1Hi! So I've decided to update once a week or so...seems a reasonable schedule to me!
Chapter 20: Humble Abodes
The spell had been cast by no other than Mr. Weasley, who was also the Secret Keeper. Draco and Hermione Malfoy couldn't possibly be any happier with the outcome of their choice. At least, so far.
-x-
Lucius Malfoy was pacing back and forth in his chambers.
'Kill my son? Absurd. He is the only heir to my throne, and to kill him? I'll simply tell Voldemort that I can't do it.'
Lucius was halfway to the door when another thought popped into his head.
'But he'll kill me, too. And isn't better I survive than Draco? No, that's absurd. Draco is younger than I, and more powerful and capable to boot. I will die so he can live. There is no other way.'
But once again, Lucius was paused on his way to the Lord to tell him his choice. But he was not stopped by a thought: he was stopped by a sudden flash behind his eyelids as he blinked.
He suddenly saw his only son, clear as day. He was standing in the middle of a clearing, holding the hand of a woman in jeans. Hermione? She held wild flowers in her other hand, and before them stood a man. Suddenly, as Lucius watched, Draco's lips moved. Hermione's lips moved. Saying "I do."?
As Lucius watched, Draco leaned forward and planted a chaste little kiss upon the lips of Hermione. Hermione smiled into the kiss and moved forward slightly as well. Draco dipped Hermione backwards. They both broke off from the kiss at the same time, and smiled. They turned to smile at the minister. And then they took the hands of the others.
Lucius's sight cleared again, and he saw his chambers once more.
'Young. Powerful. Capable. Married. Loved. Wanted. Smart. Clever.'
There was no way Lucius would let a young man with such traits be laid to waste by a maniac. And it didn't hurt that the young man was his son. All his life he had done wrong. Now, he would do right.
He would step between Voldemort and his plan, even if he only put a pause in it. If only to save his son. If only to save himself.
-x-
Draco and Hermione Malfoy walked hand in hand across the threshold to their first house, but it was not quite the mansion Draco would have preferred for his first married home. It was tall, yes, but it was tilted. It looked reminiscent of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. However, there was plenty of room out back for him to fly around. Unfortunately, the only brooms to be found were old ones in a dilapidated old shed.
Hermione, however, couldn't be happier with her surroundings. She was fond of the tilted frame of the house and all the spiders in the shed. This place had been a second home to her.
She loved the Weasley's house more than any house in the world right now. And this was to be where she and Draco spent their honeymoon, their first child (were it to be conceived and born before Voldemort's fall), and quite possibly where they would spend all of their married lives.
This was their hiding place, their haven, from here on out.
-x-
It felt like Mr. Weasley had been running forever. Ever since he saw that joyful union in the woods, it was all he wanted to protect.
When he first came back into contact with Hermione, he saw the shattered look in her eyes that could have been and probably was reflecting the feeling in her heart. And Hermione was like a second daughter to Arthur...so pretending to be cold and unmoving was hard.
But then she started behaving as he thought she would have long ago by going against anything that would have been considered smart: defying the Dark Lord even though it meant certain death, helping a friend in need even though she was supposed to kill him. She started acting as the Gryffindor he knew she still was.
And then she and Draco had decided to marry. The very next thing he knew, they were following through on their promise to each other. And the look in Hermione's eyes that had been so shattered became whole again. But it became more than whole. Her eyes regained their shining youth he had come to recognize as a purely Hermione shine.
And could any person...man who helped Hermione regain this luster be bad? If she loved him, wasn't her worth it?
So Arthur was risking his life now for not only Hermione, but also for the man she chose to love and spend her life with.
Finally, up ahead, Arthur found the building he had been searching for so fruitlessly all this time.
-x-
Lucius Malfoy stood anxiously before the doors of his Lord.
'How am I to carry through with this.'
He remembered the scene he saw in the forest through his flash vision. Hermione and Draco, kissing. Breaking off. Smiling. A happy smile. A satisfied couple. Beauty. Promise.
Hope.
He took a deep breath, and regained his composure.
He pushed open the door.
And there sat his Lord, calm and collected. As though nothing was going wrong in his plan.
Ok, sorry, this one is sooo short! Thanks for reading, and I swear, you probably think I'm evil for the, what, 2 cliffhangers? Lol.