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He watched Hermione as she assessed the man she'd been married to for thirteen years. He wondered what was going through her head as she took in his appearance. He saw sadness flit across her face, then anger and determination as Weasley continued to glare at them. |
She narrowed her eyes at Weasley, then turned to look at Harry, "Was the Veritaserum administered?" |
"Yes," Luna spoke up, "fifteen minutes ago. It should be taking effect now, and I have more if it wears off before we are finished." She looked over at Weasley with a surprisingly stern expression, "For the record, what is your name?" |
"Ronald Bilius Weasley," Weasley ground out through clenched teeth. His neck strained, as he seemed to try to fight the Incarcerous spell that had him bound to the chair. |
"Remember to ask questions," Harry said and gestured to Hermione and Draco to proceed. |
Draco looked at Hermione. He cared very little about questioning Weasley. He didn't have questions for Weasley. Hermione would probably ask all the important ones anyway. He was here for Hermione ... and vengeance. |
"Why?" Hermione started in a firm voice, "Why did you attack me that day?" |
Weasley continued to glare at them. "Because you took everything from me," he spat with vehemence. |
"What did Draco and I take from you?" she asked with a slight waver in her voice, aghast at his response. |
"Everything," Weasley answered evasively. |
"What specifically did I take from you?" Draco asked angrily. |
If looks could kill, Draco imagined he'd be dead a hundred times over by now. The malevolence coming off Weasley was palpable. He was glad they were separated by a glass wall. |
"To start, you took her," Weasley spat, nodding at Hermione, "There was always something about you that drew her to you. She defended you when we all knew you were just a good-for-nothing Death Eater. She became friends with your mother, despite my telling her not to. I could've fixed what happened between us if you hadn't stepped in that day on the platform. She would've taken me back, but you turned her against me." |
Hermione tensed up at that statement. No doubt Weasley meant he could obliviate her into compliance again. She looked ready to protest his statement, but Draco placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her. Weasley was talking, answering questions without much prodding. |
Weasley fixated on Draco. The loathing was pouring off him like a tidal wave seeking to destroy them all. "Then you started taking my kids. You convinced Rose to start calling you "Daddy" and stay away from me. You made Minerva believe you were a better father than me. You took away my right to teach my kids to fly." |
It was hard to keep his mouth closed at that. Weasley had the chance to teach his daughters to fly and he'd almost gotten Minerva killed through his negligence. |
Weasley started turning red. His voice came out in an angry snarl. "You took my best friend. He didn't want anything to do with me after that day on the platform. We've been friends since we were eleven years old. And you came in and convinced him I was a bad guy." |
Harry snorted in derision of Weasley's assessment of the friendship that had developed between the two formal rivals. Was Weasley that dense to believe that Draco had subverted their friendship? |
"You took my family from me. They liked you better. Respected you more. You deceived them into thinking you were better for Hermione and the girls." |
"I saw the pictures. I saw you deceiving her into loving you. And the pictures of you pulling her into your group of friends and brainwashing her into thinking you were something better than what you are, Death Eater scum." |
Weasley started mumbling and thrashing around, his head turning from side to side. Draco noticed Weasley's closed eyes like he was seeing the pictures flashing behind his lids. "Pictures. Pictures of you always in the paper. Every time I opened the paper, there you were taking something else away from me. So many pictures. Watching my wife being seduced away from me. My daughters being taken from me. My friends. My family. Every picture, you're taking something away. Everywhere I went people looked at me. Disgust. Pity. Hatred. People ignored me. I got booed when I walked out with the Cannons at a game." |
Draco heard a gasp from behind them. He stared incredulously at Weasley. They'd lived their lives. Those pictures were of them living their lives, going about their business. Weasley hadn't factored into their lives at all when those pictures had been taken. |
Weasley's gaze turned to Hermione. He dropped the loathing he'd thrown at Draco. Now he looked more like a petulant child. "No one cared about me. No one cared about my side of the story. Reporters didn't hound me for details about our relationship. It was all about Hermione Granger. I was just an inconvenient footnote in the story of Hermione Granger." Weasley's gaze landed on Harry to the side, and he spat, "Just like I was a footnote in the history of the Second Wizarding War. The sidekick of Harry Potter. Harry was the hero. Hermione was the brains. And me. I was just the sidekick." |
"Are you seriously telling me that everything you put us through was because you weren't the center of attention?" Hermione asked incredulously. |
"You don't know what it was like constantly being in someone's shadow. Bill, Charlie, Percy, even Fred and George. Why aren't you smart like Bill? Or tough, like Charlie? Or as studious as Percy? Or as funny as Fred and George? I never measured up. At school, I wasn't Ron Weasley. I was Harry Potter's friend. When we got married, I was Hermione Granger's husband. I was never my own person. I was just an extension of someone else." |
"And you thought killing me would make you your own person?" Hermione asked. |
Apparently, there was enough question in Hermione's tone to compel Weasley to answer, "I thought killing you would solve all my problems. Seeing you dead would destroy Malfoy if he truly cared for you, just before I killed him too. Once you were out of the way, I was going to tell the girls you ran off with Malfoy and abandoned them." |
Draco sat flabbergasted at Weasley's reasoning. At his willingness to inflict pain on his own children to suit his own ends. |
Hermione's face took on that pinched look she had when she was trying to contain her fury. "And what about Harry? How did you think he would've reacted to my disappearance?" |
Weasley shrugged, "Once you two were out of the way and stopped filling his head with lies, he would've gone back to being my best friend." |
"What about Scorpius and Narcissa?" Hermione persisted. |
Weasley curled his lip in derision, "Death Eater scum. No one would've listened to them." |
"You are completely delusional," Hermione screeched. The dams had broken, and she finally let loose all the rage she'd been holding in since Weasley started talking. "You cheated on me for years. You obliviated me. You neglected our children and harmed Minerva through your negligence. I left you when I found out about your secret life because I didn't want to be anywhere near you, not because Draco brainwashed me. I stayed away for my own protection because I couldn't trust that you wouldn't try to obliviate me again." |
Draco barely kept Hermione from jumping up off the sofa and pacing in front of the glass separating them from Weasley. Nonetheless, Hermione started gesticulating wildly as she tore Weasley apart. |
"Draco didn't take anything away from you. You threw your life with me away. You're like a spoiled child with a toy. You're not interested in it until someone else picks it up. You threw our family away. You can't throw a tantrum because someone else came along and values the thing you threw away. I was willing to try to co-parent with you, to have you continue to be a part of our daughters" lives despite how misguided I was. It wasn't enough for you. You decided that my life and Draco's life were a fitting sacrifice to the altar of your pride and arrogance. You were willing to leave three children parentless over your stupid jealousy. No one in their right minds would believe that Draco and I would leave our children to run off together. There would've been no need. Draco's son is my son. My daughters are Draco's daughters." |
"My children will never be Malfoy's," Weasley spat, "I don't care what they call him, Malfoy will never be my children's father." |
Draco watched Weasley's face with barely concealed glee as Hermione pronounced, "Minerva is now a Malfoy. Draco adopted her a few days ago. Your family agreed that it was the best for Minerva because she had a difficult time accepting that her father tried to kill her mother. Rose will also have a choice when she's older to decide if she wants to officially become a Malfoy. I'm done talking to you. I hope that you come to realize the damage you've caused was unnecessary. You'll have plenty of time to contemplate your choices in Azkaban." |
She rose from the sofa and walked to the door. When Draco didn't rise from his seat, she looked back questioningly at him. "I have a few things to say to Weasley. I'll be right there if you want to wait outside with the Aurors." |
She nodded, and Harry opened the door and let her out of the room. Draco turned back to Weasley still bound to the chair. His eyes still held the manic hatred that he'd maintained all day but had lost the slightly golden tinge from being administered Veritaserum. Draco wondered if Weasley had gone a bit mad. |
Draco stood and faced Weasley, "Do you remember the day at the Burrow when I told you that I would make sure you were only a fading memory to Minerva and Rose if you screwed up?" |
Draco didn't bother to wait for an answer to his question. He continued in a calm, cold voice, the ice to Hermione's fire, "I knew you would eventually fuck up and make those girls never want to see you again. I was willing to bide my time and let you. I didn't quite expect you to do such a spectacular job of it though." Draco thought about applauding Weasley for his stupidity but contained himself. |
Draco channeled his father's look of derision as he looked down on his defeated foe, "I'll do everything in my considerable power to make sure you rot in Azkaban for the rest of your life. Your daughters will eventually forget you were ever their father. While you rot in prison, I'll be their first dance partner. I'll be there to watch their Quidditch games. And chase off the boys I think aren't good enough for them. I'll be there when some young wizard comes to ask me for their hand in marriage. I'll be there to walk them down the aisle and watch as they marry worthy wizards that will treat them like the treasures they are. While I'm there for every part of their lives, you'll be in prison. We will go about our lives and forget about you, but I'm willing to bet you'll never forget about us. That thing you hate the most about your life, being a footnote in other people's stories, you brought that on yourself. You had it all, a loving family, a beautiful, intelligent wife that loved you, two beautiful daughters. I'm not sure about your life with Lavender Brown and your children with her, but I'm sure they were worth more consideration than what you gave them. Your sons and daughters will grow up without you, and I'm sure that's not a bad thing. You brought this on yourself, Weasley. I hope you rot. You deserve it." |
Draco turned his back on Weasley and crossed to the door. Luna gathered her sheath of parchment and quill. Harry opened the door, and they all left the room without giving Weasley a backward glance. Draco found Hermione leaning up against a wall outside the room. He crossed quickly to her and put an arm around her waist. |
"How are you?" he asked, cupping her cheek and kissing her tenderly. |
She melted into his embrace, "I'm glad that's over," she answered with a sigh, "After the trial tomorrow, we won't ever have to see him again." |
"Let's go home and start forgetting about him," Draco said. |
"What did you say to him after I left?" she queried. |
Draco shrugged, "Oh, you know. Male dominance, caveman stuff." |
Hermione laughed and turned to Harry, "I meant to ask you, Harry, why are your knuckles bruised?" |
Harry looked at Hermione with a look of such profound sadness that Draco drew her closer to his side. |
"I'll never tell," Harry answered mournfully, "I wish I'd done it sooner though." |
Hermione looked quizzically at him and opened her mouth to question him further when Luna cleared her throat. |
"I need to deliver these to the MLE," she said, indicating the parchment in her hand, "I would like to talk to you both in private sometime today though." |
"Of course, Luna," Hermione answered, "Come over this afternoon for tea." |
Luna nodded seriously and walked away from the group. |
"Do either of you know what that's about?" Draco asked, indicating Luna's retreating form with his chin. |
Harry shrugged, "Probably some cryptic statement that you won't understand until the middle of the night where it will wake you up out of a dead sleep but will reaffirm why you should take her seriously even when you don't understand." |
They walked out of the dungeons of the Ministry. Harry and the Aurors walked with them to the atrium. Draco pulled Harry aside while Hermione was distracted talking to one of the Aurors. |
"Why did you beat him up?" Draco asked. |
Harry looked hard at him, "I meant what I said back there. I'll take the secret to my grave." |
"If it's about Hermione, doesn't she have the right to know?" Draco persisted. |
Harry sighed, "I questioned him early this morning with Veritaserum about obliviating Hermione. I lost my cool, and I almost killed him. I still want to kill him. She doesn't need to know, and neither do you. I'm asking you to trust me that it's better this way." |
Draco felt sick at what Harry was telling him without telling him. He didn't want to know the details. Sometimes it was kinder that way. He had a feeling that if he did know, he would go back and kill Weasley himself, slowly. |
"I know people that are in Azkaban. My father's gone, but I could pull some strings," Draco offered. The world would be better without Ronald Weasley in it. |
Harry gave him a look that made Draco wonder how many Slytherin tendencies The Boy Who Lived had lurking in his depths. "I know people too. Just go about your lives and forget about him. Ronald Weasley will truly be nothing more than a fading memory. For all of us." |
Thanks for reading. I look forward to your reviews. |
Finding Hermione |
By: eBookDragon |
The Life and Times of Lavender Brown |
A knock on the front door startled Draco out of his contemplations of the Malfoy estate business he was currently perusing. He didn't bother to get up to answer the door. Tansy was home, and she could get the door. It gave them the excuse to politely turn away whoever was there stating he wasn't home if he didn't want to see whomever it was. |
A moment later, Tansy appeared at the door to his study. "Master, a woman is at the door asking to see you and Mistress Hermione." |
"Did you ask who it was?" Draco asked the elf. |
Tansy nodded solemnly. "I tried to turn her away, but she said it was important." |
"Well, who is it?" |
"It's the woman that carried on with Mistress Hermione's husband." |
Why in the world was Lavender Brown at their door, insisting on speaking with them? "I suppose you should show her into the drawing room," Draco finally said with a sigh of resignation, "It wouldn't do to leave her there on the stoop and have it splashed across the front page of the paper." |
Tansy nodded and left the room, wringing her hands. He listened as the front door opened then closed. A clack of heels sounded in the foyer as their guest crossed to the drawing room, followed by the opening and closing of another door. Draco left his desk and exited the study quietly. Tansy was waiting for him when he emerged from his study. |
"Please bring tea and biscuits about ten minutes after Hermione and I come in if she's still there," Draco instructed as he started to head upstairs to get Hermione. |
He found her curled around his pillow in their bed, sound asleep. She'd pleaded the need for a nap when they got home from the Ministry due to exhaustion, both mental and physical. She still had on the black sheath dress that she'd worn to the Ministry. The dress rode up high on her thighs with his pillow resting between her knees. |
He sat down on the bed behind her. The bed dipped slightly under his weight and she murmured sleepily. He ran his hand down her back. She hummed drowsily and stretched languorously. She rolled over to blink up at him. |
"Rise and shine, sleepyhead," he said with a smile. |
"How long have I been out?" she asked, scooting back to sit up propped against the pillows. |
"Hour, hour and a half," Draco answered, "I woke you because we have company." |
"Is it Luna?" Hermione asked running her fingers through her hair. |
"No, far stranger than Luna. It's Lavender Brown," Draco explained. |
"What can she possibly want?" Hermione asked indignantly. |
"Not sure," Draco answered, "Tansy said she was insistent. I thought it best to let her in. I didn't want it in the papers that she was pounding on our door." |
"Hmm," Hermione hummed, "I hope she's not here to beg for mercy for Ron." |
"Easy enough to send her on her way if that's the case." |
Hermione scooted to the edge of the bed, "Let me just freshen up a bit and we'll go down and see what she wants." |
Hermione was in and out of the bathroom quickly and they both made their way to the drawing room. Draco had a moment of indecision when they came to the door. His protectiveness warred with his innate good manners. Did he open the door and let her go in first, possibly opening her to attack? Or did he open the door and enter first, placing himself in the line of fire but was incredibly rude to his mate? |
"Go in first," his mate said with mock exasperation, "I know you want to." |
Draco smiled ruefully at her but silently blessed her for catering to his need to protect her. He opened the door and walked into the room. Lavender Brown, who had been seated in the armchair facing the door, stood up quickly and was wringing her hands and looking anxious. Draco noticed her wand and handbag were sitting on the coffee table out of her reach. Draco nodded in greeting to the woman and turned to offer his arm to Hermione. |
Hermione placed her arm on his and allowed Draco to guide her over to the sofa. She smiled politely at the woman still standing there watching them warily. "Lavender, we weren't expecting you," Hermione said by way of greeting, in a regally cool manner that would have done his mother proud. |
Hermione sat down and gestured for Lavender to resume her seat. Draco settled onto the sofa beside Hermione and resting an arm on the back of the sofa behind Hermione's head. His wand was tucked up his sleeve. As much as he hated the idea of hexing a woman, he wouldn't hesitate if she posed a threat to Hermione. Hermione crossed her legs at the ankle and tucked them to the side so that her foot rested along Draco's ankle. |
"Thank you for seeing me," Lavender started hesitantly, "I'm glad that you've recovered, Draco." |
Draco looked speculatively at Lavender. She was wearing a white and navy polka-dot button-down blouse and a flared navy skirt. Something always struck him as a little off about her ever since he saw her on the platform in September. She was plump after having four kids, but that was understandable. At every encounter, her hair and makeup always seemed just a little too perfect. Even when she looked tired and harried that day on the platform, not a hair was out of place. |
"Thank you," Draco answered formally, "I understand that you had a part in helping that day. Harry said you called the Aurors?" |
This seemed to be all the prompting Lavender needed to launch into her accounting of the events surrounding Weasley's attack. |
Lavender nodded and released a tense breath, her hands twisting in her skirt. She spoke in a high, girlish voice, "I called Harry. I came down the stairs right after Minerva. As I opened the door to the front room, I saw Minerva disappear with a pop. A moment later I heard another pop come from upstairs and the children shouting that Rose disappeared." |
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