Breaking the Window

Chapter 49: Recovery

Hermione stretched and let out a slight groan.

She was lying on something soft, almost impossibly soft. At the same time, her body was stiff and rigid. Stretching after waking up caused pangs of pain to shoot through her limbs. And the fatigue. God, she felt so tired.

What had happened? The last thing she remembered was squaring off with Rodolphus Lestrange. Then something hit her in the back, clamped around her wrist and sent her flying. It all got a little bit hazy after that.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at the wooden beams of a large canopy bed. Bellatrix' canopy bed to be more precise. Had she been taken to Catterborough Woodhouse? How odd. Everything had felt like a weird dream and perhaps that was just what it had been. The light poured through the tall windows and, if she were to hazard a guess, it was late afternoon.

She felt something warm and soft pressing against her. When she turned her head, she first winced as her neck seized up and then smiled when she saw the sleeping face of Bellatrix. Her girlfriend lay pressed against her, with Zipper neatly nestled in between them. Bellatrix looked peaceful and calm, even though her mess of curly hair was falling over her eyes. Hermione raised her arm to brush some hair from her girlfriend's face.

Only to pause when she noticed that her arm was bandaged from her elbow to her wrist… and that there was no longer a hand attached to said wrist. She looked at her own maimed limb in disbelief before sighing heavily.

It wasn't a dream, then.

Well, shit.

She turned her head to survey the rather quiet room. Bellatrix' room to be precise and she was oddly delighted to see her wand lying on Bellatrix' desk. Her wand had been recovered after the duel, so there was at least that.

She let her handless arm fall back to the bed: this would take some getting used to. It was so odd, really. She could still feel as if there was a hand there, with fingers to move. In fact, Hermione could swear that she could feel the fabric of the sheets with non-existent fingers. Not so much phantom pain as phantom everything.

The sudden movement caused Bellatrix to stretch and stir. Her eyes fluttered open. It apparently took Bellatrix a few moments to realize that Hermione was awake, but when she did, she was overjoyed.

"Hermie!" she exclaimed and shifted to embrace her, waking up Zipper too in the process.

Hermione grimaced, the stiffness of her body not reacting well to the sudden motion. "Ow."

"Sorry," replied Bellatrix, before brushing lips with her. Bellatrix' closeness felt good, her lips tasting like light summer wine, her warmth encompassing her. Whatever Hermione had done, she had rescued her girlfriend from Rodolphus. Hermione had never fancied herself a knight in shining armour, but her righteous anger had won the day.

She wasn't afraid of Rodolphus Lestrange anymore. Would this mean no more nightmares? Only quiet nights? That was almost worth losing her hand to achieve, but only time would tell and something told her it wouldn't be quite that easy.

"What happened?" she asked, raising her handless wrist.

"To your hand?" Bellatrix gave her a sympathetic look. "The murder-unicorn happened."

"Is that what hit me in the back? Unicornis Rex bit my hand off?" Hermione frowned. If that was the case, she was lucky to be alive at all. "What about Rodolphus Lestrange?"

Bellatrix shook her head. "Eaten alive. Couldn't have happened to a nicer bloke. Not much left of him."

"And Unicornis Rex?"

"Not sure," said Bellatrix. "We were too busy getting you to safety. My father and I managed to defeat it and freeze its remains to prevent it from reconstituting. A Ministry team of unspeakables came to fetch it and it was already gone when were done prepping you for transport to St. Mungo's. After you'd been stabilized, Andie ordered you brought to Catterborough Woodhouse along with your parents. Naturally, it took the Ministry days to actually inform your parents."

"Typical," Hermione rolled her eyes. "They can collect Unicornis Rex at a moment's notice, but they balk at a single phone-call to my parents. How long have I been asleep? My throat is so dry."

"Three days."

"Three days?!" Hermione exclaimed, immediately regretting her outburst. The next thing Bellatrix did was to hop off the bed and fetch a decanter of water. She helped Hermione sit up and looked on sadly when Hermione reached for the glass with a non-existent hand. So, Bellatrix supported her head and held the glass for her. The cold water tasted like fine wine to Hermione's parched mouth.

"I should get father," said Bellatrix as Hermione lay back down. "He asked me to come fetch him the moment you'd awaken."

"Don't be long," Hermione asked. God, how was she going to explain this to her parents? She could hide the finer details of the war from them, a mistake at the time, but a missing hand would be a bit harder to hide or explain. Maybe she could ease them into it.

'Mum? Dad? There's a bit of me missing'. No. Too vague.

'Mum? Dad? Funny thing happened to me. You know how nan always forgot her book on the train rides down from Scotland? Well, I forgot more than just my book'. Nah, too much levity.

'Mum? Dad? I've been feeding a local wildlife. But I was a bit too enthusiastic about it'. No. Too morbid. Though dad might actually find that one funny… eventually.

Zipper chose to crawl up onto Hermione stomach and curl up to continue sleeping. By now, Hermione had fully accepted him as a pet… no, a friend. He had definitely gone above and beyond. She and moved to pet him with a non-existent hand only to realize that wouldn't do.

Curses, this would really take some getting used to.

As it turned out, she didn't have to wait long to break the news to her parents. Bellatrix came back into the room with both sets of parents in tow. Hermione quickly stuffed her arm under the blankets. Immediately, both her parents rushed her, her father taking her in a firm embrace while her mother hugged them both. "Oh Hermione," she muttered. "Your poor hand."

Ah. Of course they'd already know.

"How could this have happened?" muttered her father just as Zipper crawled out of the group hug and buzzed away, flying over to this hutch and headed inside to resume his rest away from the noisy people.

By the time that her father finally let Hermione go from the rib-and-spine-crushing hug, Hermione noticed that Bellatrix' father stood by her side while the butler Sebastian was setting up a table on which was a bowl filled with a silver liquid.

"That doesn't look like soup," spoke Hermione mother.

"You never know with places like this," said her father. "I heard one of the maids whispering again."

"The maids?" asked Hermione.

"Aye," said Jack. "Apparently having muggles in this household is a big thing. I've heard the maids wondering what the house is coming to."

Hermione snorted. Ironic how it was the maids who were most upset about having muggles in the house.

"Mon dieu!" exclaimed Bellatrix' mother. "The Grangers are our honoured guests! The young maids should learn to behave themselves!"

"Mistress Black," the butler Sebastian nodded briefly. "I shall have words with Cordelia, Goneril and Regan. I assure you it will not happen again."

Cygnus chuckled, leaning on his cane. "We'll be seeing more of the Grangers in the near future. They need to get used to the idea."

"What is that, Cygnus?" asked Jack. Hermione was, in fact, delighted that both their fathers seemed to be getting along quite well. Though judging by the way they often glanced at one another, their mothers seemed to be a tad wary of each other yet.

"This," said Cygnus. "Is my gift to your daughter. A reward, of a sort, for your bravery in finding Bellatrix and fighting Rodolphus Lestrange when she could not."

He first roved his wand over her body, apparently satisfied with the result. He asked Sebastian to move the table a little closer, to have it within arm's reach. "If you are feeling weak, that has to do with some of the curses Rodolphus cast at you. The severed hand and the blood-loss were easy enough to deal with, but the internal damage and the magical burns those curses did were much more severe than they first seemed. You will need at least two more weeks to recuperate, but you are strong enough to receive my gift."

Hermione looked on in fascination as Cygnus took her arm and undid the bandage, grimacing as she saw the extent of the damage done to her arm. He gently lay her arm near the bowl and started chanting arcane words she didn't recognize. Immediately, the silver-like substance started to churn.

"That looks like mercury," said Hermione.

"It currently is," replied Cygnus. "But not for long."

Hermione gasped when the liquid poured itself out of the bowl and started to slither towards her. Her first instinct was to pull her arm away, but Cygnus kept it in place. More arcane words, more wand waving.

The glob of mercury attached itself to her wrist. There was an odd sensation of the liquid first encompassing and then fusing to her skin. It churned again and when Cygnus told her to lift her arm, she did. The glob remained attached to her wrist.

"It needs some time to 'read' you," said Cygnus.

Hermione kept watching as the glob started to change shape while she felt the liquid painlessly penetrate her skin, knitting to her bone. Then, the glob reshaped itself: it formed knuckles, nails, veins, precisely to the shape of her hand. It was a perfect replica, with the one except that it was entirely silver. Fascinated, Hermione moved her fingers and found that she could move the metal hand as if it was flesh. It was a bit awkward at first, with fingers not bending properly. But soon the magic metal started to obey commands from her brain.

"Whoa!" her father gasped. "That thing looks cool!"

Hermione chuckled. Trust her dad to love this sort of thing. Turning her attention back to her hand, she wiggled her fingers. "This… is the same type of silver hand given to Peter Pettigrew by Voldemort."

"Hm," Cygnus half-smiled. "Voldemort did not have monopoly on dark magic. And, make no mistake, dark magic was very much required for the crafting of the mercury brew. Owning a silver hand is not illegal, but crafting one is. So do me a favour and don't mention where you got it from."

"I promise," smiled Hermione.

"Mercury?" said Emma Granger. "Isn't that poisonous."

"Not anymore, madame Granger," Druella interjected. "It is quite safe. Technically, it is no longer mercury after mixed with the magic."

The hand was very movable and Hermione was surprise to actually feel something when she raked it over the sheets. "Was that… me actually feeling something or still phantom feelings?"

"You should feel basic pressure and weight," said Cygnus. "You will know you're touching something, but nothing beyond that. You won't be able to feel if something is hard or soft, warm or cold, smooth or rough. It'll never be more than that. It will still be a facsimile which will never quite be the same as your own hand, particularly when it comes to finer movements. With effort, you will be able to learn to write with it, but I would suggest getting used to left-hand spellcasting."

Hermione smiled at him. "Still better than no hand at all. Thank you."

Cygnus took a small device and clamped it around the hand with leather straps. A thick steel bolt lay in the palm, preventing her from closing her new hand. "That device will help you get used to having a silver hand and prevents you from accidentally hurting yourself or others until you have firmer control. Be careful and I mean it. Your new hand can crush granite effortlessly."

"Well," said her father. "That thing just got 100% cooler."

"Dad," Hermione rolled her eyes.

Apparently, there was a celebration in one of the manor's many solariums and they would be headed there too. Rather confidently, Hermione tried to get out of bed only to find that her legs were like wet noodles. Sebastian helped her to get into a conveniently brought wheelchair and, after covering her legs with a warm plaid blanket, Hermione found herself being wheeled along with her family to one of the manor's many solariums.

The weather was quite pleasant outside, warming the room. A small buffet with foods which looked far too expensive for her sake was located near the window.

"HAH!" greeted Nymphadora the moment she saw them, spliff in her mouth as expected. "Heard you completely buggered up Rodolphus Lestrange. Good on you, Hermione!"

"Dora!" said Andromeda from her chair, being sat next to Ted. "Language!"

"English!" Dora helpfully answered.

Achille was happily painting away, grabbing a new canvas to paint Hermione in her wheelchair while Bellatrix was sat next to her holding her good hand. Narcissa were there as well, along with Draco. Draco seemed rather quiet for once, regarding her silver hand. Hermione's father moved to see what was on tap at the buffer, while her mother and Cygnus started chatting and Druella linked arms with Nymphadora. A moment later, Zipper came flying into the room and landed near Narcissa on the table. Though she was quite a bit wary, Narcissa slowly reached over to scratch his back. Apparently, Narcissa had found a sweet spot as Zipper dipped forward and fluttered his wings.

Life was good.

Especially when Bellatrix started spoon-feeding her beluga caviar.

Oddly enough, Bellatrix had been uncharacteristically quiet, to a point that is started to make Hermione a bit wary. The young witch smiled at her girlfriend. "Bella?" she asked. "What's wrong."

Bellatrix bit her lip, before apparently steeling herself.

"I want to marry Hermione!" Bellatrix spoke to the room, a bit too loud for comfort.

All conversations stopped. All heads turned.

Bellatrix bit her lip, dipped her head and spoke again. "I want to marry Hermione!" she stressed.

"Trix," Hermione blinked.

"I'm serious!" said Bellatrix. "I don't see myself spending my life with anyone else than you. I love you. Mister Granger? Jack? I'd respectfully and formally ask for your daughter's hand in marriage," Bellatrix announced.

"Uhmmm," replied Jack, still chewing whatever he had gotten from the buffet able.

"Wait," Hermione frowned. "You want to marry me. Why are asking my father? Shouldn't you be asking me?"

Bellatrix pouted. "Hush, Hermione! That's not how this works!"

"I beg your pardon!?" Hermione frowned, but then sighed. "I love you too, Trix. But aren't we a little young to be married?"

"Pffft, no!" Bellatrix scoffed. "I was to be married to Rodolphus next summer! Or… next summer in 1969, at least. Why can't I be married to you instead?"

Indeed, Hermione realized that Bellatrix was one of a kind: Bellatrix wasn't asking her to marry her. She was demanding it.

"Besides," Bellatrix crossed her arms and adopted a rather pouty expression. "Marriage agreements can take years to negotiate. We'd best make our intentions clear as quickly as possible or we'll both be in thirties before we can walk down the altar."

Cygnus nodded. "That is true," he said. "Negotiations with the Lestranges took well over a decade."

"Hah," Nymphadora chuckled. "I doubt auntie Bella is willing to wait that long."

Narcissa took a sip from her long-stemmed glass of wine before shaking her head. "Our dearest Bella was always impatient. Though in this case, I believe Bella is right to pounce before someone else claims miss Granger."

"Mother," Draco rolled his eyes. "Stop that! Her head's big enough already!"

Andromeda got up from her seat, first smiling at Bellatrix and then turning to Hermione's father. "Well, Jack, what do you say?" Andromeda said, smiling cheekily. "Shall we open preliminary negotiations?"

Jack Granger frowned for a moment. "How does this work?"

For a moment, Andromeda's eyes shone dangerously and greedily, as if she was a cat about to start batting around a dying mouse with her paws. "I'll steer you around the procedure. Not to worry. Shall we retreat to my office?"

Jack picked up a basket of bread from the table and followed Andromeda and Sebastian out of the room. It left Hermione and Bellatrix to smile at each other while holding hands. Hands. That was the thing. She turned her head to look at her new silver appendage and closed it around the clamp in her palm. She was actually startled to hear the clamp groan in protest. Apparently, her new hand was putting an enormous amount of pressure on the clamp without her even trying: she'd shudder to think what would happen if she were to shake someone's hand with this amount of force going through it: she could likely crush every bone into dust completely by accident.

Yes, this thing would need some getting used to.

"Well, congratulations, Granger," said Draco, crossing his arms while standing close to her. "You've managed to weasel you way into one of the most prominent and ancient wizarding families around. I know you were ambitious and clever, but I didn't think you'd be this devious. You would have made a good Slytherin, Granger."

"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment," Hermione replied.

"Hermie would have made an excellent Slytherin!" Bellatrix said, raising her chin imperiously.

"Coming for you, that is rather frightening," Hermione smiled.

Draco shook his head. "When marrying into a prominent house, you could have done a lot worse. Speaking of weasels, imagine marrying into the Weasley family. Talk about taking a step down, ey? Poor Pansy."

"Hey, nothing wrong with the Weasleys," said Hermione. "They're kind and generous people. And Ron is a good friend."

"Right," Draco rolled his eyes. "And you clearly value kindness and generosity over greatness and power, as is evidenced by the fact that you're marrying into the Weasley family instead of the Black family. Oh, wait…"

Hermione made a face. "You're such a rotter, Draco. All those things you mentioned aren't mutually exclusive."

Bellatrix put a finger to her lips. "When we're married, Hermione will be your aunt-in-law," she stated matter of factly.

Draco didn't seem all that amused by that idea. " Excuse me while I try to wrap my head around that."

"You aunt-in-law, hm? Wanna shake on it?" Granger smirked, extending her silver appendage.

"No thank you," Draco glowered.

It was at that moment that Nymphadora stepped up with a radio in hand, sitting down at the table near Hermione's wheelchair to plop the radio down. "Hey, listen to this," she said, the show on the radio being Info-Wizards. "Quiet up! They're talking about Hermione and auntie Bella's giant flesh-eating unicorn!"

With the others gathered around the radio.

"So, we've got more information from our source within the Ministry," spoke Dolohov over the radio. "Apparently, there's been a lot of activity at the Orkney Ministry Black Site the past few days, relating to the creature brought in from the Forbidden Forest incident. Folks, we've learned from our source that this creature, whatever it is, has been classified X6. X6! They have invented a whole new category specifically for this thing! What are your thoughts on that Newt?"

"Troubling to be sure, Antonin," replied Newt Scamander. "For those of you who don't know this, X5 is considered to the most dangerous class of magical beast, known to be wizard killers and impossible to train or domesticate. X5 is the classification of chimaera, basilisks and nundu's, all fearsome beasts. Even dragons have been recently downgraded to X4 after the incident at the Welsh sanctuary. If there is a creature which is considered to be more dangerous that X5, I shudder to think what it could be. With the explosion of new magical creatures of recent days due to the discoveries made by Bellatrix Black and Hermione Granger, there is also an influx of dangerous creatures. For every delightful borse, there is a terrifying mistwalker."

Mistwalker. Bellatrix and Hermione shared a look. Apparently, those things had been turning up in the South American jungles, making an already dangerous place even more dangerous. Judging from Bellatrix' expression of unease, her memories of their encounter with those creatures weren't much better than hers.

"Considering the description of the X5, I shudder to think how an X6 would be described. Knowing the Ministry, they might be looking for a way to exploit or weaponize this creature," said Dolohov. "What do you think, Newt? Would this be possible?"

"Hard to say, Antonin, without knowing more details about this particular beastie," said Newt. "But it is certainly not without precedent. We've seen the Dark Lord use dementors are weapons of war only four years ago. We've known of warlord Owetha Jafari using runespoors to devastating effect. And let's not even mention Japanese Spellswords making use of multiple types of Yokai throughout their history. I think we should be vigilant and I urge the Ministry to be cautious."

Dolohov scoffed. "When has the Ministry ever done anything else than to throw caution in the wind, Newt? SO LISTEN UP! Folks, we need to hold the Ministry's feet to the fire! We must be ready to take them to task! And to all you Ministry drones who I know are listening in, I just want to say this: Don't think you can hide anything from us! Because we're always watching!"

As Nymphadora turned down the radio, Bellatrix crossed her arms. "I should call in," said Bellatrix. "Tell them the truth. Tell them about the unicorn."

"Not now, Trix," chuckled Hermione. "Save it for your book. And don't tell me you're not already planning it. I could see your eyes light up the moment I said it."

"Maybe," Bellatrix winked. "Maybe not."

After some more pleasant chatting and enjoying the snacks, Hermione started to feel a lot more comfortable. She could quite get used to this: the Black family was very close and surprisingly welcoming, while their library contained more books than she could read in an entire lifetime. Not that she wouldn't give it a try to read all of them, of course. The best moment came when Bellatrix sat in her lap and pressed her lips against hers, hugging her tight. There was an endearing child-like enthusiasm to Bellatrix which reminded Hermione why she had fallen in love with her in the first place.

About half an hour after they left, Hermione saw her father and Andromeda returning. Her father was looking rather triumphant while Andromeda seemed to be rather confused.

"Ah," spoke Cygnus. "How were the preliminary negotiations? I remember the negotiations both with Abraxis Malfoy and Bivander Lestrange. Even the preliminary talks were rife with veiled hostility. I gather Jack treated you well, Andromeda?"

Andromeda blinked, apparently lost in thought before snapping out of it. "Ah, yes, uhm, well, Jack and I have reached an agreement."

Cygnus' jaw almost hit the ground while Druella gave her daughter an appreciative look. "Oh, well done, Minette," Druella spoke.

"Good show, Dromeda!" chuckled Ted.

"Yay!" Bellatrix cheered.

"Thirty minutes?" Narcissa frowned. "That has to be some sort of record."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were trying to get rid of Hermione, Jack," Andromeda put her hands on her hips. "It was very pleasant. Hermione will take the name Black after the wedding, which was my main demand. I would have expected more resistance from Jack, as it would effectively mean the end of the Granger family line."

"Eh," shrugged her father, making her mother give him a playful pat on the shoulder.

"In the matter of dowry, Hermione is allowed to move into the mansion as a member of the household and will have full access to Black family resources. She will receive a monthly stipend equal to those married into the house. Expenditures above a certain point will have to go through the head of the household, of course. After their deaths, Granger possessions will fall under control of house Black," said Andromeda. "All very standard so far. Jack did have four stipulations, however, and they are minor ones to which I have agreed. The first is that both Hermione and Bellatrix will be allowed to pursue any careers they desire. Second, Hermione will only allowed to be married on or after her 25th birthday."

Bellatrix instantly seized up. "What?!" Bellatrix gasped. "Twenty-five?! That's six years from now!"

Andromeda chuckled, apparently having expected this reaction. "Jack thinks you are both too young to be married and I tend to agree,"

A flash of betrayal crossed Bellatrix' dark eyes as she rather huffily regarded her younger-now-elder sister. Andromeda didn't miss this and crossed her arms defensively, glaring back at her. "Bella," she started. "You are seventeen."

"AND A HALF!" Bellatrix shouted.

"You just escaped one marriage, and now you want to dive head-first into another?" Hermione raised an eyebrow. "Let's just be girlfriends for a bit, Trix. Enjoy our youth before we lose it to responsibilities."

Bellatrix sighed. "There's a difference. I actually want to marry you," she replied. "But… I suppose you're right."

"You're cute when you're pouty," Hermione chuckled, earning herself a slight punch to the shoulder.

"Good," continued Andromeda. "Third stipulation is that the marriage contract can be annulled beforehand if either party chooses not to go through with the wedding. The fourth stipulation, well, it involves helping to replace and provide funding for a figure collection of a sort."

Hermione blinked. "Dad. You didn't."

"Hey, there were a lot of rare pieces in that collection and I saw an opportunity to help me find and replace them," he smiled.

Cygnus raised an eyebrow. "Believe me, I've heard far stranger demands. As far as stipulations for personal gain go, this one is quite mild."

A moment of quiet discomfort came over Hermione as she realized just what had been happening here. "Wait. Wait. Stop. Have I just been sold?" Hermione frowned.

Bellatrix chuckled. "Don't think about it too hard, Hermie," she said. "It's pretty much par de course in pure-blood families."

"Great," Hermione snorted. "I have just been sold to the Black family in exchange for a bunch of Dalek figures."

"And Star Trek figures," added her father. "Very rare ones too."

Hermione chuckled. "Dad, never change. I love you just the way you are."

"I'll have our solicitors draw up a contract. We'll send it to your representation for verification, Jack," said Andromeda. "Who is?"

"Send it to Emily Watson, of Watson, Watson and Watson, from Providence, Rhode Island," said Jack. "I'll tell her to expect it."

"Ah, a yank," replied Andromeda, apparently not impressed.

Bellatrix was still pouty when Hermione looked at her. Her girlfriend did do her the kindness of actually shifting a little as to not cut off the circulation to her legs, though certainly not giving up Hermione's lap. "Still upset?" Hermione asked.

"It'll pass," said Bellatrix. "I suppose we should spend the next five years learning to live with each other, hm? Wait, that sounded worse than I intended it to sound."

"I get your meaning," said Hermione. "I have to adjust to this lavish lifestyle and you still have to adjust to the time period. How about we just focus on getting our seventh year done and see where life takes us then, hm?"

"Oh, pooh, I forgot all about school," Bellatrix blew some air through her nose and sent some errant locks of curly hair flying after shaking her head. "Thanks for reminding me!"

Hermione smiled. "How about we just enjoy ourselves? Together."

"Definitely," smirked Bellatrix.

It was then that oncle Achille had finished his work, turning his easel around and revealing a freshly painted oil-painting of Hermione sat in her wheelchair with a smiling Bellatrix on her lap and Zipper parked on the top of Hermione's head. Two sad and lonely girls whom had met under the most mysterious of circumstances and had had grand adventures together, along with one surprisingly friendly giant wasp they had picked up along the way.

It wasn't the first painting Achille Rosier had immortalised the two of them it, nor would it be the last.

Almost at the end now. Epilogue next week!