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Wake The Darkness
By Jewel
A Harry Potter Fanfiction.
Revised Version.
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Standard spoilers apply for books 1 through 5. Set in Seventh Year to Post-Hogwarts.
:
Wake The Darkness
Part One (1)
[Post-Hogwarts: 5 months after graduation.]
Draco paused when he saw her standing in his office. "Who let you in here?"
"Your butler."
"Ask him to show you out," Draco said curtly, sitting at his desk.
She spun around to face him. "Don't you even want to know why I'm here?"
"No."
"Your mother wants to see you."
"So you're playing the nursemaid these days. One would've thought you'd hear, Pansy, that I've been disowned. I have no mother."
Pansy frowned. "This is serious, Draco. Your mother is wasting away. I know she'd feel better if you'd just visit her!"
"That would require me setting foot on the Malfoy Mansion in Wiltshire. The last time I saw my mother I was assured the dragons would be set on me if I ever dared to step foot on the property while she lived there."
"She was grieving! You father had just died! Don't you care that you'll never see your mother again?" Pansy's displeasure was clear.
"My mother has made it clear she has no desire to see me again," Draco said coldly. "If I remember clearly, she said I was not her son because no child of hers would betray their heritage."
"Your mother were angry! Understandably so!"
"She told me to kill Hermione and save Voldemort and my father the trouble!"
"Hermione is a mudblood," Pansy hissed angrily. "She should die."
"Yes, she is muggle-born. She is also my wife, so if you're trying to get back into my good graces, Pansy, this is not the way to go about it. And if I were you, I would be careful with my words. There is still a Death Eater scare about, and you wouldn't want to give the impression that you sympathized with the Dark Lord."
"Draco, you married into Harry Potter's inner circle! Your wife stood against the Dark Lord in everything. No one in the wizarding world can begin to fathom why you chose her! Why you threw your family's legacy back into their faces! What spell has she put over you?"
"None thus far," replied a cool voice from the doorway. "But I can think of a few I'd like to put on you, Pansy dear."
Pansy stiffened and turned to face Hermione. "Good day, Hermione. I trust you've been well."
"I'll be much better once you leave," Hermione said sweetly in way of a reply.
Pansy looked at Draco, who still sat serenely behind his desk. "You need to see your mother, Draco. Please don't break her heart by denying what may very well be her last request. I'll be seeing you, Hermione," she added as she breezed out of the office.
Hermione stared at the empty doorway until she heard the front door close. Then she spun around to face Draco. "I don't like her."
Draco arched a brow. "The house elves would've loyally kept her out, but you freed all our house elves and the incompetent butler doesn't know better."
"Your abuse of sarcasm is not amusing."
"So what did you want?"
"I'm going to visit at the Burrow before I go to see Ron at Azkaban."
"Why are you visiting the Weasleys?"
Hermione smiled sweetly. "I intended to have a wild affair with all those sexy redheaded brothers."
"An affair in the first year of our marriage would hardly speak well of the pureblood attitude towards muggles. And then you'd have to explain to McGonagall why you're flaunting Dumbledore's dying wish."
"God and Dumbledore only knows why he didn't have you marry Ginny Weasley instead," Hermione muttered.
Draco flashed a lecherous smile. "I've never particularly fancied redheads. And in recent years my taste has mysteriously moved on to muggle-born witches."
Hermione rolled her eyes and turned to leave. "I haven't the time for this, Ferret-Boy. I'll see you in a week."
"So you intend to follow through with you plan to visit the Weasel? You're actually going to talk with him before he's turned over to the Dementors?"
Pausing at the doorway, Hermione said over her shoulder, "He was my friend. I loved him. I trusted him. I intend to get some answers."
When the door closed Draco let loose a string of foul curses. He even gave into the childish urge of violence and threw a paperweight he never particularly liked against the large oak doors. There were plenty of ugly paperweights like that scattered around the office. The servants probably kept a special closet for them, or used magic to fix back together the broken pieces. In the past year flying objects had become commonplace in the Malfoy household. Servants were use to hearing doors slam and then the tinkling of shattering glass. Hermione, practical as always, had even purchased several ugly but costly vases to litter her chambers with.
Draco ran a hand through his hair at the thought of his wife. He chuckled softly at word. Wife. Hermione Granger, cleverest witch their age, was his wife. His significant other. His great sacrifice to fulfil old Dumbledore's dying wish: a bond between a muggle born witch and a pureblood wizard. Proof that times had changed and even the purest of inbred wizards could overlook genealogy in the face of love. Or the interest in placating the still anxious wizarding community.
With a dejected sigh Draco closed the ledger on his desk. He'd never be able to concentrate with the knowledge that Hermione was rushing off to visit Ron Weasley at his dying behest. Of course he'd responded like a jealous husband: he was a jealous husband. And even before they'd married Draco had been jealous of Weasley. And of Potter, too. He'd always been jealous of the attention and devotion they'd received from Hermione. Attention and devotion neither had deserved. And now especially Weasley, the little traitor.
Rising from his desk, Draco ran his hand through his long, ash-blonde hair again. I'm allowed to sound brooding, he reasoned, afterall, she never showed such concern about me. Not even after everything we've been through. Everything we've faced... And I never once let her down.
Pulling open the doors to his office, Draco stalked towards the grand staircase. He could hear the loud noises Hermione made as she and her maid argued over packing. Draco allowed himself a silent laugh. His Hermione would never quite get use to being Mrs. Malfoy. The doors to Hermione's sitting room was ajar, and when he opened it further, he saw a short, blonde maid scowling and unpacking a small suitcase. Hermione stood near a bank of windows, looking distracted as she fingered a necklace she'd always refuse to let him see. He gestured to the maid to leave and quietly closed the door behind her.
"Marissa, what's taking so long?" She snapped, turning away from the windows. Her eyes grew chilly as she saw who's replaced the servant. "Oh, it's you. What do you do?"
"I came to get a 'good-bye' before you left."
"I'm not in the mood for games, Draco. I just want to get packed and spend a nice long weekend away from you."
Draco walked slowly to her side and brushed a knuckle against her cheek. "What do you think Weasley has to say that will make your trip to Azkaban worth it? Or rather, what are you really hoping he's going to say? Are you still holding out hope that he's innocent? That the past year was all a big misunderstanding?
Hermione knocked aside his caressing hand. "I've told you before to stay out of my rooms. I don't want to deal with you right now. Especially after last night."
"It's enough that the servants are all witnesses to our spats and temper tantrums. But do you really want them to spread gossip that we don't even get along in other...aspects of our marriage?" Draco grabbed her arm as she tried to walk away. "C'mon, Hermione, don't be a coward. You still haven't answered my question."
"I told you last night, I have questions. Questions you can't kiss away, and questions Snape can't wave away. If we're ever going to make this work between us, I need closure. Closure only Ron can give me. I don't want to have questions. I don't want to have lingering doubts about you. Please, just let me have this weekend. Let me try to figure things out."
A dark look passed over Draco's face. But it left as quickly as it had appeared and Hermione could only wonder at what it meant. She pulled her arm out of his grip and was mildly surprised when he let go. It was even more surprising when he simply left the room without another world.
Hermione took a deep breath and sank into a nearby chair. I hate this, she thought. Why, oh why, couldn't it be different? Why couldn't they just forget the past? Why couldn't they just move on as if none of it had ever happened? But in her most secret hearts of hearts, Hermione admitted that it couldn't be different. Different would put her in the Weasley family rather than the Malfoy family. Different would've meant the difference between helping Harry win and dooming the world to Voldemort's evil...
End of Part One
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AUTHOR'S NOTES:
- Thanks to the Harry Potter Lexicon, otherwise I would have no idea where the Malfoy Mansion is situated.
- Music I listened to while typing this: "So Cold" by Breaking Benjamin.
- Okay, I'm going to give fair warning that after this there are going to be a few chapters set in the past. And it's going to be a while (at least three chapters, two of which I haven't written as yet), until I write another chapter set in the 'present.'
Jewel
[7.21.2004]
