The Emerald Manor

Chapter 32

The Saturday morning rain beat against the tin roof of Cora's apartment, she mewled, enjoying the rhythmic sound of the rain. Draco stirred and nuzzled his face into her hair, breathing in the strawberry and lavender tones.

Cora planted kisses on his chest, landing one last one on the scar on his chest. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her forehead. "Waking up next to you in the morning is all I want."

Cora's cheeks flushed at his kindness, his eyes staring at her unbreaking for minutes. She leaned into his chest; she wouldn't mind spending all day next to him in bed.

"You came back early. I thought you weren't coming back until Sunday?"

Draco moved his palms along her shoulders and upper back. "That was the original plan, but I couldn't stand to be away from you any longer, so I took an earlier train back home. Besides two more days with mother wasn't going to accomplish anything else."

Cora wasn't sure if he was going to tell her much about his trip or what his parents wanted; she didn't want to disturb their morning bliss so opted for a safe subject.

"You caught on rather quickly that Dora was following you huh?"

Draco laughed manically, "The woman was at least 10 months pregnant wasn't exactly stealthy," he chuckled again.

"My mother told me about the two Aurors that check in on her and Lucius; there's the pregnant one Dora and she mentioned Dora's wife Jessie......who I believe is your bubbly, nosey friend?"

"Bubbly and nosey? Hmmmm......that is an accurate description, and yes Jessie is the closest thing to family I have here......except maybe you." Cora smiled.

He returned her smile giving her a tight squeeze in response. "As I got your owl warning, Jessie was telling me similar things. She asked if I knew you were in Ireland, and I just played dumb. Although from everything she told me, none of you ever left?"

"No, we didn't, we went outside a few times but didn't wander far. Mom.... she wanted to talk to me and spend some time trying to patch things up."

Cora wondered if either of his parents mentioned what the cryptic messages were about. "Was that the only reason you went up there for the two weeks to try and patch things up with your mother?"

He arched his brow at Cora, recognizing that she was fishing for information.

"That wasn't the only reason, there was one other thing they wanted to talk to me about." Cora held her breath waiting nervously for what he was going to say.

His voice was almost bored even. "I'm assuming you already know because of Jessie." He rolled his eyes in her direction.

"I don't know much; all Jessie could tell me is that owls kept going in delivering messages but that your parents never sent any outgoing messages. But there was one outgoing message that concerned her....... all it said was, 'face me like a man.'"

Cora searched his face for some kind of shock or uneasiness, but none of that was there.

If fact, his face was calm. The lines of his face were soft, his muscles relaxed.

Draco gave a curt nod. "You seem to know the extent of it. I'm sure as you and the Ministry are well aware, there are still Death Eaters out there. They went into hiding mostly, the ones that didn't die or get sent to Azkaban after the war that is. Well one of those Death Eaters was reaching out to Lucius, trying to strike the band back together I suppose."

"Which one?" She asked the question so before her head could even process it.

"Steady love. We don't know. I know you're probably itching to go chase them down and arrest them, but they weren't sure who it was."