"Not that I want to pressure you or anything, Hermione," Harry told her as she glanced down at the letter in her hands. "But I really think you should go. People will want to know that you're alive. You don't know how much your loss affected us."

Hermione let out a sigh as she skimmed through the letter once more. The Ministry was hosting a ball in honor of the triumph over Lord Voldemort. Harry was also going to be announced as the new Minister of Magic after Rufus Scrimgeour had died during an attack at the Ministry. He was not so thrilled about the job at first, but he did realize that he would be able to finally do something to the government to make it fairer.

It was Harry's idea to have Hermione speak during the ball. He told her that everyone would want to know about her days while being held captive and managing to survive the whole ordeal. It was best to tell everyone at once, it made it easier, which she had to admit, was probably a good idea.

Now Hermione was not as thrilled about the speech like Harry was when he took the Minister's job. She had yet to tell anyone the entire story of those years while she was kept locked away in a cold stone room; even Caden did not know the whole story. He knew he had a father and he had a description of what he looked like, but that was it. Her story was too horrible to tell, even to herself. She still had nightmares about it. She could still hear the sound of the door banging against the stone wall and she could still see the violent images that had been placed before her.

"Harry, I don't know if I can," she told him, truthfully. "What happened was too horrible to explain."

Harry nodded. "Well… you don't have to tell us the whole thing. Why not your escape?"

She glanced over at him and laughed. "Harry, there was a reason I had to escape."

"Well, yeah. He kept you against your will. Probably gave you moldy food, too."

"Actually, the food was quite good, but that's not the point." She told him. She looked around the room for a moment. "Do you know that by keeping me against my will, he actually protected me? You-Know-Who sent him to find and kill me, but instead he hid me away to keep You-Know-Who from finding me."

"Did he tell you that?" Harry asked with his eyebrows raised, as though he doubted it.

Hermione, to his surprise, shook her head. "No, You-Know-Who did."

Caden came running into the room they were sitting in before Harry had a chance to say anything else. He looked back at the doorway with fright after he dove behind the couch they were sitting on. Laurie came in a few seconds later, her dark eyes scanning the room for him. She spotted Caden and smiled excitedly.

"There you are, Caden. Wanna play princesses?" She asked him. Caden almost jumped a mile high when she came running towards him. Unfortunately for Caden, even after chasing Laurie in the dark, threatening to hurt her was not enough to keep her away from him.

The boy scrambled to get up off the floor and his bear was kept as far away from Laurie as possible. He looked for an escape route as she continued to walk up to him, even to the point where his back pressed against the wooden walls of the house. He looked around frantically as Laurie went on about the game she wanted to play.

"…and you can even wearing my pink dress!" Laurie exclaimed excitedly.

"NO!" Caden yelled quickly and pushed passed her and ran out the doorway. The boy bumped into Remus, who was carrying a cup of hot coffee. It poured down Caden's back, causing him to scream in pain. Hermione rushed over to her son. She picked him up and took him back over to the couch. She took out her wand and used it to heal his back.

Once she saw that Caden was alright, Laurie ran up to him. "So Caden, do you wanna play?"

Caden rolled his eyes, groaned, and buried his head in his mother's neck. Remus, after fixing his pants, gently took his daughter away from the boy. "Laurie, we've only been her for five minutes and already Caden's gotten hurt."

"But it wasn't my fault. He should have watched where he was going." Laurie said quickly.

Remus gave her a look. "You were making Caden uncomfortable. Try playing something else. He is a boy after all. I don't think he's interested in princesses."

Laurie pouted. "But boys' games are dumb. They're all about fighting people."

He thought about it for a moment. "Why not do a mix of the two? Caden can be a fearless warrior who comes to rescue you from an evil dragon."

But Laurie shook her head. "No, I don't wanna play with him anymore. He's boring. Where's Aunt Ginny?"

Remus rolled his eyes, but told the girl where she could find Ginny. After Laurie had left, he took a seat in the armchair by the fireplace and gave Hermione and Caden an apologetic look. He then took out his wand and refilled his coffee mug that was still in his hands.

Caden soon fell asleep in Hermione's arms. She could not blame him, for he had been up all night screaming in pain after a gnome bit his side, fracturing his ribs. Unfortunately, Mrs. Weasley did not have some of the ingredients to make a potion that could ease his pain. She left for Diagon Alley early in the morning and gave him the potion shortly before Laurie and Remus arrived.

Hermione gently rocked her sleeping son as Remus and Harry began to discuss Quidditch and whether or not the World Cup will take place this year, as it had not for the past several years. Ginny came in with Laurie almost twenty minutes later. Laurie hopped up onto her father's lap and Ginny took the seat in between Harry and Hermione on the couch. Ginny looked over at Caden.

"Oh, look at him. Don't you want one?" She asked Harry, who turned bright-red.

"Ginny, we haven't even been married for a year yet. And people are still recovering from the war." He tried to reason. Ginny rolled her eyes and snuggled closer to him.

"It's just a thought, Harry. If you don't want a child, you could've just said so." Ginny told him.

Harry began to panic. "It's not that I don't want one. I do, just… give me a few months."

"Aren't you going to wake him up?" Laurie asked Hermione after the couple had quieted down.

She shook her head. "No, it's best to let him sleep. He gets angry when he is forced to wake up."

But it did not matter anyways. As soon as Hermione finished telling Laurie this, Ron entered the house and slammed the door shut behind him. Caden's brown eyes opened suddenly and he glared angrily as Ron entered the living room. But Laurie interrupted him by grabbing a hold of his hand and pulled him off of Hermione's lap.

"Come on, Caden. Let's go and play tag!" She said happily to him.

"Tag?" Caden questioned and for the first time in his life, he left the teddy bear behind. Hermione slowly picked it up from off the wooden floor and wiped the tears that were forming out of her eyes. She smiled as she never thought Caden would leave his beloved bear for a girl at this age. Her little boy was beginning to grow up, and he was missing it.

Ron glanced over at the old teddy bear as he took a seat on the arm chair closest to Hermione. "Fred and George used to have teddy bears like that. Mom gave one to me after they got tired of it. Aren't they supposed to stop breaking at a certain point?"

Hermione shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't buy it. It was given to Caden as a gift."

Ron nodded and was silent for a few moments. "So, are you going to the ball?" He asked quietly. "It's supposed to be fun. There will be dancing, Fred and George are putting on a fireworks display, and some awards are going to be given out. Caden might like it, kids are invited."

She smiled at him for no more than a second, remembering the speech Harry wanted her to give. "I might go."

Hermione had not seen him for four months and she was beginning to get worried. She knew he was not even in the house, or manor, whatever was above her head. The food was not as nicely prepared as it had been. Binky was the one making her food, he told her so himself. But Hermione did not have the heart to admit his cooking was even worse than hers. The books that appeared at her doorstep were no longer interesting as they had been. Something was wrong with him. Even Binky became more nervous with each passing day.

She reminded the house elf to bring Roland down as soon as he came home every meal. Binky would nod to show he would remember, but still there was no Roland. She asked Binky where he could be, but he did not know. He told her Roland said he left on business, but he also told her he had never been gone this long before. Hermione began to waste her days, waiting for the door to appear and Roland step in with that ridiculous smirk she longed to see.

It was absurd, she knew, waiting day after day for a Death Eater to come into her room. Hermione told herself at the beginning she was bored and she wanted someone else to talk to other than Binky. But soon she began to miss his food, his voice, the way he made her laugh. She found herself drawing sketches of him in her drawing pads, and holding the blanket from time to time, inhaling his scent that still lingered on it. Hermione quickly placed the blanket down on her bed when she noticed the door appear. She did not want Binky seeing her like that.

But it was not Binky that staggered into her room. Hermione's jaw dropped and her eyes widened in shock as Roland limped into the room. His black robes were soaked with blood, and the scar on his face had been reopened. His face was stained with red and looked as though someone smashed it with a large rock. Even his hands were bloody. He looked not only pained, but tired and slightly confused.

They stood in silence for a moment before Roland said, in a hoarse voice, "You wanted to see me?"

"Yes, but not like this." Hermione said as she got up from her bed and walked over to him. She placed her hand on his shoulder and felt him wince in pain. Hermione bit her lip and helped Roland over to her bed.

"Call Binky," she ordered him as she began to take off his robes and shirt. Hermione gasped as she noticed the many scars that traced his chest. Her eyes began to water as she thought of what kind of cruel, sickles person would torture him in such a way.

Roland was either embarrassed that she saw him like this or too tired to care. He did not react to her gasp and simply snapped his fingers together making Binky appeared at his side in a moment. Hermione ordered the house elf to gather hot water, towels, or any other magical item, that might be used to help heal Roland's wounds. He returned in a matter of minutes, but told her nervously that he still had to find some of the potion used to heal wounds somewhere in the house and disappeared.

Hermione worked quickly to clean off the blood on his face. Roland watched her as his eyelids began to drop slowly. She was afraid to let him fall asleep, for she wanted to know he was alive as she worked. She began to talk to him in order to help him.

"Why would someone do this to you?" Hermione asked him quietly as she wiped the blood off his cheek.

Roland let out a painful laugh. "Do you remember when we first met? You chucked a rock at my head. I'll be fine, Hermione, I'm used to this."

"But I'm not," Hermione retorted. "You could've died if you stayed out there any longer."

"Says the woman who threw a chair at me during Meeting Three," Roland replied with a smirk. "You nearly broke my leg, not to mention the chair's."

"Well you deserved it," said Hermione, smirking back and moved from his face to his chest. "You told me there was nothing wrong about wearing your clothes."

He rolled his eyes. "Do you know how much money I spent buying all your clothes? I would've gladly loaned you my shirt than be caught buying woman's clothing. The saleswoman was trying to hold back her laughter the entire time!"

"I never did thank you for that."

"No, you didn't." Roland replied and shuddered as though he was remembering the horrors.

Her smile faded and her face became more serious. Hermione replaced the blood-red towel with another white one as she moved further down his chest. She noticed Roland's breathing suddenly becoming heavy and she quickly withdrew the towel.

"I'm sorry," She said to him. "Did I hurt you?"

Roland let out a breath. "No, I'm fine." To her surprise, Roland hoisted himself so he was sitting up right on the bed. He gave her a look of concern and he brought his hand up against her cheek. With his thumb he wiped away the tears Hermione had not realized had been running down her face. She blushed, causing him to chuckle.

"You had been crying throughout that whole thing," He informed her. "Perhaps it's you we need to worry about."

Hermione looked away from him. "It's just that… I hate to see you hurt."

Roland frowned and his fingers moved down to her neck. He brought her back so she was facing him. He gave her a reassuring smile and told her, "I'm fine, Hermione. Don't worry about me."

"But I do," She admitted. "When you don't come to see me, I just–"

But whatever Hermione was going to say, she was lost for words as Roland captured her lips with his.