Childhood Sweethearts Remember

Chapter 10: Of Curses and Hidden Truths

Not one person in the room could believe what they were hearing. Hermione? Pregnant? How could it be? She was smart and destined to go places. How could she be silly enough to become a teenage mother? It was just unthinkable.

"But we used contraceptives!" Draco shouted with a flash of worry on his face. "This can't be. We can't have a child!"

She shot an evil glare at him. "I said I THINK I may be pregnant. I won't know for sure until my next cycle comes around. And yes we did take all the correct precautionary measures necessary but contraceptives often don't work."

"I've never heard of contraceptive charms not working unless the witch or wizard is too incompetent to perform even the simplest of charms. Like Longbottom over there. I would expect him to knock up his girlfriend. But not us. We are the top of our class."

"First of all, so is Neville otherwise he wouldn't be here," she scolded. "Second of all, when I read up on this subject, I read that even the best of wizards can mess up on a contraceptive charm."

"BUT HOW!"

"If they're too caught up in the lust and can barely focus all their attention, a single moan can ruin the whole charm."

"No. This can't be happening. And besides, how would you know? The baby wouldn't have been conceived more than a week ago."

"I'm a very cautious woman, Draco. I get worried easily so I checked just to make sure. I performed the pregnancy check charm. It showed positive this morning."

Remus Lupin cleared his throat to alert them of the others present. "I understand this is shocking news...to us all, clearly, and while it will be difficult to get over the initial shock, we have to move on. Any one else care to share?"

Ron raised his hand as his face blushed a deep red.

"Yes, Ron?" Remus asked.

"Um...never mind," he said, blushing even more. "It's not important," he lied.

"Well I have something to say," Draco announced. "Though it would be better if you could just find out for yourself, I suppose I'd better tell you than having you find out in another manner," he said to Hermione. "It's about your heritage and I wanted your parents to tell you. Apparently they couldn't do that though so I guess it's me who'll be the one to tell you.

You're a direct descendant from a man named Nathaniel Reins. He was a pureblood of course and a member of the richest most powerful family in all of England. Now here's where it gets confusing. You see, the Dark Lord, a.k.a. Voldemort, is really just one in a whole line of Lords. There's always been a Dark Lord for hundreds of years. Usually they're not elected, or chosen by anyone. They just take it upon themselves to begin their own army. When they die that's it. Then all their servants wait for one of them to step up to the plate or for someone to start a new army.

The Reins family always avoided the Dark Lord and his servants, always finding reasons not to join. And the Dark Lord of Nathaniel's time period could find no way to convince the family otherwise. But he wanted them as his servants because they were the most powerful and the most prominent. The power they possessed was undeniably great.

But then Nathaniel fell in love with a girl. The wrong girl. The Dark Lord's wife. And the Dark Lord took Nathaniel from his family. The only way your family could save Nathaniel's life was to condemn themselves and their entire line to the eternal servitude of the Dark Lord.

All Reins family members will be drawn to whoever the Dark Lord is on the first full moon after their sixteenth birthday. YOU will be drawn to Voldemort on the next full moon. You can't avoid it. You can't hide from it. It'll just happen. It doesn't matter that you hate him and would never serve him. It's the Reins curse that I previously mentioned to you and now you have to do it."

Everyone in the room was shocked once again and the news of Hermione's pregnancy was one of their lesser issues.

She let out a small sarcastic laugh. "Fancy that. Here I am trying to find ways to bring Voldemort down and in just a short amount of time, I'll be willingly serving him. The irony of it all."

All five men then began to stare at her. "What?" she asked. "Why are you staring at me?"

"Because your eyes are black and you're floating in the air," Harry responded and at that moment she came back down to the ground.

"Why did I just float?" she asked Lupin as if he would automatically know.

"Because you're not supposed to hear about the curse until you turn sixteen," Draco said, hitting himself in the face. "I'm so bloody stupid sometimes. How could I forget? It's not just like a secret. It's that you're not ALLOWED to know. Remember when I mentioned the Reins curse? Well that day you started a whole tornado practically and you were floating in mid air. Today you're floating again. I think it only happens when you hear about the curse."

"But I don't understand," she said. "How would you telling me make me float?"

"It's a spell," he told her. "Whenever you hear about the curse, when you process the information given, it triggers the spell. I never knew what would happen if I told you but I guess now we know."

"Well what does it matter if I float? That doesn't prevent you from telling me. It's not exactly a bad thing to have the ability to fly without a broom."

"The trick is that if we let it go long enough, you'd create a tornado so violent that it would kill everyone around you, mainly whoever told you."

She sighed. "You know, I used to think life was as complicating as it can be when you're one of the best friends of Harry Potter but I take it back. Spending time with you is far more complicated."

"I love you too, sweetheart."

"Gross," Ron muttered. "Pet names."

Hermione shot him a glance. "Now is not the time for petty comments, Ronald Weasley," she scolded him. "So immature sometimes," she then continued to mutter under her breath clearly irritated.

"I think that if we have anything else to say," Lupin said, "We should just wait and find out in the exercise. Otherwise we'll never get going. Now take your seats everyone and try to relax." They all did as they were told and waited for further instruction. "We're not going to be doing occlumency today if that's what you're all thinking. So far, the only one who has had a true need for that art is Harry. No, today we'll be learning how to lie properly."

"But even some muggles can do that!" Ron exclaimed. "It's not a big trick."

"Yes, muggles can in fact lie against lie detectors but I'm talking about magic Ronald. Can you lie after drinking Veritaserum? Can you fight off the imperious? Are you able to hide all the secret information that comes along with being an auror through any spells? Today we'll focus on veritaserum. Please, take a sip of the drink in front of you. I promise it's not poisonous, Mr. Malfoy."

Hermione was the first to take a sip, knowing she had no secrets to hide. Harry and Draco were next followed by Neville. Ron was the last one to drink his and he did so with hesitance.

"Good," Remus stated. "Now, you have a break. I'm going to leave you all here and wait until I'm sure the potion is kicking in." He walked out the same door they came in and everyone relaxed.

"This doesn't taste all that bad," Hermione said while finishing off her drink. "I kind of enjoy it."

"You are the strange one, Granger," Draco joked. "Always did have a taste for odd things."

"I guess that must be true considering I did have feelings for you," she replied, placing her drink down on the table in front of her.

"Isn't she a Malfoy now, though?" Neville asked in confusion. "I'm always so lost."

"She's Granger," Harry stated clearly, as if defending Hermione. "I don't care what a stupid marriage certificate says. She's Hermione to me, now and always."

She sighed. "But my name isn't even Hermione." No one heard her.

"She's a Malfoy," Draco said, "But I'll never call her by that name. She doesn't like it. I don't blame her. Believe it or not, Potter, when it comes to my wife, I'm a caring husband."

"Can we stop discussing our marriage?" Hermione practically screamed.

"She clearly didn't want to marry you. It was forced upon her. Even you're not stupid enough to think that a great girl like Hermione would marry you with her free will," Ron spat out angrily.

This clearly struck a nerve in Draco's head as his face contorted. He was pissed, mainly because it had been the truth. Her parents had forced her to marry him. It wasn't her choice so the fact that her friends could throw that in her face was like torture. "At least I have her, one way or the other. You'd have never been able to get Hermione even if I didn't get her first."

"You're all talking about me like I'm not here!" She was furious. How dare they! Neville patted her shoulder in sympathy. It was clear that the three boys would not be calming down anytime soon.

"Not that Hermione's not a great girl or anything but what makes you think I wanted her?" Ron shot back with malice in his eyes.

"Only the fact that you've been staring at her for the past five years with puppy dog eyes and that I found a love letter that you addressed to her last year. Maybe you should be more careful with garbage you don't want anyone to see, Weasel." Ron's face went red.

"You filthy swine..."

"I'm not filthy, Weasley. I have enough money to make sure of that... unlike you."

"You'd better stop that soon, Malfoy," Harry warned. "Keep provoking him like that and I might be inclined to throw the first punch."

"I'm scared now," he mocked. "Oh no, the scarhead who can't even stay on his broom properly is coming to attack me! AH!" Then he laughed. "Pathetic."

"Look who's talking," Ron shot back. "You had to get your parents to set you up with Hermione. You probably couldn't even get a girlfriend by yourself."

"That's where you're wrong, Weasel. I've never been lonely... once again, unlike yourself."

They were all about to attack when Hermione stepped in the middle. "STOP!" They were all so close to hitting her but luckily stopped just in time. "I can't take it. You're acting like babies. I hate you all so much right now even though I really love you all."

Remus walked in just then. "I think it must be working," he laughed, taking his seat once again. They all sat down as well.

"The trick to overcoming veritaserum is to actually believe in the lie that you'll be telling. Like if I ask Harry, do you have glasses?"

"Yes, of course I have glasses, Remus," he responded. "What a silly question."

"But if you wanted to lie, you'd have to truly believe were without glasses or that I'm talking about something else. Make up a fake story in your mind, and quickly of course. Make it believable. Don't make up that the things on your face are really just a disguise. Try thinking that they're a magnifying glass. It's not the same as glasses, see? It will allow you to lie easily."

"I don't get it," Hermione said. "Magnifying glass is almost the same as glasses, isn't it?"

"No, my dear. I didn't ask him if he had magnifying glasses. I asked for just regular glasses. It's not truly too different, it's just that it's not what was asked."

"So if you ask me about the secret hideout for the Order of the Phoenix, what could I say for that? It's not really a yes or no question and it's actually pretty specific."

"When asked a specific question like that, don't think about the whole sentence. Break it down. Think as though they just asked you where the Phoenix is hiding. Then you can say, there is no hiding place. What do they have to hide from? Something like that."

They all seemed really confused and he rolled his eyes. He then relaxed against the back of his seat, knowing that he was not going to be done for quite a while longer. He might as well be comfortable.

A/N...please tell me you liked it. Please!