Unexpected Places

A/N Pickles87 here is the new chapter…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Hermione woke up as if she had been sleeping for a really long time. Her head was fuzzy but she knew immediately that she was not in her room. The last she remembered was drinking butter beer with Draco. She sat up immediately.

“Alex?” she called, struggling to get out of the bed.

“He’s fine. He is there, sleeping. I fed him and changed his nappy.” A soft voice told her from the corner of the room. She turned and her eyes met his. He gave her a pleasant smile and stood up, moving over to her.

“I thought you would never wake up. Father never noted the length of time for unconsciousness though. How do you feel? Do you want something to drink or eat?” he asked, sitting next to her on the bed. She hesitated and then shook her head.

“Where are we?” she asked slowly, looking around. It was a very lavish room, decorated in green and silver.

He smiled wryly. “Malfoy manor. I brought you here to talk.” He said.

She glared at him. “You kidnapped me and Alex, you mean. This isn’t going to work Draco. People will look for me.”

He gave her a mild look. “It will work Hermione. I brought you here because I love you and we are meant to be together. Our time here will prove this.” He said firmly.

She sighed and shook her head, standing weakly and making her way to the crib in the corner. Alex was sleeping peacefully, his little thumb in his mouth. She smiled down at him, for a moment forgetting where she was until Draco put his arm around her waist.

“He is adorable, Hermione. He will look just like us, so we can say he is our son. He will be our son.” He murmured in her ear.

She pulled away from him and moved away from the crib. “He is not going to be our son. He is my son. His father is-“

“I know who his parents are! I don’t understand why you had to hide it from me. I am nothing like my father.” He interrupted. She glared at him.

“So kidnapping me makes you nothing like your father, Draco? It is something I could see him doing.” She hissed at him. His face reddened.

“I thought if I got you away from them you would realize how perfect we are together! We belong together.” He shouted at her.

“We do not. I do not love you, Malfoy! I love Severus.” She told him hotly and he growled.

“It doesn’t matter, Granger. I once told you that I would not allow you to raise a Malfoy alone and I meant it. We will marry and I will help you raise my brother.” He snarled.

She opened her mouth to retort and then closed it. She watched him for a moment. “Alex is not a Malfoy, Draco.” She told him softly and he shook his head.

“I heard you say that my mother gave birth to him! That makes him a Malfoy.” He retorted but suddenly looked uneasy.

“No, that would make him a Black. To make him a Malfoy, he would have to have a Malfoy for a father and he doesn’t” she told him, losing her anger suddenly. She was so tired of all of the fighting, of the mysteries and dramas that had invaded her life.

He gaped at her disbelievingly. “But if my father is not his… then… who…” his voice trailed off and he looked thoughtful. “It was Snape wasn’t it?” he asked and she nodded.

“How did you know?” she asked him curiously.

“Something I heard long ago. I was sitting in the library the summer after our fourth year and my parents came in arguing. I hid because… well because my father was always in a temper after that. He was saying how he didn’t trust Snape, despite his sacrificing the child so long before and my mother defended him. My father got really quiet and then told that he never wanted her to mention his name again. He said that Snape had come between them too much in the past. I forgot about it because then they started talking about the Dark Lord. Snape and my mother had an affair.” He explained, thinking back.

Hermione nodded and sat on the bed. Draco looked at her with a horrified look on his face and then looked at the crib where Alex had surprisingly slept through their fit of temper.

“I have really messed up this time, haven’t I?” he asked quietly, moving to sit next to her. She nodded.

“Yup, you kidnapped Snape’s girlfriend and his son.” She told him and he paled even further, remembering the steps he had taken to prevent the others from searching for her, including the scene with Snape. He hesitated and then told her what he had done. Draco was sure that if it hadn’t been for the sleeping child, her screams would have been heard for miles around and he would have been hexed from here to kingdom come. As it were, his face smarted from her slap.

She didn’t talk to him for almost a half hour, wavering between anger at Malfoy and wondering how Snape was handling her supposed rejection.

“Take me home, ferret.” She snapped finally and he nodded, glad she had broken the silence. He grabbed the baby’s bag and Hermione took Alex.

“We cannot apparated in the house so we have to go outside.” He told her and led her out of the room and down the hall.


Snape was grading papers in his office when Harry burst in without knocking.

“Have you seen Hermione, Professor?” he asked breathlessly

“I imagine she is with Mr. Malfoy, Potter. Make sure you knock next time.” He said icily, startling Harry, who hadn’t heard that voice used on him in ages.

“No, she isn’t. She isn’t at Hogwart’s at all. Neither is Alex. Was she going somewhere?” he said and Snape shrugged.

“Find Malfoy and you will find her. She obviously wants to be with him. Let me know when you find my son though.” Snape said maliciously. Harry sat down on the uncomfortable chair.

“Tell me when you last saw her, Snape.” Harry demanded in a hard voice. Snape looked up and for a moment, Harry thought he saw anguish on Snape’s face before it closed off.

“She was with Mr. Malfoy in the hall, proclaiming her love for him and telling him how she used me.” He said tonelessly. Harry stood up abruptly.

“She did what?! It can’t be true. Hermione isn’t like that at all. It had to be something else.” Harry protested. Snape ignored him and continued to grade papers, not even really seeing what they said. He just wrote vicious comments on them all.

The quill was yanked out of his hands and he raised surprised eyes to find Harry glaring at him.

“You will show me the memory of what you saw, Snape, now.” Harry said in a commanding voice. This man, Snape recognized instinctively. It was the man who had commanded them at the final battle, a man worried about his friend. Snape sighed and shook his head. It didn’t matter what Harry saw. It wouldn’t change the past, or the memory. Snape motioned towards a cupboard and Harry opened it to find a small Pensieve.

Snape walked over to it and put his wand to his temple. He pulled a silvery memory out and it sank into the Pensieve. Harry nodded and slipped into the memory with a practiced ease. He had done this plenty of times before. Snape returned to his desk and watched the Pensieve with a dark look. He had grown to respect Harry if not actually like him but this was too much. Finally Harry was back and he glare at the Potions Master.

“Are you a complete idiot? She was obviously drugged. Her voice was slurred and she was walking different. Why didn’t you confront them? You would have seen it right away. Damn it to bloody hell.” Harry swore, while pacing back and forth in front of the desk. Snape frowned, at first at his tone and then at the words. Had her words been slurred? Was she walking differently? Now that he thought about it, he thought she had been slurring and stumbling.

He stood abruptly and startled Harry. “I am an idiot. Draco kidnapped her right in front of me and I walked the other way.” He said in a low growl.

“Why didn’t you confront them?” Harry asked, intensely curious. It would have been his inclination.

“Because I was… feeling vulnerable, Mr. Potter. I am a Slytherin and no one can see my weakness. I thought… she hurt me…” he admitted, softly, flushing.

“Well then, since you don’t hate her anymore, lets go rescue her and Alex. Where do you think they went?” Harry said in a cheerful tone of voice that made Snape want to hex him. Damned Gryffindors.

“Likely Malfoy Manor. We can apparated to the grounds. Come.” Snape said before leaving his office, robes billowing and Harry trailing behind him.




Hermione followed Draco down the stairs and to the front door. She thought about what Snape’s reaction must have been to Draco’s little ‘joke’ and wanted to cry. He didn’t trust many people and she thought he had begun to trust her. She wondered if he would believe her when she told him the truth.

She stopped behind Draco as he reached for the door knob and twisted it. The door didn’t open. Draco gave her a surprised look and she saw a flash of panic in his eyes but it was so brief she thought she imagined it. They moved to another room and Draco tried the window. It didn’t open. This time she didn’t imagine the panic on his face.

He ran to the middle of the room and grabbed a heavy silver vase and threw it at the window. It bounced off and landed near Hermione’s feet. She gave him a mystified look and he looked away not meeting her eyes.

“Draco, what’s going on?” she asked and felt a shiver of fear at the look of absolute horror on his face.

“The house will lock down if… the master of the house orders it. No one can come in and no one can get out.” He said in a low soft voice staring at the window. She shook her head, still not understanding what he meant.

“It means that my father has had the house locked down, Hermione. We cannot get out. We are trapped in here with my father.” He said, finally meeting her eyes. She stifled a gasp at the look of complete terror in his eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


*hides behind her computer chair* I know I’m evil. I’m sorry. Thank you everyone for reviewing. I love you all and I will post more as soon as I have it written.