Disclaimer: Um...you know the drill.

A/N: I know abouta million of you were confused on the last chapter. Someone thought that Hermione died. No! The baby died. Other people thought that I shouldn't have killed the baby, I'm sorry but it was necessary and not just because people wanted her to have an abortion, I am not a cold hearted bitch who just wanted to murder an innocent child. Also, the title of the last chapter should have explained a few things if you thought 'oh my god, now her dreams are wrong, where is she going to have a red-headed child.' It will be explained in this chapter, promise.

Enjoy!

Chapter 45
Rubber Duck and B stands for…

"Draco?"

"Hermione, I'm here," he said softly as he held her hand to his lips and kissed her palm.

"What happened?" she asked softly, focusing on the man sitting next to her.

"You've been out cold for two days now, they gave you medicine to stop the pain," he said.

"He's gone isn't he?" she asked.

"Hermione, it was a she," Draco said.

"What?"

"It was a girl, not a boy. And she had brown hair."

"But what does that mean?" Hermione asked.

"Do youthink Dumbledore was making it up, you know, more house unity?" Draco said.

"What, like he used me?" Hermione said. "He made me believe that it was all real when really it's not. He told me that...he did it all on purpose so that I would think that I would marry you and Ron would die and your father would die and I would be tortured..."

"Hermione, calm down. It's fine, just calm down. Some things are still going to be true, and maybe you dreamt those things because you really did want them to happen."

"But I would never want your father to die." Hermione said.

"Not now you wouldn't, but when he put you into a dungeon you probably thought it would be nice," Draco laughed.

"I guess so," she said, shaking her head."I just can't believe he used me!"

"I'm so sorry, Hermione," he said, leaning over the small hospital bed to give her a kiss.

Hermione kissed him back.

"You should go to sleep though, I don't think they want you awake," Draco said.

"All right,"she said huffily."Night Draco," Hermione murmured and wrapped herself up in the white sheets.

She had been out for two days. The doctors figured that she couldn't handle the pain of losing her first child and gave her some morphine.

Draco was afraid that she wouldn't wake up and had sat by her bed for two days now.

No one else had been here, there had only been letters sent, and he didn't dare open them. They were for Hermione when she fully regained her bearings. There were letters from everyone at the house, his father and mother, and even one from Voldemort.

Draco had sent a letter to his aunt, telling her what had happened so that she could relay the message to the others.

"Dear Merlin, what are we supposed to do?" Dumbledore asked his two advisors.

"You knew the problems with this potion, Albus. You should not have done it," Minerva said softly.

"I had believed that the Slytherins were weaker than the Gryffindors. But it seems as though we were wrong."

"Yes, Voldemort is a very tricky man. He must have known about the potion, something. He at least knew that all of these couples were together," Severus said quietly from the corner.

"Yes, he must have known. But how is what we need to know," Minerva said softly.

"Ms. Granger is a very smart witch, do you think that maybe she could have known about the potion before she was taken and was tortured into giving up the information?" Severus asked.

"That is always possible, Severus," Albus said.

"What does you-know-who want with everyone if he is not going to kill Potter. If he had then he would have attacked us by now, no doubt."

"Of that I still am not sure, I would hope that no harm comes to them, but it is highly unlikely in their situation. What we need to do is gather information and wait until Voldemort makes the first attack."

As they talked, an owl ran into the window and fell on the sill. Dumbledore walked briskly to the window and opened it for the owl.

The owl flew in and dropped the letter on Dumbledore's desk then flew off as quickly as possible.

Albus walked to his desk and lifted up the light letter. It was closed with an unrecognizable wax seal and Dumbledore opened it cautiously. He read the tiny almost indistinguishable writing and then looked worriedly up at the other two in the room.

"She's in the hospital," Dumbledore said.

"Who?" Severus asked.

"Miss Granger, she's in the hospital, she had her baby."

"Already?" Minerva asked.

"It didn't survive. She is in a morphine induced coma."

"Who sent the letter?" Minerva asked.

"It just says 'a friend'," Albus said, shaking his head. "I must go see if she is all right," he said.

"What if it's a trap, headmaster," Severus said accusingly.

"I have to take the chance," he said.

"It's not worth the risk," Severus said. "Miss Granger is expendable, we need Potter."

Dumbledore sat at his desk and looked through the letter again and at the small writing, it might be lying, Severus was right, it could screw up everything if he was to go blindly into a trap.

"All right Severus, I won't go. We need to gather information on Potter," Dumbledore said softly.

Three days after her first signs of consciousness, Draco was finally able to take her back to Malfoy Manor. She was to stay in bed for another week before she was allowed to get up, doctor's orders.

She slept most of the time, when she wasn't sleeping, she was crying. Draco sat with her most of the time, kissing away her tears and comforting her. Mimsy brought her food three times a day, but she ate very little.

All the others in the house visited regularly, hours set down by Draco, he didn't want her questioned too much. Even Voldemort had come to visit her, showing true compassion that Draco didn't know that he was capable of, he was glad that his witch had won over Voldemort.

Narcissa and Bellatrix came by often to check on her, to see if she was doing all right.

Ginny, Harry and Blaise visited more often than them, wanting to see their friend, blaming her for not telling them but not talking about the lost child too much as to not upset her more than she already was.

Hermione felt loved, everyone caring about her and what she had gone through. Another painful subject that she would hate bringing up in the future.

Voldemort decided to postpone the attacks on Dumbledore due to Draco being too caring about his fiancé and not willing to leave her side. When she was well enough for Draco to leave her then they would resume their plans.

Harry had many more arguments with Pansy and finally decided that if he was to live through this then he would have to meet with Voldemort and hear his plans.

After hours and hours and hours of debate between the two who could kill each other, and with an offer that Harry could not refuse, he gave in.

Dumbledore had tried to trick the Slytherins into switching sides using the Gryffindors. Messing with their lives to help his cause.

Dumbledore had left Hermione here without a backwards glance.

Dumbledore had not tried to save Harry or any of the others yet.

He was probably only hoping that Hermione would stay alive in the first place because she had gotten Harry through so much before.

But when you are risking someone more important's life, like Harry's, she wasn't worth it to the senile old man.

Dumbledore was passé, he would never know what it would be like to run the world.

Voldemort did, Harry did.

"Draco, a word please?" Voldemort said as he walked into Hermione and Draco'sroom. Hermione gave Draco a nod and he stalked towards the door.

When they were outside the door and well out of hearing range Voldemort spoke.

"We need it, Draco. It is time."

"Yes sir," Draco muttered. "Can we wait until she is sleeping, I don't want her to grow suspicious."

"Yes, when you get it, come to your father's office immediately."

"Yes sir," Draco reiterated.

Voldemort walked away and Draco walked back into his and Hermione's bedroom. She was faced away from him and breathing softly. He sat by the bed and waited until he was sure that she was asleep.

He took off his class ring and transfigured it into a replica of her engagement ring. He took her hand softly in his and slipped her ring off, looking to her face for any signs of movement. Then he slid the transfigured ring on.

He kissed her cheek and slowly left the room, pocketing the ring and closing the door quietly behind him.

"Excellent, young Malfoy," Riddle said as he looked down on the ring.

"I'm sorry to ask, my lord, but what exactly is it?" Draco asked, wondering why the Dark Lord had ordered him to steal the ruby so long ago.

"It is the secret to bringing down Dumbledore," Voldemort replied.

"I don't understand, sir," Draco said.

"This," he said as he held up the ruby. "Is a pensive."

"I thought a pensive was a bowl."

"This is a miniature pensive, only large enough to hold one memory. In this case it is the memory that holds the power to bring down the old man."

"What is the memory, sir?" Draco asked.

"That, I don't know yet. In order to find out what it is, you have to have two wands, with cores from the same animal. Tricky little blighter, that's what he is."

"Who has two wands with the same core?" Draco asked.

"Harry Potter and I of course," Voldemort said.

"That's why you wanted him on this side," Draco said, finally understanding.

"That is the only way that he escaped me in his fourth year at school. Priori Incantatem."

"I always did wonder about that," Draco said.

"Well, if there is nothing else, young Malfoy, I would like to see Potter about this memory."

"Yes sir," Draco said, getting up from his chair and moving towards the door.

"And do give Hermione my best," he amended.

"I'll do that, sir."

"Mina," Draco said.

Hermione lifted her head from the pillows and turned her tear-streaked face in Draco's direction.

"Mina, you need to stop this," he said, leaning over her and kissing her cheeks, eyes and finally lips.

"You don't know how this feels, Draco. As much as I didn't want him there, it still took a lot out of me to lose him. He was a part of me, my child," she said sadly, more tears running down her cheeks.

"Hermione, listen to me," he said more firmly. "You cannot keep going on like this. Living in the past is going to inhibit your future…our future."

"I'm not living in the past, I just want to properly mourn my dead child," she said steadfastly.

"Mina, I know you do, but if you go on like this much longer than you are going to stop living a real life. You need to get out of this bed and go down to dinner with me. Show everyone that you aren't moping around forever."

"Has it been a week already?" she asked.

"It's been eleven days since you came home from the hospital. You need to get up and live. You cannot mourn forever, if you do then I can't help you move on."

"I want to move on," she said softly.

Draco kissed her lips ever so softly. "Then do it."

For the first time in over two weeks, Hermione sat down at the table. Her place had been empty for the last 16 days.

She sat in between Draco and Velvet as usual. She looked around at everyone sitting at the table and realized that Harry was missing.

"Where is Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Meeting with Voldemort," Draco said.

"Oh."

"Hermione, I'm so glad you're back!" Velvet exclaimed.

"I'm sorry about that, I didn't…"

"Don't apologize, I know what happened. It is not your fault that it happened. In fact, I have been torturing the little red one more as punishment."

"How's that working out?" Hermione asked.

"BDSM is the best thing that has ever been created," Velvet said slyly.

"What's that?" Hermione asked.

"Oh my god, you are a prude aren't you?" Velvet asked.

"I'm not a prude, I'm not a virgin anymore," Hermione tried to defend herself.

"Virgins can still be prudes. I mean, who doesn't know what BDSM stands for?" Velvet asked.

"I don't," Hermione said.

"BDSM is an acronym," Velvet explained.

"You know Hermione, if you want to know what BDSM is, I can always show you," Draco said wickedly.

"I don't know what it is," Hermione yelled.

"Don't know what what is, Hermione?" Blaise asked.

"Hermione doesn't know what BDSM is," Draco said to Blaise.

"You don't know what that is?" Ginny asked perturbed.

"No, care to explain."

"I'm sure Draco could explain it to you later," Pansy said. "Harry and I have tried it a couple times before.

"What the hell is BDSM?"

"B stands for—" Draco started.

"Hermione, Voldemort wants to see you," Harry said as he walked into the room.

"Later honey," Draco promised as Hermione left the table.

"Hermione, dear. I am so glad to see you up," Tom said as Hermione walked into Lucius' office.

"Me too. Draco finally got me to see that I couldn't mourn anymore, that it wouldn't do any good anyway."

"That's good. I just wanted to ask you this question. What exactly is the function of a rubber duck?" he asked.

Hermione burst into a fit of giggles and Tom looked at her funny.

"Did I say something?" he asked.

"Sorry, it's just…never mind. A rubber duck is a play toy for children in their baths. They do nothing except squeak."

"And Dumbledore has a rubber duck?" he asked.

"Does he?" she asked.

"Never mind, Hermione. You may go, I will have to consult Lucius about this," he said. "Have a good night's rest Hermione."

"Thank you sir, I'll try," she said, still smiling from the rubber duck question.

"So what is it?" she asked.

"B, well that…let me show you," Draco said.

"I'm not sure if I want you to," Hermione countered.

"You don't trust me?" Draco asked.

"Not in the least, you sneaking Slytherin," she said.

"Just get on the bed," Draco ordered.

"This has to do with sex?" she asked.

"Get on the bed," he said again.

"Okay," she muttered, lying down on the bed and pulling her head up on the pillows. Draco rummaged through his wardrobe and put something that he pulled out into a pocket of his robes, then he walked over to Hermione. He got up on the bed and straddled her waist, bending down to kiss her.

Hermione moaned a little and Draco slid his hands up and down her arms, slowly moving them upwards. Draco kissed her harder, taking her attention away from what he was doing. He moved his kisses to her neck and started on a nice hickey.

Hermione was loving the sensations when she suddenly heard a click. She tried to move her arms but she couldn't.

She looked up, she was handcuffed to the wooden bed-rails. She looked worriedly down at Draco who was smirking against her neck. "B stands for bondage, my love," he said, once more going to her neck.

Hermione struggled against the cuffs, remembering the last time she had been handcuffed to a bed and not at all comfortable with it. She knew Draco would never do anything forcefully, but she still had an intense fear of it.

As much as she tried to keep her focus on the blonde wizard her mind was slipping back to the memory of what Ron had done to her.

He had handcuffed her, he had touched her in places she didn't want to be touched, he had violated her in everyway, he had taken her virginity, went right through the barrier with a single thrust, not even letting her recuperate before…

He was a monster.

Hermione pulled at the cuffs. "Let me go," she said firmly, closing her eyes and letting her mind run away with the memory.

"No," she could hear Ron's voice say.

"I don't want to do this. I don't want to, let me go, please," she pleaded.

"Hermione…"

"Why are you doing this?" she asked.

"Hermione, are you okay?" Draco asked her, looking up at her face. She had her eyes closed tight and was trying to squirm away from him.

"Let me go," she begged.

"Mina," Draco said softly.

Hermione's eyes shot open and she looked down, tears were filling her eyes and she couldn't make out the nebulous figure before her, but she knew that it was Ron.

"Don't call me that," she said harshly. "You're not allowed to call me that."

"Mina," Draco pleaded, he had no idea what had gotten into her.

"Don't call me that!" she screamed. "Let me go!"

Draco quickly said Alohomora and the cuffs let her hands free.

Hermione squirmed away as quickly as possible, still lost in the memories of what had happened to her. She brought her knees to her chest and hugged them in the corner of the bed.

Draco looked at her with a confused expression. "Hermione," he said, trying to get her attention.

"Go away, I don't want to, no, not again," Hermione was babbling.

Draco sat dumbstruck. He moved closer to her, wanting her to look him in the eyes and tell him what was going on. He reached out and touched her cheek.

She jerked back so violently that she fell backwards off the bed. She opened her eyes and looked up but saw only an outline through the tears. "No Ron," she cried.

"Ron?" Draco asked quizzically.

Hermione ignored his question and flipped on her stomach, hiding her face in her arms on the hardwood floor.

Draco got down from the bed and very quietly tip-toed over to her. When she was least expecting it, he flipped her over and straddled her waist.

Hermione jerked with all her might trying to get free but Draco held down her shoulders, only making her fight more.

"Mina, it's Draco. I'm not going to hurt you, listen to me," he said, trying to control her.

"No, get off me," Hermione yelled.

"Hermione, I'm not Ron, I'm not going to rape you, I'm your fiancé, I'm Draco," he soothed.

Hermione still tried to squirm free, but Draco wouldn't have it, he held her there until she was out of energy and stopped squirming. "Calm down, Mina," he said softly into her ear, then he took one of his hands off her shoulder and ran the sleeve of his robe across her eyes, drying her tears.

Hermione just jerked her head away, struggling for a free grip once again. "Stop calling me Mina, only Draco can call me that," she murmured.

"Mina, look at me," Draco ordered.

Hermione reluctantly brought her gaze up to her attacker and saw the faint glow of blonde hair against the black robes through the remainder of her tears.

Draco smiled and once again wiped her eyes from tears, letting her see him. "What happened?" he asked.

Hermione just looked up at him, amazed that it was him, not Ron. She didn't know when she had slipped from her memory to real life, but it seemed as though Draco was trying to figure that out as well. "I'm sorry, I just…and the handcuffs….Ron he…then he…and I didn't know that you…"

"Shh, just calm down, it's me, not Weasley. Just me," Draco said, lifting himself off of her and then grabbing her up in his arms. He laid her on the bed and pulled the covers over top of her. Then he crawled into bed next to her and held her in his arms. "It's just me," he said again.

A/N: All right, for all of those who don't know what BDSM is, I thought I should tell you instead of you asking in a review and then me having to explain it in the next chapter. BD stands for Bondage/Disipline. DS stands for Dominance/Submission. SM stands for Sado-Masochism. I know it sounds wierd, but people do it.

Anyway, I hope the part in the beginning explained why Hermione is not having a red-headed child.

Love and Lemons

Brittany