Disclaimer: Not mine. J.K. Rowling's.
Author's Note: Not at all in the mood to come up with a witty disclaimer. So, this chapter kind of came as a surprise to myself- which makes me worry for my sanity. Um, today is a Thursday, and there's no school. Would anyone like to jump for joy with me? Now that we're off of that happy note, I'd like to thank all of my reviewers. I really don't say it enough, but you give me a happy fuzzy feeling that makes me smile and giggle a little bit. It's really wonderful.
ThousandI: I say this almost every time, but it's true, your reviews simply make me happy. I really appreciate that you wrote how a short chapter is better than none at all. It keeps me writing.
SwtMidnightDreams: Don't be silly. Draco is mine.
Alenor: Okay, where to start? Thanks for the input on the Beatles lyrics. I agree, they were THE band. I love them. Um, West Nile Virus is a virus that we're having a big problem with in my area- it's a virus that's transmitted through mosquitos and has caused a couple of deaths. And, just out of curiosity, where do you live?
Paprika90: I love your enthusiasm... and the little face that's on all of your reviews.
Asha Ice: Halloween is awesome! This year I dressed up as Fabio.
Sapphirechrystal1438: I hope I got your name right. I had to look back a couple of times to check. Have you read the rest of the story, because you kind of find out who Hero and Leander are later in the story. But, if it will help, Hero and Leander are characters in a Greek myth. It's too long to write here, so if you want to know the whole story, you should look it up. It's my favorite.
Annalaise: I am absolutely blushing. You're too much. Oh, and you may get a little discouraged by this chapter, but hold on, it will get better.
AllAmerican19: Thanks for reading. I'm always excited when I see a new name.
Chapter 16: Lost and Found... and LostThe darkness seemed to envelope Draco and Harry as they made their way down the steps and closed the door behind them. With the help of Aila, they had successfully found the vase and, after fumbling around with it to get it to open, entered the tunnel leading down. Aila shivered against Draco as she clung to his arm in terror.
"This place is much scarier when you're not distracted by other things." Aila whispered.
Draco nodded and lit his wand, too tense to make a sound; here they were, months after losing her and they were on the brink of finding Hermione. As glad as he was to be finding her, the only thing he could think of was that had it not been for his error, they could have found her months sooner and spared her so much anguish.
They ventured down the cavernous tunnel, snaking in and out of crevices, making their way through the dark labyrinth, being led by Aila, the only one who knew the way. She would stop momentarily and glance around, figuring out where she was, only to pull them in a different direction and continue downwards, on and on.
After going a long way without so much as a stop, Aila gasped and retreated to a corner, stopping abruptly. She pointed a long, thin finger to a door in the wall and said shakily, "That's it. That's the one."
"Are you sure?" Harry whispered, approaching the door.
She nodded frantically and said, "But I don't know how to open the door."
They sighed in frustration and returned to Aila in her corner.
"How will we figure that one out?" Harry turned to Draco.
"We'll have to wait."
"For what? Divine intervention?"
"No, smart ass, we'll have to wait for my father to come down so we can hear the incantation."
"Oh."
So, the three of them stooped in the corner, throwing a camouflaging spell over themselves and waited.
Fortunately, they didn't need to wait long, for Lucius came striding into view within a half an hour of their wait and they could hear a muffled incantation muttered under his breath before he flung the door open.
"Pet," he sneered, the door wide.
"Why, Lucius," they could hear the familiar voice of Hermione say sweetly from within the cell.
It was all that Draco could do to keep Harry on his feet.
"Lucius," Hermione cried, running to him in the doorway as he slowly shut the door behind them.
"Yes, dear?" Lucius asked, mildly running his fingers through her hair.
"I was just wondering a moment ago..." Hermione tried to think of how to phrase her question, "Are you real?"
"No, my pet," Lucius laughed and walked to a corner of the cell, where he sunk to a sitting position, "I'm a complete figment of your imagination."
Hermione snapped in disappointment and muttered, "I knew it."
"My dear," Lucius said, walking to her, "I was kidding. I'm real, and so are you."
Hermione looked up at him intensely, "So, I'm not insane?"
"That is questionable, but as to whether we are both real, I can honestly assure that we are."
"Oh, I'm so glad," Hermione sighed, leaning her cheek against his arm, "I was having some really horrible thoughts just a moment ago."
"You needn't worry yourself anymore," Lucius said, picking up her journal. "What's this?"
"I've had it stuck in my head and I decided I might as well write it."
"Interesting choice."
"Yeah, go figure."
"Well," Lucius said, taking Hermione around the waist, "I am sorry to say I can't stay."
"Another meeting?"
"I'm afraid so. I just thought I should stop by anyway."
"I'm very glad you did."
Lucius reached his hand around Hermione's head and kissed her. It seemed so much kinder than any of his other kisses; full of tenderness and consideration. Hermione pulled away.
"Why are you in such a good mood?" she asked carefully, "You've never been this way before."
"I can't say, my dear," Lucius said, opening the door, "Today has just been a rather extraordinary day."
"I do hope you will return soon."
"As soon as I can, my pet."
With that, he shut the door carefully behind himself and marched past the trio up the winding staircase and out of sight.
Harry and Draco sat in amazement for a while after Lucius had left, struck dumb by the bit of conversation they had heard. Harry turned and stared at Draco; Draco turned and stared at Harry. Both tilted their heads slowly in the direction of the door and let out a small grunt of confusion. They stood and walked slowly, step by step, toward the door and stood blankly in front of it before glancing at the other in mutual concern. After a common agreement, they lifted their wands a bit and spoke the incantation carefully, perfectly synchronized.
Nothing happened, and they were a bit disappointed at the highly anti-climactic moment. Cautiously, Draco put out a hand, reaching for the pane of stone and pushed, surprised to see it swing open with such ease.
Opening the door, they met a sight that neither was expecting. Hermione was lying on her stomach in the corner of the dark cell, humming softly to herself and tapping her airborne toes in time. She also held a small booklet in front of her and was writing, a beat to the strokes of her pen.
"Hermione?" Draco whimpered as his eyes took in her sight.
Hermione twisted her head up, completely expecting to see the elder Malfoy than the junior. At seeing him, she spun to her feet and crouched, wide-eyed at the pair, closely followed by Aila, who shut the door quietly behind them.
Tears quickly formulated in the girl's eyes and she let out several exasperated gasps before any coherent words left her mouth.
"Draco... Harry?"
They both nodded, taking a few steps closer towards her.
"No," she shook her head, pulling herself to her full height. "You can't be real... I'm going crazy, don't you see?"
Harry stepped a few feet closer and reached his hand out to touch her elbow gently, "We're real..." and, on second thought, "Don't be afraid."
She pulled her arm away from him in a shudder, still shocked silly at the sight of them.
"I'm confused." She made her way along the wall until she was steadied in the other corner, looking at them across the cell. "I don't know how or why you were there that day when I fainted, or what happened to you afterwards, or how you got here."
"We'll explain," Harry approached her slowly, taking her hand, and this time was not refused. He pulled her slowly into the middle of the cell and wrapped his arms around her tightly, holding her until she gently pulled away.
"I've missed you Harry," Hermione said quietly, taking his hand, "I've missed my best friend."
Harry nodded slowly and turned his eyes toward Draco, a shadow in the corners. Pulling his hand from hers, Harry nudged her toward Draco carefully and backed up to give them their space.
Hermione slowly walked to Draco and placed a hand on his face, stroking it gently. He took her hand in his and walked further into the light so that she could see him clearly. A small tear glistened in his eye and he bent to kiss her hand.
"I..." Hermione pressed herself against him, wrapping one arm around his back and gazing into his eyes, "I missed you."
Before she could say anymore, Draco had wrapped his arms around her and hugged her so tightly to him that there was no space between their two bodies. Draco kissed the top of her head several times, almost as if his lips would tell him if she were truly there and finally in his arms. After a moment, Hermione pulled away, conscious of the other two persons in the room.
"So," she said, her voice returning to her and her sense of reality starting to take it all in, "Start from the beginning. What happened?"
The boys raised their eyebrows at each other in response to the massive request.
"The beginning?" Harry stuttered, "Do you want to be here all night?"
"I've been here months, another night won't hurt me."
"Could we summarize?"
"Yeah, sure," she gave in, not really in the mood to argue at the moment.
"Okay," Draco clapped his hands together, "So, we pretty much followed you and my father to the boundaries of Hogwarts and proceeded to go to my house to do a little research."
"Yeah," interrupted Harry, "after this bonehead had decided that Lucius had taken you to Secret House, some Death Eater hideout instead of his own home."
"Okay, can we drop it?" Draco said exasperatedly to Harry, who rather smirked- more in entertainment than anything. "Good, now, continuing with what happened..." Draco collected his thoughts as to what happened. "Well, we figured out where Secret House was and we traveled there... muggle style." There was a hint of bitterness in his voice as he said the last bit.
"If we hadn't had to go all the way to Greece, we wouldn't have had to use an airplane."
"I thought we had dropped it."
"Well, stop criticizing me for my choice to travel by muggle means."
"If we had thought a bit longer, I'm sure we could have come up with a more suitable method."
"One that possibly involved going to the correct destination?"
"Boys!" Hermione was back. Back and fully prepared to take over her job of keeping things in order and reprimanding Draco and Harry. "Honestly, are we children here? I think we can all forgive and forget and move on with the story. Agreed?"
"Agreed." They both spoke simultaneously, perfectly prepared to settle back into the roles of being chastised by Hermione.
"Good. Now, please continue."
"Okay," Draco continued, "Once we got to Greece it took awhile to actually find Secret House. Probably a week we spent just looking for it."
"Yeah," Harry said innocently, "and that's all we did. Look for it."
"Yeah, after looking for it," Draco shot Harry a quizzical glance, "we... well, we found it. Um, and then we pretty much got arrested by a group of muggle police who thought we were breaking into a random building."
"We were taken to jail," Harry said, speeding through this part, "and eventually we were out."
"Really?" Hermione said, noting Harry's distinct nervousness, "That's what happened, huh? You were just out of jail?"
Draco looked at Harry, who had his head tilted in a completely crestfallen manner. Draco briefly put a hand on Harry's shoulder before he spoke.
"No, we were in the muggle jail in Greece for about three days. They had us under rather constant watch, or at least there was a guard there constantly." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath, "Then, one day, a group of foreign wizards claimed us. They could tell that we were wizards and I guess decided it would only fit for us to be under their watch and not under some inept muggle's.
"I think they were Russian... or of some Slavic descent... whatever they were, they were vicious. And they kept us locked for nearly three months."
"Not just locked," Harry said, his eyes downcast.
"Oh," Draco added in a cheerful voice, "yes, there was that bit of torture and interrogation, but seeing as we didn't know the language, it didn't do much good, now did it?" He smiled at Harry as if pleading with him to do the same. "I still haven't the faintest idea what the old chap was asking us."
"Anyway," Harry said, mustering up a bit more light-hearted an attitude, "after being moved about a bit, we devised the plan to burn the whole jail down to escape. That way, some of the other prisoners would have a chance as well."
"Yes, strange enough, it just so happened that we wandered onto my property and found you just as we escaped from the jail."
"So," Hermione asked, her first words for the last several minutes, "the last place you were was in England?"
"Yes, I suppose so."
"Why would Slavics be in England?"
"Haven't the foggiest."
"Could you have been transported to English wizards?"
"Back to your inquisitive self, Miss Granger?" a familiar and icy voice said against the back wall.
Everyone froze.
Draco and Harry slowly turned to the door to actually confirm whom they suspected of being at the door. Hermione needed no confirmation; she had heard enough of the voice to identify him out of a magnitude. Instead, she simply went rigid and closed her eyes, terrified out of her mind. Now she would die, surely, she thought. She and two of the people she loved most.
Harry and Draco moved instantly to shield Hermione, though Draco was visibly tenser.
"Draco, my son," Lucius said fluidly, as if not alarmed at all by the spectacle before him. "It's so good to see you."
"Father." Draco nodded curtly.
"I would ask why you are here, in the cell of one of my most entertaining possessions if I did not already know what your answer would be. Terribly clever, I must say."
"How did you know we were here?" Draco asked in a quiet voice.
"Let us just say that you three are not exactly the most subtle conversationalists."
Harry exhaled, annoyed at their folly.
"Now then," Lucius said, crossing to the group and taking Hermione's arm, turning her to face him. "How's my pet?"
"Don't touch me," Hermione whispered, trembling.
"I am afraid you are not in a situation to tell me what to do." And with that, Lucius tore Hermione away from the other two, across the cell to stand beside him.
Simultaneously, Harry and Draco raised their wands to Lucius as Lucius raised his wand to Hermione. Neither side made a move for a long while until finally, after gazing at Hermione's terrified face, Draco lowered his wand, followed by Harry.
"Good," Lucius said, lowering his wand only slightly, "I see that we can negotiate. Now, something that needs to be addressed is how I am going to punish you three. The obvious choice here is death, with the exception of my son, of course- we have the inheritance to think about- but that's not to say we couldn't kill you two and make him watch. However, I seem to grow weary of the same old thing day in and day out, so perhaps we can think of something a little more creative?"
"Father," Draco said quietly but with conviction, "Just please don't kill them."
"No, I rather had something else in mind, so you needn't worry." Lucius turned his attention to Harry and continued, "Harry Potter..." he smiled to himself, "What a coincidence that a boy we've been trying to kill for years shows up on my property. Lucky for you, I have dignity and would not lower myself to kill you as helpless as you are. I have my loyalties to think about and really, my circle of friends would be disappointed if they didn't get to join in the fun of killing you."
Harry shifted uncomfortably at the thought of Lucius' friends ganging up on him because he killed 'Harry Potter' without telling them to come over and join in.
"So, after thinking on it for quite some time," Lucius started up again with a new, more jovial expression, "I think I've come up with the solution. And it can be solved right now, with a simple little wedding."
The response that met the last word of his solution was something different from anything else that had been said during their time together in the cell. The three friends' eyes all widened about four times their size and Hermione's jaw actually dropped a couple of inches. Lucius merely smiled pleasantly to himself.
"A wedding?" Hermione finally choked out.
"Yes, my dear, a wedding. Between yourself and Mr. Potter over there."
Harry's forehead crinkled in confusion and Hermione and Draco exchanged desperate glances toward each other.
"Why?" Harry asked, crossing his arms as if this were the most casual situation in the world.
"I'm sure if you think real hard," Lucius said in a low voice, returning to his normally slimy self, "Even you could figure it out. Now, let's get to business, shall we?" With that, Lucius conjured a handful of papers, a small table, and two chairs in front of him. "Alright, you two, start filling out the paperwork. And if either of you try anything I'm still not counting the whole death thing out completely."
Hermione and Harry sat at either ends of the table and slowly began filling out the information on the legal documents to say that they were married.
"Hermione," Harry whispered across the table, "I'm really sorry."
Hermione simply shook her head and threw one more sad look toward Draco, who had slumped into a corner disconsolately. Pretty soon they had finished and stood, gazing down at the papers as if they were some sort of wild animal about to tear them to shreds.
"All we need now is a witness," Lucius said, handing the pen to Draco, who slowly came from his corner and signed on the line allotted him. "Well, then," Lucius said, taking his son's arm and pointing his wand at the couple now standing across from him. "I suppose it would only be proper to pronounce the two of you man and wife." He gave one horrible sneer and said, "Finis Finium," leaving the Malfoys alone in the cell and sending the Potters far away.
End Note: I know, that was a bit random. It just kind of came to me that that could be Lucius' punishment and I went with it. I just really wanted Hermione to be out so I could write in a different setting and stuff. I apologize to people who are getting frustrated with the whole Harry/Hermione thing (I'm one of you), but I swear the story is not over, so don't worry.