A/N: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!! Okay, I know that it's been a while since I posted. BUT, I was on vacation in Anaheim AND of course, reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows! As such, I would like to remind everyone that my story had broken away from normal plot line, and I do not recognize, condone, promote, accept or agree with any of the following deaths; Sirius Black, Albus Dumbledore, Mad-Eye Moody, Hedwig, Dobby, Fred Weasley, Ted Tonks, Colin Creevey, REMUS AND NYMPHADORA LUPIN and yes, Severus Snape. Anybody else can burn in wizarding hell, THIS MEANS YOU BELLATRIX!! On a final note, I would like to point out, as per myspace and what I've been saying for years, SNAPE IS LOYAL, because of his love for Lily Potter, DRACO ISN'T EVIL (even though he is a bit of a git) and ::dances around happily:: Harry is a horcrux!!! I was right, I was right! Muahahahahah!!!
Unto the End, Into the Beginning
Chapter Eight: The Man with the Bloody Face
By Egyptian Angel
Hermione walked through the forest. She could hear the peaceful sounds of the singing birds and the babbling brooks. She took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She heard heavy footsteps in the clearing ahead. When she reached the clearing, she saw three men in hooded cloaks carrying another man's body. It was hard to tell if he was alive or not. She followed them to a large rock.
The tallest of the three men muttered something, but Hermione couldn't understand what he had said. Within seconds, part of the rock opened and the men carried the body into the cave. Hermione ran to make it in before the stone door closed again. There was an uneasy darkness and her breath came and went in clouds in front of her. She was alone in a cold, dark room. She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as something moved behind her. She turned around quickly, but no one was there. No, she couldn't be alone. She could hear someone else breathing. She had been in this very room before, had this very same dream.
A window above them opened and light flooded the room. In front of her sat a battered man, his arms and legs bound to the chair with brown rope. From the red marks on his skin on either side of the rope, she could tell they were very tight. His eyes were blindfolded, but it didn't cover the cuts on his face. In fact, there were cuts all over his body, easily viewed through his torn clothing. His head hung down, he was either asleep or dead. She slowly walked to the man, something she had never done in this dream before. She slowly rose his head up and looked at him. It was Draco. Hermione screamed and frantically tried to untie him, but the more she worked at the knot the tighter it got.
Suddenly, the window opened and a small package hit the floor hard. The echo told Hermione that the room was bigger than she had thought. Draco's head shot up and he began to panic. Even though he couldn't see, she could tell he knew what the package was, and it wasn't good for him.
Hermione shouted, "Draco! "Several times, but he gave no response. It became obvious to her that he couldn't hear her.
He began to scream out, and it pierced Hermione's ears with such a force she didn't think she could ever forget it. Hermione ran to the box and tried to life it from the floor, but it was much too heavy. When she finally gave up, she looked at her hands. They were covered in blood. The room went dark again.
"Draco!" Hermione screamed, sitting up in bed. She was hot and sweating through her night shirt. When she received no reply, she screamed for him again.
Within moments, Molly and Ginny entered the room. Hermione had been completely unaware that she had fallen asleep on Molly's couch, and that they had moved her upstairs into a bed about an hour ago.
"I have to go," she said, getting out of bed.
"What's the matter, dear?" Molly asked, her face wrinkling in concern.
"It's Draco, he's in danger!"
"Did he owl you?" Ginny asked.
"No, I had a dream." Hermione said firmly.
Molly and Ginny exchanged glances before Molly spoke again, "Hermione, dear, you must have just had a bad dream, that's all."
"Molly, I appreciate it, but you don't understand. Draco is in trouble, I can feel it. Could you just watch Varius for a little while?" Hermione asked, looking for her shoes.
"Well, of course dear. But if you think he's in danger, you shouldn't go alone…"
However, Molly's concern went unheard as Hermione rushed from the house and quickly shut the door behind her.
"Ginny, you should owl Harry and Remus."
Ginny nodded in agreement and quickly scratched a note that read:
URGENT MESSAGE
Hermione just left our house. She said that Draco was in danger and she left for the manner. Please send a team to the Malfoy Manner immediately.
Ginny
Ginny made a few copies of the parchment and sent them off with her tawny owl, which was still munching on his treats as he took flight out her window.
Hermione apparated in front of the gates to her manner. She gasped at the sight of the Dark Mark above their normally peaceful house. She pushed open the heavy gates and ran to the front doors as fast as she could. She didn't have to wait long to discover who the Death Eaters had killed. She found one of their maids, Connie, lying on their staircase with her eyes wide open. Hermione sighed with a mix of relief and sorrow. She knelt beside Connie and slowly closed her eyes. She noticed that Connie was clutching a bit of parchment. She removed it from her hand and unfolded it.
Mrs. Malfoy -
Your husband will pay dearly for his foolishness. We have taken him to be judged by the Dark Lord for his disloyalty. We look forward to your feeble attempt to rescue him. It would be our please if Mister Potter accompanied you.
Perseus Aitor
Hermione stuffed the parchment into her pocket after reading it several times, although she was still very confused. Who was Perseus Aitor? Whoever he was, he wasn't a man to be taken lightly. He wanted to kill Hermione and Harry so much that he was looking forward to it, apparently. What had Draco done? It was now obvious to Hermione that Draco had secrets he hadn't shared with her yet, and now his life was in jeopardy. She summoned for help with Connie's body and left for the House of Black immediately.
She entered the House to find a good portion of the order at their meeting table; some of the members were in a very heated conversation. Their expressions seemed to soften when they saw Hermione return unharmed.
"Hermione," said Harry, rushing to her side as his strong arms scooped her up into a hug.
She began to sob into his shoulder, and Harry, shocked by her reaction, stroked her hair softly in an attempt to comfort her.
"They took him," she said into Harry's shoulder.
"What?"
"They took him," she said, standing back and drying her eyes, "I had this horrible nightmare so I went to the manner and they shot up the Dark Mark above our house. They killed one of my maids. Why did I have to fall asleep at Molly's? I could have stopped it! I could have saved him!" She said this all very quickly, and she didn't dare mention the note that she found. She didn't want anyone to twist this around into him being a traitor.
"Hermione," said Remus calmly, "we're all so grateful that you weren't there. Besides, you'd be no use to your husband if you were taken captive as well."
"We've got to get a team together and go find him."
"Now hang on a second," Harry said, placing an arm on her shoulder, "it hasn't even been that long since you gave birth to Varius. You've got a newborn to take care of, Hermione. Besides, we don't even know where to look for him."
"Which means what, exactly? We do nothing?!" Hermione shouted.
"I think what Harry means, Hermione, is that we need to come up with a plan before we hunt Death Eaters, wands at the ready, unprepared," Remus chimed in.
"I'll get on their trail on and owl you all when it's the right to move. In the meantime, Remus, you start organizing a team," said Bill.
"I should be the one to trail them!" Hermione argued.
"NO!" several members of the order said in unison, which only added to Hermione's frustration.
"Hermione, you're much too weak. Please, just let us handle this," Remus said.
Several members nodded in agreement. Remus laid a large piece of parchment out onto to table and they began to formulate a few plans.
Hermione wasn't so easily comforted by this, though. She didn't know how seriously they were going to take Draco's disappearance. She was sure that a majority of the Order still didn't trust her husband. She was going to have to take matters into her own hands, with or without the order. They could tell her that she was too weak and that she needed to stay home and take care of Varius until they were blue in the face, it wasn't going to stop her. She was going to find Draco, no matter what she had to do.
Hermione spent that night at the House of Black; she couldn't face returning to the manner without Draco. She held Varius in her arms and kissed his forehead softly, singing him songs until the both of them fell asleep. Molly touched her shoulder gently to awake her the next morning.
"Breakfast is ready, dear," she said quietly.
"Thank you, Molly," she said as she stretched.
Hermione came downstairs a few minutes later with Varius. She sat down and cradled Varius in her arms. She lost Draco, and she wasn't going to let her son out of her sight. She noticed that Harry was one of the few people that she didn't see at breakfast.
"Where's Harry?" she asked.
"He got the owl to come in for his next level of testing," Remus said simply.
"Oh, I remember how nervous I got toward the end of my lessons," Tonks reminisced, "I could barely eat or sleep until it was all over."
Hermione's heart sunk. Draco should be at his training session, not being held captive by Death Eater's, in fear for his life. The not said that Draco was going to 'be judged for his disloyalty to the Dark Lord'. Hermione shuddered; she could only imagine what that really meant.
"Welcome," said Oliver Wood, "to your Level Four Training Day. After you complete this level, you can do your Level Five examination and complete your certification to become an Auror. Congratulations to everyone who has made it this far. Now, I'm going to pair you off into threes."
Oliver turned his back to the class and began to write the teams and their assignments on the white board. When Oliver wrote, 'Vonburgh - Walker - Malfoy', it only took a few minutes for Jacob to raise his hand.
"I'll take questions at the end, Vonburgh," Oliver said simply.
"I'm sorry, Sir," Jacob began, "normally I wouldn't interrupt, but Malfoy is missing."
Oliver stopped writing and turned back to look at the class, where he didn't spot Malfoy. He looked up at the clock and noticed that it was already five minutes into the session, and the doors had been locked.
"Anyone know why Draco Malfoy would be late?" Oliver asked, disappointed that such a promising Auror would risk his training and his chance at certification.
Harry debated to himself whether or not he should say something. He could tell Oliver some story about why Draco wasn't there, but everything that was coming to mind seemed so lame. If he told Oliver that he believed that Draco had been kidnapped, it would bring too much attention to the Order. Harry decided to keep his mouth shut.
After a long pause, Oliver picked up a clipboard and said, "Alright, then. Draco Malfoy is no show to his level four training," making a note of it in his file.
"We're going to begin today's lesson with giving you large quantities of Veritaserum, without any food or water. If you are ever being interrogated by Death eaters, they won't be afraid to pour this down your throat until you vomit. Then they'll give you some more. They figure they'll put so much of it into your bloodstream there's no way you can fight it. They won't care whether you live or die afterwards, just as long as you stay alive long enough for them to get some information out of you. Now, let's begin."
Harry came home that night and slowly dragged himself up to his bed, where he collapsed. His head was pounding, his stomach was in knots from all the Veritaserum he had consumed, and he still had a slight urge to tell everyone everything he was thinking at the moment, which wasn't much more than how comfortable his bed felt to him. Harry soon drifted into an uneasy sleep.
Harry walked into a large house and put his cloak on the coat rack.
"Hermione..." Harry called, his voice echoing within the large house.
"I'm the kitchen with Remus," came Hermione's voice in response, her voice reaching the entrance hall where Harry hung his cloak and then kicked off his shoes.
Harry entered the kitchen expecting to find Hermione and Remus. He did find Hermione, but there was a toddler sitting in a high chair eating pieces of carrot.
"How was work?" she asked, placing a pan on the stove. "Awful, seven raids last night. Ron and I are up to our elbows in paperwork, I hate paperwork. I'd have Seamus do it, but he's already backed up from the last raid when we sent eight Death Eaters to Azkaban."
Harry didn't knew where these words were coming from, it was as if they had already been written, and he was just a puppet doing its masters will. Harry took a seat on one of the kitchen bar stools and looked outside onto the vast grounds that they could call their "backyard." The lot seemed very familiar to him, as if he had lived there before, but when?
"I'm so glad Ron found somebody," Hermione said, putting her arms around him, bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Me too," he said, "and I'm glad I've found someone as well," reaching for Hermione's lips, catching her in a kiss that was quickly growing in intensity.
Harry woke abruptly from the dream, covered in sweat. What a weird dream, he thought to himself. Why would I dream about being married to Hermione and having a child? Everything seemed so real, so natural. He spent the next several minute confused, before a flood of memories came rushing back to him. He remembered the Draco had been killed by Lucius before they even graduated from Hogwarts. Lucius being sent to Azkaban. Harry and Hermione raising her and Draco's child together. Lucius escaping from Azkaban and coming to their home. Lucius…killing Harry. I died? No, that's impossible. Was it? Harry didn't know what was going on. Perhaps it was just a very intense dream, or the potion was having some odd effect on him.
Harry rose from bed and went downstairs to grab himself some coffee. He wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore tonight, so he might as well get any early start on the day. He checked his watch. It was three in the morning; he still had about two hours until sunrise. He made himself some coffee and then stepped out into the patio to enjoy. The night air swept through his hair, chilling his body. He almost dropped when he realized that someone was already sitting at the patio table, Hermione.
"What are you doing out here alone, Hermione? It's dangerous! Especially with everything that's going on…"
"So it's okay for you to come out here by yourself at three o'clock in the morning, because you're a man?"
"Don't turn this around on me. Hermione, is everything alright?"
"No, Harry. My husband is missing and I have no idea who took him, why would anything be okay?" Hermione asked, fighting back the tears.
Harry sat down beside her and wrapped an arm around her.
"Hermione, don't get mad about me for asking you this, but do you think Draco could have been in involved with something or someone, and for whatever reason, didn't tell you about it?"
"Honestly, Harry, I have no idea. I know my husband is a good man and he's been taken by the Death Eaters. It's probably because he betrayed them for me when he killed his father. How can I forgive myself for that?"
"Hermione, none of this is your fault. But I actually did want to talk to you about the night that Lucius died."
"Why?" Hermione asked, horrified that she would ever have to relive that night again.
"Well, I just want to know what you remember about it," Harry said.
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments while Hermione thought, her face scrunched in concentration.
"Actually," she admitted, "I don't remember that much about that night at all. I had such a difficult pregnancy that I don't remember a whole lot that happened. My memory gets better around the time that Narcissa passed away," Hermione said somberly.
"How convenient," muttered Harry.
"What?" Hermione asked, not making out what Harry said.
"Don't you find that a bit odd?" Harry asked.
"I suppose, but I had never given it much thought. Actually, now that I think about, Sirius made some weird comment about it when we danced together at my wedding."
"Hermione," Harry said, searching for the right way to phrase this, "did you ever remember… a different life?"
"What do you mean?" Hermione asked, slightly confused.
"I mean, do you ever remember things happening differently in the chamber? Like Lucius killing Draco instead of the either way around? You naming your child Remus? Us raising him together?"
"STOP!" Hermione shouted before Harry could ask anymore questions, "I don't know what you're trying to do, but please, don't!"
"But, Hermione…"
"No! We're done talking, Harry," she said, rising from her seat and slamming the door behind her.
Harry knew that based on Hermione's reaction the same things had been bothering her and she was just too afraid to tell Harry. He was determined to get to the bottom of Draco's disappearance and the weird dreams, one way or another.
In the midst of the challenges the Order of the Phoenix and its members were facing, Nymphadora Tonks was trying to plan her wedding to Remus Lupin. Their wedding was approaching in two days, and she still had so much to do. She would have loved to ask Hermione for her help, as she had just held her own wedding only weeks ago but Tonks knew that the pain would be too much for her.
To Nymphadora's shock, Hermione offered to help her make the final arrangements. She assumed that perhaps Molly had spoken to Hermione about Tonks' nervousness. She took comfort in realizing that it might take Hermione's mind off of her missing husband.
"We're keeping it very small, Remus is a simple man. Besides, with the way everything is going…I think the members of the Order should lay low for a while."
"Yeah, I understand. I suppose Molly is taking care of food, then?" Hermione asked.
"Yes, she's been so great with great for the wedding,"
"How is Remus doing?"
"I think he's getting his old feelings of insecurities back. He's starting to think that maybe I'm making a mistake by marrying him. That I deserve someone younger and wealthy."
"Remus has always been a humble man, but I'm sure that once you're married his nervousness will go away."
"Thanks, Hermione. I'm sure it will too."
"And you've got your wedding party?" Hermione asked.
"Well, Sirius is going to be the best man, of course. I think that Bill and Harry are going to be the groom's men. Ginny is my maid of honor, and I know I've waited so long to ask, but I was hoping that you'd be my bride's maid."
Hermione smiled, "I'd love to Tonks, thank you."
"Great! Ginny took care of a lot of things for me too. Getting the cake, setting up the backyard. She said I'm not even allowed to go out there until the wedding!"
"Yeah, I was wondering why she was boarding up all the windows," Hermione said, laughing.
Ginny joined them later and the three of them stayed up into the early hours of the morning makes the final preparations for the wedding. Nymphadora had no idea that there would be this much to do for such a small wedding, but the Order was apparently larger that she had realized. Ginny wanted to make this the day of Nymphadora's dreams. It was still her wedding, whether it was in a large cathedral or in the backyard behind 12 Grimmauld Place.
Hermione waited patiently for Sirius and Ginny, the best man and maid of honor, to join hands and walk down the aisle together. Bill paired off with his wife Fleur, naturally, and she was left standing with Harry in awkward silence. Harry offered his arm out and Hermione took it, but she still refused to say anything. Hermione was still infuriated with him for accusing her husband of disloyalty, but she kept her tongue because this day belonged to Remus and 'Dora, and nobody else. They reached the end of the aisle and parted their ways, taking their respective places.
The guests turned in their seats to see Nymphadora enter the garden. For her wedding she had chosen to wear her hair long and blonde. Her father, Ted, offered her arm and escorted her to the altar, where he gave her to Remus, they were both beaming. They joined hands and turned to the same man that had married Hermione and Draco. Hermione's stomach lurched. Here she was all dressed up; watching Remus and Tonks getting married, and she had no idea where he husband was. Probably down in some dungeon, getting tortured, she thought to herself as she hide her face in the bouquet, pretending to smell the roses. It was the only thing she could do to hide her tears.
She heard Varius give a small cry from the crowd, and saw Molly cradle him in her arms. She could feel piercing eyes burning into her. She felt angry that people were judging her instead of watching the happy couple get married.
"Remus John Lupin," the ministry official began, "you will repeat after me. Nymphadora Tonks, with this ring, I thee wed. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness."
Remus repeated the wizard's words and slipped a small silver band onto Nymphadora's finger. Hermione knew that Remus probably secretly wished he could give her more, but Tonks was smiling wider than Hermione had ever seen her.
The man looked to her and she repeated the same binding words and slipped a matching band on Remus' ring finger.
Hermione had to look away as Mr. and Mrs. Lupin, as they had just been announced as, shot their sparks into the air. She was overcome with joy for Remus, who had at last found happiness, and the pain of not having Draco by her side. She didn't linger long for the reception because she knew that Harry wanted to talk to her, which was simply something that she couldn't handle right now. She thanked Molly for watching Varius during the ceremony, and made her way to the fireplace to get back home. She could see Sirius, still in his best dress robes, making his way toward her. He probably wanted to tell her that he had been right about Draco, that his disappearance confirmed it. Her husband's loyalty was not something she wanted to talk about with anyone at the moment, and she quickly dropped the powder into the flames, which turned a bright green.
"Malfoy Manor!" Hermione shouted, and she was gone before Sirius could reach the fireplace.