Moving Forward

Chapter Four


Yelling made Hermione stir from her sleep. Still not awake, thanks in large part to the jet lag, she was barely able to form a thought. It didn’t help either that even though she heard yelling, she didn’t know who was doing it in the first place. Sitting up in the bed, she seriously thought the best course of action was to lie back down in the bed and pull the covers over her head. She didn’t end up doing that, though she would tell herself later she should have.


Hermione went over to where she heard the yelling and was shocked to see Ron having an argument with Draco.


“I know the way you work, Malfoy! You aren’t going to make Hermione another one of your sluts!” he yelled.


“No, Ronald, he won’t,” she said casually, leaning in the doorway.


“Hermione!” He rushed over to her. “Get your things! I’m taking you to the Burrow.”


“No, Ron, I’m staying,” she told him. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to get your auror training and go straight to work for the Ministry of Magic.”


“Not here,” he hissed, grabbing her arm and began to pull her. “No joking around, Hermione. Let’s get your things and leave! You can’t stay here with these Death Eaters!”


“I’m staying,” she told him, yanking her arm back. “What happened, Ron? Did the title of ‘War Hero’ lose its luster?”


His face went red. “I need to go back for my NEWTs.”


“Imagine that,” she said so dryly that Draco chuckled. “Well, then it’s a good thing I took mine already, isn’t it?”


Ron lost all the color in his face. “What?”


“Yes, I did it and passed all of them with flying colors,” she told him. “I did it right before leaving the country. Draco, Harry, and Blaise took theirs at the same time.”


“Yes, that we did,” Draco said casually as he walked over to where they were standing. “She received fourteen outstandings, though how she managed it was a wonder.”


“It’s a deep dark secret,” she told him.


“What in the name of Merlin am I supposed to do now?” he yelled. “Why didn’t you make me study and take it too?”


Hermione blinked at him in shock. “You mean having me say that you need to do it until I’m red in the face wasn’t enough?” Anger bristled at her nerves as she hissed, “Perhaps, Ronald, because I am not your keeper! And if you were so idiotic as to think that I would go back simply to be so, you are a bigger fool than even Professor Snape gave you credit for!”


The sound of a crack of his hand against her cheek echoed throughout the room. Hermione could taste blood in her mouth even as she stood up straight and looked at Ron in disbelief.


“I think it would be a good idea if you left, Ronald,” Hermione said coolly. “Now.”


“I’m not going anywhere!” he exclaimed. “Not until you apologize!”


“For what?” she asked him. “You just came to bring me back so you could use me to pass your NEWTs, because you were so full of yourself and so called war deeds that you thought you would be so fucking impressive without them!”


She slammed her fist straight into his nose, knocking him out cold. Standing there she shook her hand out. It was in the middle of this that Lucius went over and looked down at Ron.


“Why is he here?” he asked Draco.


“He came here to take her back and make her help him with his NEWTs,” he answered. “She called him a bigger fool than Uncle Severus even thought, he slapped her hard, and she just punched him.” He looked over at his father. “She has an impressive right cross, but then that is nothing I didn’t already know.”


Ron was coming around by that time and found himself eye to eye with Lucius Malfoy.


“I am going to make this very simple,” he growled to the younger wizard. “You will get up off my floor, apologize to Miss Granger, and leave. If you do not do so, I will make certain that your death is long and painful and that your body disappears without a trace.”


Ron jumped to his feet and yelled, “You can’t do that to me! Do you know who I am?”


“The question should be do I care, Mr. Weasley. And the answer is no, I didn’t care before the war and I most certainly do not care now. Leave!” Letting out a girl like scream, Ron ran out of the villa.


Lucius was about to go over to Hermione to check how she was when Snape came into the room. He had assumed that the man would check on her, seeing if she was well after taking the hard slap. But if anything, it was just the opposite.


“Miss Granger, are you or are you not here to help me?” he asked angrily. “You haven’t seen to my schedule!”


“That’s because you’d never adhere to it,” she muttered. “You just need something to complain about. Well, I don’t want to hear it. Take it to someone else if you need to argue that badly. I’m going to find a dark room, put a silencing spell on it, and scream my lungs out.” She left the room, still rubbing and holding her cheek as she went.


“You didn’t hear the argument she had with Ron?” Lucius asked him.


“Of course I did,” he answered. “Who do you think hexed him as he left?”


“And it never occurred to you to get her a pain potion? The nitwit hit her!” He rushed out of the room after Hermione, leaving Severus grinning to himself.


“And what are you so blasted happy about? I thought you loved Granger.”


He turned towards Draco and said, “That I do, but she’ll never need me the way she needs him. It’s in her blood I think. Besides, I knew this was just a temporary arrangement.”


“How can you say that?”


Severus thought it over. “Tell me something, Draco, if you were in a purely sexual relationship with a man you cared for, perhaps even slightly loved…”


“If I had that, I would consider myself a lucky bastard,” he muttered. “As it is, my regular date is my right hand.”


“Remind me to wear gloves to shake your hand then,” Snape told him and went on with what he was talking about. “Like I was saying, let us say you had that man, would you or would you not drop that man in a second if Harry Potter reentered your life?”


Draco stood there staring out to the sea for a time. “I…I would.”


“Something tells me that it is the very same with Hermione,” he murmured. “She just doesn’t know it yet, but I have a feeling that your father is beginning to comprehend.”


Lucius found Hermione sitting on the sea wall. She had tears dripping down her face. He went over and sat down next to her. He turned her face gently towards his and looked her over. It infuriated him to see the red mark on her delicate skin that was the shape of the youngest Weasley’s hand. He pulled out a silk handkerchief and tenderly dabbed away the tears.


“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked hoarsely.


“Because, Miss Granger, you are my responsibility,” he whispered. “And if I have my way, you will remain so for the rest of our lives.”


She sniffled as she thought over what he said. “You’d have to be nice to Remus, Sirius, Harry, and the pseudo-normal Weasleys if that is the case.”


“Is there a normal Weasley?” he asked, as she slipped closer to him.


“I said pseudo-normal,” she murmured. “Not completely so.”


He nodded. “True, my dear, that you did.” Lucius ended up pulling her into his lap and held her tightly, as he nuzzled her ear and neck.


She combed her fingers through his hair, caressing his scalp. “The sun feels lovely today.”


“That it does, pet,” he breathed. “That it does.”


***

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