April 12th

A new normal began to take place in Augustus' house by the sea. With the renewal of the more pleasurable physical aspects of their relationship, there had been another shifting between them. Hermione couldn't explain it exactly. Just that she no longer felt the urge to run off in the middle of the night to continue her fugitive state alone. Her traitorous mind would still allow upsetting thoughts and reminders through from time to time, but it was becoming easier for her to push them aside. She wasn't an idiot. She could feel that their time together was coming to an end.

It might have been nice to ignore the niggling thoughts in the back of her mind. Sadly, she was too pragmatic to allow herself to fall completely into the fantasy that she was finally reunited with her one true love after so many years apart and nothing would break them apart. She knew it was a fantasy, one that would crumble with the least amount of pressure applied. Determined to enjoy it while it all lasted, she hoped she gave no evidence to Augustus that she wasn't as sold on the idea of running off into the unknown together as he was.

On an unremarkable Thursday morning, she woke up to find herself alone in bed. Startled to find the spot where Augustus rested not only empty, but cold, she sat up in bed with a fearful worry that something terrible had happened. Not only was he a man who detested mornings and tried to delay getting out of bed as long as possible, he was absolute rubbish at keeping quiet. There were other mornings in their distant past where he tried and failed to keep from waking her up as she slept. For him to be out of bed and to have been so careful about it, something strange was in motion.

She had had a problem since childhood of immediately going to the worst conclusion in any given situation. Her father used to tell her that he'd never met a child more apt to imagine the world was falling around their ears. Of course, he didn't have a lot of experience with children, so his opinion likely wasn't terribly valuable. She firmly believed that because of the negative ability she had to envision all of the ways in which something could fail, she'd been able to save her life and the lives of her comrades countless times. Antonin helped her to hone the skill in their training. Just like Roddy would tell her to trust her gut, she paid close attention to all of the variables.

And the worst case scenario of their current situation would be that Augustus had been dragged away while they both slept for some sort of nefarious purpose. Perhaps her husband was behind it all. Maybe if she got out of bed, walked down the corridor, and entered the kitchen she'd find her lover tied to a chair while her husband made them all breakfast. They had just talked the night before that it was strange that Antonin hadn't made a visit in so long. He should've been back there demanding to know where Augustus had hidden his wife.

Staying in bed was no longer an option the more her paranoia grew. Picking up the first article of clothing she could find in Augustus' wardrobe, she pulled the soft shirt over her head. She was practically drowning in the fabric made for the much bigger wizard, but it was something. If she had to come face to face with an undesirable guest, she didn't want to meet them wearing only her knickers.

The house was completely silent. After checking to see if he might have slipped into the shower when he woke up, Hermione exited the bedroom they'd been sharing since the first night she arrived. No sounds wafted down the corridor from the other parts of the house. If she hadn't had an instinct that she wasn't alone, she might have assumed that he had been summoned again or he was outside for a walk. Careful to not make a sound herself, she continued towards the kitchen, her heart pounding in her ears.

When she pushed the kitchen door open inch by inch expecting the worst, she rolled her eyes and groaned softly. Augustus sat at the kitchen table scribbling away on a scrap of parchment, completely and entirely unharmed. No longer caring if she made any noise, she opened the door the rest of the way and entered. The wizard looked up from his task, smiled at her in greeting, and returned to what he was doing.

"You're up awfully early."

He only nodded his head and continued to write. Whatever he was doing must have been important. Hermione so rarely saw him set his mind to anything productive for very long. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she stepped behind the man to press her chest against his back and run her hands up and down his arms. When a kiss to the spot of flesh just behind his ear didn't break his concentration, she huffed. It was a petulant gesture that only served to accentuate how much younger than him she really was, but she didn't care. She wasn't used to being ignored. At least not by him. Antonin could spend an entire day in the same room with her and not even realize she was there. She was used to being able to distract Augustus just by sitting within his eyesight.

"What are you working on?"

From the moment she entered his home, she hadn't seen him pick up a quill even once. He received owls at least once a day with supposedly important messages from France or London. Not once had she seen him respond. The reminder that he was preparing himself to return to France via an international portkey in a few days made her stomach clench. She removed her touch from the wizard to occupy her hands with preparing breakfast.

Augustus finished his letter, sealed it up, and tied it to the foot of his owl. Only when it was high in the sky on its way to its final destination did he even seem to realize she'd asked him a question. By that point, Hermione was annoyed enough that he'd completely ignored her that she was almost not even interested. Almost. In a poor attempt to make up for his rudeness, Augustus slipped behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.

"I didn't wake you up, did I?"

"No, but I was worried when you weren't in bed."

He squeezed her tighter against him and peppered her curls with kisses. She knew it was immature to continue to pout like a child. His behavior was too similar to how she was treated when she was living in the Resistance's village. No one told her anything. Everything was a giant secret and they didn't even try to hide the fact that they weren't sharing. Perhaps she had grown too used to being a high ranking member of the Inner Circle, privy to almost everything that went on. Her husband and a few others were ranked higher than she, but never did she feel left out. Even if he wouldn't tell her in the moment, she knew to expect the next time she was alone with her husband in the privacy of their bed, he would divulge all of the secrets he knew.

"I'm sorry, love. I had a bit of work I was supposed to do yesterday. Something kept me distracted all day. Can't imagine what that was."

She hated that she felt the corners of her mouth begin to twitch into a smile. The distraction he spoke of was entirely her fault. Once they crossed the line they'd been trying not to, it was difficult to stop. They had thirteen years to make up for and Augustus seemed to determined to do so all in one go.

"I knew I'd have to slip out of bed before you woke up or I'd never get it done."

"Nothing serious, I hope."

"Well…"

His hesitation to say anything else about his mysterious work set off more alarm bells in her already suspicious mind. What could he be hiding from her? She didn't want to hear his attempts to lie. Surely he had more respect for her than that. Moving out of his embrace, she pulled a pan down from the cupboard and slammed it down on the cooker. The sound almost drowned out his sigh of frustration. Augustus knew her well enough to know when she was upset. And, if she was being perfectly honest with herself, it wasn't as if she was doing a good job of hiding it.

"I didn't want to worry you, but Fenrir Greyback knows that you're here."

Hermione spun around to face the sheepish wizard.

"He could smell you on me the other night."

"But we hadn't even…"

"I'm assuming that his sense of smell is powerful enough that he could tell we've been sharing the same bed."

He waved off the rest of the explanation with his hand. It wasn't important how he knew, only that he did. Simply by looking into Augustus' countenance, she could see how worried he was about the development. His experiences with Greyback in the years before he was essentially exiled to France hadn't been terribly positive. He couldn't have known her personal relationship with the fiend. For the most part, they were fairly discreet in their affair. Some knew, of course, but it wasn't widely known.

"He wrung a promise out of me for my silence. Claimed if I didn't do as he asked, he would go straight to Antonin to tell him where you could be found."

Amused, she bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud. She wanted to hear the whole story first. Wanted to know what devious low Fenrir stooped to in his quest to get what he desired. It might have surprised a number of people to discover that he was quite clever and very, very creative.

"The Dark Lord's put more restrictions on him. Can't bite any more children without permission."

"And I'm sure he doesn't like that."

"Not one bit. Made me promise that I'd get him permission to enter France so he could steal a few from French wizarding families instead. The Dark Lord said nothing about importing them. He made me swear I'd get him a portkey and the name of a contact within France who could help him and look the other way."

The desire to laugh didn't diminish. Hermione could hardly keep a straight face. Leaning up to brush her lips against Augustus', she allowed a small chuckle to escape.

"Oh, darling, I'm afraid you were taken advantage of. I have Fenrir's complete loyalty. He would never betray me to Antonin. He'd die first."

Augustus struggled to find the same amusement in the revelation.