Set Free

Hermione awoke to a loud crash. "Bollocks!" a voice cried out.

Hermione sprung from the bed, and grabbed her robe as she went in the direction of the noise. "Draco, are you okay?" she cried out.

"Yes, I think so. I just hurt my hand. Nothing a little magic won't fix," he said laughing a little bit.

"Alright, but promise me you won't ever scare me like that again," Hermione said while she leaned in and kissed Draco on the lips.

Leaning back, she smiled, and looked into her husband's cool grey eyes.

"Would you be a dear and get me some breakfast please? Oh and my father will be coming over, so make a place for four instead of three," Draco called over Hermione's retreating body, as she headed to the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, she got to work. Hermione had to cook the muggle way ; Draco told her she shouldn't be using magic while she was pregnant. But why should that matter, a voice cried out in her mind, he never lets you use a wand. Draco was keeping a secret from Hermione. He knew something that she was oblivious to.

Knock, knock. A pounding could be heard from the front door. "Just a minute," Hermione called out, when she had finished flipping the sizzling bacon.

"Mummy," a small voice cried. It belonged to Hermione's son, a cheerful but somewhat spoiled boy who had his father's blond hair.

"Hey honey, come with mummy to open the door," Hermione said, picking up her two-year-old son. "Now, who could this be?" Hermione asked, and opened the door to reveal her son's grandfather.

"Grandpa!" Dionysius cried, lunging forward, trying to reach into his grandfather's arms.

"Hello, Lucius," Hermione said through gritted teeth. "How nice to see you. Draco told me you would be visiting this morning although I didn't expect you to arrive so soon."

"Oh, I never arrive when one expects me to," Lucius said, while sneering exactly the way his son did.

Hermione tried to say something, but she was held back by an invisible force. Instead she answered, "I'll go finish up breakfast. Your son is upstairs. Tell him breakfast will be ready in about ten minutes."

"I'll be sure to tell him," Lucius said walking up the stairs holding Hermione's son.

She felt a tear slip down her cheek. She was imprisoned in a world where she couldn't escape, a place where she could never be free. She couldn't be loved here, and no one thought of her as missing, just crazy.

"Harry, I love him!"

"No you don't, you've lost your mind. After you spent the last seven bloody years hating him, how could you all of a sudden love him? I know something is wrong. And if you're not going to tell me, then don't talk to me until your ready to tell me what the hell is going on Hermione," Harry yelled back into Hermione's tear stained face.

"Harry there's no point. She's not going to tell us. She fell in love with that insufferable git!" Ron yelled, causing more tears to leak down Hermione's face.

"We're going," was all Harry could manage to say.

Hermione watched through tears as she watched both of the men she loved storm away.

"Hermione?" a voice broke through her thoughts.

"Huh?" she asked looking into Draco's cool eyes.

"The bacon is burning," Draco said pointing towards the stove.

"What? Oh right, sorry," she said, blushing deeply.

* * *

"This was really good." Lucius commented. Then as an afterthought added, "For muggle cooking, that is."

Hermione just forced a smile, cleaning up the plates and putting them into the sink to be cleaned later.

"Come on honey, let's get you cleaned up," Hermione said as she picked up Dionysius, who had jelly smeared all over his smiling face. She carried him up into the small bathroom with a white tub. She let him play around for a few minutes in the warm water.

Once she had dried him off with a fluffy dark blue towel, and left him in his room to play, she heard Draco and Lucius' voice.

"Why do you still want that mudblood around? She is of no more use here," Lucius said in his usual icy tone.

"I want to keep her," Draco stubbornly replied.

"For what?" Lucius responded back.

"She is of good company to me."

"That is not enough of a reason for me not to dispose her."

"She's . . . great in bed," Draco said through a heavy sigh.

"Ahhh. So the mudblood is a great sex partner for you Draco?"

"Actually, yes, she is."

"Then, I guess you can keep her for a little while longer," Lucius said with a malicious glint in his eye. "Good day son. Tell your dear wife that I wish her the best."

"Sure," Draco said, very suspicious of his father's tone .

Suddenly, Hermione felt herself violently thrown onto the floor. "Oww," she moaned and spit blood out onto the wood floor. "Bollocks," she cursed to herself. What was that about?

She at once rose up from her spot on the floor, and ran to grab a wet towel to clean up the floor.

"What happened?" Draco asked after he had come over to where he thought the loud thud had come from.

"Nothing, I just tripped," Hermione said as she felt blood rush to her cheeks.

"So you're alright?"

"Yes."

Hermione sat there in the floor thinking about what had happened. For five years she had been under Lucius' control, she was now free. I let myself be put under the Imperius Curse. But only if Draco was with her did she stand any chance of surviving. What did they want with me in the first place? Hermione thought to herself. If I only could talk to Harry and Ron. At this thought, a tear gracefully fell down Hermione's cheek. "I need them," she said aloud.