Chapter 27
None of us slept. We were tossing and turning all night. Theo got up at one point and went out for a cigarette because he was so anxious. The sun wasn’t even up yet and we were all sat in the living room wide awake. I was curled up in Dracos lap and Theo was drinking coffee, the smell taunting me.
“I can’t believe, I can’t have a coffee when I need it most.” I put my head in my hands and sighed. "Who was it that decided coffee wasn't allowed while pregnant? I want to see the science behind this decision because it's not acceptable. I can't have anything good. No coffee, no alcohol, not even soft cheese. I don't care for it much but I'd like to have the option." I was just babbling now.
“You can have a…”
“Do not. Say the word decaf to me right now Theodore.” Theo stopped talking and continued to sip on his coffee with a smile making Draco laugh a little.
“I'm sorry darling. You’ll sleep better tonight hopefully.” Draco said cuddling me tighter.
"I guess that depends on how today goes. I have some dreamless sleep but I did some more research and I can't have that either! You two are welcome to it though, someone should use it." Theo shook his head and leaned forward putting the mug on the table.
"Draco should take it. If you can't have any and we're both out for the count and you have a night terror, I don't want us to sleep through it. You can take it tonight and I'll take it tomorrow if you want?"
"But what if you have one though? Hermione couldn't hold me down on her own last time so I think it's best that no one take it. Sleep is overrated anyway." I laughed a bit manically and groaned. “You can try and get some sleep now if you want. I’m not going anywhere.” It was worth a try I guess. I rest my head on his chest and closed my eyes begging for sleep.
I was woke up at the sound of the front door closing. I opened my eyes and saw Theo walk in and sit back down. “Good thing you’re not quitting until after today.” I said smiling at him. “How long was I asleep?” It was light now.
“About three hours.” Draco said looking at his watch. Thank Gods for that.
“Did you manage to get any?” They shook their heads and I sighed feeling guilty. “Sorry.” Draco kissed me on the head.
“Don’t apologise. You need it more than us. You’re growing another human as we speak. I can imagine that’s pretty tiring anyway let alone everything else. I know you have both said not to say it again, but I'm so sorry you're having to go through this. I should have seen it coming."
"You couldn't have known she would threaten us. Unfortunately she is well aware of the fact we really don't want much to do with the wizarding world for a while and is using that to her advantage. Honestly my biggest concern is if we are going to get anymore parcels like Hermiones" Theo admitted his face irritated.
"I think more will come." I said honestly. "But we will worry about that when it happens. That’s probably all the sleep I'm going to get so I’m going to go shower. You’ll tell us what’s happening later?” Draco still hadn’t gone over how it would go with us yet. A lot had gone on since and there was never a good time. Draco moved a hand to my hair fiddling with a strand.
“Yeah of course I will. Please just know that nothing will happen to you when we’re there. I can’t control what she says to us but I can control what she does and she won’t get anywhere near either of you.” I looked to Theo who was looking straight ahead.
“Are you both going to occlude do you think?” Draco also looked to Theo now probably nervous with his answer.
“I think I have to. I want to have my wits about me, I can’t just freeze like I did yesterday. Especially since you’re going to.” I looked up at Draco who seemed worried but also understanding that he was going to occlude. Theo seemed to notice his concern too. “I’ll be careful, don’t worry.” I moved to get off of Dracos lap and went to shower.
I had just been sick for the third time this morning, the mixture of morning sickness and anxiety causing me to be unable to eat anything.
“You’re sure you’re going to be okay? I don’t want this stupid meeting to affect all the progress you’ve made what if this makes you go…”
“Theo this is normal. You know I’ve been sick more often than not but today is a given because I’m so anxious.” I walked to him placing my hand on his cheek. “Please try and look after yourself today for once. You’re always so busy looking after us and that’s great but you’re just as important.” Theo scoffed and brought his hand up holding mine.
“I have to look after you. It makes me feel like I’m doing something good.” I smiled and put my head on his chest wrapping my arms around his waist and whispered.
“You are good.” He hugged me back and Draco came out of the office smiling at us leaning against the office doorway letting us stay uninterrupted for a minute. He spoke after a while.
“I’m sorry but we should talk about what’s going to happen.” Theo sighed and we came out of the hug Draco coming to stand in front of us.
“I’ve sorted the legal agreement that she has now signed to say she get's one visit and that's it. All ties with me are cut after that. It’s been checked over by the best lawyers I could find and there is no wriggle room for her to pull this shit again.” He looked to me sadly and took in a breathe. “I’m sorry darling I really did try my best but she wouldn't budge and is adamant to meet us in the dining room. And we can't get to it without walking through the drawing room." I looked down shaking my head and laughed ironically.
"Bet she’s real proud of herself for that one." I said my words laced with sarcasm and hatred. Theo wrapped his arm around my shoulders and Draco continued talking after giving me an apologetic look.
"Please, don't leave my side the whole time you are there. There will be aurors about anyway because she has to be watched at all times but I am asking you not to let go of mine or Theos hand for the visit." I nodded and took a shaky breathe in. "And I'm sorry for this but I have to occlude to be able to go back there. I can't.." I nodded again in understanding.
"Do what you have to do." Draco nodded then stood in front of Theo.
"Theo I'm not asking you not to occlude. But just go careful okay? I don't want you going too far and I know you haven't done it in a while." Theo just nodded once. "I still don't actually know what she wants. We have to apparate to outside of the gate, because there are wards on the property so we can't apparate in. You can apparate while pregnant can’t you?”
“I can yes but later on in the pregnancy that’s when I can’t do it too often. But I can still do it for now, it just makes me feel sick.” Draco nodded and we all held hands taking another steadying breathe. "Lets get this over with." We apparated to outside the gates of the manor and I stared up at them as they towered over us. I was shocked at how it was still so dark and gloomy, just as I remembered. I could practically feel the evil coming from the manor and it was hard to believe Draco grew up here. There was just not an ounce of homey feeling or warmth in the entire place. We stood for a while before an auror approached opening the gate for us. Theo and Draco took a step forward, but my legs were frozen in place, and I was unable to move. It felt like both my feet were nailed to the floor, I was so terrified to go in for fear of not coming back out, just like I had the first time. Draco stepped back toward me his face sad.
"Take your time." I have no idea how long I was stood there before I finally stepped forward with them. We all walked slowly toward the manor door that another auror opened as we approached my heart quickening with every step we took closer. One hand was grasped in Dracos and I put my other hand on my stomach, almost as if to protect it somehow from the cruel atmosphere that settled around us as we stepped inside. It looked the same. I looked to the left past Theo and saw the drawing room we would have to walk through to go to the dining room. I internally swore and he followed my gaze then turned back to me. I was reliving my nightmare. I could see Bellatrix's evil smile, hear her cackle echoing around in my head. I was in a night terror and I couldn’t wake up from it. I looked away from it turning to Draco my face panicked.
“You’re safe. I promise. Don't go until you’re ready, and we’ll follow.” I turned back to it and took a few deep breathes. I had to do this. I finally moved to walk through Draco following behind me still clutching my hand in his. I stopped and looked across the room. There was one auror stood against the wall over the other side. I looked down to the floor and stared at the exact spot that I led screaming and crying, while having my arm carved into. I could feel it all over again, my arm ached. I must have been staring a while as Theo walked past Draco and stood in front of me blocking my view from it any longer and placed his fingers on my chin gently lifting upward. I looked into his eyes seeing the storm of pain and anger reflected in them.
"It's just a floor.” He whispered. "She's dead. Nothing, is going to hurt you here. Not again." he moved his fingertips to my cheek and smoothed over it once before I turned my head away. Theo led on through the door way to the dining room and I felt Draco tense beside me as we followed him in. Narcissa was sat at the far end of the long table furthest away from us. There was an auror stood in each corner of the room. She looked pretty much the same, but seemed to have aged a lot. She was frail and skinny, but we all knew she was by no means weak, regardless of her misleading exterior. We all stayed as close to the exit as possible. She stared at us all moving her eyes from one face to the next, before they settled on my stomach. Theo moved in front of me protectively hiding as much of me as he could without blocking my view. Narcissa smiled flashing her teeth.
“Thank you, for joining me today. I’m so sorry we had to meet under these circumstances but I was left with no choice. Draco has been ignoring my requests for a visit for weeks.” I didn't even know she had made prior requests. None of us responded. She placed her hands on the table and stood beginning to slowly walk toward us. No one else moved.
“Hermione I’m sorry to have made you come through the drawing room. I know it doesn’t hold particularly good memories for you does it?” I stared back at her still not speaking. She wanted a reaction but she wasn’t getting one. She continued walking toward us and Draco passed my hand into Theo’s moving to stand in front of us stopping her from coming any closer.
“Close enough.” His voice was stern and held promises of a threat. She raised her hands claiming innocence and he stepped back a bit taking my other hand in his. She looked down and noticed the ring her eyes narrowed.
“You are all to be married? Hm. I actually didn't know that." She seemed genuinely surprised. Still neither of us spoke.
"I'm sure you’re wondering why I dragged you here to this place you all so deeply hate. It's not for a catch up. No. I’ve got someone following you already so I know what’s been going on between you all. We’ve become very close friends, me and them. We share similar feelings.” She laughed a little. “Well, almost anyway. I hate that my son has ended up with a mudblood.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed. Her eyes pierced into mine clearly irritated I didn’t care for her choice of insult. I squeezed Theo and Dracos hands trying to communicate not to retaliate. “My friend hates it too, although for different reasons which I won’t bore you with now.” I found the courage to talk.
“If you hate me so much, why did you help Harry to live? I'd have been killed if you didn't help, so why?” She snapped her eyes back to me and smiled. It was so like Bellatrixs it made me shiver.
“Never forgets a thing does she. I agreed with Voldemort and his views but I didn’t want him to rule over me or my husband any longer. So thought it best he die, and I thought you were supposed to be smart. You wouldn't have been killed, though you would have wished you were. Didn't they tell you what happened to the muggles that were down in my dungeon?”
"Okay then why are you trying to hurt Draco? You cared for him. You made Snape make an unbreakable vow, you asked Harry before pronouncing him dead if he was still alive. He clearly means something to you." She frowned and stepped to the side as to get me more in her view.
“I still want whats best for my son, and Hermione Granger, Golden Girl of The Golden Trio, is not it." She turned to Theo and grimaced. "Neither are you Theodore. Your Father was always right about you. It’s a shame. If you were half the man he was you’d be so much stronger, so much better suited for Draco here. Your Mothers love made you weak.” She really was trying to hit us all as hard as possible.
“That's enough." Draco said his voice still laced with threat. She grinned again happy with herself and continued talking.
“Yes well anyway, as I was saying my friend and me don’t like what’s happening here. Plus the thought of you possibly sullying the Malfoy blood line, bringing this abomination into the world, quite frankly disgusts me. So I wanted to give you an opportunity to end it now. Get rid of that child, end this relationship.” Draco scoffed. “I may not be able to threaten you any longer or force you back here after today, but whoever my friend is, they can and they will. He knows where you live, knows where you work, and will not stop until you are through.” Draco stepped forward towering over her.
“I will find out, who your ‘friend’ is. You do not scare me. Your threats, are empty. I am no longer owned by you. No longer controlled, by you. You’re going to live the rest of your limited years, in this big empty house and die alone. As for the photos, you forget that this woman, who you hate so much because of something she had no control over, she knows how to love. Her heart is full of forgiveness and she does not judge us on our past mistakes. And I almost feel sorry for you, that you’ll never know what real love is. Because your relationship was built on fear and power. Nothing more.” Narcissa was almost shaking with rage. Draco quietened his voice a little. "I don't know, how you have convinced yourself that you're doing this for me. But if you have any care left for me, as my Mother, you will stop this. I'm happy, and I'm sorry that you can't be."
Draco stepped back and gestured for me to go first and I walked out Theo holding my hand behind me and Draco coming last. We walked fast through the drawing room out the front door. As soon as we were out of the gate, we all took a deep breathe. I could finally breathe again. It felt like I had been underwater that whole time, gasping for air. None of us spoke until we apparated back to the flat though when we did get home I went instantly dizzy. Apparating while pregnant really was a lot harder to not throw up afterwards. I sat down putting my head in my hands closing my eyes waiting for the feeling to pass. She really went too far with what she said. Draco stood straight in front of Theo making him meet his eyes.
“I’m so sorry, she said those things to you. But you can’t keep occluding.” Theo stopped and Draco pulled him in for a hug. He pulled back and they turned their gazes back toward me. I was sat back and trailed my hand over my stomach the feeling slightly comforting.
“Will they threaten our baby? The person she says is watching us.” My voice was quiet.
“I don't know, but we’ll find out who they are darling.” I put my mind back into survival mode. Going through all of the facts I had, we just needed to fill in the blanks.
"It has to be someone who spends a lot of time at the manor, meaning it’s an auror or a healer. They would have needed to spend a lot of time with her. To plan this whole thing, and to be able keep her in the loop. She can't talk with anyone but you outside of those walls. If I can get a list of the people who have spent a lot of time working there then I can.."
"No." I stopped talking and looked up at Draco his face stern. "You're not doing this. This is my mess to clean up, not yours. I can't have you stressing over this especially, not while pregnant, I will not let this take over your life." I stood up my irritation clear.
"It already has. Are we going to be able to continue living normally knowing there’s someone out there watching our every move? This will be on my mind all of the time especially when I leave the house. And what if that’s not the last of the ‘gifts’ your Mother had planned? You have no idea, what they’ve been planning. They could become dangerous.” Theo ran his hand through his hair.
“Sweetheart we will work it out but you have to understand we’re not going to put you or our child in danger. Please let us handle this.” I looked away from them both shaking my head my hands on my hips.
“If you don't allow me to help I'll just do it by myself anyway. So it's up to you two if you'd rather know what I’m up to or not." There was no way I wasn’t helping them find the bastard that was threatening my family. Theo sighed frustrated and him and Draco exchanged a look.
“Fine. You can help but you will not put yourself in danger, do you understand me? I mean it, do not go back to that manor do not go on your own investigations and do not contact Narcissa. Everything you have to do with this, you run it past us. If we find out that you are doing anything that we aren't aware of that has to do with this, it's not going to go down well.” Theo’s voice was thick with dominance. Draco had his arms crossed staring at me waiting for an answer.
“Okay.” Theo handed me his phone.
"Call Potter, get him over here. I’m going out for a smoke.” We watched him leave and Draco turned back to me slightly disappointed.
“What? I can't just not help with this and you know it.”
"He can't stand the thought of you getting hurt Hermione, and neither can I. We both know what you're like and I know you are determined, and head strong, and a very good witch, but like you said, this could get dangerous. Please, do not break our trust in you with this. I'm going to go in the office but don't come in for a bit. I need to stop occluding." I phoned Harry when he left and he said he would be over tomorrow morning after gathering some more information.
Neither of us spoke much at all the rest of the day. I think we were all trying to cope with the visit as well as racking our brains as to who the hell this person might be. I was thinking back to if I had seen anyone particular multiple times in places but I really hadn't paid much attention. I didn't think I would have to being in the muggle world. An oversight I will not be making again. There was another knock at the door and I stood to answer. I went to open it but Theo was at my side instantly and stopped me before I could. He shook his head and I stepped back.
“Just until we find out who it is. I don't trust anyone.” I nodded as he answered instead. I was worried this might happen. Paranoia settling in making everything and everyone a potential threat. Theo was handed another package similarly wrapped to the one I had received. The label read 'For Draco and Theodore.' We walked to the kitchen as Theo shouted for Draco to join us and we all stood around the kitchen island. It was placed in the center all of us staring at it.
"Okay, before we open that, is there anything about you that we don't know about that could be potentially upsetting? I'm just going off of what you got. We won't be mad just want some sort of warning where possible." I couldn't think of anything I had done that would upset them. But then again it may even be before we were together, that still didn't bring anything to mind though. I shook my head and Draco nodded picking up the parcel unwrapping it. Draco took out what was sat in the box and lay it out on the counter. There was just the one photo and a note that read 'She's not as faithful as you think.' The photo showed a moving image of the top half of me and Harry naked and kissing. Though it didn't look right. It was kind of foggy and grey. I frowned down at it and looked back up to them, both their faces unreadable.
"That's fake. I swear, that has never happened. Never." I was so confused. How has that even been done? I have no idea where it came from. Theo picked it up looking closer.
"It doesn't look real, but then it also does. I don't understand." Draco put his head in his hands and was breathing deeply. I took the photo from Theo and stared at it. This didn't make any sense. I put it back down.
"Do you believe me? I'd never do that to either of you. You know I wouldn't." Theo looked to Draco still unsure on what was real and what wasn't. Draco stood back up and looked at me shrugging.
"I really don't know what to believe right now. This is a complete mind fuck. You did spend an awful lot of time together on your own, how are we supposed to know this didn't happen?" I know he was mad but that was unfair.
"Yes we did but we were fighting a war Draco. I was more concerned with surviving and finding horcruxes so funnily enough sex wasn't exactly at the forefront of my mind. Even if it did happen at that time, it would have been before I got with you." I know that was not the best thing to say right now but I was pissed off too.
"As if that even matters right now. It looks too real to have been fabricated from nothing. And can I just say you're not doing a great job at convincing me that this isn't real with comments like that."
"I shouldn't have to convince you at all because it's not real!"
"We don't know that." I laughed a little and Theo stepped in his voice stern.
"Stop it both of you. Now I don't think this is real, there is a tiny bit of doubt I won't lie but for right now just go and cool off Draco. Please. Neither of you want to say something you'll regret later." Draco looked to Theo and then shook his head leaving the flat slamming the door behind him. I groaned and put my head down on the counter top. What a mess.
"It's not real Theo. I can get Harry over here right now to confirm that."
"Honestly that won't help. After seeing that, real or not, I don't really wanna see him right now. Draco's probably gone to the gym or something so we'll wait for him to get back and just go from there. I'll be back in a minute." Theo left too and I sighed looking at the photo again. How the fuck has someone made this?
Draco had come back about two hours after he left sweaty from working out. I was led on the sofa when he came in but didn't speak when he did. I couldn't be bothered to argue anymore. Theo was in the kitchen and Draco went to talk to him, though I couldn't hear their conversation. After a couple of minutes Draco went upstairs to shower and Theo sighed. Guess he still didn't believe me.
It was another night of tossing and turning, being awake and anxious all night. I was curled up on the armchair by the fireplace while Theo and Draco were led in bed. I hadn't got in the bed at all and I stayed on the chair all night. I have no idea what they were thinking about that stupid photo. I needed to talk to Harry but I better leave it until we've spoke about it again together. I don't want to give them any reason not to trust me if I contact him without their knowledge it could make things worse.
It was just past 9am and I hadn't slept a wink. I heard a knock at the door downstairs and sat debating whether to answer it considering Theos warning yesterday. Then again I didn't care much for what they said right now. I looked back to them and neither of them moved confirming they were asleep. I made my way downstairs and answered the door. It was another delivery, a different guy again. They extended out the parcel and I took it reluctantly seeing the wrapping was the same. What the fuck was it this time. I nodded to the man but he stared into my eyes, almost as if he wanted to say something. I had a bad feeling in my gut. Something seemed off.
"Home alone?" That's a weird question.
"No." I went to shut the door but he stopped it from closing placing his foot in the way. I looked back up to him and he smiled wickedly drawing his wand.