A/N: Thank you so much for your reviews, favorites and follows after last chapter! I am a little behind on review responses, but I will get to them I swear! Huge thanks to lanamarymack and Angela 007 for alpha/beta reading this one.
Please let me know what you thought of chapter thirty-four and be on the lookout for chapter thirty-five soon!
Alfie had agreed to do Hermione a favor without even thinking twice about it. He never could have imagined that her plans would turn out to be quite as grand as they were. He was truly impressed with her level of ambition in tackling such a project and was happy to lend his magic where he could.
So, he met her out on a rather unkempt looking lawn, staring up at an impressive looking manor house, albeit a bit rundown. It sat on top of a large hill, and when he turned around, he could see the Muggle village not far away.
"So, this is it then," he said, genially, alerting Hermione to his presence. "Are you sure you want the trouble? It looks like it's going to be a lot of work."
Hermione smiled when she saw him. "Yes, it is going to need a lot of repairs," she agreed, waving her hand at the massive house, which had many windows boarded up. "But, I suppose that it will give me something to do while I'm not allowed to hold a job," she added, rolling her eyes.
While he didn't understand her desire to hold a job now that she was married and with a little one on the way, Alfie could recognize that Hermione was not the sort of witch that would sit around twiddling her thumbs. Really, Tom could not have picked a worse witch to marry, as far as Abraxas was concerned. She simply would not be told what to do.
Alfie admired it, in a way. Abraxas was really acting above his station, thinking that he was the one pulling all of the strings.
A part of him also recognized that this was a way for Hermione to regain some freedom from the Malfoys. He knew that she wasn't exactly thrilled to be living in a house that Abraxas Malfoy had paid for and this was a reasonable way to get out from under his thumbs. He'd already made so many terrible decisions - most notably having Aurelia update her wardrobe. In the process Aurelia, while being quite fashionable herself, had completely ruined Hermione's style. She'd been confident and alluring before, even if her wardrobe was quite muggle. She was attractive and magnetic, so much so that Alfie often found himself appreciating her looks. Now, it seemed as though Aurelia thought that she should be cloistered away at a nunnery the way she made her cover up from head to toe.
"There is certainly a lot of work to do," he agreed. "If this is the outside, just imagine what the state of the interior will be like.
"Shall we go inside?" she asked, eager and excited at the same time. She marched up to the front door and inserted a heavy looking metal key into the lock to open it.
Alfie followed her into the musty foyer. To his right, there was a grand drawing room, with a massive fireplace that would be ideal to hook up to the Floo network - if she wanted to that is. "So you got control of the house, then?"
"Yes, no turning back now. It was quite the hassle. By the end of it, I wasn't sure if I wanted the house or if I just wanted to win," she said with a grin. "I had no idea that the Muggles would be so reluctant. It seems as if no one wants to touch the house, but to sign it over to me was too grave a task!"
She quickly launched into a discussion of all that she'd had to go through to get the house transferred into her name, including procuring a series of documents. "I was able to find Tom's parents' marriage certificate and then Tom's birth certificate," she explained gleefully. "But then I had to do a little bit of magic to dummy up a marriage certificate for Tom and I. The wizarding world doesn't really have an equivalent that I could use. He was still pretty skeptical about it, so I confunded him."
Hermione said it so cheerfully - like she was talking about putting honey instead of sugar in someone's tea - that it delighted Alfie to no end. Even though she would never think of it this way, there was no denying that she could be absolutely ruthless when she wanted to be. Using magic against muggles was strictly forbidden and being a muggleborn, he figured Hermione would find it especially distasteful. But, apparently, not if she was the one wielding the wand.
It was this quality that had drawn Alfie to Hermione in the first place. He delighted in pushing her to consider darker and darker magic, under the guise of being academically curious of course. And her mind...Hermione really could come up with some creative uses for dark magic when she saw it only as a thought exercise.
"And after that the house was yours?" he asked, unable to hide his amusement. "Don't you worry that the Muggles will come knocking if they realize that your documents aren't real?"
"The Muggles won't even remember that this house was here once we make this place Unplottable!" she said, optimistically. Hermione scrunched her nose. "And, the documents are real. I mean Tom and I are married, but the Muggles don't know that magic is real!" she said. "This house is Tom's by right. His grandparents and father are dead - it should go to him. It was the right thing to do. It's his inheritance. And one day, it will be our child's inheritance."
Alfie appreciated that sentiment as well. It was only natural for a parent to want to pass something onto their children. It was something that drove many purebloods to continue their family lineage - so they could pass their wealth, their homes, their traditions down through the generations.
"Admirable," he agreed with a nod. "Tom is lucky to have a witch like you to do all of the leg work for him."
She spun around on her heel to look at him again, her face suddenly serious. "Oh, promise me you still won't tell Tom about what I've done?" she begged. "It's a surprise and I don't want to tell him about it until I've got the place at least a little bit cleaned up."
The thought of intentionally keeping something from Tom should have made him absolutely nervous. While Tom wasn't his oldest friend, he was probably his best friend (though, don't let Tom hear him put it that way). He didn't want to keep secrets from him. But, even if he wanted to, that didn't mean that he could. Hermione was ruthless, but Tom had absolutely no qualms about using any kind of magic to get what he wanted. He could cast an Unforgivable Curse as easily as an augamenti.
But...he supposed that if there was anyone who he'd agree to keep a secret for, it would be Hermione. Besides, it wasn't as if the house was meant to be a secret forever, only temporary. He knew that Tom had some thoughts about taking anything from his Muggle family - he'd rather pretend that they never existed. But, surely after Hermione did all of the work he would see this, claiming his inheritance, as a good thing.
"I won't ruin the surprise," he agreed.
"Good," Hermione said, obviously relieved. "Well, shall we get started on the warding, then?"
Alfie nodded in agreement. Now that he'd seen the size of the house, he knew that it would take a good chunk of time to get everything up to snuff. He was quite capable with warding magic and Hermione was proficient as well. With a bit of teaching, he knew that she would be flying on her own in a while.
They set up layers of wards, including blood wards, to keep the home safe from intruders. The longer that the wards stayed in place, the deeper into the house they would knit, growing stronger and stronger over time. Provided that people with Riddle blood continued to live there, of course. On the edges of the grounds, he added some repelling charms and anti-muggle charms, which Hermione had no issue with, while she started to cut back some of the overgrowth in the garden.
But, finally, it was time for the biggest task of all. "You know, the Fidelus charm is one of the oldest kinds of magic," Alfie said to her, knowing that she would appreciate the history, same as him. "Only, it's bloody complicated to perform. I can't quite believe that they managed to figure it out."
Hermione nodded. "I've only ever read about the charm," she said with a nod. "But, I've never had a reason to use it."
"And now?" he asked, wondering what exactly had prompted her to want to make her home entirely secret. It wasn't exactly typical for people to use. Unless you were utterly paranoid, like Orion.
She ran her hands up and down her arms, forming a protective shield from the outside world. "Dumbledore," she said with a shrug. "I just...he made me nervous, that's all."
Alfie nodded, having heard about the brazen way that he'd attempted to attack her, and in the Ministry no less. He had no idea how the wizard had gotten away with it. "There is nothing wrong with wanting to feel safe," he reassured her.
"And you don't mind being my secret-keeper?" she asked, looking up at him with her big, brown eyes.
In actuality, Alfie was more than okay with it. If anything, he was flattered that she trusted him so much, out of all of their circle. Surely the more genial Evan or the shrewd Edmund would have been considered as well. "I'm honored to be your secret-keeper, Hermione," he said, with a nod.
Needing to get started, he raised his wand and began working through the multi-layered charms to make the house completely and utterly protected and seat the secret within himself. Riddle Manor is in Little Hangleton.
When he was done, Hermione invited him inside for a final tour to pass the time while he regathered his magic. She showed him the grand dining room and hidden kitchen on the first floor, as well as the room that she was going to convert into the library, which had an impressive view overlooking the back garden. She took him to the second floor, which would really need a lot of work to get into livable condition. It had been untouched since the Riddles' deaths and as such, all of the furniture would need to be scrapped.
"And I am thinking about making this room into the nursery," Hermione said with a grin, spinning around in a circle in the center of the room. "It will get the most amazing sunlight in the morning."
"I can't wait to see it when it will all be done," he said, charitably. He didn't really have the vision that she obviously did. It was hard to imagine a child living in this dusty, cold room, especially with the windows still boarded up.
"Do you ever imagine yourself with a child?" she asked, cocking her head to the side, looking at him queerly.
Alfie suddenly felt very self-conscious, under her intense scrutiny. "I don't care much for...for relationships," he settled on, thinking that was the most charitable way to put it. The thought of being married to someone for the rest of his life seemed like an unendurable punishment. "But I suppose I will have to, being an only child, if I want my family line to live on."
"Oh, I am sure that you will," she said, with such confidence that he wondered if she was a seer. Perhaps something she'd seen during the Imbolc ceremony, he mused. "A son, who will be so much like you - smart and tall and secretly very funny."
"You talk about him like you know him," he said with a half laugh, thinking that it really sounded quite appealing, if he could guarantee that his son would be like that.
"Don't be silly, Alfie," she teased him, though her smile did not quite reach her eyes. "How would that even be possible? Now, come on, it's time that I returned home. We've spent more than enough time here today."
He nodded in agreement, thinking that he was really ready for dinner and a generous pour of brandy. "Let me know if you need any other help with the wards," he said.
She reached out and grabbed his hand, giving it a squeeze. "Thank you for all your help," she said, earnestly, sincerely. "You are a good friend."
