DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!!
Normal Life Doesn't Exist
Chapter 7
The first thing that Hermione did when she got into the house was to walk through to the kitchen and began making coffee. Tom closed the door, flipped up the latch and walked through to the kitchen. Hermione had her back turned to him and was humming a soft tune.
"Hermione?" she looked over her shoulder as he addressed her. "Can I see the girls' room?" she furrowed her brow in question. "Just something I need to do." She remained silent, puzzled by his wording, mentally pondering whether it was a good thing to do. After a few moments, she nodded. He smiled back at her, turned and walked up the stairs.
"The door in the left corner!" she called upstairs.
But he had already seen the door covered in pieces of paper with messy people drawn on them. In the bottom corner of every piece was a neatly scrawled name, either 'Jane G' or 'Merope G'. Most of them were 3 people holding hands, standing in front of a box shaped house under a rainbow. Tom smiled at them, put his hand on the doorknob and opened the door, stepping into the room.
It was a plain box shape, 2 walls yellow and the other 2 pink. The 2 beds were in opposite corners but both were piled high with teddies and other fluffy animals. Above the bed in the pink corner, nearest to the door, had 'JANE' carved into the headboard, but was only just visible through all the teddies, which were arranged in a sort of nest shape, leaving a small circle where his daughter slept.
He looked over to the other bed and although there were just as many teddies, they were arranged in the same shape as Jane's but the circle was bigger and the teddies piled higher. The walls were covered in paper, all with drawings on. Most were people but there were also a lot of dogs and cats and fishes on land and horses that looked more like 2 blobs with 4 legs and a tail with random lines draw on the end. The floor was littered other toys, dolls, children books, paper, crayons, pens and many other random items including odd socks, shoes and a 'Pink Pander' rug that was barely visible under the mess.
A creak of floorboards pulled Tom out of his revere to look over his shoulder and see Hermione standing in the doorway with 2 mugs.
"Sorry it's a mess. It's always like that; can't get them to tidy up without making more of a mess." She smiled, handing Tom the mug in her left hand.
"With all the teddies on the beds...How do you know if they're actually in them?" Tom laughed, sipping the coffee.
"Oh, there's always a body part sticking from under the covers. And if that doesn't work, there's the 'Mum Sense', as the girls call it." she smiled. "So...Drink up. We've got a busy day ahead." She smirked over the rim of her cup.
--
Hermione and Tom lay in bed a few hours later. She leant against the headboard, stroking his hair as he laid his chin on her stomach, his arms around her waist.
"Hermione?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you think you'll come back with me?"
"Where?"
"Scotland."
She sighed. "I knew that would happen."
"What?" he asked, looking up at her.
"You wouldn't just come back to see me, or meet your children, you have to have something in return, don't you?"
"Hermione, I'm not saying 'come back with me immediately'. We can wait however long you want."
"Tom...I don't know. I mean, the girls need stability in their lives. And they won't get that in Scotland."
"Why not?"
"Because of what you do. They'll be people there who'll do anything the girls tell them to do and they'll be spoilt rotten and given anything they want and I don't want that. I want them to have a normal life."
"'Normal life' doesn't exist."
--
Hermione had had a quick bath, dried herself and put on a pair of boxers with Tom's shirt. She came down the stairs, running her hands through her hair and was about to call out Tom's name when she heard voices in the lounge.
"Milord, what are you doing to do about Hermione?" Lucius.
"I'm trying to convince her to come back with me when I return but...she hasn't agreed so far. Convincing her will be harder than I thought." Tom. Hermione quickly but silently left the stairs and pressed herself against the wall of the hall, just by the lounge door. "How is everything going? The recruits training hard enough?"
"Yes, milord. A few have caused trouble but were easily 'taken care of'." Hermione's head spun. "Milord, if you don't mind me asking, how are you planning to convince Hermione to come back with you?"
"I'm going to use something that she can't say no to."
"Milord?"
"Call me twisted and evil but I'm going to use my children to get to her."
Hermione couldn't take anymore, she stormed into the room. "You sick bastard!" she cried, smacking Tom right across his face. In surprise, he fell out of his chair, she straddled him and started to hit him. Lucius closed the connection after a second of watching Hermione scream and hit Tom. "You sick deranged twisted BASTARD!" she screamed, hitting his chest and winding him for a moment. "How can you even think about using them against me?!"
"Hermione, stop!" he shouted grabbing her wrists and sitting up, a few bruises forming on his face, chest and legs.
"You sick bastard! I knew it! I KNEW IT!!" she screamed. "I thought you loved me! Loved our children! But all you want to do is use them as another tool in this war, isn't it?!" she pulled herself out of Tom's grip, stood up and glared down at him.
"Hermione, that's not what-"
"Get out of my house. I don't want you near my children ever again."
"Hermione, they're our-"
"GET OUT!" she screamed.
Too annoyed and even a little scared to do anything else, Tom left by Apparition. Hermione cried as she thought about what would have happened if she hadn't overheard the conversation and Tom did start to use the girls against her. Shivers ran down her spine, tears came from her eyes and cries came from her mouth. 10 minutes later, she managed to collect herself and make herself look half presentable, she got changed and collected the girls from school.
Waiting for the girls just inside from the gates to the school, Hermione leant against the wall that ran around the border of the grounds. Hearing a distant bell ringing, faint but then louder happy cries, she smiled and waited for the girls. 2 minutes later, after most of the children had come out and left with their parents or guardians, she smiled as she saw her girls. They were hand in hand, as they always were, and ran to her when they saw her.
"Hey, my girls!" Hermione said, hugging both at the same time.
"Hi, mummy!" they cried, releasing their mother from their tight grip.
"What did you do at school today?" Hermione asked, crouching down and looking at them, adjusting their hats a little.
"We did maths, science, music, P.E. and R.E."
"Learn anything new?"
"Yeah. We learnt how to do star jumps in P.E." Merope said.
"Is that all?" Hermione laughed.
"We learnt a song how to remember the names of teeth." Jane said.
"Really? How does it go?"
"Um...I can't remember. Oh, yeah! Incisors, canines, molars are the names of all our teeth; Clean them twice a day and make sure that it's not too brief; For if you get a bad tooth ache then the only real relief; Will be to visit the dentist soon!"
"Wow! That is such a cool song." Hermione gushed, tickling their stomachs for a moment. They giggled and Hermione felt her heart soar. "How could Tom have even thought about using them against me?" She stood up straight and took a hand of each of her children.
"Mummy?" Jane said.
"Yeah?"
"Where's daddy?"
Hermione paused. "He's at work."
"When will he be back?"
"I don't know. It sort of changes. Sometimes he's gone a day, sometimes he's gone a week. I don't know."
"Oh. Okay." Jane said quietly and they walked home.
--
Hermione was crying in bed. The blankets were wrapped tightly around her and she was sobbing into her pillow. She had been doing this for just over half an hour, before she felt him behind her. The bed dipped, the blankets were pulled up and a body slid in behind her. A soft hand slid up her arm and a kiss was placed on her neck. Oh, how she had missed that. His soft hands, light kisses, warm lips, caring attitude towards her. She loved him and was not afraid to admit it.
She stifled a sob and felt him lean in and whisper softly in her ear. "I'm sorry, darling. I'll never do that again." He said, kissing her arm. She turned in his embrace and kissed him passionately. Their tongues danced in a forgotten battle that they both adored. A hand rested on her hip and the other feeling her soft curls. She pulled away.
"Hold me." she whispered to him.
"Of course." He whispered back, wrapping a strong arm around her. She gave a few sobs and then fell asleep, never wanting the moment to end.