Holy crap! Sixty chapters, 60! I never imagined this would be so long. It has taken on a life of its own. Thank you all for being along for the ride. Things are about to start speeding up, and I'm not sure how long past the end of the war I intend to go, but I promise some kind of epilogue at least to tie up everyone's stories. Legally, I own nothing, I just like to borrow other people's toys.
Chapter 60
Grim-faced Sirius paced up and down the corridor of St Mungo's. He would leave the waiting room at one end, stride down past the closed doors of patient rooms to the sunroom at the other end. Once he arrived there he would whirl around and repeat the process in reverse. Narcissa sat still as a statue, Andromeda holding one of her hands in both of hers. Lucius sat next to his wife, his arm around her shoulders, attempting to offer comfort. Harry fidgeted constantly, his legs bouncing, rubbing his arms. Theo sat catatonic, staring at the doorway guarded by the aurors. Dudley doubted he had blinked in the last ten minutes. Fay held Draco's hands as he alternated between staring at his hands and looking helplessly at his parents.
Eventually, a mediwitch exited Hermione's exam room, she approached the waiting group. "Healer Maximilian requests immediate family only. She frowned when Lucius, Narcissa, Draco, Sirius, Harry, and Dudley moved towards her. "Only immediate family."
Lucius glanced at Sirius's wild-looking eyes and shook his head, "We are."
The mediwitch flinched at his hard tone. She swallowed nervously. "Alright then, follow me." She led them back to Hermione's room.
A middle-aged man in healer's robes stood beside a conscious, reclined Hermione. Before anyone could surge forward, he held up a cautioning hand, "Slowly, please. Miss Malfoy will be quite sore for a few days."
Narcissa froze mid-stride, then crept closer. "How are you feeling my darling?"
Hermione shook her head. "Miss Malfoy shouldn't try to talk until the potions have had time to heal her vocal cords. The screaming severely stressed them. Her voice should be fine by tomorrow. The tremors will continue for a few weeks with decreasing severity and frequency. I will prescribe some potions to help with those, along with pain potions for the general muscle pain." He looked at Hermione. "That catches them up, so back to your instructions." He chuckled at her frown. "Nothing too dire, rest, take long soaks in the tub for the aches, and don't overexert yourself."
"Fine." she mouthed, crossing her arms in a huff.
The healer looked at the assembled family, "No physical exertions- she uses magic, or someone does it for her."
Lucius nodded, "She'll follow instructions or a house elf will be with her every second."
"Ha," barked Sirius, "like they won't do that anyway. They'll fight over whose turn it is to help her."
"That's true." Harry laughed. "Winky and Kreacher have taken to keeping a written record to prove it's their turn."
Hermione huffed and shook her head. "'Fraid so, Mione." Dudley told her. "I've seen it."
Hermione rolled her eyes, making Sirius chuckle fondly, "Let them have their fun, kitten."
Narcissa turned to the healer, "When will you be discharging Hermione?"
"I'm releasing her now, but I want her to follow up with the family healer or Madame Pomfrey once a week for at least two months. Lestrange's cruciatus was quite potent.
Lucius exchanged glances with Sirius, "I'll notify Robards and Bones."
Gingerly, Hermione slipped off the cot with Theo's help. She allowed her mother to fuss over her, tolerating the way Draco, Harry, and Dudley hovered as she tottered to the floo on unsteady legs. Kingsley Shaklebolt accompanied the group to Malfoy Manor.
Refusing to be shunted off to her bedroom, Hermione settled onto a couch, leaning against Theo, who wrapped an arm around her. She rested her head against his shoulder, closing her eyes briefly, while they waited for Lucius to return. Sirius paced in front of the fireplace. Harry and Dudley sat in wing chairs. Andromeda kissed her daughter on the cheek, "I'm heading home to update your father, darling."
"Mum," whined Tonks, "I'm working here."
"I know." chuckled Andromeda. "Let me know if you need anything, Cissy."
"I will."
Fay looked around, "I should go, too. This seems like a family thing." Draco immediately started protesting. "No, I should go."
Hermione waved her hand to interrupt, finally snapping her fingers to gain attention. She signed to Fay, 'No, stay. You are the only one who will know what I'm signing.'
"Good point, yeah, I should stay and be useful."
"Wait, you know what that annoying finger wiggling means?" Draco demanded.
"Of course." She sat down across from Hermione and translated her question, "Now what?"
"Once Lucius returns we begin planning for our next step." Sirius said. "This cannot go unanswered on several levels for numerous reasons."
The fire flashed green and out stepped Lucius, followed by Gawain Robards. "I know Miss Malfoy can't speak, I was hoping she would be willing to share her memories of the evening with me. We want to get this moving before anyone has time to try pulling political strings." He flushed slightly, realizing who he was speaking to.
Lucius merely nodded, "We all know how the game is played. Look on the bright side, for the first time you'll have Houses Malfoy and Black united behind you."
Hermione removed the memory and handed it to Robards, then signed something to Fay. "Hermione says they were ordered to find the missing purebloods, the fathers promised them to him and he wants his soldiers. They were to use any means necessary. Bellatrix had to remind him this would knock you off the fence."
"Perhaps not just me." Lucius agreed. "Was that everything you needed, Robards?"
"Yes, sir. I'll leave you to the political machinations, shall I?" He looked to Hermione, "We may have follow up questions." She nodded and he departed.
Narcissa looked to her husband, "How do we play this?"
"The Ministry still insists Riddle isn't back, and he does not have the numbers he once did, Severus says he's desperate to get his hands on the next generation. His best and brightest are no longer such. The staunchly loyal went to Azkaban and returned pale shadows of their former selves. Age has diminished the zeal of many, and many are dead." Lucius paced.
"You'll be coming off the fence?" Sirius asked.
"Yes, they came into my home, under the guise of my hospitality, and attacked my child."
Theo swallowed hard, looking nervous, "What happens when my father stays loyal?" Hermione squeezed his hand.
"You're of age, and your betrothal contract is unbreakable, he saw to that." Sirius told him. "You just don't come back from Hogwarts after graduation." Theo nodded, his face expressing his sorrow.
Harry looked at Hermione. She stared back, determination burning in her eyes. Silently, they came to an agreement, turning back to the others with fierce looks on their faces. "Something to announce there, prongslet?" Sirius asked.
"There is another option besides all the Slytherins disappearing." Lucius raised an eyebrow. "We end this fucking nightmare."
"Easier said than done, son." Sirius replied.
"Four down, one found, and two to go." Harry shot back.
Sirius looked to Hermione for confirmation. She nodded. "Holy shite."
"I presume you are prepared to destroy the remaining three?" Lucius asked the teenagers.
"We are." Harry answered as Hermione nodded.
"Then I guess we'll start setting the stage for the end game."
Fay watched Hermione sign something, "We still have two to find and no idea where to look. This could still take time." She paused, "For the record, I am very confused, but I have a feeling I'm happier that way." Hermione nodded.
"There is also nothing else any of us can do tonight, or rather this morning. I suggest everyone head to their beds and get some sleep." Narcissa stood. "It was lovely to see you again, Miss Dunbar. Kings, Tonks, do you know the plans?"
"Your house elves have been given emergency signals should anyone breach your wards."
"And I will be disconnecting the floos every night." Lucius reported, "Hermione should wear her emergency portkey." He gave her a stern look.
She glared and signed to Fay, who dutifully, but sheepishly replied, "And that ports me to the side parlor of this house, what good would that have really done?"
"She has a point, dearest, she was in no condition to activate it in the moment."
Theo extracted himself from behind Hermione and picked her up. "Let's get you to bed, sweet." He waited while everyone bid her a good night, then carried her up to her room. "Winky." he called. The elf popped in instantly. "Would you help Hermione into her sleepwear, please?"
"Of course, Master Theo." Winky snapped her fingers, using her special magic to change the clothing.
"Thank you." Theo settled Hermione under the blankets Winky pulled back. "Sleep well, sweet." He kissed her gently.
"Stay." she mouthed.
"I don't know. I think I need to get home and assess the damage there." Theo looked torn, as Hermione pouted.
"He's right." The voice from the open door startled both of them. Draco stood in the middle of the doorway. "He needs to see how Thoros reacts to this news to plan his next step." He stepped into the room, "So, I volunteer to watch over you while you sleep. Consider it the childhood slumber parties we never had." He joked. Hermione frowned but nodded. She wanted Theo, but Draco would do in his stead. And it would mean a lot to her brother. "I'll message you instantly if anything changes."
"Thank you." Theo gave her one more glance, before turning and striding from the room.
"Scoot over, sister mine." Draco climbed into the bed, helping her get settled. He grabbed two vials off the nightstand. "Your next doses of medicine. Severus promised to bring fresher potions in the morning. They'll be more potent." Noticing the fine tremor of her hands, "Do you need some help?" Hermione nodded, and he raised the vials to her mouth. "Do you want some dreamless sleep?" After consideration, she nodded. "Good night, Hermione." He helped her lay back, then settled next to her.
Hermione allowed them to coddle her for a grand total of two days. Then the goblins sent
her a notification for the reading of Bellatrix Lestrange. Sirius and Lucius both raved about Death Eater plots until Harry pointed out the Death Eaters were no friends of the goblins. Sensing they were searching for a new objection, Hermione stood. "I refuse to have this conversation again. I am an adult, and I will not hide. Mother also received a summons, so I will not be unaccompanied. I am going, end of discussion." With a swirl of her skirts, she left the room.
Sirius looked at Lucius, "I'm one part annoyed, and two parts proud. You?"
"Same." Lucius answered in a grumpy voice.
An official-looking goblin greeted them in the atrium of the bank. "Please follow me, Lady Malfoy, Scion Black." He led them into a conference room. "Please be seated. Ragnar will be with you momentarily."
"Thank you." Narcissa sat next to Hermione in front of a desk. "We are waiting for one other." he said before departing.
"Who do you think we are waiting for?" Hermione asked.
"Merlin only knows. I love my sister, but I willingly admit she was rather unstable before Azkaban. Realizing that hurting you would push Lucius away was a remarkable moment of clarity for her."
"Was that the reason she saved me? The loss of soldiers for Riddle?"
"No! You know that Bella was your godmother, what you may not understand is what it is the magical godparents do. When they agree to the request they take oaths. They swear to raise the child if the parents cannot, to protect the child as if their own. That's why she disapproved of Rastaban's obsession with you."
"Disapproval seems too mild of a word for her feelings on the matter."
"Agreed. My point is that while not all godparents would have flung themselves in front of a killing curse, Bella would have for her own child, so she did so for you. I also believe that once you graduated, she would have started attempting to woo you to Riddle's way of thinking. She was a devout follower."
The door opened admitting a mild-looking middle-aged man. His thin hair vainly struggled to cover a balding spot, and his robes did nothing to hide his midsection paunch. Narcissa smiled politely to his nod of greeting, "Miles Burke, how lovely to see you. How have you been?"
"Just fine, Lady Malfoy, and yourself?"
"The last few years have been superior to the ones when last we saw one another. May I introduce my daughter, Hermione Malfoy, scion of House Black."
"Greetings, my lady."
"A pleasure to make your acquaintance, sir."
The goblin cleared his throat, drawing their attention back to him. "As everyone knows everyone now, shall we begin? We are here, as you know, for the reading of the last will and testament of Bellatrix Morene Lestrange, nee Black.
"To my only remaining sister, Narcissa Isadore Malfoy, I leave the china pattern and crystal glassware of our grandmother, Morene Black, to be collected from Lestrange Hall for her by a house elf.
"To my first, only, and lost love, Miles Burke, I leave you the chest contained in my personal vault that holds all mementos from our time together. Know that I thought of you often, and wondered what our life together could have been like had the fates been kinder.
"Lastly, to my goddaughter, Hermione Celeste Malfoy, I leave the remaining contents of my personal vault, and my right to inherit the Lestrange vaults after my husband, Rodolphus, and his brother, Rabastan, should they die without legitimate issue."
Hermione blinked clearly surprised. Narcissa patted her leg, "A common bequeath, darling. Go with Ragnar so he can change the wards and retrieve Mr. Burke's chest."
"Of course." Hermione leapt to her feet and followed the goblin to the carts. They took the small vehicle deep into the bank depths. The vault door looked different from the other doors she had seen before. The circular door glowed lightly, giving it a pale green sheen, reminding Hermione of oxidized copper.
"If her ladyship would place her palm on the door to set the wards." Hermione complied, her palm tingled briefly before the door flared blue. "Thank you. While the chest was left to Mr. Burke, I do require your permission to remove it."
"And I grant it willingly. Please, do what you need to." She gestured through the door. Inside the vault, heaps of galleons looked piled haphazardly, like the owner chugged it in not caring where it landed. She looked about while Ragnar located and collected the chest in question. In the very back, up on a shelf, Hermione noticed a gold cup. The closer she got, the stronger the angry buzzing in her skull became. She recognized that buzz. "Ragnar, is it permissible for me be to remove items at this time?"
"Absolutely, Scion Black, everything belongs to you now."
Selecting a carpetbag from a pile, she levitated the cup into it, wrapping a silk scarf around it. Upon closer inspection, she located the crest of Helga Hufflepuff. "And then there was one." she whispered to herself. She rejoined Ragnar and they returned to the bank proper.
"What did you find, darling?"
"Something I'm dying to share with Harry and Sirius." Hermione gushed girlishly.
Narcissa caught her meaning instantly. "I'm sure they will be very eager to see your discovery."
A/N: If Bella managing to convince Hermione to change sides tempts someone's plot bunnies, please let me know so I can read it.