Chapter 7: The Next Day - Evening

Hermione Granger woke up with a smile on her face. The dream was pleasant, the bed was soft and the silence of the winter morning in Australian wilderness was welcome after the city sounds of her friend's house. She stretched to feel for the night stand and the alarm clock of her parents' guest room and found only more mattress…

Hermione's eyes flew open.

Huge room.

Huge bed.

Huge windows.

A dresser, a vanity, a heavy armchair, and… two flower pots, all arranged in a neat pile blocking the hallway doors.

The events of the day flashed through her mind's eye.

Tempus

10pm London… which made it 7:30am Australia time. She was still halfway in a different time zone. She wished she was fully in a different time zone!

Hermione lit a nightstand candle, saw more clearly the door barricade and groaned.

That could not have been me, she rubbed her face, that did not happen.

Of course not, agreed her mind and helpfully pulled up a memory to the front.

'Mrs. Malfoy, probably best if Bellatrix is transferred to whatever house is suitable for her house arrest soon… else some misfortune befalls her or me for that matter. I'd prefer to make my decision public by this Daily Prophet issue for the same reasons. If you are in agreement?'

Those definitely were her words.

And Mrs. Malfoy accommodated. Hermione couldn't even blame the older witch for anything that followed. Narcissa never told, only asked.

The blond took a full minute to think, whispering softly about contracts and rumors and appearances.

'Miss Granger, would you be willing to sign a marriage contract at the same time? It will validate your claim of free will…'

'Alright… yes alright, I'll have to sign it anyway at some point.'

Yes, she definitely remembered that nonchalant statement. She rubbed her face. Who was that person?!

'Perfect, that will ease the property transfer,' Mrs. Malfoy said quietly, and then clarified noticing Hermione's questioning gaze. 'There is a very suitable estate. I'd prefer to transfer it to the two of you as a marriage gift. Gifting to just Bella is simply strange. Gifting to just you looks like a bribe. Leaving it under my control is unwise. I may be compelled to act in my best interests and not yours or Bella's.'

'Why give us anything at all? Cannot she…we… stay at one of her properties?' A fair question, and a reality check that followed.

'I'm afraid all Lestrange properties in Britain are seized or about to be seized, for obvious reasons. As for Black holdings and assets, they belong to me. I didn't realize our father's level of unhappiness with Bella until his will was read.'

The witch gave a long look to Hermione, nodded to herself, and headed for the door.

'Be downstairs with Bellatrix on the Welcoming Floor no sooner than 4:50am and no later than 5:00am.'

With that parting instruction the witch was gone.

Hermione had to admit, she had plenty of time to come to her senses and run away. Mrs. Malfoy was gone, and the aurors would have been only too happy to take Lestrange wherever they kept all the condemned.

Instead, she transfigured the only chair into a stretcher, practiced moving the silent witch to and from it, and levitated the stretcher with and without Bellatrix around the room, mostly for amusement. She even managed to take a nap. A nap!

She couldn't even claim that she was drunk or sleep deprived. By 4:50am, most of the firewhiskey she consumed with her friends had to have left her system; and a 4 hour nap could almost count as a proper night sleep in her book.

Hermione climbed off the huge bed and started pacing.

What was she thinking, truly? Was she even thinking?

She wasn't, not rationally, not in a way people expected of her. Maybe that's why someone in the Ministry manipulated the match. If Mrs. Malfoy didn't, and Hermione was inclined to believe her denials, then it had to be someone at the Ministry. It almost felt like a gift, an opportunity for revenge… But that felt wrong, beyond cold-blooded and calculated. Who did they think she was?!

Maybe that is who and what she subconsciously wanted to spite when she signed the Intent and added a very lenient sentencing.

She stopped pacing. It had to be the root of her actions. Or she was simply going mad, and if so, Bellatrix was the perfect match for her after all…

She was furious at being manipulated. Again. She was furious about having no control over the most important decisions of her life. She was furious that someone with power was once again spoiling the magic world for her, twisting and shifting living people to fit their version of right and wrong!

Her stomach growled.

And now she was hungry too!

The last time she had something to eat… or drink actually was in the early morning after the blur of the contract signing and the interview.

Mrs. Malfoy and her solicitor, side apparated Hermione and Bellatrix's stretcher into an opulently decorated welcome room of an office where three chilled flutes of champagne waited for them.

'Congratulations and good luck, Miss Granger.' Mr. Nightshade toasted cheerfully.

He materialized his copy of the marriage contract, cast a charm on it, then hummed approvingly.

'The contract is registered and accepted as true. The Marriage Law timeline stipulations of 30-6-3-7 still apply. But unless you violate those, your marriage contract cannot be interfered with any more than any other marriage contract.'

He grabbed her hand to shake.

'On a personal note, it was a pleasure meeting you in person, Miss Granger! Reach out if you or Bellatrix need representation at the interviews… given you resolve the 30 days thing of course.'

'Of course,' Hermione blinked dazedly, freed her hand and downed her drink, earning an actual mini-frown from Malfoy's Matriarch.

The lawyer then turned to the older witch.

'Narcissa, it is always a pleasure and rarely a bore where your affairs are concerned.' he kissed the blond's hand. 'The drama was almost worth waking in the middle of the night.'

The witch smiled politely, 'And the Black vault will compensate for the difference, dear Seth.'

Narcissa gave the man another parting smile and offered her forearm to Hermione to hold on for their final destination.

Hermione flopped back onto the large bed.

Maybe it won't be that bad. Maybe the witch wakes up a new person… If she wakes up at all…

She glared unhappily at the pile of heavy furniture blocking the doors and the shimmer of protection wards all around the room.

Was this to be her life now?..

Hermione thought back to that morning, she was quite overwhelmed to pay attention, but the witch must have said something of interest or importance…

The trio appeared inside the colorful stone circle about 10 feet in diameter. They were in the middle of an orchard. The sun was shining, the air smelled of sea and plenty of jaded tall rocks framed the property on all the sides. The large house was visible between the trees at a distance.

She sat cross-legged where she stood and lowered the stretcher next to her.

'Don't want to accidentally step into the wards. Are we on a mountain?'

'More like atop a rocky island…'

'An island?!'Hermione was glad she was already sitting. 'Mrs. Malfoy, do you think she will be happy to be stuck on another island?! With me of all people?!'

'It is practically a peninsula… in winter.' The blond's face was perfectly composed but Hermione was sure there was a smirk hidden somewhere. 'It has the best wards and the safest location. My father lived here in his late years. He was very particular about security.'

Hermione stared at the house in alarm.

'He died at St Mungos, Miss Granger, there are no ghosts and very few portraits,' Narcissa said. 'No one died in this house. Not recently.'

'Not yet' Hermione mumbled.

Narcissa's face was once more a perfectly composed mask.

She was stuck on an island. With Bellatrix Lestrange. How did she forget that little fact! Mrs. Malfoy clearly did not like her still. Suitable estate, centaur butt!

'Please wait here. That's the only apparition area, and the only place safe for uninvited guests. I'll update the wards and check on thehouse elves living here.'

The witch stalled Hermione's objections before she uttered a single word.

'Unless you plan to take care of Bellatrix yourself, you'll need the elves. I will instruct them about her care and your…ah… peculiarities. The elves are bound to the House of Black, they live in this house but they are not part of the house.'

Narcissa levitated the stretcher and headed towards the house.

As in they don't belong to you. Hermione thought that was both good and bad. On one hand she didn't own creatures, but on the other hand she couldn't free them either.

Hermione stretched on the grass, musing and waiting for Mrs. Malfoy.

'I must have lost my mind… I'm just so furious with Dumbledore, and Wizengamot, and Kingsley… Amazingly Lestrange is not even in the top three anymore… Not forgiven, of course, just demoted… Should I try to give her… to give this… a real shot?..'

So, she came to the same conclusion in the morning as she did at night. She was much more upset with the people-in-charge working for greater good than with the sick and sickly criminal who tortured her.

The blond reappeared an hour later and just in time, as the thick clouds covered the sky and first heavy drops started to fall.

'The wards are set. Bella's room is at the far end of the right wing. Contact me if there is an emergency.'

Hermione was too tired to remember picking the room, but she would bet it was at the far end of the left wing.

Mrs Malfoy doesn't plan to be back unless there is an emergency, her sleepy brain supplied.

Hermione resolved to deal with all her revelations in the morning because finally she was falling back asleep.

End of Chapter 7