text stringlengths 0 57.5k |
|---|
Ginny giggled beside Hermione, "Someone's hungry." |
"Yes. Better give him some utensils, or he'll start eating it with his hands," Hermione responded. |
Ginny smirked and waved her wand. Rolls of white cloth napkins appeared in front of their plates. Draco grabbed his eagerly, draped the napkin over his lap, and started cutting up his steak. He moaned at the first bite. The garlic, salt, and pepper seasoning on the steak combined with the savory juices of the meat were just short of heaven for Draco. Draco ravenously ate his dinner, rudely ignoring everyone at the table that had come to see him. He finished his food with a contented sigh and set his utensils down on the plate. |
Draco looked up to find several of his friends watching him with amused smirks on their faces. "What?" he asked, thinking that maybe he had food on his face or stuck in his teeth. |
His mother smiled and reached over to wipe the corner of his mouth with her napkin. "Darling, I don't think I've ever seen you eat that much or that quickly before." |
Draco smiled sheepishly, "Sorry. I was famished." |
"I'll say," Harry joked, "that steak looked like something out of a Flintstones cartoon." |
Draco cast a confused look at Hermione for a translation. She smiled at him and laced her fingers with his. "Cartoon about prehistoric people. The food was massive in the cartoon since their food source was dinosaurs." |
Still confused, Draco said, "I just ate what was on my plate." |
Daphne piped up then with an amused laugh that always startled Draco with how similar it was to her sister's, "Hermione charmed the dishes to fill according to the hunger of the diner." |
"Oh," Draco said, suddenly realizing why everyone was amused, "Is there any dessert?" |
Everyone at the table started laughing. "I made lemon meringue pies. You can have some in a little bit," Helena said, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes, "Let your food settle or you'll make yourself sick." |
"Speaking of the food, delicious by the way," Draco said, with an amused smile, "What's going on with you ladies? You seem up to something." |
The ladies shared a glance with each other. Daphne, Helena, and Tracey looked determined but apprehensive. Finally, Hermione said, "We've decided we want to do away with the food issue," Hermione said in a rush to the table, "We don't want you serving our food for us anymore unless we ask you to." |
"Okay," Draco said slowly, "Why the big production?" he asked as he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, "You know that it was up to you all along." |
"I know, love," Hermione said, "We agreed together," she continued, gesturing at the ladies around her, "that we don't want our daughters growing up thinking that it's normal. At school is one thing, it's a tradition there. They have each other, and we trust the boys, but at home, we need to show them what is normal." |
Draco nodded, "That is understandable. They need to be brought up to be independent, self-sufficient witches." |
The loud scraping of a chair across the floor drew Draco's attention to where Blaise was rising gingerly from his seat. He crossed to the other side of the table, wincing slightly with each step. He dropped a kiss on the brow of his daughter and stood behind his wife's chair. |
"Tracey, my sweet, may I talk to you privately," Blaise said quietly. |
She nodded, and he pulled her chair back for her. They drifted away from the table. Draco glanced over at them and saw Blaise lean against Tracey as they talked. |
"Daphne," Theo called from the end of the table, "will you come down here and sit with me?" |
Daphne rose gracefully from her seat and moved down the table to Theo. He scooted his chair back and drew his wife to seat herself on his lap. Greg and Harry got up to give the couple some privacy. Greg sat down beside Helena in Daphne's vacated seat, threw an arm around her, and kissed her soundly. |
Harry stood behind Ginny's chair and joked, "Well, I, for one, am glad that my son will stop calling me an uncouth barbarian and a shame to the Potter name now." |
Draco and Greg burst out in hearty guffaws, looking down the table at the amused look on James" face. "I quite like your boy, Harry," Draco said. |
The undercurrent of tension at the table seemed to evaporate as a giggle from Daphne burst from the end of the table. Tracey and Blaise made their way back over to the table to stand behind their daughter. |
"I feel like there's more to the story," Draco said, "Will you tell us what led you to this decision?" Draco asked diplomatically. |
He knew Hermione had no compunctions with throwing away centuries worth of tradition if she felt it was the right. She never really bought into the whole food thing anyway. Tracey, Daphne, and his mother would need something serious before they decided to go against tradition. |
Hermione looked around the table at the group gathered, then back at Draco, "I don't know if anyone told you, but Harry and Greg found Honoria Blake and her son." |
Draco nodded and was relieved to know that she'd been found. "When was this?" he asked. |
Greg spoke up, "A few days after your attack. I got a lead on her and took Harry with me." Greg shrugged, "People usually aren't overjoyed to see me, but everyone trusts The Boy Who Lived." |
Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance at Greg, "We convinced her to stop running and come with us. It took a lot of convincing. She doesn't trust men. I took her and her son to Godric's Hollow. Greg left to get Ginny and Daphne. They came back, took one look at the two, and kicked us out of the house." |
Ginny took up the story. "We got them fresh clothes and let them use the master suite to bathe and change. Honoria didn't want to be out of sight of her son even to take a shower. I made food for them. They ate enough for four people. I was a little worried they would get sick." |
"We stayed the night with them. After they ate, they went to bed, and we called Malfoy Manor to let them know what was going on," Daphne said to Draco. |
"Hermione and I left the children with the boys the next morning," his mother said, "Helena, Luna, and Tracey went with us to Harry's home. We had tea with her and she started to tell us her story." |
"She was born Honoria Ainsleigh. Her father was William Ainsleigh, and her mother was Petunia Parkinson, one of Pansy's distant relations," Tracey said, "Petunia was disowned because she married William, a Muggleborn, but she taught her daughter the Slytherin and pureblood culture. Honoria was sorted into Slytherin about four years behind us. You wouldn't believe she's only twenty-nine to look at her. Or that Jake is six with how small he is." |
His mother picked up the story with a little disapproval tingeing her voice. "She told us she grew up very sheltered and naïve. Her father was a very kind man and upheld the traditions her mother was accustomed to. He served all their meals for as long as she could remember. Then she went to Slytherin House, where they continued the tradition. Being served was something she was accustomed to." |
Hermione continued telling the story. The children, as well as the men, were listening carefully by now to the trials of Honoria Blake. "The tradition was all Honoria knew. She met her son's father during her last year of school. He was in Ravenclaw. He was kind, just like her father, at least at first. Her parent's died in some sort of potion explosion right after she had Jake. Honoria said the birth of her son was when things started to change in their marriage. He would cut back on her portions, not enough to be noticed at first, but eventually, it became noticeable that he was controlling her food. He would withhold meals from her and punished her for sneaking food when he was away or during the middle of the night. It seemed he was obsessed with her being slim like she was in school and she had difficulty shedding the weight. Plus, the idiot of a man just didn't understand that you don't always return to the way you looked when you're seventeen after having a baby. Finally, Honoria had enough, and she ran with Jake. When we met her, she'd been running for two years, relying on friends to give her shelter, but her husband would find her, and she would have to run again." |
Theo let go the breath he'd been holding in a whoosh. "Merlin, that's awful." |
"So you understand why we don't want the girls to continue growing up accustomed to this tradition?" Hermione asked looking around the table at Draco first, then Greg, Blaise, and Theo, in turn. |
Draco understood, and he noticed that the others agreed with him. Greg and Blaise looked a little angry at the thought of someone harming their daughters. He could empathize. If they continued the tradition at home, it would be the only thing Rose, "Mione, and Florence were used to, and maybe Minerva to a lesser extent. He didn't want to leave them vulnerable to abuse. He knew more keenly than most how fragile life was and that he may not always be around to protect them. |
"Where are Honoria and Jake now?" Draco asked. |
"They're staying at my cottage with one of the house elves from the manor," Hermione answered, "There are wards around the cottage but they can Floo directly to the manor or Spinner's End if they need or want to." |
"Mummy, can we have dessert now?" Albus pleaded, breaking the weight of sorrow that had fallen over the room. A few of the adults chuckled at the boy, who had assumed his "begging" look with big eyes, a pouting lip, and hands clasped together in front of him. |
Draco stood up to gather their attention, "Before we dig into Helena's delectable pies, I'll be going home tomorrow. I'd like to thank you all for what you've done. I'm sure I can speak for my family when I say that your presence helped make this ordeal more bearable for them." |
"It's what family does for one another, mate," Theo called from the end of the table. |
Family. Draco knew that you couldn't always pick the family you were born to, but if you were lucky, you made up for that with good friends, a good partner, and children; the ones that were yours by blood, and the ones you thought of as your own. If you allowed it, family was an ever-widening circle of people you knew you could count on when you needed them. |
Trigger Warning: This chapter has a portion in it that may cause some of you more than just the emotional pain of reading about another's suffering. If you have triggers about SELF-HARM , please read until you get to the XXX then skip until you see the XXX, indicating the beginning and end of the portion that pertains to the trigger warning. |
Finding Hermione |
By: eBookDragon |
Being Minerva Weasley |
January 2nd to January 6th |
It began with the opening of presents. Draco realized then that Minerva wasn't going to bounce back as easily as Rose and Scorpius. What she had seen and had to do affected her too deeply to just let it go and move on. |
Rose had insisted on opening presents almost as soon as Draco and Hermione came through the Floo. The presents piled under the tree called beckoningly like a siren's song to the girl. Rose seemed to be the only one to maintain a festive spirit throughout Draco's hospital stay. |
The festive holiday spirit had come and gone at Spinner's End. The room they'd all decorated together now seemed like a pale comparison to the cheerful room it had been at the beginning of the children's winter break. The tree didn't glitter with fairy lights as Tansy had sent the fairies back to their home in the attic when Christmas had come and gone without Draco returning home. |
Draco was disappointed. It wasn't the Christmas he'd envisioned as their first together. He was also worried about how much this would affect future Christmases. Would his family always remember that he'd been in the hospital fighting to survive on Christmas Day? Maybe next Christmas would not be spent at Spinner's End or Malfoy Manor. He would have to see what Hermione thought about spending Christmas in Paris next year. They could create new traditions then. Traditions that weren't tainted by fear and guilt. |
Scorpius, Draco could tell, wasn't all that interested in opening presents. He was only sitting on the floor tearing open the gifts for the sake of Rose. He kept shooting glances at Draco and Minerva sitting on the couch. Draco didn't spoil Scorpius like he'd been spoiled as a child. There weren't piles of presents stacked under the tree for each child. Draco was always more interested in giving meaningful gifts, not junk that would be played with once and thrown into a corner. |
Minerva wasn't interested in presents at all. She refused to sit on the floor with Hermione, Scorpius, and Rose. "Can't see," was all she said when asked why. Draco understood the need to protect your back. Even now, years after the war, he never turned his back on a door. |
She sat beside him on the sofa, gripping her wand tensely as if she expected them to be attacked at any second. Draco remembered that feeling. It had been years after the war before he was able to sit in a room and not grip his wand convulsively. He set a hand on her shoulder and she jumped, little red sparks shooting out the end of her wand. |
"Put the wand down," he said quietly but firmly to her. She was coiled so tight she could seriously hurt someone if they startled her bad enough. |
She shook her head and swallowed convulsively, still gripping her wand. |
"You're going to hurt someone if you keep that up," he said quietly to her, "Set it here between us on the couch." |
Rose and Scorpius didn't notice the exchange. They were too busy ripping wrapping paper and flinging it over their shoulders with glee, more so on Rose's part. Hermione shot them both a worried glance from her spot on the floor between Rose and Scorpius. |
Hoping to ease her anxiety, Draco took the black velvet box that was on the end table beside him and handed it to Minerva, "Here. This is from Scorpius and me." |
That got her to set her wand down. She took the box from his hand and looked up at him with a puzzled frown. "What is it?" |
"Open it up and you'll find out," he answered. |
She cracked the lid of the jewelry box and gasped. She drew the bracelet out of its box and held it up so that she could examine it closer. She smiled and leaned into him when she saw the little broom charm dangling from the bracelet. She froze as she continued to inspect the charms. She surprised him by setting the bracelet back in its box, grabbing her wand, and fleeing the room, leaving the bracelet in its box sitting beside him. |
Hermione came over and sat beside him, picking up the box. "What happened?" she asked. |
Draco looked at the closed door that Minerva had just fled through, "I'm not sure. I gave her Christmas present to her. I thought she liked it at first, but she put it back and ran off." |
Hermione took the bracelet out of its box and examined it herself. "I'm not sure what the problem is," she said, putting the bracelet back, "You did a very good job picking out the charms." |
They left her alone to gather her thoughts while Scorpius and Rose finished opening their Christmas presents. Hermione helped Rose clasp her unicorn necklace around Rose's neck. Scorpius looked so proud of himself as he slipped on the small signet ring that Draco had worn when he was his age. |
They climbed the stairs together and Hermione knocked on Minerva's door. Hermione stuck her head inside and asked quietly, "Can we come in?" |
After a murmured response, Hermione led the way inside. They found her sitting on the edge of her bed, looking down at the floor. Draco and Hermione sat on either side of Minerva. |
Hermione brushed some of Minerva's curly, red hair back and tucked it behind her ear. "Can you tell us what happened?" |
"I don't want to be a Weasley anymore," Minerva said quietly. |
Draco drew the bracelet out of his pocket, "Is that why you ran off?" |
Minerva nodded her head still looking down at her feet. "I don't want to look at the "W" all the time. I don't want to be a Weasley anymore." |
"Honey, that's your name. It's a part of who you are," Hermione said with sympathy. "I know that what you had to do was awful for you, but that doesn't mean you should reject your name." |
"No. I can't do it. I don't want to be his daughter anymore," Minerva said. She started to sob then. The sound of her crying echoed off the walls and warred with the sound of the waves of the ocean in her room. |
Hermione wrapped her arms around her daughter and let her cry into her shoulder. While they were both occupied, Draco unlatched the bracelet and slid off snowdrop charm, spacers, and "W" charm. He put the snowdrop and a spacer back to make it look like the "W" was never there. He put the bracelet on her nightstand and slipped the charms into his pocket. |
"It will get easier with time," Hermione was saying to Minerva, stroking her hair. |
"No, it won't," Minerva wailed, "I don't want to be the daughter of a man that tried to kill my mum. He almost killed Draco. I don't want to do it anymore." |
Draco wanted to give her what she wanted. He wanted to let her renounce her Weasley name if it would make dealing with this easier for her. Her crying was breaking his heart. |
The sound of screaming reverberating off the walls of the master suite woke them both from their sleep. |
"What is that?" Hermione asked sleepily, sliding out of bed and putting on her crimson dressing gown. |
"One of the kids," Draco answered, also getting out of bed and putting on a shirt. |
She cinched the belt of her silky robe tight, "How come we can hear it in here though?" |
Draco walked to the door and opened it. The noise in the room died away but they could hear the faint cries emanating from down the hall. "The rooms are charmed to alert the master suite if something happens in the middle of the night," Draco explained as they hurried across the landing to Minerva's room, where the cries were coming from. |
Minerva clung to them when Hermione woke her up. She mumbled "wasn't in time" over and over again as she sobbed into his chest. Finally, she cried herself into an exhausted sleep but refused to let go of either of them. Not willing to pry her hands loose, Draco lay back on the bed with her nestled between them. |
They talked, together as a family, throughout the entire week Draco had been home. Draco and Hermione spent time with each child, talking to them about Weasley's attack and Draco's hospitalization. They spent the most time with Minerva, talking about her actions that day, working to absolve her of the guilt she felt for her mistaken belief that she was the cause of the attack. Out of all the talking and listening, two things remained the same for Minerva, the nightmares and her desire to stop being a Weasley. |
Much to Draco's relief and slight annoyance, Harry seemed to be able to help the most. He came over to the house and took Minerva for walks around the park. When Draco asked what they talked about, Harry told him that he was uniquely qualified to understand how it felt to harm another person to protect yourself or your loved ones at such a young age. |
Today was the last day for the children to board the train to return to Hogwarts for the start of the new term. Minerva wasn't going. That much was clear to both Hermione and Draco. She had nightmares every night. They were all starting to get a little sleep deprived and Draco was getting a kink in his neck from sleeping in that too small bed. |
Scorpius, while more likely to hug or cuddle with one or both of them for no reason, wasn't having nightmares. Weasley's attack was more of a wake-up call to Scorpius that his father wasn't invincible. Scorpius was slowly shedding the anxiety he'd felt during Draco's hospital stay. Every day Scorpius saw Draco moving easier and returning to his normal routines seemed to make it easier for Scorpius to accept that Draco would be fine. Draco decided that he would be able to return to school tomorrow, only a little late to return to classes. |
Every nightmare and every talk ended with Minerva denying her family name. Loud and stubborn refusals to be a Weasley turned to tearful pleas. Then angry defiance when she felt they weren't taking her seriously enough. Today, before bed, was a quiet, morose plea, almost as if she'd given up hope of getting what she wanted. |
They'd had to dose Minerva with Dreamless Sleep potion so that everyone could get a decent night's sleep without waking up to screaming and crying. They couldn't keep giving it to her. The potion was addictive and the effects would wear off over time, making it more difficult to achieve a completely dreamless sleep until the user had to take more and more to get the effect they desired. Minerva was exhausted though. Draco and Hermione were exhausted. |
Draco could feel his temper fraying at the edges from exhaustion and what he felt was Hermione's stubbornness. He hated having to give Minerva the potion, but he agreed with Hermione that they all needed at least one night of uninterrupted sleep this week. |
He stalked to their room after watching Hermione give Minerva the potion and seeing Minerva drift off to sleep. Hermione followed him into the room and quietly closed the door. Lines of worry were etched into her face along with dark circles under her eyes from sleep deprivation. He imagined he looked just as bad as she did. |
"Let her stop being a fucking Weasley," Draco pleaded with Hermione, "If this will help her move past the nightmares, then let her stop." |
"I don't think letting her change her name will make what she's going through stop," Hermione protested, looking equally frustrated and guilty at the ordeal her daughter was going through. |
"She thinks it will," Draco said, running his hands harshly through his hair, "She has the same dream every night. She keeps seeing him about to attack you. She sees me dead on the floor and she's not able to save you. She keeps seeing both of us dead." Draco sat down on the settee with his head in his hands, rocking back and forth, "I can't keep hearing her screaming. It's killing me that I can't make it stop." |
"I know," Hermione answered him, moving to stand in front of him. Draco looked up at her when he caught the watery wobble in her voice. "I'm being eaten away by guilt that I didn't listen to her that day when she said she didn't want to go over there. My eleven-year-old child had to attack her own father to protect me." |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.