Disclaimer: Of course, these lovely characters do not belong to me. I do borrow them for a new idea.


You are my wife...

April 1998

It had taken her a couple of tries to make it to shell cottages and she was rather lucky to run into Bill, who was the last to leave the place for his aunt Muriel's. There she found Harry and Ron, who remorsefully apologized for leaving her. Ginny had taken it upon herself to shadow her and offered to take the floor so Hermione could have the bed in her room. It was there that the boys and Ginny caught a glimpse of what Bellatrix had left behind for the first time.

Ron looked like he was going to explode. He went through his whole range of emotions, keeping the weeping for a later time when only Harry could hear him in their room. Harry had simply sat there, while Ginny wrapped her arms tightly around her.

"What I don't understand, why not kill you?" The girl's finger carefully traced the scar on Hermione's arm, as she posed the question. As an instinct, she hadn't known before, she felt for the necklace hidden by her shirt.

"He came up with some crazy plan." She carefully tasted the words, trying to see if Malfoy could somehow stop her from speaking or if she would grow something weird in return.

"The Dark Lord?" Harry looked surprised. He had actually not been in his head since their escape, which indicated that Voldemort had not been completely enraged. Hermione nodded softly, feeling out the rest of the story in her head, before finally letting it come across her lips.

"He was pretty mad at the Malfoys and in turn at Bellatrix, who would have been more than happy to torture me some more."

"Bloody bitch." The look Harry and Ginny threw at him, silenced Ron, although she could tell that he was still boiling inside.

"I thought for sure he was going to let her when he suddenly asked Malfoy's mother to take me to their finest guest room." Her friends looked as surprised as she had felt. "I didn't have the strength to even think about getting out of there and when I woke up again, Malfoy was there holding my hand."

Ron looked like he was going to murder Malfoy on the spot.

"Give me your wand." Harry had reached out towards his best friend. Ron looked at him like he had seen a ghost. "Give me your wand. You need to calm down first."

Shooting daggers at Harry, he finally handed over the wand he had won in the battle. The dark-haired wizard put it far out of reach, before turning back to his other best friend.

"Why was he holding your hand, it seems like a rather ridiculous thing for him to do." Hermione nodded, trying to carefully put together her next few sentences.

"The Dark Lord wanted to punish the Malfoys and apparently, he had decided that their blood was now worthless."

"What does that even mean?" Ginny looked as irritated as the other two, although she did give a voice to their thoughts.

"It means it was worthless enough to be mixed with mine."

Ron laughed before he realized how serious Hermione still was. She looked away from his intense glare, unsure of what his next reaction would be.

"By the time I woke up the Dark Lord had performed a marriage ritual between Malfoy and me."

As Ron stood his chair thundered to the ground. It was the only sound in a deathly silent room. He seemed to look for some sort of a response before he simply turned and stormed out of the room. Hermione was shaking, trying to get up to follow him, but Ginny gently pushed her back down.

"Let him go. He will be back when he is ready."

"Hermione, don't mind me asking this, but you and Malfoy, you didn't…" When she looked back to Harry, she saw the blush creep in his face.

"Harry!" Ginny yelled, but there was also a slight pinkness in her face now that she understood what he was trying to say.

"No. He didn't touch me, other than holding my hand." She contemplated telling them about the meaning behind that, but something told her that they wouldn't react as well to her agreeing than to the first part of the story.

"Isn't there a loophole to marriage? I mean you didn't even agree." Harry still looked to one of the corners uncomfortably.

"That was the first thing I told him. The ceremony was some kind of blood ritual and unfortunately, it neither needs me to agree nor us to actually consummate. I'm still his wife."

"Bloody hell." Ginny leaned back as she stared at her.

"There is no divorce or killing him either. If I'm responsible the bond will kill me too."

Harry sighed next to her. He stared at his hands now.

"So are you to deliver information to the Dark Lord?"

"All they said was that I was now to be completely loyal to Malfoy. I'm not sure yet what that actually means, like if I can resist or if this blood thing will actually force me to do anything." She shrugged. As she thought about it, she didn't think Draco had actually forced her to do anything yet. His leash on her seemed pretty loose, maybe even too loose for the Dark Lords liking.

"You just can't trust me with anything. As soon as I know so could Malfoy or him." She glanced back at Harry. "That being said, what's the plan?"

Harry laughed at the irony. Somehow it felt good to laugh about the absurdity and so the two girls found themselves joining in.

"We have a plan, but we are not ready yet." He glanced at her, noticing that she was waiting for more details. "It might be best if we don't tell you until we leave."

Although the thought stung, she nodded in agreeance. He was right. Anything in her thoughts would be potentially accessible to Draco. Of course, if she was to believe him, he would be back in Hogwarts by now. Her eyes went to Ginny.

"Why aren't you in Hogwarts?"

"I went home for the break and never went back. It's too dangerous. They would use me as a pawn for something." She gave a sad smile. While she felt a little better since the boys had arrived, it wasn't her favorite thing to sit here and wait, while her mother made sure she wouldn't come up with any stupid ideas.

Hermione sighed. At least she wasn't the only one stuck in the Weasley hideout, without anything to do. As grim as the situation was, Molly insisted on a celebration meal for her return. Eventually, even Ron showed up and with a huff sat next to Hermione, after giving her a long hug. In between roast and pie, an awestruck Lupin arrived, announcing the birth of his son and asking Harry to be his godfather. It was like this little miracle that let everyone else forget the dark waiting for them the next morning. Bill had gone to grab wine for everyone and suddenly a bit of the lightness that they had last felt at the Weasley wedding had come back.

It was late at night when Ginny and she finally went to bed. While she could hear her friends breathing even out pretty soon, she wasn't able to close her eyes. She stared at the ceiling as she went over everything she knew, but it wasn't much. The few days she had missed and her new husband pretty much robbed her of all relevant information. Of course, she was glad that she couldn't give anything away, at the same time she wanted to do something. She wanted to help.

"You will be able to help soon enough." She almost squeaked into the darkness, as his voice sounded like he was standing right beside her. Her hand tightly grabbed her wand, but her heartbeat slowed down again when she realized he must have intruded her thoughts again.

"I swear one day killing you will just be worth it."

She could imagine his smirk, but as he took his sweet time answering, she wondered if he had even heard her.

"Just looking for information, darling."

"You can stop looking. They are not giving me anything."

"I can see that."

She sighed quietly and turned away from Ginny as to keep her thoughts secret from her.

"What's Hogwarts like?"

"Trying to distract me?"

"No, I just miss it."

Again there was a long silence, she could only assume that he was busy going through her thoughts. Suddenly, she was immensely glad that Harry had decided to keep her out of the planning stage.

"There is nothing left for you to miss."

Her breath caught in her throat as she finally heard his answer. She closed her eyes, trying to keep the tears in that suddenly threatened to spill.

"For me, it's not much different, for the other houses it hasn't been the same I'm sure. They basically get to go to class, get food, and have to return to their common room."

"How do they study?" Now she was sure she could hear his laugh.

"They can order books from the library. Of course, the delivery service was more than relieved to hear you are not able to order anything." His tone swung with the amusement her question had raised and she actually rolled her eyes at him.

"Darling, you should sleep. Your injuries still need healing."

"Why do you keep calling me that?"

"You are my wife…" As she didn't respond, he continued: "Of course, if you'd prefer me calling you HermHerm or MioMio, I'm sure Brown could give me a list of suggestions if I'd ask her."

"Shut up, Malfoy." She opened her eyes, before she tossed herself to the other side, willing him to leave her mind. However, she had no way of knowing if he was actually gone.

He indeed was gone, now looking at Snape. The headmaster was waiting for him to reveal his information to pass along to the Dark Lord.

"I can only give you her thoughts." He straightened in his chair. "She thinks they will either come back to Hogwarts or go to Gringotts."

Snape looked deep in thought, as he listened to him.

"I guess Granger noticed that aunt Bella got upset when she thought they broke into her vault."

"Do you know what she hides there?"

"A whole bunch of stuff. No idea what could interest Potter in particular."

Snape nodded apparently satisfied with his answer.

"They are also after the snake." Oh, he hated that thing, he had even considered not mentioning it at all. If he was completely honest, he would let her kill it, if she got the chance. Then again the Dark Lord would have his head, so he gave up this last bit of information after all.

His former professor nodded. It almost seemed like he wasn't surprised, but he turned which made him even less readable.

"The mind-reading thing, do you know if that is part of that stupid bind?" Did he do it? Was really what he meant to ask. After all, if he had done it, maybe he listened in as well. Not that it should matter, he wasn't Granger's ally.

Snape seemed surprised by the question, but Draco had decided that his headmaster was a much better source than his father would have been. At least, he might be more willing to give the information.

"I'm not sure, you should probably consult your parents."

Draco huffed. Well, now he was just where he had been before asking. Snape seemed to study him again and he didn't like it. He stood, preparing to leave for his head boy quarters.

"My only explanation would be for the bind to have a form of legilimency woven into it." They stared at each other.

"While I don't particularly care about Granger's well-being, it might be in our best interest for you to be very careful as you go through her thoughts." Draco raised one of his brows in surprise. "She won't be of any use if you leave damage."

There was a small pause: "And I don't think a Malfoy should mess up at this point."

Draco's expression turned sour, but he nodded before he did leave the office.