Thank you for all of those who are still with this story and reviewed; I can't even begin to tell you how much they all mean to me :)
Also, I get to go home tomorrow which means ample amounts of free time for me :)
Enjoy, and let me know what you think!
Once all of the Death Eaters were rounded up, they all arrived at the Ministry. Severus silently walked beside Hermione who was speaking to Harry and another man about the Death Eaters in custody.
"We've talked to Malfoy, he said he isn't in charge," the man said.
Severus rolled his eyes. Of course he'd say that.
"We'll just have to get the others to talk. No doubt someone will rat him out to save their own skin," Hermione said.
They moved toward the interrogation rooms, entering a dark room. Severus saw that there was a burly man seated at the table, staring at the door. Seeing only the right side of his face, it was clear the man had been in more than his fair share of fights due to the scars. A moment later, a Ministry official entered the room, reading the man his rights. As the interrogation progressed, Hermione tilted her head slightly.
"I want to talk to Malfoy,"
Everyone in the room turned to look at her, but she was addressing the man in charge. He seemed wary at first, but turned towards the door.
"Follow me,"
Hermione did, but Severus quickly caught her wrist.
"I'm fine," she said, pulling free and leaving the room.
Severus sighed and followed after her, as did Harry and Ron. She wasted no time entering the room, staring down the man who had nearly succeeded in ruining their lives. The rest of them slid into the next room, watched through the glass.
"Malfoy," she greeted coldly.
"Mudblood," he shot back.
Hermione kept her hands folded calmly in her lap, her feet tucked under her chair and her head level. Severus noted how professional she appeared.
"I know it was you," she said quietly.
"What was?" he asked, smirking.
"The notes, the attacks, the threats,"
"I'm not admitting to anything,"
"You don't have to. Your followers are being questioned right now, and when faced with a hefty Azkaban sentence, I'm sure more than one will be willing to throw you under the bus,"
His smirk said that he believed no one would turn on him.
"If I was in charge of such operations, I would have to inform you that things would still move forward without me, Granger…or is it Snape now?" he mocked slightly.
Hermione met his smirk with her own. "Snape will do,"
Severus could feel all of the eyes on his face, and he made sure to keep his expression void, though he could feel his chest swell with joy and pride.
"I'm glad to see the happy couple is still together after all of this time,"
"Even after all of your attempts to destroy us,"
Lucius rolled his eyes, leaning back in his chair, the chains on his wrists scrapping across the table.
"Please, I really don't care about you; it was never about you. Betrayal, now that is something I care very much about,"
"You went through all of this trouble because you think someone betrayed you?"
"The Dark Lord always favored Severus, always, but I knew. I knew that he was not loyal. I should have been the Dark Lord's right hand,"
Hermione remained silent, staring at the man without a hint of remorse.
"Over twenty years I watched him worm his way in, taking everything that was supposed to be mine, that filthy half-blood," he growled.
His eyes suddenly flashed to her.
"For all those years I tried to find something that could tear Severus off of that pedestal everyone put him on. I didn't know that it was going to be this easy to find it; you practically walked into my life,"
Severus' eyes flickered from his wife's face, to Lucius' face. She was calm and composed while he was hiding his simmering rage.
"Who knew you'd come so nicely wrapped, even if you are a disgusting mudblood," he sneered at her.
Revulsion flashed in her eyes at the way he was looking at her, but it didn't alter her face.
"Why didn't you go into hiding after the war? You could have taken your wife and son and left,"
"And abandoned the Dark Lord's work? For years he worked for this, and many of us were not willing to give up, even if our master was destroyed – you can't destroy an idea. His idea,"
"And what about Harry?"
Lucius rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically.
"He's of no importance. Eventually, after our main objective is achieved, we will kill him. Just for fun, and to avenge the Dark Lord's death,"
"And Severus?"
"He'll go before Potter, clearly. Betrayal does not sit well amongst our kind. We're known for holding a grudge,"
Hermione stared at him for a long moment, barely moving.
"What about those who no longer wish to be involved with you?"
"They're already being taken care of,"
He gave her a knowing smile, and her eyes widened in understanding.
"Of course," she said quietly. "The murders that have been in the paper,"
Severus was aware of a string of murders that had been taking place recently, and he recognized nearly all of the names listed – they had all dealt with Voldemort. Now Severus knew that their deaths were a result of their desire to leave their Death Eater days behind. Lucius was punishing them for their disloyalty.
"My son told me you were smart,"
Hermione remained quiet, pondering his words for a few moments before he spoke again.
"Are you going to ask about yourself?" he mocked with a grin.
"I don't see how I can be involved in your schemes,"
"Stupid girl, do you think I'm just going to use the Killing Curse on your coward husband? What better way to destroy him but from the inside out?"
He leaned forward in a way that made Severus take a step towards the glass, afraid for Hermione.
"I want him to see the light leave your eyes, I want him to listen to your screams for hours, echoing around the room, I want him to see your face in pure agony," he whispered quietly to her in a hiss.
Severus could see Hermione's eyes flicker for a moment, appearing slightly watery.
"Then I'm going to let him look at your corpse for a little while longer before I kill that bastard,"
"This is all going to be very difficult from your cell in Azkaban," Hermione countered back though Severus could detect the small waver in her voice.
"People know what must be done. Sticking a few of us in a cell is not going to change the course of events that are to come,"
"Is your son going to fill his father's shoes?" Hermione replied with an edge to her voice.
"Draco will perform his duties,"
"I suggest you find a new successor, or you might as well kiss your plans of mass corruption and domination goodbye,"
"You think my son incapable of being a leader?" Malfoy hissed.
"I've known your son since my first year at Hogwarts, and I can assure you, I've never met a bigger coward in all of my life,"
In a flash, Malfoy was on his feet with a roar, tugging at the chains on his wrists.
"How dare you insult a Malfoy!" he roared.
Hermione had jumped up, her chair falling backwards as she looked at Malfoy, fighting against his chains.
"My son is not a coward!"
"This coming from the man who fled from battle! You were presented with a perfect chance to fight for your 'master', and you ran away!"
"Get her out of there, now," Severus snapped, seeing the rage in Lucius' eyes.
"Filthy mudblood! I'll kill you with my bare hands! Mark my words!"
"I'm only telling you the truth. You remember that day at your house, don't you?" Hermione said, pressing her hands to the table, peering into the crazed man's face.
Everyone froze. Lucius stopped fighting his chains and the man in charge of the interview turned away from the door to look back in the glass.
"You knew it was us – I know you recognized Ron and I, and if you didn't, your son certainly did. Who else would we be travelling with, other than Harry? My Stinging Hex didn't make a difference, your son knew it was Harry in that house, and he still didn't open his mouth about it. He could have changed the course of the war, saved your precious master, but he didn't, and so here you are,"
Lucius spit at her, and she managed to jump back before it could strike her.
"You lying bitch!"
"You're only angry because you know I'm right!" she cried, becoming angry now.
Lucius lifted his leg up, kicking the table at her. Hermione reached out and stopped it before shoving the furniture to the side and stepping around it. Her wand was out a second later, a spell striking Lucius and sending him to his knees. Hermione strode to him in a moment, locking her hand around his throat and forcing his eyes to meet hers.
"I have been through hell and back for nearly two years. You and your people nearly killed my friends and my husband. Because of you, I have no parents. After the war I was expecting to be able to live a life without all of this crap going on, but you had to go and make a mess of things again, and I'll be damned if you screw with my life anymore. This ends tonight. If you or any of your people attack anyone I know ever again, I am going to make sure you regret the very moment you were born,"
Hermione shoved him backwards, sending him to the floor just as the man in charge barged in. Severus was frozen, barely believing the words that were leaving her mouth. She was so full of rage, Severus was sure he had never seen her like that before. Even through it all, he was in awe of her. The man grabbed Hermione's arms from behind and began dragging her from the room.
"You're going to rot in Azkaban, Lucius Malfoy, I can promise you that,"
The blond man raised his head to look at her before the man could drag her away, slamming the door behind him. Severus could hear yelling in the hallway, and instantly left the room to see.
"That is not how we conduct interviews!" the man shouted at her.
"He kicked a bloody table at me and spit, do you expect me to just take that?!"
"Yes! It's your job to not react to anything they say or do!"
"Well I didn't hurt him, and I could have just as easily done that,"
Severus could see the rage nearly pouring off of her, her hair frizzy and wild and her muscles tense.
"I don't care what you did; you're off of the case now. Go home. I'll have your new assignment on your desk tomorrow morning,"
"You can't take me off the case!" she protested.
"Don't make me fire you, Hermione. I'd hate to do that, but if you give me no choice, I will,"
Hermione opened her mouth to protest, but quickly shut it, stuffing her hands in her pocket forcefully.
"Now go home and get some rest, we'll finish up here,"
The man entered the interrogation room as Severus slowly approached her. When he was near enough, he reached a hand out to touch her, but she flinched away.
"Don't touch me," she bit out, walking down the hallway.
Severus remained silent, but followed her anyway. She entered another hallway before entering a small wooden door. Severus entered shortly after. He found himself in a large room that had small walls periodically placed around. He realized a moment later that it was a training room for combat. Hermione had lined up nearly twelve training dummies before violently attacking them with shouts accompanying each spell. When they all were in a large pile, she repaired them before repeating the actions. On the last spell, she fell to her knees, breathing heavily. Severus didn't try to comfort her. He was well aware she was in a rage and that she needed to get everything out of her system before talking. Hermione slowly climbed to her feet, her breathing still slightly erratic. She repaired the dummies again, but put them away this time, swiping the tears from her face that had fallen because of her anger.
"Feel better?" he prompted.
"No," she snapped, but sighed deeply, her shoulders slumping. "I can't believe I lost it like that,"
"It's understandable,"
"It's unprofessional,"
"You've had this building up for almost two years; it was bound to come out eventually,"
"Well I should have controlled myself…now I'm off the case. I've worked so hard for this. I just wanted a normal life, and I had a chance to personally make sure that happened, and I messed it up,"
"You caught him, that's all that matters. Things will get better now. They won't know how to carry on without him, no matter what he says, they need direction,"
"Do you think he was the one behind this?" she asked, still refusing to face him.
"One-hundred percent. No one else has a reason to try and carry on Voldemort's work. Most of the Death Eaters would have gone into hiding after the war, knowing that the Ministry would be hunting for them. There might be a few sporadic attacks, but nothing organized,"
Hermione turned to him then, regarding him thoughtfully.
"What were you doing there?"
"Kingsley asked me to help him work outside the law to help the Auror's out a little,"
"Why, so they could try to get you locked up again?" Hermione snapped.
"He said he would make sure no one was aware of what I was doing, and if I had gotten caught, he would have made sure that my record was clear,"
"I was wondering where he was getting his information from," she said absentmindedly.
Severus was silent as he watched her fix her hair and smooth out her clothes.
"You aren't going to be in trouble for this, are you?" she asked, looking at him for the first time since they had entered the room.
"No," he answered, though he wasn't sure what the repercussions of going to the warehouse tonight would be.
"Good," she said with a sigh. "Let's go, I'm tired and I don't want to be here anymore,"
Hermione left the room, Severus following close behind. He found her waiting in the hall for him as the door closed with a thud. Hermione slipped her fingers into his, sighing at the contact. They made their way through the halls eventually coming to the fireplaces. Severus watched as she disappeared in a burst of green. When he stumbled into the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, Hermione was just brushing herself off. Severus shook out his robes, brushing ash from his sleeves. Hermione helped him for a moment, before looking up into his face.
"Thank you," she said quietly, pressing her hands to his chest. "For being there today. I don't know what we would have done without you,"
She leaned up and pressed her lips to his. Before Severus could react, she had pulled away with a sigh, walking towards the sink. Hermione began doing the dishes, quietly humming to herself. Severus stayed where he was for a moment, drinking her in. She sensed his eyes on her, and turned to look at him with a smile.
"What?" she asked, turning back to the sink.
"Nothing," he said quietly taking a seat but keeping his eyes on her.
Minutes slipped by as Hermione bustled around the kitchen, putting dishes away and making coffee for the rest of the group when they returned. She handed him a cup before sitting beside him with a sigh.
"Do you think it's really over now?" she asked, wrapping her fingers around her cup of tea.
"For the most part," he replied, lifting his cup to his mouth.
"Thank God," she said resting her chin on her palm.
The two were quiet for a long while after that. Severus didn't know what he was thinking or feeling. They had a legitimate chance to finally get on with their lives and leave everything that happened during the war behind them. Severus wasn't sure he knew what normal was anymore. It had been so long. He couldn't remember a time when he didn't have someone hunting him down or having to fight for his life. This was going to be a brand new thing for him. He knew he was going to need Hermione through this transition. He turned his head slightly to look at her. Severus noted that she appeared just as lost as he felt. He hadn't thought of how much she would have to adjust now. She now had no parents and had to face the idea that she was no longer on the run with her two best friends. Things would become delightfully boring for the two, and Severus couldn't wait for that moment.