A/N: Sorry I'm late with this! I actually had it all written by my usual update date, but whilst on vacation, I forget the power cord for my laptop and used all the juice in a matter of hours. Sad face. But now here's an update! Happy face! I suspect some of you may hate me after this. Evil face. The next update should come out in the next week but maybe not exactly on time. I'll do my best!
Chapter Sixteen:
They ate their ice cream in the funny double cones as they meandered through the streets, not knowing or caring where their steps took them. All they had to do to return to Marius's home was to duck into a shadowed alley and Apparate back. Hermione tested out the names "Mrs. Malfoy" and "Hermione Malfoy" and "Mrs. Hermione Malfoy" even as she knew she would never allow herself to use them around anybody. An essential part of her plan would be her apparent reluctance to remind the world that she was technically wed to Lucius. So she would keep her maiden name, but that did not mean she could not whisper the words to herself.
One corner of Lucius's mouth quirked in a half-smile, but it did not reach his eyes. She could see that he was deep in thought, probably forgetting their wedding already in his plotting for the next day or two. It irked her a little, but for the most part she was content to tuck her arm into his and gaze at the people and buildings around them. She was married. It would not change much at all in her day-to-day life, but there it was. Married. It was so unlike anything she had ever imagined. Her husband should be beaming and stealing kisses, not frowning to himself with that wrinkle in his forehead.
Their lazy stroll lasted only as long as their ice cream, which disappeared quickly in the hot sun. He asked if she were ready to return, and, because she could not think of a good reason to stay here any longer, she replied that she was. Just as she had predicted, he steered them into an unused alley, withdrew the wand secreted in his jacket, and muttered the Apparition spell.
The moment the disorientation cleared, Hermione noticed a thin violet line like a pulsing wire outlining the windows and door visible from the sitting room. It looked like some kind of ward had been activated, and the muttering she heard from Lucius seemed to confirm her guess. He drew her roughly to him and held her tight for a brief second. She thought she heard him whisper, "I'm so sorry, Mrs. Malfoy," and was about to inquire what he meant when he shoved her away again. It was not an especially hard push, but she was so surprised that she fell back and tripped over her feet to fall to the floor.
The plush carpet had cushioned her landing, and no objects had lain in her path. She winced as she clambered to her feet and rubbed her bottom, all the while gazing at him with her eyes wide and questioning. He did not give her a chance to say anything, though, before he grabbed the collar of her tunic, pulled her near, and then gave her a shake so violent that the delicate fabric tore. Her eyes began to well up with tears of confusion at his sudden, bizarre change in behaviour and the cold expression that had settled over his face. He might as well have been wearing a mask for all she could read him.
"What are you doing?" she finally exclaimed, but he gave no response except another shove that sent her sprawling into the sofa. It teetered menacingly but kept its balance. The sharp pain that shot through her lower back woke her a little from her shocked daze. "Stop it!" she shouted. "I don't know what you're doing, but you're hurting me!"
He brandished the wand, and she was scrambling over the back edge of the sofa, fearful of what he might do next when the nearest door burst open. She peeked her head around the side of the sofa to see who had entered and gasped when she recognised her former professor, Minerva McGonagall. It was a rare thing to catch the witch in a temper, but it was terrifying. Behind her, the imposing Kingsley Shacklebolt slid inside and aimed his wand at Lucius. Two other witches and a wizard she did not recognise swarmed inside, followed, to her amazement, by Ron and Harry.
"Drop the wand, Malfoy!" Ron cried, holding his own wand with admirable steadiness. His face was bright red, and his hair stuck straight up. Harry looked only a very little bit more composed, almost shaking with rage as he looked around for Hermione. She was glad that she was not in the middle of that scene; she feared her face might give away more than she liked.
"There she is!"
She could not see what Lucius was doing, but he must have obeyed Ron's order. At least, no one was firing curses at him, and Minerva was edging her way across the room to where Hermione looked out from behind the sofa. The others kept their wands trained on Malfoy as Kingsley stepped forward, presumably to get the wand away from Lucius.
"Seven against one," Lucius observed in his laziest drawl, "you certainly have me at your mercy." She shifted just enough to see him glance up at a silver clock marked with symbols she could not decipher. "If I were you, I should press my advantage while I still had it. You're likely to find it fleeting."
Hermione could see Ron's jaw tighten, but much to his credit, he did not otherwise respond to the baiting. "We are authorised to use necessary force to neutralise any Death Eater threat we come across," Harry said through gritted teeth as if by rote.
"This will be a lot easier if you come without a fuss," he added. "We just want to get Hermione somewhere safe where she can forget all about you."
Not likely, she thought and felt a flash of annoyance at the idea that she would be carted somewhere like an object or a helpless animal.
Lucius chuckled at this. "You'll find that rather more difficult than you imagine," he replied in an eerie echo of her own thoughts. Although the sofa blocked much of the scene from her view, she could see her two friends stiffen at the implication.
"Hand over the wand, Malfoy," Ron growled.
But before Lucius could respond with another taunt, Ron apparently lost patience and disarmed the man with expelliarmus and then Summoned the wand.
"Bravo," the older man commented, sounding as unruffled as ever. "I'll be sure to watch the papers for news of your elevation to the Order of Merlin. Their standards are so low these days, I wouldn't be surprised if even a Weasely could gain admittance."
She thought she saw a scuffle and over that racket, heard Kingsley order silence in his deep voice. "Since you won't come peacefully, Malfoy," he began, but he never got to finish the threat.
As Minerva left the unfolding confrontation and came to kneet next to Hermione, a sharp crack sounded the next room over. Instinctively, Hermione pulled the professor and headmistress down next to her on the floor. They peered around the far edge of the sofa to see a group of masked and black-robed wizards emerge from the breakfast nook. All Hermione could see was the group of her rescuers, for so they probably fancied themselves, rushed toward the arch between the two rooms and drove them back into the kitchen. The sounds of curses and grunts and the muffled thumps of falling people filled the air.
Hermione felt maddeningly useless without a wand of her own. She had drawn her friends here, and now she could not help defend them.
"Are you well, Hermione?" McGonagall asked in a whisper as she fired off a nasty red tongue of flame over the sofa.
Hermione touched her ripped tunic and nodded. Was that what Lucius had been doing, making the scene believable for the intruders the wards had warned him were coming? No time to ponder that now. "I'm fine, headmistress. What's going on?"
"I should think," Minerva replied when she was not cursing a Death Eater who had strayed much too close for comfort, "that should be obvious."
In the midst of the crossfire, Ron dashed over to their position. "Oi, Hermione! Are you all right?"
Hermione realised in a flash that she would have to endure this question repeated for a very long time. "I'm fine. We can hardly see anything back here… what's going on in the kitchen?"
Ron reached into his robes and pulled out a welcome sight to Hermione's eyes, her faithful little wand. "Go and see for yourself. Bet you've been missing this."
Despite the deadly solemnity of the situation, Hermione felt a grin steal across her face. "A little. Thanks, Ron." She gave him a quick hug before plucking the wand from his hand and wrapping her fingers around it in her usual grip. "Headmistress?"
The other woman nodded.
"Let's go."
Even as they reclaimed their opposite sides, Hermione could not help but feel relief that, disarmed as he was, Lucius was not a central target in the ensuing struggle. If they were less than enthusiastic about protecting him, his fellow Death Eaters at least drew the brunt of the fire away from him. She did not doubt that the Order members wanted to capture and arrest Lucius, but survival was now the main priority.
As it went with all the firefights she ever experienced, the battle became a muddy mishmash in her memory. She remembered the feelings intensely – the adrenaline rush, the anger, the fear for her life and that of her friends, and the focus – but she could not have said what spells she used or who she had saved at the last minute and who had saved her. She did recall felling a Death Eater intent upon cursing Harry as he screamed and cast spell after spell at Lucius and recalled with a shudder the brief but powerful urge she had fought off to Stun Harry as well so he would not hurt her… husband. Harry's concentration soon shifted to other Death Eaters, these armed with wands and trying very hard to kill him.
One of the witches she did not recognise fell and did not get up, but she still lived when they finally Disapparated. Hermione wondered if anyone else had noticed that the Death Eaters, nominally on Lucius's side, pushed and pulled him about quite rudely, as if annoyed with the necessity of defending him. She did not know exactly what to think, was too occupied with keeping herself alive to think, but she hoped they would not hurt him too much.
From where she stood, throwing hexes at Death Eaters like she was born to it, she could feel and sometimes see Lucius's gaze on her. There was so much she wanted to say and ask and absolutely no time for any of it.
"Don't worry about Malfoy," Harry whispered to her when they found themselves side by side. He had caught her staring hard at him and had grossly misinterpreted the sentiment behind the look. "I know you want revenge, and I promise you'll get it, but…"
"I know," she interrupted and stifled a hysterical urge to laugh. This was Harry preaching prudence at her? After their years together and after what she had just witnessed from him, attacking an unarmed man? She realised that she would have said the exact same words to him, had their places been switched. "We have to make it out alive in order to wreak our vengeance."
He flashed her a smile, and her heart lifted to see it. This was one young man who had grown up far too quickly and who had somewhere stopped smiling enough along the way. "Right. Like I have to tell you."
They drited apart again in the chaos of battle, but it buoyed Hermione's spirits to know that she was among friends again. A new lover was always exciting, but old friends were… comforting. Stable. Reliable, at least most of the time. She just hoped they would remain her stable and comforting friends after the inevitable announcement she had to make.
The Death Eaters did not stay long, did not put up as much of a fight as Hermione had expected from the state she had seen Lucius in but left with their comrade in tow after retreating out another door and then Disapparating from there. Ron and Harry crowded around Hermione as soon as they could afford to take the attention away from the Death Eaters while the others tended to the fallen witch. The fight and the strange ups-and-downs of the day hit Hermione like a ton of bricks, and she was suddenly exhausted.
"How long have you been here?"
"What did he do to you?"
"Are you sure you're all right?"
"Is there anything we can do?"
"How did he…"
"Why did he…"
"What…"
"Why…"
Hermione fell into the sofa and dropped her head into her hands. "Please," she said, "stop it."
McGonagall strode over to the trio, looking down at them with a worried expression. "Let her be, boys. She needs peace and quiet, and if you can't give her that, maybe you should go see if Kingsley needs any help."
Ron swallowed and flushed, and Harry looked away. Hermione gave her a shaky smile.
"Besides, we'll hear everything we need to know at the trial."
Oh God.
"The trial?" Hermione asked, feigning ignorance. It was unlikely that Lucius-the-captor would have allowed his captive access to the daily paper or keep her up to date on the latest news.
"Yes, it's all been decided," Minerva replied. She pursed her lips, and Hermione wondered if perhaps her former professor did not entirely approve of the trials. "Known associates of You-… of Voldemort are going to be tried by the Wizengamot."
"Tried? But… the Ministry can't expect they'll show up. I mean… I know they're Death Eaters and all, but aren't they entitled to some sort of defence?"
Ron's head jerked up, and he gaped. "Entitled to a defence? Hermione, he held you captive. He…" He gestured at her tunic. "He hurt you. And you're going to tell the whole world what he did."
"I know how strongly you feel about house elf rights," Harry continued, "but they're Death Eaters. They're murderers."
"I know," Hermione said in a small voice. "I know who they are."
Harry looked vaguely ashamed and glanced away again. Minerva patted her shoulder. "No one's questioning that, Hermione. Now, you don't have to say anything yet… the trial starts tomorrow, but it will be at least a week before they will require your presence."
Hermione took a deep breath. Now was as good a time as any to break the news. "I can't."
Ron exhaled sharply. "What d'you mean, you can't? You have to!"
You've got enough on Lucius to sentence him to life in prison, she wanted to scream¸ you don't need a kidnapping charge on top of that. She did not scream but repeated herself quietly. "I can't. I'm sorry."
"I'm sure it must be very hard," Minerva said in a sympathetic voice, "but Ron is correct. If we're going to bring Mr. Malfoy to justice, we must know the full extent of his crimes toward you."
There were no crimes! He saved my life, and I saved his. "I understand, but I cannot testify against him." She dropped her eyes to her hands, fidgeting in her lap.
"They'll make you," Harry said suddenly. He did not sound at all pleased by the prospect. On the contrary, he sounded weary. "If you don't, they'll just charge you with something and then pour veritaserum down your throat until you talk."
Hermione, Ron, and Minerva looked at Harry in unison, each wearing expressions of varying degrees of surprise. Minerva wore that unhappy look again while Ron just looked shocked. They worked together fairly closely these days, but Hermione doubted that Harry would ever forget the bitter treatment he had received at the hands of the Ministry.
"I'm sure you're right, Harry, but this time they cannot do that. Even the Ministry must follow the law… unless there have been changes recently that I've not heard about."
"What do you mean, they cannot?" Ron asked, frowning.
Before she had mustered up the courage to answer his question, Kingsley announced that they could leave. The witch was leaning on his arm, ashen but on her feet.
"We can talk about this later," McGonagall said firmly as they all stood and readied themselves to Apparate. "Right now we have to get Hermione to a Healer."
The very thought of enduring a physical and mental examination made Hermione dizzy with fatigue. "Please, I'm fine. I could do with a bit of rest. We can visit a Healer tomorrow if you insist."
"Very well, but don't think I will not hold you to that," McGonagall replied with more than a trace of her old sternness. "Ron, we'll send her home with you. Your mother is the best nurse I know. Harry, you may go with them if you two promise not to bother Hermione." They promised, and all three of them Apparated to the Burrow, now protected by enhanced wards she could feel brush past her.
No, she did not want tea, did not want a bite of something, did not even want to say hello to anyone. She wanted to sleep. After a warm welcome and all these inquiries, Mrs. Weasely banished the boys and bustled Hermione upstairs to Ginny's room, currently unoccupied. It was cramped – in the Burrow, that went without saying – and Ginny had the most… curious taste in interior decorating, but her bed was soft and piled with bright, mismatched quilts, so different from the clean lines and elegance of Marius's home. She fell asleep before Mrs. Weaseley finished welcoming her back.
