A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews, favorites and follows! But more importantly, thank you for your patience...I know this chapter is long overdue. My real-life has been so hectic between trying to buy a house and preparing for a new addition to our family and starting new jobs that I have just been finding it difficult to carve out time to write. Still, writing this chapter felt so good, so I am going to try to get back in the habit of writing at least a little bit every day just to keep things moving forward. Thank you all so much for your understanding with the erratic updates. You can follow me on tumblr (nauticalparamour) where I post sneak peeks, story updates and answer questions.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter twenty-five and be on the lookout for chapter twenty-six!
September 1968
Summer was over in the blink of an eye and before Hermione knew it, she was being bundled up with Georgie to be sent to her seventh year at Hogwarts. It was hard to realize that she had spent over a year in the wrong time, over a year without her friends and family. What was even worse was realizing how that summer had been nearly the most fun she'd had since she went off to Hogwarts. All of the other summers she'd been too worried, convinced that something horrible was going to happen to Harry.
A part of her felt terrible that she had enjoyed herself so much, but a larger part of her just wanted to bask in the feeling of being normal for a change. It wasn't as if she had forgotten Harry and Ron, but it wasn't as if she could deny that being further removed from them had dulled the hurt, even if it would never quite go away completely. Instead, she was just left with the possibility that they might see each other again in the future.
Her brown eyes looked around the gathering of students, tuning out Cedrella and Georgie saying goodbye to one another. As if drawn like a magnet, Hermione found Rabastan Lestrange speaking with his rather severe looking father. Rabastan had grown a little bit taller, his face having lost a little bit of it's roundness, but he hadn't lost the sneer that he'd obviously mirrored off of his own father's.
Hermione was disappointed not to see Rodolphus with the rest of the family, and she wondered why he wouldn't want to say goodbye to Rabastan. Of course, there would be no way for her to forget the lengthy goodbye that they had staged only a week before, knowing that they wouldn't be able to see each other during the school year. Rodolphus had a way of clouding her brain, filling it with nothing but candy floss promises of how everything was going to work out. She'd left him feeling light as air and oversexed, but now the memories were tinged with sadness of knowing how long it would be before she saw him again.
If she saw him again. There was no guarantee that he would still want anything to do with her come holiday time, no matter how sweetly he'd promised her he would.
Pulled from her reverie, Hermione was wrapped into a quick round of hugs from Arthur and Cedrella, before she and Georgie headed off to the waiting train. The two teens, while friendly enough with one another, had no illusions that they would be sitting together. Hermione peeled off, heading in the opposite direction of Georgie, looking for either an empty compartment or her girlfriends.
She'd made it nearly to the back of the train before she found a seat that was blessedly empty. Stowing her trunk on the rack above her, Hermione slipped into the seat closest to the window. Her eyes scanned the crowd again, looking for one last glimpse of the Lestranges, but it seemed that Rabastan had already been sent off and his father certainly wasn't waiting around for the train to leave the station.
The compartment door slid open while Hermione was still absorbed in the rest of the students milling about on the platform. Turning slowly with a smile, expecting to see Elna sweeping in with a grin and a demand for details, she was surprised to see that it was none other than Bellatrix Black darkening her door. The Slytherin girl lazily swished her wand at the door behind it, making it clang shut quite noisily, before dropping into the seat across from Hermione.
"Bellatrix," Hermione said with a frown on her face. "What a...special surprise to have you seek me out before school has even official begun." The Gryffindor was not sure what would have possessed Bellatrix to come looking for her, but she could imagine that it was nothing that she was going to enjoy.
"Oh Granger," Bellatrix cooed, putting on a voice that was eerily similar to the one that Hermione remembered from the future. "Don't act like you don't know that we have loads of things to catch up on."
"I don't know what I could possibly have done that would spark your interest," Hermione countered, her hand finding her own wand and tightening around it. She didn't imagine that Bellatrix would start a duel on the train, but there was no denying that she felt a little bit safer with protection in hand.
Bellatrix let out a little giggle then, before giving Hermione a knowing smirk. "Please don't pretend like your summer activities with my betrothed went unnoticed," she said, sickly sweet. "It's been the talk of gossip in...certain circles."
Hermione felt her face go a bit pink at hearing that Bellatrix knew about her and Rodolphus. She had hoped that they had been discreet enough, only meeting up in places that they wouldn't see anyone the other knew. Hermione had mixed feelings about sneaking around, but wasn't going to force a conversation between Rodolphus and his father until he was ready. Putting on a brave face, she tried to deflect Bellatrix once again. "I can't see how my actions could have been of any particular interest to any gossip."
"Oh, don't be like that Hermione," Bellatrix said, not even a little bit fooled by Hermione's reticence. "I heard all about how he whisked you off to France for a weekend of romance. You did so well getting him to do whatever you wanted, just like I told you you would."
Hermione's flush deepened. She really had thought that no one would know about France. That really should have been far enough removed, but perhaps it wasn't as secretive as she'd thought. But then, a thought made her stomach sink...if Bellatrix had found out about it, did that mean Cedrella knew she'd been running around all summer, behaving badly. "Rodolphus does not do whatever I want," she said firmly.
"But you don't deny France," the other girl countered with a shark like grin, knowing that she'd won. "Tell me, did the two of you make love there? I've always heard that mudbloods were a bit lustier than us purebloods - that you just don't care about purity as much and-"
"Are you trying to offend me?" Hermione demanded, cutting off her line of questioning. She most certainly did not want to talk about losing her virginity with Bellatrix and if she was honest, the fact that she was right stung. Hermione could feel tears form in her eyes. It wasn't as though she regretted having sex with Rodolphus, but she had not conceptualized it in the time period yet. Did Rodolphus think less of her because she'd been so eager to have him? Would Elna, Fawn and Lottie have similar morbid curiosities as Bellatrix. "Because you are being incredibly rude asking me these sorts of things."
Bellatrix reeled back, shocked by Hermione's emotional outburst. "Don't go sniveling on me now. I just thought that we were friends."
Hermione felt stunned, hearing Bellatrix's suggestion. Did the other witch really think that this...dynamic could possibly be friendship? "We aren't friends, Bellatrix," she insisted. "You call me mudblood to my face and see me as little more than a convenient tool, to do… oh, I don't know what. Get Rodolphus in trouble in some way - using my own feelings against me," she spat, amazed by the stunned look on Bellatrix's face.
Something changed in Bellatrix then, and Hermione became distinctly aware that she was dealing with someone different...someone harder and more dangerous. Once again, she was reminded of the future barrelling towards her. "Fine - if that's the way you want it to be mudblood," Bellatrix sneered, standing up to her full height. "I don't care if you let my betrothed fuck you a hundred times. What I do care about is that it seems the fact that Rodolphus has a little mudblood girlfriend hasn't gotten back to my father or his father. I'm not going through with this marriage and you are going to fix it for me."
Sitting stunned, Hermione tried to think up a good response. She should have figured it out earlier that breaking off the betrothal was Bellatrix's plan all along. How else could she explain her insistence that Hermione continue her relationship with the wizard in question?
Turning on her heel, Bellatrix opened the compartment door forcefully, before spinning around to give her one last warning. "And believe me, mudblood, you are going to want to fix it on your own," she warned viciously. "Or I will take matters into my own hands," she promised, twirling her wand about between her fingers, looking as practiced and as dangerous as ever.
Hermione was left alone with her thoughts then, her stomach roiling in worry. For once in her life, she had absolutely no idea what was the right course of action. Should she warn Rodolphus about Bellatrix's plan, knowing that it would only cause a massive rift within his family? Or, a meaner little side of herself thought, she could let Bellatrix get her way, knowing that it would finally force the man she loved to prove himself to her once and for all. She didn't want the pair of them to get married if she could help it. But, there was always the chance that he wouldn't be able to keep his promises to her, which would leave her heartbroken. Better perhaps to just let nature take its course.
Suddenly, Rodolphus whispered plans to hole up in the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade Village over the winter holiday seemed so achingly far away.
She was not left to her own swirling thoughts for long though, as the compartment door was once again pushed open, allowing her three giggling friends to spill into the space, brightening the mood considerably. They all exchanged greetings before Lottie turned to Hermione, a teasing smile on her face. "Don't think that I don't want to hear all the little details of your eventful summer Hermione, but Fawn was just telling us that she did have a little summer romance abroad!"
"Tell me everything," Hermione demanded, even though she wasn't normally one to ask for such information from a friend. It was a great way to get her mind off of the tumultuous thoughts running through her head...to forget about Bellatrix and her threats for a while.
The train pulled out of the station shortly after. Fawn, with bright eyes and red cheeks, shyly recounted the details of how she'd met her paramour of the summer, a recent graduate from Italy, taking time to recount his sea-foamy green eyes and dark curling hair. Even more exciting was to hear her cautious girl share memories of sneaking out after her aunt had gone to bed, to meet the young wizard in various spots around the city, of lingering snogs in the moonlight, and of the way he smelt of seasalt and cedarwood.
Elna teased that Fawn couldn't possibly remember how Marco - that was his name - had smelled so distinctly, turned and asked Hermione what Rodolphus smelled like. Hermione pushed down the knot that had formed in her throat and let her eyes close for a moment while she tried to think about her boyfriend. "Oranges and spice," she said finally, knowing that it was something so distinctly Rodolphus she'd never be able to forget it.
Elna rolled her eyes at the pair of them. "Oh, you both are so lovesick," she said with a wistful sigh, perhaps wishing for a grand romance of her own.
Lottie was quick to share with the group that her beau had formally asked her to marry him and that they planned on getting married the following spring once she'd graduated as well, something her parents were thrilled over. The rest of the train ride was spent tittering over all the wedding planning that they were going to have to do over the school term, wondering how they would manage to fit it all in on top of preparing for their NEWTs.