Second Time Around

Hermione groaned when a warm hand covered her breast.

“No more…can’t…do it…too tired…”

“What, you mean the amazingly virile and surprisingly flexible Hermione Granger can’t take anymore of the dashingly handsome and incredibly wicked sex drive of Draco Malfoy?”

She pretended to think for a minute. “Mmm…Yes, I believe that about sums it up.”

His lips were on her shoulder and she turned to look at him, his grey eyes blocked by his fringe of platinum hair. She managed enough energy to push it out of his face and his chin dropped to her shoulder and they just looked at each other.

This was what she loved, this completely comfortable feel of being with him. They didn’t have to say anything, didn’t have to do anything, they just…were. And it was wonderful.

“Can I see it?” she asked. She didn’t have to expand, he knew what she meant. He lifted himself enough to hand her his left arm and she looked at the very faint tattoo.

“I remember Harry talking about how Voldemort used it to call you guys. Did it hurt?”

“Like hell. It burned. The first time it happened we were in potions and I thought I had caught my arm on fire by accident.”

She nodded. “And it got darker?”

“Yeah. It’s been fading a little more every year but it’ll never go away. Does it bother you?”

“No,” she replied honestly, tracing her finger over the curve of the skull. “It’s just a part of you, a part of what brought you here, of what made you who you are. Who knows if we ever would have happened had you joined our side to begin with? A part of me wishes I could take away all the horrible things you were forced to see or do, but I know that I wouldn’t if I could. They’re a part of you, just like everything I did is a part of me.”

He caught her fingers in her and brought her them to his lips, held them there for a moment. He seemed torn.

“You’re too good for me.”

Hermione snorted. “I just cheated on my husband; I’m not too good for anyone. Especially you.”

He looked at her, hard. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I did, I know I did, I just wish I could feel like it. Feel like scum. How can I blame him when I did exactly the same thing? He loves her.”

Draco’s eyes darkened and he grabbed her chin, forcing her to meet his powerful gaze. “And do you?”

“What? I don’t even know her, of course not-,”

“Stop fucking around. Do you love me?”

Hermione’s heart stopped, her breath caught. She couldn’t move, she couldn’t think, his penetrating glare boring into her.

Before she could say anything, she was spared from ruining her life by a knock on the door.

“Mister Malfoy? Sir?” Jadie’s voice beckoned from the doorway. “I knows you don’t like to be disturbed in bed but it’s urgent, very urgent!”

Cursing soundly, enough to make Hermione jump, he pushed away from the bed and marched toward the door, unashamed of his nakedness. They’d taken residence in the nearest room when she pled for a bed after the encounter on the stairway.

When he opened the door the bright sunlight threw Hermione. Morning already?

Jadie handed Draco a note and he opened it, scanned it, swore again, thanked the elf and strode back to the side of the bed where his pants lay. He dragged them on.

“It’s Wright, says one of my clients has gone mental, stabbed her husband. Knew she was going off the deep end. I have to go but don’t you dare think this is over.”

He leaned over and gave her a hurried kiss before dragging on his shirt on the run.

“Wait, Draco!” she called him back, concern bubbling in her chest. He peeked his head back through the door.

“How did you get that note?”

He smiled. “Should have told you. Urgent messages when placed in my office are delivered straight to me, no matter where I am. I have a connection through the fireplace. Nothing to worry about. Go back to sleep.”

Hermione nodded but felt uneasy. She thought about the note which had made its way to his bed. None of the elves remember the note being delivered. How could the person have gotten through? Had they used the fireplace in the same way?

Jumping out of bed Hermione dashed into the guest room shower (they hadn’t been able to make it to either her or Draco’s bedrooms as they were further down the hall) and ran to her room, throwing on some clothes. She wasn’t Head of Investigations for nothing. Grabbing her things, she fled down the stairs, waving off Jadie’s offer for food and burst through the fireplace. She felt it in her chest, that hum that told her something was wrong. Hermione didn’t slow down until she’d reached her office. Mary having not yet arrived, she took down the wards and stumbled into her office.

“Hello, my dear.”

Feeling as though she should have known better, her world went black in a haze of pain.

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Draco flooed to his office and Aparated straight to Mrs. Doerfluer’s house. He had expected the investigators to be there already, the barriers to be set, Wright meeting him. But it was empty. He figured they might have just wanted to keep it hushed, so he banged on the door and undid the simple locking spells to let himself in.

“Deidre Doerfluer? It’s Draco Malfoy, your lawyer. Can you come out please and have a quick talk? Remember, you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want.”

He strode into the parlor, expecting them to be there but it too, was empty. The house was quiet.

“Wright?” he called.

Sounds on the stairs indicated that it must have taken place upstairs in the massive three storied house.

“Who’s there?” a deep voice called.

“Draco Malfoy, Mrs. Doerfluer’s lawyer,” he said, marching up the steps to meet the man who was in a robe and slippers. “Do you know Mrs. Doerfluer?”

“Of course I know her!” the man thundered. “I’m her bleeding husband! What’s this all about? Deirdre! Get yer arse down here!”

Draco’s mind whirled. “You’re her husband?” If this was him, he was looking remarkably well for just having a knife magicked through him.

“That’s what I said, innit? Now let me see some identification-,”

But Draco was already running down the stairs taking them two at a time. His gut wrenched. Something was wrong, very, very wrong.

He Aparated as soon as he reached the garden and landed in his office. He started for the door but a voice had him drawing his wand.

“Looking for me?”

His boss stood there, a maniacal grin on his chubby face.

“Hey, Gerald, did you send me an urgent message this morning?” Draco asked, his suspicion rising to an all time high.

“Well, now,” the older man said, taking a few steps forward. “I believe I did. Get it, did you?”

“Yeah,” he said, his hand going to his wand. Something about the way Wright was looking at him didn’t sit well. “Why did you send it to me?”

“To get you here, of course! But by the time I got here you’d already left. Quick little bastard, ain’t yeh? But no matter. You’re here now.”

“Gerald, what’s this all about? You just had me storming into an old couple’s house with the idea that someone had been stabbed. There’s going to be trouble with the department, you do know that?”

“Oh, I don’t think they’ll remember in a few hours,” he said, his lips creeping into smirk. Draco’s heart thudded against his ribs.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“No need for language, my boy. Why don’t we just sit down and have a nice little chat, shall we?”

“Why don’t you just tell me what the hell you’re up to so I can have you arrested?”

“Now that’s no way to treat your superior! You’ve always thought you could get away with whatever you wanted because you had an important father, didn’t you? Always knew your Death Eaten ways could scare everybody into compliance, but not me.” Anger contorted the man’s features and Draco was beginning to see what this was all about. “Ever since that Granger girl got you this job you’ve been stepping over everyone, taking the whole Ministry in your palm. But I’ve had enough! Now you’re going to resign, nice and quiet, and you’re going to leave here. You’re going to go to that little island your mansion is sitting on and you’re going to live out the rest of your days the way a Death Eater should!”

“No, Gerald, I don’t think I will.”

The man swelled like a balloon and drew his wand, Draco pulling his own and training it on the man. He knew his reflexes were much better the older gentleman’s but he didn’t want to hex a superior if he didn’t have to.

“You got out all too easily, Malfoy! You should be rotting in a cell in Azkaban but no, you’re sitting there in the life that was handed to you by charity and takin’ everything that belongs to good, hardworking people like me!”

“Gerald, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re my boss,” Draco drawled.

“Oh, ho, ho! So you’re going to pretend that way, eh? Gonna deny your plans to usurp me?”

“I’m not planning on usurping anyone. If I want a promotion I’ll ask for one.”

“Shut it! Shut your mouth! Now, listen here! You hand me over your wand and sit real still on that chair there. Next thing you know, you’ll be in Azkaban. You had your chance to live your life grandly in that pretty little house I sold you, but now you’re going to spend the rest of your days in a cell where you belong!”

Sold him? Draco’s heart fell. “Gerald, did you send me those notes?”

His laugher echoed in Draco’s head and made his knees weak. “Finally figured it out, have you? Yeah, I sent ‘em. Didn’t know that old bloke you bought that house from was my brother-in-law now, did you? So now you’re going to come quietly, you’re going to do what I say and-,”

“Where the fuck is Hermione?” Draco asked in a deadly tone. Gerald seemed to stutter for a minute but continued right on smiling.

“Wouldn’t you like to know? Now, come quietly or she gets it.”

“WHERE IS SHE?”

“She’s where she belongs as well!”

Draco reeled. “What does she have to do with this?”

“She’s the one that got you off, now, isn’t she? Stupid little bitch! But this’ll shut her right up! I’ve been trying to get this together now for sometime but you just dropped it right into my lap. Working for the little cunt. Now we had leverage and even more so when her drunk little husband shows up at my desk, demanding for a lawyer to straighten out his wife and this man she’s been banging. Just so happens, Draco, that that man is you. Told you not to get involved, didn’t I? But you didn’t listen, you never do. Just walk right over me. Now, unless you want her to spend the rest of her life eating her meals through a straw, you’ll be a good little boy and do as I say. Oh, and in case you don’t believe me, this little coin here is an invention of your little bint. One little tap from me and they’ll know that you’re misbehaving. They get to decide how to punish her. And one of ‘em seems to have taken a liking to her…”

Draco’s mind exploded with images of Hermione being raped and tortured before it went white with fury. Before he knew what he was doing he had sent a Stunner at his boss who was faster than Draco had taken him for and threw up a well devised shield. The spell bounded off and hit a lamp which shattered, just as Draco’s heart did. The shield came down and Gerald was laughing again.

“What fun, Draco,” he said and held up the coin. He pressed the tip of his wand against it and Hermione’s screams filled his office, making Draco sick to his stomach. He looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be seen. Were they real? Or was he being messed with?

“Oh, they’re real, I assure you,” Wright said, as if reading his mind. He tossed the coin up in the air a caught it. Draco’s eyes were riveted to the little piece of colored metal. Up, down. Up, down. “I added my own little magic to this wonderful coin of hers. Her husband gave this to me, you know. Of course, he had no idea what he was doing. I just thought I’d make it a little more…fun.”

Draco had never seen Gerald look at him as he did now, as if he were an animal he had been hunting for a very long time and had finally cornered.

“Leave her out of this, Gerald. Or are you too weak to fight a man’s battle alone?”

“Don’t try to guilt me here, boy. It won’t work. See, I have the cards, you don’t. There are no bargaining chips here. The only hand you have left to play is to do as I say if you want your little girl here to live.”

Draco hesitated, unsure of what to do. If he was killed there was no way he could help Hermione, she might never be found. The bastard would have his sick way with her until she died from despair. The thought was enough to make the bile rise in his throat.

He’d paused too long. Gerald tapped the coin again and Hermione’s shrieks and cries filled the office, tearing at his heart. Where was Gretchen? Why didn’t she hear?

“Have a decision yet?” Gerald asked after nearly an entire minute of her yells. “McDougal has a killer Cruciatus Curse.”

Draco nodded. “What do you want me to do?”

“Ah, love! Makes life so easy for me. Now, slide your wand on over and get on your knees. I’ll make this real quick. When you wake up, you’ll be in Azkaban. When they ask you if you attacked me with the Cruciatus Curse when I wouldn’t give you a promotion, you’ll answer in the affirmative. I will have used the last of my strength to take you out. When you’ve been sentenced to a life in Azkaban, she’ll go free. You got me?”

“But that could take months!” he protested. Gods, how scared she must be right now. He could remember vividly when his Aunt Bella had tortured her mercilessly right in front of him. He’d done nothing then. He wouldn’t fail her this time.

“It won’t,” Gerald assured him. “An ex-Death Eater such as yourself? It’ll take a week tops. She’ll just tell everyone she was making up with her husband in Aruba.”

“So that bastard is behind this?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t say that. I’d say he’s an added perk to an already ingenious plan.”

“And all this so I would step down?” he fumed.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” Gerald sneered. “You have to pay. Why did you get away when all those others are rotting in Azkaban? You’re just as guilty, chip off the old block, I’d say... Now slide that wand over or your pretty little witch might not make it to Aruba.”

Draco couldn’t see any more options. He’d already caused her so much pain, could he bear to anymore? Without further ado, he bent his knees and slid the wand along the ground towards Gerald. The man licked his greedy lips and knelt for it.

Draco dove.

He caught the tubby man in the stomach, knocking him back into a cabinet as he howled in pain. Draco punched him once, twice, before throwing him to the ground. Before he could move again Hermione’s screams filled the room.

“Ah, forgot to tell you that little catch. Yes,” Gerald rolled onto his side and spit out some blood while the screams drove a razor into his heart. “You hurt me, you hurt her. Just a little way to make sure you’re doing as you’re told. Now, back off.”

Draco did so, panting hard. When would they stop? “Make it stop, make them stop. I’m done, I’ll do what you say, just don’t hurt her anymore. Not over me.”

The fat fucker laughed again and Hermione’s screams ceased; her panting and sobbing now fading.

“You have my wand, I’m not armed. Let her go, this isn’t her fault. She wasn’t the Death Eater-,”

“She let you go! If it wasn’t for her you’d be sitting next to precious daddy, soulless! But instead she uses you as a pawn to disrupt my department, everything I have worked so hard for! So she will suffer, how much so depends on you.”

Draco dropped to his knees, spread his arms, prostrating himself to the deranged man. “Do what you will.”

Draco didn’t care about his own life, he’d had seven years more than he should. But Hermione, she deserved more. If he could give his life for hers it would only be the greatest gift he had. Azkaban would be nothing. He’d had her, knew she felt for him. It was enough.

“Stupefy!”

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XOXO

RynStar15