Chapter Thirteen

"And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered." Genesis 9:2

A few months passed quietly but no-one ever heard from the Aurors left at the North Pole again. The mood in the Ministry grew more and more subdued as no news came through.

Voldemort, if he ever made it back to England, remained inactive. There had been one or two sightings of Voldemort in England on the day that the main party returned from the Pole but these remained unconfirmed.

Dumbledore had spent much time with Luna after the aborted mission, discussing how her extraordinary dreams had matched up with the events of the past few days. "You were right about the ice tunnels as well as the race of people not related to you but strongly associated to you," he reminded her gently.

"Yes," Luna said blankly. "But what about the flames and the black horse- like creature? There was nothing about that," she frowned.

"That may still be to come," Dumbledore said, outwardly comforting but inwardly filled with trepidation for Hermione.

The friends had spent many evenings at each other's homes discussing the possibilities of what might have happened but no-one had any real answers. Hermione remained of the opinion that Voldemort had come back to England that day only to somehow find out that the mission had returned far earlier than anticipated. As a result, he had been forced to put his plans on hold and remain in hiding for the time being. Whether or not he remained in hiding in England or had returned to the North Pole she did not venture to guess. However, the false red Aurora Borealis were not seen in the months following the mission which made her think that he had stayed in England after all.

Severus reserved judgment on the events of the mission but both Ron and Harry seemed to think that the race that lived under the ice had been lying to them. "Why would they make me go and haul Draco back there, only to tell us a bunch of lies?" Hermione argued. "It doesn't make any sense. They had nothing to either lose or gain in telling us what they did, so why lie?"

"Unless they were in the pay of Voldemort," Ron argued, his freckled face creased in a frown.

"How would Voldemort pay them? Chances are he's still very weak and would have little to offer. He doesn't have his old Death Eater friends to help him anymore," Hermione pointed out logically.

"Then again, Voldemort is very persuasive," Severus interjected silkily, playing devil's advocate.

"And how," Hermione agreed. "But I still don't think Voldemort would have anything to offer that race that they would want."

"It's a moot point anyway. The bottom line is, we'll never know. We'll never find their country under the ice again without one of those crystals. Whatever tunnel entrance you fell down that one time Hermione, would be one of a kind. Finding it again would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack," Padma said calmly, as always only interested in practical realities as opposed to unprovable theories.

Hermione, Luna and Draco regretted not asking for another green crystal that would take them back to the ice caves and Draco's ancestors. The one that they had been given had disintegrated upon the one use and none of them had thought to ask for another in the rush to intercept the mission at the North Pole and give the team the information they had gained.

As for Severus, he was far more concerned when he returned from the mission about getting their wedding out of the way before something else happened that made Hermione decide to postpone it again. As it turned out, the wedding went ahead a month after they got back under the dark cloud of the Aurors being missing at the North Pole still. It was a subdued wedding party but neither Hermione nor Severus were apt to care for a big, noisy celebration anyway. Both Ron and Harry's weddings had provided quite enough of that previously.

They had both chosen plain gold bands with the word "Mizpah" inscribed inside to match the ring Severus had given her on her eighteenth birthday. It still felt odd to Hermione to see the thick gold band on Severus' left hand. Somehow it made their bond less private and she was still uncomfortable with that although she knew it was a ridiculous reaction.

Hermione had asked Luna to be her bridesmaid as Luna was the only one of her friends left unmarried and their friendship had become much closer since they had started working together as well. As Luna helped Hermione with her hair before the wedding ceremony, Hermione has smiled and said, "you and Draco are the only bachelors left now."

Luna had smiled back. "Yes but Draco's putting the pressure on. He wants an heir."

"Why does that sound familiar?" Hermione said, rolling her eyes.

Luna laughed. "I'm not sure I'm the best one to give him an heir but he doesn't seem to be interested in finding a better mother for him."

"He loves you," Hermione said with a shrug, knowing she was stating the obvious.

"He's worried about it too," Luna said, carefully pinning up Hermione's thick, unco-operative hair.

"Worried about what?" Hermione asked.

"This weird thing I have with my dreams about other people's memories?" Luna began carefully. "It's genetic. My great-grandmother had it and my grandmother did as well to a lesser degree. It skipped a generation and came out very strongly in me," Luna explained.

"That's quite normal with unusual magical gifts," Hermione said reasonably.

Luna's strange dark green eyes met Hermione's grey ones in the mirror. "Do you know what it's like to see some-one's else's memories? The only memories that are strong enough to linger are the most traumatized and painful ones. You know that from the research we've done. I can explain the memories to you in words and that's horrifying enough but to see these suffering people's memories through their own eyes and to feel what they feel - that can never be explained in words. You're living it with them."

Hermione had never heard Luna sound so serious. It was a side of her Hermione had never seen before. She suddenly realized that there was a lot of unseen suffering that went with a gift like hers. "And you don't want some child of yours to suffer in the same way?" Hermione said gently.

"No," Luna said without hesitation.

Hermione said no more but made a plan to speak to Draco about it soon and see how he saw the situation, mainly because she was nosey but also because she cared about her friends and it was obvious they weren't as happy as they could be.

Hermione and Severus had gone on honeymoon to the mountain forests in Switzerland. "It seems a bit odd to be having a honeymoon when we've been living in each other's pockets for a decade," Hermione commented to him with amusement when he had booked the chalet through a wizarding travel agent.

"You are a romantic fool," he said ironically.

"I'm only here for the sex," Hermione said teasingly.

"Oh good. In that case." he said smoothly and pulled the unresisting Hermione into his embrace.

* * *

When they got back from the honeymoon, Hermione finally got round to having her chat with Draco one day when everyone was visiting the Malfoy Manor for Draco's birthday.

Everyone was admiring the new obsidian fountain in the gardens. Privately, Hermione wondered why the fountain had to match the grim exterior of the Malfoy estate but wisely kept her thoughts to herself.

"Luna mentioned to me that you were wanting an heir for this place one day," Hermione said with feigned casualness as they sat under a marquee on the lawns.

Draco immediately stuck his thumb in his mouth to gnaw worriedly on the nail. It was his only nervous habit. "We've spoken about it but she's not keen," he said, his face and voice carefully expressionless.

"Do you know why?" Hermione asked kindly.

"Yeah. She's afraid she'll pass her gift onto the kid and make him miserable," Draco muttered.

Assuming it's a boy, Hermione thought with a touch of annoyance. "I guess it's something to be concerned about but the heir may not inherit her gift, especially as it only seems to go to the women in her family too," Hermione said mildly.

"Have you ever seen her after one of her dreams, Hermione?" he asked quietly, looking at the ground.

"No," Hermione replied honestly.

"The last dream she had? It was about people living hundreds of years ago who were tortured to death. When she found the history books and pensieves recording the event, and it matched exactly with the details of her dream down to the actual dates - she ran to the bathroom and threw up violently. Then she didn't eat for two days. Her hands shook and she couldn't talk about it without crying all that time," he said, his pale eyes far away and withdrawn. "I hate it. I hate it when it happens to her and I can't do anything to stop it or make it any easier."

"And you couldn't bear for your child to suffer the same way?" Hermione asked softly, her expression compassionate.

He shrugged. "I just don't know if a gift like that is worth it," he murmured.

"It may be awful when it happens but Luna has a good life apart from that. She has you, and a good and useful career, and lots of friends. I think her life is still worthwhile," Hermione observed mildly.

"I tell her that but it's harder for her to see when she's the one living with voices long dead or yet to be born screaming inside her mind," Draco said, his thin face tense.

Hermione sighed but wisely let it go. It wasn't her business after all but she did care about them.