Chapter 1
Hermione looked up from the blood-stained grass blades and stared out at the horizon. A moonlit shadow was falling over Hogwarts and then, she'd thought, it had never looked so beautiful. Even in a war-torn country in Britain, she felt an inkling of peace. She barely remembered her life before the war.
The war had taken everything--and everyone-- she ever valued away from her. Harry and Ron were dead, gone long before the war happened. Murdered. She wiped away a tear. They'd been left in their beds with fifty stab wounds apiece for Hermione to find in the morning.
She remembered how pale, sickly, they'd looked. If she could've saved them in time... She shook her head. They were gone and there was nothing she could do about it. They were dead.
Footsteps sounded behind her. When she turned to look, she saw it was none other than Ginny Weasley. The ginger girl smiled at her friend and then looked at Dean Thomas's body hanging off the astrology tower for everyone to see. He hung himself, a way out from this new life they had to live. Ginny shuddered.
She was quiet for a moment before she spoke, her voice strained and echoey against the cliffs of Hogwarts. "We have to go back, Hermione. Curfew is in a few minutes."
Hermione nodded, smiled, and looked once more at Seamus's body before following her friend back to their village.
Ever since Draco Malfoy killed Dumbledore in their fifth year, they were without a Headmaster. McGonagall, shortly before Harry and Ron were murdered, disappeared. No-one knows where she went. She just vanished.
The guards at the entrance to the countryside village asked to see their identification. The two girls pulled up their sleeves and revealed their lion tattoos. The men nodded and let them in.
In this new world, the remaining wizarding world was identified by their tattoos. Their tattoos identified which house they were sorted into. The guards had Slytherin tattoos. No-one recognized them, for they had come from Romania. But they were Slytherins.
Ginny stuck close by her friend as they walked the paths in the village. People here, especially those from Diagon Alley, when it existed years ago, were vile and dangerous if you weren't watching your surroundings.
Hermione nodded at Astoria Greengrass and her son Ellington as hey passed them by in the market. Nobody knew Ellington's father, but he was shockingly different from his mother by his tan skin and dark brown hair. Astoria had gotten pregnant in seventh year, a year before the war. Snape took over for those two years as a substitute Headmaster and made sure Astoria was caught up with her classes while she was pregnant. After she had her son, Astoria moved away to Berlin where she worked as a Muggle fashion designer.
Once her parents died five years after the war ended, she returned. Her son was seven years old. He held no magical powers to assume he was a wizard like his family. People had taken to mind that Dean was his father, but Astoria debunked it. His father never attended Hogwarts.
Reaching their destination, Ginny knocked on the door. Hannah Abbott looked through the peephole before letting them in. She was dressed in a dark blue dress. "Draco's here," she whispered. Hermione sighed. No doubt coming back for his wife.
"Tell him I'll be there in a moment," she answered. Hannah nodded and walked away, presumably to find him.
Ginny frowned. "I thought he was at Azkaban today to see his father." Hermione nodded.
"He must've returned early," Ginny added.
"He's going to kill me once he finds out about this," Hermione said, rubbing her belly gently. She was five months pregnant but it wasn't Draco's child. She'd been raped five months ago by none other than Dean Thomas. The same Dean Thomas that hung off the astronomy tower after killing himself.
Hermione felt tears threatening to roll down her face but she refused to cry. Ginny held her friend in her arms. "No he won't," she said. "He'll understand."
"Do you think so? I'm sure he'll call me a whore or something awful."
Ginny frowned and helped Hermione smooth out the wrinkles in her Slytherin green dress. "If he does, you can be sure to have me slap him silly."
Hermione grinned. "Sometimes I would be lost without you."
Hannah came into the room then with Draco on her heels. He looked tired and ready to plop down on a bed, a couch, anywhere really.
"Draco!" Hermione cried. She could see he was bleeding. He'd been away from the town for the last year. She hasn't seen her husband in over a year. She'd only known he was going to see his father because Seamus Finnegan had written her. He and Cho Chang were on a surveillance mission there, scoping out the area for any survivors of the war that weren't enemies to their village.
"Hiya, love," he smiled. He grunted as he held his side tighter. His white button down shirt was soaked with blood.
He could sense Hermione's worry as he walked towards her, rather haphazardly like he was drunk. "It's nothing... just a knife wound. Dad and I.. we got into an argument..." Draco stumbled into her arms and Ginny helped Hermione get him over to the couch in the next room.
"Oh, what am I going to do with you?" Hermione whispered.