Chapter 2 - A story that must be told

"It would be best to start at the beginning. Or at the very least, the one I know and can tell." Hermione sighed and tried to get comfortable. She felt out of her depth with so many people around her. She was used to a small room and rare visits from others. But she knew how to explain things, once she had figured them out.

"By preventing Diggory to win the Triwizard Tournament, with the help of their time turner, our sons changed my timeline to a different outcome than yours here."

Draco raised an eyebrow and Ron looked a bit confused when she said the children were hers too but they didn't interfere in her story.

"Diggory joined You-Know-Who's forces after school. I can only assume that this is the turning point. At the battle of Hogwarts, Ron and me were held up by him on our way to the Chamber of Secrets. We needed one of the basilisk's teeth to destroy Nagini. Neville helped us get into the chamber, taking on Diggory alone. First we thought this was perfect and gathered what we needed." there was a short break at that point before she took a breath and continued while looking only at the Headmistress.

"When we came back up we found Neville lying in his own blood. I tried everything I knew about healing magic to help him but it was to late. In our frenzy we didn't notice Nagini first. She attacked Ron and hurt him bad enough to steal the teeth from him, while You-Know-Who announced Harry's death. I got Ron to the infirmary and rushed outside with Ginny. She had been there for a rather bad burning spell Bellatrix caught her with. We were just in time to see Hagrid. He had been carrying Harry's body towards us, followed by You-Know-Who, until he suddenly leaped up."

"You always called him Voldemort Mione. The fear of a name increases the fear of the thing itself. It's what Dumbledore told us and you kept reminding me of." Harry whispered, dreading what twist this story was about to take, but his best friend shook her head and continued. No-one had understood that this wasn't their Hermione in front of them now. She had never been afraid of the name. She had provoked others after their victory to use it, fought tooth and nails against the fear.

"At first I thought we could still do it, with Harry still alive. I still had my own basilisk teeth and all I needed to do was to ram it into Nagini, I just needed to get close enough. But the damn snake was behind Harry already. She downed him and brought about the downfall. You-Know-Who used this advantage and shot one spell after another at Harry. I wasn't able to get to him and he couldn't win two fights at once. He was killed brutally, while we all watched, and then You-Know-Who used our state of shock to send his Death Eaters in to kill the rest of us. If it wasn't for Severus being one of us we all would have died there. After Hogwarts' walls fell, he took those of us he was fast enough to gather to an old bunker that was left over from the Second World War. He had everything planned out. There was a Fidelius Charm with him as our Secret's Keeper. Food, beds and as much comfort as the small rooms allowed. It was our base for decades while he kept spying and protecting us." Hermione took another deep breath before she continued.

"Ginny didn't handle Harry's death well. She poured herself into her work for the Order until she killed herself." Hermione had to clear her throat at that point. "Afterwards all Ron and George could think of was revenge. They were the only Weasley's left at that point. The rest had died at Hogwarts already. My job was to gather all information the others gave me and plan our attacks, to make it possible to win. I spent most of the time alone. Our numbers were slowly decreasing and Severus' visits were rare. Until one evening where he suddenly showed up with Draco. I tried to kill him that day. I nearly succeeded but Severus stopped me, and I was never more ashamed of myself. He was carrying the most beautiful and innocent thing in his arms I had seen in years. Astoria had given birth to Scorpius only a few hours earlier." Hermione looked at her adopted son with tears in her eyes. There was so much love there he felt a bit jealous of his other self. His parents loved him, no questions asked, but not this open and unconditional.

"I wasn't far from giving up then. It was him who anchored me and kept me sane. Astoria was too fragile for the life of a Death Eater. She was shattered by the pressure she was under and death came as a release. That was the way Draco saw it." Hermione laughed joylessly.

"It took him years to get to the point of accepting it. But that night, in blank despair, he told his father and the others his wife and his son had died and ran. All he wanted after her death was to keep Scorpius save, so he asked Severus for help. When Severus brought him to our headquarters and he saw me he nearly freaked. Understandable after my attempt to end his life. Severus required one week to change his mind. He agreed to help us and left his son to me. At first it made planning easier. We had more informations, but we were few. They exterminated us like bugs. One by one. Severus and Draco protected us as much as they could.

I think it was around five years ago when Lucius noticed something. I don't know what happened then. Severus didn't tell me much. I can only imagine the horror that happened at the Malfoy Manor that night. Draco wasn't the Secret's Keeper so there was no way for him to tell them anything about our hiding place. But instead of just telling them that his son was alive and put himself out of his misery he remained resolutely silent. We always called him a coward in school and he even behaved like one getting older at first. But this once that idiot had to show backbone." Hermione hiccupped and blinked away her tears.

She ignored everyone around her beside Minerva, who's face showed her blank despair upon hearing what could have been. She only had a vague understanding what the young woman in front of her had to undergo and it was breaking her heart. This Hermione was so much different from the one she had seen not to long ago, it shocked her on a grand level. Minerva McGonagall had witnessed to horrors of two wars, stood beside a man who had once confessed to her that he had agreed with Grindelwald for many years, and had lived through the death of her dear brother and her husband. Still she never wanted to live the life the young woman in front of her had experienced.

"I was heavily pregnant at that time. That was the reason he was distracted and his father was able to sense something was off. It's my fault. His father tortured him for days. When he got no answers he decided to call in help. He left his son with the choice to talk or receive a Dementor's Kiss. He took the kiss. Just to protect us and keep us save. Lucius left his body at Azkaban to rot. No chance for me to see him again or say goodbye." silent tears were running down Hermione's face. Scorpius, having heard only the short version until now, went to hug the older woman, while to others sat in mute shock. She wrapped her arms around him and wept.

Ron was the first to say something after a while:

"You were pregnant? With that git's child?" he pointed appalled at Malfoy. Like always he missed the point entirely. In many other situations his tactlessness would have been snickered about, but this time it felt simply wrong.

"I was married to him. So of course we had sex, and yes Ronald you can get pregnant by having sex." Hermione hurled defiance at him, looking at him with narrow eyes.

"I can't stop wondering why the hell I would ever marry you. Sometimes you say the stupidest things imaginable."

Malfoy next to her huffed and watched her, calculating "Instead you want to hoax me into believing I've got a second child?"

It's getting started.