A/N: I cannot even say how much I appreciated the amazing response I got for the last chapter and for this entire story. Thank you so much for all of the support you all have given me! I'm sorry I wasn't able to put out more chapters these last several months. I am getting back into a schedule, but it seems to be a bit slow going!

There is more than just a nod to Labyrinth in this chapter.

22

Previously:

"No," Sigurd said as he cupped her jaw and brought her face up to his. He leaned in so close that they were breathing the same air, lips centimeters apart. "tonight, you're mine."

**HGHG**

"Okay," Hermione murmured seconds before his lips were on hers. He picked her up and pushed her against the nearest wall, cupping her arse and pulling her into his erection.

His tongue invaded her mouth, hot and needy, coaxing hers to dance with his. Their breathing became erratic and stifled as he moved closer, pinning her between his hard body and the wall.

"Sigurd," Hermione whispered.

Her fingertips traced his collarbone, and down over his pectorals. The muscles flexed under her soft touch. There was something just so raw and dangerous about him. It was like a drug that she couldn't quit. Perhaps it was the knowledge that he had wanted her so much that he gave up his whole entire life for the possibility of them being together. He crossed a continent, a thousand years, and left everyone he knew and loved behind, for her.

These thoughts swirled in her head, her fingers leaving their teasing trail to pull and rip at his clothes. She was burning and the only thing that would quench the fire was his naked skin pressed against hers and his tongue and cock buried deep within her body.

Soon enough, he was naked and with a wave of his own hand, she was as bare as he. Hermione pushed at his chest, moving him far enough away so that several empty spaces hung between them. His gaze was hot and his breathing rapid, his chest rising and falling as if he had just finished a marathon. His only sign of acknowledgment that she had pushed him away was the single raised brow that Hermione decided was actually a hereditary habit, having seen every single one of her men do it at one point or another.

Holding his stare, Hermione approached slowly, refusing to let him reach out and touch her. She swatted his hand every time he tried. Lightly, she ran her palms over his shoulders, down his chest, letting her nails nick his hardened nipples. Where her hands roamed, her mouth followed.

The way he sucked in his breath as she licked over the hard ridges of his abs drove her wild, her own body reacting to how sensitive he was. She dropped to her knees before him and her hands followed her downward path, stopping to rest on his muscular thighs. She could feel the powerful muscles clench under her fingers and she ran her nails over the taut skin and around to his buttocks, where she sank her fingers into the firm flesh. She ignored his straining cock, breathing on him, teasing him. Taking a deep breath, she blew cold air on his bobbing erection, drawing a tortured moan out of him.

"Woman," He warned through gritted teeth.

"Man," She said playfully, smiling up at him from her kneeling position. She was so close that her lips kept brushing the underside of his glans. With each whispered touch, his jaw flexed.

"Please," He begged, threading his fingers through her hair. "Please use that beautiful mouth on my cock,"

"Like this?" she asked as she kissed a trail up from the bottom of his shaft.

"Ah," he muttered unintelligibly, his whole body strained and begged for more.

With a smile, Hermione finally touched him, wrapping her hand around the base of his cock and leaned in to lick the weeping tip.

He hissed a quickly indrawn breath and gathered her hair with one hand, eyes intense as he watched her enclose her lips around his shaft. She went down as far as she could go and back up in one slow smooth motion. His musk surrounded her, merging with the scent of her own arousal, and Hermione closed her eyes as she enjoyed the taste of him and the throaty growls that her ministrations were eliciting. Her own body hot and needy.

One of her hands held on to his bum for dear life, using him as leverage to help her slide further and further down his cock. She sucked him hard and nearly gagged as he unconsciously thrust into her mouth. He dropped her hair and threaded his fingers in the wild mane, holding her head still as she sucked, dominating her. Hermione slid her hand from the base of his shaft to cup his ballocks. She tried to keep up, sucking and tongue swirling but the faster he thrust into her mouth, the harder it was. But she trusted him to know how much she could handle and she knew he would never hurt her.

It was then he pulled her off of him, using his thumb to wipe the corner of her lips. He had her in his arms within seconds, legs wrapped around his torso, and she was again pressed against the wall. He impaled her on his impatient cock only to withdraw until only the tip kept them connected, never giving her a second to adjust. Hermione wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him, trying to roll her hips into his. Every stroke was hard and fast, and Hermione rode the waves of pleasure that threatened to overwhelm her. Never had anything been as intense as this.

"Not enough," He growled and swung them away from the wall, supporting her by her arse. The bed was under her in moments and he pulled her to the edge, sinking into her wet pussy. Each thrust moved her up the bed and she threw her hands above her head, fisting the bedding, trying gain some leverage.

"Better," he mumbled, watching his cock glisten as he sunk in and out of her body. "Touch yourself," He commanded.

Hermione did as she was told, letting go of the bedding to cup her own breasts and roll the nipples between her forefinger and thumbs.

"Merlin! Yes!" he said, snapping his hips harder, his eyes glued to her fleshy mounds that jiggled with each thrust.

With a quirk of her brows, Hermione guided one of her nipples to her own mouth, licking the rosy tip into an even harder nub.

"Fuck me!" Sigurd gasped, eyes glazing as he watched her red tongue flick over her hard, pink nipple. The veins in his neck bulged as he stared at her, determined to wait for her pleasure to peak.

He pulled out of her and mounted the bed, sitting against the headboard and half dragged Hermione to reverse straddle his lap. Hermione looked over her shoulder as he guided his steel rod into her sopping channel; pressing up into her; his hands gripping her hips.

They weren't like that for long, as the slow pace was too frustrating for him. He pushed her down so that her face and chest was flat on the bed, but her bum was up, and she was spread before his gaze. He leaned in, dropping kisses on her bum and thighs, breathing in her arousal.

He licked her, savoring her taste, and circled her clit with his tongue.

"Sigurd, Please!" She demanded or begged or cried. She was so close, so damn close that she knew it wouldn't take much to careen off the edge and dive head first into bliss.

"Soon, Elskede," he promised. There was no teasing in his voice, only assurance.

Her legs began to quake, and he pulled away, earning a frustrated scream from Hermione.

"Don't fucking stop!" She yelled. "Don't ever stop!"

Sigurd prodded her folds with his cock, teasing her opening for a few seconds before thrusting to the hilt. Both of their eyes closed, agony and pleasure warring for dominance. He buried himself in her needy body, over and over and over again as he strove to climax with her.

Seconds before he lost control, Hermione screamed a long loud keening as she came, her body clamping down around his. She was lost in a haze of euphoria, her lubrication now running down their thighs, and he was right there with her, pulsating in her pussy and coating her with his hot ropes of seed.

"You have no idea how long I have waited for this," his strangled admission fell breathy from his lips. "It was so much better than I ever anticipated."

"Was it worth it?" Hermione asked tiredly, amusement heavily colored her voice.

He chuckled. "I would cross any ocean, forge through time, leave it all behind, if only for the promise that this will never end." He kissed her spine and pulled out of her, his cock spent and softened. He ran his hands over her bum, studying her rosy and swollen folds, admiring his trickling seed.

"Velsigne oss." * He murmured and laid down, pulling Hermione into him, curling around her in a safe, muscular cocoon.

"What was that?" Hermione asked sleepily.

"Nothing, Elskede. Rest," Sigurd tightened his arms around her body and pulled her closer, burying his face in her curls. It was cruel that when he finally had her, he had to let her go. There was nothing he wanted more than to stay like this, with her, for the rest of his life. But he had promises to keep and miles to go before he could sleep. *

**HGHG**

Hermione woke up with a start and looked around, confused that she was in Draco's bed. He had his arm around her hips and he began mumbling at the disturbance. Hermione shook her head wondering if her encounter with Sigurd had only been a dream. Her spirits plummeted. It had been incredible. Just as incredible as sex was with Lucius, Abraxas, and Draco had always been. Their chemistry was indescribable. There was just something about these men that set her blood to boiling, both with anger and passion. Never had she experienced such chemistry with anyone and she would have claimed only months ago that it was impossible. This type of love didn't exist. Except, here was living proof. Four men who proved her cynical mind wrong.

Hermione ran her hands down her body and slid the tip of her middle finger in her slit, rubbing the throbbing bead she found. Dipping her fingers in her quim, she spread her juices over her clit before bringing her finger up to her face, a thoughtful frown marring her brow. Her tongue darted out, tasting the digit and let a delighted smile transform her face. It was real, and this was proof. Sigurd tasted salty and musky; a taste that was unique to him. He must have brought her back here once she fell asleep.

"That is so fucking hot," Draco murmured in her ear, capturing her finger and sucking the appendage into his own mouth. His brows rose as he tasted another man on her and looked at her in bemused question.

"Sigurd woke me last night… and… yeah," she turned her face away and blushed. Draco's fingers grabbed her chin gently and turned her back so that he could look her in the eye.

"You don't have to explain anything to me. Once Sigurd awoke, we knew that he was one of us, one of yours, and we have already accepted him. All four of us intend on being with you for the rest of our lives. We all love and care for you and we all want to feast on your charms. There is no room for jealousy here."

"If I remember correctly," Hermione began. "it wasn't that long ago that you, Abraxas, and Lucius could barely move without being jealous."

"Yes… Well… Abraxas has a theory about that."

"And?"

"Now, don't freak out," He said sitting up and Hermione's eyes went wide. Why would she freak out? What was he was going to tell her that was so terrible? She swallowed nervously. "We think, and this is just a guess, but we think If you shag all of us at the same time, we will no longer be jealous of each other."

"And why would he think that?"

"Well, the jealousy kind of just disappeared between him and me ever since that one night the three of us slept together."

"How would that even work?" Hermione asked.

"Well," He smirked but it quickly turned into a cautious pleading. "I'm sure we could all figure it out. I promise we would make sure you enjoyed every bloody second."

"You want this? Lucius will be there, naked and doing things to me."

"I really don't fucking care. My only focus is you. And I am positive he would agree."

"And Abraxas?"

"It was his bloody idea,"

Hermione turned to him and cupped his face.

"I'll do it on one condition,"

"Anything."

"Spend the day with me, take my mind off the losses and war and everything."

Draco cut her off and said, "Deal!" a huge grin on his face. "and I know exactly how to start!"

"Oh?" she asked. His exuberance was infectious, and Hermione couldn't help but return his smile.

"First, we will check on the devil-spawn that is now my son, then I am taking you out of the manor!"

Hermione slapped his shoulder as he laughed and wrinkled her nose. "Bast is not the devil's spawn!"

"No?"

"No!"

"Fine. But you didn't have to live with him for a year while he was at his worst."

"Oh, just wait. Threes and fours are the hell years."

"There is one huge glaring difference,"

"What's that?"

"Now that I am his Daddy, he is not going to pull the bull shite on me that he did when I was alive the first time."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You need to stop thinking of him as if he is just the baby version of Tom Riddle. It's not true you know. Bast is in there somewhere and any child of Luna's is bound to have a good soul."

"Blood has no bearing on whether a person is good or evil."

"You're right. Its one's choices. Luckily, he now has such a strong support system that will raise him to be a good man."

"If anyone could do it, it would be you, Granger."

"Why do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Call me Granger?"

"It's your name, isn't it?"

"For now," She mumbled

"For now?" He asked, his eyes wild and dark with barely suppressed lust and jubilation.

"I was under the impression that it was the wish of the Malfoy family to marry me."

"It is! Oh Merlin, yes! Marry me, us, now, today!"

"Not today! Today, I am spending the day getting to know you, my future husband. We were never on the best of terms at Hogwarts and I want to know the real you, not the angry jealous version that lashes out at Harry and Ron all the time. I was also thinking that the wizarding world has lost so much and spent years under the oppressive rule of Voldemort. They deserve a celebration that will last a week or more. Food, entertainment, games, competition. I was thinking about using the model of a Roman festival. We deserve this."

"That sounds amazing. We won't have to wait the whole week to take you to bed though, will we?"

"Because I am making you all wait so long now," She said sarcastically, and he chuckled nodding his head.

"True,"

"So, what do you think?"

"About the sex? It's great!"

"No! About the festival,"

"When were you thinking?"

"Two weeks from yesterday?"

"Good luck convincing my mother that it is enough time to throw something so grand." Draco murmured into the skin of her neck, obviously hiding a smirk.

"Mmmm." Hermione closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his five o'clock shadow against the column of her throat.

A loud knock sounded on the door and Draco made a loud rude comment that only made the interloper laugh before swinging the door open. Abraxas stood there, dressed to the nines, not a single hair out of place.

"I've been looking for you two everywhere, Love, Draco." He said as he sat in one of the chairs in front of the fireplace, crossing his leg over his knee as if he had absolutely nothing better to do.

"Really? And why is that?" Hermione asked, slightly annoyed at the interruption.

"I came upon something that I think you will find interesting." He pulled a small glass vial out of his robe pocket and handed it to Hermione.

"What is it?" Draco asked.

"Our latest family crisis," Abraxas muttered with distaste. "Apparently Sigurd made some sort of deal with Hecate and in repayment, he has to spend five years in her lair, guarding the door."

"You have a plan," guessed Hermione.

Abraxas smirked, arrogance radiated off of him. "I've been thinking about this issue since it came to my attention last night. Of course, I have a plan."

"Well?" Hermione asked impatiently.

"In the memory, Hecate mentioned a way around his five-year sentence. If you enter the room and defeat it, Sigurd is free, but she warned that the moment you enter the room with the intention of reclaiming him, it will start to drain his magic. The room will maneuver and manipulate so that it will win. Draining a wizard of magic completely can do two things. It will either kill him or it will turn him squib. But if there is even one spark left, it can fully regenerate. That is the beauty of magic," Abraxas said.

"So, you are saying that I need to beat the room, whatever that means, and pull Sigurd out before he loses his magic?"

"Yes, but you won't be going alone. This is a family matter and there is nothing Malfoys do better than protect their own."

Draco's eyes sparkled with determination as he lifted her hand and lovingly kissed the back of it and said, "you will never have to battle alone. We will always have your back."

"Where is Sigurd? Perhaps we should bring him in and find out exactly what is going on."

"No can do, Love," Abraxas said. "First of all, Hecate forbid him with magic from saying anything. This memory was his way of letting us know what was going on and two, Sigurd is already gone, trapped inside the room."

"What!" Hermione screeched as she jumped up from the bed, ignoring the fact that she was completely naked. "Why didn't come get us sooner?"

"Because we need to take our time and really think this through. I've been up almost all night thinking about this."

"Exactly! We should have been planning together!"

"You are probably right," Abraxas murmured in amusement. "but who is going to care for Bastillion?"

Hermione sat back down on the bed, brow furrowed.

"As I was considering this last night, I came to several conclusions. First is that you, Hermione, must go. Second is that one of our family needs to stay with Bast. And lastly, since we have no idea how time will move, we need to prepare as if we are never returning in this lifetime. Truth is we could die trying to get him out. Another option is that we wait out the five years to get Sigurd back."

"I can't leave Bast here," Hermione muttered completely ignoring the last 'option'.

"You want to take him into the room?"

"Would it be better to leave him here, surrounded by people who hate him because of the soul trapped inside of him?"

"That's why one of us should stay."

"And who would you choose? I need all of you."

"I have the most experience with children, and I have the ability to defend him from any threat."

"I have a better idea," She said with a sugary sweet smile and mischief in her eyes.

**HGHG**

"I would rather stay behind," Abraxas muttered as he pulled at the long colorful wrap that kept Bast snug against his chest. The boy was sleeping with complete bliss while his ear was pressed just over Abraxas' heart.

"You said that it would be best if you cared for Bast. When my cousin Lola had a baby five years ago, she swore by this. Said she wouldn't have been able to get half of what she needed to do, accomplished. I know Bast is a little older, but it should do the job. Between the four of us, it should be alright."

Hermione stood back and smiled at her handiwork, enjoying perhaps a bit too much how uncomfortable Abraxas was with the brightly designed geometric print that looked odd against his black trousers and blue button down.

"Don't you think it's a little irresponsible taking him?" Lucius asked from the other side, not even bothering to hide his amusement.

"Maybe we should take a second wrap. We can switch from time to time so that one person isn't burdened." Hermione said, ignoring Lucius.

"Good Idea," Draco said seriously, his head tilted to the side and tapped his finger on his chin as he stared at Abraxas. "I think we should have Lucius bring the hot pink one. It will look lovely with his skin tone."

Lucius dropped his grin to turn a glare on Draco. "Don't forget son, that you and I have the same exact coloring."

"I have the least experience with children, what if I drop him?"

"How do you think we got experience? By choosing to watch children in our spare time? No. Our sons were born, and we were forced to learn. Since this is your first time being a father, Draco, perhaps you should be the one to carry him." Abraxas drawled and reached for the large knot around his belly. Draco held his hands up.

"No can do! Even I know that when a child sleeps, you leave them to it. Wouldn't want to stunt his growth."

Hermione rolled her eyes and hid her smile. No matter how much they bantered, she knew they were on board with taking Bast. If they weren't, they would dig in their heels and refuse point-blank to consider it.

"We won't know what we will find until we get there," Hermione said. "but Hecate expended a lot of energy to make sure I lived through the war. I have a feeling that she won't allow the room to actually harm me. Maybe I should go alone…"

"No. Without you, we have no life. Literally. If you die, we all perish. It is our job to make sure that you survive so that our family can rise again, better than we ever were." Lucius said as he walked up behind her and rubbed her arms, leaning in to kiss her neck. "If you don't survive, the Malfoy family will be extinguished, and you will be to blame."

"That is manipulation, Lucius," she muttered, leaning her head back on his shoulder as his mouth moved along the column of her throat.

"Is it working?" He asked between kisses.

"Knowing doesn't make me immune, unfortunately, especially if you keep kissing me like that."

He smiled into her skin. "Wonderful,"

"We might as well go now while Bast is sleeping," Abraxas said over his shoulder as he shrunk the supplies they had packed and put them in his pocket. "There is only so much we can plan for since we don't really know what we are walking into."

"What is new? Isn't that what we have been doing this whole time?" Hermione arched her brow.

Abraxas shrugged his shoulders and led the way, looking back only once when he reached the observation room. At the bottom of the winding stairs, they gathered, looking solemn before raising their hands to the door together, fingers entwined.

**HGHG**

Harry pushed open the front door of Malfoy Manor and went from room to room, yelling for Hermione. After two hours of searching, the only people he found were Snape, Narcissa, and Bellatrix's comatose body. Vaguely, he wondered where Eliza had gone, but it left his mind quickly as the hunt for Hermione continued. Perhaps, they were together, wherever they were.

"Where did they go?" Harry muttered to himself as he walked into the room that Hermione had been using. On her bedside table, he noticed a small parchment rolled tightly and secured with a bright red ribbon, Harry's name in big bold red ink. Harry groaned as he unrolled the note. He had a bad feeling about this.

As he read the note, panic swirled in his stomach.

"Fuck," He whispered as he crumpled the parchment before setting it on fire, stalking out of the room as if the hounds of hell were on his heels.

**HGHG**

Hermione, Abraxas, Lucius, and Draco stepped into the dark room and approached the table, a single flame dancing in an otherworldly rhythm. Sigurd sat behind the table, a small smile on his lips. Hermione reached for him, intending on pulling him back through the void and into Malfoy Manor. The second she lifted her foot to do just that, the room swirled around them, dropping them on a lone barren hill outside of a maze. The biggest maze she ever saw.

The hedges rose so high, she doubted that even their magic could float them high enough to see over them. She rather thought that was the point.

They walked to the large gate that separated them from running the labyrinth and stared at it.

"What do we do?" Draco muttered. "Alohamora?"

"Try it," Abraxas said.

"Alohamora," Draco murmured as he pointed his wand at the tall doors. Nothing happened.

Hermione nodded to herself and approached it, lifting her closed fist as she got closer. Lucius ran up behind her and stopped her from making contact with the iron.

"You can't just touch it. You have no idea what curse lies on it."

"If you want to enter, you have to ask. How do you ask? You knock!"

Draco moved past them both as she struggled against Lucius and raised his own fist and pounded on the gate.

"Yes?" a high-pitched voice asked as a tiny window opened from the inside, only large enough for them to see a brown eye that uncomfortably reminded her of a house elf.

"How do we get inside?" Draco asked.

"You say the magic words,"

"Please?" Hemione tried. Nothing happened.

"What are the magic words?" Abraxas moved to stand next to Hermione and patted her shoulder, even as Lucius kept his hand wrapped firmly around hers.

"That is for you to tell me," a different voice cackled from behind the gate. A voice they easily recognized. Hecate.

Hermione took a step back and covered her face with her free hand, going down on her haunches as she thought hard.

"I wish," Lucius whispered, and the crone cackled harder as the iron gate swung open.

Hermione turned to him and raised her brow. Lucius shook his head.

"It was something the Dark Lord said to me once, during the first war. The power of wishes. He was evil and cruel, but his mind was extraordinary."

Together they stepped through the gate, but they could not see Sigurd behind them trying to yell as thick black ropes bound and gagged him to the table where he sat, only feet behind them.

"Should we turn left or right," Hermione wondered out loud as she studied both paths, seemingly identical.

"This is a magic Labyrinth. It will not make logical sense." Abraxas muttered.

"You are saying it doesn't matter?"

"Yes,"

"How are we supposed to navigate through it then, if it doesn't make sense?"

"I said it didn't make logical sense. There are rhythms and patterns to everything. We just have to figure this one out."

"What does that even mean," she muttered mutinously. She hated when things didn't fit in the nice neat box she created in her mind about magic.

"The room is working against us and it will use our strengths against us too. In this case, it is problem-solving skills."

As the realization hit her, a horrified sick look crossed her face.

"When we step through the door, it always takes us to that black room, right? And when Hecate shows memories or prophecies, that's when the room changes. We don't actually ever leave that room. If that is true, then we are still in that room with Sigurd. The drain on his magic could potentially make him immobile. I just have to grab him and haul him out. He could be right here."

"It doesn't matter because the room could be as big as your imagination. By that reasoning, we may never find him."

"No! There is a simple solution, we just have to figure it out."

"Do you think we stepped through another portal when we walked through the iron gate?" Draco said.

"Oh my God," Hermione breathed and swung around to glance at the spot where the iron gate once stood but now showed only an unblemished hedge. "How do we get back to the room now?"

"If this is another place, then there is a door to get back to Hecate's room."

"You really believe we are no longer in the room with Sigurd?" Lucius asked Abraxas.

"It makes the most sense. If the room is not infinite, that means we walked right past him to enter the Labyrinth. If we could get back to that room, we could grab him and pull him out, even if we can't see him."

"If we are not in the room can we apparate back to the Manor?" Hermione asked. Lucius shrugged and gave it a go, pivoting on the balls of his feet only to remain solidly on the ground, exactly where he was.

"Perhaps we have to get to the center of the Labyrinth to find the door," Draco added deep in thought.

"We might as well get started then," Abraxas mumbled rubbing circled on Bast's back as he slept peacefully.

"I can't believe how easily we were tricked," Hermione grumbled as she started walking taking the path to the right. Draco and Abraxas fell into step behind her and Lucius.

"Hecate has had a thousand years to come up with her plan and she has already proven how clever she is. I have no doubt that this will be much harder than we ever anticipated." Lucius wrapped her arm around his, still refusing to let her go.

"I think this is going to push back our festival plans, Granger," Draco said. Hermione sighed. "It's probably best to give everyone time to bury their dead and mourn their loss. When we get back, that will be soon enough."

"Festival?" Lucius asked curiously, his brow rising in question. Abraxas walked behind him, a smug knowing look on his face as if there was never any other outcome.

"Hermione wants to marry us, but she wants a week-long festival of games, competition, and grand feasts." Expounded Draco, waving his hand in an arc.

"It's about time," Lucius murmured, smiling, pleased that she finally agreed to be theirs.

"It wasn't all that long ago I brought you all back from the dead. Most betrothals last years. Don't be greedy." She smirked, her nose in the air.

"You are right, Love," Abraxas said as he reached forward and tugged a curl. "You have no idea what happiness this news brings us,"

**HGHG**

Narcissa slouched in the large wingback chair next to her sister's bed and glared. She felt like a horrible person for wishing that her sister would just die but she just couldn't let go of all the times in the last few years that Narcissa been held captive. Not to mention the obvious disfigurement that was carved by Bella's own hand. She lifted her fingertips to trace the raised scars on her face.

"Am I a bad person if I say that I wished you had died," Narcissa whispered to Bella who looked like she was coming back around. Narcissa didn't know how to feel.

"No," Croaked Bella who otherwise still looked asleep. Her lips pulled weakly into a sardonic smile. "I wouldn't have blamed you for being the one who killed me, Narcissa. I was… evil," Bella stopped and took a slow pained breath. She was falling back into unconsciousness and was struggling to tell Narcissa the rest. But she slid back under before she could form her next word.

Snape walked in just as Bella lost the battle to stay awake and handed Narcissa a mug of hot tea that she cradled gratefully in between her hands.

"You don't have to stand vigil at her bedside, Cissy," Snape said as he leaned down, brushed her long blond hair behind her shoulder, and dropped a kiss on her cheek.

"I can't leave," She ground out between clenched teeth.

"Why?"

"For years, Bella has been something unrecognizable. It started with her disastrous marriage to Rodolphus and it kept getting worse year after year. She was alone because I had my own tragic marriage to deal with. But this Bella reminds me of the sweet girl she was when we were girls. I partially blame our father. Had Dromeda not married that Muggleborn, she would have married Rodolphus. To be honest, if father just accepted why Dromeda hated Lestrange, I wonder if Bella would have been better off. If there is a chance that I can have my sister back, the sister I loved as a child, shouldn't I do everything in my power to forgive her?"

"You don't have to forgive her. And you definitely don't have to forgive her right now. That is something that takes time."

"I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I don't start repairing our relationship now, it will never happen. I am too angry, so angry. I'm angry at everyone. I'm angry at her, at Lucius, at Hermione, at the Dark Lord, at myself. If I don't start here, I fear that I will lose everyone that I love. I don't want that," She wiped at the tears that escaped over the rim of her red eyes and took a deep breath. "I want to be happy, but I have no idea how to be happy anymore. I feel like I am drowning and every time I hit the surface and drag air into my lungs, a weight pulls me back under. I claw myself back up from that infernal darkness but it's hard, so hard."

Snape pulled her up out of the chair and sat, wrapping his hands around her trim waist and guiding her to sit on his lap. He held her there, caressing her back as she silently wept. He knew what she meant. He understood her depression. But all he could do was be there for her and hold her and promise her he would never leave her because no one went through what she had. If she needed to fall apart, he would be her constant. He, himself, had hung off that cliff, holding on to the crumbling remains with his fingertips for far too long. Depression was a battle of the mind and those who trod the depths that they had, battled an enemy far greater than any other. They would climb that mountain together, one day at a time, through sheer force of will.

Velsigne oss means Bless us in Norwegian. I rely exclusively on Google translate and apologize for any errors. The intention is that Sigurd hopes Hermione becomes pregnant from their encounter.

Promises to keep and miles to go before he could sleep are two lines (Paraphrased) from Robert Frost's poem, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.