Captive Bride

Chapter 8

Hermione curled closer to the warmth that lay beside her on the spacious bed. Half asleep she mused over the past few days. Today had been the first day since Halloween that she had attended all her classes as scheduled. In most ways she had missed the regular day to day routine, but she had to admit that something was different now. It just wasn’t the same anymore, she wasn’t the same person anymore. Hermione smiled as the warmth next to her rolled over and started purring. Tomorrow was Saturday and that was the when she had to tell Harry and Ron everything. Well not everything she corrected herself. Ever since Professor Snape had basically chased everyone out of the room she hadn’t seen much of her friends except when it was time to eat. There were just too many people gathered at those times to risk a private conversation of that magnitude. In the mornings all she had time for was a bit of pastry and pumpkin juice anyways. Every morning, That Man, would wake her up bright and early then made sure that she was running late to breakfast.

“I think he’s doing it on purpose Crookshanks. Why else would I be more tired than usual while he pops out of bed like the energizer bunny. I mean seriously, I’m half his age.” Hermione paused in the midst of Crookshank’s pampering, causing the pampered cat to playfully nip her hand in reminder of her responsibility to him. Hermione smiled at her cat for being such a demanding independent creature.

Hermione yawned moving her hand up to cover to mouth. Her eyes were at half-mast as Lucius entered the bedroom and started to undress for bed. Lucius climbed in to the bed and pulled Hermione into the shelter of his arms. Crookshanks stood up, stuck his tail in the air and jumped off in searched of a chair that would stay in place.

***

Ginny peered around the corner of the hallway leading up to the Astronomy Tower. She wanted to make sure that she didn’t run into anyone taking advantage of the dark nooks and crannies. She didn’t want anyone to see her in the tower but she had to retrieve her notes from earlier in the day that she had left behind in her last class before supper. She had hid them under the desk when the professor had asked her unexpectedly to answer the question. She needed to get those notes before anyone else found them. There was too much loose info in those notes about a certain someone. Plus she was the last one to touch them so they could be tracked back to her if the right spell was performed.

Seeing that the way was all clear. Ginny hurried to the classroom door, opening it just enough to squeeze through. Turning to peer back into the hall through the crack Ginny checked to make sure no one had seen her.

Closing the door softly, she hurried to her desk and uttering a quick spell caused the notes to release from the bottom of the desk into her waiting hand. Breathing a sigh of relief that they were all there, Ginny paused to read through them once more.

‘Hmm, Malfoy eating breakfast. Malfoy eating scrambled eggs for breakfast. Eggs, eggs, bacon, eggs, and again eggs for breakfast. One would think that the sight of anyone eating eggs was a novelty since that was what Malfoy enjoyed for breakfast in one form or another. Wait until he has oatmeal, the world would probably spin backwards on its’ axis if that were to happen. Ha ha.’ Ginny giggled at the idea of a repeated 24 hours of Malfoy eating oatmeal for breakfast.

‘Potions in the morning, followed by Herbology, hmm Draco should be more careful with the Snap Dragons. Everyone knows they snap at you whenever you don’t pay attention to you hands or your nose as you bend over laughing. On to lunch where Pansy reports that he smiled exactly two times at her while nibbling on a chicken leg. That must have been an interesting sight, a smile wrapped around a chicken leg. She also reports that it won’t be too much longer before he asks her out for a day in Hogsmeads.’ Ginny burst out at that idea. The only reason Malfoy smiled at Pansy was because standing behind her was one of the other Seventh Years’ drawing the shapes of bunny ears in the air around Pansy’s head with his wand.

Deciding that nothing important had been reported about either Malfoy, Ginny spelled the papers to appear blank to the naked eye. Tucking them into her pocket she opened the door and peeked out into the hall for passersby. Hurrying down the hall she reached the stairs leading down to the lower floors. Pausing for a moment to listen for any noise she softly treaded down each step. Taking care to step over and down farther over the groaning step just above the third landing. At the second floor Ginny turned down the hall leading into the main castle. As she headed for the back stairs leading up to the Gryffindor Tower voices headed towards her position.

Thinking quickly Ginny spun towards the shadowed alcove that led onto a balcony. Or so she thought. After unlocking the windows Ginny stepped into another room that was hidden behind the false windows. There she turned to find a room with stairs leading off into all direction. There were even three that met in the same spot on the far wall above a window with a view of the Whomping Willow. The curiosity burned inside of Ginny to start exploring but the sensible part in her knew that she didn’t have enough time before dawn to follow one and still get some sleep before breakfast and enjoy the trip with Hermione into Hogsmeads. Reaching the door she reached for the handle right as the handle turned slowly. Ginny scurried for the closest stairs. Reaching the safety of the shadows a few steps down she turned back to only find a blank wall covering the archway she had just passed through. A solid wall that met her fingertips as they reached to make sure that it wasn’t just an illusion.

“Fudgecicles! Well in for a penny in for a pound, or at least that is what Hermione always says. I think I finally understand what she means now.” Ginny whispered to herself.

“Lumos.”

The tip of her wand lit the stairs enough to see her way downward in a spiraling path. Treading the stairs as quickly as feasible she wondered at the secrets the castle contained. It was a few moments before she realized that there were little alcoves at just eyelevel for her. If she stood on tipsy-toes that is. Pausing at one she peered through to see a dishevel Pansy buttoning up her shirt while a dark haired boy tucked his into his pants. It was the seventh year from lunchtime she realized when he turned towards the wall in search of a lost shoe.

Ginny rolled her eyes. ‘Figures.’

Continuing on down the secret stairway, interspersed occasionally with a level pathway Ginny turned a final corner to see the backside of a statue. Knowing that the path was now ended she went back to the peer into the last peephole, covering her mouth in time to catch her jawing from dropping to the floor.

Who ever thought that Snape would have a chest like that under his robes? There he was standing there in just his pants, his pant’s top button undone flipping through a book that he held in the flat of his palm. The muscles in his lean chest were defined without being obvious that they lacked extra padding. Ginny jumped when Snape snapped the book closed in his hand. Putting the book down on the table he picked up his glass and drained the contents down his throat. Placing the glass next to the book he entered what she assumed was his bedchamber because there was no bed in the room that she could see.

Rolling her tongue back into her mouth and blinking a couple times to bring moisture back into her eyes. Ginny started smiling.

“Well that was differently worth the journey. I’ll have to remember to tell Luna about this.”

***


Luna strolled slowly among the vestal herd that lived in the forest. It was getting late and she would soon have to head back to the castle. Her breath hanged heavy in the air before her when the vestals’ sddenly raised their heads and peered into the surrounding woods. Luna moved around the mare that she had been petting in order to see what had caught their interest. In the quiet she watched a couple men stumble through the forest.

“I told you that it was still to soon to try for the redhead. As good of friends she is with that first witch there is just no way that she wouldn’t be on her guard. It would have been too easy. Maybe after Christmas she’ll relax enough to be in the open alone.” Luna heard one man snarled to the other.

The other muttered in agreement as he flexed his arms in his robes and blew into his cupped hands. He stopped for a moment to do a warming charm when he looked around. “Wait a minute. Where did Frank go?”

“What?” the first man turned around.

Luna moved further back into the shadows that surrounded the vestals. Suddenly a hand covered her mouth and the other clasped her arms to her side. As she began to struggle the stranger’s voice crept into her ear. “Steady now girlie. We wouldn’t want to spook the monsters around us with your screams, now would we.”

Wrapping his arm tighter around her, the missing Frank lifted her off the ground and carried her towards the others.

“The nights not a complete loss boys! This one fits the description of another girl on the list. Lovegood is who this one is, I’ll bet the family jewels on it.” Chuckling with his cohorts they carted her off. The Bridal March could be heard, an off tune whistle, between bursts of gruff laughter.

***

The next day found Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape sitting in Snape’s dungeon office having a cup of tea with a dash of fire whiskey. Or should I say a cup of fire whiskey with a dash of tea. Either way they finally were alone and able to talk without fear of interupption. Professor McGonagal was in her office happy that Hermione was back in her classes and not with Professor Malfoy every moment of the day. The headmaster Dumbledore had been called away a couple days ago to the Ministry and hadn’t returned yet. And ‘dear’ Hermione, the subject of their conversation was in Hogsmead with her friends, out for a breath of fresh air and a bit of exercise the kind that can only be found while in public. Draco was following Hermione at a distance making sure that nothing happened to her while off school grounds and away from his father’s eye, and hands.

“Is your young wife going to tell them today, Malfoy?” Severus looked at his cup debating whether to add more fire whiskey. He decided to go with the tea. The day was not over yet and he still needed his wits around him.

“Yes. They’re heading to the shrieking shack as we speak. I expect that I will have some blessed peace with my wife in the evenings without having to wait for her to finish tutoring them in their schoolwork. She’s figuring that they will be upset with her not telling them right away what had happened that they’d not speak to her for a couple weeks at least. She’s a bit upset at that thought but she has the Weasley girl on her side to talk to. Which reminds me Severus. Miss Weasley has a lot of potential to be a powerful witch. Not to mention that there is absolutely no record of any squibs in her family. The Dark Lord will go after her eventually.”

“Yes I know. I don’t believe that I will even be considered for her either from comments I’ve overheard before this all started. They make more sense now. But then again who does know the mind of the Dark Lord. The best we can hope for is that she is offered to me if they do get their hands on her. But think about it. Hermione is a witch that is very powerful in the knowledge that she has gained. A superb memory of anything she reads and a natural inner sense of her wand and deeply bred honor. Same as you do. I’ve overheard Miss Weasely's brothers talking about the girl's jinxes that she can throw when she is angry. They actually live in fear of her jinxing them. Apparently she is so powerful that it almost takes her mother to help lift them off her brothers. And haven’t you noticed that young Goyle is still getting laid as a result of a past jinx.”

Lucius shuddered. “That doesn’t even bear thinking of. Thankfully the older Goyle is still married to his wife, as is Crabbe. You will have to mention to Dumbledore the possibility of more female students being taken.”

Snape snarled at that. “Does she know yet?” He switched the subject back away from Dumbledore.

“No.” Malfoy said flatly.

“I guess it doesn’t matter. She’ll know either way soon enough.”

“True. But that will come in it’s own time. We need to send a message to the others of our kind. Let them know what has happened and that soon a gathering will soon need to be called.” Lucius drained his cup.

“I’ll owl them tonight.” Snape paused, “ I’m assuming you read my note from a few days ago?” At Lucius’s stern nod, he continued, “We can’t let Bellatrix try and give the Dark Lord a child of his own.”

***

Hermione and Ginny were inside the shrieking shack with Harry and Ron. Hermione refused to talk about anything other than school till everyone was comfortably situated. She and Ginny figured that it would be harder for either of the guys to go flying off after being told what happened if they actually had to get up from the floor.

“Ok Hermione, we’re here where no one can hear you and we are comfortable as possible while sitting on a hard floor. Tell us what is going on.” Harry stated as he folded his long legs Indian style.

She took a deep breath and glanced at Ginny to help bolster her self against the coming fury. “Remember Halloween? Yes? Well the reason I didn’t meet you guys as planned was because LordVoldemort kidnappedmeandIendedupmarryingProfessorMalfoy andthereisn’tanythingthatcanbedonetochangeit.” Hermione squinted her eyes closed then peaked out of one because she couldn’t stand not to see their reaction.

Ron had a confused look on his face as he tried to muddle through what Hermione had said. The light was slowly dawning over Harry as her rushed words registered.

“What do you mean you are married to Malfoy?” Harry said slowly.

“WHAT!!” Ron bellowed. Ginny hit him along side his head then rolled her eyes.

“I mean I am married to Professor Malfoy. I have been since Halloween night.” Hermione said.

“Why didn’t you say anything? We could have gone to Dumbledore and fixed it so that you weren’t married to Malfoy. Don’t you sigh and shake your head at me, we just can’t sit here and let you stay married to someone who is a Death Eater.” Harry was turning red in the face.

“Harry, it not that simple. When Lord Voldemort made me marry Malfoy he used an ancient ceremony that not even Dumbledore can break. I looked it up in one of Professor Malfoy’s books that he has in his office. Its so old that most wizards have forgotten that it evens exists let alone remembered to abolish it.” Hermione replied.

What?” Ron was stuttering.

“What about Dumbledore maybe if he knows about this…”

“Harry Dumbledore does know. Do you honestly think that Professor Malfoy can get away with this and teach at Hogwarts while married to one of the students? That was half the reason for the plan. There is absolutely nothing that the Order can do to resolve this.” Hermione turned to look Harry straight in the eye.

“We, we could kill him. That will fix it.” Harry was reaching for straws. Hermione could tell that it was sinking in.

“That won’t fix it Harry. I read in the book, here wait a sec I got the book here and I’ll show you.” Hermione pulled out a book that was so old that it looked like it should be in a museum somewhere. She hurried and flipped to the part about concerning the death of a spouse. Hopefully Harry wouldn’t notice the parts about the ceremony itself and the results that she skipped past.

“Here it is. See, ‘not even death shall part this binding. If the wizard should die before his time then the bride will be bound, through the blood of her husband, to the next male in line.’ Harry if something happened to Malfoy then I’d still be bound to a Malfoy. It’ll just be Draco instead of Lucius.” Hermione pointed out the paragraph that the unknown author had penned. After Harry had read the paragraph she hurried and shoved the book back into her cloak pocket.

“It was originally done for alliances between wizarding clans in the early dark ages. No, Harry killing both Malfoy and Draco will not break the bonds. Remember what Sirius told you a few years ago, about how all the purebred wizarding families being related through marriages and bloodlines? Think about it for a sec.” Hermione sat back on her heels.

Ron finally getting past the initial shock asked, “Umm Hermione if you married him on Halloween and we didn’t see you for almost two weeks, why was Professor Malfoy still at Hogwarts teaching DADA?”

Everyone turned to look at Ron.

“Wow, my brother’s smarter than he acts sometimes.” Ginny said earning a glare from her brother.

“That’s a good question Hermione? How was Malfoy able to be teaching his classes if you couldn’t even make it? You weren’t really sick were you? But he was here and you weren’t. Where were you then Hermione?” Harry crossed his arms across his chest.

“I was here the whole time Harry. I just slept the whole time because that one of the side effects of the ceremony. I know that it didn’t affect Professor Malfoy the same way I just don’t know why. Eventually I’ll figure it out and I’ll let you know. I know what your next question is going to be and no I couldn’t go back to my classes when I woke up because I had to stay in the vicinity of Professor Malfoy for a few days till we both got use to the bonds. It’s too late to change anything now, so all we have left is to try and stop this from happening to anyone else. Ginny could very well be the next one up to get married.” Hermione knew that she was turning the attention away from her by mentioning Ginny.

Ginny knew it too by the look she threw at Hermione for mentioning the last part. Now she had to deal with both Ron and Harry going all protective on her ass. Ginny sighed and mouthed, “you owe me one” to Hermione.

At least this way it will take a few days before they start thinking and asking more in depth questions about the marriage and why Hermione had to married to Malfoy to begin with. Anyone with brains knew that there had to be more to it. Making a Death Eater marry a student from the school that Death Eater was currently teaching at wasn’t exactly the smartest move. The school board alone would be up on a high broom at the very idea, let alone the parents of the students. She knew that if her mother even thought that a teacher was looking at her in the wrong way Ginny would be locked in her room and the teacher would be on his way to the moon.

“We need to get going guys. We still have to get something to eat before we get ready for the match this afternoon. Come on let's go.” Ginny finally broke in with an exaggerated look at her watch.

As they all stood up and stretched then picked up their cloaks Hermione tried to be very nonchalant in her hurry to get out the door. Harry and Ron kept looking from her to Ginny morbid thoughts were going through their heads. If Hermione had been married off to the older Malfoy then who would Ginny be married off to if the Death Eaters got a hold of her. Why it could even be Professor Snape that she married. Even though they knew that he worked for the Order, supposedly, Snape still had to obey Lord Voldemort or be killed as an example to the other Death Eaters. The whole idea was just too strange for them to even consider. So they moved the thought out of the mind and decided that Ginny will just never be left alone outside of the Common Room in the tower.

As they were walking back through Hogsmead Ginny was telling Hermione about the passageway she had discovered in an out of the way room. The passageway led down into the dungeons and even passed by Professor Snape’s quarters. Ginny started blushing at that point in the conversation.

Looking to make sure that the guys couldn’t hear them Ginny whispered, “Whoever would have thought that Professor Snape had a chest like that underneath those robes that he wears. Well anyways I didn’t get a chance to finish exploring the passage. I came across Draco at a bend in …” Ginny looked as she noticed a group of girls being led by Pansy Parkinson approaching them.

“I saw that you finally were in class yesterday, Granger. Did you finally realize that you don’t know everything while under the supervision of (sigh) Professor Malfoy?” Pansy was trying to look down her pug nose at Hermione.

“He so dreamy.” A voice from the back of the group sighed. A couple of the other girls tittered in response.

Ginny rolled her eyes and wordlessly mimicked the girl. Narrowing her eyes at Parkinson she asked, “What do you want?”

“Want? Why I don’t want anything that either of you would have. Ha ha hmm. You know Granger no one would think any less of you if you would ask one of your school chums to help you in catching up with your studies. Oh I forgot you are the one that they come to for help. Why then I would gladly help you, in your studies of course, so that you wouldn’t need to bother any of the Professors.” She tried for a gracious voice but only succeeded in sounding condescending.

“How kind of you to have thought of me." Hermione replied.

“We must have standards and I do have to say that as often as you are coming and going from Professor Malfoy’s office people are beginning to wonder just how you achieved your high marks. But I know that nothing improper would be happening. Especially with Professor Malfoy. Why he just wouldn’t, but as in everything appearances must be upheld. Are you understanding what I’m trying to tell you?” Parkinson sniffed, curling her lips in a mockery of a smile.

Deciding that she had heard enough Hermione replied. “No I don’t believe that I do understand you at all. Can you be just a touch clearer in your meaning? Oh, I know, we can both go to one of the Professors’ offices and maybe they can translate it into more simple language.”

Pansy started to open her mouth but was interrupted by Ron as he started laughing. Ron and Harry had walked back to rejoin Hermione and Ginny when they noticed that the girls were no longer walking behind them on the path.

Hermione wouldn’t be caught dead do anything ‘improper’ with anyone let alone Professor Malfoy.” Harry stepped forward in defense of Hermione’s honor. “He too old anyways.”

Hermione looked off to the side, biting her lips. Ginny was trying not to laugh nervously as she looked from Harry to Hermione.

“As if Professor Malfoy would even touch her.” Pansy snipped in reply. Eyeing Ron up and down she paused for a moment at his crotch then turned her head to do the same to Harry.

Hermione stepped closer to Pansy, gaining her attention. “Go jump off a broom into the lake, Parkinson. Or, or go hump Goyle. I’m sure you need him soon since you only blew him before breakfast this morning.” Hermione very calmly turned and walked off leaving everyone gaping his or her mouths.

“Brilliant!” Ron breathed out, his respect level going up a couple notches.