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Black Widow	By : goldhorse Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 35493 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 6
Disclaimer: I don't own HP, JKR does. I make no money doing this but I do get carpel tunnel.

Chapter List
- 15
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- 17
“No bloody way,” Draco blurted out, unable to hold back his surprise. “A bloody Hufflepuff?”
Hermione trembled as the cloaked figure pulled their hood back. Draco had no doubt that this was her illusive attacker. It made sense. He was quiet, unassuming, the last person in the entire wizarding world anyone would suspect. Hermione would have had no problems leaving with him, telling him her secrets, thinking him an upstanding person. He was once. Strange what grief could do to a person.
“What’s wrong with Hufflepuff?”
Draco stared at Hermione’s living nightmare incredulously. What was wrong with Hufflepuff? Actually, nothing was wrong with the house. Something was seriously wrong with this member of it though. Hufflepuffs were loyal but this one had taken loyalty to an entirely new level.
“Well?”
Draco snorted. “Nothing is wrong with Hufflepuff except for you.”
“I beg your pardon.”
“Don’t take it personally, mate,” Weasley said.
“He should,” Draco said through gritted teeth. “Filthy mudblood.”
Draco watched as his lover’s attacker walked within reaching distance. Just a bit closer and he could reverse the spell. He hated having to use the worst word he knew but he had to send him over the edge.
“How dare you.”
The menace in the voice was clear. Even Weasley gulped a little before stepping in between them. “Now Justin, you know how Malfoy is…”
“Bollocks,” Draco snapped. “You have no idea how I am, Weasley. Keep your thick skull out of this.”
“Why you-“ Weasley hissed.
“Stop!” Hermione squeaked, gingerly crawling forward and putting her hands on Draco’s feet. “No more. Please.”
Draco snarled in disgust and gently kicked her away. “I told you to stay put, slave.”
“Sorry,” she wheezed. “I’m sorry, Master, but please. Please stop.”
Draco sneered. “You think Justin Finch-Flechley is a match for your Master?”
“No, Master,” Hermione said, her voice strangled. “No one is a match for you.”
Draco shot a spell at her that scooted her several feet backwards across the floor. She was stopped by Severus’s feet, though no one would notice him there. “Then stay out of this!”
“You don’t bow to him,” Justin growled. “Get up.”
Draco quirked an imperious brow. “You think you’re her Master?”
Justin sneered. “You aren’t.”
“See the collar?” Draco asked lightly. “It’s mine, which means she is mine now. No one else can have her anymore.”
“Get up, Granger,” Justin ordered.
Hermione winced at the tone but stayed kneeling. “No.”
Justin took two menacing steps forward, close enough for Draco touch him. The problem was trying to control the entire situation. Justin looked half-mad as it was. But he needed to undo that curse if they were going to have any hope of putting him away. The bloodstone had to be demolished so it wouldn’t be viable proof, which he was sure the bastard was counting on. That left only testimony, which Hermione couldn’t give if she was tongue tied.
“He’s not your master, Granger,” Justin hissed.
“You aren’t my master,” Hermione whispered.
“Come here,” Justin ordered, fiddling with something in his pocket.
Draco was almost dizzy from the waft of Dark Magic radiating from Justin’s pocket. Knowing how sensitive Hermione would still be to it, he was more than reluctant to allow her near him. He needed to get whatever artifact Justin had in his pocket and neutralize it before he made another move. But short of actually cursing the bastard, he was stuck.
“You will stay, slave,” Draco growled. “And you won’t answer him again.”
“Yes, Master,” Hermione whimpered, her eyes fluttering from the influx of dark magic calling to her.
Draco narrowed his eyes in thought. He sorted through every interaction his parents had ever had with Voldemort. The bloodstones had worked well but they were able to fight him until he returned. It could have been his presence but sometimes the hold seemed tighter than others. Those times the megalomaniac would make them kneel before them. Their eyes would flutter like that. He remembered them acting even more zealous during those times. The vision hit him so suddenly he had to straighten up just to breathe. That bastard.
“Slave!” Draco barked.
“Y-yes Master?”
“You will rise and walk to me. Understood?”
“Yes Master.”
Draco studied the way Justin’s face lit up with smugness as she neared. He was certain that he was still in control. In fact, he was certain he was in control of Draco. Well, they would play that up as much as possible… until he got close enough to take the object that would put him under Azkaban for life.
“Now you see sense,” Justin said, a smug smirk on his face.
Draco wanted to smack it off but he held his temper. He’d not spent seven years as a Slytherin, two of which he was in direct presence of the most talented manipulator in existence, without learning a thing or two about coercion. He waited until Hermione shuffled stepped right behind him, obviously warring with the fear and the dark magic wafting from her attacker.
“Slave,” Draco whispered. “Come to my side and kneel at my feet, knees even with my toes, arms out and lying against your thighs, palms up, head down.”
Hermione did as she was told without argument. He was never so proud of her. But they still had a long way to go. He quickly glanced at Potter, who had grabbed a mutely protesting Weasley and was stepping backwards towards the Knights. One quick flash of Potters eyes and he confirmed that he was willing to get Hermione out of there if needed. He also nodded to Severus, who put up a very subtle shield that would deflect some of the dark magic from the occupants in the room. No need for everyone else to be contaminated.
“Now then,” Justin said. “Let’s take off the curse you put on her, shall we?”
Draco snorted. “There is no curse on her any longer, is there slave?”
“No Master. I am here of my own free will.”
“Nonsense,” Justin snapped. “You would never bow to the feet of this filthy Death Eater on your own free will.”
“He’s different,” Hermione insisted. “He is not like the others.”
“You will be silent, slave,” Draco barked and nodded when she snapped her mouth shut. “Better.”
“Look at you,” Justin hissed. “Treating her no better than a common dog.”
“And you have treated her better?” Draco asked, casting a subtle amplification charm so everyone could hear.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Justin said with a sneer.
Draco quirked a brow. “Then why are you worried about how I treat her? Go find your own lover.”
Justin’s eyes went dark. “I had a lover. You killed him.”
Draco scoffed. “I didn’t touch your lover.”
“He died fighting you!”
“He died protecting his beliefs,” Draco corrected quietly. “Just like every other person lost in the war. I’ll have you know that I didn’t once raise my wand against a member of the light side.”
“Liar! I saw you try to plead with the Death Eaters to spare your sorry arse because you were one of their own.”
Draco wanted to roll his eyes. “If you would have paid closer attention, you would have seen that I was, in fact, trying to take their attention off of the fact that Potter, Weasley, and Granger were trying to sneak down the stairs behind me. And it worked, if that was all you saw.”
“You turned my lover in to Umbridge.”
Draco raised an eyebrow. “I turned an illegal club in to Umbridge. I believe you might have been a part of it.”
Justin flinched and caressed his hand. “His wounds got infected, left him barely able to use his hands.”
“It is not my fault that he didn’t seek antiseptic and some dittany,” Draco said coldly. “I’m not the same man I was back then, Finch-Flechley. You best learn that.”
“Not the same man,” Justin said in outrage. “You put a spiked collar designed to make a person bleed on a poor, cursed girl.”
Draco narrowed his eyes in anger. “She was neither poor nor cursed when she knelt. Unlike you, I prefer my slaves willing.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Justin hissed.
Draco smirked, noticing the man was leaning forward just a tad. Soon he’d start inching forward and then he could release Hermione from the tongue tying curse. He noticed she was way too tense but he couldn’t address it now. He had to beat her attacker at his own game.
“She knew exactly who and what I was about when she approached me. I never lied to her, never had an ulterior motive, and I never took her choices away from her. I’ve never done anything to her that wasn’t expressly wanted. Unlike some people.”
Okay, so it wasn’t entirely true. He didn’t give her a choice when he started breaking the curse. But she hadn’t been given a choice to bear the curse in the first place. However, that would dig under the bastard’s skin and make him just a bit more insane.
“What do you mean, some people? Are you saying that muggleborns are lesser people than purebloods? Or is it just Death Eaters?”
Draco refused to wince at the dig. Instead, he went for the kill. “No, I mean lying, raping, murdering bastards who would enslave the very people who fought to save them, twisting them into some sort of living puppet.”
“Death Eaters,” Justin spat.
“Hufflepuffs,” Draco spat back. “Tell me, how long was your lover’s body cold before you were forcing yourself upon another?”
“I’ve never forced-“
“So you’re saying she wanted you to take her by force?”
“It wasn’t like-“
“Like what? Like tricking a girl who you knew was sympathetic to your plight into leaving with you, telling you her secrets, and then turning on her? It wasn’t like you were ripping her innocence from her? It wasn’t like you didn’t take her life away? Like what, Finch-Flechley. Be specific.”
“They had to pay!” Justin screamed, forcing everyone in the crowed to step back and gasp as he got right in Draco’s face. “You all did. You took him from me and the Ministry did nothing about it!”
Draco wasted no time in plucking the dark artifact from the man’s pocket and tossing it to Potter. Before Justin could protest, he yanked his arm down and Hermione’s up, making a small incision with a concealed dagger so they would bleed. He muttered the counter under his breath and sniffed as the tongue tying curse was broken. When there was a purple flash, he pulled Hermione to her feet and pushed Justin to the floor.
“Tell them, Hermione. Tell them what he did to you.”
Tears flowed down Hermione’s face. “He r-raped me. And he used the b-blood to make a bloodstone. He’s been controlling me since the war and I couldn’t stop it.”
“Good girl,” Draco purred, bringing her to his chest. “Take him away,” he ordered Potter. “I think that’s enough of a spectacle for the day.”
“Hermione,” Weasley whispered as Draco led her from the main hall and into the hallways that led to the Knight’s headquarters.
“Shut it, Weasel,” Draco hissed. “She’s had enough for the day.”
“I didn’t know,” Weasley said helplessly, trying to keep up with Draco as he lifted her into his arms and took off at a trot.
“No one did,” Draco said. “That’s the point.”
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“Justin Finch-Flechley,” Kingsley’s voice boomed out in the courtroom. “We, the Wizengamet find you guilty of two counts of coercion through the Dark Arts, twenty-three counts of felony blackmail, and 40 counts of murder. You will be sentenced to Azkaban for life where you will be administered with the Kiss.”
Draco felt Hermione breathe a sigh of relief beside him. He casually reached over and grabbed her hand in a silent show of support. This was what they had waited six long months for. It had taken some time to get her testimony ironed out so they could cut the Knights’ involvement out of it. Then they had to track down every member of the Faction.
But the final nail in Justin’s coffin was the artifact Draco had plucked from his pocket. He’d only seen one other summoning stone, made as a sort of master key for those who had more than one person under a blood stone curse. It also worked as a mild form of imperious to persons in close proximity. The fact that he had it on his person, calibrated to his person and two others, and was actively using it was the clincher. He wished he would have been the one prosecuting the bastard but considering he’d been the one that brought Hermione’s plight to the surface, it was considered a conflict of interest.
“Feeling better now?” Harry asked Hermione as Justin was hauled away screaming in shackles and the courtroom cleared.
“Much,” she sighed, finally smiling for the first time since the trials began.
“Come on,” Draco said, motioning for them to follow. “There will be a meeting soon.”
An hour later, the Knights were convened in the same circle that they’d inducted Hermione in. Another recruit was in the middle, though this would be the first inductee that wouldn’t be a full Knight. Draco wanted to snarl at them but he couldn’t because that would give him away.
“Auror Ronald Weasley,” Kingsley boomed, his voice shrouded by his cloak. “You have been chosen to participate as the strategic correspondent for a small group of Unspeakables. This group is nameless, faceless, and answers to no one. Their only objective is to keep the world safe from the aspirations of would-be future Dark Lords and dictators. You’ve seen how silently they can operate. We wish to recruit you as a liaison of sorts. You will still hold your job as Auror but your pay will be supplemented. You will never know the identities of the people you will work with, nor will you try to find out. If you refuse this offer, you will be obliviated and sent back to work as an Auror with no recollection of this meeting. What say you?”
Draco tuned out Weasley’s indignant questions as to why he couldn’t know their identities. After Justin’s capture, Weasley seemed to grow up. He couldn’t believe that Hermione had been operating under such a dark curse for so long without detection. Since then, he’d apologized profusely to Hermione, who was rather tired of hearing it. She accepted, but she made it abundantly clear that she was interested in being his friend and only his friend, which he agreed to. He considered Hermione damaged now and finally decided to move on. He had proved valuable in capturing the rest of the Faction, even going as far as planning many of the raids himself. Which was why he was here, being inducted as a partial member of the Knights.
“Why can’t I just join the bloody crew?” Weasley snapped.
“We took a vow never to marry,” Harry said, tiring of his best mate’s questions. “Could you live with that?”
Weasley paled. “Why would you do that?”
“Our work is very dangerous,” Kingsley continued on. “We deal with the worst of the worst. Your friend, Hermione Granger, was one of our cases. It took us months to set up the sting operation that finally took him down.”
“So you work with Malfoy, too?”
Draco sniffed. Weasley had a knack for stating the obvious. In order to clear the story they had fed to Skeeter, the Knights had decided to go with a story close to the truth. Draco was the next mark and he noticed something odd about Hermione. He contacted a known Dark Arts master who wished to go unnamed and arranged for the curse to be broken. He then went on to pose as bait for the Auror working Hermione’s case, Harry Potter. It was neat and tidy and no one was the wiser.
“Draco Malfoy merely contacted a Dark Arts master,” Kingsley said calmly. “One which we keep close surveillance on. Once we learned of Miss Granger’s plight, we were on the case.”
“So you just… eavesdropped?” Weasley asked in amazement.
“You would be surprised at how often the most innocuous bits of information are the most valuable,” Kingsley said with a hint of amusement.
Weasley frowned. “Yeah, I guess you’re right. So, if you’re all nameless, how do you know that each other is who they say they are?”
Draco wanted to smack the fool on the head but he refrained until Kingsley calmly explained that they all knew each other very well and had no need for it. Weasley had some more questions after that. He reminded Draco of Hermione, a less intelligent Hermione with a rotten temper asking every question imaginable. But soon enough, the questions died down and Weasley agreed to the position and took a few carefully chosen vows, those specifically to never reveal who they were or that he was working with them.
“So what now?” Weasley asked after he was done taking the vows.
“You go home, enjoy your free time, work as an auror, and if you get a summons from us, you’ll meet at the designated place and be given the details of the raid.”
Weasley frowned. “It’s going to be hard to plan a raid if I don’t know everyone’s strengths.”
Draco almost sighed in relief at the first intelligent thing Weasley had said all night. In fact, he decided to take over and stepped forward, patting Kingsley on the shoulder. Kingsley nodded and stepped back. Draco knew the larger man was trying not to laugh but he couldn’t help it. He loved boasting about his partners and he never got to.
“This,” he started, pointing to Kingsley. “Is our fearless leader. He is trained in every tactical aspect an auror is and he has an excellent sense of humor but no sense of style.”
Everyone chuckled and he nodded. It was true. Kingsley’s taste in muggle clothing was atrocious. And yet, the man could always draw a laugh. Most wouldn’t know that about the normally stoic Minister but the Knights knew him best. Draco moved over to Neville.
“Then, we have our phytology expert. He’s a wiz at all natural ingredients and he’s not too bad with a wand either. As you can see from his size, he’s quite the brute. Next to him is our charms expert. She could charm a sock to look like a phoenix and breathe acid while singing the Hogwarts song. She’s also dead useful in a fight. Everyone who’s beaten her in hand to hand combat, please raise your hands.”
As expected, no one did. Luna was a beast on the battlefield and everyone knew it. He moved on to Severus.
“This is our potion master. He is an expert in Judo, Brazilian Jujitsu, and cursing your arse off. He knows his Dark Magic and you’d be hard pressed to find a better magical dueler. And next to him is the only person who can match him. He’s a crafty bastard who has taught many a Defense Against the Dark Arts student and faced some of the most vile characters you could imagine. Most importantly, he’s spry, powerful, and will never leave a man behind. Ever.”
Draco took a moment to let that sink in and reflect on how he knew that. The first time they’d gone on a raid, Draco had been hit in the back and paralyzed from the waist down by a dark curse he was having problems fighting off. Their evidence had been collected but they were losing spectacularly. Rather than obey the order to leave, Potter fought back, surprising everyone with his magical strength when he blasted everyone from the room and levitated Draco out of it.
“And last,” Draco continued, walking slowly over to his lover. “But certainly not least, is our newest recruit. It took us years to find her and longer to convince her to join us. She’s smarter than everyone except perhaps the Potion Master over there. She’s fierce and fearless and trust me, you don’t want to be anywhere near the business end of her wand when she decides to draw.”
He had to hold himself back from snogging her senseless right then. He could go on about her for days, how beautiful and smart and sexy she was. He’d seen her fierceness in their raids against the Faction and more than one duel ending with some missing body parts. She wasn’t afraid to fight dirty, a side effect of being held under the Darkness for too long. He loved that about her though. Well, he loved everything about her.
“And you?”
Draco spun and frowned at Weasley’s question. “What?”
“What about you? Your strengths?”
He sighed and shrugged. “I’m almost immune to Dark Magic. I’m the shield.”
“That’s it?” Harry asked in astonishment.
Draco shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
“That you’re bloody amazing,” Hermione growled. “You’re a terrific duelist, a very good strategist, better than our leader at hand to hand combat, and a very knowledgeable wizard.”
Draco smiled at her from under his cloak, knowing that she could feel it. Her senses had only sharpened since she had joined. Without the oppression of Justin Finch-Flechley and the guidance from both Severus and himself, she’d developed her skills to the point that she could sense emotions and even anticipate moves. She was invaluable.
“Well, while you two eye fuck each other,” Harry said dryly. “We’re going to take Auror Weasley back up. Leader?”
Kingsley chuckled. “Meeting adjourned.”
The others filed out of the room but Draco couldn’t take his eyes off of Hermione. They hadn’t been able to really be together anywhere else but the one room in his manor that they’d started in. In accordance with Knight law, they announced that they were merely friends and that their actions were just an act, all part of trying to lure her attacker out. It hurt sometimes, not being able to hold her like he wanted, keeping an aloof and politely interested face in company. What he really wanted was to be able to grab her and snog the life out of her, to hold her hand and escort her everywhere, to take her out to bloody dinner and the cinema. But that was the price they had paid.
“Are we going up?” Hermione asked softly when they were alone.
“Not just yet,” he breathed, stepping forward and yanking her towards him. “I missed you.”
She sighed and pulled her hood down. “Thank you for being there for me today.”
He lowered his hood and kissed her gently on the forehead. “If I could have, I would have sat you in my lap so I could have held you.”
She smiled and snuggled into his chest. “I know.”
“Are you ready to strip him of his magic?”
“I thought he was getting the kiss.”
“Well, he’ll be in the program for life, so no one need know any different.”
She frowned and pulled back. “Suppose someone wants to watch the kiss?”
“False memory,” he assured her. “Besides, would you want to see him kissed or do you want to watch as he struggles with his conscience while helping other people?”
She sniffed. “You know how I feel about becoming soulless.”
He nodded and leaned down to kiss her, pouring all his passion into it. A year after her freedom and he loved her more every day. There wasn’t a raid they had been on that he didn’t worry about her and wasn’t surprised by how well she’d done. He never regretted freeing her, though he had never truly told her how he felt. He was sure she knew. He’d made no secret of it. But the words would mean a lot. Then again, she hadn’t said them either, too afraid to take that last step… or maybe she just didn’t love him. But she stayed with him so he decided to be the brave one for once and take it.
He pulled back and kissed her on her nose and then each eyelid. “You know I love you right?”
Tears immediately flooded her eyes and she tried valiantly to blink them back. “I love you too.”
He wasn’t sure how they ended up in the hospital room. Perhaps they both knew there was a bed there, though they hadn’t needed one. Their clothes seemed to disappear of their own free will because he couldn’t remember taking them off. He knew he’d worshiped her with his mouth because he could still taste her skin and her essence even as he plundered her mouth. He knew she’d done the same because he could taste himself as he kissed her. But it all melted together and he could only feel her searing heat as he took her more gently than he ever had.
As they both raced to their peak, he had a startling realization. This was the first time he’d ever made love to a woman. As they fell over the precipice together, he decided that he’d never need anything else again. Who needed marriage? He had her. And she was finally free.

AN: The end. Unless... you know... you want the epilogue... which I did write out. As always, thanks to everyone who reviewed. I will love them and hug them and call them George. Keep them coming and let me know how I'm doing. Until next time... love you guys.
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