Broomsticks and Alibis

Chapter 15

(Wand fight that may be disturbing to some. Theres my warning.)

“That’s my wife you were touching there Krum! Go back to Bulgaria and get your own wife. Just do not touch Hermione. Yes, Hermione, not whatever fucked up name you keep calling her. And next time, learn to speak the language before you come here and start trying to pick up on another man’s wife!” Draco shouted.

He turned and took Hermione’s hand and started to walk away. Hermione glanced over her shoulder to see Viktor staggering to his feet. He had a snarled expression and Hermione knew this was not going to be pretty. She pulled out her wand, but continued walking with Draco. Draco also had his hand on his wand and then things happened quickly. Viktor lunged at Draco. Draco spun around and so did Hermione. Draco had his left arm extended straight while his right hand curled above his head holding his wand. Draco’s wand was pointed straight at Viktor. She had seen this style of dueling before, from Draco during an exhibition duel in their second year when he dueled Harry and also from Lucius on that terrible night Sirius Black died in the Department of Mysteries. She feared what her former Death Eater husband would do, so she turned her wand on Draco and shouted.

“Expelliarmus!” Draco’s wand flew from his hand leaving a shocked and angry Draco, defenseless. Viktor was on him now as he barreled into Draco, knocking him to the floor. Draco had the height and reach on Krum but Krum’s fists were massive as the two men came to blows. Hermione stood in shock, moving her wand back and forth, trying to get a clear shot on Viktor in order to Stupefy him. Krum pinned Draco and punched him in the face, then Draco took the upper hand, kicking him in the groin and throwing another punch at Krum’s huge pumpkin head. Hermione saw Draco shake his hand in pain as Viktor’s head met with Draco’s hand. Draco was fighting defensively, while Krum’s arms flailed wildly, the anger on his face evident, as he tried to hit Draco repeatedly, only to become frustrated when Draco ducked under his punches. Draco tackled Krum on the ground and then shouted.

“Give me my wand. I’m going to end this. Hermione, my fucking wand!”

Hermione ran to his wand and picked it up. Draco released one of his hands from Viktor’s neck where he was choking him in order to hold him down, while he sat over top of Viktor Krum. Hermione started to give him the wand but then pulled back, afraid of what he would do with it. She had seen him use the Cruciatus curse once, against Blaise, who was his best friend at the time. She had no idea what he would do to a person who wasn’t his friend and who happened to be someone that was in love with his wife. She thought she was protecting Draco against himself. She had no idea though, how could she predict, Viktor was such a nice boy, that her hesitation to give Draco his wand would lead to the events that followed. As Draco pleaded for his wand, Krum escaped his clutches leaving a wandless Draco scrambling to his feet.

“Sectumsempra!” Viktor cried out as Hermione ploughed into Viktor screaming for him to stop. His spell caught Draco in the leg and Draco felt a searing pain rip into his leg as his skin tore open, a gaping slash wound seeping blood onto the floor of the Great Hall. Hermione lay on top of Viktor now slapping him hard in the back, begging him to stop but he flung her petite body from his back with ease Hermione released Draco’s wand and it rolled to Draco’s feet. Draco picked it up and turned on his attacker.

“Fiendfyre!” A large, orange, glowing fire snake with crimson eyes the same color as the blood that oozed from Draco’s leg, shot from his wand. It flew high in the Great Hall, swooping on Viktor and anyone else in the vicinity. Everyone hit the floor and watched as the battle raged on.

“Krum, stop! You have the Dark Mark don’t you? Can you feel the power surging through you, just as I can? Can you feel it!?” Draco yelled as the pain in his leg intensified. The fire snake singed Viktor’s sleeve as it made another pass and his shirt caught fire. Viktor threw the flaming shirt from his body, tearing it away from his skin. Draco’s eyes fell upon the Dark Mark on Viktor’s arm. He had been branded by Voldemort, just as Draco had. Draco’s arm burned and Viktor was now holding his arm too. “It’s because we both have the Mark! It’s trying to make us fall to its will. Resist it and the pain will stop! Resist it!” Draco was screaming out as Viktor stood again, wand raised on Draco, his hand shaking, as if he were trying to restrain himself.

“I can’t make it stop! It hurts! You have to get away, I can’t control the magic!” Viktor yelled out, unable to harness the dark magic he felt coursing through his veins.

“Resist it! Think of something you love. Think of Hermione!” Draco fell back on the ground, his face growing paler as his blood continued to seep from his wound. If Viktor didn’t resist they would both kill each other.

“I’m sorry! It burns.” Viktor cried out. Hermione couldn’t get up, for the fire snake that had leapt from Draco’s wand was so big it took up half of the the Great Hall. Students were screaming, crying, and trying to scoot on their bellies to get out of the Great Hall. She could see Viktor crawling towards Draco, but every time she edged closer, the snake would push her back. It’s as if Draco and Krum were encircled by the roaming fire beast, its scorching snakelike body encasing them closer and closer to each other. “Make it stop!” Viktor was crying hard now and Draco looked close to passing out from the pain. He was holding his arm at his side, the pain from the Dark Mark burning his skin as if hot coals had been placed on his arm. Viktor was nearly on top of him now and Hermione sobbed uncontrollably.

“Don’t hurt him Viktor, I love him. Malfoy, please don’t die. I love you Draco! Viktor no!” Hermione cried. She couldn’t take it anymore and she bolted upright and lunged to reach Draco on the floor. She felt the heat from the snake forcing her back and then she was flat on her back, her face flushed and the wisps of hair at the fringe of bangs singed off from the intense heat.

“Fight it Draco, fight! Viktor reached Draco and then it was if the two boys knew exactly what to do. They clasped arms as if they were arm wrestling, their Dark Marks pressing against each other’s, a green snakelike whip of light swirling above their arms.

“You have to think of something you love! It’s the only way we can make it stop,” Draco cried through the pain and then he fell silent. Hermione watched in utter disbelief at what she was seeing, as the green light was slowly extinguished, leaving hoards of frightened students and two silent and still boys in its wake.

In all the commotion, Hermione had failed to notice that Harry Potter was on the far side of the Great Hall, watching the whole scene play out. Like her, he had not been able to break through the ring of fire. He rushed towards Draco and Viktor just as Hermione reached her husband.

“You are going to be alright. I won’t let you die. You hear me Malfoy? Malfoy!?”

Draco opened his eyes and whispered in his husky voice. “Next time, give me my wand when I ask for it. You have to learn to trust me, Malfoy.” Hermione was beside herself. She kissed his hand frantically, her tears falling on his face as she screamed for someone to help them. He had lost so much blood. She suddenly realized that nobody knew how to help them.

“Harry? What do we do!” Mad Eye Moody had restrained Viktor Krum while Harry helped Hermione save her husband.

“I only saw this once. Unfortunately it was after I hit Malfoy with the same spell.” Harry apparrated to the potions lab, while Hermione stayed with Draco, the warmth of his hand slowing growing colder as more time passed. Harry had Professor Snapes old potions pantry under lock and key. There had never been a better potions master then Snape, and Harry had kept the pantry organized exactly as Snape had left it, just in case things of this nature should happen. By a stroke of luck, Harry was able to find the book with the proper incantation written down on it. He apparrated back to Hermione, who was now crying hysterically over a shivering and limp Draco who continued to bleed out from his leg. Harry knelt in front of Draco, the memories of the bathroom incident playing over and again in his mind as his glasses began to fog up from his own tears. How could he have done that to Malfoy? There was no time to visit the past, he was dieing again right before his very eyes. He held his wand over the deep gashes and recited the incantation. The wounds began to heal themselves, stitching themselves, his skin closing and the blood flow seepage ceasing. Harry repeated the spell two more times, until all his wounds were healed. Then Harry knelt and cried over what he had done to Malfoy so long ago.

“It’s not your fault Harry. It’s my fault. I didn’t give Draco his wand. I didn’t know what could happen if two former Death Eaters were to fight,” Hermione cried, snot mixed with tears running down her face, she was a mess.

“You couldn’t have known, Hermione. None of us knew, since most of the Death Eaters are dead and others, like Krum, we never knew about.”

“Oh Harry, I almost killed him! I vowed to love him and look what I did! I should have trusted him. I’ll never make that mistake again. Never! I’m so sorry my sweet Dragon. I should have trusted you. I should have trusted you.” Madame Pompfrey arrived on the scene and Draco was moved to the hospital wing, yet again.

Hermione didn’t talk much to anyone over the next week while Draco healed. She was permitted to take him home. Viktor was taken to the Ministry where he was pumped for information about his past involvement with Voldemort. From what Harry had confided to Hermione, Viktor had been recruited after his mentor Karkaroff, had turned out to be a disappointment to Voldemort and was killed for it. While all they could go on was Viktor’s word, it seemed evident that Viktor had not ever been called to service during the war. Perhaps, Voldemort’s intent was to use him for something else later on down the line, but died before he had the chance. Needless to say, Krum was to serve an Azkaban sentence. Draco was given the benefit of the doubt, when several witness recollected their accounts of what had happened in the Great Hall that day and all seemed to be of the impression that Draco was well within his right to protect his wife and himself and furthermore, that Krum had cast the first spell, turning the fight into a wand fight.

Hermione nursed Draco back to health in a most subservient way. She would bring him his food, dress his wounds, treat him with magical remedies and potions, and wash him and just anything and everything she could think of. The guilt was overwhelming, and finally, when Draco was well enough to address the event and all that occurred, he sat her down in front of him.

“I want you to go back to the University. I feel good as new almost and I can’t stand seeing you like this anymore.”

“I knew you wouldn’t want anything to do with me. I can’t even stand to look at myself in the mirror, after I almost got you killed,” Hermione said starting to cry again.

“I know you can’t. That’s the problem. That’s why I want you to go back to the University.”

“Do you want me to go away right now? I completely understand you not wanting to look at me Draco. I’ll just get my things and go.”

“Stop it! You’re doing it again.” Draco sounded pissed.

“I’m sorry. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it Draco,” Hermione plead.

“That’s just it! I don’t want to tell you what to do, unless I want to tell you what to do! You know like in the bedroom,” Draco chuckled but his humor fell on deaf ears.

“You want me to suck you off? I can do that for you if that’s what you mean.”

“Christ, Hermione! No. I don’t want you to suck me off. I mean yes I do, but not like this.”

“I don’t understand Draco. I just want to please you. I feel horrible about what I did, all because I couldn’t trust you. You said it yourself, I should have trusted you and given you your wand. All of this was my fault and you nearly died,” Hermione started crying harder now.

“Stop it god damn it! Cut this fucking shit out. Now Hermione!”

“Stop what? Acting like a good wife to you? Trying to show my husband how much I love him? How much I wish that would have been me laying on the floor bleeding and not you? How if I had listened to you and stayed away from Viktor, none of this would have happened?”

“Where is Viktor?”

“He’s at the Ministry. He is being transported to Azkaban tomorrow. Matilda and Ernest are there visiting him right now. He’s broken up about everything, as are Matilda and Ernest. I pressed charges against Viktor. I knew you would want me to, so I did. I prosecuted him myself. Three years in Azkaban. He isn’t even mad at me, is the thing. He wants to go. Like I said, he’s broken up over what he did and the whole Dark Mark acting the way it did, really scared him.”

“Yes I thought it would. He didn’t have as much training from Voldemort as I did. I knew about what could happen, but I never thought much about it. I guess I figured since Voldemort died, so did the power the Dark Mark carried.” Draco looked at the mark on his arm and then pulled the sheet over it. He never wanted to see the ugly brand on his arm again. He couldn’t understand how Hermione never mentioned it at all and was just able to pretend it wasn’t there. He hated it. It was a reminder to him of everything bad that he was, and of a past, he could never make restitution for. He had nightmares about Hermione being tortured by Bellatrix Lestrange. If Viktor was now feeling even half of the pain Draco himself had been carrying around with him since the war, then Viktor was going to be in prison for the rest of life. A Death Eater that could see the error of his ways lived in his own prison. Draco knew. “The surge of power I felt when we fought scared me too. I know how Viktor feels,” Draco said with empathy.

“He wanted to speak with you,” Hermione said sullenly, “to apologize, I think, before he goes to Azkaban.”

“Get him out of jail, Hermione. Bring him here. I want to talk to him. I want to tell him that we aren’t pressing charges. You need to get his sentence overturned Hermione.”

Hermione was flabbergasted. She thought that she was doing the right thing by prosecuting Viktor. Intent on showing her husband just how much of a good wife she could be, she filed the papers and then went into court and got the conviction.

“I also want you to stop this bullshit. Stop this good wife, bad wife, fucking bullshit. I loved you the way you were. I don’t want some nursemaid or some slave who polishes my shoes like a house elf and strips for me and sucks me off. I want Hermione Granger, the same cheeky bitch I married. The girl who puts me in my place when I’m rude. The girl who constantly reminds me that she beat me on every test in Hogwarts, barely I might add. I want my wife back.”

“I just want you to know that I love you,” Hermione said feeling slightly better.

“I know you love me. I know the next time you will trust me. Nobody expects you to be perfect Malfoy,” Draco said.

“You mean like you, Malfoy?”

“Exactly,” Draco smiled and pulled her into him. “It’s a learning process, this whole marriage thing. You fucked up. Next time it will be me fucking up.”

“Probably the next time after that even,” Hermione giggled and Draco pinched her on the arse. “Point is, you better believe that I won’t be kissing your ass when I fuck up, so you don’t have to kiss mine either. Although, if you want to, it’s right here,” Draco pointed to his arse that was clad in a pair of silky boxers and Hermione pinched him back. He yelped and then the two rolled, kissed and made up.

Matilda and Ernest nearly broke down in tears when Hermione told them that Draco was better and that he didn’t want to press charges against Viktor after all. Hermione had spared no time in getting Viktor out of jail and now Viktor stood outside their bedroom door with Hermione, ready to apologize to Draco Malfoy.

“He’s been in a good mood so I wouldn’t worry. He forgives you.”

“What I did to you, and to him, was wrong and I wish to tell him man to face.” Hermione giggled at Viktor’s English and then opened the door, letting Viktor in to see Draco (although she left it cracked open so she could shamelessly eavesdrop, just like any normal wife would).

“I want to apologize for casting such a wicked spell on you. I was not myself. The power the Dark Mark gave me temporarily, could not be controlled.”

“I know. Forget about it. Just don’t try to pick up on any other Death Eaters wives in the future and you should be perfectly okay,” Draco chuckled but Viktor sat in the chair across from Draco quite straight faced and serious.

“About that. I need you to know that when you told me to think of something you loved, I did.”

“Yeah I figured. We don’t need to rehash that. I know you love my wife, but so long as you realize that she already belongs to me and are willing to respect that, then I don’t have a problem with you still being friends with her. I know she likes you as a friend and while I am not terribly fond of you or comfortable with it, I do trust my wife.”

“You are not understanding me. I did not think of Hermione. I thought of my mother, and the love I lost when I was taken from her so long ago. The love for my mother is what stopped the Dark Mark for me. What did you think of?” Draco held back laughter. Krum was a mamma’s boy! He was sure that he cracked a smirk at least once during that whole soliloquy of Krum’s.

“I thought of Hermione of course. My mother is not quite the face I see when I think of love,” Draco said half sarcastically but his statement was one hundred percent accurate.

“She returns your feelings. You are both made for one another.”

“Yes. So, thanks for stopping by. Will you be going back to the University?”

“I will return to what I do best. Quidditch. Hermione has asked me to stay though until after the festivities. My parents will be attending, and I have little time to enjoy their company.”

“Well stay then and enjoy your mother. You know what I mean…er…whatever,” Draco said feeling ill at ease with this touchy feely conversation with Krum.

When Krum left Hermione reentered the room and kissed Draco on the lips.

“What was that for?”

“For being a good man. Letting Krum off, accepting his apology and for fucking the hell out of me.”

“The first two I understand but the last one?”

“I am asking you to fuck me. This is Hermione Malfoy asking you to fuck the hell out of me. Unless you don’t have your strength?” Hermione dropped her shirt and proceeded to strip in front of him. Draco took one look at her and threw her down on the bed, pinning her to the bed and ravishing her body in every unorthodox way he could think of.

Review!?

I am getting down towards the end. I have two or three chapters left is all. Three, by my count (i think at this point a fourth could be needed). I know I took some liberties on this chapter with the whole, “What if two Death Eaters that carried the Dark Mark fought each other..” so I hope it doesn’t bother people. I made it up. In addition, I apologize if this chapter is scary or bothersome, but I do like writing adventure/ horror too, as I am a huge Stephen King and Anne Rice fan. Especially, Anne Rice. Her writing is like poetry. I find myself in total awe when reading her stuff. I look forward to the Quidditch and the Funhouse chapter of this story and the unveiling! Have something fun planned for the last chapter :P hehe Please REVIEW! if everyone reading this would review it would make me such a happy camper! Thanks to those who are :) and are reviewing me faithfully...you are awesome!! I write stories quickly and for that reason my stories get skimped on reviews..and unfortunately, more reviews means MORE people will find and read my stories so...If you like my stories then it helps me a lot if you review!