Chapter 25: Trouble Brewin'
"I wish I had some word from home."
"You mean the future?"
"No…I mean from the Granger estate" said Hermione, as she sat on a rough stool near where Draco was splitting logs for Ruth Brenthurst's fire. His face bore a look of intense concentration and his shirt was stained with sweat. She watched admiringly each of Draco's powerful swings of the axe. Hermione felt her heart skip a beat.
"You can't be serious." Draco said, pausing between swings to look incredulously at her. "What do you care what's going on there?"
"I don't care. I was just wondering that's all," Hermione said, looking down.
"You do care" said Draco, hefting the axe up again. "Can't blame you really. That Lady Katherine was rather nice. Can't say the same for Lord Granger."
"He did what he thought was best for me" Hermione said. "I see that now, when I don't have to actually live through it. Anyway, I wonder how Lord Granger and Baron Burnel took the news."
"Can't have been that bad, seeing as no one came for our lives."
"Yes, you're right." Hermione said, her eyes glued to the muscles on Draco's arms. "Not that they'd be able to find us anyway, now we're staying in the forest with Ruth."
"Ladies do not stare at peasant boys in that naughty manner."
Hermione blushed. "I'm not a lady anymore. I'm just a peasant now. And besides, why can't I stare at you? I'm your wife."
"Keep reminding me, I still can't believe I married the school swot. Lucius always told me that Malfoys married Hogwarts Graduation Ball Queens."
"Oh? Would you have preferred to marry Parvati Patil?"
"Hmm…come to think of it...would that mean I get her sister too?" Draco ducked as Hermione flung a log at his head.
"I am armed and dangerous!" Draco lifted the axe in mock threat.
"Go on, attack the muggleborn why don't you?" Hermione said, giggling.
Draco dropped the axe and looked glum. "Four years ago you would have flipped out and screamed for Potty to save you. Where's the fun now, I ask you?"
"This is the fun now" Hermione said, rising and putting her arms around Draco. She pressed herself against him.
"Go on" grinned Draco.
Hermione ran her hands down his back kissed him hard.
"Ok, that's quite fun I must say" said Draco, breathing heavily.
"Can't leave you two alone for a minute!"
Hermione and Draco shot apart, red-faced, as Ruth Brenthurst ambled up to them, a basket of root vegetables on one arm.
"Start peelin' these now, Hermione. Or we won't get no supper!" the old woman had a twinkle in her eye.
Hermione took the basket from Ruth and ran into the house.
Ruth chuckled as she watched her go. "And how's my firewood, Draco? Since my old man died I haven't had a good supply in winter for many a year."
"Nearly done" said Draco, picking the axe up.
"I have news for you," Ruth said, quietly. "But you are not to tell that lovely wife of yours."
"What?" Draco asked, worried.
"They be sayin' in t'town there's trouble up at Mildenstowe. The Baron didn't take it too well, if you take my meanin'"
"Trouble? Will we not get our herbs?"
"Ah, no…tain't that. Mary's on it already. 'Tis to do with the lands and the dowry. The Grangers have lost nearly all of it to t'Baron as Hermione's broken dowry and there's trouble brewin' o'er t' division o'such. But don' you be tellin' Hermione. She's a good lass and if what you say is true, in a few days after Samhain, you two will return to where you came from and all will be well. What is meant to be is meant to be."
Draco turned to look at Ruth Brenthurst's cottage. On the doorstep Hermione sat peeling potatoes, a coarse apron around her waist, and a half-peeled bowl of potatoes beside her. She looked up from her peeling and smiled at Draco. He smiled back.
"I won't tell her" he said to Ruth. "I don't want to worry her anymore."
Ruth Brenthurst nodded. "That's what husbands should do. Look after your wife well, young man."
******************************
"Katherine, please speak to me."
Lord Granger took his wife's hand in his own. His wife was pale and thin, her spirit nearly broken. She hadn't spoken to him for three days.
"I have let as many of the servants go as I can without interrupting the running of this estate. This is as you instructed. Won't you speak to me now that I have done as you wish?"
Lady Katherine Granger turned and stared at her husband. For a moment, Lord Granger was reminded of his last interview with his daughter- when Hermione had seemed so frail and insubstantial that if he blinked, she might vanish. And indeed, hadn't the girl really vanished after all? All this was like some terrible nightmare, and he wasn't going to lose his wife to cruel fate as well. Lord Granger put his arms around his wife and embraced her.
"Please, please listen to reason Katherine. You are acting irrationally. There is no reason for us to leave this place- although I have asked the servants to go, on your wish, I simply cannot abide the thought of us leaving this place ourselves. It is our home- where else would we go?"
Lady Katherine Granger continued staring at her husband. She opened her mouth as if to speak but no words came out and her face twitched with effort.
"What is it? Do you speak to me at last? Speak, then, my love."
Lady Katherine Granger managed a small sound in her throat which eventually formed itself into words. "We must all leave this place."
Lord Granger frowned in frustration. That was what his wife had been insisting on for the last week since Baron Burnel had ridden out of their front gates in a towering rage.
"Katherine, can you bear to leave our home? Our coat of arms adorns every room, portraits of our forefathers line the walls, our most precious things are here. What is this wild fancy of yours that we must leave this place?"
But Lady Granger had lapsed back into silence. The stress of the past two weeks had worn her down and Lord Granger feared for her health.
"Drink this." he handed a cup to his wife. "It is a feverfew posset from our herb garden and it will restore you slightly."
Obediently, Lady Granger drained the cup, and breathed in deeply the smell of the boiled herb. There was a knock at the door.
"Enter"
Mary Ludlow curtseyed her way into the room. She handed over a letter sealed with an all-too-familiar seal. Lord Granger took the letter from Mary and looked at it with distaste. "What does that avaricious man want now? He knows we have agreed to all his terms." He tore open the letter and scanned it quickly.
Mary Ludlow noticed a flicker of worry cross her master's face. Lord Granger crushed the letter in frustration.
"Coming back! Coming back! He is coming back here on the third of November with an envoy from the court! I am to prepare all my deeds by then…can you believe his haste in this matter- we had agreed six months grace time! No doubt that is partly due to his utter humiliation at the hands of that wretched girl, for hear what else he demands of us…"
"It is as I feared." said Lady Granger quietly, looking sadly at the crushed letter on the table in front of her. "There is something unwell about his early return."
"Unwell?" From where she was watching, Mary Ludlow wrung her hands and exclaimed. "M'Lady…you do not think t'baron will have us harmed? We have done nothing wrong by him, the Law will protect us!"
"The Law was written by people like Baron Burnel" said Lord Granger, frowning- only then remembering that Mary was in the room.
"Don't go frightening the servants, Katherine. You see how Mary quakes…Mary, you must forget this nonsense. The Granger house has means to protect itself, her ladyship has lately taken ill and it has clearly affected her mind. Leave us."
"Gareth…it is not my mind…"
"Hush!"
Mary looked from her master to her mistress and curtseyed, leaving the reluctantly. Outside the door, Mary found her feet glued to the spot. What exactly was in that letter? And what else had Burnel demanded of the Grangers? Mary burned with curiousity. She could not leave without knowing…quietly, she bent her ear to the door…
Back in the room Lord Granger carefully pressed out the creases in the parchment and read it again. He took his wife's cool hands in his own and Lady Granger mustered the strength to squeeze her husband's hands slightly.
"Katherine…before I was interrupted by Mary, there was something else in the letter I wanted to tell you about."
Lady Granger raised her eyes to his. "What is it Gareth?"
Lord Granger sighed, his eyes clouded over with worry, "The envoy from the crown wishes to have evidence of this marriage- that it was their own free will and not some scheming on our part to avoid the marriage with Burnel…"
"There is the church register, and Father Lorenzo's word…"
"Read it Katherine." Lord Granger pushed the letter to her. As she read, Lady Granger began to feel faint.
"W-We can't. Gareth… We can't do what they ask…it is a trap!"
"Perhaps not…"
"Oh you know it is!" Lady Granger's shoulders began to shake. "Oh what should we do? I have never heard of a church register not being proof enough…oh Gareth, do not ask me to do it!"
Lord Granger squeezed his wife's hands so hard in his she let out a cry of pain. "Come to your senses, Katherine! If that wretched girl does not come on that day, it will be the worst for us! Do you know the consequences of defying an order from the King?"
"But it is a trap! Never have I heard of the register being not enough…you know these men have something foul planned for all of us…what it is I dare not imagine! I won't do it! I won't do it!" Lady Granger began to cry.
"We have four days, Katherine. If you do not tell me where she is, I'm afraid I shall have to find her by force. I do not think she can be far from here…You can either communicate these events to her nicely or I will have that girl bound and dragged here by force."
Lady Granger pulled her hands away from her husband and began to weep into them.
"We do not have a choice, Katherine. It is not that I want to harm our…our daughter…but…"
"Yes! How kind of you to remember that she is our daughter… and you would have our own daughter put into this trouble!"
Lord Granger resisted an urge to leave the room. This was an important matter and he had to make his wife see sense.
"You put us all at risk by protecting her thus. Perhaps it is not a trap. Burnel sayds the envoy wants testimony before he seals the deeds…"
"Testimony! He doesn't want testimony, Gareth! We are happy to give him our lands…think…what is it that man could possibly want that isn't his already?"
"I do not know" Lord Granger said, not meeting his wife's eyes.
"Yes you do! And you would make me the one to hand them to him…"
"I have already put to you your choices. Tell me within an hour which you have chosen, or I will send horsemen out to start the search…" Lord Granger got up from his chair and turned towards the door.
"Wait."
He turned back to his wife, and waited for her to speak. Lord Granger stood tensely. His wife had obviously decided to offer further information and he didn't want to do anything that might change her mind.
"I will tell you if you promise not to search for her till after Samhain…"
"Samhain! That is only two days before the envoy arrives!
"Please Gareth…I promise you, Mary will let you know where she is then and you will be able to fetch her in a day."
"I will ask Mary myself if you refuse to tell me sooner!" Lord Granger made to go out of the room but his wife sprang from her chair and barred his way.
"If you do not do as I ask …I …" her voice took on a desperate edge "…I will h-harm the child within me!"
Lord Granger paled. "What devilry is this you speak of? You dare threaten me with such evil plans! First you trick me and shame my house, then you speak such unholy words!"
"I have nothing more to lose!" Lady Granger said quietly. "Eighteen years ago I lost it all…Ever since then I have only tried to build everything back up, but if I have to let it all go again…I will. And I will start with your second child."
"I cannot bear to speak to you further" said her husband in disgust. "You shall have the time you desire, but if you do not deliver that cursed girl as promised, I will spare no effort in bringing her back here. And if I cannot find her in time, then you can rest assured that it will be the very, very worst for all of us."
Lord Granger left the room and Lady Granger collapsed in the chair by the table, her hand on her stomach, silently begging God to forgive her un-Christian threats.
She did not cry. She did not move.
She was beyond all that…all that she had to do now, was wait till after Samhain. Mary would get those herbs Hermione had written for to her …and her daughter must have some special use for them. Giving her that time would be the least she could do.
Then, she would tell her husband where Hermione and Draco were hiding. This was the very last thing she would do for her daughter. It had torn her and her husband apart, but somehow, Lady Granger felt that it might be the most important thing she had ever done in her whole life.
All she had to do for the next few days was wait, as time marched heavily by.
As Lady Granger sat in the lowering dusk, the outline of the furniture in the room gradually dimmed, and the smell of late-summer roses from the garden wafted in through the open windows.
**********************************
"'Tis better than the last time at least!" said Ruth Brenthurst, cheerfully. "Wouldn't you say, Draco?"
Draco gagged down another mouthful of soup prepared by Hermione.
"Ugh…I mean…Er, yes."
"We'll make a cook out of you yet, my good lass."
Hermione coloured and forced herself to take another mouthful of her vegetable soup. She had been a reasonable cook back in the future with her mother's wonderful electric oven and various German cooking gadgets, but having to cook here was a whole different affair altogether. Not only was the food difficult to prepare, the herbs available for cooking were scarce and expensive.
There came a hoot from outside and Draco and Hermione both jumped in their seats, exchanging glances.
"'Tis only an owl" said Ruth calmly. "Do not be afrightened."
Draco found himself holding his breath. At any minute, he expected his eagle-owl to swoop in and drop the day's mail on his lap. He glanced across at Hermione and saw that she too was sitting tensely. There came another hoot.
A minute passed.
"Why so quiet?" asked Ruth, finishing her supper.
Draco realized that it had been a false alarm. Any messenger owl would have delivered its mail by now.
"Can't blame you for being afraid o'owls" said Ruth, clearing the dishes from the table. "Me parents were terrified of them. There was some trouble back when I was a young lass. We had a plague'o them about the house once, and my father shot one and was attacked by a few. Sometimes they go a little crazy like that."
"How old were you?" asked Hermione.
"Let me see…I must'a bin' ten…or eleven. Never had not further trouble with the birds after that. 'Twas right strange."
"They never came back?" Draco asked.
"No, bless you lad. They didn't. I haven't thought about that for years."
Draco stood from the table and held his hand out to Hermione.
"Let's go for a walk."
Hermione nodded and Ruth waved to them to go ahead. Draco and Hermione slipped out of the cottage and made their way through the woods down paths with which they were becoming increasingly familiar.
"You were right" said Draco, "She probably is magic, but didn't go to Hogwarts."
"Neither did Mary Ludlow or Mary Culdon. Mary Ludlow told me they once saw the Fay in Flinders Wood on Midsummer's Eve when they were girls. There was a fourth lady with them, Hester Abagnale, but she couldn't see the fay."
"I remember you telling me that" Draco said, as he guided Hermione down the moonlit paths of the forest. "When we were weaving the chaplets in Flinders Wood."
"This place reminds me of Flinders Wood" said Hermione, looking around her. "It has that same secretive quality. Do you think there are fay here?"
"I don't know." Draco said shortly, cursing the fay for their broken promise to him. "Let's not talk about that."
"If I close my eyes, I can almost believe we're there again" Hermione said, stopping and closing her eyes. "It smells the same, it sounds the same, it feels the same. When I get back to the future, I shall go to the woods and close my eyes, and I shall always feel like I am back in Flinders Wood."
Draco watched as Hermione swayed slightly, her eyes still closed. "Maybe one day you'll forget all this and it will be like a dream."
"Yesterday, today, tomorrow…who is to say that in time's unending march, this moment too isn't a dream? Maybe we are standing here forever, and our other selves move on…maybe each moment is forever…"
Draco put his arms around his wife and drew her too him. "If there is a time I do not want to forget, it would be now. So if this moment be a dream, do not wake me. I feel that if I were to understand, I would awake from this moment."
Hermione rested her head on Draco's shoulder. "I want to go back, though."
"So do I."
"You smell like woodchips."
"And you smell like the smoke from the cooking-hearth."
Draco kissed Hermione tenderly and she gave a little sigh.
"When we go back, maybe we will understand." she said, unlacing the front of his shirt. As the rough white cotton slid down his muscular shoulders, Draco started untying the ribbon at the back of her dress.
They knew Time owed them nothing. In the balanced chaos of luck and misfortune, it was easier to forget its rough ebb simply by living in the intense happiness of the present. That was why later, in the quiet of the wood, time slipped by completely unnoticed as two dreamers slept entwined in each other.