Chapter 28
November 5, 1995
His head was pounding as Draco blinked in the bright light of the hospital wing. The sunrise was coming through the windows and Draco thought it was probably the worst joke the castle could have done to poor injured people who just needed some uninterrupted rest.
He blinked and in the shadows next to his bed, Snape was sitting there, his face stern and forbidding. Draco wasn't used to such an expression when they were alone together.
Draco looked around and saw that they were alone, and asked tentatively, "Godfather - what are you doing here?"
"How long do you think you have been unconscious for Draco?" Severus Snape said, answering Draco's question with a question.
Draco was so confused hadn't the Quidditch game been last night? "Since the game last night, Godfather sir." Snape looked very angry. It was hard for Draco to tell whether it was for him or because of something that he had done. Draco was unsure what it was that he could have done that would have Snape looking so full of thunder.
"It's been two and half days. You were seriously injured in the scuffle with Potter and the Weasley twins. They have received a lifetime ban from playing Quidditch at Hogwarts from Madam Umbridge."
Draco had to choke down a laugh. His godfather did not look like he was in the mood for any kind of frivolity, not that he ever was.
Snape nodded and continued moving his chair closer and whispering in an angry hiss, "And the last two nights a certain Gryffindor Muggleborn has been visiting you late at night after curfew. I believe cheek touching and sweet nothings have been on the menu. Do you have something that you need to tell me, Draco?"
Draco sputtered, not knowing what to say, and the only word that came out of his mouth was a choked out, "What?"
Snape rolled his eyes and snorted, "I have my eyes on you, Draco. Allow me to go tell Madam Pomfrey that you have woken."
Draco reached out and grabbed Snape's arm, "Godfather, please don't tell father."
Snape looked down at his godson's pale hand on his blackclad arm, "And what would I tell him? There is nothing to say."
He walked away and Draco was left in a cold sweat. He had to tell Hermione and Theo.
...
The next morning as they dressed for their Saturday in Hogsmeade, Lavender pulled Hermione to the side and told her that Parvati had realised that Hemione was gone in the middle of the night before.
"But don't worry Hermione, I covered for you, but you need to be more careful."
Hermione looked at Lavender and was suddenly aware that she was a real friend, not just an acquaintance or a dorm mate.
"Do you know who I'm meeting, when I disappear at night?" Hermione asked her, suspecting that she already knew the answer.
"I have some suspicions," Lavender smiled, "But you can keep your secrets as long as you need to. It's between you and your soulmates." The blonde girl smiled and walked off, leaving Hermione staring after her.
Soulmates.
Lavender knew that there was more than one. Did that mean that she had truly figured out who they were?
Could she really trust Lavender?
The only person that she had let in were Sirius and Remus, she really wished that she had a friend she could confide in.
...
Hermione wasn't even sure that she wanted to go to Hogsmeade today, so she made her excuses to Harry and Ron, who didn't seem to be put out that she did not want to go with them. They had run off with Dean and Seamus instead. Her excuses of needing to go to the library were never even doubted for a second. It was like she was a caricature of herself to them. They didn't even ask what she was going to be researching, she doubted that they even cared.
She was wandering the castle lost in thought when Hermione heard the soft sound of weeping coming from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She wondered why that room was the one that people always chose when they were having a difficult time, maybe it was something about the sadness that permeated the place.
Hermione peeked in and discovered Ginny weeping on the floor. Her head was in her hands, tears rolling between her clenched fingers and dripping onto the tile floor. Her body shook with the force of her sobs.
"Ginny?" Hermione sat next to the youngest Weasley, "What's wrong? More nightmares?" Ginny had been struggling with nightmares for years since being possessed by Voldemort. In her dreams, she killed people and did other terrible things, and Hermione was the only one that she could openly talk to about them. Her family wanted her to forget and move on.
"I almost wish," Ginny breathed unsteadily. "Promise not to tell? Not even Ron and Harry?"
Hermione almost laughed considering everything that she was keeping from the two of them these days. "Of course, Ginny, you can trust me."
Ginny nodded and handed her a tear stained letter. Hermione skimmed the letter and was shocked at the contents.
Don't let him slip through your grasp.
Your Family is counting on your good sense.
If a pretty girl like you can't land a boy as desperate for love as Harry Potter, I don't know what the purpose of your looks are.
No daughter of mine will fail at so simple a task.
Burn this after you read it.
Hermione looked at Ginny who was staring at the ceiling. Hermione had no idea that Ginny was under so much pressure to land Harry.
"I AM not interested in him like that, but everyone acts like I am. Ron is constantly giving me grief about my so-called crush, that doesn't even exist. My mom has a crush on his Gringotts vaults. Oh bloody hell, did I say that outloud?" Ginny put her head in her hands. "I mean you saw the letter, though. It's fairly obvious what she is after. I don't want to marry someone for their money. I want to marry for love. This is no better than if they had done a Pureblood marriage contract for me." Ginny shuddered at the thought.
Hermione put her arm around Ginny, and pulled her close. "You deserve to be happy, whatever that looks like, even if it isn't with Harry."
"I don't think that I am allowed to be happy if I want to stay part of my family. That has been made abundantly clear."
Hermione thought that Harry wouldn't believe her anyway. He idolised Molly and Arthur as perfect parents. He would never believe that they were part of a plot to get access to his inheritance.
Hermione scowled at the ceiling, her arms around Ginny, and was grateful that Molly still wasn't speaking to her. Godric, she'd probably want Hermione to marry Ron or one of the twins if she knew about the Dagworth-Granger vaults. Hermione shuddered. She had been right to keep her newfound wealth a secret. Hermione felt like an heiress in a nineteenth century gothic romance and wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea.
"I know that I can make Harry happy," Ginny whispered, her head on Hermione's shoulder, "but he'll probably never know me well enough to know that I'm unhappy. I mean I'm grateful that he saved me from Tom, but that's not something to build a marriage on. And I look like his mum, I've seen pictures. It's a little creepy honestly."
Sighing, Hermione added this to her list of things that she needed to do something about in the future. She wouldn't allow Molly to ruin Ginny's life. Ginny was the only Weasley that Hermione felt like was a true friend to her even if they didn't have much in common.
She couldn't trust Ginny with her most dangerous secret, though. She knew that, even as she had her arm around the other girl's shoulders. Ginny was controlled by her family. And Hermione was well aware that Ron and Molly could be very dangerous to her if they found out about her and Draco and Theo. They would hate her and word would spread. They would never keep her secret.
Hermione had to keep her secrets as tight to her chest as she could. It was the only way.
...
November 11, 1995
The classrooms that they had been meeting in with Draco felt horribly wrong with him still in the hospital wing, so she and Theo had found a new classroom down one of the third floor corridors that looked like it could have been for transfiguration once upon a time.
Hermione always wondered why there were so many abandoned classrooms. Had the Wizarding Population been so much larger at some point? The castle could easily support double or triple the number of students it currently held.
Hermione was leaning against the wall behind the door, where if anyone opened up and looked inside they wouldn't be spotted right away. Theo's head was in her lap and she was running her hands through his curls.
"So today I found Ginny Weasley sobbing in Myrtle's bathroom," Hermione started, but paused, unsure of what else to say.
"And what does the Weaslette have to be upset about? Problems in paradise with the Chosen One and her blood traitor family."
"Theo!" Hermione smacked him on the shoulder.
"What? Them being blood traitors has less to do with their opinions on muggles, which let's be honest they have as little exposure to muggles and muggleborns as most Purebloods, and more to do with their refusal to engage with any of the Pureblood etiquette. I hate my father, but I would want my own children to be raised with manners and an awareness of our history. The Weasleys have taught their children nothing. Weasley eats like he's been raised in an orphanage and clearly received zero homeschooling before coming to Hogwarts. It's appalling."
She tried not to blush about Theo's mention of future children and how that factored in her involvement. Hermione sighed, conceding the point, Ronald's eating habits were disgusting and she was constantly surprised how little he knew in their classes. "Molly's ordered Ginny to secure Harry's affections and get herself engaged to him before leaving Hogwarts by any means necessary."
"Poor Ginevra, though no surprise from Molly Weasley. It's hardly unexpected considering her history, everyone knew she potioned Arthur Weasley so he'd fall in love with her. He was pretty openly with Fabian Prewitt during the first wizarding war."
"Molly stole her brother's boyfriend?" Hermione struggled to imagine Arthur Weasley in a gay relationship, but she remembered how he often hid in the shed with his muggle toys and oddities. She wondered if he had hidden mementos out there of his first love.
"Well I believe it was after Dolohov got the Prewitt twins." Theo rubbed his cheek against her.
"How do you know all this?"
"My mother and Narcissa couldn't stand Molly. She was rude to them once when I was a boy when we went shopping in Diagon Alley. After we got home, Draco took a nap, but I snuck out and hid under the dining room table and listened to them gossip. Most of the rest of it was about money and the shame of Cedrella Black's son being so poor because of all their children. I think my mum thought the reason they had so many children was because Molly had continued to potion him all these years, every time he tried to leave she just doubled up on the amortentia."
"That's horrible," Hermione cried. She had completely thought Arthur was to blame, but he was being potioned, how terrible!
"Unfortunately It's not illegal. It's just bad behaviour. Mum seemed to think poverty was what she deserved for behaving so badly."
Hermione tried to integrate this new information with everything that she knew about the Weasleys. She had never seen any sign of Molly potioning Arthur, but then Molly did all the cooking and didn't allow any of the kids in the kitchen except for Ginny on occasion.
"And if she has to she'll potion the Weaslette into compliance, so the girl would be better off landing Potter, then at least she can remain in control of her faculties."
The no nonsense way that Theo analysed Ginny's difficulties made Hermione want to retch. How had she ever considered the Weasley's friends? Did Sirius and Remus know?
"Do you think Ron knows?" Hermione looked down into Theo's eyes.
"I suspect Ronald was sent to Hogwarts with directions to befriend Potter just as Draco was," Theo sighed, "Potter remains a commodity even with the return of the Dark Lord. His friendship is something that can be used and manipulated for prestige. So yes, princess, I am sure Ronald knows that Ginevra has been ordered to secure Potter's affections. All his pushing of her boundaries is designed to make her infatuation with the Chosen One appear more real and when Ron does it in front of him it is in order to make Potter look more in her direction. What did you tell me before, Ginevra looks like his mother? So she comes equipped with a big family, something the orphaned Potter dreams of, and she feeds into his Oedipus Complex."
Hermione couldn't help laughing, "Where did you learn about Oedipus?"
"Please Hermione, I read both Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus and most of Freud last year." She leaned forward and placed a kiss on his lovely intellectual lips.
"You know when you reference muggle literature it is very sexy?" Hermione smiled at him, their lips still only a breath apart.
"I'll be sure to read some more then." His blue eyes twinkled up at her and Hermione leaned closer and captured his lips with hers.
...
November 12, 1995
Draco had finally been released from the hospital wing and he was supposed to go to class, but instead he was laying in Theo's bed in the quiet dorm just inhaling the scent of him from the pillows before he had to return to dealing with everyday life. Draco couldn't wait for a future where he could wake up with Theo and Hermione every morning with no fear of their fathers, of the Dark Lord, of Snape.
He still needed to warn Hermione and Theo about Snape. Draco really wanted to believe that his godfather could be trusted, but he knew that no one could be, not with Hermione's life on the line like it was.
...
November 13, 1995
Snape suspects.
The note that appeared in her Defence Against the Dark Arts text had her looking up suddenly to the Slytherin side of the classroom. Draco's jaw was tense. Theo looked like he wanted to be sick.
Godric, they were in so much trouble.
...
The rest of November and December were high stress for the three of them. Draco was busy on Inquisitorial Squad duties and keeping Hermione from being caught with Dumbledore's Army activities. Theo was often left alone in the library missing the two of them and worried that they were quickly running out of time to be together. His anxiety was Draco and Hermione's constant companion as they both played their parts, pretending to be who everyone else assumed them to be.
They managed to avoid Snape as much as possible. Hermione even took to checking the Marauders Map for Snape's location before she slipped to the "library." Harry didn't even find her checking for the locations of Snape, Filch and Umbridge suspicious in the least. He really was painfully oblivious, but Hermione supposed that was what happened if you got locked under the stairs for the majority of your formative years and were neglected.
Harry's life really was very tragic, Hermione thought. She constantly wondered why the adults in his life didn't do anything about it and kept sending him back to the Dursleys. It just did not make sense to her.
...
December 20th 1995
Winter Holidays had been a nightmare so far. Hermione was alone at the house the first few days as her parents worked. She sat around reading the owls from Draco and Theo. Theo's included two whole pages copied from the book he was reading on blood wards and Hermione was fascinated with the ritual design, even if it was clearly in the realm of the Dark Arts. She had started writing letters back to them so that she could give them to them when they returned to school. She was laying on her bed staring at the stars on her ceiling writing a detailed retelling of a dream that she had had with the three of them the night before.
"Hermione Jean!" Her mother was yelling for her downstairs, Hermione sighed.
"Coming!" she yelled back, and she shoved her writing off her lap.
She ran down the stairs to discover two huge eagle owls with packages for her sitting on the kitchen window. Hermione was excited since she recognized the Malfoy and Nott owls right away and ran towards them. Her mother's arm in front of her stopped her.
"Young lady, these are not from people that you have introduced us to. Who is sending you so many letters and now these large packages." Her mother's foot was tapping an angry rhythm on the floor.
"They are just holiday gifts from friends from school," Hermione replied, trying to get around her mother to get to the owls. The gift from Theo looked like a book. She wondered what he had chosen to send her. They knew she was going away for Christmas so they had obviously sent her gifts in advance. They really were so thoughtful.
"Hermione, that excuse is not continuing to be good enough for me! You've been getting constant letters and now rather large gifts and you need to tell me who is sending them to you!"
Hermione looked at her mother in the face and felt her anger grow, she could see the tips of her hair beginning to spark in her reflection in her mother's eyes. Fear filled her mother's eyes and she backed up away from Hermione.
"I don't need to tell you anything! I'm sixteen! And if I want to have some private correspondence then that's my right!" Hermione saw a bloody mark on her mother's hand, one of the owls had clawed her, "Did you try to touch my packages?" She screeched.
"I'm your mother! It's up to me to make sure that you are safe!"
"Safe from Christmas presents?! You are mental!" With that Hermione grabbed the gifts from the owls and shoved them under her arm. "I am not going to Switzerland to go skiing with you! You and dad can just go without me! It's what you would prefer anyway!" Hermione stomped up the stairs to her room.
"Hermione Jean, this conversation isn't over!" Her mother yelled just before Hermione slammed the door.
"Yes it is." Hermione was beyond annoyed. She was mostly packed to go to Switzerland, and her school trunk was packed as well. She wanted to just shrink everything into her pocket, but was concerned that that would summon the underage use of magic office, so instead she activated the featherlight charm that Remus had embedded into her bags and trunks last visit by pressing on the rune.
She needed to go. She was over her mother. She couldn't ignore Hermione all the time and then demand all her secrets! That wasn't how this worked, and how could she even comprehend about two soulmates! Her mother would freak out. She'd contact the Weasleys or even worse, Dumbledore, and get her only daughter killed all while convinced that she was doing the right thing.
Hermione waited until her parents were asleep, and took her bags and trunk down the stairs, careful to store her letters and Christmas gifts in her tote. She didn't grab her presents from her parents that were under the tree, because at this moment she just didn't want them. She scribbled a note that she had gone to Mr. Lupin and Mr. Black's house and to have a nice time in Switzerland.
Standing outside on the curb, Hermione realised she didn't have much of a plan.
If she was right and the Knight Bus appeared, she could not very well tell it to take her to Grimmauld Place. What was nearest to her final destination?
The Knight Bus appeared almost immediately after that.
"Where to," the conductor asked in a thick cockney.
"King's Cross," Hermione replied, putting her bags and trunk inside. She'd get a muggle cab from there. It was only a short walk, But she had too many bags to explain to the muggles how she was carrying them all. She'd definitely attract attention.
She knew that Arthur had been attacked at the beginning of winter holidays and that everyone was at Grimmauld Place due to some scribbled notes she had received from Ginny and Harry. Remus had also sent a note promising that her bedroom had been kept reserved in case she did decide to come.
As she came up to the wards of the house, she reached out with her magic a little and the wards, recognising her, opened up. As the front door unveiled itself, Hermione could hear the hustle and bustle inside the house. Once she opened the door, the noise was revealed to be Ron and Harry and the rest of the Weasley family who had taken up residence when the term ended. Hermione could hear Molly's loud voice in the kitchens at the rear of the large house. There were clearly people in the lounge, Hermione could hear several voices arguing over a game of Wizard's chess. She did not recognise two of them and none of them were Sirius and Remus. Where were they?
Secretly, she wanted to look through the Black family library for books on ward design, and ways to communicate over long distances magically.
Walburga's portrait had the thick velvet covering over it, so Hermione carefully snuck up the stairs towards her room as she reached the first landing, Sirius' voice behind her made her jump.
"Off to hide in your room, kitten?" Hermione barely swallowed her shriek of surprise. "I don't blame you, there are alot of Weasleys in the house right now. They are cousins of mine, did you know? All of them are here, even the curse breaker and the dragon trainer."
"Charlie and Bill are here?" Hermione turned around.
"Trust that to be the thing that caught your interest," Sirius laughed. "Here let me carry these for you." He took most of her bags and headed up to her room at the next landing. He opened her door taking the bags inside her room.
Sirius had painted a little sign to match the "Sirius" and "Regulus" signs that now hung on two of the doors, but this one read "Hermione" in Sirius' perfect calligraphy. She smiled at it and sat down her trunk to run her fingers over it.
"Do you like it, kitten?" Sirius smiled, placing her trunk at the foot of the bed. "I warded the door as well, noone is coming in here except Remus and I and Kreacher, I suppose. Little devil. I put a few books I found for you on your shelf here. I didn't think you wanted my godson to see your reading list."
Sirius really should have been in Slytherin, the man was positively cunning. It wouldn't have occurred to her to worry about Harry and her books, but she would worry about a couple people in the house.
"I love it. Can I ask you a couple questions though?" Hermione asked, pulling the door shut before she started to speak. "It's about Molly Weasley and I need you to only tell Remus."
"Does this relate back to that other secret?" Sirius asked and Hermione nodded. Sirius sat down indolently in Hermione's desk chair looking every inch the 19th century lord. "Alright, continue."
Hermione flopped onto her bed. "What do you know about how she and Arthur got together in the seventies, because I heard some gossip from Lady Malfoy and Lady Nott that you need to hear."
...
Malfoy Manor's hedge maze was immense, even at a brisk walk it took 20 minutes from the edge to the centre plaza, not to mention all the secret alcoves and bowers scattered among the greenery. Theo was laying on his back in one of these bowers mimicking a mediaeval lady from some novel he was reading. Draco crawled over Theo and started reciting gay mediaeval French love poetry about some bishop's toes, while placing kisses on Theo's elegant neck. The ways that Theo defied traditional masculine ways of being made Draco crazy. He wanted to possess Theo, kiss him and hold him and keep him forever. He was beautiful, immaculate perfection, especially as Draco pinned his wrists to the deep green cushion and stole kisses from Theo's lips.
A twig snapped and caused Draco to do the same, looking he was sure like a frightened deer. His mother stood there in her winter elegance, blood red and white fur and white blonde hair, looking like someone who had stepped out of a fairy tale.
"M-Mother," Draco said, realising he still had Theo's wrists pinned and both of them were breathing too fast. "Excuse us…"
Narcissa Black Malfoy's eyebrows rose as she took in every detail of the two teenagers. She turned on her heel and then called back, "You need to make sure no one else catches you two. Use a disillusionment charm and Muffliato at least. You are wizards after all."
Draco waited until his mother was out of sight and then fell onto Theo, the adrenaline leaving him shaking. He looked at Theo terrified and his boyfriend surprised him by laughing, cackling hysterically and he didn't stop until Draco started to laugh too.
Outside the gardens, Narcissa heard their laughter and smiled, before heading back into the house to make sure that the men were kept with plenty of fire whiskey and snacks so they would not go looking for their sons.
The easy affection that the two boys showed one another made her so pleased. Of course they'd need a witch eventually so that she could have grandchildren, but Theodore was a wonderful partner for her Dragon. The boy was devoted to him.
A good match, as long as she could keep Thoros from killing them both.
...