Chapter 24: Interlude- Draco

Draco clenched his fingers against the seat of his chair to resist chasing after Hermione as he tried to determine how he actually felt about what had just happened.

He had to admit that she was right about one thing. While he didn't think he was in any danger of actually going to Azkaban for his actions, he could also admit that he probably hadn't done his reputation any favors. He'd recognized many of the aurors present during his confrontation with Weasley, and none of them had been friendly faces. But he'd been too busy taunting (enjoying taunting) Weasley to consider the consequences for either himself or his family.

And that was another thing Hermione had gotten right. Because that's exactly how he'd behaved at Hogwarts. It was a personae he'd worked hard to leave behind, and yet he'd slipped so easily back into it. And for that, if nothing else, he felt a great sense of shame.

His thoughts were interrupted by his little cousin Teddy. "Nana, can I go with Aunt Hermione?"

Draco glanced out of the corner of his eye and saw that the kid had stood up, and was glancing at him every few seconds looking none too happy. He heard Andromeda let out a slight chuckle.

"I don't think she'd mind your company but if she says 'no' you come right back, don't pester her."

"I wouldn't do that," Teddy responded, his voice so indignant that it almost made Draco smile.

"Alright then love," Andromeda answered, and Draco could hear the smile in her voice.

Teddy ran off, wrenching the door to the room open and then slamming it closed behind him.

"Draco, what are you doing? Are you really just going to let that woman leave here with your heir?" His father intoned, filling the resulting silence.

His heir.

That's what Scorpius was to his father, just like Draco was Lucius' heir. That was their primary value to the older wizard. He knew that his father loved Scorpius in his own way, but it wasn't the way that Draco wished for his son to be loved by his grandfather. Draco pinched the bridge of his nose between this thumb and forefinger and allowed himself a minute to gather himself before he looked up and met his father's eyes with a hard glare.

"Yes Father, I think Scorpius made it perfectly clear that he wanted to go with his mother."

"That- Miss Granger is not his mother," Draco's mother objected.

"Then who his?" Draco challenged, hesitating before switching his gaze to Narcissa. Unlike when he was small, it was much more difficult for him to argue with his mother than it was his father. "The woman who gave birth to him? The one who barely held him after his was born, never wanted or loved him, not to mention me!" He took a deep breath, in through his nose and out through his mouth. "Did that fact ever bother you at all, or were you really just satisfied that I made an acceptable match?"

"Draco!" His mother gasped, she looked truly affronted but he didn't know if it was due to the accusation itself, or because he'd dared speak to her in such a way.

He held out a hand to forestall her saying anything else. "No, nevermind, I don't want to know. Here's the thing though," he continued, looking back and forth between his parents, "that's the next Lady Black who just left with our son. It's a done deal in my mind, and if you couldn't tell, in Scorpius' mind as well. Hell, I'd draw up a betrothal contract right now if I didn't think she'd kick my arse from here to Hogwarts for it. Which means that she will be the mother of any future grandchildren you have as well. You need to start getting used to that, we've already moved in together, it's only going to get more serious from here."

This certainly wasn't how he wanted to tell his parents about the most recent developments in his life, and a part of him felt guilty for laying it out like this, but circumstances had given him little choice.

"I will never accept that," Lucius said surging forward in his chair and slapping his walking stick against the floor for emphasis.

Draco resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his father's attempt to assert his authority, he was living in in the past. And Draco realized that he hadn't been certain, until this moment, how thoroughly through he was with his family's small-mindedness.

"Don't make me choose, Father," Draco held his gaze for several long moments so that he could see how serious he was, "I'll choose her so fast it'll make your head spin," and then he jumped up and walked to the door. He needed a walk.

He had just left the room when he heard footsteps behind him and turned his head to see Claire hurrying towards him. She grasped his arm when she reached him and squeezed him to her as she had many times before, but not since they were children.

"Mind some company?" She asked.

"I'm not sure I'd be very good company right now."

"That's okay," she smirked at him, "I'm used to it."

"Oh ha ha, you're hilarious," he drawled, rolling his eyes to himself.

She snickered and he took his arm from hers to place it around her shoulders. They were silent as they made one full loop around the floor on which they were required to remain for security purposes.

"So," she eventually said, "rough night?"

He snorted. "You have no idea." He clutched her shoulder and jostled her playfully in his loose embrace. "Was I too harsh with my parents?"

She was quiet for a long time and he started to get nervous. "I don't think either one of them are going to take it lying down, but I also think that they are both stubborn to the extreme as well as being more than set in their ways. I'm not sure you really had any other choice other than to be firm and resolute. And you were...direct, but I wouldn't say you were disrespectful so..." she trailed off, then shrugged.

"So, the retribution will be doled out passive aggressively rather than directly?" He provided, filling in what she was unwilling to say.

"You said it, not me," she laughed.

He ducked his head in acknowledgement.

"Do you want to talk about the rest of it?" She asked after awhile.

"Not really," he sighed.

"Okay," she grinned at him. "So, you asked Hermione to move in? Congratulations!" She continued to smile at him, obviously trying to change the subject to something more cheerful.

He could only laugh, even if it was half- hearted. "I may have been a little premature in telling Mother and Father that. After today she might not be able to pack her bags fast enough."

"She'll do no such thing," Claire scoffed.

"How do you know?"

"What was the last thing she said before she left a while ago?"

"'Don't follow us, Malfoy'," he arched an incredulous eyebrow in Claire's direction. He didn't begrudge Hermione, her place in his son's life in any way, but her vitriol had hurt.

Claire chuckled, "no, not that- though I was rather amused by how she called you by your last name. But I was talking about before, when she originally tried to leave.

"Oh, I forgot about that."

"Yes, well. She said that she loved you very much, but that she couldn't look at you at the moment. That's the last thing she wanted you to know, that she loves you but needed time to cool off. And, Draco, she didn't even hesitate when Scorpius called for her. You're right, that woman is his mum, she won't walk away that easily."

Draco sighed, he'd believed that too, but it was nice to hear from a more objective perspective.

"Can I give you some advice?" She wondered, after letting that sink in.

He just shrugged. "Is there any stopping you?"

He didn't need to look at her to know that she was rolling her eyes. "Hearing you talk about Astoria, it occurred to me that despite having been married for years, you have no real relationship experience."

"Understatement," he conceded easily.

"So-" she interrupted his inevitable rant, "my advice is, once the two of you cool off, you need to talk and I mean really talk. Don't just brush whatever this is aside. I don't know exactly what happened, but I know that Luc and I have never had a fight where either he or I were completely in the right or completely in the wrong. Which means that when you talk, it's probably going to be long and messy and complicated and you're probably going to hate it, because you're used to just getting whatever you want. But this is important Draco, otherwise your issues will just fester."

He nodded absently. Part of him had already realized that would be necessary, but Merlin, he'd talked about his feelings more in the past two months than he had in the first twenty-six years of his life. And right now, the very idea of more talking was absolutely exhausting.

They were silent again before Claire brought them to a halt by grasping him around the waist, she pulled until he was facing her and looked him in the eye. He swallowed nervously.

"Draco," she began, voice serious, "I'm almost afraid to even ask, but why in the world has Harry Potter seen you naked?"

He just stared at her until her words caught up with him; she could apparently see when he understood, because she smiled impishly at him and then they both cracked up. And rather than unceremoniously falling to the floor in their mirth, he wrapped her in his arms and she leaned on him until they both recovered.

"Thanks," he murmured when he could speak again, "I needed that."

Hours later, he was halfway asleep. After their walk he and Claire had returned to the family waiting room and settled in to wait for news. He'd slumped down in his chair with his head against the backrest- he was surprised his mother hadn't expired on the spot when she saw that, but perhaps she thought they'd had enough conflict for the night- when the door opened again.

There was a girl in auror robes who hesitated in the doorway. She bit her lip. "Lord Black?"

"Yes?"

"Uh- Assistant Director Granger would like to see you. She says it's House business."

Draco felt his eyes go wide in surprise. House business? What did Hermione know about his House business, and why would she need to discuss it now? However, eyeing the girl hovering nervously in the doorway, he decided to save those questions for Hermione and simply stood up.

The girl jumped and then turned and practically sprinted away. He sighed. With his long legs he easily kept up with her pace. But honestly, not only was this terribly unprofessional behavior, how did she fight dark wizards for a living if she couldn't even handle escorting him across the Ministry?

When they reached Hermione's office the girl knocked on the door and called out for Hermione who threw it open almost immediately.

"Thank you Jill, that will be all," Hermione barked and Draco felt his eyes go wide in surprise at her frazzled demeanor.

The girl- Jill apparently- let out a little 'eep' and scurried away. Draco opened his mouth to ask Hermione if that girl was really cut out to be an Auror, but words came pouring out of her mouth before he got the chance to say anything himself.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to summon you like you were a child or something, but I didn't want to leave them," she gestured to the corner of her office where Teddy was curled up with Scorpius on a sofa, fast asleep. "Sweet isn't it?" She asked, "Teddy's naturally very protective, I think it's at least partially a by-product of being an orphan, if Harry's anything to go on anyway."

"Hermione."

"I have a silencing charm around them so you don't have to worry about waking them."

"Hermione," he repeated, more loudly.

Her head snapped up to look at him.

"Take a breath," he encouraged, "it's okay, I didn't think anything of it. I summon people all the time."

"Of course you do," she snorted, and then slapped her hand against her mouth. "I'm sorry, it's like I can't stop being a bitch tonight!"

Draco walked into the office, closing the door behind him with his foot and approached Hermione like she was a skittish animal. When he reached her he moved methodically, placing his hands on her shoulders and was gratified when she relaxed at his touch. "What's going on?" He asked gently, any irritation he may have still been feeling with her was easily put aside in the face of her obvious distress. I was clear that something had occurred that didn't have anything to do with what had happened earlier with Ron Weasley.

She looked wild, panicked, and worst of all, scared. Her hair had been pulled down out of the chignon she'd twisted it into before they'd left home, and she'd obviously been running her hands through it. Her eyes were bloodshot and her whole face puffy.And her usually neat as a pin office was a disaster: her desk was covered with parchment, scrolls, various tomes, and even her laptop. Books had been haphazardly pulled from her shelves and were piled up on different surfaces around the room; some were even on the floor. This was the Hermione Granger version of a nervous breakdown.

She leaned into him but he could tell that she was uncertain of her welcome so he lifted his hands from her shoulders and drew her into his arms. Hers went around his waist and he heard her take several deep breaths.

"Tell me that when this day is over you, Scorpius, and I are going home together, please?" She asked him.

A jolt of panic shot through his system at this request. "Is there something that's happened today that could change that?"

"No," she shook her head against his neck. "It's just that I've discovered something about what happened last night at your parents house that's frightened me." She let out a long, shuddering breath. "I love you and Scorpius so much, and I just got you, it seems too good to be true and I'm terrified that something is going to take you away from me." She clutched at his shirt. "I just think it would make me feel better to hear you say that."

He pulled back so that he could look at her, gripping her upper arms loosely and caught her eyes. "Tonight, you, Scorpius and I will go home together, to the house where we all live. And the day after that. And the day after that. And all the days after." He pressed a kiss to her forehead and crooked one eyebrow at her. "Okay?"

"Yes, okay," she breathed out. "Thank you, that actually really did help. We don't have time to have a thorough discussion about earlier right now, but I did want to say that I'm sorry for the way I handled the situation. I should never have confronted you in front of your family, or anybody else for that matter, that was our business and our business alone. Not to mention that it was hypocritical of me, given that a big part of the reason that I was upset about what happened with Ron is that it happened in front of a crowd." She paused and pursed her lips, obviously considering her next words. "I may not always, necessarily, be opposed to watching you tell Ron off, or even punching him," she toyed with the button of his shirt and smirked up at him.

He bit back a laugh. "Good to know, we'll have to go over the rules later." She nodded. "And while we're at it, I wanted to apologize for goading Weasley along. I was enjoying getting under his skin and didn't consider your feelings about it all. He's an arsehole, but I should have risen above it and been the better man, that's what you deserve."

"I have the better man," she responded without hesitation.

He swooped down and kissed her deeply. "Alright, show me what has you so freaked out so we can go home and have make-up sex."

She cut her eyes in his direction. "You're skipping a few steps there Draco."

"Yes," he sighed dramatically. "Claire had pointed that out to me. But eventually we're going to have make-up sex, right?"

That got a laugh out of her, which was exactly his intention. "I'm counting on it." But she quickly sobered, took his hand, and pulled him over to her desk. Setting a piece of parchment in front of him she asked: "Tell me what you see here, I need to know if it's the same thing that I see."

He glanced over her now-familiar scrawl. He recognized the contents of the scroll immediately, but he read it over twice more just to be certain. "It looks like a traditional Black family warding scheme," he eventually told her.

And that's when it clicked: House business.

"How did you know that?" He wondered. "You did know that, didn't you?"

She nodded then cringed. "Sirius shared a lot more with me than he probably should have as Head of House. He would have done anything for Harry, and he thought that I was key to keeping him safe. And beyond that, honestly, he just didn't care that much about tradition. He let me read whatever I wanted and answered any questions I had. He was more than happy to share family secrets and I'm afraid I rather took advantage of the opportunity. Are you upset? I promise I've been discreet."

Draco did feel a slight surge of irritation at the late Lord Black. He knew how the man had felt about their House, but still, secrets of family magic were meant to be sacrosanct, and few others would treat them as carefully as he trusted that Hermione had.

But that wasn't Hermione's fault.

He brought her in front of him and wrapped his arms around her from behind.

"It's fine, you were going to learn these things anyway when you became Lady Black, don't you think?" He murmured into her ear.

She made a non-committal humming noise but he could see her cheek curving into a smile.

"But I have to admit that I don't understand how this fits in with what happened last night?" He continued.

She leaned forward in his arms and gathered more parchment and then lined it up in a row. "Tell me what you make of that."

This time it took him much longer to understand what he was seeing, and then he thought he must be mistaken. He read it again and again.

"These might help," she murmured, gathering several scrolls and rolling them out on top of the parchment he'd just been reading. "They're the magical readings the aurors took at Malfoy Manor following the attack. I had to make them go back three times to make sure I had a complete picture- stupid Harry keeping me benched," she growled.

He almost teased her about how quickly she'd agreed to work the case after Potter had apparently come to her for help despite his earlier assertions, but he was too alarmed by what he was seeing to bother with that bit of frivolity. "This looks like a Black scheme has been woven into the wards at the Manor, but that's impossible." The way she tensed in his arms let him know that he was correct.

"More like shoved by brute force I'd say, honestly," she added.

"Still, it shouldn't be possible-" he considered that for a moment. "Bellatrix," he realized with a start.

"That's what I thought too," she whispered, pressing her hands to her temples.

"No wonder you're panicked."

"Nothing good ever came from that woman," she answered even more quietly.

"You think she used the time when Father had turned over the wards to the Dark Lord to do this?"

She nodded. "Yes. It's not older than the late nineties."

"Okay, but why?"

"I don't know, but was there a reason for much that she did? I think she just revelled in chaos. And I think she would have enjoyed pulling one over on your father."

"That's, yes, that's a very good assessment from my experience." He lifted one arm from around her and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I still don't understand exactly how this was possible."

She turned her face so that he could see there were tears running down her cheeks. "That's the part that scares me so badly."

Draco's stomach dropped as it sunk in that it actually got worse than his psychopath of an aunt building what was essentially a backdoor into the wards at his ancestral home- the place where his son had been born and lived the first eight months of his life.

She gripped the hand remaining on her waist. "Obviously you know the wards were susceptible during the war."

"Yes, but they were never really her wards, anything she built into them should have collapsed after her death."

"Not if she used blood magic," Hermione countered, "your mother's presence in the Manor would have kept it active."

"But how did she keep it tethered to the Malfoy wards?" Draco asked, "My mother is not, by blood, a Malfoy."

Hermione turned her head again and gave him a significant look, tears still streaming down her face. "No, but there was somebody who lived in that house who is a Black and a Malfoy."

Right.

Of course.

Draco resisted the urge to tug at his hair in frustration. It felt like the ghosts of the war were never going to stop fucking with him, and maybe he deserved that. But then he took another look at Hermione and absorbed how devastated she was by this news. She certainly didn't.

She hiccuped and squeezed her eyes shut, obviously trying to gather herself. "It's a miracle this thing didn't rob you of your magic, and we both know that would basically be a death sentence. It's insidiously brilliant."

"Please tell me that gorgeous mind of yours has come up with a solution," he begged.

"I think so," she breathed, "but your parents really aren't going to like it."

Author's Note: Be gentle with me, this chapter tried to kill me. I suffer for you people ;) A lot more explanation about what's going on with the Lestranges and the wards at Malfoy Manor is still to come so if you have questions, maybe wait to see if I answer them? Many thanks to Weestarmeggie for Alpha/BFF duty, she's awesome. Thanks for reading!