Chapters 201-210

Bright New World

Hermione held Hannah while she sobbed. But no one could hold Draco.

oooOooo

‘Shhh, Hannah, shhh, it’s all right. I’ve got you. It’s okay. Shhh…’

Hannah’s breath was hot against Hermione’s neck. Her robe was quite damp at her shoulder, and her back was beginning to cramp. Hermione hugged Hannah and fervently wished that there was anything she could do.

Nothing was all right. And it would never be okay. Her feeble words of comfort sounded hollow in her ears. Draco shouldn’t have died in the first place. And he shouldn’t have come back in the second place; doomed to dwell in the Ministry of Magic for all eternity.

All right, so Severus and Draco had discovered that Draco could already roam Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley freely. And questioning the members of the Headless Hunt and the ghosts at Hogwarts had yielded information which led them to assume that—as time passed—Draco would be able to venture further abroad. After five hundred or six hundred years, he’d probably be able to attend anniversary celebrations at Hogwarts and to holiday in Majorca.

But for the time being it looked like the Ministry of Magic had a new model employee: one who didn’t need sleep, luncheon breaks, holidays or pay. Though Hermione would see to it that he got all three: luncheon breaks, holidays and pay. Ghost or not, Draco should have some rights!

In the living room Hermione heard Severus talking to Draco at his most soothing; his silky voice an audible embrace for the distraught ghost.

‘No,’ Hannah wailed. ‘Nothing is all right. Draco? Draco? Do you hear me? Draco?!’

‘Yes, love?’ Draco’s voice sounded as translucent as his body, with nothing of his new figure’s silvery shimmer.

Hannah drew away from Hermione just a bit, wiping her running nose and wet eyes on the sleeve of her robe like a little girl. And like a small child, she did not let go of Hermione, but clung to her, even as she turned to face Draco, with new tears streaming down her face. As if Hermione was the last anchor in Hannah’s world, a world that had completely come adrift.

‘It’s a boy,’ Hannah choked out. ‘I know you were hoping for a girl, but I had the Charm performed only two days ago, and it’s a boy, and oh, Merlin, Draco, how can we get married if you’re a ghost?’

oooOooo

It was late at night (or rather very early in the morning) when Severus and Hermione left Hannah and Draco at last.

Severus had plied Hannah with the strongest calming draught that pregnant women could ingest without ill effects. Draco would stay with her—but not touch her. His touch felt like icy fog in his new incarnation, a sensation that upset his former fiancée very much. And so much agitation wouldn’t be good for the baby. Draco was under strict instructions to run—no, to float and summon the ghost of Daisy Dodderidge at the Leaky Cauldron around the corner if Hannah experienced any untoward symptoms.

Although not far from Diagon Alley, St. Mungo’s had proved to be out of reach for Draco.

Not so for Daisy. She had died in the middle of the 16th century and returned to haunt her daughter—whose proficiency at the preparation of the Leaky Couldron’s famous split pea soup the late Daisy Dodderidge apparently hadn’t put much faith in. By January 2001 there were few places on earth that Daisy’s ghost couldn’t reach if she put her mind to it.

With these arrangements in place, Severus and Hermione felt…not exactly reassured, but at the very least resigned to grant Hannah and Draco the privacy both of them desired.

‘I still wish they’d have allowed Harry or you or me to stay for the night…’ Hermione muttered. ‘I didn’t like Hannah’s colour at all when we left, and I’m not a healer!’

Severus sighed. ‘Exactly. You’re not a healer. And they do need time to come to terms with…’

‘How do you come to terms with something like that?’ Hermione asked, when they stopped around the corner from Hannah’s apartment, getting ready to Apparate back to Hogwarts. ‘Has something like that ever happened before?’

‘Something like what?’ Severus bit out. ‘That someone who was killed by a fish tank and/or a fish came back as a ghost? I don’t know. But weirder deaths in history have yielded ghosts; just look at Nearly Headless Nick back home at Hogwarts.’

Hermione sighed and simply put her arms around Severus, drawing him close to her.

If anything, the news that Draco had returned as a ghost had been harder on Severus than to hear that Draco had died in the first place. Hermione hugged her husband as tightly as she could.

Diagon Alley was cold and dark and damp on this January night. Severus’ robes smelled more of wet wool than of his arousing, personal scent. But she felt how he shuddered beneath the layers of fabric that shielded him from the world. And she was shivering, too, although it was far warmer in London than in Scotland.

‘At least he’ll get to see his son,’ she whispered.

‘And how his fiancée eventually marries another,’ Severus retorted. ‘How the woman he loved and desired finds love and release in another man’s arms.’

He inhaled sharply. ‘Sometimes I loathe the wizarding world,’ Severus admitted bitterly.

Hermione thought of her parents and their new daughter. Of all the friends she had lost and the ones she might lose yet.

Oh yes, the Muggle world was dangerous, too: there were car accidents and crime. You could be robbed, raped and killed in any dark alley in London.

But still—sometimes it seemed the safer, softer, brighter world of the two.

A world that knew nothing of ghosts, Inferi and Dementors. A world, in which evil witches were the stuff of fairy tales and baked in ovens until they couldn’t harm anyone anymore.

20 Responses to Chapters 201-210

  1. BJ says:

    I’m enjoying your story all over again, this time with the added pictures and videos. I was just wondering why Severus didn’t go and try and “save” Draco after he died. Stop him from reaching the Nineth Gate as he did with Lily and Hermione. Since he was Draco’s godfather, I thought he might try to bring him back.

    I’ve also have been enjoying your Book of the Dead and look forward to the next update. 🙂

    • JunoMagic says:

      Severus tried to save Lily and he realised then that it was wrong to interfere with destiny. He COULD go and get Hermione, because she wasn’t dead-dead yet when he found her. For Draco it was sadly too late…

      Oh, my. I’m looking forward to the next installment of BoD, too. I just wish that offline life would stop kicking my a*** and let me get on with that. Unfortunately, this year is even worse for my writing than last year. *sigh*

      Anyway, thank you for reading and for taking the time to leave a comment!

  2. zauza says:

    So Long, Thanks to the Fish

    Previous review , i was meaning to ask if that sentence was correct! And then i forgot!

    And So Long it is! I like Draco and he was a fine man here! But his own arrogance took him.

    ebil author

    *glares at ebil author*

    *haz teh sadz*

    And one more to be helpful on the Other world!

    *glares agin at ebil author*

  3. zauza says:

    Times Have Changed—And May Change Again

    Yes, they have broken the treaties! And the Guys in Black have Necromancers…wizards! They use them.

    Hermione will not be safe. No one is safe!

    Sweet Merlin! They Are killing Muggle-borns and Half-Bloods to KEEP the worlds separate!
    To fulfill the treaties!

    They are making “justice”, not vengeance! Maniacs. Only maniacs kill children and innocents in the name of God!
    And…didn’t you tell me the Inquisition existed to prevent this kind of behaviour?

    Then…what is really going on ? Who is really behind all this?

    Ohhh, you are evil…but you’re smart!

  4. zauza says:

    Cry of a White Peacock

    You made me cry!

  5. zauza says:

    Bereft

    Poor Hannah.

    Poor Severus.

    “Albus’ death; Severus’ burden”

    See what you have done?

    *sad*

  6. zauza says:

    Angels and Other Creatures

    Are they all blind? Oh Hermione, you of all people should know better!
    Don’t underestimate Muggles specially the ones talking about the wrath of the Lord , Gates and veils!

    *sigh*

  7. zauza says:

    Magic is Might’—Redux

    Dragon is back as a ghost? YAY

    At least he is there! All Malfoyish ! A beautiful , sneering ,silvery ghost!

    And Hannah…*grin*

    And magic is Power!

    I could use some!

  8. zauza says:

    The Second Question

    See, she really is far from her Muggle roots now.

    Like any other person in their world, she is underestimating muggles and their ability to destroy.
    Also it’s so interesting,that she is still trying to get both worlds(or at least her perception of those two worlds) together, not even, once more like with SPEW, considering the implications.
    And she doesn’t understand that she is only starting to touch the surface of the magical world and at the same time, she has long lost, all kind of real perception of what she calls the real world…and i found that very interesting also. Hermione is pretty lost.

  9. zauza says:

    Bright New World

    Yes, baby Malfoy!

    And i don’t think i could survive such an experience!

    “But still—sometimes it seemed the safer, softer, brighter world of the two.”

    If she was in the muggle world she would not be safe. Just unaware .

  10. zauza says:

    Arithmantic Procrastination

    Hmmm, prevent the magical world from breeding and you will soon exterminate them all.
    Whoever is doing this should have studied their History, it didn’t work before, why should it work now?

    Humans are fighters in the face of aggressive extermination. But passive extermination would have worked and i think that was the initial plan.

    Umbridge thought this was to exterminate everybody but Purebloods. Idiotic woman.

    But what happened to change everything? Umbridge?

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