Chapter Text
Surprisingly, it wasn’t Draco or Hermione who erected a quick protego against Ron’s curse.
“Step away from my children, Mr. Weasley.” Narcissa Malfoy had silently apparated just to the side of Ron, making the man stagger back in shock.
“Shut the fuck up, you Death Eater whore!”
Draco, having successfully positioned himself in front of Ron while the other man was distracted by his mother, had reared his arm back and let it fly, landing a powerful blow to the wizard’s face, effectively striking the man down to the ground.
Not a second later, Lucius Malfoy was on Ron, his long platinum locks swaying, knees to the ground, as he landed blow after blow with his fists.
“Do.” Punch
“‘Not.” Punch
“Disrespect.” Punch
“My.” Punch
“Wife!” Punch. Punch
Hermione could only watch in horror as Ron’s face was slowly looking more like ground beef. Several pops of apparition sounded, but no one paid attention. Narcissa had only to lay a calm hand on her husband’s shoulder for him to stop.
Panting, both Malfoy men stood off to the side as two Aurors tried to get Ron back up.
“What happened, Hermione.” Harry’s face swam in Hermione’s line of vision, startling her back to reality.
She immediately hugged her friend. “I was so scared, Harry. Ron looked deranged. He was trying to get into the manor and struck a curse towards Draco. Narcissa shielded us, but Ron had to run his mouth and well…”
She could only lean back and shrug helplessly.
Draco strode forward to take his still shaking wife in his arms, calmly soothing her even as he glared at Harry. Hermione could only bury her head into his chest, the image of Ron’s battered face still fresh in her mind, even as the Aurors as dragged him to check on the wizard.
“He was trespassing, Potter. We had the right to defend ourselves.”
Harry only scratched his neck as he nodded to the other Aurors to take Ron to St. Mungos.
“I get that, Malfoy, but it doesn’t look good. It’s four of you against one of him.”
“My father is wandless, Potter, he was alone when we came and Weasel King was aiming all his curses straight at him. If the wards didn’t hold, my father would be dead.” Draco stated all this calmly, but the steel behind his words were unmistakable.
“I would need to take Mr. Malfoy in for questioning, as well as your memories.”
“Fine, but we would like to countersue for endangerment and trespassing.”
Harry sighed. “Fine, come with me.”
“I’ll be there, but first I need to take my wife and my mother home. Your goddaughter is alone with the elves.” He couldn’t resist the jab.
Harry only nodded once as he stepped towards the elder Malfoys who were standing stoic, but holding hands.
Narcissa placed a kiss on her husband’s cheek and Lucius gave her a tight smile, taking Harry’s offered arm and apparating away with him.
-.-.-.-.-
It took several hours, with Hermione and Narcissa alternately fretting at the Castle and distracting Lira who kept calling for her “Dada.”, before both Malfoy men stepped out of the floo and into the floo room where the women were waiting rather impatiently.
Hermione rushed to her husband, their daughter in her arms. He hugged them both tightly and Lira reached out to be carried by Draco.
Taking his little girl and placing a kiss on his wife’s forehead, he sat down tiredly, as his parents did the same on the opposite couch.
Narcissa was healing Lucius’ hand, which seems to be bruised.
“He was high.” Draco stated.
“What?” Hermione could only gape, still standing.
“It seems Mr. Weasley has picked up on a nasty muggle habit since coming back from Australia. The other Mr. Weasley came to take him into his custody. From what we could tell, Ronald had escaped from his medical facility after Rita Skeeter visited him.” Lucius stated.
“He’s been in rehab all this time. How Skeeter found him, we don’t know. I’m pretty sure Potter didn’t know either. He stepped back from the case as he had a conflict of interest and he and George Weasley were having a shouting match before we left.” Draco continued, while gently tickling Lira on his knees. The child seemed to be fascinated by her father’s antics and was giggling happily.
“They did not charge me. For one thing, I did not violate my parole as I did not use magic. For another, Mr. Weasley, the elder, did not want any publicity involving his brother’s addiction to come out. We agreed not to press charges if they can keep Ronald in the facility, but the moment he gets out, the charges for trespassing, assault and slander will be in effect.” Lucius tiredly leaned on his wife’s shoulders as he spoke and Narcissa gently ran her fingers through his long hair.
Draco snorted somewhat elegantly. “We’ll deal with Skeeter separately. She should have known better than to go against our family.”
Hermione then decided she needed to speak to Harry soon, if only to get to the bottom of things. She could not believe Ron had turned to drugs after he left them. It was unfortunate that she did not even get to reason with him, though she now knew he was beyond rational thoughts.
“Well, I for one, am famished. Why don’t we all get something to eat. Would you like to stay over for the night? Maybe a little grand-baby time is needed to make things better?” She asked her in laws.
Lucius’ eyes immediately brightened and Narcissa smiled. “We would love that, Hermione. Thank you.”
Hermione smiled back and called for Dandy.
-.-.-.-.-
Several things happened after dinner.
First, the grandparents took Lira with them to the west wing of the Castle, where their appointed rooms were, leaving Draco and Hermione in the library.
Second, Hermione summoned her patronus to send to Harry. Expecting her otter, but instead, a huge Hungarian Horntail dragon came out, startling both her and Draco.
“Oh my god!” The muggle phase easily slipped out.
“Your patronus changed.” Draco said in awe.
Only knowing of one other person whose patronus had changed after falling in love, Hermione asked. “Is this the same as yours?”
“Yes.”
Deciding to let the matter drop for now as she wasn’t ready to face the implications of her patronus change, Hermione hurriedly sent a message for Harry.
Draco wrapped his arms around her as they sat on one of the library couches, her back to him, knees bent on the couch.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to say it. I know.” Draco whispered in her ear. The bond tingled inside of her and she leaned back, closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of being in his strong embrace.
Draco absently curled his finger around one of her locks while Hermione kept her eyes shut. “I love you. I was terrified when Weasley aimed his wand at us. I was scared I wasn’t going to be able to protect you again, just like when Bellatrix…”
Keeping her eyes closed, even as she shivered at the name, Hermione lightly rubbed a hand on Draco’s crossed arms around her. “It’s alright. I’m not helpless, your mother was just faster. This time.”
There was a beat of silence, before Draco dropped his head on her shoulders. “I couldn’t live without you, Hermione. Now that I’ve found you, I wouldn’t have been able to. You are the air that I breathe. You are the very blood in my veins. I am nothing without you.”
Though moved by his admission, Hermione stilled. Admitting, if only to herself, that if it was Draco that was hit with a Ron’s curse, she wouldn’t have been able to function either. “You would have been able to. You would have had to. Lira needs you.”
Gently untangling herself from him, Hermione faced her husband and took his face in her hands. “You are a good man, Draco Malfoy, and a very good father. If anything happened to me, you would have found a way to move forward because you know Lira would need you. You wouldn’t let her down.”
She leaned forward and kissed him, lightly at first, and she was about to deepen the kiss when the wards alerted of a visitor in the floo room.
Instantly alarmed, though they both knew very few people could access their floo, they stood up and Draco apparated them both directly into the floo room.
They were greeted by a disheveled and blank faced Harry Potter who was standing stock still in the middle of the room.
“Hermione.” Harry’s voice was strangled, as if he was trying not to cry.
Draco sensed that he was not needed and quickly dropped a kiss on top of his wife’s head and made a hasty exit.
Hermione stepped forward and pulled her best friend into her arms. Harry hugged her back tightly, and on a strangled cry, started sobbing.
Hermione let her friend cry, only rubbing his back as choked, halted sobs came from the savior of the Wizarding world.
After a few minutes, Harry found his voice. “They lied to me, Hermione. Every week, I was there for brunch. Every night I slept beside Ginny and they were all lying to me!”
Hermione felt a deep sense of sympathy for her friend. After Ron had left her, Harry had desperately tried to remain in good terms with the Weasleys. Even when Ginny made veiled comments about her, Harry would only muster a small defense of Hermione. She knew all of this, Harry had been honest with her.
Molly Weasley might have helped when Lira was sick, but she barely spoke with Hermione, and both friends knew she blamed Hermione for the break up, even though Ron was the one who walked away. None of the other Weasleys ever reached out or even tried to get to know Lira even though Hermione was sure that all of them knew of her daughter.
Now, Hermione held on to Harry as the man sobbed and mourned the only other family he had since he was a child. It was heartbreaking to see her him this way, and Hermione promised herself that she would do everything in her power to make sure that her best friend bounced back from this betrayal.
Harry just kept sobbing and crying out that the Weasleys betrayed him and Hermione felt helpless in the face of her friend’s anguish.
It was a long time before either of them moved from the embrace.