Sold-Chapter 11-To be in the Loop

By Marmalade Fever

A.N.: July 16 is coming! Yay! I probably won't update once it comes until I finish reading. (Not that I expect any of you to tear away from the book for fan fiction anyway…)

"Lily," Evander said, gravely.

"Evander," she replied. "What on Earth is going on here?" The elder Malfoy had long since left their presence.

Evander sighed. "You had better sit down for this one." It was such a relief to see her again. Even after a week on her own, she still seemed perfectly well groomed. She sat. "That man isn't my father."

"I gathered that much, but who is he then? A long-lost twin? Or maybe we've gone back in time and that was your grandfather!" She laughed, ruefully.

"No, we think this is an alternate universe," he replied, straight-faced.

"Alternate universe?" Evander would have imagined that Lily would be shocked, frightened, and disbelieving. Instead, she merely looked excited. "Finally!"

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, you don't understand! You know what it's like to live in the shadow of a legend? My dad's done so many amazing things, and, quite frankly, I've been bored stiff!"

"Bored stiff?" Evander muttered to himself. "Lily, I don't think that you understand. In this timeline… Voldemort is alive!"

Lily went pale. "Really?"

"Really, Lily. This world is nowhere near ours. I think… I think the difference is that in our world, your dad won the war. In this one, well, I guess he didn't."

"Is he… alive?"

"I think he's missing. I have a bad feeling that You-Know-Who sent after us."

"This is bad. This is really bad, isn't it?"

Evander nodded. "My mom is here, but she isn't married to anyone, nevertheless my father."

"I saw her. She was in the woods, but then she turned into a bird. She must be an animagus."

"Yeah…"

"So, what about the muggles?"

"I think they're almost all gone."

"So… my mum?"

Evander nodded. Lily had to turn her head away from him. It was hard to watch the girl he had been in love with since he was a little boy cry. They didn't say much of anything for a few hours. It was just about eight o'clock when someone knocked at their door. It was his "mother."

"Mrs. Malfoy," Lily greeted, automatically. Hermione frowned. It bothered her greatly to think that anyone would feel a need to address her as such.

"Call me Hermione," she asked, sitting on the floor. "Evander, he's gone for a few hours. He's eating dinner with your grandparents."

Evander sighed with relief. "Should I call the house-elves and have them bring you something?"

"No, no. They already brought me dinner."

"Mrs., I mean, Hermione?" Lily asked. "If you aren't married to him, then why are you here?"

Hermione tilted her head the way she would as a bird. "He found out that Evander was our child, so he brought me here to help solve the mystery."

"And where were you before?"

Hermione viewed her critically before leaning back against the door. "You look so much like your father, do you know that?"

"That's what they say. It must be the hair color."

"And the eyes," Evander volunteered.

"Yes," Hermione agreed, "and the eyes."

"So, where were you?" Lily insisted.

Hermione sighed. "I've been imprisoned for several years now. Malfoy bought me at an auction."

"An auction?" Lily asked, eyes wide.

"The world is a very scary place, my dear."

"What sort of auction?"

"The kind where bigoted fools sell those they think aren't worthy because of their heritage." They were silent for several minutes as the reality of this new world sunk in.

"Did you say he's eating dinner with my grandparents?" Evander asked, after a while. Hermione nodded. "I bet they aren't too terribly different in this timeline. Maybe a little bit happier is all. How did you find out he was having dinner with them? Did he tell you or something?"

"No… I was in my swallow form when he was talking with Lucius." Hermione gave a very small smirk. "He's disappointed that your father doesn't have an heir."

"Let's just hope he doesn't get any big ideas about pretending that I'm his long lost son, then," Evander muttered, smiling a little as well.

"No, no… it would be too tricky to hide your heritage, or, should I say, my heritage." Hermione looked thoughtful. "Do you know how your real father managed to convince your real grandfather to allow my counterpart to remain married to him after they eloped?"

"Well," Evander started, rubbing his temples to help him remember, "for one thing, they were married by magic."

"Married by magic?" It wasn't everyday that Hermione came across something to do with magic that she had never heard of.

"People who are married by magic can only be divorced by equal hatred," Evander said. "It's not very common, but it prevents people like my granddad from splitting them up."

"Couldn't he have killed me?" Hermione asked, not paying attention to the absurdity of the question.

"My mum said something about the media once," Evander said, shrugging.

"The media?" Hermione repeated. The other timeline was getting more intriguing to her by the minute. But there were other more important things to discover from these children. "Lily," she asked tentatively, "how did your father win the battle?"

Lily stretched leisurely before starting her long explanation.

Meanwhile, Draco Malfoy had just sat down to dinner at his parents' house.

A.N.: Okay, I've given up on having long, elaborate chapters. I just don't work that way. Thank you again to all of you patient people out there. Please don't think that I'm really snobby or something from my author's notes. I'm just busy. Oh, and let me know if I contradict myself!

Also, can anyone identify where I got the quote, "The world is a very scary place, my dear?"