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How To Train Your Auror 2: Family Ties	By : Alcoholic_Rootbeer Category: Harry Potter > Het - Male/Female > Draco/Hermione Views: 7990 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, and I will not make a profit from this story

Chapter List
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- 39
- 40
Wonderful news: Squirm won Best WIP in the Winter 2017 Dramione awards! This is my first 1st place prize in writing, and it is one I will cherish. Maybe HTTYA can make the list again sometime! Sorry this chapter took so long. I picked up two Valentine's Day prompts, and have been busy working on pushing them out by deadline.
Thank you LightofEvolution for the proofing! She and I have an amazing Valentine's Day prompt coming up.

~A.
If home is where the heart is
then we're all just fucked
I can't remember
I can't remember
And I want it so bad
I'd shoot the sunshine into my veins
I can't remember
The good old days
"27" by Fall Out Boy

Theodore was a mess. Not just a physical mess with Lindy's blood smeared across his cheek and on his clothes. His heart pounded in his throat, and his stomach threatened to bottom out as he ran alongside the gardens, making his way to the front gate. His hands shook. No matter how much he breathed in and out, the poignant memories of Astoria, ghostly white and sickly, rose to the surface of his thoughts, layered with images of Lindy as a child, a teen, a young adult like him in Auror training, ready to combat the world.
"Tell me, Auror Jameson. Why did you become an Auror?" Lindy's words rang through his head, clear as if she were standing next to him.
When he came to the final hedge, he paused. He couldn't believe he did, but he couldn't take a step further in that moment, thinking of his mother. Thinking of how he hadn't seen her in three months, because the Auror Division kept him busy. Thinking of her, dazed and disoriented, shivering in her hospital bed. Thinking of his father, who so diligently visited her every day to bring her soup. Thinking of Lindy, and her false promises. Of her dying in his hands.
"I love you."
"I just wanted us to be happy."
Astoria would be around this bend, and he hoped, with every shred of his heart, she was still alive. He couldn't lose someone else so dear to him. Damn it all… all those years of turning his back on Lindy, all because of that night... **
"Astoria," he said, rounding the corner, fear lodged in his throat. His entire breath caught when he found her huddled up against the gate, a blanket, no doubt conjured, around her shoulders, and a bleary expression on her soft face. She was pale, yes, and she was shaking, but she was, undoubtedly, alive. Theodore found himself running the rest of the distance between them to drop at her side, arms instinctively cradling her against him.
Her body was warm. A heating charm, he thought with relief. Auror Granger seemed to think of everything.
"Theo," she smiled up at him through relaxed slits, reaching up with a shaky hand to touch the side of his neck. "Hi, there."
Theodore relaxed, expelling a sigh of relief. "Hello." He pulled her tighter in his arms, attempting to warm her. "Are you alright?"
"I could give two figs less about myself," she whispered, sounding parched and exhausted. "Did we win? Is Scorpius-?"
"Auror Granger was on her way to him when I left to find you. As for us winning," he looked up at the dome half a kilometer away, "That's being decided as we speak."
"Comforting," she replied, and for half a moment Theodore thought she was serious. Then it hit him.
"You're being sarcastic."
"Look at you. You're catching on." She coughed, leaning into his shoulder and nuzzling him. "I want to see my son."
"We need to get you to St. Mungo's. The wards are down. We could Apparate-"
"-My son, Theodore. I won't leave here without him."
"Of course," he replied, curving his arm underneath her legs and swinging her into his lap. "But… first I…" he brushed a lock of hair behind her ear and leaned closer. Theodore didn't have children, though he did understand they took precedence over health. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling he needed to make his intentions known here and now, what with a battle taking place in the Malfoy back yard and no guarantee of complete victory…
Theodore pressed his dry lips to Astoria's, not caring if he tasted of burnt mansion and residual spell overcast. He couldn't bare the thought of her not knowing how he felt about her a moment longer. To his relief, she didn't swat him away. Astoria melted to his touch, her hand skimming along his cheek. Theodore relaxed, even caught himself smiling as he gently pulled away and stared down into her emerald eyes.
"Once you're feeling better, I'd like to ask you for coffee."
"I believe you just did," she smiled tentatively.
With little effort, Theodore managed to push up to stand, Astoria still wrapped in his arms. He started toward the gardens, feet heavy, head exhausted, and emotions entirely overwhelmed. But knowing Astoria was alive made up for all of that. Just as he was about to open his mouth to say as much, the earth began to rumble once more beneath their feet, and the dome grew increasingly bright, causing Theodore to stop in his tracks.
"What's going on?" Astoria asked against his neck.
"A champion," he replied, knowing no other details were needed.
"Hermummy? Hermummy!"
Hermione stared down at the lifeless husk which used to belong to Greg Diggle, flooded with a mixture of emotions, some of them mild, others ravenous and contemptual. This was the man who killed her husband, who brought her to the lowest point in her life. This was the man who took away everything from her and did so with a smile on his face. The obsessed-driven prick who took Ron away from not only her, but the rest of the world as well.
So… why was she choking back tears? Why did she feel a shred of compassion for Gregory Wallace Diggle?
"Hermione," a hand rested on her shoulder, and she jerked her head up, meeting the softening, somber face of Dean, who sat on the other side of Diggle. "It's alright."
"No, it isn't." She squeezed Diggle's hand tightly, letting the tears fall, dribbling down her chin like a leaky faucet. "It's not fair… he doesn't deserve it. He doesn't…" But no matter how hard she attempted to convince herself, she couldn't shake the sadness inside of her. "Damn you, Diggle…"
"Why Hermummy cry?" she heard Scorpius ask Harry.
He replied, with his best to-do tone, "Hermummy is sad."
"Why?"
"Because someone we've come to know has left her. And, while he wasn't the best man, he still cared a great deal about protecting her." He voiced his thoughts, no doubt knowing she was listening in. "She's sad because he was a bad man, but he did good things. Hermione always sees the best in people, whether she wants to or not. She's kind that way."
Sniffling into her sleeve, Hermione finally found the will to release Diggle's hand, folding it onto his stomach. It was difficult, nearly surreal, to know the person she'd wished the worst upon now lay lifeless in front of her, and she couldn't bring herself to feel glad about it.
"Do you feel that?" Dean asked as the ground beneath them began to quiver. All three adults turned their head in the direction of the dome automatically, watching as it glared, bright and formidable, back at them.
"Draco." Hermione jumped to her feet at once, her wand gripped tight in her hand. She rushed to Scorpius, taking him back from Harry, and said, "No matter what happens next, Scorpius, know I will never let anything happen to you. I love you."
"Love Hermummy," Scorpius said, wrapping his pudgy arms around her neck. Together, with Harry and Dean by her side, they made their way back through the thicket of the gardens, abandoning Diggle's body. They would retrieve it later. Now, the fate of them all rested in the hands of one Draco Lucius Malfoy.
Draco felt hollow inside. He couldn't completely explain the emptiness he felt; he just knew it was there, lodged in his chest where the Gray Magic once rested. It felt surreal, staring down at Abraxas Malfoy -the same man who used to give him sweets and call Draco his puffy-eyed goldfish -dead on the ground. This was someone he looked up to, mourned on multiple occasions, and loved fiercely. He hated that now all he felt was contempt and regrets. Anger and judgement. Hatred and malice.
Judging by the look on Lucius's face, his father felt relatively the same, though Draco was quite sure, if he were in the same position, and it was Lucius on the ground instead of Abraxas, he would feel entirely more conflicted.
Grey eyes met grey eyes, and both men gave the same curt nod. Draco wasn't sure there were words to describe the conflict of feelings, but he summed it up when he extended an arm out and clasped it on his father's shoulders, the both of them still laying face up against the frozen dirt. The blast of explosive magic had knocked them backward, and above them, the dome began to fizzle out, no doubt the repercussions of the Gray Magic being lost inside the Pandora Stone.
"Thank you," Draco whispered, fingers digging into his father's robes as if he might sink through the earth and fall into an eerie abyss. Lucius reached over and clasped his son's shoulder in the same fashion.
"Thank you," he said.
"For what?"
"For reminding me of what's important." Lucius rested his head to the ground, staring up at the dome while it dispersed. "All my life, I've been conditioned to believe my father's moral codes. I raised you in the same light, but I never imagined…" He cleared his throat. "He came after you. Your family. Everything important to you."
"Yeah, well," Draco replied, "that included you, you old geezer."
The Malfoy men smirked at each other. "Draco, while I understand we're having a heart to heart, do refrain from the term 'old geezer' in my presence. I am only twenty-six years your senior."
"Could've fooled me," Draco chided, watching the last remnants of the dome flicker into nothingness.
That's when he heard his son's voice. "Daddy!"
Draco bolted upright, releasing his father as he did, searching in every direction for Scorpius. He found him a ways off to his left, bundled in Hermione's arms at the edge of the garden. The toddler wiggled and squirmed until Hermione had no choice but to release him, and Scorpius bounded across the courtyard in Draco's direction. Draco moved to stand, but his entire body ached, so he thought best not push it and sat still, arms open and ready to hold Scorpius. The boy rushed into Draco's arms with a squeal, knocking the wind out of the father.
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy! Da-ddy!"
"Scorpius," he whispered, pulling him as tight as he could be to him and cradling the toddler's white-blond tresses in his hand. A lump formed in Draco's throat, and he coughed, expelling it as well as some unexpected tears. They slipped down his cheeks, making his eyes red and puffy as they met Hermione's, reading the various expressions on her face: relief, confusion, anger, and love. With his free hand, he gave a timid wave. Her furrowed eyebrows as her response told him he was in deep hippogriff shit. Deep.
What did the bloody woman want him to be? Dead?
"M-My Lord?" someone spoke off somewhere behind Draco, approaching. He turned his head to see, on the other end of the field, Dessy, her eyes wide in horror as she stared at Abraxas Malfoy. "No... " She raised a wand from her side and pointed it at Draco. "NO!"
"Nuh-uh!" Scorpius shouted, wiggling in his father's gasp. He broke free of the bewildered father and stood in front of him. He brandished a make-believe wand and shouted "Spell-y-a-moose!"
Green light shot past Draco's cheek and hit the witch dead on, knocking the wand out of her grasp while simultaneously sweeping her backward. Draco stared back at his toddler in disbelief -that was, until he noticed Potter in the corner of his eye, wand still at the ready and a keen look in his eyes. The two wizards exchanged half-smirks as Scorpius shouted, "You see, Daddy!? You see!?"
As Harry passed the Malfoy men, a pair of magic-binding cuffs in his hands, Draco pulled Scorpius in for another hug, kissed him on the cheek, and said, "Yeah, Scorp. You did so well. I'm glad to see those lessons have been paying off."
"Are you two alright?" a timid, feminine voice asked as she approached, and a pair of warm, embracing arms folded around Draco's shoulders and Scorpius's frame. Soft lips pressed against Draco's cheek as the familiar scent of Hermione enveloped his senses.
"Hermione…" Draco's eyes closed, and he allowed them all to remain there, together, for what felt like a blissful eternity. He placed a hand over her arm, knowing there was no need to say the words. She knew, just as much as he did, how thankful he was they were all alive; how much he loved them; how long this fucking night felt like.
But then reality set in, and he jerked his eyes open. "My mother-Astoria-"
"Your mum's alright," said Dean Thomas, collapsing to the ground just a few feet off. He leaned back on his elbows and gave a long stretch. "A knock to her head, but there's already Healers inside. I reckon she'll be right as rain in a day or so."
"Auror Jameson is with Astoria," Hermione assured him, "and while she's weak, I didn't sense any looming danger for her life. WIth rest, her health should return."
"Good," Draco nodded. "That's… that's good, then." He paused. "You're furious with me, aren't you?"
"That's putting it mildly," Hermione said, kissing his cheek again. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed."
"Better me than you."
"Draco-"
"-It's fine, Hermione. We've won." He pulled Scorpius tighter, not wanting him to see another dead body this evening. "The Gray is gone."
"...What do you mean?"
Draco peeked behind him and gave her an inquisitive stare. "What do you mean? My grandfather bound his soul to the Gray. His death ripped the Gray from all our bodies."
"Not mine," she said, moving around him to nearly sit in his lap on the other side of Scorpius.
"You mean you-?" but Draco paused, because he could sense it; once a carrier of Gray magic, one could always tell when it was present. He could feel it vibrating from inside Hermione's bones, resonating with her own magic. "How?"
"Could it have been the dome? What were the parameters in which you built it?" Hermione's eyes glimmered with scholastic integrity. You could take the bookworm out of the library, but you could never take the library out of the bookworm.
"The dome…" Yes, that must have been it. "It makes sense. I wanted to build a shield not even your magic could penetrate."
"So that means… I'm the carrier of the Gray Magic, now." Hermione's voice was pensive. Draco opened his mouth to speak, to say something comforting, but a new player entered the mix in the form of Auror Kingston, wand brandished as his glasses hung from the tip of his nose.
"Commander Potter!"
"Kingston, we've been over this," said Potter, pushing a wriggling, bound Dessy toward the group of Aurors following Kingston, "you can call me Harry." As he passed Dessy off, his eyes followed Kingston's wand; Draco didn't miss the fact it was aimed directly between his eyes. "What are you doing?"
"This man is an escapee from Azkaban," said Kingston, pushing his glasses up his nose. "He needs to be detained pending investigation."
"He's an Auror!" shouted Hermione. "And he just saved your life! He saved all of us!"
"Get that wand out of my face, Kingston," sneered Draco, gesturing down to Scorpius's paling form at the sight of a wand aimed at his father. "Please," he said, much quieter. "I'll go willingly, just put your wand away. You're frightening my son."
"Draco-" Hermione began.
"-Malfoy," Harry interrupted, putting a hand on Kingston's chest to back him up a few spaces, "Stand down."
"Rules are rules, Sir. Regardless of who someone might be friends with," Kingston's tone was sharp and reprimanding.
"Cut it out, Potter," said Draco, "I'll be fine. I have full confidence you'll sort it all out." He snuggled Scorpius a moment longer and whispered into his ear, "I've got to go with the ugly brute Kingston for now, Scorp. Auror business. I shouldn't be away long."
"No go." Scorpius clung tight. "Stay."
"I can't," Draco's voice wavered. "I-I can't, Scorp. Daddy did some things, and now I need to be held accountable for them."
"Where's ex-Auror Diggle?" asked Kingston, looking around the group. "He escaped as well, and I have it on good authority it was by Auror Malfoy's doing."
"He's dead," Hermione snapped at the Auror with contemptual undertone.
Draco heard the words, but it didn't fully register as he pried Scorpius off his lap and set him in Hermione's arms. He kissed her on the forehead, smiled gently, and rose to stand, even when Hermione tugged on his robe sleeve to stop him.
"Wait-"
"-Let me go, Hermione. I'll be alright," he assured her. "After tonight, it'll do me some good to be alone with my thoughts. I'll… see you soon." He refused to look over to his father, or Potter, or the withering expressions of the other Aurors, some mixed with resentment while others possibly mirrored concern. Draco offered out his hands and met Kingston's stern glare as a pair of magic-dowsing cuffs clinked around his wrists and reformed to snug against his skin. The magic within him constricted, leaving him even weaker, but he refused to show it as he nodded once to Kingston and agreed to follow him back toward the manor.
Hermione immediately stood, Scorpius in tow, and grabbed a ruffled looking Harry by the arm, shaking him. "Do something."
"I can't," he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose while scrunching his eyes shut. "I can't, Hermione. Kingston's right. Damn it all, he's right. If I were to show Malfoy favor right now… it could do more harm than good. -Don't worry, though." His eyes came back open, and he pulled her and Scorpius in for a tight hug. "This was all under my orders. I'll have a word with Minister Shacklebolt. But…"
"But what?" her voice was hopeful and scared all at the same time.
"But Malfoy did use an Unforgivable on Diggle. That wasn't under my authorization."
"Diggle's dead, Harry."
"I know. But that's beside the point. Malfoy used an Unforgivable. It's on record. It'll be hard to talk our way out of that one, when all the smoke is cleared."
"You're saying there's a chance Draco is still in hot water."
"I'm saying there's more than a chance -more like boiling water, really."
"If this is your way of comforting me, you're doing a lousy job," she whispered, only half-joking.
"I'm going to give it all I've got, Hermione. I've got pull at the Ministry…" But even as he said it, Harry didn't sound as if he believed his own words. He released her from the hug and set his stance into full Auror mode, sloughing off his raw emotions (on the outside). "Come on, Hermione. Let's see if we're needed anywhere inside. -We need to keep ourselves busy."
Hermione knew he was right, but admitting it was something else. "We can owl the Minister - go to his office right now and-"
"-It's four in the morning-"
"-Well, we can't just stand here and do nothing, Harry!"
He gestured to the cleaved manor some ways off. "Hermione, right now, your home is cut in two, Aurors are rounding up members of some sanctimonious cult, we have injured people that need serious medical care - put your priorities in an objective list, please." He sounded nearly desperate. "Malfoy's going to have himself a cold meal and a stiff bed tonight. Right now, Astoria, Narcissa, Scorpius -your family need you. They need you to be strong for them. Malfoy can do without for one night while we make sure we tie up all the loose ends. Alright?" He then asked softer, "Alright?"
She stared into his emerald eyes, trying to do as was asked and see things objectively. Her emotions were getting the better of her, she knew, and Harry's speech was enough to snap her out of her desperate need for control. Tears slipped down her cheeks. "I can't be objective about this one, Harry. I just can't."
"Then…. Go home." He added quickly, glancing back at the Manor, "My home. Go home to Ginny, and take Scorpius with you."
"I can't just leave you to-"
"-Hermione, you've done brilliantly tonight. The Ministry will get a statement from you later. Just get some rest -do it for Scorpius." He waved off in the distance to Auror Jameson, who carried Astoria in his arms. "I'll send someone for you if anything changes. Alright?"
"Alright," she mumbled back to him, but found herself rooted to the spot, unable to move. That was, until a hand rested on her shoulder, and a low, smooth voice said, "I'll escort you to the floo." It was Lucius Malfoy, his head held high and proud, though there were hints of stress around the corners of his eyes.
"Oh, um, that's alright," she began, "Really, I'm-"
"-I insist," Lucius smirked, already pushing her forward and guiding her in the direction of the manor. Hermione looked back at Harry for help, but he gave her a light shrug, as if he really didn't know what else to do. Sighing, she turned back around and wiggled Lucius's hand off of her.
"I can make it the rest of the way on my own," she said to him.
"Perhaps it isn't you who needs the company," Lucius admitted, his hand flexing before he set it down at this side. "It would do me a great favor if you'd escort me until I found Narcissa." His tone was formal and assertive, guarded as ever.
"I'm surprised you'd want to be seen with a... " the word hung on the tip of her tongue.
"Miss Granger," Lucius continued his brisk pace, and it dawned on Hermione how easily he was able to keep up, and without a cane. Not once did he stop to hack up or catch his breath. "While I am not one for formal apologies, I'm willing to admit…" This time, it was him to pause.
"Let's… do this later. I'm more apt to believe you if we're both not sleep deprived and not under the heavy influence of a traumatic event."
Lucius nodded in agreement, falling silent until they made it to the manor's front door, which hung sideways off its hinges. To his credit, Lucius pulled the door back and open for her, despite its state; manners were manners, after all. Hermione smiled faintly, thinking this might be the first time she'd ever smiled at the elder Malfoy, and stepped inside, feeling Scorpius's soft breath against her neck. If she had to guess, he was asleep, worn from the stress.
"Let's go find your wife," she said when he shut the door; it clamoured to the floor in the doorway, completely broken now.
Two souls, never more different, found a common interest that night: above all the grudges, hostility, and moralities family came first. And whether the two liked it or not, they were tied together as family, framed by the small child cradled in Hermione's arms and his handsome father.

If you reviewed for previous chapters, just know I have read them all and adore them!

~A.
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How To Train Your Auror 2: Family Ties