Chapter 17
A/N: Hello readers! I know, I suck. Sorry. I kind of got the new Pokémon game for Christmas... and then a new Sims game. I'll try and be better with the posting and whatnot.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed and to irianaceleste for betaing (this is the last chapter she betaed, so you're stuck with my mistakes from now on)!
I think a few of your reviews/PMs may have gone unanswered. My inbox was kind of... emptied. Sorry!
~Frosty
"I was sitting in the bar, having a drink while trying to contain my temper after seeing you forced to kiss Smith, when it occurred to me that the best person to help us against the ancient bitch that forced you to do it wasn't a person at all, but another god."
Hermione's brows furrowed and she lifted her head from his shoulder to better look at him, half dreading the answer to her question. "Who did you call?"
While she knew Draco to have some knowledge of the divine, something he couldn't help but gain after spending so much time doing battle against angry goddesses, he didn't quite have the same level of knowledge that Hermione possessed. It would be so easy for him to call the wrong god and get himself tangled in even more trouble than they were already up against.
He slid his hand down her back and pinched her bottom. "I thought I told you not to interrupt with your incessant questions? If you continue making me stop, I'm never going to finish my story." As he smoothed over the area, he tilted his head slightly, contemplative. "Of course, if you're going to stay here in my lap, I'm perfectly willing to stay here indefinitely."
Hermione tried to swat at him, but he was ready for it and caught her wrist. He dragged her arm down so that her hand rested on his chest and then continued on with his story as if nothing had happened.
"I was in a bar, so the logical choice of deity was Dionysus – don't look so surprised, Granger. I've been doing a little reading since we've been having run-ins with supposedly mythological figures." Her mouth opened to ask another question, but once again, Draco was ready for her. He untangled the hand he had laced with hers against his chest and covered her mouth. "As I was saying," he continued, completely ignoring her muffled verbal abuse, "I ordered a bottle of the best wine the Muggle bar kept in stock – I have to say, it didn't compare to Elf wine, not even a little bit – poured two glasses, and waited.
"It was maybe ten minutes before there was some rosy-cheeked teenager sitting beside me and drinking huge amounts of wine without even showing the effects. And don't worry, I remembered to save the receipt so you can fill out the expense report form. I expect to be reimbursed for the sixteen bottles of wine I bought."
When Hermione started trying to bite him, he removed his hand and went back to using it to restrain her. "I know you're thinking I was asking for trouble summoning a god without doing research first, but I doubted it was possible that any being exist for millennia with Aphrodite and not develop some sort of quarrel with her. That goddess is downright unpleasant." He shook his head at just the thought of Aphrodite's abrasive personality. "Anyway, I was right; Dionysus has agreed to help us against Aphrodite."
Hermione, knowing that Draco's limited research didn't leave him with a complete understanding of the goings on between Dionysus and Aphrodite, quickly went through her mental files on the two.
"He said that after the embarrassment of Priapus, he was more than willing to get a little revenge," he finished.
While Draco didn't seem to understand the whole story, Hermione knew what Dionysus had been talking about; Priapus was the son of Aphrodite and Dionysus. He was best known for his permanent erection, comically large penis, and the impotence with which Hera had cursed him. Said curse was actually retaliation against Aphrodite and unrelated to her unborn son.
Hermione could see how that could be embarrassing to Dionysus, but it was Priapus that was the real victim of the situation. He hadn't even been born when he was cursed; the poor guy hadn't even had a chance at being normal. Even worse, once he was born, only the satyrs seemed to accept him.
"What are you planning?" she asked, ready for the pinch he delivered to her hip for yet another question.
Draco was just about to answer when their boss, Mr. Moss, burst into the room. Hermione and Draco both disliked the man who was only there when his employees had done something commendable, and even then he was present for these situations it was because he wanted to make sure that any credit from the higher-ups went to him instead of the people who had actually done the work. Whenever something needed to be done, it was almost guaranteed that Moss would make himself scarce. Their department practically ran itself because their boss was horribly lazy.
"Would either of you care to explain why you've both missed a number of work days and are significantly behind in your paperwork?" Mr. Moss put his beefy hands on his ample hips and stood in the doorway, trying to look intimidating and failing horribly. Really, all he accomplished was taking up most of the doorway with his considerable bulk. The effect was really more comical than intimidating.
Hermione felt Draco tense under her and poked him in the ribs as a reminder that Mr. Moss was their boss and they needed to show him at least a little bit of respect if they wanted to keep their jobs. Not surprisingly, Draco didn't heed her less than subtle hint.
"Maybe I would explain if someone I respected was asking, but I know for a fact that you only come into the office when you have an opportunity to yell at someone or look good to your superiors." Hermione elbowed Draco in the ribs much harder than she'd poked him before. "Sir," Draco added with a glare at his partner.
Mr. Moss turned an interesting shade of puce, his face going all blotchy. He should really watch his blood pressure; he was liable to pop something if he wasn't careful.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Hermione hissed furiously, too low for their boss to hear.
"I have a plan."
Having finally regained enough control over his anger to be able to force words out of his mouth, Mr. Moss spit, "My office. Now."
Hermione had to stand from Draco's lap before he could get to his feet.
"Not you, Granger," Moss said. "I just want to have a talk with Malfoy."
Worriedly, Hermione watched Draco follow after their boss, not comforted in the least by the quelling look Draco shot her over his shoulder.
Hermione was not in the best mood when she returned to the Manor. Still, she put on a smile when she found Harry and Daisy seated in the library. "What are you doing here, Harry? I thought you were following that shifty man who was spying on us back at the brothel."
"I followed him for a while, but lost him when he Disapparated."
Harry had that look about him, the one that he'd worn frequently in sixth year while following Draco around, sure he was up to no good. Her friend knew that the man he'd been chasing was an evildoer and it killed him to know that their brothel spy had escaped him. Harry took things personally like that.
"Did you learn anything that could help us?" Even the smallest hint would help. Knowing why he'd been spying on them would definitely elucidate the murky mess they had themselves. Maybe the creepy man had dropped a note with his to do list or something else equally helpful?
"Not much, he was covered almost from head to toe. He was roughly the same size as Smith though. I checked with the St. Mungo's on the off chance Smith had checked himself out."
"Did he?" Hermione asked.
Harry looked grim. "He didn't check himself out, but he did disappear. One minute a Healer was checking him over – apparently his wounds were oddly resistant to magical healing but seemed to heal strangely fast on their own – and the next he was gone."
Disappointed that Harry couldn't have learned something more, Hermione thanked him and lowered herself into the chair beside Daisy's. They already knew that Smith was clearly divine; the hospital confirming as much didn't really help much in their search for Cassy.
Her attention turned to Daisy, who had spent her time in the library reading anything she could find that related even remotely to mythology in search of something that could give her an edge over Aphrodite and Apollo.
"Did you find anything that could help us, Daisy?"
"I found that the Malfoys are one hell of a scary family that I'd hate to cross, but other than that there wasn't much worth noting."
Hermione could only imagine what kind of depraved things the Malfoys had lurking around their library. Draco and Narcissa were good people under their anger issues and snobbery, but Hermione knew for a fact that some of their ancestors were downright evil.
She'd delved into some of them more tame volumes of their family history and spent quite a while deeply disturbed. After that unpleasant experience, she'd decided to take a break from the family histories, maybe come back to them at a later date when she was braced for the horrible words inside them.
"Don't look so upset, Hermione," Harry said. "We're going to work something out - or is it something else that's bothering you?"
"Draco got called into Mr. Moss' office after saying something completely disrespectful, and he never came back to my office where he knew I was waiting for him. I waited two hours." She looked around the room as if she was hoping that Draco would pop out from behind a bookshelf and tell her to stop fretting about stupid things.
"I'm honestly surprised that he hasn't been fired before," Harry said, immediately looking contrite when he saw Hermione's fierce glare that barely concealed her concern. "I'm sure he just had something he needed to do," he corrected himself quickly upon realizing that he was being insensitive.
She needed something to keep her busy and her mind off of worrying about her partner. Hermione stood, fished through the stack of papers she'd brought home with her, and found the page of results that said what the Unspeakables had found from their examination of the creature she'd brought them. It had certainly taken them long enough to get back to her.
Usually, samples weren't encouraged as they disturbed the magical creatures and removed them from their natural environment, but with a pandemic on their hands, Hermione had seen fit to take a few samples. She'd sent the Unspeakables said samples, including a live Crup, in hopes that they'd be able to find a cure for the plague, or at least some way to slow down the deaths of magical creatures.
Pursing her lips, Hermione ignored the other two in the room for a few minutes, devoting her entire attention to the paper she was reading. There were a few interesting clues to origin of the plague. Particularly the little side note about finding similarities between the substance that made up the veil and whatever was killing the magical creatures.
She spent a moment contemplating how something from the underworld would make its way across the veil and into the world of the living to make magical creatures sick. She had a few theories, but nothing concrete.
"There's something else bothering you," Harry said. Curse his overly observant nature.
Hermione forced a smile and looked at her friend. "Besides this plague, Cassy missing, the various deities that want us dead, and the imminent dismissal of my partner from the Ministry, there's nothing bothering me."
Not even Daisy believed her, Hermione could tell. If Daisy could see right through her, then it was practically a given that her oldest friend wasn't fooled by her lackluster performance. Luckily, Hermione was saved from having to answer the question he was clearly about to ask by Daisy.
"Harry, would you mind giving me and Hermione a moment alone? There's something I need to ask her."
He didn't look happy about it, but Harry nodded politely and left the library. Hermione thought about casting a silencing spell, feeling that whatever Daisy had to say was probably something that she wouldn't want Harry to overhear, but she quickly dismissed that notion. The thick wooden doors of the Malfoy library were thick enough that a silencing spell would probably be redundant, and she trusted Harry to do the right thing and not eavesdrop.
"How far along are you?" Daisy asked as soon as Harry had shut the door.
Hermione blanched. That wasn't what she'd expected Daisy to ask. "How did you know?"
They both looked down to the protective hand Hermione had placed over her stomach. She'd been trying so hard to stifle the instinctual urge to put her hands there ever since she'd cast the spell and found out without a doubt that she was pregnant. She'd thought she had been doing so well until Daisy pointed it out, too. Apparently she hadn't been suppressing her instincts as well as she'd thought.
"Hermione," Daisy said in a serious tone that immediately had her full attention, "Believe me when I say that you don't want a creature as helpless as a child involved with the gods. Most of them end up dead." Here Daisy sniffled a little as she tried to fight off tears, thinking of her own child.
Hermione nodded. She had briefly thought about the same thing shortly after Eros had revealed to her that she was pregnant, but she hadn't really had time to contemplate it since. Daisy was right. Something needed to be done to untangle herself and Draco from the mess of the gods before their baby was born. Hermione wasn't going to let her offspring be another tragic tale of warning against involvement with the divine.
Once again forced from her inner musings this time by a tapping sound, Hermione looked over to the window to see an owl there. It was one of the Ministry's official owls.
"I'm used to tangling with gods and seeing the future, but I don't think I'm ever going to get used to this magic stuff," Daisy mumbled as Hermione walked to the window to let the owl into the room.
Hermione's sigh upon reading the letter was more irritated resignation than actual concern. At least now she knew where it was that Draco had disappeared to after Moss called him to his office.
"What does it say?" Daisy asked curiously. In the short time she'd come to get to know the other woman, Daisy had found that there was only one thing that could consistently draw that particular mix of resignation and irritation from her; her partner.
Harry was called back into the room before Hermione shared with them the contents of the letter.
"Draco's been arrested."
The letter hadn't said much about why Draco had been arrested, just that he was currently residing in the minimum security section of Azkaban awaiting a trial. Daisy had been forced to wait at the Manor while Hermione and Harry made a quick trip to the prison to see what had happened.
Draco was lounging in a cell as if he belonged there. Only Hermione, who knew him so well, could read his disquiet over being caged up like an animal. Between his time spent under Voldemort's reign and then a brief stint in Azkaban before his whole Death Eater association had been sorted, Draco had experienced more than enough time captive. It was part of the reason he hated going to the hospital so much, that feeling of helplessness.
They regarded each other in silence for a few moments, Harry's presence completely forgotten while the partners looked each other over. Harry would have given them a moment alone had he been able, but Hermione needed an Auror escort to be allowed within the walls of the prison. Even war heroes couldn't just amble in to Azkaban without following procedure. The Dementors may have been gone, but it was still a respectable and very secure prison.
It was Hermione who spoke first, her words reflecting her resignation about her presence in Azkaban, "I always knew it was only a matter of time before you got yourself arrested."
Harry hid his snort by turning his head away he took a few steps to the side to give them as much privacy as possible.
Silent, Draco gazed at her with an affronted expression.
"Let me guess," Hermione continued before either of them could get a word in edgewise, "This is all part of the plan."
Draco looked at his surroundings with exaggerated distaste. "Actually, no. This," he gestured to his cell, "Is what happens when you curse your boss."