New Beginnings

New Beginnings

Chapter One

Draco rolled over and stretched his arm across the bed. The sheets were cold.

'Why are the sheets cold?' he thought.

Slowly he opened his eyes searching for the familiar mass of dark hair that usually greeted him in the mornings. Coming to full realization that he was indeed alone in the large double bed, he sat up.

"Harry? Harry, where are you?" the blonde asked the empty room.

Rolling out of bed and grabbing the black satin robe he had been given at Christmas by his husband, he made his way toward the kitchen. Harry was sitting at the table staring at a parchment that was unrolled in front of him. He looked up at Draco, a grave look on his usually happy face.

"What is it? What has happened," asked the blonde, while thinking, who knows what.

"He almost killed her... I can't believe it came to this! Bill went over there last night for dinner, and found her bleeding on the kitchen floor. He was just sitting there... eating at the table as if nothing was amiss." Harry had started to cry, and Draco could tell all he really wanted to do was run from the house and Apparate to a small cottage in Hogsmeade to rain down his vengeance on Ronald Weasley.

"Slow down, my love! What do you mean he almost killed her? What was she doing back there? I thought she was still at St. Mungo's?" Draco was only mildly confused.

"He checked her out! Ron threatened the Healer and checked her out." Harry was now almost hysterical.

"Where is she now?" Draco asked the panic for his friend starting to rise.

Harry looked into his eyes. "Bill took her back to St. Mungo's. Then he owled me to let me know what had happened."

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Harry was sitting in a chair he had conjured upon entering the guarded room at St. Mungo's, holding the small hand of his best friend. There used to be another that shared a spot in his heart until Harry had seen up close how the war and drinking had changed him. Now, Harry's only concern was that Hermione get better. Draco walked into the room and stepped around the bed to gently lay a hand on his husband's shoulder.

"Any improvement," he asked. Harry looked up at him and caught his eyes. The look of complete and total concern in them moved Harry.

"No. The Healer said she could wake up at any moment, but she lost a lot of blood before Bill found her and Flooed her here."

Draco pulled out his wand, conjured another chair and sat down next to Harry. "Well, I have some good news! Ron has finally been arrested, and before you ask, no, I don't know where he's being held. They won't tell me for fear that I will tell you and you would kill him. This, of course, is a valid concern because I most certainly would. But what they don't realize is, you would have a hard time killing him because I would have already done so myself before telling you."

Draco and Hermione had become fast friends after he and Harry had started dating. It had been eight years now. Just after the end of the war. They had seen each other again at Ron and Hermione's wedding, and had fallen in love almost instantly. Ron and Hermione... they had been so happy back then, or so everyone thought. No one could have seen that even on her own wedding day, Hermione had been hiding bruised flesh under her dress robes. It wasn't until just two years ago that Draco had popped into the house in Hogsmeade that Ron and she were renting and figured out why she was always so careful to wear long sleeves and long pants. Hermione had missed their weekly lunch together, and he found her laying on the sofa in the living room. She had been nursing a black eye and three broken ribs.

It seemed that the after effects of the war caused Ron to be removed from his place on the Cannons because he could barely sit on a broom without pain. Of course, the fact that Hermione had gone to work so they wouldn't have to borrow money from his parents made him take out his aggression on her. Hermione, always believing the best in people, had thought that all he needed was to get back to work, but after he was denied a modest position at the Ministry he stopped trying all together, and took to drinking. Soon his drinking was out of hand and he and Hermione started fighting, which lead to him beating her almost daily.

"What are they going to do with him?" Harry asked snapping Draco out of his memories.

"I don't know, but ever since the end of the war the new Minister has not been kind to husbands who beat their wives. He will most likely be sent to Azkaban, or even exiled from the Wizarding World altogether," stated Draco.

"Well, I just hope that what ever they do with him, we never have to see him again," said Harry.

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Finally the train pulled into Hogsmeade station.

'It feels strange being back here,' Hermione thought.

After waiting for all the students to exit the train, she stepped out into the cold, January air only to be swept up into a crushing embrace by the two biggest arms ever to touch her.

"Well, hello there again, Hagrid," she said smiling. It had been three years since she had last seen him because even when she lived in Hogsmeade, Ron rarely allowed her to go up to the castle, even to visit.

"'ello 'ermione, missed ye 'round 'ere," Hagrid stated, smiling broadly, "'arry said ye were comin' in t'day. Got yer carriage all ready fer ye." He turned around and lead her over to a private carriage and waited for her to climb inside before doing so himself. She smiled at being joined by him, and they chatted happily all the way up to the castle.

TBC