Chapter 3
The Things that Must be Said
A/N: My muse, Maggie, is simple girl. All she likes are plot bunnies and reviews. So be kind to Maggie and feed her review cookies please.
Big thanks to my beta Lbandoly for her hard work. She has spent countless hours editing and providing plot help for my stories. She makes my writing possible.
No copyright infringement intended. All characters are the property of JKR, Scholastic, and any number of other companies with more money than I've ever dreamed of seeing. I didn't make any money off of this, so please don't sue.
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The four sat for a few moments simply looking one another over. Minerva removed Serenity's letter from her robe pocket and handed it to Ginny. "I believe this is for your daughter. You know I would be honored to have her with us."
Ginny gave her former head of house a sad smile. "Professor I'm not sure that can happen. Even after so many years her name is certainly going to draw the kind of attention that is unwelcome to say the least."
"No doubt the Malfoy name will earn her more than a few weary glances, but you know she is safe within the walls of Hogwarts."
"No I don't. You don't understand why I left to begin with. It's not the stigma of our name that worries me. It's my family."
Severus lifted an eyebrow at her. "Certainly you don't think your own nieces and nephews would harm her?"
"I can and most certainly do. After all it was her uncle that forced me to leave without a word to begin with." Two silent tears rolled down her sun tanned cheeks.
Draco wrapped his arms around his wife. "Ginny go check on the girls. I'll tell them. You don't have to go over this."
"No it needs to be me. If it isn't me he will never believe it."
"Who cares what my godfather thinks Gin. You and I know the truth."
Ginny gave an apologetic smile to her former head of house and left the room.
Minerva watched the young woman walk away. "What did she mean by that Draco?"
"What she meant was Ron, well all her brothers probably, but Ron is mainly the reason she ran away. He caught us together just after she turned seventeen. He threatened to kill me if she ever saw me again. You know his temper ma'am. With the state of things at the time it wasn't hard for either of us to believe he might try. But for her safety I tried to stay away."
He stopped and steadied his voice. "We both tried to stay apart. Heaven knows if my father or the Dark Lord had known what was going on between us we would have been dead anyway. But try as we may, we both kept running back to each other. Two months later she asked me to take her away. It wasn't a hard decision. Be with Gin somewhere we could be happy or stay in the middle of that war? I agreed to take her away.
After some discussion we agreed to make it look like she had been kidnapped. Not hard considering everyone thought me to be a Deatheater anyways. Though, point in fact, I never did take the mark. We agreed to meet a week later at the Burrow and we did. Just before we left for Italy, I sent the Dark Mark into the sky and we left."
He laughed. "Fairly simple plan really. Her mum knew she was going to the Burrow to fetch something. What she didn't realize was that when she left the Order's safe house she had her trunk with her. She gathered a few items from her old home and was the one that ransacked the house to make it look like there was a struggle."
Severus couldn't believe his ears, for the two of them to think up such foolish nonsense. "You faked her kidnapping! Sweet mother of Merlin Draco, that's utter foolishness. You couldn't possibly believe Ronald, moronic as he may be, would have actually hurt you."
"We did and to some extent still do. It wasn't just Ron, Uncle. Ron didn't keep what he saw to himself as you can very well imagine. Harry and Bill both volunteered to remove vital organs from my person for even being near her. If they knew she left to be with me I hate to think what they might do to either of us. Heaven knows what the rest of the lot might have said or done about us." Draco sat up straighter and looked his godfather in the eye.
"Look I understand if you think we were idiots, dunderheads, morons, or whatever other wretched name you can think of. That's your right. But the fact is we had reason to believe we would be kept apart at the very least, killed at the worst for myself, if they knew what we meant to one another. That didn't even account for the fact that my father and the Dark Lord would have killed both of us without a second thought for my lack of desire to be marked."
Severus gave his godson a scathing look. "Well at least that much is truth. The Dark Lord didn't take kindly to the son of his most loyal disappearing before he could be given the mark. Lucius paid quite painfully for letting you get away I might add."
Draco laughed. "Good enough for the tosser. He would have handed me over in chains if he had his way about it. Though truthfully, if it hadn't been for Ginny I would have taken the mark eventually if for no other reason than it was expected of me. It was only because of Ginny very literally saving me that I stopped from following that maniacal freak."
"What is because of me?" Draco turned to see his wife standing in the doorway.
"Keeping me away from The Dark Lord luv."
She grinned. "Oh well, you're still welcome." She moved into the room. "Will you both be staying for dinner? I do believe the girls want to know more about the Wizards in the sitting room."
"Yes please." Minerva stood. "If you might direct me to the powder room so I can freshen up."
Without delay the two ladies exited leaving Draco and Severus to themselves. "So how did you do it?"
"Do what Uncle?"
"How did you get Miss Weasley?"
"Mrs. Malfoy now."
"Ginevra then. How did you get her to leave her family? I don't believe a word of that sob `her brothers were going to hurt you rubbish'. There isn't a single Weasley son that would have actually followed through with that threat. Yes I know they would have threatened it, but they wouldn't have actually hurt you. They very well may have turned you over to the Aurors for being a Deatheater but they wouldn't have actually tried to kill you, not even Ronald."
"Shows what you know Uncle Severus. Ron very well may have tried to kill me if not both of us. He never trusted her after the Chamber of Secrets. Her eldest brother even suggested giving her a power stripping potion the summer after from what I hear. You want to tell me they wouldn't see her relationship with me as her becoming a dark witch? They would have had every reason to think so given the way I treated them in school. But the fact is, brothers or not, most of the lot looked down at her because she wasn't their perfect little angelic sister."
"As if you never looked down your own nose at her?"
"Not for that."
"No you only looked down on the fact that she and her family didn't hate based on family lineage."
"I did. And I was wrong, absolutely fucking wrong. I fully admit that. By some matter of grace she saw fit to forgive me for it over seventeen years ago."
Severus did the math quickly in his head. "You were seeing her for a full year before Ronald caught you together? The year following the incident?"
"Yes."
"Interesting. I'm surprised she would even be anywhere near you after that."
"She found me near dead not long after. Aunt Bella felt the need to punish me. She took pity and helped me get well. Took a bit longer than I would have liked but I'm not one to complain when I didn't deserve her help to begin with."
"Where did you stay?"
"An empty warehouse not far from wherever she was staying in London. I believe muggles call them crack houses."
Severus repressed a grin. He would love to have seen his spoiled godson squatting in some rundown hell hole like some common muggle drug addict.
"Seventeen and eighteen respectively on the run. Have you been here since you left Britain?"
"Yes. Just before I left I contacted mother. She informed me that the Italian villa was mine for the taking. However the vineyards hadn't produced wine for some years. If I wished to take over the property and return the vineyards to working order I would have to live as a muggle to some extent. Having spent the previous year basically homeless in muggle London, a villa in Italy seemed like a nice trade, muggle or not. I've only spoken to her a handful of times since."
"She knows you're married then?"
"Yes and she sees the children. Ginny takes them to see her a few times a year while mother is on one of her globe trotting trips. Truth be told, I'm sure Gin could tell you more about my mother than I can."
"She is well. I saw her just two days ago."
Draco raised an eyebrow. He had known for some time that his mother and Severus had been lovers since he was fairly young. More than once he had seen her at Hogwarts moving through the dungeons obviously in search on Severus. He hadn't expected his uncle to ever say anything that would leave that impression however.
The sound of a girl's voice wafted into the sitting room. "Sì la mamma." The girl in question came sliding into the room. Her sock covered feet sliding on the highly polished floor. "La mamma dice che la cena è pronta. Venire su prima che prende il freddo."
"Tell her we are coming Sere."
As quickly as she came, Serenity was gone again.
"Do the children often go around speaking in Italian?"
"Yes, along with French and Greek from time to time. Serenity prefers French while Katharine prefers Greek. It's fairly interesting to listen to them hold a conversation constantly swapping through all four languages at once."
"I imagine it is. That takes a great deal of skill for even the most gifted of adults."
"Both are quiet skilled in language for their ages."
"As I recall, so were you."
"Well considering it was either learn it or have father's cane on my backside, I opted to learn whatever was thrust at me."
"Wise decision."
"Come on if we don't make an appearance soon Gin is going to think I killed you and buried you in the vineyards somewhere."
Translations:
-- Sì la mamma. - Yes Mom
-- La mamma dice che la cena è pronta. Venire su prima che prende il freddo. - Mom says dinner is ready. Come on before it gets cold.
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