Child of New Beginnings

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Chapter 9

The weeks passed by quickly, and mid July had arrived.

Lucius had never returned to Malfoy Manor. He lived with Hermione and Sebastian since that not so faithful night. The fears about rumors spreading regarding his marriage came true soon after. People would stare at him oddly, and even an article was written about his failing marriage in the Daily prophet by none other than Rita Skeeter.

During his supposedly twentieth anniversary, he sent a letter to Narcissa. He simply just wished her well and said that he still loved her. It was useless to say that he never had an affair. He felt no shame even though his name and face were being ruined. All he could feel was heart ache.

Sadly, he never got a letter back from her. He never heard a single word from her, or even Severus and Draco. He knew well that the three of them must have really hated him. At least, he also knew that she was well looked after. Severus and Draco would have taken good care of her.

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Even though Hermione was happy that Lucius was able to spend more time with Sebastian, she couldn’t help but continue to feel guilty. She wished that she could do something to ease his pain, but what?

On the day of his anniversary, Hermione watched as Lucius played with Sebastian, his grey eyes haunted lost love. She watched as he penned the letter to Narcissa, tears in his eyes he refused to let fall, and she watched as he sealed the parchment with a shaking hand.

She had taken him out to dinner on that date. It wasn’t a date nor would it ever be, even if Sebastian wasn’t with them. She just wanted to cheer him up a bit, but in the end, she knew that she didn’t help all too much. A small part of her wanted to talk to Narcissa, but more of her, didn’t want to. She was at a loss on how to help him.

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The three of them had well finished having an early dinner and were seated in the living room watching DVDs. Hermione was seated next to Lucius, as Sebastian was seated on his lap, slightly being bounced once in a while.

To Lucius’s dismay yet again, they were watching “Baby Einstein.” He thought that the show was too boring and wasn’t meant to be for six month old infants. He and Hermione would always quarrel about it. His argument would be that there were plenty of other shows to pick from such as “Baby Looney Tunes,” or “Muppets,” or anything else. He didn’t want to watch blasted Einstein over and over. In the end, he would give in as Hermione never backed out, stating that she didn’t want Sebastian brain development to ruin.

Suddenly, there was a loud banging sound. Lucius and Hermione turned to the source of the sound and saw the front door flying across that room, and hitting the wall. With quick defensive reflexes, Lucius accioed his wand. It flew from his cane from wherever and landed into his hand. He stood up quickly with Sebastian firmly and securely held with his one arm. Hermione panicked and moved to stand behind Lucius.

“Well, well, well. Looky what we have here,” Bellatrix Lastrange said with her spine tingling laugh. “Lucius Malfoy with the disgusting mudblood.” Behind her, Barty Crouch Jr., Igor Karkaroff, and Regulus Black. All four of them had their wands pointed at Lucius.

“You’re all supposed to be in Azkaban-“

“We escaped just about an hour ago,” Bellatrix said as she interrupted Lucius. As she eyed the baby in Lucius’s arms, she then said, “Hand over Sebastian.”

“No!” Lucius said as he stepped back, along with Hermione. He then slightly shifted a bit to hand Sebastian over to her.

“He is the prophecy. Our savior. Hand him over,” Bellatrix commanded stating every single word with vigor.

“What do you know of him? How did you find us?” Hermione snapped as she leaned over to stick her head out from behind Lucius’s back. Sebastian was well hidden behind his back and started to make whimpering sounds that she didn’t notice.

“How do you know about the prophecy?” Lucius asked in shock. No one from the party last year leaked about it. It even was well hidden in the Department of Mysteries. Was there a spy in the Ministry that he didn’t know about?

“I was Tom’s lover,” Bellatrix purred. “Just before the final battle, he told me he had a dream about himself being more powerful and rising back from the dead, with the help of that said infant. With him, our Lord will be able to rule the world.”

“Give him to us!” Barty shouted.

“Stupefy!” Lucius said as he pointed his wand at Bellatrix, successfully hitting her, making her fall back against the other three. “Run!” he said as he pushed Hermione in front of him.

As they ran up the stairs, the wooden banister splintered as it was hit by a spell cast by Karkaroff. Hermione shielded her body over Sebastian’s small form, as she continued to run up the stairs.

Lucius stayed in the middle of the banister, against the wall, as the casted spells and hex’s towards them. He even managed to dodge and block the ones that were sent at him.

Hermione’s feet skidded across the floor as she stopped in her tracks. Regulus had flown up quickly on the second floor, and was now standing in front of her. As she saw a hex come at her from his wand, she dropped onto the floor, completely shielding Sebastian with her body. Even though she the pain of a slicing hex across her back, she just focused on protecting her son, whose shrill cries were all she could hear.

“Hermione!” Lucius shouted as he watched her drop to the ground and get hit. He forgot about the other three, and didn’t see the hex that was flying towards him. As he turned back to fight them again, it was too late. He was knocked down to the ground.

“Up!” Barty said as he, Bellatrix and Karkaroff flew up. All four death eaters were already surrounding Hermione, with wands pointed at her.

“Crucio!” Bellatrix said, aiming it directly at Hermione.

Hermione felt the pain shoot throughout her body. She ignored it as she kept Sebastian hidden shielded beneath her.

Then, the four death eaters had found themselves being thrown back, making them land hard on their backs and bottoms.

“What the hell was that?!” Barty demanded as was the first to stand on his feet.

“I do not know!” Regulus said.

Soon enough, all four of them were back on their feet. Regulus sent one slicing spell after another on Hermione’s back. The other three then all cast the cruciatus spell all at the same time.

Hermione screamed out in pain. She felt her body splitting slowly from the inside out. It was getting too hard to breathe, too painful to even try. Below her, her son continued to cry harder and louder.

Again, but this time more roughly, the four death eaters found themselves being thrown away from Hermione. It was as if they were hit by an invisible force. One that they could not see coming.

Kakaroff swore in his native tongue, and then asked, “What was that?” He stood up and pointed his wand around, trying to find the witch or wizard who casted whatever spell hit them.

“Fool!” Bellatrix snapped. “It was the infant. He’s the one that’s doing it.”

“Look!” Barty bellowed as all the objects around them started to shake.

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Lucius groaned as he tried to open his eyes. There was a pulsing pain at the back of his head. With a hand, he felt that there was a bump behind his head. He tried to remember where he was until he heard the sound of a woman screaming, and a baby crying.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the four intruders being thrown across the room, and landing on their backs. Slowly, he tried to get on his feet, as he made the dizziness go away. When everything around him started to shake, it then occurred to him that it was Sebastian’s magical powers at work.

Noticing that he had the opportunity, he stupefied Bellatrix, making her fly down the hall and out the window.

“The child is too strong for us!” Regulus exclaimed as he ran towards the broken window. The other two followed behind him, retreating.

“Hermione!” Lucius called as he got to her and gently rolled her on her side. He noticed that there was blood coming from her back, and didn’t want her to lie on them. He gasped as he noticed that she wasn’t breathing too well, and blood was coming out from her mouth. She was barely conscious, but her arms were wrapped around her son protectively.

Sebastian had yet to stop crying as things now were floating and spinning around the house.

“Bastian…” she gurgled as blood flowed out of her mouth.

Lucius took Sebastian from her and cradled him in his arms. He tried to calm him down, but with no success whatsoever. “Hermione, Love,” Lucius patted her cheek gently when he noticed that she was starting to lose consciousness. “You have to stay conscious.”

“Ba-“

“Is safe,” he told her. He had to get her to a hospital right away. Other than that, he had to have Sebastian calm down. With one arm holding Sebastian, he helped Hermione up with the other, supporting most of her weight with his body. With a pop, they apparated and vanished.

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AN – Cliffy! Cliffy! Cliffy! Review! Review! Review!