Sold

The steam from the scarlet engine wheezed and disappeared as the five figures came through Platform 9 ¾ causing several of the milling people to look up. Most averted their eyes when they met the oldest male’s piercing grey gaze, but a few openly gawked. The Malfoys were rarely seen outside of high society or on the pages of wizarding magazines, so it was a rare treat to watch the heartbreakingly beautiful family move through the platform. Draco Malfoy, father and patriarch, took his wife by the waist and led her to the front of the engine and all three tow headed boys followed them in a perfect line.

Hermione glanced at everyone around her with subtle eyes as she automatically clasped her hand around her youngest son’s fingers. Lucius, her baby, was the most like her in that he was perceptive to the world around him. She found it odd that the child named after a man whom had hated her so much would be her most loving and affectionate child. Scorpius, her eldest, was affectionate with her alone and carried the same powerful aura that his father held. Hermione thought to herself that it was her own influence over him that made him not as snotty as Draco had been as a child, or it was the fact that he was the eldest and often responsible for his younger siblings. She worried about him and what he would become when he was away from her. He wasn’t vindictive, but he did place his goals above the means he used to achieve them. She supposed it depended on what his goals were if that was to be a good or bad thing. Cygnus, her middle child had her unbridled passion for books and learning and he also had her temperament. He was slow to boil, but when he did he was explosive with his back lashing. He had his father’s tenacity in pursuing what he wanted. He and Scorpius fought the most, but pined for each other whenever Hermione separated them. She knew that Cygnus wanted to cling to his brother, but didn’t in order to appear brave in front of his father.

Draco, surprisingly, had turned out to be a much better father than she ever could have imagined. He wasn’t her idea of perfect, but he wasn’t an abusive father and he did spend a lot of quality time with his children. He did impress upon them that they were to uphold the family name and he was insistent upon their behavior in public being proper decorum and he never liked for them to show weakness in front of anyone other than their family. He was surprisingly affectionate, especially with Cygnus. Cygnus was the most like her in appearance, where the other two were carbon copies of their father. Hermione had no doubt that within the next few years Cygnus’ blonde hair would fade to a sandy brown or auburn hue. His eyes were the same honey brown as her own and the shape of his face matched her own father’s. He was also extremely manipulative. He’d shown no signs of being selfish or bad tempered, but he did have a way of making his brothers do what he wanted and he had a flair for getting out of trouble.

Watching Draco levitate Scorpius’ trunk onto the luggage rack of the train, Hermione wrapped her arms around her eldest son. He stiffened and she knew he was embarrassed by her emotional outburst, as most eleven year old boys would be, but she held on just the same. He was officially leaving her now. From now on, his home would be Hogwarts, not Malfoy Manor.

“I promise I’ll write, Mother,” Scorpius said, already sounding much too adult for her liking. He was comforting her, but she could hear the tremor in his voice and knew that while he was excited, he was also scared about this new phase in his life.

“Just know that no matter what house you’re sorted into, I’ll be proud of you. Remember to hold your head up and be patient.” Scorpius rolled his eyes at her last warning. “Scorpius, I love you so much and I couldn’t be happier that you’re my son. Remember that, love.” Her eldest smiled at her and she saw the confused look that flashed across his face at her words.

“Honestly, Hermione, stop coddling the boy. Can’t you see you’re embarrassing him?” Draco appeared at her elbow and pulled her back. Putting a hand on Scorpius’ shoulders he said, “Your mother is correct. You are a Malfoy and you will conduct yourself as such. We really don’t care which house you are sorted into, but let’s be honest, you’re Slytherin to your core and everyone knows a Malfoy could never be sorted into Hufflepuff.” Father and son shared an identical smirk at Draco’s last sentence.

While Scorpius said his goodbyes to his brothers, Hermione took notice of another couple and watched as they ushered their son and daughter onto the train. Harry and Ginny Potter said goodbye to Albus and Lily and then looked in her direction. She wished they hadn’t. Their pitying gazes and Harry’s outrage were almost too much to bear. Lucius saw them and waved shyly. He liked Harry and Ginny, but he could sense the tension between them and his father and thus held back.

Even after her marriage, she still saw her former friends about twice a year. She had taken her children to visit them once and the visit, while lasting several hours, had not been a good idea. It opened old wounds and it was painful. She saw Scorpius nod to Lily. They would be in the same year. She also watched as he stared transfixed at the beautiful little girl. She knew from experience that he found that shocking red hair fascinating and enticing, like the one blooming poppy in a sea of white daisies. She hoped that Scorpius was able to obtain happiness and that his relationship with the girl who should have been her niece, whether it was love or friendship, was a pleasant one.

~~ FLASHBACK~~

Getting up from the sumptuous bed, Hermione barely made it to the bathroom in time to empty her stomach. It was the first day of Yule holiday time and of course, she was sick. She should be thinking about bacon and eggs and hot chocolate and how wonderful her breakfast would taste, but the mere thought of anything edible made her heave more of her stomach contents into the toilet. Her legs and hips ached from the rough sex she’d been forced into the previous night and that combined with nausea made her want to die right then and there.

However, she had not fought diligently the previous evening to roll over and die. She sighed audibly, in relief as she felt a cool, wet flannel pressed to her forehead. She didn’t care that it was Draco that offered her comfort, she was beyond that. All she cared was that the cool feeling of the cloth lowered her body temperature and made the saliva stop pooling in her mouth. She leaned in to the cloth’s cooling mercy and used her wand to create a spell that put water in her mouth to wash out the taste of stomach acid. Surprisingly, two strong arms wrapped around her carried her back to the bedroom. Draco stood there, holding her a moment, before lowering her to the bed. In a surprisingly gentle touch, he smoothed her hair back from her forehead.

“I think I have the flu,” she said weakly, wishing she could see her mother. Draco picked up his wand and pointed it at her. She tensed, reflexively, but settled when the spell he cast only turned her stomach blue.

“You don’t have the flu,” he said quietly. “You’re pregnant, love.” She looked at his face and saw a wicked grin.

“I can’t be. I’ve been on the potion!” she protested as her stomach began to churn anew.

“Yeah, about that, you know I couldn’t let that happen. You’ve been drinking nothing but some blue fizzy drink for the past month. I knew you’d try to stop the inevitable, so I let you think you were in control. Just face it, love, you belong to me. Now, what shall we name our little one, hm?” He crawled into the bed next to her and pulled her close, stroking her hair.

“Why are you doing this?” she sobbed. He acted as if he couldn’t hear her.

“I’m thinking Lucius or Scorpius. I love the name Scorpius, but I also think we need at least one family name. Both my mother’s sisters and I were named after constellations. Scorpius seems like a good way to continue in that direction. What do you think?”

“You’re never going to let me go, are you?” she said. Draco only hugged her tighter.

“Now that you’re pregnant, even if they repeal the law, you can’t leave. Our bonding ceremony was much too complete. Now, what do you think of Scorpius?” He tilted her chin up so that her eyes met his gaze.

“Why do you care what I think?” she asked dejectedly.

“Because you are my wife. You are expected to be submissive to me and I will be the one running this family, but you are second in command. Now tell me, do you like Scorpius?”

Hermione stared at him. She knew he was speaking the truth. She’d been hoping that she could put off child bearing for several years and she thought she’d outwitted him by taking the potion on the sly. She’d heard that the wizengamot was considering repealing the law and that their only reservation was the thought that children could have already been produced by the marriages they enforced.

“I didn’t at first, but the more you say it, the more I like it.” She turned her face downward, accepting her fate.

Over the break, she saw no other human beings besides Draco. Even on Christmas and Boxing Day, it was just the two of them. Between Christmas and New Year, she got a letter from the solicitor of her parents’ estate. It stated that there was a couple interested in buying their home and would she consider selling. When Draco asked her about the letter, she had been certain that he would demand she sell the property, however, he told her to keep it. He went with her when she finally sorted through all of their belongings. As she sat in the living room of her childhood home with house elves levitating items for her to inspect and decide what to keep and not keep, she fought off the surreal feeling of permanency. It was as if she was boxing up her old life in favor of her new one.

When she asked him why he had accompanied her, he told her, “I’m your husband. It’s what I’m supposed to do.”

~~~ END FLASHBACK~~~

As she watched Scorpius climb aboard the train, she saw a woman in her late thirties standing next to her, clutching a handkerchief and waving to a little girl with big green eyes. Hermione smiled at the woman and the large lady stood next to her.

“It’s so hard, isn’t it?” the woman asked. “Iris is my second child to send off and you’d think that things would be easier, but they aren’t.”

“Scorpius is my first.” Hermione told the woman.

“Good gracious, girl, you don’t look old enough to have an eleven year old. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-eight,” Hermione replied, blushing.

“Ah, then you must be a casualty of the marriage law, then. Lucky for me, I was in Australia. It must have been so awkward in those days.” Hermione only nodded and the woman continued. “I heard they finally repealed the law about two years after it was passed.”

“It was sixteen months.” Hermione said, her eyes focused on Scorpius’ window as the Hogwarts express chugged away from the station.

“Ah, yes, but still, those sixteen months were an uproar. We even heard about it in Australia. Of course, those who absolutely hated their marriages were allowed to dissolve them as long as no children were present. You must not have hated yours if you were willing to go through the act enough times to get your beautiful boy,” the woman said with a conspirator wink. Hermione didn’t even nod.

The woman continued. “I can’t help but think I know you from somewhere…Oh, I’ve got it now! You’re Hermione Malfoy. Yes, the ministry always talks about the success of your marriage to Draco Malfoy and your children whenever they try to defend the law and its placement. Yours is the first Slytherin to Gryffindor marriage in well over a hundred years and it came about due to the law. My, you must have been happy about your marriage if you were able to gain another two children. Births in our world are rare enough and you’ve managed three before you even turn thirty!”

The woman seemed impressed by her realization and Hermione immediately wanted to escape. At that moment a familiar arm wrapped around her and a set of well-known lips were pressed against her temple. “She’s pregnant with our fourth,” Draco drawled and the woman looked ready to faint.

“My goodness! My Harold and I tried for years to get our two. No wonder you are the poster family for mixed marriages. I can’t believe I finally met you. I do hope our little ones do well and I wish you luck.” The large older woman and her balding husband waddled away.

“And that is the very reason I wanted us to have our children early. Your body is still exquisite after giving me three boys. That’s only one of many reasons that the Prophet follows us on every outing we take.” Draco held her close to him and she remained pliant in his arms.

“The reason the Prophet takes so many pictures is because the ministry sold my life away to create an example for the rest of the wizarding world. They love the fact that my pregnancy forced me to stay married to you and create the poster mix-marriage couple. It makes it look like they knew what they were doing.” Hermione tried to keep her temper in reign. She didn’t want the memory of the day she sent Scorpius off to Hogwarts to be dampened by a fight-then-fornicate session with her husband.

“I don’t like your tone, love,” Draco said as his hand tightened around the back of her neck, hidden by her mass of curls. “You really shouldn’t say such things in front of the children. It might make them think you don’t love their father.”

Hermione remained silent as she watched Cygnus and Lucius chase each other around one of the pillars in the station. She didn’t want to fight with him. Even though the ministry had revoked many of the marriage laws, she was still very afraid of what he could do to her. He was always careful to never leave any evidence other than the occasional bite mark on her neck, hip or breast. Even if she did complain, their binding ceremony ensured that she could never leave him and nothing that she could ever obtain proof of would be enough to have him put away. Besides, the papers never wanted to print anything other than how strong their marriage was and how it never would have happened if the ministry hadn’t passed ‘the law’. They also commented on how their fertility had brought about three magical children to add to a decreasing magical population. It was widely speculated that each of her sons would one day add their own three babies each to the wizarding world. She dearly hoped that the child she was currently carrying was a boy, even though she ached for a girl. She was afraid of what would happen if the supposedly fertile Malfoy clan produced a daughter. Every wizard in Western Europe would come looking for the wealthy brood mare. She didn’t want her daughter to be pressured or trapped into a marriage the way that she was.

She loved her children dearly and she had often thought of taking Scorpius and running during the early years of her marriage. The link between her and Draco made her stay, however. She remembered the stories of Tatiana Malfoy and she had no doubt that Draco’s wrath would have been double that of Claudius’. She had stayed because even if she had escaped, no one but Harry would have been on her side in the ministry and since Mr. Earhart was now Minister of Magic, she knew she wouldn’t be able to leave. She kept up the illusion for her children and she worried about what Scorpius would hear when he was away at school.

Draco dragged her away and sent out a command for Cygnus and Lucius to follow. Lucius caught up to her and without thinking she pulled him to her, holding him on her hip and throwing her arm around Cygnus, she moved through the platform barrier with Draco’s hand heavy on her waist. To a reporter, they were the picture perfect family. To anyone who knew the truth, she was bought and paid for. Sold.