction. He had been a big part of the movement that had killed many of her friends and caused her to obliviate her parents, and he had been involved in more dark magic than she cared to know about. He was just not a sensible man to pursue, or to have as her bodyguard.

She should have known he would be waiting for her outside the Ministry as she made her way home. She gasped when he dropped his disillusionment spell and materialized beside her. "Nice night for a stroll, Milaya."

"Indeed it is." Hermione gritted her teeth, ignoring the Russian terms of endearment he so frequently used when referring to her, and tried not to let his proximity bother her. She glanced down, his cuffs were still in place, although given how easily he could remove them that was hardly a comfort. "I'm meeting Harry in a-"

"No, you're not." He smirked, "You're coming home with me."

"No, I'm bloody not!"

He ran a hand down her arm, and taking advantage of her surprise, laced his fingers through hers. She gasped and stilled as he spun her to face him. Dark hair, pale skin, grey eyes, his was a face that had haunted both her nightmares and more recently her dreams, she never knew which it would be. Sometimes she woke terrified, shaking with fear and cowering away from the memory of him, at other times she woke hot, wet, and needy, pulling his face to the front of her mind as she plunged her fingers where she needed them and used the thought of him to push herself over the edge and into sweet oblivion.

"Kotehok, you are in danger. You have had a death threat made against you by a suspect who has followed through on every single one of his previous threats. You would be a fool to ignore it and you are no fool. If you are truly uncomfortable with me protecting you I'll leave you to Potter and Malfoy. But I think there's something you're hiding. Something other than my past which is scaring you off."

She stared into his eyes, watching the grey shrink as it was swallowed by the molten darkness of his pupils as he regarded her with unbridled desire. "What is it, Hermione? Do I truly frighten you so much? I've never given you a reason to doubt me, not since we started working together." She swallowed. He was right of course, there was very definitely a reason she didn't want to be alone with him, and she was fairly sure he knew what it was. "Harry and Draco expect me to be an arsehole so that's how I behave in front of them, you don't. I can be a gentleman too you know."

He let go of her hand. "You trust me enough to let me do this." He placed his cuffs once again into her open palm and closed her fingers around them, "I'm going to walk away now, and unless you call me back I'll keep walking and all you and I will ever have is a distant working relationship." He let go of her fingers and her lips parted ever so slightly to let her pull in an uncertain breath. His eyes lingered on her bottom lip, he sucked in a breath that mirrored hers, tense and full of unrequited desire, before he turned on his heel and started to walk away.

Her heart was hammering as she watched him saunter away in broad daylight on a muggle street while she held the magical restraints that were meant to keep him in check. Crafty, that was one way to describe him. Or was he simply more trusting than she thought? Did he really trust her not to turn on him and have him arrested and thrown into Azkaban for life? She waited a beat longer. Two beats, until seeing him leave became unbearable. "Antonin!" she called, and he paused. "Wait!"

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