Disclaimer: Not JKR so I don’t own HP.
For the second time in a matter of hours, Hermione found herself leaning against the shed in the park across the street from 12 Grimmauld Place and staring into the night sky.
Only this time, I am happier than I could have ever thought possible! she sighed, running her tongue lightly over her lips, still savoring the lingering taste of Draco. She smiled to herself as she imagined their kiss.
That’s been a long time coming, she smirked. She looked at the stars a little while longer before finally standing up.
Home or the office? she mused. She decided to head back to her office. Despite her exhaustion, she knew she was too wound up to go to sleep.
I’ll just look through my notes on the possible birth rituals. She wanted to be fully prepared to work with Draco in the morning. She was hoping that perhaps a morning full of work would allow her to play with Louisa in the afternoon. She could think of nothing better than spending all day with those two- and everyday thereafter! With that thought, she closed her eyes and Disapparated to the anteroom outside of her office.
After about an hour of work, she shoved her rewritten notes into her briefcase. She still felt tense from the emotional whirlwind of her day but knew she needed to get home. She left her briefcase on her desk and settled for a nice long walk back to the flat that she shared with Ginny. Hermione stepped out into the hallway of her office building and muttered the locking spell. When it didn’t work, she bit her lip in tired frustration.
“Come on, girl- get a grip!” she giggled to herself. She forced her weary brain to stop thinking about Draco’s steely gray eyes long enough to perform the locking spell correctly. When she finally saw the shimmer settle around the doorframe, she turned around and headed towards the front door of her building.
Still lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the person standing in the darkened corner of the foyer.
“Stupefy!”
Hermione was on the ground before ever realizing that she’d been hit.
“Morning all!” Ginny cried, walking through the door of 12 Grimmauld Place. Unlike Hermione and many of the other Order members, Ginny did not keep herself quiet in the old Black residence, especially now that the portraits ceased speaking aloud.
She put her parcels down on the bench and proceeded to take off her robes. She hung them up next to a man’s jacket and a child’s coat, both of Muggle design. Ginny paused to run her hands over Louisa’s pretty little coat. She smiled at the fanciness of it. Briefly she wondered where Hermione’s robes were- she must have stepped out for breakfast, already, she thought.
Draco was walking through the hallway now, sleepily rubbing his eyes. He stopped in the foyer, looking at Ginny rather strangely.
“Oh,” he mumbled, before suppressing a yawn. “I thought you were Hermione.” Ginny fought the urge to giggle at his pout of disappointment. Though she’d been the one to lecture Harry and Ron about the obvious change in Hermione and Draco’s relationship, and how, as Hermione’s friends, they had to accept- and even respect- it, she herself still couldn’t quite get over the novelty of it.
“No- I guess she just stepped out for breakfast then?” she queried. “Well, I brought some of my mother’s pastries and butter rolls and some coffee- there’s juice for Louisa, too. I’ll take it all down to the kitchen. Should we wait for Hermione to get back? Is Louisa already up?” She waited for Draco to catch up with her questions. His confused look was still causing her amusement.
“Um… okay. I’ll wake Louisa and get her ready for breakfast. Hermione should be here soon, I think,” he said, turning from her and heading back down the hallway to his rooms.
Draco couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed. But he felt selfish in his disappointment, too. He was hoping that Hermione would have come by herself. He had been anticipating a day spent with his two favorite people- his daughter and the woman he loved. He sighed. But Hermione, unlike himself, had friends who looked after her- friends who shared her life. He only had Louisa- and now Hermione, too, he smiled.
He opened the door to Louisa’s bedroom. She was already sitting up in bed, clutching the sheets to her, a look of horror on her face. She was trembling. Swiftly, he rushed to her side, pulling her into his arms.
“Louisa! What is it? What’s wrong, honey?” he demanded.
“Daddy, I had the worst nightmare! Hermione- she’s gone- they took her!” she wailed. “The ones who took me- I could hear them- their voices. It was so scary!” She leaned into his chest, as he stroked her hair.
“Shush, shush…it’s okay. Hermione will be here soon. It’s going to be okay, love. It’s just a bad dream.” He gently rocked the child in his arms until her trembling subsided. When her breathing returned to a normal pace, he loosened his embrace. Kneeling next to the bed, so he could look directly into her eyes, he whispered, “Are you okay, now?”
She nodded her head. Giving her his hand, he helped her out of bed.
“Ginny’s already here with breakfast. And I imagine that Hermione is right behind her. So I’m just going to get us ready with a little magic this morning, okay?” he smiled at her, knowing that she’d enjoy him using the charms.
“Salve vestio,” he drawled lazily, looping his wand to include both Louisa, and himself. He grinned at Louisa as she twirled around the room, in obvious delight at being magically cleaned up. He closed the door to her bedroom to give them both some privacy for the spell. After a few minutes, he opened the door. Both father and daughter were looking freshly groomed and wearing clean clothes. Taking her hand, he led her down the hallway towards the kitchen.
“Good morning, Ginny,” grinned Louisa. Ginny gave the child a small hug before helping her up unto the bench at the table. She put a glass of pumpkin juice and a plate of pastries and rolls in front of her. When the coffee was ready, she retrieved three mugs from the cabinet and brought them to the old table. She took a seat next to Louisa. Draco was still standing.
“So, er- when do you expect Hermione back?” she asked him. “Did she stop by her office or something? Because she can really get distracted there- it could be ages before we see her,” she laughed.
Draco walked to the hearth, running his fingers through his white blond hair.
“She told me last night that she’d come over in the morning with work and breakfast- she didn’t mention a time but I assumed she’d probably be here by now- or that she’d at least let me know if she’s running late,” he responded. He looked back at Ginny, taking in her now anxious gaze.
“She didn’t stay here last night?” she asked nervously.
“No- she didn’t.” He was aware that his heart was now pounding. He looked at the redhead.
“She’s probably- she’s- she must be at her office,” she stammered. “Sometimes she stays there all night working.”
Draco stepped over to the hearth, reaching for the tin of Floo powder.
“Oh, remember only a few places are connected to the Floo system here- you’ll only be able to reach Dumbledore and Harry,” Ginny reminded him. “She’s probably just sleeping in at her office- let’s just send her an owl, okay?”
Ginny reached inside her robes for a scrap of parchment. Draco took a quill and some ink from over the mantle. Quickly, he scrawled a note. He ran upstairs and called for his owl. In no time, he attached the letter to the owl and sent it on its way with orders to deliver the post in person and to wait for a reply.
Hermione, where are you? he wondered. He stood there, looking out of the window for several minutes before heading back down to the kitchen. He didn’t want to scare Louisa, after all.
Hermione blinked her eyes several times in an attempt to focus on her surroundings. It was very dark. Slowly she sat up. Her head was throbbing dully and she felt stiff and achy all over. She was also cold.
She couldn’t see where she was. She figured that she was in some kind of dungeon, though. She was lying on a damp cold stone floor. She felt no air currents that would indicate windows or even nearby doors. The place smelled faintly of decay.
Where am I? she thought, stupidly. She ran her hands over her robes and her body, trying to assess any damage. Not surprisingly, she didn’t find her wand. Though she had fresh bruises and a knot on her head, she was relieved to find no serious injuries.
Now that she’d taken stock of her situation, she was feeling a slight panic begin to take hold. She tried to remember what had happened. Memories of her kiss with Draco flooded her mind. She shook her head a bit to clear the image, immediately regretting it when her headache furiously resumed.
I locked my office- I remember locking it. Then I walked towards the front door. Then- nothing, she thought.
As she sat there in the darkness, she racked her brains trying to figure out why anyone would have kidnapped her. Being the best friend of the Boy Who Lived had made her a target early in life. However, with Voldemort being relatively absent for more than two years- at least until this week, she thought ruefully- she hadn’t felt like she was in danger. Of course, she hadn’t taken anything for granted and was usually very cautious. She also figured that if she did come across a former Death Eater who wanted to harm her, she’d be dead and not just lying, relatively unscathed, in a dungeon somewhere.
She shivered. She had no idea what time it was, either. Her watch was gone. Her body was too sore, exhausted, and hungry to be able to give her any indication of how much time had passed since she’d tried to leave her office.
Her thoughts shifted back to Draco. She wondered if she was already late to meet him for breakfast. She hoped that he and Ginny would be able to figure out that she was gone. If she was just able to keep herself from panicking and otherwise out of trouble, she might last until the Order found her- until Harry and Ron found her. This was not the first time that she’d been abducted. She gave another small shudder. She didn’t want to let her thoughts linger on that memory
Draco! She gasped as the thought hit her. She had an ominous feeling that she’d been attacked because of Louisa. She suddenly found that her will to control her anxiety was unraveling. She fervently hoped that Draco and Louisa were safe.
A small noise startled her out of her thoughts. She could hear someone walking towards her now. From what was probably the other side of a very large cavernous room, she heard a door scraping open. Then she heard footsteps again-whoever it was was walking her way. She still couldn’t see anything.
“Lumos,” murmured a female voice. Hermione shielded her now sensitive eyes at the brightness of the light. She squinted her eyes at the woman. Her shock at the person in front of her showed on her face.
“Surprise, surprise, Mudblood. Didn’t expect me, did you?” She tossed a poorly wrapped package and a stoppered flask into Hermione’s lap.
“You can’t possibly expect me to eat or drink anything you’d give me, Parkinson!” Hermione yelled, sweeping away the parcels.
“Fine. But if I’d wanted to kill you, I would have already, Granger. And I’m not going to question you- you don’t know anything that I require- and I don’t need you to do anything. So, eat it if you want- or don’t. I could give a fuck.” With that, she turned on her heel, and sauntered towards the door.
“Wait- what is this about?” Hermione demanded. Surprisingly, the woman turned around.
“This is about getting what I deserve, of course. And in the process, people like you are going to get what’s coming to you, too,” she sneered. She didn’t wait for a response as she turned back towards the door. Hermione watched her leave. As the door closed, she was plunged back into darkness.
Hermione leaned back against the cold, stone wall. She reached for the flask and the parcel. Sniffing both, she decided that she’d put off eating as long as she could. She didn’t trust her former schoolmate. She sighed, letting her thoughts drift back to Draco and Louisa.
“Please find me,” she breathed.
A/N:
vestio “ to get dressed
salveo- good morning
http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm