The Turning

Disclaimer: Don\'t Own Them, never will.
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He\'d bid her a fond farewell that morning. It was bright, sunny. A perfect day. The trees were in all their autumnal glory. It was nearing the harvest time before the world settled in for its winter nap. The great and small were nesting and so were they.

They\'d been married three years and so had slipped into comfort. There was no need to keep an open line of communication at all times. The war was over. His father was safely behind bars and his raging lunatic of a mother hadn\'t paid them a visit since then. Finally feeling safe enough, they\'d thought it was time to begin trying to procreate.

Getting lucky the first time, Hermione bloomed. The child was astonishingly mild-mannered, considering its parents. It didn\'t cause her much morning sickness. It managed to coordinate its sleeping schedule to hers. It was a most perfect child, even in the womb. Perhaps it was because Hermione could hear its thoughts as well as she could her husband\'s. Perhaps not. Whatever the cause, mother and child had an extraodinarily close bond from the first moments.

They\'d begun to refurbish the nursery in preparation for the child. They even had a name picked out - Aurelian Tiberius Malfoy. They spoke to him regularly and Auri, as they affectionately referred to him, made his wishes known through mental contact with Hermione. Or - as often as not - through a well placed kick. Thus it was that the three of them were settled into that sometimes elusive state known as a family.

And then the dream was shattered.

Hermione had been half listening to Auri prattle on about wanting ice cream, which she personally had no taste for at that moment when there came a thought roaring into her consciousness. No, it was less a thought and more a primal scream. There were no words. Only the impression of pain and she knew that it was coming from her husband and that she must aid him with all speed.

She couldn\'t Apparate to him. It was the only time she\'d ever resented being pregnant. She\'d been dressed to meet Molly for baby shopping. Molly was so excited, one would have thought that elder witch was the one expecting. As soon as the screaming had begun, it was done. Auri was turning somersaults inside of her, feeling the agitation of both parents.

Hermione was on her way down the hallway to the grand staircase when there came a great knocking on the door. She nearly flew down the rest of the way and threw the door open to find Severus on her doorstep.

\"Where is he?\" she demanded of her husband\'s godfather.

\"Hermione...\" Severus had never had a look like that on his face before.

\"I want to know where he is! What\'s happened to him?!\" She attempted to push past him to find her spouse, but the Potions Master restrained her. \"I want to go. Let me go!\"

\"No,\" he\'d told her. Hermione began to get angry. Severus, who\'d had his hands on her upper arms dropped them with a cry of pain. She\'d singed his fingers in her mounting fear and rage.

\"You can\'t see him.\"

\"What the fuck are you talking about, I can\'t see him?!\" Hermione, who\'d been on her way out of the door, stopped and spun around to look at Severus fully in the face.

\"His...he\'s at Hogwarts.\"

\"What do you mean, he\'s at Hogwarts?\"

\"They brought him there, after.\"

\"After what, Severus?\" Her voice had raised to a fever pitch.

\"After - after...\"

\"Say it, Severus! What have they done to him?!\" Hermione crossed the room to grab Severus by the shoulders and shake him.

\"He\'s dead, Hermione. Draco\'s dead.\"

\"You\'re a fucking liar!\"

\"I\'m not. Although I wish to God I were.\"

\"LIAR!\" She slapped Snape hard enough to leave a livid handprint across his sallow cheek. He merely stood there, a solitary tear slipping down his face. Hermione slapped him again.

\"That is the last time that you will attack me.\" Snape grabbed her by the arms.

\"Take me to him.\" Hermione\'s voice had gone cold and commanding.

\"No. Not until they clean him up a bit.\"

At that pronouncement, Hermione went over the edge. She waved a hand and sent him flying to the wall. Aura balzing bright gold, she grabbed a hand of floo powder and stepped into the fireplace.

\"Hogwarts headmistress\'s office!\" rang her voice loud and clear. With a puff of green smoke, she\'d vanished to the other side, Severus hard on her heels.
**************

\"Where is he?\" A voice rang with authority startled the headmistress of Hogwarts from grief.

\"Hermione.\" McGonagall looked around. \"Where\'s Severus.\"

A thump from the recently vacated fireplace. \"Right here. I couldn\'t keep her away.\"

\"Couldn\'t you have tried a little harder?\"

\"Enough.\" Hermione\'s tone cut through the banter. \"Where. Is. He?\"

\"I would rather you didn\'t. You\'re in a rather delicate state right now.\"

\"Fuck off.\" Hermione sent off a slight mental probe and got nothing back. That left her colder than any thing they could\'ve told her. She stared at Minerva, picking through the woman\'s brain. The knowledge was too fresh to be hidden.

Hermione took off at a clip unseen in a six-months pregnant woman. She rubbed at her left arm, frantically. Severus felt an answering ache in his. Down the steps they went, the shifting stairs complying with their unspoken wishes to be good. They reached the Hospital Wing simultaneously. Hermione\'s hand gripped the knob of the door. Severus\' wrapped around hers.

\"It\'s not pretty.\"

\"I don\'t expect it to be.\" Her voice was soft, angry and accepting. He released her hand. She turned the knob and walked in.

Inside, their offspring gave a lurch and settled.

Outside, Hermione was silent. There was only Poppy and Charlie Weasley, who\'d left dragon herding to become an Auror. They stood on opposite sides of a sheet draped figure.

Her steps carried her to the bed, although she wasn\'t conscious of moving. She reached out to draw the sheet back and found her way impeded once more, this time by Charles.

\"Don\'t. We haven\'t had the time to - \"

\"I know,\" she interrupted him. She yanked the sheet down anyway.

There in all of its disfigured glory was the body of the man she loved. Out of disgust, she turned away. But a sense of needing to commit the atrocity to memory she turned back. True to her tossed off words from seventh year, Draco had suffered a brutal death. Poppy had made the attempt to return his head to his neck. She\'d only made it halfway when Hermione\'d burst in. His face was frozen in a rictus of pain and Hermione would later swear to hearing his screaming ricocheting around her brain. There was a hole where his heart had resided and he was paperwhite. She could feel herself going weak in the knees and gripped the sterile metal railing of the footboard.

\"Who did this?\"

\"I\'m not at liberty to say,\" Charlie responded.

\"Tell me, Charles.\" Her voice, once slightly quavery, had gained strength in the force of her growing fury.

Charlie merely looked her in the eye and reached into the breast pocket of his shirt. \"There was a note.\"

Hermione opened it up and read.

My dear daughter-in-law, by the time you read this, my murdering, traitorous son will be dead. I cannot express to you our disappointment in him by marring a mudblood and *daring* to procreate with her. It\'s beyond all we can take. As our beloved Dark Lord is dead, it falls to our shoulders to carry on the noble work he begun. This starts with you and all you hold dear. Remember - Narcissa did warn you.

Yours in retribution,

(signed)
Lucius Malfoy

Hermione crumbled up the paper. When she opened her hand, only the faintest of ashes dripped from her fingers. It was then that the other noticed the faint sizzle outlining her form. It was a glow none of them had seen or wished to have seen since the woman\'s seventh yearn of school.

\"Where is he?\"

\"No one knows. Draco was left like this outside of main gates.\"

\"Find him.\" Her voice was steely.

\"We don\'t even know where to begin. All of our Locator Charms have failed, none of the owls that have been dispatched could either find him or return.\"

\"And I am supposed to accept that, Charles Weasley?\"

\"You have to for the moment. He\'s simply gone to ground, Hermione.\" Charlie\'s voice was filled with pity for the new widow.

\"What happens if you fail to find him?\"

\"We will never stop searching.\"

\"Bullshit, Charlie!\" The hand that had been gripping the steel of the bed tightened suddenly and the metal crumpled under that implacable fist. The wispy shimmer around Hermione flared into fiery coruscation. In that moment, Hermione resembled nothing so much as an avenging fury. They all, even Snape who\'d stood silently behind her, backed away. She let out a piercing scream that resonated within the small chamber and echoed out to be caught and reciprocated by Fawkes. The bird chimed a great and terrible note that resonated and put fear into the hearts of all who heard it.

When the noise subsided into nothingness, she collapsed at their feet.
****************

It was the pain that awakened her. She opened her mouth on a low moan that escalated into high-pitched whimpers. Forcing her eyes fully open, she was horrified to see blood pooling on the sheets. More pain knifed through her and she could hear the litany running through her mind: \"no, no. not now, Mummy, not yet, not yet.\"

\"Oh, God!\" She cried. It brought to her side the one wizard she\'d not have wished to see.

\"Merlin\'s balls!\" Snape swore. He scooped the witch up in his arms and scrambled down to the Hospital Wing. Kicking the door open, he laid her on the bed. It felt like fangs were clawing their way through her body.

Madame Pomfrey came running from her quarters at the rear of the infirmary. \"Severus, what on earth -\" she stopped when she saw Hermione writhing in pain on the sheets. Thankfully, Draco\'s body had been moved later on that day.

\"Stay here,\" the mediwitch ordered. Poppy went back into the storeroom. Severus could hear her rummaging about for something. Hermione was gripping his hand hard enough to rip it off. A bit of the sickly green aura that surrounded her was leeching onto him as well. He could hear her thoughts as clearly as if she\'d spoken aloud.

\"Take this.\" Poppy came out with a familiar looking dark green bottle.

\"No. Do you not know her experience with that particular potion?\" Snape stayed her hand.

\"No, Severus, I don\'t, and frankly, I don\'t care.\" Poppy unstoppered the bottle and poured the contents down Hermione\'s throat.

The witch tensed once and fell into oblivion.
***************

The next time she awoke, the sun was streaming through the windows. Her body ached in unfamiliar places and she blinked against the strong light. She turned over and the memories hit her as she realized where she was. The tears welled up and poured down her exhausted face. Her hands clutched at her suddenly smaller stomach. She keened low, a sound of acute misery.

Severus knew that sound well. Hadn\'t he made the same noise on more than one occasion? Hadn\'t he heard her make that same noise when she was only eighteen? It was enough to bring tears to his eyes. He swallowed them back down, not wishing the mage to sweep his emotions once more.

Only a few, more sensitive souls were affected this time around. The mage had learned to temper her rages, soften her sorrows. It was a good thing, Snape reflected. They\'d all learned in the past few years not to wear their hearts on their sleeves. He leaned forward in the chair he\'d watched her from all night and rested his chin on linked fingers. Her cries subsided into silent sobs, then sniffles and then nothing as exhaustion claimed her once again. He could only hope that the warrior Hermione would emerge once again. She would need that core of steel to get her through the first, darkest days.

It seemed that the war had begun again and she\'d been the first casualty.