CHAPTER 1

Draco agreed to come home in five minutes.

'I'll look for the nearest Apparation Portal and be right along,' he said, soothingly. 'Don't worry.'

'Well, hurry up,' Hermione said, worriedly. 'I'm going to have to go and pick Adam up from school in a few hours. There is no way in living hell that I'm letting him come back by the bus now.'

She hung up, and went back to the living room. She had locked and bolted the front door, and closed and shuttered all the windows, but she would have to wait for Draco to apparate back home before she could put up any magical wards. In the mean time, she felt weak and vulnerable. Standing near the window, she twitched a curtain to the side and peered outside.

The garden, and road beyond was deserted.

She sighed and headed back to the kitchen. Opening one of the cupboards, she drew out a bottle of Firewhiskey, and poured herself about two fingers in a heavily cut crystal tumbler. Seating herself at the kitchen table, she took a long swig and closed her eyes as she felt the alcohol burn its way down her throat and settle in her stomach. Fumbling in her pocket, she drew out a pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She plucked one from the pack and slipped it into her mouth, but before she could light it, she heard a loud crack and Draco apparated into the kitchen.

Immediately, she was on her feet, and a split second later in his arms. She felt him wrap his own arms around her and sighed into his shoulder.

'I came as quickly as I could.' he said, gently. 'Sit down and tell me all about it.'

As he walked over to the table, Hermione watched him swagger a little. Her eyes focused on his face, the deadly pallor of his skin, and his hooded bloodshot eyes. Every now and then, he ran his lips over the serrated edge of his teeth. As he sat down on the chair, he slumped a little, and his eyes closed briefly and then opened again.

Hermione frowned at his behavor. And then, suddenly, she put her finger on it.

'You're stoned,' she said, calmly.

Draco looked up blearily at her. His straw colored hair, normally fine and elegant, looked scuffed, as though he had just got out of bed. The navy colored travelling robes that he wore were covered in dust.

'I had a joint along the way,' he said, evasively.

'So let me get this straight.' Hermione said, staking a step forward and balancing her hands on her hips. 'I called you to tell you that our son was in danger, and you chose to smoke a joint before coming over?'

'Hermione, there's no need to overreact-'

'Overreact!' she snapped. 'You think I'm overreacting? Do you have any idea how fucking scared I was when that- that man said our son's name on the telephone, Draco? Do you know how scared I was when Adam saw him spying on us? All this-' she waved her hands wildly, her eyes narrowed in anger and mouth twisted in a hard line- 'is because of you, Draco and what you do!'

Draco sighed, and pressed both his palms against his eyes. He seemed to be struggling to concentrate. Finally, he said, 'What was that man's name, again?'

'Joe Arbuckle,' Hermione said, instantly. 'He said he knew you.'

Draco groaned, and folded his hands on the table top.

'Joe Arbuckle,' he echoed, 'What the fuck is that bastard doing here?'

'Who is he?' asked Hermione, her eyes narrowed. 'How do you know him?'

Draco paused for a moment, and Hermione got the impression that he was trying to marshall his thoughts against the marijuana.

'He used to be part of out gang,' he said, finally. 'He was in charge of recruiting new members and salesmen. But he got a little greedy, and tried to run off with a whole shipment of heroin. I think all the money turned his head a bit. It does that, with a lot of these young fellows.' He added, shaking his head ruefully.

'I'm not going to pretend I give a flying fuck as to what the condition of Joe Arbuckle's head is,' Hermione said, coldly. 'Just tell me what went wrong and why he's after you.'

'Well, I found out he was trying to make a run for it, and sent a couple of the boys after him.' Draco said. 'I think his girlfriend got killed in the tussle. He's always held my responsible for that, but he never really did anything about it.'

'Well, I have news for you, Draco,' Hermione said, in a tight, cold voice. 'He's doing plenty with it right now. He's spying on us, and threatening our child. Now the question is- what are you going to do about it?'

'I'll handle it,' Draco said, wearily. He grabbed the glass of whiskey that Hermione had poured out before he came and drained it in one gulp.

'You better,' Hermione said, warningly. 'Make some calls, pull some strings- I don't care what it takes you, but I want this guy out of the picture.'

Draco simply nodded.

Sirius walked down the gravelly path that led to the Burrow, his shoes scraping against the small stones with each step he took. His robes were dark and worn, but fit him perfectly. His wand was held at ready inside one of his pockets, and he held the letter from Harry in the other hand.

As he opened the door and stepped inside, he was greeted by the usual bubble of noise that characterized all his visits to the Burrow. Somewhere, he could hear Molly and George having a shouting match over something she had found in his room. Tonks and Remus were seated at the kitchen table along with Bill and Fleur, and they were playing a raucous game of Bluff. As he entered, Tonks glanced down at her cards, and her eyes widened and she pointed accusingly at the card Bill had just thrown down.

'Bluff!' she said, triumphantly. 'Bluff, bluff, bluff!'

'Argh,' said Bill, in aggravation. He scooped up the cards on the table and added them to his fan. Glancing up, he caught sight of Sirius and grinned.

'Morning, Sirius. Came to see someone in particular?'

Remus swung his head around as well. 'Is it Harry?' he asked.

Sirius nodded. 'Just wanted a few words with him.' he said.

'Well, he's in the garden with Ron,' said Remus, and turned back to his game.

Sirius nodded gratefully, and headed back to the garden. He found Harry and Ron in deep conversation, with grave expressions etched on their faces.

'What's wrong?' he asked, walking up to them.

Harry turned to face his godfather, his eyes worried.

'I sent you the address,' he said, slowly, 'Did you get it?'

Sirius shook his head. 'Must have crossed paths with it. I waited for a while, and then came over. I don't get it though- why do you want me to do this, exactly?'

Ron pressed his lips together, and then said, 'We had a meeting with Sean Pennery today.'

Sirius looked a little surprised. 'The Head of Information? How come?'

'Everard wanted us to talk to him about something. Apparently, some new information has come in on the Malfoy case.'

Sirius's eyes narrowed with interest. 'The Malfoy case.' he repeated. 'Draco Malfoy, your childhood tormentor, also one of the biggest gang lords in Britain?'

'That's the one,' said Harry, with a humorless smile. 'The Dep's been a little uncertain about him for a while, but we're pretty sure we have some concrete evidence now.'

'Yes, I know that,' Sirius said, nodding. 'Everard and I had this discussion just yesterday. He seems to want to get this whole case over with as quickly as possible.'

'I can't blame him,' Ron said, shaking his head. 'Malfoy isn't exactly small fish. But- that's not what we wanted to talk to you, about.'

'Then what is?' asked Sirius, adding, 'I assume this has something to do with Hermione.'

Harry and Ron both looked startled.

'How do you know?' asked Harry.

'That Hermione married Malfoy?' asked Sirius. 'It's common knowledge. The whole Dep found out when they got married. They have a kid as well, don't they?'

Harry nodded. 'His name's Adam.'

'Have you ever met him?' asked Sirius.

There was a pause, and then Harry shook his head.

'We haven't- we haven't spoken to Hermione since she got married,' he said, quietly. 'Everyone here thinks- well, they think that we just drifted apart, but that's not true. We had the mother of all arguments when she told us she was going to marry him. She got offended, and well- we said some unkind things as well. And now I don't know if she's in danger or not, but there's no way she's going to let us help her out. I sent her a letter a week back, and I didn't get any reply.'

Sirius nodded, and then frowned. 'You're worried about her,' he clarified, 'Now that she's associated with Malfoy.'

Harry nodded. 'Like crazy.'

'Well, then,' said Sirius, 'What do I have to do with it?'

Harry and Ron exchanged glances, and then looked back at him.

'Sirius- mate,' Ron said, 'We just figured that since you were away for all those years, Hermione wouldn't associate that- that fight she had with us with you. She'd probably be a lot more receptive if you were the one helping her.'

Sirius sighed, and shoved his hands into the pockets of his robes.

'You want me to help her.' he clarified.

'That's right.'

'That's why you asked me to go talk to her.'

Harry nodded.

Sirius considered this for a moment.

'All right,' he said, finally, 'I will.'

Draco drifted off to sleep on the dining table at about twelve, and Hermione had to hover his body up to the bedroom and into the bed. Leaning over to tuck him in, she smelled the sweet, cloying smell of weed on his breath and winced. Rifling through the pockets of his robes she found two packets of the crushed drug, and flung them onto the table. She pointed her wand at them, and muttered, 'Evanesco.'

Heading back downstairs, she picked up her coat and her car keys. It was time, she figured, to go pick up Adam. She decided it made sense to go a little early. She would wait outside, and then see if anybod suspicious was loitering around the school. Perhaps she could talk to Mrs. Greene on the way out and find out if the telly repair man had returned.

She wrapped the black coat around herself, and slipped the key into the pocket. Picking up her box of cigarettes from the dining table, and telling herself she could smoke one on the way, she was just about to leave when the telephone rang again.

Immediately, Hermione winced. The telephone shrilled once more, the noise cutting through the still silence of the house like a knife through butter. She eyed it warily.

What if it was Joe Arbuckle again?

'It cannot possibly get worse than the call you had this morning,' she reminded herself. Moving towards the phone, she gently picked up the reciever and pressed it to her ear.

'Hello?'

'Mrs. Malfoy? Is that you?'

She frowned. It was an unfamiliar female voice. 'Yes.' she said. 'Who is this.'

'This is Mrs. Graham,' said the voice. Hermione tensed. Mrs. Graham was Adam's playschool teacher.

'What's the matter?' she asked. 'Is everything all right?'

There was a pause, and then Mrs. Graham said, 'Mrs. Malfoy, I'm sorry, but there's been a terrible accident...'

Author's Note- I'm so, so sorry about the long delay in updating this laptop just crashed for some strange reason, and now I'm using my mum's old one, which means I have to rewrite everything. Next chapter should come a little quicker, though.