Ultimatum

Chapter 9
Nicole

“I’m worried about Hermione.”

Blaise put his book down and looked at his wife all curled up by his side. She was on her side with her arm thrown across him and her head on his chest. He had been reading and she napping, but she had suddenly brought up Hermione.

“Why are you worried about her?”

“Blaise, it’s been two months since anyone has heard from Draco, I’m afraid that she’s going to do something out of missing him so much.”

“Ginny, she’s strong, she’s not going to do anything to hurt herself. She just needs a friend and you’re doing all that you can.”

“I know,” Ginny sighed. “And she’s been coming to meals a lot more now, I think she’s either given up hope or she thinks that because it’s been two months it’s still going to be much longer and she just has to wait it out.”

“Maybe you should go see her after breakfast tomorrow,” Blaise suggested.

“Why not tonight?” Ginny asked.

“Because she’s probably already turned in,” he said and then an impish grin lit up his face. “And I still want to shag you a couple more times tonight.”

Ginny smiled at him. They had grown a lot closer in the past two months. It seemed as though they were an actual married couple. They would talk about the future sometimes, about what would happen when the war was over and depending on which side won how they would stay together through it all. Ginny liked having those conversations with him, it made her feel special in a way, cherished.

But Ginny was still worried about Hermione, because Hermione didn’t have someone to talk about the future with anymore, he had been gone for two months and Ginny thought that it would probably not be anytime soon when he finally did show up.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

Hermione had in fact turned in already, but she way lying awake in bed. It was at times like this that she really wished that something would happen. She looked towards the door, hoping that it would open and Draco would stroll through the door with a smile on his face. But it didn’t happen. It never happened.

Hermione had given up hope. Two months, three days, fourteen hours and 26 minutes according to the clock on the bedside table. That’s how long that Draco had been away from her and she didn’t think that she could bear it much longer. Her rape a month ago had only made it worse. In an attempt to try and figure out who it was, she decided to attend meals more often and meetings to see if anyone would give themselves away, but it was all in vain. She had not figured out who had taken polyjuice and taken advantage of her disguised as Draco. She would probably never find out. That was just the way of the world.

She turned over in bed, sighing as she closed her eyes. Any day now, she thought as she went to sleep, any day now, Draco would come back.

The door slammed open and Hermione opened her eyes. She turned over in bed just as the door slammed shut so that she couldn’t see through the dark who was in her room. “Hello?” she asked softly into the gloom.

There was silence for a few moments, then, “Lumos,” a voice said softly and Hermione saw the tip of a wand light from towards the bathroom.

Hermione looked at the light for a few seconds and as her eyes adjusted, she saw light blond hair of the person holding the wand. “Draco?” she asked, getting up from the bed and straightening her nightgown.

“Go back to bed, Hermione, I’m just going to take a shower,” he said in a soft, slightly rough voice.

She looked at him for a few long moments but acquiesced. “Okay,” she said reluctantly.

Hermione went back over the bed and sat down on it. She heard the shower turn on and listened to the water run into the tile floor. She was stunned slightly. She had just been thinking about how she wanted him to come back, and now he was back. He didn’t even kiss her, though. He just immediately went into the shower and basically ignored her.

She wanted to cry. She had thought about what it would be like when he came back for months and now that he was back, it was nothing like she imagined it, she just thought that when he got out of the shower he would have to shag her through the mattress. That made her feel a little better and she lay down on the bed.

Draco came out of the shower about a half hour later. He sighed as he walked to the armoire and pulled a pair of boxer shorts out. He quickly put them on, much to Hermione’s disappointment, and dried himself off a little more. He slipped under the covers next to Hermione. Hermione turned over to look at him. “Hey,” she said, feeling slightly awkward.

“Hi,” he said.

“You’re back,” she said with a slight smile.

“I am,” he said in the same monotonous voice that he had been speaking in all night.

“What took you so long?” she asked.

“Can we please just talk about that in the morning, Hermione? I’m exhausted and just want to go to sleep.”

“Why won’t you tell me?” she asked.

“It’s a long story,” he sighed. “And I’m tired.”

Hermione felt as though he was holding back from her, that maybe she had done something wrong and he just wanted to stay away from her, but she hadn’t done anything. She moved closer to him and tried to cuddle him but he pushed her away. “Can you please not touch me right now?” he said in desperation.

Hermione grew angry. “You know, if you would tell me what the hell happened to make you like this maybe we could figure it out. But no, instead I wait here for two months for you to come back and I don’t even get a kiss. No ‘hello, love, how was your two months of missing me, I missed you.’ Nothing! You know what Draco, fuck you too.” She got out of bed and walked towards the door.

“Hermione!” Draco called out.

“What?!” she screamed.

“Would it make you feel better if I did kiss you?” he asked sincerely.

“You are an asshole. Go to hell, they miss you there,” she said and slammed the door behind her.

Gods! Draco was supposed to come back and make love to her for hours and say how much he missed her and notice that she was pregnant with his child and it was supposed to be beautiful. Sometimes she hated real life and just wished that she could go back to her simple fantasies that did everything that she told them to.

Hermione walked to the only place that she could think of and when she arrived in front of the doors of Voldemort and Narcissa’s room, there was already a girl standing there.

Hermione stood a safe metre away from her and leaned against the wall.

“Are you here to see the dark lord?” the girl asked.

“No,” Hermione said. “Narcissa.”

“Narcissa?” the girl asked.

“Narcissa Malfoy,” Hermione said. Hermione and Narcissa had become quite close while Draco had been gone. They had spent a lot of time together and they both missed Draco, so it was a mutual thing. Hermione loved the older woman already as mother.

“Oh, is she Draco’s mother?”

“You know Draco?” Hermione asked the girl.

“Yes.”

“How?” Hermione asked, but as soon as she did the door opened and Narcissa and Voldemort came out.

The girl walked up to Narcissa. “You must be Draco’s mother, you’re quite beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Narcissa said.

“Narcissa?” Hermione said quietly from behind the girl, Narcissa looked over the girl’s head and noticed Hermione.

“Hermione, dear, what’s wrong?” the older woman said, walking to Hermione and taking her in her embrace.

“It’s Draco, he’s cold.”

“Yes, I heard he’s back. Is he sick?”

“No, emotionally cold, indifferent, distant.”

“Come in here, Hermione dear, we’ll talk about this.”

Hermione followed Narcissa into the room off of the office, leaving the girl and Voldemort behind.

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“Nicole, what brings you here?” Voldemort asked the girl.

“Additional information that I did not have time to give Draco.”

“He was there over two months, Nicole, how could he not have enough time to gather all of the information.”

“I’m afraid that’s a long story, sir, but I think it may explain why he’s being so distant to Hermione.”

“Explain.”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

When Hermione emerged from Narcissa’s room, Voldemort and the girl had already finished their conversation. She thanked Narcissa again for listening to her ramble on about stupid boys and then walked out into the hall.

The girl was waiting for her out there. Hermione tried to walk past her but the girl stopped her.

“You’re Hermione,” she said.

“Yes,” Hermione said, turning to look at the girl.

“I need to tell you something,” she said. “I can tell you why Draco’s acting so cold toward you, and why it took him so long to come back to you.”

“Really? How? Why?”

“He’s been living at my house for the last two months, I’m the reason that it took him two months to get back.”

“So why did it take him so long?”

-o-o-o-o-o-o-

“Hermione!” Draco called out. He felt like a complete asshole and by the time he realised that he needed to chase after her, he had no idea where she would go. “Hermione!”

Finally he turned a corner and saw his Hermione…talking to her. “You! What the hell are you doing here?” Draco accused the woman standing opposite of Hermione.

Hermione looked up at Draco and he saw tears shining in her eyes. Nicole spoke, “I was just telling her what took you so long,” she said.

Draco was about to lunge for Nicole but Hermione stopped him with a broken voice, “You…you slept with her?”