Chapter 3
She was seated on their kitchen counter, her bare legs hanging over the edge. She had showered and changed into lounge clothes since he had last seen her.
Her little shorts and that oversized sweatshirt, a croissant being ripped by her delicate fingers and placed into between her gorgeous lips.
"Blaise leave?"
Draco rested his shoulder against their fridge, "Moments ago."
"What'd the two of you talk about?"
"How much I love and adore my girlfriend." Hermione's eyebrow flicked at his comment. "Is that so hard to believe?"
"You haven't been very please with my behaviour lately." She muttered; he crossed his arms.
"I'm concerned, especially because you don't seem to want to tell me what is bothering you."
Hermione placed her half-eaten snack onto the bare counter, folding her hands in her lap.
"Pansy is pregnant."
"I know; she told all us all at dinner last week."
"I want to have children with you."
He watched her wearily. "I want that as well."
Her eyes misted. "Even if they aren't purebloods?"
Draco felt like someone had an ice-cold grip on his heart, his face crumpled along with hers. She was blinking quickly to keep the moisture from gathering in her eyes.
"What would have you saying such a vile-"
"All Astoria could talk about during tea was how much your mother missed you and did not get to see you anymore. How you would have sons and daughters, not heirs, and that's my fault. You and her only ever planned to have one baby together, but I want at least two. I always wanted siblings growing up; I wanted to make sure my kid had a brother or sister to depend on when they couldn't us. I know it isn't proper to have a horrid like the Weasleys, but two or three children would be ideal."
"Ok, ok, shh." He took hold of her distraught face.
"We never discussed it, having children."
"Because I'm a selfish man who wants you all to himself before I have to share you with our children. Not because I refuse to have them with you or would look down upon any child you grew and nurtured and were gracious enough to give me." He kissed her nose. "The day you want to start trying for our first baby, you won't be able to get me off of you."
"You want more than one?"
"If it was safe for you to carry more than one, I would cherish every child we had together." He stroked her cheek. "Purebloods usually only have one child because birth rates are low, and most pureblood couples can't produce one healthy baby, let alone multiple. My mother had three pregnancies before she got lucky with me. Speaking of my mother, you are not the reason I don't care to visit her often. While I love her very much, she keeps trying to force the issue of my father, and I was tired of hearing it."
"I thought I had been pregnant the week you and Harry travelled for work. I knew we hadn't talked about it, but I was excited to take a test when I got home. Then Astoria came across Pansy and me and joined us for tea and shopping; I decided I didn't want to do the spell. Then I woke up in the hospital and thought if I had been pregnant and lost the baby, that might not be a bad thing. I asked the Doctor to check; he said I had never been. The symptoms I was having were more than likely from the flu that has been making the rounds."
"You were going to keep all this to yourself?"
"Draco. We aren't engaged." He blinked at her. "We're supposed to be. Were 22 and 23, you are supposed to be married with an heir on the way by now; here I am ruining your life, and I had no clue. I don't know any of this stuff because I'm a muggle-born."
Draco's hands fell to the counter on either side of her. "Astoria said to you that you are ruining my life?" He was going to take it out of Pansy for letting Astoria talk down to Hermione like that.
"No." She cried. "After that comment about your mom, I went to the bathroom for a breather; I heard the rest hiding behind a plant. It doesn't matter if she said it to my face or not because it's true. Every pureblood our age I know is married and either pregnant or has had a baby."
He clasped their hands together, resting them on her thighs. He licked his lips, watching Hermione look anywhere but into his eyes.
"Granger, that is not even close to being true, stop. Look at me; Astoria is mad at me for not going through with our engagement, I broke it off as soon as the war ended, and I could steal the documents away from my father. That full year before I fell in love with you. Before then I wasn't making plans to marry and have children. If you ask any other wizard in my position out there, I can assure you their reasons for marrying young and having a child before 25 is 'tradition'."
"Ok fine, but it still doesn't-"
"Listen to me, Darling. What I would love more than anything is for you to be my wife and for us to have a family, but not now. All that pureblood crap Astoria was spouting are things our parents drilled into us from the age of three; she may still believe and hope for them. I, on the other hand, am elated that I don't have to be forced into that; I've seen what loveless marriages can do to families."
"So you're not disappointed with how things are going with us?"
"Have I given you a reason to believe I am?" She shook her head. "I am in love with you and our life together. You give me the happiness I never thought possible for me to have. If I can somehow trick you into marrying me one of these days, you bet your ass I'm going to use every binding, bonding, old marriage spell in the book to make sure if you do wise up, you'll never be able to leave me."
A small chuckle slipped through her lips. "Ok."
Simple enough, what more was there for her to say. Every nasty, negative, horrible thing she thought had been secretly happening in their relationship. He had just debunked and strengthened the resolve within her; she was mad at herself for letting Astoria get in her head. She was a muggle-born raised by muggle parents; she knew very little about pureblood customs. To think she had been depriving Draco of something he needed or wanted for the last three years was heart-shattering.
She loved him, but the idea of marrying young was not appealing to her; she wanted to wait until they were older. It relieved her to know he agreed with her on that.
He kissed her cheek softly, her nose, her other cheek, forehead, then finally her lips. It was sweet and chased.
"I burnt down my parent's house." She admitted softly, though she had no doubt Blasie already told him.
He pressed his forehead to hers. "I heard."
"I just couldn't look at it anymore."
"Did you visit often?"
"Every couple days, never for long. I feel like my memories of them are slipping, I can't remember the sound of her voice or the smell of him after a day of baking with me. I know I could use a pensive, but I don't want to watch old memories; I want to still be making new ones."
"I know, sweetheart."
She could not find it in her to cry, but she held on to him for a long while until her back started to hurt from her bend position. Draco helped her down from the counter, giving her a second to grab her croissant. He lead her to the couch in their living space.
"I need to talk with you."
"Ok."
Draco's eyes turned serious, and he looked her dead in the eye. "You cannot be lying to me. I know things at the ministry are turbulent, but that is work. You and I are what's important. I won't have us sneaking around and lying to each other."
Hermione nodded. "I don't want that either; I'm sorry."
He kissed the back of her hand, silently forgiving her.
"How's your head feeling, the bruising is fully gone."
"Better, there is still some pressure behind my eyes, but it'll be gone by tomorrow. Nothing to worry about."
"If it's still hurting tomorrow, we'll get an appointment with the healer."
Hermione smiled sweetly. "Whatever you say."
.
Hermione went back to her job the next morning, and the morning after that, and the one after that. In what seemed like the blink of an eye, almost a month went by, and there were no more killings.
Kingsley called a meeting and invited Hermione to join, purely as an observer.
"The Torture murder case has been cold for over a month now. While it is still a priority to find Greyback, we have other things we need to turn our attention to now."
Hermione stifled, Harry and Draco both looking at her with concern. While they knew she thought of the case often, there had been nothing for her to do with no new leads coming in.
"Your new caseloads will be on your desk tomorrow morning; thank you for all of your work these past few weeks. Head home; we'll see you tomorrow."
"That's it? Just like that?" Hermione gasped to herself. "You can't."
Kingsley walked over to her, knowing he had to address her in this. "I know how much this case has impacted you, Hermione. Greyback has gone dark; we have not seen a single thing from him since the night of your accident. With no new information, I must put my wizards where they are needed. Other cases have been put on hold long enough; it is time they are attended to. I promise you we are not done looking for him."
Hermione nodded slowly, allowing Kingsley to exit the meeting room.
She saw Draco opening his mouth to address her but beat him to it. "I'm got to get back to work."
Instead of making her stay and talk like he would have preferred, Draco held his tongue and let her go.
Harry sighed, "We have to watch her closely, now more than ever. Greyback may not be publicly killing muggles anymore, but neither of us is dumb enough to believe he isn't watching her from the shadows."
"We can't let him roam the same world as her; Hermione is not going to tolerate us monitoring her whereabouts for the rest of her life." Draco rubbed his forehead.
"I still have a couple of wizards taking rounds on watching her from afar; if they can't prevent something from happening, at least they'll be there to get involved and back her up."
"Whatever she says, we cannot allow Kingsly to lift her house arrest. If she goes anywhere she still needs to bring one of us with her."
"I talked to him weeks ago; he knows to keep men on Hermione until Greyback is jailed or dead."
"As long as he knows."
.
"Mine." Ron smiled at her; he followed her into the elevator on her way back to her office.
"Hey, Ron." She smiled.
"I thought I would come to see how you were after the briefing. I have been so busy with the case that I haven't gotten to come to see you."
"Fine, my head healed up quickly. I know you got in a lot of trouble for that night; Kingsley gave you a bit of a lashing for going against protocol. I just want to say thank you for getting me out of there, and I'm sorry you got in trouble."
He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck, "It was nice actually; it felt like old times with us. Well, minus Harry."
"If I had not been distracted that night, we could have brought him in. I feel like I can't catch my breath, that any second I'm going to hear about another girl getting killed."
Ron rubbed his palm up her arm. "That's a bit intense, don't worry yourself into a tizzy."
"What am I supposed to do?"
Ron had no answer for that; when they stepped off the elevator onto her floor, they both gagged.
"Bloody hell."
"What is that smell?" Hermione gasped, pulling her wand out and pointing it around her office.
None of her other co-workers were in right now, both off to lunch for the next twenty minutes. Ron and Hermione moved together, looking into all the different offices; all the doors were open except for hers.
"Hold on this isn't right, Hermione, we should call Harry-" She unlocked and pushed the door open, stepping back.
Hermione could have screamed if it had not been cut off by the vomit coming up her throat.
"Holy fuck!" Ron swore, his words turning to distant mumbles as he sent his patrons off to Harry.
Hermione's eyes remained locked with the eyeball-less naked woman tied to her desk chair. Her nipples were cut, and she had bite marks all over her neck. Hermione gagged at the thought of what other injuries were being blocked from her view by the desk.
How had Greyback gotten in here? No way he could move a dead body unseen into her office without hundreds of wizards seeing him.
"Hermione, don't go in there,"
Hermione had not been aware she was walking toward her desk until Ron spoke. There was a note addressed to her on the desk, and she reached out for it.
"Don't touch that." Draco's hand curled around her outstretched arm.
His warm body pressed into her back, he steered her around and walked them both out of her office. His grim eyes met Harry's, both of them questioning how the hell this had happened and how they were so god damn lucky Kingsley had invited Hermione to their debrief this morning. If he had not, Hermione would have been here, and who knows what would have happened to her.
Her office was full of wizards and witches who had been on the Greyback case for the last month and a half. All of them had followed Harry and Draco as they ran for the elevator after Ron's message reached them.
Blaise fell into step beside Draco and Hermione. "Kingsley sent a couple of wizards to your home; no one has broken through the wards. He told me to come to stay with you."
Draco nodded to him, trying to get Hermione to the floos in the lobby so they could get the hell out of here.
"Wait." She twisted in Draco's arms.
She had been so dumbstruck Draco had not had the best hold on her; she slipped easily from his grasp.
"Potter." He called for Harry, hoping he could intercept Hermione before she could enter her office.
Harry appeared in the doorway, bumping right into Hermione.
"What are you doing?" He asked her, hand going to her bicep.
"What does the letter say?" She asked Kingsley, seeing the unfolded paper in his hand.
Draco's hand settled on her back as he caught up to her. The small group watched as Kingsley debated showing her what was written on the paper. After a short moment he conceded and handed Hermione the paper; everyone leaned in closer to read it.
I'm going to fuck my pups into that warm cunt of yours.
before I rip out your voice box so I can hear you scream.
She had green eyes.
The paper shook in her grasp, but everyone paled at the message Greyback had left behind for her to read.
"How the hell did he get in here?" Draco growled at Kingsley.
Other than their home and Potters, the Ministry should have been safe for her.
"I have men on it, but I'm guessing he is no longer working alone."
Hermione narrowed her eyes at Kingsley. "Get Healer Carla to meet me at her office in an hour. I'm ready to undergo my evaluation."
Everyone looked at her like she was mad; Harry tried to appeal to her. "Hermione, you should go home and take a minute to."
She only had eyes for Kingsley. "Once she clears me, you are instating me and making me lead of this case."
"Hermione." Kingsley took the letter back from her. "Even if Carla clears you and I give you a badge, you are not allowed to work this case."
"Do you know how many people I killed during the war? Do you think some psychotic loon is going to be too much for me to handle? You just said this morning that your men are busy with other cases. Give this one to me."
"You are a victim of stalking by a violent offender. You are not allowed to work your own case." Hermione slowly turned from him; he was unbelievable. "Do not lift a finger to work this case on your own; I will charge you with tampering and have you arrested."
Darco and Blaise were nearly stepping on her heels as Hermione stiffly walked from the office, got in the elevator and made her way into the lobby.
Before she could step out of her fireplace, Poppy was attached to her leg. She had been terrified when the wizards had come to test the house wards fifteen minutes prior. She stayed at Hermione's side, ready to defend her at all costs.
"Come, Miss Hermione, we'll run a bath," Poppy told her, holding onto Hermione's pant leg, so the witch stayed close.
Draco rubbed Hermione's back before letting Poppy escort her up the stairs. He wanted him and Blaise to reinforce the wards, set up a couple more and double-check the house was safe.
"I can't fucking believe this." Draco snapped, his wand flying this way and that.
Blaise worked right beside him, "We'll stay with her, Draco; that sick fuck won't get near her."
"I don't want him arrested, Blaise; I want him dead." Draco's face was dark, a mask he often wore during his sixth year. "I'm going to kill him for this."
"All you'll do is end yourself up in a cell, mate; Potter and Kingsley will handle this. You need to focus on that distraught girl upstairs."
Draco furiously put his wand away, "I want to take her to our clubhouse till that fucker is dead. Hide her away where he can't reach her, then go on a bitch hunt and gut him with my god damn wand."
Blaise nodded, "Good get this out now before you go upstairs because you know she's stewing about Kingsley denying her again."
A long crash came from upstairs, followed by glass shattering. Then there was screaming. Both guys appeared in the bedroom with a loud snap, wands at the ready.
A piece of an end table hit Draco's leg and then dropped to the floor with a thud. Hermione stood in the middle of their bedroom wand sitting idol on their bed, her hands picking up anything and everything. Throwing whatever she could manage around the room while Poppy used her magic to protect Hermione from the shattering glass and wood.
"Woah." Draco threw a barrier in front of himself and Blaise.
Hermione did not even seem to have heard them arrive, throwing wildly with no aim. Only the desire to break, destroy and scream.
Seeing that there was no attack happening, Blaise excused himself to give his friend and the grieving girl some privacy.
"Hermione." When she remained unresponsive to him, Draco walked toward her, wrapping his arms around her, so she was not able to grab anything else.
The glass cup in her hand shattered, broken edges digging into her palm spilling blood.
"Okay." He soothed. "Poppy, can you clean this mess up, please?"
He wanted to take Hermione into the bathroom so he could take a look at her hand in some decent light. The shaking witch in his arms opened her palm, letting all the glass fall at her feet. She turned in his grasp, surprising him by pushing up and smashing her lips against his.
Her tongue swept his mouth, and her hands pulled at his shirt. She grabbed one of his hands and pressed it between her legs. Draco felt like he needed a good shake in the head, her emotional jump throwing him off.
He indulged her for a moment, but once she started unbuttoning his shirt with her bloodied hand, he pushed her away.
"Come to the bathroom; let me take a look at that hand."
She pulled her shirt off and over her head. A silent healing charm stopped the blood blooming on her skin.
"There, it's fixed." She told him, again reaching for his shirt.
Before Draco could figure out how to play this, Harry Potter burst into the room.
"Hermione, are you ok?" He came right up to them with little embarrassment of what he had walked in on.
"It's just a little glass." She told him nonchalantly. "I'm going to go shower."
Then she was gone, closing the bathroom door behind her. Wide-eyed and slightly breathless, Draco looked at his partner.
"What the hell are we supposed to do, Potter?"
Harry looked at the closed bathroom door. Poppy silently started to clean up the mess of the bedroom.
"Hope like hell we can keep her safe while she does whatever she needs to do to get through this."
