Chapter 1: Silent as the Grave
Hermione tried and tried to get the picture out of her head, but nothing she tried worked. Singing a song, just to picture the words, thinking of her parents- of the fondest memories she had with them, picturing her son’s first step; but none of these seemed to work. Hermione fell to her knees and wept. How could this have happened? Why had this happened to her, especially when everything seemed to be going right? Her life was so great at this point, this was the highlight of her life; then what she wished and hoped would never happen, did happen. Her son took only a few steps toward her before he fell and began crying for her. Hermione lifted her head up, her eyes were swollen and red from her constant crying.
She slowly stood and walked to her son whose cheeks glistened with tears. He was just a few months shy of being a year old, but since he was a magical baby, he learned faster than Muggle babies at his age. She gently picked him up and held him close. He quickly stopped his crying and snuggled close to his mother. She rested her head on his and quietly sang to him.
Hermione turned and walked toward the headstone. She read it one more time, even though she had already read it at least a hundred times in just the last couple of hours. Then she noticed something that she hadn’t seen there before. Perhaps it hadn’t even been there before. She bent down to pick it up. Once in her hand, Hermione noticed that this parchment was a special kind of parchment. She had only seen it once or twice before, in her sixth year at Hogwarts; but she couldn’t remember what it was from. Then something caught her eye- the parchment was addressed to her! She quickly turned it over to find the opening and gently opened it. What she read confused her tremendously.
I am distressed to tell you this, Ms. granger, but you’re husband was doing secret work for us. Although he may have declined the position of being a Death Eate when offered to h i m in his sixth year at Hogwarts, he came to us later that year seeking a job that required much less contact with any subject. He decided tHat in order to carry out his one mission, he would have to do something he’d never dreamed of doing- fall in love with a Mudblood like you; or act as if he had fallen in love with you. He would have been able to carry out his mission if he hadn’t been killed in the Final Battle, and even though his part of the mission is ended, ours hasn’t. Be on your guard Ms. Granger, and always keep your son with you.
Sincerely,
Your son’s finest role model
Hermione read it over and over, but couldn’t seem to understand what it was saying. It was written correctly, or so it seemed, but is still didn’t make any sense at all. She wondered if it meant something; but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t figure out what it could mean. Frustrated, she decided that Harry could figure it out. Hermione would go there right now, and straighten this mess out. She lightly kissed her son’s blonde hair, then blew a kiss to her husband.
On her way home, Hermione thought of the times when she had no worries in the world- what did she have to worry about? She had the perfect relationship with a loving husband-to-be and no worries about what lay ahead of them. Both she and Draco had just graduated from Hogwarts and were working at highly respectable jobs at the Ministry of Magic. They had bought a beautiful house far, far away from his parents- they absolutely despised Hermione- but instead, bought one right next to Harry and Ginny’s lovely new home. Ginny had graduated a year early so she and Harry could get married and start a family as soon as school was over. Ron had been a little upset and jealous what with his sister being classy and graduating early, but soon his jealousy turned to admiration. Hermione suspected that his falling in love with Lavender had taken his mind off of it and had something to do with his change of mind, but he never admitted it.
At any rate, she and Draco were set to move in within a couple of weeks but they would live next door with Harry and Ginny until then. Hermione and Draco loved their new home. It was so beautiful, both inside and out. She loved every part of it, but her favorite was the winding spiral staircase that lead from the front room on the main floor to the library on the next floor above it. Their house was rather large, but Hermione figured that she and Draco could manage it- it was so beautiful!
She began to reminisce about hers and Draco’s first few months in their house, but her son’s cries interrupted her. She glanced back to see what was the matter, but soon found out that he had only dropped his bottle. She turned back to the road fearing that if she took her eyes off of it for too long, something terrible would happen. She reached her arm back and felt around for his bottle. Once she had picked it up, and cleaned off the top, she handed it back to him. His crying immediately stopped and was replaced by loud slurping noise. Hermione knew that in a matter of minutes he would be crying again because he dropped his bottle.
Hermione's thoughts drifted back to the letter. Her mind was so occupied by thinking of the parchment she had found at her husband’s grave, that she didn’t notice that her son’s slurping had stopped and that he was silent. He then began coughing and choking which jolted Hermione out of her thoughts. Hermione panicked- she had no idea what to do. She couldn’t pull over; there was another car on her left, and the oncoming cars to her right. She did what she thought best- she flipped her hazard lights on and stopped right then and there. Tires screeched all around her, but she thought of nothing else except for her baby.
She ripped her seatbelt off and dove into the backseat. Just as she looked straight at him, he stopped choking and started giggling. Her panicking turned to anger- what was wrong with him? What was he doing? She sat confused, but not for long; she knew she couldn’t just sit in the road, so she hastily dove back into the driver seat. Hermione jammed the key into the ignition and turned it sharply to start it. After many tries, the car still wouldn’t start. Hermione’s patience was running out. She ripped her wand out of her Muggle coat pocket and blurted out a spell to start the car. Once it started she quickly put it into gear, flipped her hazard lights off, and yanked the car into gear. She pulled out onto the road with out even looking. A mighty jolt sent Hermione into the back of her seat. She immediately lost consciousness; but her son was safely strapped in, receiving no harm whatsoever.
Draco took Hermione’s hand in his. He held it so gently and romantically. Hermione felt so safe in his arms; she never worried about a thing when they were together. The two were celebrating the purchase of their new house by spending an evening at Hogsmeade. They ate a lovely dinner in a small restaurant in Hogsmead, and then talked for nearly three hours before they left. Once they had finished dinner and left the restaurant, they took a long walk around Hogsmeade. It was late April and the ground was damp from the afternoon rain. Hermione loved the smell of rain. She and Draco walked hand-in-hand and talked about how their new house would look once they had it all decorated- and which room would be the baby’s room. They planned on having a baby about a year after they were married.
As they were discussing more of their new home, the clouds opened up and soon, it began to rain. Draco pulled his coat over his head and pulled Hermione close to keep her from getting wet also. She giggled, then took Draco’s coat from over their heads and began to dance in the rain. Draco laughed, then joined her. Soon the two of them were splashing each other with the puddle water and laughing. Once the rain stopped, the two of them talked as they walked back to Hogwarts. Once inside, Draco walked Hermione to her Head Girl dorm. They told each other goodnight, hugged each other, then leaned in for a kiss, but were interrupted by the driver of the Queen’s stagecoach in Hermione’s portrait.
“Ahem. We’ll be havin’ none of that, sir. This fair lady needs to get inside, dried off and into bed before she catches cold. Now go on, shoo!” he scolded and waved his hand to shoo Draco away.
“Oh, alright, but I’ll get to kiss her as much as I want once we’re out of here,” he told the stagecoach driver who sniffed in return. He started to tell Hermione goodnight when she took hold of his coat and pulled him in close for a long goodnight kiss. Draco smirked to the stagecoach driver, then headed off to his Head Boy dorm which was at the other end of the Head’s Hall. He got to his door, and reached for the handle, but everything went blurry…
“Ma’am, ma’am. Umm, Mrs. uh Malfoy? Can you hear me? Ma’am, ma’am?” Hermione felt a gentle shake and tried to open her eyes to see what was going on. A sharp pain shot through her head. She immediately closed her eyes again. She tried to mover her arms and her legs, but neither would move- it felt as if she was being held down by something. Her splitting headache was all she could concentrate on at the moment. She wondered where she was, and why. Hundreds of questions popped into her head at once, then suddenly, as she felt like she would explode, everything vanished- except for the crash- the choking baby, his laughing instead of choking, the car that suddenly wouldn’t start, the painful crash- everything. Her baby! Where was her baby?
She cried out, “Where’s my baby? Is he alright? Nurse, where’s my son? Is he here? Is he ok?” She became frantic. A small, thin woman wearing a white outfit came to her bedside. She stroked Hermione’s hair to calm her.
“The adorable little blonde? Oh, miss he’s fine. Only got a couple of scratches. I believe he’s eating right now. Lucky for him, he was strapped in when we found him- kept him from being thrown out of the car.” She smiled a gentle, calm smile which relieved Hermione.
“May I see him; may I see my son please?”
“Why certainly miss. I’ll have him sent right in.” she smiled again, then left the room. Hermione began trying to move her arms so she could sit up. She tried and tried, but hard as she might, her arms and legs wouldn’t move at all. Frustrated, she called out to the nurse.
“Nurse, nurse. I’m afraid I’m having trouble moving. Nurse?” The nurse quickly answered Hermione’s call.
“What’s the problem miss?” the nurse asked.
“My arms, and legs, I can’t move them,” Hermione told her.
The nurse giggled. “Why sure miss. I can fix that problem.” She began to un-Velcro the straps that held Hermione to her bed. At once, she could move her arms and legs, and she was overjoyed. The nurse explained, “Sorry miss, we had to tie you down a bit. You were moving around a lot and nearly fell off the bed. We didn’t want you having anymore injuries! Are you alright now miss?”
Hermione nodded, then noticed that behind the small nurse, there was another waiting in the doorway with a small little boy. The nurse came closer and handed the baby to Hermione- but she shook her head. Frightened, she told the nurse, “This isn’t my baby; he isn’t my son!”