Just Focus
Narcissa was sitting in the dining room when she saw her husband’s patronus come racing toward her. As she listened to his message, her sister and her husband walked in and sat at the table. “Cissy, what’s wrong?” asked Bellatrix. Tom looked at her pale face. Narcissa felt ready to vomit. “They found her. But she’s losing control. They need two focus stones, Bella. Two! Most people don’t even need one! I knew Hermione was going to be powerful, but I didn’t think it would be like this!” Tom stood suddenly and raced upstairs to his room. Bella and Narcissa followed him and found him throwing things around the room. He dug through the chest he had grabbed from his vault. “Each founder had their own focus stone. Like many people though, none of them needed two. Bella, did you find Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff’s stones?” Bellatrix looked confused. “Why would I find Hufflepuff’s? I’m only related to Ravenclaw. I do have her stone in my trunk, though.” Tom shook his head. Didn’t anyone get inheritance tests done anymore? “No, Bella. You are related to both. Just like I’m related to Gryffindor. It’s why I couldn’t have ever harmed Harold. We’re family whether he likes it or not."
With a muttered “aha!” Tom finally pulled out Slytherin’s focus stone. It was a vibrant emerald green and it was glowing with unreleased power. “Are you sure that the founders’ stones will work for Hermione? What if she needs her own? Or all four of them; how would you get the other two?” Bella asked in a worried tone. “The two that we have will be enough to calm her down enough for us to get everyone to safety. After she’s away from the situation, she’ll be able to breathe more easily and get the rest of her control back. Once she’s calm, we’ll see if she needs the other two.” Bellatrix looked at Tom, remaining unconvinced that she was a bloody Hufflepuff of all things. “We do not have the time to debate about this! Bellatrix, go get Ravenclaw’s stone so that we can go save your daughter from her own rage.” Narcissa stated while rolling her eyes at her sister’s lack of research into her own family. Frankly, even Andromeda had researched their family tree and found the connection to Hufflepuff. For Bella to not see the resemblance was pure stupidity. Once Bella had retrieved the stone, Narcissa took their hands and thought of being at her husband’s side. She focused on her wedding band and poured her magic into it, triggering the portkey contained within.
With a small, almost inaudible ‘pop’, they disappeared from the Malfoy mansion and reappeared in the Grangers’ living room. Once there, they all realized that everything was utter mayhem. Hermione was kneeling near Lord Black’s side whispering desperately to him while crying. The wind was still surging around the room with every sob that heaved from her shoulders. The light that had been permeating the entire room now resided only just outside Hermione’s body, and it was now an amber gold as opposed to the dark grey it had been. Tom’s eyes were darting around, assessing the situation, when he noticed Emma Granger’s body lying only a few feet away from Hermione. When Bella saw Emma’s face, she grew angry. “What the bloody hell? Tom, that woman was our nanny!” Tom’s head whipped back towards Emma and he walked over to her. There was a bloodstained knife in her chest. Bella took one look at the knife and growled. “That’s a family knife. One of the few that can harm a Black. She must have taken it when she kidnapped Hermione.” They both walked over to Hermione, intending to calm her down, when Narcissa stopped them. “She’s in a healing trance. You can’t stop her. If you try, they will both die.”
Tom just closed his eyes and sighed. “So, correct me if I’m wrong. Hermione is extremely powerful, she’s an empath, and she’s a healer? How many other things can she do?” Bellatrix laughed, looking at her daughter fondly. “Really darling, this shouldn’t be surprising considering she was performing accidental magic at the age of 1.” Suddenly, they heard a cry of alarm. Hermione had slumped over onto Lord Black and he was looking around as if searching for someone. His eyes landed on his son (there was no denying that he saw Tom as his son, he would do anything for the boy). Tom saw his father beckon him closer and walked over to him. “I’ll tell you what I remember later. Right now, we need to get out of here. That light show will get every muggle’s attention. Hermione’s exhausted. We need to get her to Black manor so Narcissa and the elves can take care of her.” Hermione was starting to wake up to all the voices around her. She heard the unfamiliar voices and tensed her body, ready to fight again if she needed to. She hoped that wouldn’t be necessary because she was so tired. She wanted to fall back asleep but sat up instead.
Hermione saw Bellatrix standing next to her and blanched. She looked towards her grandfather and relaxed slightly, at least until she saw Tom. When Hermione started hyperventilating, Abraxas walked over slowly, so she could see every move he made. “Hermione, remember your breathing exercises. Breathe in and out slowly, count from 1 to 20, then count backwards.” Abraxas was breathing with her to help her calm down. Bella looked at Tom with confusion filling her eyes. “Lucius, is this your missing older brother?” Tom asked Lucius quietly. Lucius beamed at them with pride. “Father claimed that he had been murdered by muggles but he’s been here in London this whole time!” Hermione started breathing normally and got up and stood next to Abraxas.
“If all that hadn’t just happened, I would be asking what the bloody hell you three were doing in my house. Either way, we can’t stay here. The police will be here soon to investigate. Where are we going?” Lord Black stood with the help of his children. They all looked at Hermione in awe. After everything she had just gone through, she was still functioning reasonably well. “We are going to Malfoy Manor, formerly known as Black Manor. The wards there will keep us all safe, we just have to activate the other rest of them.” Lucius’ head whipped towards his father-in-law. “But all of them are already activated!” he sputtered. Hermione snorted and gave him a wry smirk. “Do you honestly believe that the Black family would just hand out all of their secrets? I’m muggle-raised and even I know they weren’t all activated when you were given the manor. People would have asked too many questions about wards no one has seen since the founder’s time.” Lord Black was shocked. No one outside of the family knew the secrets of the wards.
Hermione smirked at him and started talking again. “We need to leave now. Uncle, I think you and Anderson should stay so that you can give them a plausible explanation." Anderson coughed lightly. "Oh, don't give me that, I can see the wand-holster on your forearm." Hermione said rolling her eyes. "Now, I had left the house with friends before you guys got here. After you left, the Grangers started arguing and Alan attacked Emma with the knife. In her defense, she choked him until he fell unconscious. Unfortunately, before help could arrive, she fell unconscious due to her blood loss. You both had a gut feeling that something wasn’t right so you came back to see this. If anyone asks about the light show, you weren’t here for that. Does that sound good to you?” Abraxas silently observed her for a moment. "I believe that should work. Are you sure you're a Gryffindor?" He asked her, trying not to laugh. Bella and Tom smirked at each other and turned as one to their daughter. "I'm sure, Uncle. Although the sorting hat did consider putting me in Ravenclaw." Hermione was genuinely smiling now. Her smile disappeared as she heard sirens in the distance. "If we're going to leave, we need to go now. I'll go with one of you since I've never been there before." Bellatrix started to move towards Hermione, but Narcissa shook her head and took her niece's hand instead. "We'll see you all in a moment." With that, Narcissa sent a meaningful look to her sister and disapparated. Bellatrix looked at Tom, her eyes full of anger and, strangely enough, disappointment. "Can you honestly be that surprised? We've hardly been kind to the children." Tom said quietly. "We need to leave as well. Hermione's right, there will be too many unanswered questions as it is without adding our presence to the mix." Lord Black said looking around the room. As everyone else left, he took one last look around the house, nodded to Abraxas and activated his own portkey. Abraxas let out a small sigh. "And now to report to our boss yet again." He said to Anderson, pulling out a small mirror and tapping on a rune. "At least Sirius gave us something useful before he left." Abraxas said as a face showed up on the mirror. "What happened, Unspeakable Malfoy?" the figure asked.