A week later Hermione and Ginny sat on her bed, attempting to avoid the increasingly dour mood of the witch's mother. The strain of Bill and Fleur's wedding on Mrs. Weasley was becoming harder and harder to overlook. Constantly stressed, she had taken to snapping at the tiniest of inconveniences, which was quite often when the neverending stream of visiting Order members brought news of more and more blows. It felt like every other hour someone would show up at the Burrow's gate…
There had been another attack, they had barely survived.
There had been another murder. A muggle this time.
There had been another large-scale breakout from Azkaban. If you could call it that when the dementors abandoned their posts and the prisoners responded accordingly… And not only Death Eaters! Some of the worst serial offenders the wizarding world had to offer were back on the streets wreaking havoc.
The Ministry was scrambling and as the days ticked on, it became apparent to the public at large how much Dumbledore had run things from the shadows. His influence, even when publicly hated, over a multitude of branches had directly correlated with what little control the wizarding government had on the situation. It was bedlam outside the safety of the Burrow's protection charms.
Her promise to do better was the sole reason Hermione hadn't succumbed to the same cross demeanor. And with this in mind, she tried to rationalize with Ginny. "Things will go back to normal once the wedding is done."
"You want me to believe that woman will calm down once you and Ronald run off with Harry? Puh-lease, she is going to be even worse. I won't be allowed to do anything without someone's eyes on me!" The redhead glared at the Quidditch posters on the back of her bedroom door.
Hermione plucked a blackberry from the bowl that sat between them and studied it for imperfections. "I wouldn't have any idea how annoying that could be…"
"Hey…"
She gave the girl a pointed look before popping the berry into her mouth. As soon as she bit into it, she winced. The too-sweet juice coated her tongue and caused her to gag.
Ginny's eyes widened and she leaned back to avoid the splatter that never came. "You okay?"
"Ugh… Yes." Hermione pushed the bowl away so it was directly in front of the other witch. "I was distracted by your grievances and must have missed that it had gone bad."
Unconvinced, Ginny surveyed her out of the corner of her eye as the sounds of approaching footsteps delayed her cynical response and she turned towards the door expectantly.
On cue, Mrs. Weasley burst through the door without knocking and eyed them suspiciously. "Good morning, dears. I am sorry to interrupt what is surely a much-needed morning chitchat, but I could use some help getting the house in order."
Hermione jumped up and forced herself to swallow down the excess saliva the foul taste had produced, "Yes… I mean… I'm sorry, Mrs. Weasley. What would you like us to do?"
"The bathroom needs a thorough cleaning. There are months worth of cobwebs in the corners under the stairs. Junk needs sorting on the landing out here…. The list goes on and on. And it grows every time I look!" The older exasperated witch said while glancing around her daughter's room. Hermione watched as a handful of new lines were added to the mental docket, just as predicted.
"Oh come on… People are not going to start showing up for ages and ages!" Ginny argued.
"Three weeks is not ages and ages, Ginevra Molly Weasley!" Mrs. Weasley's voice raised a couple of octaves as her face turned the same concerning shade of red her youngest son's did when he was angry.
Said son peeked into the room, eyes wide with sympathy, before he attempted to sneak past unnoticed. Ron almost made it, but in his haste had forgotten about the squeaky step at the center of the staircase. A loud sigh followed by a grumbled curse quickly echoed from the landing that needed organizing.
"And YOU!" The irate woman rushed from the room and leaned over the banister to screech. "I should scrub your mouth out with soap, young man! I cannot believe the heathens I have raised! Honestly, I never had to correct Charlie, Bill, and Per…"
All four of them froze at the near mention of the missing son who had chosen the Ministry over his family. Percy had become a forbidden subject in the Weasley home. His mere mention was enough to send the matriarch to bed for the rest of the day.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Weasley… I will get started on the bathroom while Ginny and Ron get the staircases. It won't take us long at all." Hermione consoled from inside the bedroom, ignoring the glares she felt on her back and from somewhere below her.
-\/- -\/- -\/- -\/- -\/- -\/- -\/- -\/- -\/- -\/-
She was right, of course. Despite their indignation at her offering their services, it had taken the pair minutes to do what their mother had asked of them with the use of Ron's magic. While Ginny complained about the stupidity of the Trace and Ron's bad charmwork the entire time…
Hermione stayed in the bathroom long after she was done with her own self-appointed task and her spiraling thoughts were interrupted by a soft knock. "Y… Yes?"
"I'm coming in." The short notice gave no time for her consent before Ginny slipped inside and locked the door behind her. She turned around and the smile on her face switched to one of horror, "...Oh… Oh no…"
"It only gets worse." Hermione cautioned in a whisper from where she sat on the lid of the toilet, staring down at the unopened box in her hands. Without warning the tears she had been holding started to slide down her cheeks. "I lied… About all of it."
Ginny took the outdated wizarding pregnancy test she had found under the sink from her grasp and sat on the edge of the tub. "I don't understand."
"I lied… I wasn't under Dumbledore's orders. I got drunk and asked for a kiss from the misunderstood bad boy. Like an idiot, I saw his mark and still believed he was capable of change. I figured out that he was responsible for Katie and Ron's attacks and I went to Dumbledore and asked for his help to save him, Ginny! I knew he had vowed to kill him and I still agreed to marry him… And now…" She had done the math countless times as she sat in shock and there was little doubt, but she couldn't bring herself to say the words.
"I don't understand?!" The repeated statement switched to a soft plea for clarification the second time it was spoken by the teary-eyed redhead.
"Gods… Do you really want all of the details that led to me turning traitor? He swore he was different from the public persona he had to project to protect himself and his family. He played at my empathy from the first second. And I let him, I wanted to be worthy of his love."
"Merlin, Hermione…"
"You don't… You don't know what it is like. No matter what I do… No matter what I prove, I will never be good enough to be fully accepted in the wizarding world." Hermione babbled through her hushed sobs. "If he loved me the rest would fall in line… It was a selfish decision. Purely selfish and now I am paying for it. Please, I'm sorry! Don't hate me… I hate myself enough."
Ginny leaned forward so that her elbows rested on her knees and studied the front of the box that displayed the picturesque image of a young witch smiling down warmly at a tiny bundle of blankets. "I don't hate you."
"But?"
"But, what? You already said it… You are punishing yourself enough." The witch offered her the box back as if the contents were poisonous.
She carefully took it with one hand and wiped away her tears with the other. "...Really?"
"Yeah… You don't need to be the brightest witch of our age to see you are on the brink. Everyone thought it was because of your parents but I can't blame you if you've been thinking you're carrying around the devil's spawn…" Ginny shrugged and leaned up from her stooped position.
"It hadn't even entered my mind until I saw this under the sink, actually." She snapped, defensive of her one-time lapse in judgment. Despite her and Madam Pomfrey's efforts to the contrary, all that it had taken was a single night in the dungeons. She had swapped the morning potion for the stupor that had been at the bottom of her chest There was no grace to be found in the fact that she had returned to the scheduled imbibement. The damage had already been done. "What?! I've sort of been distracted by the world-ending catastrophes that keep popping up..."
"Well, the only way to rectify that is to find out."
"It says to wait until morning…"
"Girl…"
"And it is outdated..." Hermione interrupted whatever the witch was about to say.
"How convenient, are you going to ask Tonks to smuggle you one in then?" Ginny asked, her barely contained rage at the confessions she had been witness to boiled just under the surface. "I'm sure she will be ecstatic when she finds out the stork is bringing a new family member."
Reminded of her limited options, she blanched at the thought of involving another. "I… I don't know."
"Oh, come on now. You and I both know that she and Lupin will respond much more kindly than the other side of the family…" When her vision misted over with tears, the redhead's anger softened, "For your peace of mind, just do the damn test. If you are, you'd be so far gone it will be positive regardless of the time you take it."
Hermione didn't have an argument against the advice. Ginny was right… She needed to know if the Malfoy heir rested inside of her womb. The devil's spawn, as the hypothetical child had been so affectionately nicknamed.
Without a word, she opened the box and readied the sample. As she worked, her friend pulled the piece of parchment from the empty container and began to read the chart that would estimate an approximate due date based on varying criteria. The second that Hermione set down the dropper used to place her urine inside of the tiny garden pot that would "bloom" or not, she pivoted to stare at the wall. "I can't watch."
One… Two… Three… Four… Five… Six… Seven…
She counted the grains in the slat of wood directly across from her as she waited.
One-hundred eleven… One-hundred twelve… One-hundred thirteen…
"Congratulations, Mummy."
Ginny's confirmation of her newest nightmare made her numb. It didn't change anything. It couldn't change anything… If it did then both of their sacrifices had been for nothing…