FIC: Hope, Chapter Eleven (WIP 11/??)
Hi all,
After an extremely long hiatus, I am pleased to annouce the recommencement of Hope, something I have been working on for years, but am finally very close to finishing. I have another seven chapters already written and ready to go for you, and I think the story will be finished within the next couple of chapters. All up it will be approx 20 chapters or less.
Do to the long break, I have replicated all of the Fic information here for you.
Title: Hope
Author:
g_bowneyes
Rating: NC-17 (each chapter will contain appropriate warnings for strong themes)
Pairing: Harry/Draco, side Ron/Hermione
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of JK Rowling, I do not make any money from this and it's purely for entertainment's sake.
Warnings (for all chapters): infidelity, attempted suicide, angst in the extreme, dealing with pregnancy (not mpreg), an actual plot, angry!sex, potentially non-con and definitely dub-con sex, established relationships
Summary: What started as a family gathering for Christmas at the Burrow will end in dire consequences. Harry's life will change forever, for better or worse. Draco makes a life-changing mistake. And what's Ginny really up to anyway?
You can find Chapter One here should you wish to start from the beginning.
Chapter Eleven
-
Sometimes, we all need to learn to let go.
-
Ginny arrived back at the hospital a few hours later to find Hermione sitting with Neville in the waiting room. She was a bit confused to see the two of them alone together, after everything that had happened.
She glanced around then, searching for Harry, and noticed that Draco’s room was fully closed off to visitor access. She was immediately concerned. If Harry wasn’t in with Draco, where was he? He definitely wasn’t in the waiting room.
“Hermione,” she said, approaching the seated pair.
“Ginny, there you are.”
“What’s happened? Where’s Harry?”
“Draco had some health complications. They’re still working on stabilizing him, but there shouldn’t be any lasting damage. They caught it fast enough, thank Merlin,” Hermione sighed.
“Oh,” Ginny said, not really getting an answer to her question. She wanted to find Harry, it was so important to be there for him right now. She felt the details didn’t matter so much; she just needed to look after Harry.
“Harry’s gone to retrieve Draco’s medical records,” Hermione said vaguely, sensing Ginny was about to ask about Harry again.
“Has he found them, then?” Ginny asked. It was so frustrating how much information Hermione was withholding! She was sure they were all up to something again. Always leaving her out, like usual.
“He thinks so, otherwise he never would have left,” Hermione replied.
“Harry asked me to do some things for him, and I’ve brought him some more clothes,” Ginny said. “I’d better wait until he gets back.”
“If you want to go home and get some sleep, Ginny, you can leave the clothes with me and I can tell him anything you need to pass on,” Hermione offered.
“No thanks,” Ginny said immediately. “This better stay between me and Harry. I don’t think he’d like me telling everyone when he’s asked me to do this specifically.”
“Oh,” Hermione said, slight taken aback. “Of course, if you prefer.”
Ginny nodded, taking a seat. “Do you think he’ll be much longer?”
“We’re really not sure, but I hope not.”
“Look, the Medi-Wizard is coming over,” Neville said, pointing to the hallway.
Ginny watched as Hermione jumped to her feet.
“Draco is stable again, if you’d like to come with me I can take you to him,” the Medi-Wizard said, speaking directly to Hermione.
“Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Hermione exclaimed.
Ginny stood up, expecting to go into Draco’s room to wait for Harry with Hermione.
“I’m sorry, Miss,” the Medi- Wizard said, looking at Ginny. “I really think Mr Malfoy should have only one visitor at a time for the moment, and Mr Malfoy’s next of kin, Mr Potter, indicated he would like Mrs Weasley to sit with him until he returned. In a couple of hours we would be comfortable for you to visit Mr Malfoy, once he’s had more time to recover.”
“But surely, that means he meant me of course and you’ve just confused us. Please check again, I’m sure your records must say Miss Weasley.”
The Medi-Wizard checked the clipboard, lifted a page and cross checked. “No, the records I have here clearly say Mrs Hermione Weasley.”
“Oh,” Ginny said, stunned.
“I’m sorry for any inconvenience, but it is what’s best for Mr Malfoy.”
Ginny’s face screwed up in confusion, but she nodded absently all the same and sat back down, a chair over from Neville who had remained seated throughout the whole exchange.
Hermione looked apologetically at Ginny, and then followed the Medi-Wizard out of the waiting room and back towards Draco’s room, where she disappeared through the door.
Ginny sighed, leaning back into her chair in a huff.
Harry better get back soon, is all she could think. He would need her, and she needed to be there for him.
-
Two hours later, Ron and Harry stumbled back into St Mungo’s and to the floor Draco was on. They were both covered in cobwebs and scratches, having faced ancient and somewhat aggressive curse layers protecting the Malfoy vault. Knowing the solutions or correct pathways through the labyrinth didn’t necessarily mean you would get in and out unscathed, it seemed.
But Harry had in his hands a document wallet full of medical information on Draco, Naricssa and Lucius. Healer Periwinkle had been right, the Malfoys had kept a private physician and fully private medical records, and the vault had contained everything, even records of Draco’s visits to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.
They went to the waiting room first, and found Neville, who magically paged Healer Periwinkle. When he had found her earlier, she had shown him how to page her when Harry had returned, if she was needed. Minutes later, she rounded the corner and into the waiting room.
“We have his medical records,” Harry exclaimed, handing them over in the same motion. “I haven’t had time to go through them in detail, but it looks like everything you need to know about Draco will be in that file. I grabbed his parents’ files as well in case we needed it.”
“Excellent work, Harry. This is exactly what we needed. I’ll have this reviewed immediately and we can set to work on setting a magical recovery plan,” Healer Periwinkle said, already walking out of the door.
“Harry,” Ginny said, immediately rushing to his side. “I have that information you wanted from the Floo office, and a bag of things for you,” she exclaimed.
Harry blinked at her, surprised by her sudden appearance at his side.
“Thank you, Ginny,” Harry said awkwardly. He took the bag of clothes from her and deposited them carelessly onto an empty waiting chair. “When can I see Draco?” he immediately asked, addressing Neville.
“Hermione’s in there with him now, I’m sure they wouldn’t object to you joining her.”
Harry’s face flooded with relief, and he immediately turned and headed for Draco’s room.
“Harry, wait a minute!” Ginny exclaimed.
Harry turned back, confused.
“I needed to tell you about what I found at the Floo registry office, in private,” Ginny said, indicating they should move away from the main group to gain some privacy.
Harry hesitated, clearly needing to see Draco, but not wanting to offend Ginny. He finally stepped to one side to speak with Ginny for a few moments.
“This is everything I could find on Narcissa Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson,” she said discreetly, passing him a piece of folded parchment.
“Oh, thanks Ginny,” Harry said awkwardly. “Actually, now that we have the Malfoy medical records, we don’t really need to get in touch with either of them so urgently. But thanks for getting this Gin. I really appreciate it.”
Ginny looked a bit crestfallen. “Oh, well if you need anything else, you know I’m always happy to help.”
“I mean that Gin, thank you for trying.”
“Oh, it’s alright Harry,” Ginny said, throwing her arms around him and drawing him into a tight hug. “Anything for you.”
Harry hugged her back for a few seconds, but his need to see Draco made him extricate himself from the tight hug almost immediately.
He gave Ginny a quick kiss on her forehead and then practically ran to Draco’s door.
Hermione was inside, sitting by Draco’s bedside, holding his hand.
Draco looked even paler than usual, if that was at all possible. Every trace of colour had been drained from his body. His face looked hollow and thin. The amount of time he had been unconscious and the incident earlier were clearly taking their toll on him. Harry shuddered.
Hermione looked up at him and gestured he should come take her place.
Harry hesitated in the doorway, not wanting to break the peace that seemed to be in the room.
But Hermione got up out of her chair and let go of Draco’s hand, and his hesitation was broken.
He sighed and walked towards the bed, taking his usual chair that Hermione had just vacated.
“I’ll leave you alone with him for a while,” Hermione whispered.
Harry nodded his thanks, and she quietly left the room.
“Oh Draco,” Harry said out loud. “I love you so much.” He kissed the back of Draco’s hand, then his forehead, and then his lips. “Please, come back to me.”
-
Ginny was pacing the waiting room.
All this waiting and not being with Harry was driving her mad.
Surely everyone should know by now that he would need her? She was his rock, his helping hand. No one loved him like she did.
Not even Draco.
-
“What’s up with Ginny?” Hermione whispered to Ron when she rejoined everyone in the waiting room.
“Hmm?” Ron said, looking over in her direction. “Oh, that. I think she’s just worried. Listen, while we were making our way through the vaults, Harry and I had a weird conversation.”
“Oh?” Hermione said, her attention drawn away from Ginny’s restless pacing to look at Ron.
“Yeah. He had pretty much worked out that it was him that had the negative result, so I confirmed it when we were in the vault. He thinks he’s going to lose Draco even if he does wake up and make a full recovery. Whatever happened between the two of them, Harry’s scared.”
“Scared? Of what?”
“Of himself? Of losing Draco no matter what happens?” Ron sighed. “We need to distract him. He won’t know what Draco thinks until he’s back with us, so until then it’s no use Harry fretting. I think we need to distract him with trying to work out who…” Ron lowered his voice, ensuring only Hermione could hear him, “poisoned us.”
“Surely he has too much going on right now to think about that?”
“He’s an Auror, Hermione, and one of the best. Ever since we were eleven, that’s what he’s done best. It will help keep him distracted.”
“He’s not going to want to leave Draco’s side again until he’s awake, surely,” Hermione said.
“So we start talking it out with him in Draco’s room, at least ‘til the Healers kick us out.”
Hermione nodded slowly. “Neville?”
“He comes too, we’ll need his side of the story.”
Hermione nodded again and got up and walked over to where Neville had been sitting, reading. She touched him on the shoulder lightly and indicated he should follow them.
They all got up and walked over to Draco’s room, shutting the door behind them.
They missed the jealous, calculating look Ginny shot them, as they left her out once again.
-
Harry looked up as the three entered the room and sat down.
“Hi guys,” Harry said quietly.
Hermione moved to sit next to him, and took hold of Harry’s hand. Neville sat down on the other side of the bed, and Ron conjured a whiteboard and remained standing.
“What’s all this?” Harry asked.
“We need to work out who is behind this,” Ron said.
“I thought it could wait, but Ron thinks it will help take your mind off things,” Hermione said, patting his hand gently.
Harry sighed and nodded. “He’s right. The sooner we work out who did this, the better.”
“Right,” Ron started. “What are our common denominators?”
“Hermione,” Harry said instantly. “Both incidents targeted her.”
“This makes me feel sick,” Ron said, as he wrote Hermione’s name on the whiteboard.
“And non-Weasley males, although whether that was by design or coincidence I’m not sure.”
Ron nodded and wrote down Neville and Draco, and annotated both are not Weasleys.
“So,” Hermione started, “someone has it out for me and wanted to ruin my life, but didn’t want to use anyone Weasley to do it?”
“I hate to point it out,” Neville said, “but that sounds like someone wanting to keep their family out of it.”
Ron looked at Neville. “You’re suggesting a Weasley did it?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, just that’s what it sounds like.”
Ron turned to the whiteboard and wrote up “protecting the family - Weasley culprit?”
“Let’s take a step back, Neville, can you tell us everything that happened that day, all the way up to when the incident occurred?” Ron said.
Hermione blushed, but didn’t say anything else.
Neville nodded, and took a deep breath.
“I arrived the day before and had dinner with you all.”
“Hang on a minute,” Harry interrupted. “Who was present for the holidays at this point? I don’t think Draco and I were there yet.”
“Good point,” Ron said, writing up a list of people present when Neville was.
“Mum, Dad, Teddy of course, since Mum and Dad are his legal guardians. Bill and Fleur and little Victoire, Charlie hadn’t arrived yet from Romania, Percy was working right up to Christmas so he and Oliver hadn’t arrived yet, George was home, Hermione and I were home, Ginny still lives at home so of course was there.” Ron was writing down names as he went through the list.
“What about non-Weasleys?” Harry asked.
“Well obviously you and Draco weren’t there yet. Hagrid was here at that point. Fleur’s family from France. Mr and Mrs Diggory. Seamus and Luna and baby Lavender hadn’t arrived yet, but Xeno Lovegood had been there for a few days. I think that’s it.”
“So then Neville arrives and has dinner with everyone on this list. Then what Neville?” Harry asks.
“I went to bed early, it had been a stressful week at work tying everything up to get away for the holidays.” Everyone nods, it was a familiar feeling for everyone.
“So the next day, I get up late. Have breakfast with George and Ron, play some chess and read a book outside with the group, then we organize some Quidditch for after lunch.
“Mrs Weasley puts on a big spread for lunch as usual. I talked to Ginny a lot at lunch about Quidditch teams and who she’s hoping to play for when she has her trials after the holidays.
“Everyone plays the Quidditch game after lunch. As usual I’m hopeless at it. My team loses. Ginny caught the snitch, as per usual when Harry’s not around.
“I guess then it’s dinner time. We had Shepherd’s Pie, I remember because it’s my favourite thing that Mrs Weasley cooks,” Neville grins looking sheepish.
“Then, Ron, you get called away for work. Urgent Auror business.”
Ron nods and grimaces, knowing what his absence enabled.
“After you left, everyone breaks off after dinner into smaller groups. George, Hermione, Ginny and I ended up in the sitting room, talking. Someone pulls out a bottle of wine but it doesn’t get opened immediately for some reason. George goes up early, like usual, and I think Ginny went to help Mrs Weasley. Hermione and I then opened the wine and start drinking… and well the rest is history,” Neville finished.
“So the wine appeared when it was just you four in the sitting room?” Harry asks.
“I guess,” Neville says, and Hermione nods in confirmation.
“And had either of you seen this bottle ever before?” Harry continues.
“No, never, but it just looked like a standard bottle of wine,” Neville replies, and Hermione agrees.
“So Ginny or George might have produced it. But could they have known what was in it to begin with?” Harry muses.
Ron draws a line under Neville’s section of the whiteboard.
“Hermione,” he says, “why don’t you tell us what happened with Draco?”
Harry flinches.
“Sorry mate, but we need to know as much as possible.”
“I know, so I can help fill in what I know as well,” Harry sighs.
“So it was the fourth night after Harry and Draco had arrived,” Hermione starts. “Again, urgent Auror business called both Ron and Harry away that night.”
“Oh,” Harry said, he hadn’t really known when it had happened or how, and he felt an unexpected sharp sting from finding out the specific time and day.
“Guest list at this point?” Ron asked.
“The same as before, except Seamus, Luna and Lavender had arrived, as well as Charlie. Plus Draco and me. The only ones left to arrive were Percy and Oliver,” Harry managed to add, shaking his head to clear the remnants of the feeling of betrayal, despite now knowing Draco had done this against his will.
“So there are three more non-Weasley males to add to the mix as potential targets,” Ron said.
“Can we rule out Seamus, Luna, Charlie, Percy and Oliver then because they weren’t there for the first incident?” Hermione asked.
“In theory, yes, but everyone’s a suspect,” Ron says extremely seriously. “Just because they weren’t there doesn’t mean they might not have had a hand in it. Harry, can you tell us what you and Draco did on day four?”
Harry looked down at Draco and back up. “It seems like such a long time ago. That was the first night we got called away for work from when I was at yours, wasn’t it?”
Ron nods.
“That was the day a group of us went walking to the swimming hole, remember?”
Hermione nods, “Yes, it was Ron, me, Harry, Draco, Neville, Ginny, Luna, Seamus, George and Charlie. Big kids at heart going to the swimming hole, in the heart of winter. I charmed the area warm enough to swim and we defrosted the water for a few hours.”
“It was bloody brilliant,” Ron said.
“And then we got called away for work,” Harry said. “We all packed up and left, Ron and I apparating away while the rest walked back to the Burrow.”
“Draco would always get nervous being left at the Burrow without you, so I walked back with him,” Hermione said. “We talked all the way through dinner, and then found ourselves alone in the sitting room. There was a wine bottle on the table and we didn’t think twice about drinking it.”
“So you didn’t bring the wine?” Ron asked Hermione.
“No.”
“And you didn’t see Draco get it?”
“No, it was strange, it was just randomly on the table. You know what Draco’s like, he was opening it without a second thought about if it was someone else’s.”
“So, both times, it started in the sitting room. Both times neither party is quite sure where the wine came from.” Ron was talking and writing out main points.
“But that’s where the common denominators end,” Harry exclaims.
“Not quite,” Ron said. “Both times, we were called away for something urgent at work. The first time you weren’t at the Weasley’s, but you got called too, remember?”
“Yes… but I don’t see how it’s…”
“It was a bogus lead remember? We had a call in about a dark magic locator going off, but on both occasions the locator was actually still in stasis, and had not been activated at all. Someone was trying to get us out of the house. And they knew us well enough to know that a dark magic locator going off would tie us up for hours with all the paperwork.”
“You think someone went so far as to pretend to trigger one just to get us out of the way?”
“Think about it, if they’re targeting Hermione, who are they going to want out of the way the most?”
“Her husband and her best friend,” Neville finished. “Of course.”
“But why?” Hermione exclaims. “It just doesn’t make any sense! Who would do this to me? Who would want to target me? Especially from our own family?”
They all looked back and forth at each other, drawing up blanks.
Harry sighed, and leaned his head onto the bed next to Draco. This was proving to be quite the challenge.
-
Chapter Twelve
AN: Thanks for reading, please feel free to let me know what you think!
After an extremely long hiatus, I am pleased to annouce the recommencement of Hope, something I have been working on for years, but am finally very close to finishing. I have another seven chapters already written and ready to go for you, and I think the story will be finished within the next couple of chapters. All up it will be approx 20 chapters or less.
Do to the long break, I have replicated all of the Fic information here for you.
Title: Hope
Author:
g_bowneyes
Rating: NC-17 (each chapter will contain appropriate warnings for strong themes)
Pairing: Harry/Draco, side Ron/Hermione
Disclaimer: All characters are the property of JK Rowling, I do not make any money from this and it's purely for entertainment's sake.
Warnings (for all chapters): infidelity, attempted suicide, angst in the extreme, dealing with pregnancy (not mpreg), an actual plot, angry!sex, potentially non-con and definitely dub-con sex, established relationships
Summary: What started as a family gathering for Christmas at the Burrow will end in dire consequences. Harry's life will change forever, for better or worse. Draco makes a life-changing mistake. And what's Ginny really up to anyway?
You can find Chapter One here should you wish to start from the beginning.
Chapter Eleven
-
Sometimes, we all need to learn to let go.
-
Ginny arrived back at the hospital a few hours later to find Hermione sitting with Neville in the waiting room. She was a bit confused to see the two of them alone together, after everything that had happened.
She glanced around then, searching for Harry, and noticed that Draco’s room was fully closed off to visitor access. She was immediately concerned. If Harry wasn’t in with Draco, where was he? He definitely wasn’t in the waiting room.
“Hermione,” she said, approaching the seated pair.
“Ginny, there you are.”
“What’s happened? Where’s Harry?”
“Draco had some health complications. They’re still working on stabilizing him, but there shouldn’t be any lasting damage. They caught it fast enough, thank Merlin,” Hermione sighed.
“Oh,” Ginny said, not really getting an answer to her question. She wanted to find Harry, it was so important to be there for him right now. She felt the details didn’t matter so much; she just needed to look after Harry.
“Harry’s gone to retrieve Draco’s medical records,” Hermione said vaguely, sensing Ginny was about to ask about Harry again.
“Has he found them, then?” Ginny asked. It was so frustrating how much information Hermione was withholding! She was sure they were all up to something again. Always leaving her out, like usual.
“He thinks so, otherwise he never would have left,” Hermione replied.
“Harry asked me to do some things for him, and I’ve brought him some more clothes,” Ginny said. “I’d better wait until he gets back.”
“If you want to go home and get some sleep, Ginny, you can leave the clothes with me and I can tell him anything you need to pass on,” Hermione offered.
“No thanks,” Ginny said immediately. “This better stay between me and Harry. I don’t think he’d like me telling everyone when he’s asked me to do this specifically.”
“Oh,” Hermione said, slight taken aback. “Of course, if you prefer.”
Ginny nodded, taking a seat. “Do you think he’ll be much longer?”
“We’re really not sure, but I hope not.”
“Look, the Medi-Wizard is coming over,” Neville said, pointing to the hallway.
Ginny watched as Hermione jumped to her feet.
“Draco is stable again, if you’d like to come with me I can take you to him,” the Medi-Wizard said, speaking directly to Hermione.
“Oh, that’s wonderful news!” Hermione exclaimed.
Ginny stood up, expecting to go into Draco’s room to wait for Harry with Hermione.
“I’m sorry, Miss,” the Medi- Wizard said, looking at Ginny. “I really think Mr Malfoy should have only one visitor at a time for the moment, and Mr Malfoy’s next of kin, Mr Potter, indicated he would like Mrs Weasley to sit with him until he returned. In a couple of hours we would be comfortable for you to visit Mr Malfoy, once he’s had more time to recover.”
“But surely, that means he meant me of course and you’ve just confused us. Please check again, I’m sure your records must say Miss Weasley.”
The Medi-Wizard checked the clipboard, lifted a page and cross checked. “No, the records I have here clearly say Mrs Hermione Weasley.”
“Oh,” Ginny said, stunned.
“I’m sorry for any inconvenience, but it is what’s best for Mr Malfoy.”
Ginny’s face screwed up in confusion, but she nodded absently all the same and sat back down, a chair over from Neville who had remained seated throughout the whole exchange.
Hermione looked apologetically at Ginny, and then followed the Medi-Wizard out of the waiting room and back towards Draco’s room, where she disappeared through the door.
Ginny sighed, leaning back into her chair in a huff.
Harry better get back soon, is all she could think. He would need her, and she needed to be there for him.
-
Two hours later, Ron and Harry stumbled back into St Mungo’s and to the floor Draco was on. They were both covered in cobwebs and scratches, having faced ancient and somewhat aggressive curse layers protecting the Malfoy vault. Knowing the solutions or correct pathways through the labyrinth didn’t necessarily mean you would get in and out unscathed, it seemed.
But Harry had in his hands a document wallet full of medical information on Draco, Naricssa and Lucius. Healer Periwinkle had been right, the Malfoys had kept a private physician and fully private medical records, and the vault had contained everything, even records of Draco’s visits to the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts.
They went to the waiting room first, and found Neville, who magically paged Healer Periwinkle. When he had found her earlier, she had shown him how to page her when Harry had returned, if she was needed. Minutes later, she rounded the corner and into the waiting room.
“We have his medical records,” Harry exclaimed, handing them over in the same motion. “I haven’t had time to go through them in detail, but it looks like everything you need to know about Draco will be in that file. I grabbed his parents’ files as well in case we needed it.”
“Excellent work, Harry. This is exactly what we needed. I’ll have this reviewed immediately and we can set to work on setting a magical recovery plan,” Healer Periwinkle said, already walking out of the door.
“Harry,” Ginny said, immediately rushing to his side. “I have that information you wanted from the Floo office, and a bag of things for you,” she exclaimed.
Harry blinked at her, surprised by her sudden appearance at his side.
“Thank you, Ginny,” Harry said awkwardly. He took the bag of clothes from her and deposited them carelessly onto an empty waiting chair. “When can I see Draco?” he immediately asked, addressing Neville.
“Hermione’s in there with him now, I’m sure they wouldn’t object to you joining her.”
Harry’s face flooded with relief, and he immediately turned and headed for Draco’s room.
“Harry, wait a minute!” Ginny exclaimed.
Harry turned back, confused.
“I needed to tell you about what I found at the Floo registry office, in private,” Ginny said, indicating they should move away from the main group to gain some privacy.
Harry hesitated, clearly needing to see Draco, but not wanting to offend Ginny. He finally stepped to one side to speak with Ginny for a few moments.
“This is everything I could find on Narcissa Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson,” she said discreetly, passing him a piece of folded parchment.
“Oh, thanks Ginny,” Harry said awkwardly. “Actually, now that we have the Malfoy medical records, we don’t really need to get in touch with either of them so urgently. But thanks for getting this Gin. I really appreciate it.”
Ginny looked a bit crestfallen. “Oh, well if you need anything else, you know I’m always happy to help.”
“I mean that Gin, thank you for trying.”
“Oh, it’s alright Harry,” Ginny said, throwing her arms around him and drawing him into a tight hug. “Anything for you.”
Harry hugged her back for a few seconds, but his need to see Draco made him extricate himself from the tight hug almost immediately.
He gave Ginny a quick kiss on her forehead and then practically ran to Draco’s door.
Hermione was inside, sitting by Draco’s bedside, holding his hand.
Draco looked even paler than usual, if that was at all possible. Every trace of colour had been drained from his body. His face looked hollow and thin. The amount of time he had been unconscious and the incident earlier were clearly taking their toll on him. Harry shuddered.
Hermione looked up at him and gestured he should come take her place.
Harry hesitated in the doorway, not wanting to break the peace that seemed to be in the room.
But Hermione got up out of her chair and let go of Draco’s hand, and his hesitation was broken.
He sighed and walked towards the bed, taking his usual chair that Hermione had just vacated.
“I’ll leave you alone with him for a while,” Hermione whispered.
Harry nodded his thanks, and she quietly left the room.
“Oh Draco,” Harry said out loud. “I love you so much.” He kissed the back of Draco’s hand, then his forehead, and then his lips. “Please, come back to me.”
-
Ginny was pacing the waiting room.
All this waiting and not being with Harry was driving her mad.
Surely everyone should know by now that he would need her? She was his rock, his helping hand. No one loved him like she did.
Not even Draco.
-
“What’s up with Ginny?” Hermione whispered to Ron when she rejoined everyone in the waiting room.
“Hmm?” Ron said, looking over in her direction. “Oh, that. I think she’s just worried. Listen, while we were making our way through the vaults, Harry and I had a weird conversation.”
“Oh?” Hermione said, her attention drawn away from Ginny’s restless pacing to look at Ron.
“Yeah. He had pretty much worked out that it was him that had the negative result, so I confirmed it when we were in the vault. He thinks he’s going to lose Draco even if he does wake up and make a full recovery. Whatever happened between the two of them, Harry’s scared.”
“Scared? Of what?”
“Of himself? Of losing Draco no matter what happens?” Ron sighed. “We need to distract him. He won’t know what Draco thinks until he’s back with us, so until then it’s no use Harry fretting. I think we need to distract him with trying to work out who…” Ron lowered his voice, ensuring only Hermione could hear him, “poisoned us.”
“Surely he has too much going on right now to think about that?”
“He’s an Auror, Hermione, and one of the best. Ever since we were eleven, that’s what he’s done best. It will help keep him distracted.”
“He’s not going to want to leave Draco’s side again until he’s awake, surely,” Hermione said.
“So we start talking it out with him in Draco’s room, at least ‘til the Healers kick us out.”
Hermione nodded slowly. “Neville?”
“He comes too, we’ll need his side of the story.”
Hermione nodded again and got up and walked over to where Neville had been sitting, reading. She touched him on the shoulder lightly and indicated he should follow them.
They all got up and walked over to Draco’s room, shutting the door behind them.
They missed the jealous, calculating look Ginny shot them, as they left her out once again.
-
Harry looked up as the three entered the room and sat down.
“Hi guys,” Harry said quietly.
Hermione moved to sit next to him, and took hold of Harry’s hand. Neville sat down on the other side of the bed, and Ron conjured a whiteboard and remained standing.
“What’s all this?” Harry asked.
“We need to work out who is behind this,” Ron said.
“I thought it could wait, but Ron thinks it will help take your mind off things,” Hermione said, patting his hand gently.
Harry sighed and nodded. “He’s right. The sooner we work out who did this, the better.”
“Right,” Ron started. “What are our common denominators?”
“Hermione,” Harry said instantly. “Both incidents targeted her.”
“This makes me feel sick,” Ron said, as he wrote Hermione’s name on the whiteboard.
“And non-Weasley males, although whether that was by design or coincidence I’m not sure.”
Ron nodded and wrote down Neville and Draco, and annotated both are not Weasleys.
“So,” Hermione started, “someone has it out for me and wanted to ruin my life, but didn’t want to use anyone Weasley to do it?”
“I hate to point it out,” Neville said, “but that sounds like someone wanting to keep their family out of it.”
Ron looked at Neville. “You’re suggesting a Weasley did it?”
“I’m not suggesting anything, just that’s what it sounds like.”
Ron turned to the whiteboard and wrote up “protecting the family - Weasley culprit?”
“Let’s take a step back, Neville, can you tell us everything that happened that day, all the way up to when the incident occurred?” Ron said.
Hermione blushed, but didn’t say anything else.
Neville nodded, and took a deep breath.
“I arrived the day before and had dinner with you all.”
“Hang on a minute,” Harry interrupted. “Who was present for the holidays at this point? I don’t think Draco and I were there yet.”
“Good point,” Ron said, writing up a list of people present when Neville was.
“Mum, Dad, Teddy of course, since Mum and Dad are his legal guardians. Bill and Fleur and little Victoire, Charlie hadn’t arrived yet from Romania, Percy was working right up to Christmas so he and Oliver hadn’t arrived yet, George was home, Hermione and I were home, Ginny still lives at home so of course was there.” Ron was writing down names as he went through the list.
“What about non-Weasleys?” Harry asked.
“Well obviously you and Draco weren’t there yet. Hagrid was here at that point. Fleur’s family from France. Mr and Mrs Diggory. Seamus and Luna and baby Lavender hadn’t arrived yet, but Xeno Lovegood had been there for a few days. I think that’s it.”
“So then Neville arrives and has dinner with everyone on this list. Then what Neville?” Harry asks.
“I went to bed early, it had been a stressful week at work tying everything up to get away for the holidays.” Everyone nods, it was a familiar feeling for everyone.
“So the next day, I get up late. Have breakfast with George and Ron, play some chess and read a book outside with the group, then we organize some Quidditch for after lunch.
“Mrs Weasley puts on a big spread for lunch as usual. I talked to Ginny a lot at lunch about Quidditch teams and who she’s hoping to play for when she has her trials after the holidays.
“Everyone plays the Quidditch game after lunch. As usual I’m hopeless at it. My team loses. Ginny caught the snitch, as per usual when Harry’s not around.
“I guess then it’s dinner time. We had Shepherd’s Pie, I remember because it’s my favourite thing that Mrs Weasley cooks,” Neville grins looking sheepish.
“Then, Ron, you get called away for work. Urgent Auror business.”
Ron nods and grimaces, knowing what his absence enabled.
“After you left, everyone breaks off after dinner into smaller groups. George, Hermione, Ginny and I ended up in the sitting room, talking. Someone pulls out a bottle of wine but it doesn’t get opened immediately for some reason. George goes up early, like usual, and I think Ginny went to help Mrs Weasley. Hermione and I then opened the wine and start drinking… and well the rest is history,” Neville finished.
“So the wine appeared when it was just you four in the sitting room?” Harry asks.
“I guess,” Neville says, and Hermione nods in confirmation.
“And had either of you seen this bottle ever before?” Harry continues.
“No, never, but it just looked like a standard bottle of wine,” Neville replies, and Hermione agrees.
“So Ginny or George might have produced it. But could they have known what was in it to begin with?” Harry muses.
Ron draws a line under Neville’s section of the whiteboard.
“Hermione,” he says, “why don’t you tell us what happened with Draco?”
Harry flinches.
“Sorry mate, but we need to know as much as possible.”
“I know, so I can help fill in what I know as well,” Harry sighs.
“So it was the fourth night after Harry and Draco had arrived,” Hermione starts. “Again, urgent Auror business called both Ron and Harry away that night.”
“Oh,” Harry said, he hadn’t really known when it had happened or how, and he felt an unexpected sharp sting from finding out the specific time and day.
“Guest list at this point?” Ron asked.
“The same as before, except Seamus, Luna and Lavender had arrived, as well as Charlie. Plus Draco and me. The only ones left to arrive were Percy and Oliver,” Harry managed to add, shaking his head to clear the remnants of the feeling of betrayal, despite now knowing Draco had done this against his will.
“So there are three more non-Weasley males to add to the mix as potential targets,” Ron said.
“Can we rule out Seamus, Luna, Charlie, Percy and Oliver then because they weren’t there for the first incident?” Hermione asked.
“In theory, yes, but everyone’s a suspect,” Ron says extremely seriously. “Just because they weren’t there doesn’t mean they might not have had a hand in it. Harry, can you tell us what you and Draco did on day four?”
Harry looked down at Draco and back up. “It seems like such a long time ago. That was the first night we got called away for work from when I was at yours, wasn’t it?”
Ron nods.
“That was the day a group of us went walking to the swimming hole, remember?”
Hermione nods, “Yes, it was Ron, me, Harry, Draco, Neville, Ginny, Luna, Seamus, George and Charlie. Big kids at heart going to the swimming hole, in the heart of winter. I charmed the area warm enough to swim and we defrosted the water for a few hours.”
“It was bloody brilliant,” Ron said.
“And then we got called away for work,” Harry said. “We all packed up and left, Ron and I apparating away while the rest walked back to the Burrow.”
“Draco would always get nervous being left at the Burrow without you, so I walked back with him,” Hermione said. “We talked all the way through dinner, and then found ourselves alone in the sitting room. There was a wine bottle on the table and we didn’t think twice about drinking it.”
“So you didn’t bring the wine?” Ron asked Hermione.
“No.”
“And you didn’t see Draco get it?”
“No, it was strange, it was just randomly on the table. You know what Draco’s like, he was opening it without a second thought about if it was someone else’s.”
“So, both times, it started in the sitting room. Both times neither party is quite sure where the wine came from.” Ron was talking and writing out main points.
“But that’s where the common denominators end,” Harry exclaims.
“Not quite,” Ron said. “Both times, we were called away for something urgent at work. The first time you weren’t at the Weasley’s, but you got called too, remember?”
“Yes… but I don’t see how it’s…”
“It was a bogus lead remember? We had a call in about a dark magic locator going off, but on both occasions the locator was actually still in stasis, and had not been activated at all. Someone was trying to get us out of the house. And they knew us well enough to know that a dark magic locator going off would tie us up for hours with all the paperwork.”
“You think someone went so far as to pretend to trigger one just to get us out of the way?”
“Think about it, if they’re targeting Hermione, who are they going to want out of the way the most?”
“Her husband and her best friend,” Neville finished. “Of course.”
“But why?” Hermione exclaims. “It just doesn’t make any sense! Who would do this to me? Who would want to target me? Especially from our own family?”
They all looked back and forth at each other, drawing up blanks.
Harry sighed, and leaned his head onto the bed next to Draco. This was proving to be quite the challenge.
-
Chapter Twelve
AN: Thanks for reading, please feel free to let me know what you think!