In the middle of curling the ribbon with a pair of scissors, she heard a knock at the door. She checked the clock with a frown and wondered who would dare bother her after ten o' clock. Taking a swipe at her cheeks again to clean away the tears, she went to the front door and opened it and her breath hitched at the sight of Lucius Malfoy standing at her doorstep on her welcome mat.
Nausea swirled around Hermione's belly, and she hurriedly closed the door and locked it. He would not be able to enter the house whether she fastened the latch or not. The wards she designed in her house only accepted those she personally invited. Even her son could not spontaneously bring home a new friend.
Hermione sank to her knees and brought a hand to her mouth to stifle her sobs, frightened her safe and happy life was shattering into ugly jagged shards. Building this protective structure around her and her son had taken years to form, to be able to independently provide for him without the help of Draco. Yes, he paid for Alex's schooling but once Hermione had a steady income, she refused Draco's money. This was her home she paid for, and Alex was hers and she would take care of both as she saw fit.
Another knock on the door, this time louder and more persistent, rang through her ears.
"Miss Granger, open the door and stop acting like a child! We have many things to discuss!" she heard from outside. Pointing her wand, she casted a Muffliato at the door and silenced the knocking and Lucius's voice. She stood up to her feet and cast another Silencing Charm but on the entire house in case the bastard decided to bang on her windows like a creep.
Until all of Alex's presents were wrapped and ready for the next day, Hermione did her best in pretending there was not an ex-Death Eater outside her house. She levitated the presents into her bedroom and placed them in her closet to keep them from Alex's curious eyes.
She readied for the night, slipping into some soft pants and a t-shirt and washed up a tad. Whilst brushing her teeth, she felt a shift in wards like they were stretching like taffy. She lowered her toothbrush and cinched her brow together and before she realized why, she felt the wards snap. The disintegration of the protective magic hummed across her skin and then dissolved like her whole body was asleep and shaking of the tingles.
Hermione's state of wonder lasted but a millisecond before she chucked her toothbrush on the counter, wiped her mouth and ran to her front door, grabbing her wand on the way there. She raised her wand at the door and waited.
How dare that bastard break her wards? How thick was he? The man had pointedly put himself in harm's way. Under Magical American Law, she had the right to do more than simply tattle on him, but Hermione was not looking for blood. Stupid man! She just wanted him, his wife, and Blaise to leave her and Alex alone! Draco was gone, and she was in the agonizing process of accepting it, but she was not going to accept the baggage he left behind. They had not been married and, honestly, they hadn't even been together in any sense for quite some time.
Gruffly, Hermione opened the front door, deciding not to wait for Draco's father to come stomping in. She was going to face him and maybe even hurt him a little. The law said it was okay.
Her wand was aimed at where she saw Lucius last, but he was not there this time. Hermione chanced a few steps to the doorframe and looked outside, only seeing specks of snow falling in her front yard and the houses across the street. There was no sign of white hair or snarling anywhere. However, a dark figure standing by a street lamp in front of Mr. Li's house caught her eye. It was not Mr. Li, but someone dressed in trouser, boots, and a hooded jacket, his wand strapped to a holster on his leg.
Swallowing nervously, she slowly closed the door and relocked it, backing away in apprehension before going to the sitting room. She was unsure of what had happened with her wards or where Lucius Malfoy went, but she was going to put up stronger ones that very instant.
Hermione came to a halt when she saw the back of Lucius Malfoy who stood at her mantle, observing the photographs of Alex.
She clenched her fingers together and pressed her back molars into each other when he had the audacity to pick one of the frames up and bring a picture closer to his slit eyes. It was one of her favorites of Alex. He had been one, almost two, and he was dressed up for Halloween as a pumpkin. A felt, soft green stem had been fastened to his blond curls with a strap that slung beneath his chin, and his costume was puffy, cotton filled, orange material. The costume had been completed with green, vine imprinted stockings which had clung to Alex's then chubby baby legs. The picture was completed with him sitting on the ground in the middle of a pumpkin patch and with a pumpkin shaped pacifier wedged snuggly in his mouth. In the photo, he sucked his binky with earnest as he opened and closed his podgy hands at her as she had taken the picture So yes, it was one of her most treasured pictures of her son, and Lucius Malfoy had just put his disgusting Death Eater paws all over it!
Marching up behind him, she yanked the photograph out of his gloved hands and held it protectively to her chest with one arm while her other hand held her wand at the tip of his nose. She watched as his grey eyes narrowed at it with a menacing frown.
"Get out," she told him. "If you don't, it won't go well for you."
The corner of Lucius's mouth twitched, and may have thought her threat amusing, but she was serious. It dawned on her that he may still see her as a silly but smart school girl tagging along with the amazing Harry Potter. A threat from her was as frightening as a threat from a teenage girl with her first case of PMS.
If that was what the old codger thought of her, then…Grrr!
"Think I'm speaking in jest, Mr. Malfoy? You," she violently pressed the tip of her wand into his pointed nose and he leaned his head back in perplexity, "destroyed my wards, trespassed into my home, and I have reason to believe my son is in danger. Think I'm just going to throw a simple Stupefy at you? Wrong!" Whipping her wand away from his face, she waved it with a swish and flick and a magnificently white, wispy in the shape of a scorpion sprouted from the tip and flew out towards the window, absorbing into the glass and flying out side. Lucius watched the Patronus abandon them with a frown and then jolted when there was the loud pop sound of someone Apparating.
Hermione stepped away from Lucius and cast a forced smile at Samuel who shot him with a Petrificus Totalus. The eldest Malfoy fell to the floor and the officer said with a smirk while levitating the body above the floor,
"Got the alert when the wards broke. Got here as fast as I could. Didn't want to hop in, though, until I knew for sure. Truth be told, Miss Granger, I was thinking of a sign less subtle than a Patronus. No harm done, anyhow." The man shrugged his massive shoulders and put his attention back on his suspect. "Trespasser?"
"Yes," Hermione said with a firm nod.
"Ever seen him before?"
She made a show of studying Lucius's frozen face and then shrugged. "Can't say I have, Officer Paxton. I'm just so glad I put up those recommended alerting wards. They were difficult to do but worth the time and sweat."
"Hmm. Doesn't look like a robber, guessing from his apparel. Rapist, maybe? Did he try to attack you in anyway?"
Hermione debated on whether to tell another lie, so instead she replied, "He never got that far."
"What was he doing when you first saw him?"
"Just…looking at the pictures." She vaguely pointed to the photos of Alex and remembered the one she was holding in her hand. She placed it back on the mantle.
Samuel gave her a dark look and snarled at Lucius' still form. "Could be a child molester."
Hermione's eyes widened in alarm at his words and was about to say, "I doubt it," but Samuel scoffed in disgust as two others Apparated inside her living room, both wearing officer badges.
"Take him in. Get some identification and some background information on the perp. Make sure he doesn't see sunlight for a very long time."
Officer Talcott flipped her long wave of her ginger hair and eyed her cuticles with avid interest. "It already looks like he hasn't," she said and then smiled comfortingly at Hermione. "Micah will be at the party tomorrow. Sorry I wasn't able to RSVP on your invite until now. I'll bring my mom's famous salsa. I'm about ninety-eight percent sure the kids won't give it a second thought, but I think the adults will like it."
Samuel asked Hermione a few more questions before he, his team, and Lucius Disapperated.
She let out a deep breath, her chin beginning to wobble. She glanced at the clock and it was well after midnight. She wiped at her eyes and sniffled.
Alex had slept through the entire thing. Sometimes small and blessed miracles were known to happen.
A sharp, blinding ray of light hit Narcissa's eyes when she rolled over on the bed. Groaning in indignation, she opened them slightly and glared at the gaping hole between the drapes covering all but a small section of window. A knock on the door roused her fully, and she sat up in the bed, wondering when she fell asleep. She looked to her side expecting to see Lucius, but her husband was not there. She craned her neck around and listened for any sound of him in the room and the sitting room but heard not a peep.
Did he even come back last night?
A second knock brought her out of her questions, so got out of bed and summoned a robe to tie around her nightdress and walked to the door. Opening it, she found a servant girl who curtseyed.
"I apologize for the early interruption, Mrs. Malfoy, but I have an emergency note addressed to you." The girl handed Narcissa a small, folded piece of paper and then curtseyed once more. "Good day."
Narcissa closed the door and eyed the note with suspicion before unfolding it and reading the contents. She got about half-way through and dropped the note to the floor and huffed in annoyance. Abandoning the slip of paper, she hurried into the lavatory to wash and dress. An hour or so later, she was fastening her watch on her wrist and knew it was far too early to be knocking on Blaise's door across the hallway, but this was important.
She slipped on her cloak and left the room and walked directly across the hallway and knocked on Blaise's door. A few moments later someone answered who was not Blaise. Indeed, it was a young woman wrapped up in a sheet looking disheveled, lethargic, and grumpy.
"I think you have the wrong room," the girl said and blew a piece of hair out of her face.
"I regret to say I would have been quite perturbed if it had been Blaise who answered the door instead," Narcissa sighed out and smiled, more to herself, than to the girl. Yes, the handsome young man had a way with the ladies in England, Italy, and now the States.
She would flog his hide later.
"So that's his name?" the girl asked.
Closing her eyes and suppressing the urge to bark an unlady-like curse at the trollop, Narcissa asked slowly like she was talking to a five year old, "May I speak with him? It's an emergency."
"He's incapacitated. He drank like," the girl cocked her head to the side and flickered her eyes towards the same direction, her lips twisting in question, "five bottles of firewhiskey last night. Let me tell you, Ma'am, he's not going to wake up for anyone or anything."
Narcissa opened her mouth to respond but a voice piped up behind the girl. It was another young woman dressed quite similar.
"It's true."
"Oh," Narcissa whispered and arched her eyebrows with a polite smile. "Well then…I'll just be on my way."
Like she promised, hide-flogging Blaise will get.
Magical Salem's Jail was sufficiently cleaner than Magical London's. The ones in London were rat-infested cages of vermin mutiny, Lucius dared to have thought. Nevertheless, he was visiting the jail under non-ideal circumstances. He clearly underestimated Miss Granger but prepared for door-slamming, insults, and perhaps a hex or two in his direction. However, he was unprepared for her blasted wards. When Miss Granger slammed the door in his face, he went to open the door and barge in but felt a harsh, shocking vibration wrack through his body.
He nearly urinated himself.
He had stumbled backwards and landed on his rear and winced in pain and embarrassment. He quickly stood to his feet with a grumbling curses and started quick work on dismantling the wards. He Charmed himself invisible if any dutiful passerby pedestrians thought his actions to be odd and report him to the Magical authorities of Salem.
He stretched the wards thin and tore a slash in them an hour later and took the risk of Apparating inside the house. It was quite dangerous to appear in a foreign place, unsure of knowing where one would end up.
When he appeared in the living room, he wondered why Draco had not set her up in a place more suitable for a mistress. Though the house was tidy and well-organized, it was not a particular large piece of property and certainly unsuitable for the upbringing of a Malfoy child. Malfoy youth need space to spread and test the elasticity of their magic. The doll house of a home was incongruous for…what was the boy's name again? Narcissa had told him but…
A figure sprinted right past him towards the front door, and Lucius heard it open, thus was when some movement caught his eye. He turned towards a collection of photographs on the mantle, and his throat constricted.
It was his boy. His boy was there—young and reaching for him from between the frames. Blond hair and grey eyes full of life and wonder and want.
He had gingerly picked up a photograph, his hand acting on their own accord and brought it up to his eyes.
The photograph was of his boy, though he very well knew it wasn't, but closely studying the baby's features, the differences were only slight. The baby's hair was the color of sunlight like a true Malfoy but the locks coiled floppily around his head. Draco never had curls.
The picture had been ripped from his hands and pressed to Miss Granger's chest, and the woman stared at him like he was a monster. And well…it had gone fetchingly from thence.
The Paxton fellow to whom had casted the Petrificus Totalus on him the night prior, came up to the cell and glowered at him through the bars while unlocking the door.
"I don't know what kind of connections you have, Mr. Malfoy but when a Death Eater has the balls to enter US soil and the stupidity to get caught breaking into a Muggle-Born's house, we throw him in prison for a long time and don't even bother calling an Auror." Paxton gestured for Lucius to leave. "Get out and I highly suggest you leave Salem immediately.
Narcissa was in the lobby area talking heatedly with Mr. Woods. He could not hear what she was saying, but their dear old family friend was not saying the right words, Lucius could only assume. His wife's cheeks were pinking into a scarlet shade, and her top and bottom teeth pressed together crushingly. She hissed at Mr. Woods who merely shook his head with a shrug.
"There's nothing I can really do," the man said and took Narcissa's hand patting it gently with his own.
"There's always something," his wife replied and noticed him coming closer. She smoothed her hands down her robes and pursed her lips together inquiringly, asking him what had happened to cause all three of them to be there.
Lucius opened his palms and stated unemotionally, "I got arrested."
"So I discovered early this morning," Narcissa snipped. "Would you care to tell me what happened?"
Lucius greeted the attorney with a nod and politely shook his hand. "Always a pleasure. I assume it was you who put in a good word and got me out."
"I did, Mr. Malfoy," the man responded with an egotistical smirk. "However, I foresee if you ever catch yourself in a spot a trouble again, you may not be so lucky. The Yanks don't appreciate— I beg your pardon— your kind. In exchange for your freedom and to not contact the Aurors, I promised your stay here in Salem would be hasty and that you would be on the quickest Portkey back to England."
"Which we cannot do," Narcissa affirmed. "I told you our situation, Mr. Woods. We're not here for leisure."
"Yes, yes. You're here for your grandson. I had no idea young Draco had a moppet. Congratulations, congratulations and all that, but like I was telling your wife, Mr. Malfoy, I'm afraid even my talents cannot exceed this limit. The Magical States' laws and regulations concerning children and parents are very astute. If the mother does not want you to see your grandson, she has full right to keep him from you."
"That is unacceptable." Lucius straightened his tie and cast a gaze around him to ensure he had not ruffled anyone else's feathers by his present presence. "Perhaps we should take this somewhere quieter."
"Sounds ideal. Let us venture to Madam Putman's. She makes spectacular English breakfasts. I assume you two have yet to eat, Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy. We can discuss these things over some coffee. I for one was not expecting such an emergency call this morning. Didn't even get to kiss the Misses."