Pilfered Progeny - Stolen Dreams

***Author's Note: The year of this story is set in 2011, 13 years after Harry and Draco's 7th year at Hogwarts. Also - sorry about the tables in this chapter - can't get them to look right!



Hermione glanced nervously at the door, tapping in another attempt at the password to even open up the coded files on Pansy's computer. She'd come in here every chance she'd been able to the past two days, determined to break into the computer and find the information locked inside. She'd tried every password she could, but nothing seemed to be what Pansy had used. What in the world…?! She sat back, frustrated again as the screen went black then popped up with the message box of "incorrect password".



"Damn it, Pansy Parkinson!" she hissed through clenched teeth, powering down and restarting the computer once more. She waited again for it to boot up, glancing at the time every three seconds or so. Pansy should be back in less than fifteen minutes. She stared at the password box, hating that she couldn't figure out what it could be. She wished to Merlin that she knew more about computers but she'd never had the time to study them. What in the blazes would she have used? Suddenly she had an idea, but… she wouldn't use that phrase, would she? Hermione sat up and typed in the phrase 'IAmAnEgocentric' and to her shock; the screen cleared and proceeded through the logon session. "That

figures." she grumbled, clicking to open the files.



To her frustration, each individual file had its own password. The names of the files led her to believe they held important information but she couldn't open any of them. There were several files under two main folders. One folder was labeled 'Standard' and the files listed in that were:



AsianJoe

BagpipeBoy

BlackCannon

BrainBoy

Galleons

GreenJack

GoldMan

RedJoker

RedKeeper

SnitchMaster

WhiteDragon

WonderBoy

YellowEye

Zealot



The other folder was labeled 'Special Projects' and it included files labeled:



CharismaLure

DarkPrince

Galleons

LoverBoy

PieceMan



… all code names. Well, WhiteDragon could be Draco, and RedJoker one of the twins… was Galleons a price list, perhaps? The standard list made a weird sort of sense… but what the hell was Special Projects? Dark Prince? She glanced at the clock again. Merlin… this was taking too much time! She pulled a memory card out of her pocket and plugged it into the slot, quickly copying the coded files over.



Maybe Tonks could do something with them… She nervously chewed on a nail as she waited for the files to load. The meter telling how much had been completed was moving so incredibly slowly! Pansy was due back any moment. She jumped, hearing a noise at the door. She pulled the card and clicked close on the computer, then apparated out, her heart pounding.



Hermione sat at her computer in her office, trying to calm herself. She only had a few minutes until Zabini and his mate were due to arrive. She'd already used up all of the calming draught that she had brought to her office. She would have to go and buy more since she didn't have time to brew it, and she would never even consider going to Draco to ask for a resupply. She had made a personal vow not to go around their home until Harry told her it was alright to. She was sure she'd be in Azkaban before he finally allowed her to. She just wanted to make certain that when she went that Pansy Parkinson went right along with her into that hellhole.



There was a tap on the door that made her jump slightly. She looked over to see Amber, standing in the doorway and gazing at her with a worried expression. "Hermione, your appointment is here, rooms three. Are you all right?" she asked softly. "You look awfully pale…"



"Fine, I'm fine… I just skipped lunch is all…" she said as she mentally gathered herself. "I'll be all right. I'll get right to them…"



"Pansy's telling everyone you split up with your husband… it's not true, is it?"



Hermione looked down, feeling the pain swelling inside her again. "Yes. It's true." She said softly.



"But… but he's such a sweet guy and he's so into you! He never even looks at anyone else; why in the world would you leave him?" She asked, surprised.



"It's… I can't explain. Really, Amber; I just don't have the time or luxury to explain… It's all… very confusing…" she said softly, rising to her feet.



Amber moved to her and to her surprise, pulled her into a tight hug. Hermione hugged her back, feeling guilty for accepting even this little bit of solace. Amber didn't know what she'd been doing or she'd have slapped her like Harry wanted to, but the embrace felt so good! "You need to talk to someone, Hermione Weasley. I may not be a witch or talented or even as sharp as you are, but I do understand human relationships… please. If you need to talk - about ANYTHING - please just let me know. I want to help." Amber said softly, gazing into her eyes



Hermione gave her a weak smile. "It'll be all right, you'll see." she reassured and felt Amber press something into her hand.



"You will DRINK this before you go and see the Zabini's. And you need to eat an energy bar at least." Amber said firmly.

Hermione looked to see a calming draught in her hand. She gave Amber a small hug once more, and then followed her instructions, drinking the potion down.



A quick visit to the lab to load things on a cart and back to the office to pick up the file, Hermione moved over and knocked softly on the door of room number three. At the call to come in, she opened the door, pushing the cart inside. Terry glanced at it nervously, seeing a tray covered by a cloth and several large strange looking containers.



"Hello gentlemen." Hermione smiled, giving them both the formal bow before she turned her attention to the younger man with a reassuring smile. "Good morning Terry. Tell me, how have you been feeling?"



"Kind of normal, really… just really nervous." he smiled shyly at her.



"Don't be; there's no pain involved at all for you." She assured, moving over to the bed that Terry sat perched on the edge of. "All you have to do is lay back and relax. I'll take care of the rest." She said.



"All right…" he said shyly, lying back on the bed.



Damitri moved to his other side so that he would be out of the way, taking Terry's hand in his.



Hermione opened the largest container and Terry jumped at the hissing sound it made, the seal broken on the unit. "There we go; it's all right, no worries Terry. This is just where I've stored the embryos, the babies. I have five of them prepared for you."



"Five!" Terry murmured, looking shocked. "I can't… not five…!"



Hermione chuckled softly. "No, no; you don't understand Terry. It's quite all right; no one is expecting you to carry five babies. That's too much to ask of anyone. We put in more than two because often something goes wrong with the embryo before it is strong enough to survive."



The little blonde looked worried. "They… they die?"



"They can, and they do. It's completely natural. It happens to witches as well as muggle women. So we try to beat those odds; you see if we implant only two, quite often the couple have to come back to have more implanted. To get success the first time, we implant more; five to seven is the common number. I took special care with your embryos..."



Terry gazed at her. "You did all that work yourself?"



"Every bit of it, Terry." She said firmly. "…With my own two hands, I wanted to be absolutely certain that every step possible was taken for success. You see, I want to see you happy and round with a baby too…" she gave him a soft, fond smile and Terry blushed. "We can implant only two if you wish; it's completely up to you…"



"Dimi…?" Terry gazed up at him, confused and unsure. "What should I do?"



"Go ahead with normal procedure, Miss Weasley." Damitri told her with a smile. "All will be well, Terry. Don't worry; I will take care of you and anyone else who happens to come along…" he assured, stroking his lover's cheek.



"All right, Dimi…" he smiled, relaxing. If Damitri said it was all right, then everything would be fine…



Hermione smiled and nodded, turning back to her table. She opened the sealed container then carefully took out a small glass dish with a seal on top of it. "All right, Terry; here they are…" she said, turning to them.



Terry gazed at the little dish with a tiny bit of liquid in it. "But it's just water…" He said softly, unsure.



"It looks like water, because the embryos are still so small you can't see them." Hermione explained patiently. "Just relax now, I promise this won't hurt one little bit. Let's get you pregnant." she said, using her wand to do another scan of Terry's body. The newly created womb was quickly found and she held the dish directly over the area, then began to chant softly. Terry watched feeling a little tense and expecting pain no matter what he had been told.



Damitri watched, actually quite impressed with the process. It had probably taken years to figure out the spells and magic required to enable wizards to carry children when it could not occur naturally. It was too bad that this particular witch was going to be dragged down in the mire with the others when it all done and over with. She was very good with Terry and patient as well, and ensured that every last detail was taken care of. She would probably have made a very good healer if she hadn't fallen into all this mess. Damned shame…



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.



Hermione walked out to her car that evening, tired and worried. She had to get what evidence she had to Harry or Tonks or someone, even if she had no bloody idea what it all was or what it meant. She slipped into her car and locked the doors, and then she pulled out her cell phone and dialed the only number she had on speed dial at the time.



"Potter here…"



"Harry, I'm sorry to bother you but I have information for you; you'll want this as quickly as I can get it to you…" she said in an urgent tone as she started her car, pulling out of the lot and away from the facility. "I finally managed to get into Pansy's computer."



"You did? What did you find?"



"Several files; I couldn't break into each individual file so I copied them onto a memory stick. I'm headed home with this right now."



"Has Tonks seen any of this yet?"



"No, I got the files this morning but was stuck at work all day." she answered, and Harry could hear a hitch in her voice that revealed her pain at the day. "We had two couples lose babies today." Hermione's voice was pained. "It's been a day of nearly pure hell, only one bright spot all day. Could you please call her for me? I'll have my computer booted up if you will bring her over…"



"I should be there by the time you arrive." Harry said quietly.



"All right. Thank you... how's Draco? He looked wonderful at the recital."



"He's all right; doing better than I could have hoped." He answered.



"And Angel?"



"Don't worry, everyone is fine." He said, cutting off her attempt at casual conversation.



"I'm sorry… I just… please, Harry. Whatever you do, don't let Pansy anywhere near Draco." she said softly.



"No one is going to harm my Dragon." He growled "I'll see you soon."



"All right." she hung up and focused on getting home as quickly as traffic would allow.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.



Harry kissed Draco. "I won't be long… Angel, you take good care of papa for me."



"I will daddy. We're gonna make Nonno a cake." She beamed at him.



He smiled softly, and then winked at Draco. "Have fun…" he said, heading for the door.



"Be careful, Harry." Draco said. "Don't be too long."



"I'll be careful." He assured, closing the door behind him. He then apparated over to Hermione's house to await her arrival.



He wasn't there longer than a couple of minutes before the car pulled up into the driveway. She wasted little time getting out of the car and into the house, looking nervously over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.



"Hello Hermione…" he said, and Hermione jumped, clearly nervous.



"Oh… oh, it's you; Harry." she murmured. Harry noted how she looked both pale and ill and somehow he thought with a vengeful thought that it served her right to be sick after all she'd done.



"Just me…" he agreed. "Dora should be here any moment…" he told her, moving to take a seat.



She nodded, moving to the desk and powering up the computer.



It hadn't even been on a moment or two before the floo activated a moment later, and Tonks stepped out, followed closely by Severus Snape. "What do you have for us?" Dora asked, eyeing the muggle contraption. She'd never understood the blasted things, even when Severus showed her how they worked. And he'd tried multiple times before he finally gave up on teaching her anything about it.



"I'm not sure." she said softly. "I finally got pass the password and into Pansy's computer today. These files were on a hidden drive, and they're encrypted, I don't know what password she used or program that she used to seal them."



"So we have no idea if they're of any use at all." Snape said coldly, his lip curled.



"I didn't have to do this…" Hermione whispered, beginning to tremble. Snape was right; they could be totally useless files.



"Of course not, Mrs. Weasley, but don't think I don't see right through your reason for getting these files. You're just trying to keep yourself out of Azkaban using any means possible." He said with a clear sneer.



That got her dander up. "I got them for Tonks!" she snapped at him immediately. "I KNOW I'm going to Azkaban! I KNOW I'll never see my husband or my daughter again! I'm so happy that the knowledge of that gives you so bloody much amusement!" she pushed away from the desk and stalked away from him, trembling, trying her hardest not to cry, back to them all.



Snape smiled coldly and moved to sit down in the chair.



"Sev, she didn't have to even give us any information. She never was under any kind of illusion that she was going to avoid Azkaban." Tonks told him, but he ignored her, opening up the files on the memory stick.



"Standard and Special Projects, hum?" Snape mused, opening the Standard file first. He clicked on 'WonderBoy' to open the file and ran into the same stopping point Hermione had met. Try as he might, he could not get the file to open with any type of sense at all.



"GreenJack? WonderBoy?" Tonks murmured, gazing at the screen with a frown. "What the hell kind of file names are those?"



"They must mean something to Pansy." Harry scowled, moving over to look as well.Severus scowled, not being able to get anything more than random letters and characters. "Her encryption is too strong. We don't have the proper program to get past it." He said, sitting back in his chair, shooting an accusing glare at Hermione.



"She didn't have an encryption program on her computer that I could find or I'd have copied it too." Hermione answered, not turning back to face them. She couldn't bear to look at Harry.



"I may have an answer to this." Tonks pulled out her cell phone and began quickly dialing a number. "I hope it's not too early there…" she murmured softly. Harry glanced at her but she gestured for him to be patient, moving toward the kitchen as she spoke over the phone.



"Yes… Abbie…? Hey, girl. Yeah, its Tonks… listen, I have a real problem here… yeah. Computer files, I can't do a bloody thing with them. Yes. Encryption we think… yes. Could you? You are the absolute best; I owe you a dinner when I get back on your side of the pond…!" Tonks began to smile. "Absolutely, anywhere you choose…" she agreed, and then laughed. "Well, I guess I'm at your mercy then. All right; we'll send you one of the files if you can get the encryption done we can read the rest… Fantastic…! You are absolutely brilliant. See you…" she hung up the phone and turned back to Snape. "I need you to send one of those files over the net thing to…" she punched a few buttons on the phone and showed him an e-mail address. "There."



Snape opened the e-mail and sent the file onward without questioning her; he knew she would never cause possible endangerment to a case. "And now what?"



"Now we wait… if anyone can figure that out, Abbie can." Tonks sighed.



"I'm heading out to the garden… I need some fresh air." Harry said, rising and striding out. Hermione glanced after him, feeling more depressed and upset by the second. Severus was clearly enjoying every moment of her pain and she hated him for it; and she had to tell Harry what she had found out about Pansy and what she had done to her friends.



"So, Mrs. Weasley; this is quite a nice house." Snape observed in an acidic tone. "Did you buy it with the money you earned with Miss Parkinson?"



Hermione closed her eyes against her tears. "I bought it with Ron and our savings... but I paid it off with her money, yes." She whispered. She knew she really had no defense for what she had done and none of it mattered. She had no real defense and was done making excuses. "I didn't know that's where the money was coming from. I didn't know until eight or nine months ago. She gave me the details of who the donors were then, and… I can't bear it anymore. I don't care if they lock me up, it'll be better than the hell I have to endure every day now." she whispered, moving to the bar.



"You seem so sure you're going to be locked away… have you actually visited Azkaban?" Snape probed at her mercilessly.



"Severus…!" Tonks sighed. He was getting carried away again.



"Yes, I have!" Hermione turned to glare at him, tears on her cheeks. "I didn't do any of this intending to cause pain! I didn't set out to muck about in people's lives! I was training to be a healer, and wanted to help people like Harry and Draco who were having so much trouble having babies to have them, to get their families!"



"Oh, and you certainly did that, didn't you?" He asked with a sneer. "Helped them to have a baby that Draco's body was not ready to carry to term!"



"There was nothing wrong with the pregnancy! Draco was strong, and so was the baby! Andie would have lived if Pansy hadn't killed her!" Hermione snapped at him furiously.



Harry, standing in the doorway upon his return from outside, froze at those words. He stared at Hermione. "What?"



Hermione's fury drained away in a heartbeat as she met the eyes of her oldest school friend. "Pansy… she put a mild poison designed to… to cause a miscarriage into Draco's tea." she whispered, tears flowing freely now and not caring one bit.



"And… you knew…?" Harry whispered in a pained voice.



"No. Harry I swear it on my life, on my parents' lives, on Rosie's! I thought it was a horrible tragedy; I hurt so badly for you… I didn't know Pansy put something in his drink. It had to have been at the tea here at my house… Merlin, I swear if I'd have known I'd have used an unforgiveable curse on her that very evening!"



"She's telling the truth, Harry." Tonks told him softly, frowning at Hermione. She hadn't wanted to expose Harry to this truth just yet; there were sure to be many more shocks coming today and he had enough to deal with. "I was disguised as Hermione when Pansy told me about it."



"She's considering doing the same to another client. I… I want to warn them but how can I without destroying the case?" Hermione whispered softly, turning back to the window. She couldn't bear to think of Terry broken down by the loss of his babies as Draco had been.



"She won't have the chance." Tonks assured.



"Now is not the time for all of this…" Snape said sourly.



"If it's not, when is it…?!" Hermione asked, not turning back. "Harry deserves to know everything, every little thing that I can find..!"



Harry sank into a chair, shaken to his core. Pansy had killed… that unconscionable bitch had killed his daughter! "I need a drink." he murmured softly.



Tonks turned toward the bar but Hermione moved over quickly. "No; let me, please…" she murmured, wanting to give Harry anything he wanted. She prepared him a drink with slightly trembling hands and brought it to him.



Harry glanced up at her then muttered his thanks, taking the drink. He couldn't think straight. He felt plunged into that hell of grief all over again. His baby didn't die, she was murdered, and Pansy had done it. Snape and Tonks could pay attention and wait for the response; he didn't particularly care right now.



Hermione hesitated, and then touched his shoulder softly in an attempt to comfort him; he glared at her hand wordlessly. She bit her lip and drew it back as if burned. "I just… I just wanted you to know…you have the right to know… Pansy is interested in getting more of your samples, and Draco's too. She wants to get to you and Draco and I've been talking her round to waiting. I don't want her anywhere near either of you, she's already said she has ways of handling you, and… and Blaise too…"



Severus surveyed all of this, finding it actually quite amusing how he could set this young woman off with only a word. To be truthful, he'd had a bad day and watching Hermione suffer was giving him immense satisfaction. After all, she had brought all of this on herself by her own actions, hadn't she?



"If she comes near Draco I will tear her apart." Harry growled. "And I won't need my wand to do it."



"It makes me so sick to even be around her, now that I know that she… she's killed children." she moved away to give Harry his distance to allow himself to get control.



Harry took a deep drink, trying to calm his anger. He was barely restraining himself from going to hunt down Parkinson this very moment. Somehow, through his anger and fury, he heard that last word that Hermione said, very clearly. "Wait… children…?"



"She's done it to others, Harry." Tonks said as she got herself and Snape drinks as well. "She said she did it to make the 'donor' she needed return… she didn't mention any names."



"She didn't have to." Hermione whispered. "I know who's lost their babies." Hermione sank into a chair, staring at the empty fireplace.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~.



It seemed to take forever for the response to come through from Tonks' friend. Hermione had long since fallen silent and sat curled in her chair by the cold fireplace. The computer beep made her jump and look over at the computer.



"Well let's see what Abbie's got for us, shall we?" Tonks said, moving over to the computer, only half a step behind Severus. He sat down in the chair and reactivated the computer, opening his email to retrieve the file. The file was attached, as well as another that was named in all caps 'DECODER PROGRAM'.



The note that accompanied these stated simply: 'Here you are, my friend… don't you forget about dinner or else! And by the way, it was a real pain to get this decoder program, so you owe me a night at the club too…! Love ya… Abbie.'



Tonks read it and laughed softly. "Well, she's got what it takes to get what we need… good old Abbie…" she said, watching as Snape first opened and downloaded the decoding program.



"Does she even know you're married, Dora?" Snape asked her with a soft smirk.



"She knows… doesn't much care, though." She shrugged, and then shot him a scowl. "Its dinner, not a hotel, Severus!" she scolded.



His smirk grew. "You forgot dancing at the club…" he teased.



"She said club, she didn't say dancing. Now pay attention to what we're supposed to be doing. Open that other file!" She said in a scolding tone but she couldn't help but grin at him.



He returned his attention to the screen and opened the file that had been sent back decoded. The file was 'Galleons' out of the 'Standard' file. What opened was a table with names, numbers, and what seemed to be…



"Prices. 'Galleons' is a price list." Tonks said immediately.



"You donated your husband's sperm to the effort, did you?" Severus asked Hermione, who looked over at him glaring. Severus met her stare with narrowed eyes. "RedKeeper is most likely him."



"I did no such thing! And he's never been to the clinic, he never… I didn't! She kept asking me to but I didn't, Tonks knows that! I did NOT do that!"



"She's already taken down payments on two of his 'samples'." Tonks commented, reading the chart. "Small wonder she's been insisting that we get a move on and collect his semen as quickly as possible."



"She… she what?" Hermione looked like she was in shock; she was pale and ill and her eyes red from her constant tears. "No… No, I sent him to Charlie's… I couldn't let him be hurt…"



"She knows where he is." Tonks said, straightening. "And she plans to pursue him."



"Ron won't go anywhere near her." she shook her head.



"It's a good thing that we have watch on her every moment of the day." Tonks said.



Severus set the encryption program that was now fully loaded to working on translation of the other files in the background. "Amazing how much a pureblood goes for these days." he said in a droll tone.



"How much?" Tonks asked.



"It varies, actually… for Potter? Fifty thousand galleons… my, my, my… Aren't you popular, Potter? Ten orders already pre-paid…"



"Ten?" he looked over, feeling a little numb from the news.



"She doesn't have that many." Tonks commented with a smirk. "Though she is plotting on how to get hold of it."



Snape smirked and opened the 'BoyWonder' file. It was a table that read:





|__FAMILY ___|__IMPLANT___|_____GENDER____|___DUE DATE____|_____DESTROYED____|_____BORN_______|

|__Avery_____|__05/30/09__|_____Male______|__ 03/31/10____|__________________|_____02/21/10___|

|__Yaxley ___|__11/03/07__|_____Male______|____07/15/07___|__________________|____ 07/13/07___|

|__Gibbon____|__02/16/08__|_____Female____|_______________|______06/03/08____|________________|

|__Gibbon____|__09/16/08__|_____Female____|_______________|______12/24/08____|________________|

|__Carrow ___|__10/28/10__|_____Female____|_______________|______03/01/10____|________________|

|__Carrow ___|__05/31/10__|_____Female____|_______________|______10/08/10____|________________|

|__Carrow ___|__11/29/11__|_____Male______|____08/29/11___|__________________|________________|

|__Lestrange_|__03/12/08__|_____Male______|_______________|__________________|_____12/12/08___|

|__Jugson____|__04/02/08__|_____Male______|_______________|__________________|_____01/18/08___|



Tonks stared at the screen. "Merlin…!" She murmured softly. "These are all Death Eater families! They've all lost family in the war… What does… does that mean?" she began to wonder aloud, glancing at Harry.



"Destroyed." Snape said quietly. "It appears that all the female children were killed once they discovered their gender, though some continued to make the attempt until they were successful at breeding a male."



Harry looked over, grief warring with rage on his face, magic crackling around him. "I'll kill them all… every bloody one of them who killed my daughters!" he snarled as he surged to his feet and moved over to stare over Severus' shoulder at the screen.



"We'll get them all, Harry… this list here damns each and every one of them, and we can rescue those they did not kill." Tonks said firmly. "Hermione; I couldn't have asked for better information. She has listed the owner of each sample here and who bought and implanted each of the samples."



Hermione didn't respond, still curled up in her chair. It didn't matter what she got for them; Snape was right. She would be lucky not to get the Dementor's Kiss, and she'd suffer for the rest of her life in Azkaban.



Snape opened another file; the one labeled 'WhiteDragon' and found another table. Snape studied it a moment then touched the screen. "There are the twins." he said.





|_FAMILY_____|__IMPLANT___|____GENDER____|____DUE DATE___|____DESTROYED___________|____BORN____|

|_Lestrange__|__08/19/10__|__Male/Female_|____06/10/11___|_Mother Self-Terminated_|____________|

|_Parkinson__|__07/09/07__|____Male______|_______________|___Miscarried___________|____________|

|_Parkinson__|__11/02/07__|____Male______|_______________|___Miscarried___________|____________|

|_Urquhart___|__03/05/09__|____Female____|_______________|________________________|__12/31/09__|

|_Baddock ___|__06/18/08__|____Male______|_______________|________________________|__04/22/09__|

|_Harper ____|__12/19/10__|____Male______|_______________|________________________|__09/19/11__|

|_Bletchley__|__10/31/09__|____Female____|_______________|________________________|__07/11/10__|



Harry growled, a snarl on his lips. Seeing Pansy's name listed twice was just too much for him; she had tried two times to impregnate herself with his husband's seed. That greedy, arrogant, self-centered bitch!



"Potter, you will control yourself this instant!" Snape snapped.



"She tried to take our kids… she tried to take them for herself!" Harry snarled back at him.



"You will control yourself or you will leave!" Snape glared at him, and for a long moment Harry glared back, refusing to back down. Finally, though, Harry averted his eyes. He did not want to be forced to leave at the moment, there was too much left to do.



"Do these customers always know who the donor is?" Severus asked Hermione, choosing to leave Harry out of things altogether.



Hermione shook her head. "Not always…"



"How can that be? They have to choose who they're using."



"I went to school with Kelsey Baddock." Tonks said. "You couldn't meet a sweeter or more tractable young woman… I can't believe that she would engage in dark practices to get a child… did she know, Hermione?"



"No… no she didn't. Some of them had no idea at all; they thought they were just producing the heir their father wanted so they could live their lives as they chose… but some, like Aralias Lestrange… they found out. Aralias… they said she… she…"



"Took her own life." Snape finished for her.



"Her father arranged everything; ensured that she came to every appointment, chose the donor, paid for all of it." she said softly, voice shaking.



"Merlin… this is all such an insane fucking nightmare." Harry murmured softly.



"I should have come to you sooner." Hermione said softly, head bowed, taking all the blame without complaint. "I should have…"



"I'm going to need a copy of all this." Tonks said, straightening.



"Take the memory card; I don't want it." She whispered.



"It's a very good start, and I appreciate your work, Hermione. But we will need more to hold up before the Wizengamot. I need to interrogate Parkinson."



"If you caught her in the act of raping a wizard, no one on that entire panel would condone that act. Not even the ones who are secretly in support of it all." Snape said.



"I'll do it." Harry said. "I can't risk her getting anywhere near Draco… she wants me, anyway."



"She was practically orgasmic over the thought of catching Ron, Blaise and you together to harvest all of you together." Tonks said, stretching her back. This could work…"I'll talk to them, but cooperating will be their choice."



"No! Please, leave Ron out of this." Hermione said, gazing pleadingly at them.



"You can't keep this from him. He has a right to know what crimes his wife has committed." Snape sneered at her.

Hermione flinched at his words, her tears flowing again. "He's going to find out, I just don't want him to; don't involve him…"



"It's not your choice anymore!" Tonks snapped at her and she fell silent, trembling and bowing her head.



Harry sighed, turning from the computer. "I've seen all I want to tonight… I'll talk to Ron and Blaise tomorrow."



"Good plan." Tonks nodded. Harry gave her a faint smile before he apparated home.



"I don't know how much longer I can do all of this." Hermione whispered.



"Again, you don't have a choice." Snape snarled at her. "You WILL continue with what we tell you to do until we have EVERYONE involved in custody!" he said coldly.



Hermione turned tortured eyes on him, a snarl on her lips as she came to her feet. "Get the hell out of my house, Severus Snape!" she demanded in a pained tone. "I never invited you, get the fuck out!!"



He gave her a cold look but Tonks tugged his sleeve. "We have all we came for now, anyway, Sev… let's go." She said softly.



"As you wish, Dora." He said, moving with her.



Hermione glared at them until they were gone, then she collapsed in harsh sobs on the couch.