Chapter 5: Explanations
On the long drive home, Draco and Hermione talked of his disappearance, death and now, his reappearance. Draco was not happy with the whole ordeal; Hermione could tell. He told of every detail as if it were yesterday. "My father thought that since I married you, Hermione, that I had been disloyal to the family. He told me that I needed to fix it, or it would be the last thing I did. So, firstly in fear of letting my father and the family down, and secondly in fear of my own life, I followed his instructions. He directed me to the disappearance. He set it all up so that all I would have to do is let myself be kidnapped. After nearly a week I was allowed to see you only once, and that was to tell you that I was called to fight in the Final Battle as one of Voldemort's Death Eaters. As a Death Eater, I was to protect Voldemort personally. My father's plan was to put Peter Pettigrew under the Imperius Curse, then my father forced him to drink the Polyjuice potion to portray me. Once the Final Battle was at hand, my father ordered Pettigrew to protect Voldemort personally.
"But wouldn't he have objected? He is quite a coward," Hermione pointed out. "Unless of course, he was still under the power of the Imperius Curse." She looked at Draco to continue.
"Well, yes, that is what I brought up, that Pettigrew would object. And no, he was not under the curse. But my father told him that if he did this deed, Voldemort would bow to him; the Dark Lord would be his servant. At first, I thought it would never work, but Pettigrew, being the rash person that he is, instantly agreed," Draco continued.
"But why would your father want to off Pettigrew? He was the one that sold the Potter's secret, doesn't that count for something as a Death Eater?" Hermione interrupted.
The blonde nodded, "It did. But he had used up his glory by being an insufficient Death Eater. He had failed too many assignments and was virtually useless to anyone. So, with the plan underway, Pettigrew was killed, as me, and thus, my existence to the outside world had diminished.” Hermione locked arms with her husband. He continued, “Although I noticed that this plan was becoming worse and worse for you, I went ahead with it, just to fool my father. Once he told me that he had found a potion in which he can enter your dreams, I began to panic; I knew that whatever he was doing wasn’t going to be good.”
Harry butted in, “How did he manage to get into Hermione’s dream? Isn’t that impossible?” Draco nodded.
“It was, until one of my father’s close friends, an apothecary, made an amazing discovery. You see, my father had paid him a hefty amount of money to create a potion that would enable him to do something previously impossible. It took him nearly three years, my father made his offer only a month after our wedding.” Hermione squeezed his arm.
“He’s been after us for that long?” she questioned, wide eyed.
With a long sigh, Draco replied, “Well, not exactly. You see, in our sixth year, I took up a Death Eater project “ and since the war with the Dark Lord was already underway, we had to do some eliminating ourselves. Anyone that posed a threat in any way to the Dark Lord and his followers were to be killed.” Hermione shuddered.
“Is that why you offed our Headmaster? Because he posed a threat to Voldemort?” she immediately sat up straight, pulling her arm from Draco’s. He quickly responded.
“Well, yes, that is why Snape murdered Professor Dumbledore. And that is what I was sent to do. I was to fall in love-“ he was quickly interrupted by his wife.
“With me and thus be able to kill not only me, but my best friends also. I thought that was a nightmare, but it seems to have been the truth.” She folded her arms and turned away from Draco. Ron spoke up.
“Hermione, I think Draco has more to tell you. Personally, I’d like to hear more too.” Ron said through clenched teeth.
Hermione slowly turned to face her husband. He spoke quietly, “At first, I thought that this project would be easy “ after all, you were a Muggle-born and I was a Pureblood. It would be easy for me to make fun of you and embarrass you; I had already done it for five years. But after spending nearly eight months with you, I started getting attached to you. There were so many things that I had quickly grown to love. My father sensed my unusual behaviour very quickly. It was near our graduation that he really started to try to do something about it though. The reason it took him so long to find us is because of a complicated charm I put on us, it made us virtually untrackable. And since my father didn’t know where we had moved to, he had really no good place to start to look for us.” Hermione hugged her husband tightly. She pulled away.
“So how did he find us?” she asked quietly.
“I don’t know the exact answer for that, but I have a hunch it was mostly my fault. I have kept in touch with, uh, a family friend. I sent them letters often and they would write back. I assume that they must have tracked the owl, therefore finding our home. They must have then tipped off my father, thus allowing him to spy on us. I regret every letter that I sent with that owl. The rest, I’m sure you can all guess.” He rubbed his eyes with his thumb and fore finger, and then moved to massaging his temples. Hermione placed her hand affectionately on his back. She knew this had to be hard for him, after all, he had been through a lot in the past few months. Harry sensed Draco’s tiredness and suggested that he and Ginny let him rest. Ron and Lavender followed suit. Draco stood and kissed Hermione on the forehead before he trudged up the staircase. Hermione put their son to bed and soon joined her husband in their cosy room. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek; he had already fallen asleep. She lay down, and quietly listened to Draco’s steady breathing. Her stomach flipped. She smiled as she thought to herself, I never did forget that feeling.
***
Months passed by and Draco and Hermione became closer than they ever were, for life was unpredictable, and you never knew what to expect. Ginny phoned over to the Malfoy Mansion, and Hermione picked up the receiver.
“Hello?” she asked.
“’Moine! This is Gin, how are you? I haven’t talked to you for ages!” she cried excitedly over the phone.
Hermione giggled, “I’m doing great, Ginny, how about you? Oh, how was your trip to Egypt?”
“Wonderful. Harry and I had such a great time! But I missed you so much. And I have something for you, directly from Egypt!” she was absolutely bursting with joy.
“Oh, Gin, you didn’t have to do that. Thank you. And I’m so glad you had fun. You don’t know how lonely it was here though. I mean Draco and I spent so much time together, but I missed talking to you every day.” Ginny giggled.
“Well, let’s catch up tomorrow. You and Draco are invited to our house for Christmas dinner! And if you could, please bring a casserole. Hope you can come!”
“Of course, we’d love to come. Oh, I almost forgot, Ginny, I have some great news!” she couldn’t wait to tell Ginny.
There was a long pause. After a moment of silence, Ginny spoke, “Sorry about that Hermione, Harry was talking to me. I hope you can come, but I’ve got to go, mum and dad just got here. See you tomorrow!” and with that, she hung up the receiver.
Oh well Hermione told herself. Tomorrow will be better anyway. She hung up the phone and went to Draco’s study to tell him of tomorrow’s dinner.
***
Everything smelled so wonderful. Hermione, Lavender, and Ginny placed the last of the food on the table and sat next to their husband’s. Molly and Arthur were both chatting loudly to Harry and Ron. Ginny interrupted them. “Mum, dad, dinner’s ready. It’s wonderful, so let’s eat before it gets cold!” And with that, plates were filled to the edges with delicious turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, cooked carrots, beets, corn, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and soft, flaky rolls. Talking immediately ceased, due to the talker’s mouths being full of scrumptious, steaming food.
Hermione served everyone a generous piece of cherry pie and filled everyone’s glass with cold milk. She sat down and tapped her fork to her glass, quieting everyone down. She grabbed her husband’s hand and announced, “Draco and I have some wonderful news for all of you. We’re expecting another baby!” A wave of “congratulations” covered Hermione and Draco. Tears dribbled down her cheeks as everyone’s happy smiles looked back at her. Ginny stood.
“Congratulations to you two!” She grabbed Harry’s hand. “This is so neat. Hermione, I wanted to tell you this yesterday, but mum and dad arrived, so I had to leave. Harry and I are expecting another baby too!” And again, the wave of “congratulations” swept across the room and covered Harry and Ginny. Hermione glanced at Lavender. Her face was flushed. Hermione asked what was wrong and Lavender quietly revealed to Hermione that she wanted to have children, but Ron wasn’t really ready. Hermione patted her arm.
“Don’t worry, Lavender. You can come over anytime you want and baby-sit our little ones.” Lavender giggled and hugged Hermione.
“Thanks” she whispered.
And so, in the months following, Hermione and Ginny bought baby things together, and had a wonderful time spending their days with each other. And, as Hermione had said, Lavender came over nearly every day to baby-sit the little ones. With each passing day, the six friends became closer and closer, loving each other as if they were all family.
Nearly two months after Christmas dinner Draco and Hermione received a letter. It was a beautiful brown owl, and Hermione knew right away that it was a Ministry owl. She detached the letter from the bird’s foot, fed it some treats and let it fly off again. Only after she had closed the window back up did she read who the letter was addressed to. Mr. Draco Malfoy was written in elegant lettering on the front. She gently picked it up and headed toward Draco’s study. Hermione knocked twice on the soft wood. She turned the lovely handle and entered her husband’s study. His chair was facing the opposite direction, but Hermione could not see the platinum blonde hair sticking up from the top of it. She moved in closer to turn the chair around. Just then, the door opened behind her. She whipped around to find her husband with a plate in his hand. On the plate was a sandwich that Hermione doubted he could fit into his mouth; it was much too large. Hermione snorted as her husband shut the door.
“Sorry love, I didn’t mean to startle you. Did you need something?” he asked, setting his plate on the desk and looking over Hermione’s shoulder at the letter. She handed it to him.
“It came just a minute ago. It’s from the Ministry,” she told him, and sat on the edge of the desk. He opened the letter as he walked towards his chair. He sat in his large leather desk chair and pulled out the letter. As he read it, his expressionless face turned to a surprised look. Draco handed his wife the letter and she read it quickly.
Dear Mr. Malfoy,
Your father was taken to Azkaban five months ago on account of kidnapping, murder, and attempted murder, as well as being an active Death Eater. We found him tied tightly in ropes near Godric’s Hollow and immediately transported him to Azkaban. We had been searching for him for quite some time. Although he seemed to have nothing wrong with his health, we found him dead this morning in his cell. As of now, our Aurors can not find the cause of death, but we will keep you posted on our findings. We are very sorry of your loss. Please write back if you have any news or information. Thank you.
Sincerely,
Chancellor Royce
Head of Ministry Records
Draco only stared at Hermione. She could tell he wasn’t sure what to think “ whether he was relieved to have him gone, or if he was sad at the loss of a family member. She stood and handed him the letter. Draco hugged his wife tightly as she sat on his knee. Hermione took his hand in hers and squeezed it lightly. After a moment of silence, she kissed him on the forehead and whispered, “I’ll be in the kitchen fixing supper. Please, love, if you need to talk, come right away.” She smiled and her eyes twinkled. He kissed her gingerly on the lips before she left him alone in his office. He re-read the letter hundreds of times, just trying to generate a definite feeling about it. He felt sad because it was his father, but he was also rather relieved that now neither he nor Hermione would have to worry about him following them or trying to separate them. Draco opened one of his desk drawers and took out a piece of parchment and a quill. He wrote quickly so as to not allow himself time to change his mind.
Mum,
I just received a letter from the Ministry saying that dad is dead. Do you know anyone who would want to murder him? Please write back soon.
Draco
Draco rolled the letter up, placed it on his mail owl’s leg and sent it off. He then picked up his large sandwich and took it to the kitchen where Hermione had a Muggle radio on and was singing as she boiled the water for pasta. He set the plate on the table quietly and walked up behind the young witch. He placed his hands on her hips and began dancing with her, resting his head on her shoulder. She laughed, then turned around and kissed Draco. He hugged her as tightly as he could, but her large stomach prevented him from getting very close. Hermione put her hands on her belly and looked up at her husband. Hermione smiled broadly, “I can’t wait to have this baby; I feel so big.” She turned to the stove and put the pasta into the bubbling water. Draco sat at the large oak table and told Hermione of his letter to his mum. She sat next to him and placed her hand on his arm.
“Good idea, maybe she knows who killed your father.” Draco’s eyes looked unyielding. “What’s wrong love?”
He faked a smile. “Oh, um, nothing. It’s just, well…never mind,” he stammered. Hermione leaned in closer.
“Doesn’t sound like it. Draco, you can tell me anything. I want to help you through this.” She looked at Draco sympathetically. He saw the sincerity in her hazel eyes. The blonde sat back in his seat. “Well, I know who may have killed my father.”