Eleven
September 15th 2017:
It’s been fourteen days since Lyra’s disappearance. It’s been twelve since Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy received the picture of their daughter, shackled to a bed.
In the fourteen days since her daughter was taken, Hermione Granger has slept a total of twenty hours. Which adds up to about 2 hours a day. Between her missing child, the amount of potions she is taking and her caffeine intake, it is no surprise that she is going insane.
“Someone should just knock her out.” Pansy suggested. “Just a little spell, nothing to hurt her.”
“You can’t just hit her in the back with a sleeping spell. She is still the Minister.” Theo rebutted.
“We could pour a potion in her tea that would knock her out.” Ginny suggested. “She’d do it to me after I had Lily.”
“No, with the amount of potions she’s been taking, we can’t give her another one.” Draco said. They all stood outside Hermione’s office watching as she looked over every single letter sent to Lyra and to herself.
“How are you even standing straight up right now? I’ve barely seen you sleep.” Ginny asked Malfoy.
“I’ve trained my body to only need four hours of sleep a night. I’ve been that way since sixth year. It’s hard to sleep when there's a dark lord living in your house.”
“That’s not healthy.” Draco shrugged. It was perfectly healthy for him.
“Maybe we should just talk to her.” Katie Suggested. “Tell her that we’re concerned for her and that she needs to go take a nap.”
“Good luck with that, love.” Ron told his wife. “Hermione doesn’t respond well to people telling her what to do.”
Draco opened his mouth ready to make a not so appropriate comment.
“No one wants to hear whatever dirty thing is about to come out of your mouth.” Pansy shut him down. “I don’t care if she doesn’t like it. This isn’t going to help Lyra. She needs to rest so that big swotty brain of his is at full capacity. I’m going in there and telling her she needs to rest.” Pansy barged into Hermione’s office.
“Granger,”
“What is it? I’m a little busy working. Maybe we’d be getting somewhere if you would stop standing around talking about me, and actually look into these letters with me.”
“Granger, take a damn nap. You are not being productive like this. You have slept a total of twenty hours in the past two weeks. That is not remotely healthy. You’re loaded up on potions to keep you awake and you have enough caffeine in your body to power one of those muggle spaceships.”
“That’s not how spaceships work.”
“I don’t bloody care. I care about Lyra and you going on like this, not helping her!”
“Don’t you dare say that I am not helping her.” Hermione stood up from her spot on the ground. “I’m doing everything I can to find my daughter. Put yourself in my place.”
“If i were in your place, I’d have one, maybe two Aurors on the case. You're the bloody Minister. The whole Auror department is trying to find anything that leads to your daughter. You can stop for a few hours to take a bloody nap.”
“Get out Pansy.”
“I’m worried about her too. I want to find her just as much as you do. My daughter is blaming herself for Lyra’s disappearance because she didn’t say anything about the letters. We all want to find her. But if you keep going like this, you won’t.” Pansy left the office. “She’s a lost cause.” Pansy mumbled to the group of adults and walked away towards the ladies room.
“I’ll be back.” Blaise said following his wife.
“I’m going in.” Ginny started to walk towards the office but Malfoy stopped her.
“Red, I think I need to go. I’m probably the only one she can relate to right now.” Ginny nodded.
Draco walked into the office, closing the door behind him.
“If you’re here to tell me to take a nap, I will hex you.” Hermione spoke before looking up to see who entered the room.
“I’d like to see you try.” Malfoy said with a smirk. “Have you found anything yet?”
“Not really. Just a lot of talk about blood status.” Hermione looked up and Draco. “All the letters addressed to me are harsh, angry, and violent. But the ones to Lyra are almost forgiving. Whoever wrote them has mentioned her blood status is ‘forgivable’ because of her father’s line.”
“So it’s definitely someone who is still prejudiced. We should take a look at any death eaters who were released around the time Lyra was born, when she started receiving letters, and when you started receiving letters. We also need to take a look at the death eaters who were never captured.”
“I’ll get on that right now.” She stood up and started walking towards the door but Draco stopped her. “Let me go.”
“No. I’ll send Potter to get the lists. You are going to lay your arse down and take a bloody nap.”
“How can you of all people try to make me rest right now? I can’t rest while our daughter is out there.”
“You can and you will.” Draco placed his hands on Hermione’s shoulders and pushed her towards the couch in her office. “We’re not going to find her today, Granger. As much as I hate to admit it, it’s going to take time to find her. If you keep going down the path you’re going down right now, it won’t end well. Take a nap.” Draco pushed her down on the couch. “I will be right back. When I come back in, I expect your heels to be off, and for you to be curled up on this couch.”
“Yes, sir.” Hermione mumbled. Draco smirked and walked away from her. Opening the door, he stepped back out to see Pansy and Blaise had returned.
“We need a list of any convicted death eaters released since the year Lyra was born. Take special notes of any released the year Hermione started getting the letters and when Lyra started getting letters. And get a list of any death eaters that were never caught. I will also need someone to make sure no one disturbs the room for at least six hours. I’ve gotten her to agree to sleep.”
“We’ll get the death eaters.” Harry and Ron said.
“I’ll make sure she’s undisturbed.” Katie sat at her desk, outside of the minister’s office.
“We can go get food for when she wakes up” Pansy volunteered her, Blaise, and Theo.
“And I’ll go get her a change of clothes.”
“And what will you be doing?” Theo asked suspiciously.
“I will be staying with her to make sure she actually sleeps. I’m the one who got her to argue about taking a break so it is safe to assume that she’ll listen to me.” Draco couldn’t help but feel flattered.
“Let’s all meet in the conference room down the hall at,” Harry paused to look at his watch, “It’s noon right now so let’s say at six o’clock?” Harry asked the room and they all agreed.
“See you all then.” Draco reentered Hermione’s office, closing the door behind him. When he walked in, he saw Hermione sitting on the couch, heels off, and reading a book.
When he took a closer look at the book, he realized what it was.
“You kept it?” Draco asked her.
“You think I'd throw away a first edition book just because the man who gave it to me broke up with me?” Hermione was offended.
“I forgot. You love books more than most people.” Draco went and sat next to Hermione.
“I would read this to Lyra all the time when she was younger. When she got her Hogwarts letter, she stole it from my room and read it. I found her under the covers with it one night. She reminded me so much of myself at that age that I went and bought the newest edition for her.”
“Tell me more about her.” Draco asked quietly.
“Aren’t I supposed to be resting?”
“Lay down and then tell me about her.” Draco grabbed a pillow and placed it on his lap. Hermione blushed before moving to lay her head down on it.
“She is the brightest light in the darkness. She’s too smart and mature for her age. Sometimes I worry that she’s too much like us. She’s either reading or doing homework or out playing Quidditch. She wants to play for the falmouth falcons one day. Ginny keeps pushing her to the harpies but that’s when Harry and I have to separate the two. She’s the fastest seeker since Harry.” Draco made a face. “You have to look at the facts. Harry was the better seeker.”
“I had a lot of familial issues distracting me.” Draco defended. “And eighth year, Slytherin won the house cup because of my winning catch. I’d be certain that you remember the after party. I certainly do.” Hermione rolled her eyes.
“I’ve been thinking about how she is feeling right now, and honestly, she’s probably thinking about all the school she is missing.” They both laughed.
“She got that from you. Swottiest Witch of her Age.”
“I believe the nickname is Brightest Witch of her Age.”
“Yes well I’ve stopped going along with nicknames the wizarding world gives you.” Draco’s hands went to Hermione’s upper arm, right where her scar is.
“It’s not there anymore.” Hermione mumbled.
“What?”
“It disappeared after I got pregnant.” The realization covered his face.
“My blood was the answer.” Hermione nodded.
“It makes sense. Bellatrix used her knife, which you always said had a blood curse on it. You share the same blood as her so, of course your blood would be the cure.” Draco was at a loss for words.
“Go to sleep now Granger.”
“Okay.” She said softly. Within minutes, her breathing evened out and she was asleep.
Draco sat there admiring her for a moment. And just for a second, he let himself think of a future he could have with her. They’d been reunited. Of course by an awful circumstance, but nonetheless, they are back in each other’s lives now. And because of their daughter, they will always be in each other’s life.
Draco let himself drift off the sleep, dreaming of a life where he had Hermione and Lyra at his side.
Hours later, right before six o’clock when the group was supposed to meet, Ginny and Pansy slowly crept into Hermione’s office. They were greeted with the sight of Draco Malfloy sleeping peacefully with Hermione Granger in his lap.
“Should we wake them up?” Ginny asked and Pansy shook her head.
“Let’s give them a few more minutes before we wake them.” The two retreated back, joining the group in the conference room and sharing what they had just seen.
“Start placing bets as to when they get back together.” Theo was the first to say something.
“I don’t think they will. At least not until they find Lyra.” Pansy shared with the group.
“That means we will be dealing with their very intense sexual tension until we find their daughter.” Ginny said and the three Slytherins agreed.
“I can’t believe we have to go through that again,” Blaise groaned.
“How bad was it back at School?”
“Remember how bad Lavender and Ron were in school?” Ginny asked her husband and he nodded. “Now imagine that but not actually being able to touch each other and then multiply it by four.”
“Damn.” Harry said and they all laughed.
“The most dramatic thing about it was that they were actually together at that point but hadn’t told us.” Pansy mumbled but the whole group heard.
“Those two have the most sexual tension I have ever seen. Even more than Pansy and Blaise when they were pretending they weren't together. What is it with the secret relationships in this group?” Pansy replied by smacking the back of his head.
“Let’s just find Lyra and then we can worry about getting those two back together.” Harry announced to the group.
“Agreed.”
“What do you all agree on?” Hermione asked, walking into the conference room with Draco right behind her.
“Nothing of importance.” Ginny told her.
“Anyways, let’s go over the lists that Malfoy told us to get.” Ron handed them all copies of the list. “Let’s look for anyone who would have the resources to figure out Lyra is related to Malfoy. Anyone with ties to the Malfoy Family.”
“Look for anyone released in 2001, 2004, 2012, or 2014.” Hermione said.
“Why are we looking at so many different dates?” Theo asked. “Also why are we doing this and not the Auror department?”
“You volunteered to be here.” Draco stated. “The Auror department is trying to figure out how she was captured and when.”
“They are also working on other cases as well which are just as important. As much as I would like to abuse my power and put every single Auror on this case, some still need to be available for other cases.”
“What is the importance of those specific years?” Blaise asked
“2001 was the year Lyra was born. 2004 was the year Hermione became minister. 2012 was the year Lyra started Hogwarts and started to receive letters and 2014 was the year Hermione started to receive letters. It was the ten year anniversary of her becoming Minister.” Katie told everyone.
“Wait, Lyra started receiving letters in 2012 but Hermione received them in 2014?” Draco asked. “We should go back and look at the earlier letters she received.”
“I’ll go grab them.” Hermione left the room and came back with a box of letters. “These are all from 2012 to 2014.”
“Wait.” Ginny stood up. “In 2014 you passed the law that finally and truly put an end to the superiority of Purebloods. It was the Heritage Protection Act. You gave all wizarding beings, regardless of blood, equal rights. Even Goblins, Centars, Werewolves and other creatures were given equal rights because of this law.”
“Ginny’s right. That had to have been the trigger to turn violent. These letters aren’t violent towards Lyra. A little mean, but no threats.” Theo held them up. “Until 2014, they speak as if they are trying to get to know her. Nothing indicates that Lyra was writing back though.”
“Draco, wasn’t Goyle sentenced fifteen years?” Blaise asked, looking down at his paper.
“Yes. Why?”
“He was released in 2012. That’s only fourteen.”
“I signed for an early release.” Hermione stated. “I remember when his file came across my desk. He was a low level death eater and Azkaban needed more room. I signed for an early release because he only had a few months left on his sentence.”
“He was released August 1st, 2012” Blaise announced.
“Lyra’s eleventh birthday.” After Ginny shared the importance of the date, they all looked to Hermione.
“Why would Goyle kidnap Lyra? What motive would he have? What resources would he have? He already wasn’t a part of the wealthier families, but since his father died and he was sent to Azkaban, ninety percent of his money was taken from him as well as his ancestral home.” Harry informed the room.
“Not to mention he was an idiot.” Ginny added.
“Even if he’s a part of this, he’s not the leader.” Hermione pointed out the obvious. “Harry, you look into his correspondence while in Azkaban. He was a lower level prisoner which meant he could send owl’s. Ron try to find where he is now. Try to find any last known addresses.”
“I’m going to Azkaban. I’ll talk to the guards there to see if Goyle had any visitors or seemed suspicious.” Draco volunteered himself.
“Malfoy,” Harry paused. “Maybe talk to your father too.”
“You don’t have to. I can send someone else.”
“No. I want to be the one to tell him I got Hermione Granger pregnant.” Draco had a smirk on his face. “I’d like to rub it in his face that his only grandchild is a half-blood.”
“Granger, you should go with him.” Pansy suggested.
“Oi, you should pretend the two of you are getting married. Really mess with old Lucius.” Theo suggested and Draco shook his head.
“I don’t want you anywhere near my father.” Draco shut it down before Hermione could say anything.
“I want to go. I want to see the look on his face when you tell him.”
“No.”
“You can’t tell me no.”
“I just did.”
“I’m the bloody Minister. I can go wherever I want.”
“It’s my bloody father. I have control who visits him.”
“Technically, you can’t stop the Minister from seeing him though.” Harry shared and got a glare from Malfoy.
“If anything, I can tell you no.”
“Bloody hell you stubborn woman. Let’s go.”