November 13th

Hermione hadn't forgotten what happened to Ron even if the rest of the wizarding world seemed to. As much as she wanted to avoid the Daily Prophet, she forced herself to look for any additional articles about the wizard who died tragically. There weren't any. It was almost as if he'd never existed. No further details about his attack were provided. Nothing. Either the investigation wasn't complete or no one cared enough to look into it. She suspected it was the latter.

One person might have been able to give Hermione more information about that confusing night. The morning after she murdered the Flints she still felt restless. She made the decision to seek out more answers and potentially put an end to another enemy. With the small house tucked away in the woods firmly set in her mind, she Disapparated away from the village she was growing weary of being in. She thought that it would be time to move on soon. Having Thorfinn always nearby and ready to report on her activities and visitors to Antonin was tiresome.

No one was inside Ginny's house. Not that she really expected them to be. After the evening spent torturing William Wood, she didn't expect anyone to ever want to live there again. At least not someone who knew the dark history. Besides, she already knew from Charlie that Ginny and her daughter were staying with him. Hermione simply needed access to the house to try to find one of Ginny's possessions to track her real location.

She was pleased to discover that Wood's body had been removed and all traces of blood from that night cleaned up. The smell of death after it began to ripen was loathsome. Hermione never could stand it. There was a special crew in charge of sanitizing the side-rooms on Level Eleven. Not enough gold existed to entice her to take that job.

The bedroom was where she was most likely to find something Ginny owned. Maybe she left a nightgown or a hairbrush behind. Anything would be better than nothing. She hated being in the same room with the bed she witnessed that disgusting display on weeks earlier, but it couldn't be helped. Resolving to get out of there as quickly as humanly possible, Hermione opened the uppermost drawer in the chest of drawers to rummage around for something useful.

Ginny left in a hurry to her delight. Several articles of clothing were still neatly folded inside. While she could theoretically use any of those, she wanted to find something more effective. When she heard the clink of glass vials underneath a heavy woolen jumper, the potions addict in Hermione got excited. Was she about to stumble upon a treasure trove of illicit, delicious potions? Why else would Ginny keep them hidden? Almost as soon as she had that thought she felt ashamed. She'd made promises to several people that she had every intention of keeping. Potions would only make her life even more complicated. She certainly didn't need that.

There were five vials tucked away in the back of the drawer. All of them had the same mother-of-pearl sheen. Though it had been many years since she last saw the potion, Hermione was almost certain she knew what it was. Removing the stopper from one, she inhaled deeply. At the first hints of freshly mown grass and new parchment, she knew her suspicion was correct. Why did Ginny have Amortentia hidden in her house? Or in her house at all?

"What are you doing here?"

Proving once again that effective members of the Resistance were like ghosts, Ginny appeared seemingly out of thin air. She had her wand pointed at the intruder, ready to fight. But even with all of her brash Gryffindor bravado, it was easy to see that she was nervous. Hermione wasn't the least bit scared to be alone with the other witch. Funny how much courage one had when they're not afraid of and even welcoming of death. She held up the vial.

"What are you doing with this?"

Shame colored Ginny's cheeks bright red, but she said nothing.

"Is this how you kept my husband interested?"

Though she was angry and growing steadily more so, Ginny was on the verge of tears. Still she said nothing.

"Why would you give my husband love potions?"

It was clear that Ginny did not want to have the conversation they were having, but Hermione had to give her credit for not running away. Maybe the younger witch was afraid she would be stopped if she tried. Or, maybe perhaps more likely, she was tired of running. As she sat down on the edge of the bed it was clear that she was exhausted. Truthfully, she looked awful and she'd lost too much weight in too short a time.

"Because Antonin has never been interested in anything more than just a quick one up against the wall in an alley. Had to figure out some way to keep him here for longer than half an hour."

"Why?"

Anger flashed in Ginny's brown eyes. The atmosphere in the room grew tense. Hermione tightened her grip on her own wand just in case she lost control.

"Because I was ordered to. Ordered to seduce him again and find some way to keep him interested long enough for you to stumble on us. Did you enjoy the show, by the way?"

Hermione was as disgusted as Ginny was mortified. What was the purpose of that horrible display? And who would do it? She was frustrated with all of the never-ending questions. Would they ever stop?

"I tried to gradually wean him off the potions, see if he would stay on his own. He didn't."

Her bitterness was impossible to miss. Hermione almost felt sorry for her. Almost. She still had about a thousand more questions. At least Ginny seemed in the mood to talk. Maybe she'd even learn something useful.

"Who ordered you?"

"Who do you think?"

"Rodolphus."

She only nodded. Some of her suspicions no longer felt as insane as they once did.

"So you are the spy?"

Ginny scoffed at the question, laughed, and then burst into sobs. Covering her face with her hands, she didn't even care that she had an audience. Hermione could recognize a woman at the end of her tether. Much more and Ginny would snap. When she was able to calm herself a few minutes later, she wiped at her face and looked Hermione in the eyes. She wanted to prove she was telling the truth. An expert like Hermione could've already figured that out, of course, but Hermione appreciated the gesture. It was by no means small.

"Rodolphus knew about Maisie from the very beginning. I have no idea how. Maybe he could smell her when I was pregnant. I haven't the faintest idea. You'd have to ask him."

Hermione had every intention of doing so when she found the right opportunity to ask. All recent signs seemed to indicate that she would need to seek him out again, sooner rather than later. Considering he'd gone a while without dropping by, she assumed he might try to find her first. The man was obsessed. Why? She wished she knew.

"Somehow he knew the baby was Antonin's. For all I know, he watched her be conceived. He's always been a creepy bastard. He threatened me. Told me that if I didn't help him he would tell Antonin. I was terrified. I didn't know what Antonin would do if he found out about the baby and by that point, I'd gotten used to the idea of becoming a mum. I was excited."

It seemed poor form to tell the woman that especially at that horrible time in their volatile marriage, Antonin very well could've left his wife and taken his son to start a new family with Ginny. Might have even been glad to do so. She certainly wouldn't have minded. No, it was too cruel to rub that bit of knowledge into her wounds. Antonin wouldn't make the same decision in the present. How she knew that she wasn't sure.

"Rodolphus blackmailed me. There's no other term for it."

"What did he want you to do?"

"Help him defect from You-Know-Who. He brought me to this house. I'd already planned to go in hiding before I started showing. He covered every bit of this house in protective wards and enchantments. No one, not even Draco Malfoy with his special tracking spell, could find me here."

Hermione found her explanation odd.

"But that doesn't make sense. There aren't any wards on this house. I noticed that the night I killed Wood."

Ginny's eyes narrowed at the reminder of her best friend's death. If she wasn't being kept on such a tight leash by Rodolphus, Hermione had no doubt she would be in real danger from her former friend's wrath.

"Rodolphus removed them. Said that Antonin would be able to sense them. He would know Rodolphus had been here. He can identify the magic of those who cast the wards?"

Hermione nodded. He'd been gifted with innate abilities that few others possessed in that area. Much like a real Seer or a metamorphmagus or a Parselmouth, it was one of his natural magical strengths. While he could teach others some of what he could do, they would never be as good.

"I stayed in this house while I was pregnant and for a long time afterward. Up until that night…" She glared again at Hermione. "…I loved it here. Felt safe even."

"How did you help Rodolphus escape?"

"Taught him how to cloak his magic. That wasn't easy, especially for an animagus. Also brought him to the village. Helped him find a place to stay there. He wanted to be in the middle of it all. Wanted to know all of the Resistance's secrets. Since we met in Tiberius Zeller's house most of the time, I suggested confounding him. He could live comfortably in front of his fireplace and hear all he wished."

The details of how Rodolphus was able to survive for so long without the Dark Lord knowing he was alive or any other Death Eater being able to find him had always intrigued Hermione. Whenever she would ask him how he was keeping such a low profile, he would just smile, tell her not to worry her pretty little head about him, and usually try to distract her with a kiss or something much more enjoyable. As the truth began to come out of Ginny's mouth, she felt like she should've been able to guess the Resistance was somehow responsible.

"He's been threatening to tell Antonin about his daughter since before she was even born. Those threats were enough to get me to do what he wanted, but he's gotten worse."

"What do you mean?"

"He's no longer threatening to just tell Antonin. He's getting more and more paranoid. After I told you about my daughter, I had Will take her out of the country. Rodolphus insisted that I bring her back after you saw us together. He wants her close. He wants to…"

"He wants to what, Ginny?"

Tears rolled out of her eyes again. The resolve she'd been able to build up was cracking. Ginny took a deep breath and tried to continue. She had to stop once more to wipe the tears away before she could.

"He said that if I don't do everything that he tells me to, he's going to kill her."

And Hermione knew that that wasn't an idle threat. Rodolphus had never cared much for children. The exact number that he'd killed over the years wasn't known. If he said that he would kill Maisie, he would.

"She's all I have, Hermione. I can't… I can't not do what he tells me to do."

"Ginny, I saw you the night that Ron's house blew up. Did you…?"

Her renewed sobs was all the answer that Hermione needed. If she was ordered to kill her brother or her daughter would be murdered instead, how was she able to do anything but kill Ron? Hermione couldn't blame her. Truthfully, she couldn't blame her for anything she'd done. Not in the name of protecting her daughter. She knew that if she was faced with the same choice, she would do whatever was necessary to ensure that Oliver was safe. Maybe that was a relatively new feeling for her since she stopped taking her potions and actually gotten to know her son better, but it was still valid.

The more she knew about Ginny's predicament, the more impossible it became for her to hate the witch. What sort of mother would she be if she just allowed Rodolphus to kill Maisie for her failures? She was doing the best that she could under impossible situations. Anyone who couldn't forgive Ginny or understand why she'd done what she'd done was more of a monster than Hermione could ever dream of being. Sympathy like she'd rarely felt in her life took over her senses.

"You have to be careful, Ginny. If Antonin finds out you gave him potions and you've been keeping his child from him? He'll kill you."

"I'm aware."

Hermione couldn't believe that she actually felt sorry for the other woman. Living in constant fear for years of losing her child couldn't have been easy. She felt torn. As much as she wanted to hate Ginny, she struggled. Wouldn't she have done the same for Oliver if she'd been in her right mind all along?

"Did you come here today to kill me?"

"I came here today because I had questions."

"And if you didn't like the answers?"

"Doesn't matter anymore."

And she meant it. Everything changed. Rodolphus would have to pay for what he'd done. Another mother couldn't be forced to live in such fear. If she wasn't careful, Hermione could very well be next. There was no longer any reason to stay in that house. She'd gotten the answers she needed. Before she walked out of the door of the bedroom, Hermione turned around to look one last time at the broken woman seated at the edge of the bed.

"Please, Ginny. Be very careful."