A/N: So it's obvious that no one's actually going to read this today. But I decided to post it up anyways. I'm so excited about going to see the Harry Potter finale tonight! Have any of you already seen it? How did you like it? Let me know once you all have seen it. I don't know how I'm going to make it through the next five hours.

Thank you as always to my wonderful reviewers: semantics, Jade2099, weirdgiraffe (x2), xenaz3, and Alexybath.

And yes - things are about to get awfully dramatic.

Chapter 32: The Box

My life had come to a stop all because of a seemingly deceptive little box.

It was quite a normal looking thing, so normal looking that I hadn't even really paid it much attention at first, even though it had Draco's name scrawled on it in an unfamiliar script. An owl had flown it in and I had just left it there, too busy to go through the pile of mail we had. After all, he was an international sensation and married to a war hero.

So, it had sat on Draco and I's mutually shared desk in our office space for days and days since its arrival. We had all but forgotten about it. Draco had been caught up at work until the late hours of the evening that week and I had been taking time off from researching and writing. The office space had gone unused for quite a while.

Later, I thought of just how strange it was that it had sat there so innocently for days.

It was a Saturday when I had roped Scorpius into helping me clean the house. Being the little four year old boy he was, he played and distracted me more than he actually contributed to cleaning up. By the time we reached the little office to do the cleaning, Scorpius was bored out of his mind.

Usually, we wouldn't allow Scorpius to come into this room, simply because little kids have accidents, and that was simply unacceptable. Having to reorganize things was time consuming, especially when you had a billion galleon empire to run. So naturally, the little boy was delighted to follow me in and ignored the warning I gave him not to touch anything.

He sat in the wing backed leather chair Draco so loved and I couldn't help but smile at him. He was going to grow up to be just like his father, I knew. Not that that was a bad thing or anything, but I was going to make sure to tame a few of the wilder parts of Draco's personality in him.

"Mum, what's this?" I heard him ask.

I was too busy dusting the book shelves and straightening things up to turn around and see what he was looking at, but whatever it was, he wasn't supposed to be touching it anyhow. "Don't upset your father's things Scorpius," I warned him, "or he'll be very cross with you. Come on here and help me with those books over there, sweetheart."

But, as little boys are as clumsy as ever, Scorpius unsettled the box on his way towards me. When I heard the clatter and Scorpius's resulting shriek, I turned on the spot ready to scold him for whatever he had destroyed this time but, to my surprise, found billowing purple smoke rising from a box that had toppled to the floor and a very chastised looking Scorpius staring at it guiltily.

I don't know what prompted me to race for my wand that was tucked in the band of my pants. I'm not sure what had me throw the most powerful shield charm towards Scorpius, either, and rush the boy out of the room, but the instinct saved us both. When I turned back to shut the door behind us, my eyes widened.

The smoke had eaten away half of the desk.

/

When Draco came home to a house full of aurors and ministry representatives, he nearly had a freak out, but I had been prepared for that. When he found me making coffee in the kitchen he grabbed me and barely even noticed the cream flying out of my hands and crashing onto the floor.

When an auror burst in to see what had happened, Draco nearly growled.

"Leave," he said, pointing to the door. The auror left, clearly knowing what was good for him. He nearly picked me up and sat me down on one of the kitchen counters after throwing everything to the floor with a sweep of his arm. I cringed at the crash and breaking of glass and looked towards the door to see if any other aurors would come in.

They didn't.

"Explain yourself," he nearly hissed.

"Draco, calm down," I started, reaching for him, but all he did was trap both of my hands in his and pressed them into my lap. Damn, he really was angry.

"Explain yourself!" he shouted this time.

"I think it would be more conducive for us to go over it together," I heard someone say. Looking over Draco's broad shoulder, I found Harry staring at us worriedly. Draco turned too and nodded a greeting to him. Suddenly, I found myself glad that Harry was head of the auror department. Very, very glad.

"Have a seat, Potter," Draco said, gesturing to a counter stool tiredly. I didn't blame him. It was nearly past twelve and he hadn't had dinner yet. When I made to get off and join Harry, he looked at me harshly. "Not you." And he forced me to stay on the counter as if I were a little kid being chastised. But I was too afraid to say anything in my defence. Looking around as if suddenly realizing something was missing, he asked, "Where is Scorpius?"

"He's at my house," Harry supplied for me. "Ginny is looking after him with the other children. I believe Molly has joined them too." I saw him visibly relax and the grip on my wrists loosened fractionally.

"I sent him there directly after," I spoke in my defence, finally. Even if it was in a small voice. You really rather don't want to see Draco superbly angry. And believe me you when I say he was really very angry. "I'm not irresponsible..."

"Not irresponsible? What are you then, hm?" I could see the rage in his eyes. "If it weren't for Potter, I wouldn't have even known anything had happened and you say you're RESPONSIBLE? WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU THINKING?" I cringed and drew away from him. Draco never yelled like this... and he certainly never swore at me. My reaction must have forced him to calm down because he drew me close. "Why didn't you call me, Hermione?"

"I... you had that meeting with the French ambassador today and I..." But Draco just shook his head in disgust. "I didn't want to disturb, I had everything under control."

It was clear he was going to yell again and have a huge raging fit, which is why I think Harry intervened. "She's right, though. She had it under control." Draco turned to regard Harry, not letting go of me in the slightest. My wrists were starting to hurt but I didn't dare say anything lest I piss him off further. "When we came she already had the room contained. If she hadn't acted so quickly, neither of them would be alive."

Well. At least Harry had tried.

Draco stared at me and I could see the fear in his eyes. "What happened?"

"Someone sent you a package with a very unique curse..." Harry began.

"How did it get past the wards?" he interrupted.

"We're not exactly sure –"

"By Gods! I've explained this to four different aurors! Why doesn't anyone listen to me?" I shouted. Both Draco and Harry both stared at me and I blushed. "Well... it was a containment charm." They continued to stare rather blankly, which only made me roll my eyes. "Honestly, don't you two read?"

Harry laughed, but Draco wasn't in the laughing kind of mood.

"Explain," he simply said.

If he had been anyone else, I'd have told him to fuck off for ordering me around, but I supposed the extenuating circumstances excused his attitude.

"Well, they're very recent in development. Agatha Yorkenshire invented the first containment charm in 1963, though they weren't thoroughly researched again until 2001. Basically, a containment charm, and all of its variations, stabilizes and literally 'contains' any object in its original state within a space for any given amount of time if they're applied properly." I paused for breath and was pleased to find they were still listening.

"Generally, a space has to be solid – like a box, for example – for a containment charm to be strong. So if I were to have put a cube of cheese in a box with a containment charm and came back a year later, the cube of cheese would be in exactly the same condition it had been when I put it in."

Draco paused to consider this. "So why was it able to come through the wards?"

"Because, once inside the space, the object is contained. It does not exist to the magical world and you wouldn't be able to find it unless the charm is generally broken. It's the same concept behind taking a secret keeper." Draco nodded, intrigued. "Many people don't use it because it's quite a tricky piece of magic and if gone wrong can be disastrous. Once, a lady was sucked into the space she had meant to contain and wasn't found for months."

"You never did tell us how you managed to seal the room," Harry finally asked when he had finished processing all of the information I had given him.

"Oh, it's simple," I said, grinning. "I used a containment charm."

And for the first time all night, Draco threw his head back and laughed.

/

It had taken them an entire week to figure out a method in which to remove the curse from our office and we had been forced to stay with Harry and Ginny for the entirety of it. Mostly because Ginny wouldn't have it any other way and Draco found it easier to badger Harry on progress this way.

Scorpius was enjoying the hell out of himself, at least, having found kids of his own age to play with.

At the end of the week, a very exhausted looking Harry came home followed by Draco, while Ginny and I were cooking dinner. The kids were upstairs, loudly playing with something or another. When the men sat at the kitchen table, not talking, not even looking at each other, Ginny and I exchanged a look.

"Come here, please, Hermione," Draco finally said. Wiping my hands on a dishtowel, I went over to him, wondering what was going on. When I reached him, he had me sit down next to him and he put an arm around me.

"I have good news and bad news," Harry said, distracting me. Ginny came over and placed her hands on Harry's shoulders. He tilted his head up and kissed her cheek before continuing. "The good news is we've finally gotten rid of the curse in your house and it's safe to go in again."

"And the bad news?" I asked, apprehensively. What's the worse that could have happened? The top floor of our house could have been destroyed along with all of our possessions. But that was something I was okay with. We had all gotten away safely, at the very least. Draco's arm tightened protectively around me.

Instead of answering, Harry pulled a package out of the inside pocket of his coat and handed it to me. I looked at him, but he just nodded at me to open it. So I did. At first I was confused. They were just pictures. What was the big deal? But then I actually looked at them closely and my jaw fell open.

They were all of me. Draco appeared in a few of them, but it was mostly just me. There were over a hundred of them at the very least.

"What is this?" I asked, looking at them. Draco just turned away and Harry just awkwardly gestured at me to look. The first few were just of me on the street. Me with Draco, me picking Scorpius up from school and the like. Mundane things, like grocery shopping.

But then, there were pictures of us sleeping. Pictures of me changing. Pictures of me in the shower... pictures of Draco and I in bed doing...

I threw them down and scrabbled out of my chair away from them. "Where did these come from?" I asked carefully. Harry quickly vanished them. Draco came towards me attempting to calm my panic down. "Tell me where they came from," I said to him, looking up to see his disturbed silver eyes. But he didn't say anything.

"They were in the package that you received," Harry finally managed to spit out.

And just like that, my life had come to a stop all because of a seemingly deceptive little box.

/

Unfortunately for me, though not entirely surprising because I have such rotten luck, things progressively got worse. It was enough to say that I was freaked out and entirely consumed with the idea that someone was watching me at all hours of the day, taking pictures... But whoever this person or creature was constantly made it known that whatever defence that I put up would not be enough to keep them out.

No matter that we had hired 24/7 auror protection, which Harry made sure had all the best members his department could provide for my security. The son of a bitch managed to outsmart them all. We thought it best for Scorpius' sake that he stay with Harry and Ginny while we stayed at home. Though Draco didn't like this idea one bit.

I would not have my son get mixed up in any of this nonsense.

The first night the auror protection had been installed, I slept a little better. I hadn't been going to see Riddle all that much these days, afraid that if I did I wouldn't be able to wake up if something dangerous were to occur. He thought this was for the best as well.

But when I woke up that morning, I found a very worried Draco talking to the head of the guard team when I came downstairs for breakfast. Apparently, three aurors on their guard team had mysteriously been stunned, put under a heavy memory charm and left with pictures of my sleeping face. I had almost screamed in frustration.

So, naturally, Draco had upped the security measures. We installed a gate with every ward I could think of, but the next day we found a box full of cursed photographs laying innocently on the inside of the gate. How anyone had managed to get anything through those wards was mind boggling. It had to be a mastermind. It was inconceivable.

Draco didn't stand for it. He hired an independently contracted security team to compliment the auror's protection services. The very next day, two guards and an auror were found dead on the outside of the gate.

No one was safe.

Draco started to lose more sleep than I did. Bags started to become a permanent feature under his eyes and I was surprised he even managed to get out of bed in the morning. I had to start forcing him to sleep, cradling his head in my arms and murmuring soothing words because he refused to take a sleeping potion. Not that I wanted him to take a sleeping potion... I wouldn't feel safe.

At first we assumed it was the house we were living in. Perhaps it had some sort of secret entryway we weren't aware of? Immediately, Draco made plans to move us to a new location and had the auror department scan our house. Not only did the search results turn out empty, but we woke up with our new apartment literally covered wall to wall with pictures.

Pictures and one message scrawled in dripping red paint over our snow white bedroom wall.

I'm Watching You.

A/N: So what did you think?

Unsigned Reviews:

Alexybath: Oh, no worries at all. It wasn't too bad. : ) I'm glad you liked my rendition of the Malfoy heir.