A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! I am so pleased that you guys are enjoying this story so far. It's been a lot of fun to write. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter fifteen and be on the lookout for chapter sixteen next week.
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Despite Hermione suddenly becoming dreadfully dull as a mother, Bellatrix still found Hermione interesting enough to hang around with. "You're at least more interesting than my sister and her stupid friends," Bellatrix said scornfully. "At least you've already got the damn heir, so you aren't talking about dumb ways to get one."
Hermione blushed at that statement, finding the whole topic completely uncomfortable. "Do they really talk about that?" she asked the other witch with surprise in her voice. "About how best to conceive an heir?"
She was absolutely scandalized, despite her modern sensibilities. Of course, she had talked about sex with her friends like any witch would, but it was always in secret whispers and euphamisms, seeing as none of them had any real experience to speak of.
"Yes," Bellatrix lamented. "And they never even talk about the good stuff. Just their menstrual cycles and the rhythm of fertility."
"Bella," Hermione chided with a laugh. "The good stuff, honestly!"
"What?" Bellatrix asked, sounding coy. "Tell me you don't want to know what sex is like with Gareth Greengrass? Do you think he's blond all over?"
Hermione blushed, knowing that Gareth was rather good looking, but she had certainly not ever wanted to know that about him. "Can't say that I have," she answered, biting her lower lip and praying that Bellatrix wouldn't ask something intimate about Theo. She couldn't imagine how he would react to that.
Thankfully, she did not, but instead continued to walk along the tree lined path with Hermione, pushing a six month old Arthur in front of her in the pram. He was a good baby, which was maybe why Bellatrix tolerated him so far. He took after Theo, mostly, but now that his hair was growing longer, Hermione could see a hint of curls beginning to form. Merlin, she hoped that she hadn't cursed him with her hair texture!
Biting her lower lip again, Hermione considered her next words carefully. "Are you sure you've never wanted a baby of your own?" she asked cautiously, not wanting to poke the bear. "I just mean, not right away of course, but someday?"
Hermione had always imagined that Bellatrix and Rodolphus's childless marriage was due to them going to Azkaban after Voldemort's fall, but now that she knew her a little bit better Hermione wondered if it wasn't more purposeful on Bellatrix's part.
"Can't say that I have," Bellatrix answered with a shrug of her shoulders. "I suppose one day I will have to, but for now I am happy putting all my energy into following the Dark Lord. Not to mention if I had to choose a father for my spawn Rodolphus would not be it!" she added quite vehemently.
She wouldn't argue with that, Hermione supposed. She did not know Rodolphus very well, but she did know that he was a cruel, stupid, womanizer. "I just can't believe that your father picked someone like him for you," Hermione said, furrowing her brows. "Especially when Lucius and Narcissa seem so well suited."
"Well, he probably thought that Rodolphus could keep me in line," the black haired witch answered with a smirk. "Not to say that he didn't try."
"I would be furious," Hermione sympathized with with woman. "With my father, if he would have made me marry Rodolphus."
Bellatrix shrugged, obviously never seeing it that way. Pureblood girls did what they were told, even the stubborn ones like her. "I can't complain too much. Being married has given me a sort of freedom that I did not have with my father. I'm marked now, and is Death Eaters can do whatever we like."
Hermione's frown deepened. It was so odd to have Bellatrix speak so freely about being a Death Eater in broad daylight, in a park of all places. She would think that the secret group would be more, well...secretive. But then again, Bellatrix had never been subtle. She would show off her mark at every chance that she got, and Hermione could still remember Bellatrix's voice echoing through the halls of the Ministry that she had killed Sirius Black.
"What do I need to expect when Theo takes the mark?" Hermione asked, agonizing over the event once she learned how inevitable it really was.
Bellatrix clicked her tongue against her teeth. "Naughty, naughty, Hermione," she chided with glee. "You know that I can't share anything with the uninitiated. Unless, of course, you want to join too."
Hermione shook her head. "I-I couldn't possibly. While I am so supportive of the cause, I'm afraid that I don't have the stomach for it," she said, resolutely.
The other witch smirked as though Hermione were wavering. "I think we will work on you yet."
"It's just...I don't need any details of what Theo will have to do in his initiation, but...I want to be a supportive wife," she said. "What can I do to help him recover afterwards. I imagine it will be physically and magically demanding — Lord Voldemort will only want the best among his followers, of course," she flattered the other man, knowing that it was more likely to get Bellatrix to open up.
She just couldn't let Theo go without knowing how she was going to get him back. She knew that it would be the most challenging task that he had faced yet. And, while Theo was off sacrificing himself to push their mission forward, Hermione would be at home, cuddled up with Arthur. It wasn't fair, she knew, and she wanted to give him as much support as possible.
"I really shouldn't be saying this," Bellatrix finally broke, after a few beats of silence. "Just make sure you potions kit is up to date. He should need too much, just a day or two in bed to regain his strength."
"I'll be there to wait on him hand and foot," Hermione answered, honestly. It was the least she could do.
"But I think Theo will do just fine, so don't worry," Bella added with a grin. "The Dark Lord likes him — Theo has made a good impression on Lucius and Evan and even Rodolphus. Even if he's pissed off Alfred for some reason."
Hermione blushed. "I wish I knew why he hated us so much. Here I thought it would be nice to have some connection to family."
"He's probably just vexed that he was finally forced to find a wife," Bellatrix explained with a roll of her eyes. "He never had to think about his family live until Theo showed up."
"What do you think of Ursula?" Hermione asked, hoping to get some insight. "I still haven't met the witch despite it being—"
"Excuse me," a familiar Scottish brogue cut Hermione off mid sentence. "But you dropped your glove."
As she turned around to face Minerva McGonagall, the other witch was already shoving a thing glove into Hermione's hand. She could feel the crinkle or parchment inside. "Thank you," she said with a sneer, looking at the glove as if it had been dropped in something unsavory.
Minerva nodded, before turning and continuing down the path, without saying another word.
"I suppose I should be grateful for her returning my glove," she said, before stuffing the article in her pocket. "But what a rude witch she was, interrupting our conversation like that!" Hermione could feel her heart beating wildly against her chest and hoped that Bellatrix did not catch on that she and Minerva were familiar with one another.
Bellatrix looked after Minerva's retreating form. "You probably want to burn that glove," she said with a sneer.
"Oh Merlin, don't tell me she's a mudblood," Hermione whispered furiously, hoping to sound suitably affronted.
"Salazar, no," Bellatrix reassured her. "She's a halfblood, which I suppose is not much better, but she is definitely a blood traitor. Odd though."
"What's odd?" Hermione asked her hand tightening on the handle of the pram.
"What she's even doing down here in London," Bellatrix said with a cross look on her face. "She's a professor at Hogwarts. I wonder what little task Dumbledore has her doing down here."
Internally, Hermione was fuming that Minerva had been so careless, approaching her in public like that. She was glad that they had nearly made it back to the townhouse so that she could read what the bloody note said. It had better be good, or else it was completely reckless.
Wishing Bellatrix a good afternoon and thanking her for keeping her company while on her walk with Arthur, Hermione slipped inside her house. Handing her son off to Dolly, Hermione immediately went in search of Theo, needing to tell him what had happened. She found him in the potions laboratory, his back straight while he stirred away at a potion.
"You won't believe who Bellatrix and I ran into at the park," she said with a frown, digging around in her pocket for the note.
"Who?" Theo asked, looking up from his cauldron.
"Minerva," Hermione told him with a frown, working to unwrap the little piece of parchment. "She even came up to me a slipped me a note!"
That had Theo's ear peeking up at attention. "Why would she do something so risky? It must be important," he said with a matching frown. "Did Bellatrix suspect?"
"No," Hermione said, hoping that her instincts were correct.
Finally getting the parchment opened, Hermione read over the words, only to find a brief note requesting a meeting for the following day at a specified time. They would need to get her a portkey. She passed the note to her husband.
He read it afterwards, and she watched as his shoulders slumped in relief. "At least it's nothing too innocuous," he said finally. "But we will have to scold her — she can't think that she can just approach us like that. It's too risky."
"Perhaps we should set up some kind of back channel to communicate with her?" Hermione asked, remembering the announcement page in the Daily Prophet. Anyone could pay to have an announcement placed and it was delivered every day.
"We can discuss it with her," Theo agreed. "Do you want to make the portkey, or should I?"
"I'll make it," Hermione assured him. "You finish your potion."
She wanted to bring up what Bellatrix had told her about Theo having made a good impression on the Dark Lord, but held back. She remembered Bellatrix's somewhat veiled suggestion that Hermione might want to be branded some day. A small, tiny part of her was flattered that Bellatrix thought she could do it — that she'd inhabited this persona so well that she'd even managed to fool Voldemort's most ardent supporter. But, the larger part of her knew that Hermione Nott could not be a Death Eater, would never become a Death Eater.
And telling Theo that it had come up would only serve to make her husband mad.
Hermione and Theo had decided that their townhouse was still the best place to meet with Minerva, though they would need to pick a new place for their next meeting. Now that they were becoming more popular, the likelihood that someone would drop in to visit them was growing larger. And neither of them fancied coming up with a lie for why Minerva McGonagall was sitting in their parlor on their feet.
They were waiting for her with a fresh pot of tea on the table when she arrived, stumbling only briefly before catching herself. When her eyes settled on Hermione and Theo, she slowly grew furious.
"Before you say anything, we need to make something clear," Hermione said firmly. "You are not to approach me again in public, and certainly not when I am with Bellatrix Lestrange. I am sure you know how dangerous she is?"
Minerva looked confused. "Hardly more dangerous than anyone in her set," she spat. "And I will not be scolded like I am some child! If you didn't want me to approach me in public, you shouldn't have left me moldering away for over a year without any word from you!"
"We would have contacted you if we had need of you," Theo answered.
"I got you that Diadem and then you said you'd e contacting me over the summer holidays, only then I never hear from you again," she said frustrated. "I did a favor for you — you owe it to me to at least keep me in the loop! I could have just told Dumbledore what you had me do."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at the woman, still upset that she would dare to question them when they were putting their lives on the line. "You wouldn't," she said, knowing that it would be impossible for Minerva to break the Unbreakable Vow they'd made. She was glad that they had made it in the first place.
But then, she started to soften a bit, remembering the frustration she'd felt when Harry or Dumbledore wouldn't just tell her what was going on, thinking that it was for her own good, when she felt she could have really helped them.
"We shouldn't have waited so long to contact you, you're right," she said giving Theo's knee a squeeze when he started to protest. "But we really have been busy and I suppose lost track of things a bit."
"Right, just going to parties and having babies," Minerva said, not sounding too happy with her apology.
"Leave Arthur out of this," Theo chided with a frown.
She crossed her arms. "I don't see why I should. The only reason I know anything about you two is because of the society pages in the Daily Prophet," she snarled back at him.
"Yes, we have been going to parties and ending up in the paper, but it's a necessary evil. We have to get close to these people if we are going to have any chance of bringing them down," Hermione explained with a frown. "But Arthur doesn't have anything to do with it, despite putting me out of the field for a little bit."
"Have you even found anymore of the horcruxes?" she asked, sounding frustrated. When she saw the guilty looks on Hermione and Theo's faces she let out a small huff. "I don't even know why my future self would have sent you to torment me."
"Your future self sent us because she knew we were the best chance at taking down Voldemort," Theo said firmly. "Now, we might not have gotten our hands on another horcrux but that doesn't mean we've been sitting by idle."
"Yes, I've got the property records of the Gaunt family ancestral home, where we believe one is located," Hermione shared with her.
"MacMillian?" Minerva asked, before dropping into her seat.
"We had nothing to do with that," Hermione insisted, leaving out the fact that she'd known about the attack ahead of time, and the fact that it was Dahlia's muggleborn status that had gotten him targeted in the first place. She wasn't sure that this Minerva would have understood her not giving a more concrete warning to the man. But, Hermione knew she couldn't have given him more heads up than she already had, seeing as it wasn't likely that Bellatrix told many people about the attack.
"So, you can see, we will have another one soon," Theo said gently. "We are working on the others as well. I've befriended Lucius Malfoy, who we believe is in possession of another horcrux."
"And I have the unfortunate task of befriending Bellatrix Lestrange," Hermione shared. "I know that another one of the horcruxes is in the Lestrange vault at Gringotts. That will be the most difficult of the five for us to get."
Minerva looked somewhat placated, now that she knew there was an actual plan in place. "Albus has been holding more Order meetings now that the Death Eaters have gotten more brazen," she said. "MacMillian's death shook a lot of people."
"Hopefully, we will be able to pass along some advance notice about more attacks soon," Hermione said, biting her lower lip, unsure if Theo would want to share all the details with her.
"I've been tapped to join the Death Eaters," he said, his eyes dropping to his lap. "Nothing is set in stone yet, but it's likely to happen before the end of the year."
"We can tell you some details, but not every attack that's going to happen," Hermione explained. "We don't want them to suspect that there is a spy. It would put Theo at unnecessary risk."
"I...I'm trying to be understanding," Minerva said finally, though it was clear she was struggling. "I just...it will be hard to trust a Death Eater."
"I wouldn't be doing this unless I had to," Theo promised. He was resolute and it went a long way in convincing Minerva. "Besides, once it's time to finally kill the bastard, we will be close enough to get to him."
"Okay," she agreed, after a long pause. "I will have faith that you know what you are doing. But...can you promise not to keep me in the dark for so long again? For a moment I almost felt like I'd imagined it all."
Hermione agreed with her, that it had really been too long. "About that...we were thinking that we could use the society pages to communicate when we want to set up a meeting. They will print anything," she explained. "If you see anything referencing Madame Ernestine Carlisle, you will know it's from us."
"So if Madame Ernestine Carlisle held luncheon at 2:00 pm on Sunday," Theo described a potential message. "It would mean that we would meet at 2:00 pm the following Sunday, at whatever the location is."
Minerva agreed to the plan. "And if you see anything from Miss Roberta Carleton, you will know it's from me."
With that agreed upon, Minerva was able to leave the Notts' townhouse feeling much more confident in their plans moving forward.