A True Riddle

Chapter 17 - Figures

When the carriage touches down on the lawn of Malfoy Manor Hadrian opens the door to see Draco standing in front of it.
"Hi darling, didn't expect to see you there." Hadrian says, wrapping his arms around Draco.
"I wanted to greet you." Draco says shyly.
"Awwww." Hadrian croons. "My mate is a little sweetie."
"Yeah yeah, shush."
"And preferably move away from the door." The cranky voice comes from inside the carriage, and Hadrian releases Draco, so they can turn to see Grindelwald standing in the doorway, folded over so he doesn't hit his head.
"Yep, sorry." Hadrian moves to the side, pulling Draco with him. "Draco, this is Gellert Grindelwald. Grindelwald, this is my mate, Draco Malfoy."
"Nice to meet you." Draco says, holding out his hand to shake.
"You too." Grindelwald replies stiffly, shaking the offered hand.
"Follow us, we'll get you some food and clothes." Hadrian says. He turns and walks towards the house with Draco beside him and Grindelwald following.
"Great. The food at Nurmenguard has really deteriorated."
"Yep, sure, I'll put the carriage away." Tom calls sarcastically from behind them.
"Thank you, that would be great." Hadrian calls back.
"Sons." Tom mutters, shaking his head.
A low laugh causes him to look up, "We missed most of the time where he was a cute child and now we're stuck with a teenage boy." Severus says, moving out of the shadows to stand beside Tom.
"At least we have him." Tom replies and Severus nods in agreement, moving to hug him.
"How was your trip?"
"Good. A bit awkward at first, I had no idea what to talk to him about. How has it been here?"
"Good. I know most of the kids, so it's easy to teach them." Severus says, helping Tom guide the thestrals to their pen.

Meanwhile, Hadrian and Draco are having a similar conversation on their way to the house, the only difference being Draco complaining about more school rather than teaching.
"You're a cute couple." Grindelwald says. Hadrian and Draco turn to look at him, waiting until he catches up.
"Thanks." Hadrian replies.
"Would you believe we were enemies for four years?" Draco asks.
"Would you believe Dumbledore and I were once a couple?" Grindelwald counters.
"Fair." Hadrian concedes, "Love and hate are very close."
"Yep." Grindelwald nods.
"Anyway, welcome to Malfoy Manor." Draco says, pushing open the door and standing to the side so Grindelwald can enter. "What would you like first? Food or clothes?"
"Uh, food." Grindelwald replies.
"Great, dining room is this way, there'll probably be some dinner left." Draco says, leading the way with Hadrian and Grindelwald beside him.

They push open the doors to show tables still with the remnants of dinner on them.
"Hadrian, you're back!" Blaise calls, standing up to greet them.
"Yep, Blaise this is Grindelwald. Grindelwald, Blaise." Hadrian introduces.
"Nice to meet you, hope you can help us. Is it really true that you dated Dumbledore and then he framed you for his deeds?" Blaise asks.
"Yep." Grindelwald confirms.
"Huh." Blaise looks at him for a moment before turning back to his food.

Suddenly a sharp sound shrieks through the air, causing everyone to look up.
"What's going on?" Runs around the room, as people turn to others in the hopes they know something.
"It's the border alarm, someone must be trying to get in." Draco says when Hadrian, Blaise and Grindelwald turn to him. Hadrian jumps up and runs outside, with his friends and Grindelwald following. When they get outside they see the shadows of people outside the gates. As they get closer, they can see that there are two people with a third slumped between them. Soon they are close enough to see the flaming red hair the two standing people have. Hadrian stalls, and the others follow his lead while Jormun raises his head to hiss at the figures.
"You don't have to go, I can, or I'm sure your parents will." Draco says softly, placing a hand on Hadrian's shoulder.
"No, it's fine, I need to do this." Hadrian says, drawing his wand and starting to walk forward.
"You don't need to do it alone." Draco says, catching up to walk with him.
"Yeah." Blaise says, joining them.
"Yeah, I'm just going to hang back here, I don't think seeing me will really help." Grindelwald says, staying where he is.
"Why are you here?" Hadrian calls, opening the gate enough to see that the Weasleys are Fred and George, he still can't make out who the person between them is, just that they have brown hair.
"Please, we need your help." One of them calls.
"We didn't know who else to come to." The other says.
"What do you want?" Hadrian says, his voice infused with ice. Then the person between them weakly lifts their head to look at him, revealing a beaten face that is just barely recognisable as Hermione's.
"Hadrian." She whispers but it somehow still carries. She falls forward. The twins catch her before she hits the ground.
"What happened?" Hadrian asks, moving towards them.
"Wee little Ronikins beat her." A twin says.
Disgust fills Hadrian's face, "Mobilicorpus." He says, causing Hermione to rise into the air. "Come with us." He tells the twins, turning and walking back to the Manor with Hermione floating in front.
"Hadrian?" Tom says as the group enters the grounds.
"Apparently Ron has been beating Hermione. The twins brought her here. Get someone who can heal well." Hadrian tells him, moving past him to the house.
"I can." Severus says, following them, " But try to find an actual doctor." He tells Tom.

Inside the house Hadrian lowers Hermione onto what was meant to be his bed, but he'd slept with Draco. Severus moves to stand beside her, "Brackium Emendo." He says, waving his wand over her body and there is an awful cracking sound as bones are set into their correct places. "Episky." He waves his wand again. The smaller wounds close and the many bruises across Hermione's body improve. "Vulnera Sanentur." This time the larger wounds improve, sewing themselves closed with each repition. "Ferula." Bandages appear over the wounds, providing a gentle, pain relieving pressure. Now done, Severus lowers his wand, "That's all I can do for now. She needs rest, and an actual doctor."
"Thank you." Hadrian says.
Severus gives his son a quick nod, "Of course." He turns to the Weasley twins, "Now you two, mins explaining what happened?"
They look at each other, "Well, a bit after Hadrian joined Slytherin, Ron and Hermione started dating." One begins.
"They seemed happy, so we were happy. But then, not long after Hadrian left, Hermione started missing breakfast." The one Hadrian was  to suspect was Fred says.
"And when she did appear, she moved stiffly, and always wore long clothes."
"We began to suspect something was up, so we asked her, and Ron, but they both said it was fine."
"But then we walked into Room beating her, earlier this evening."
"She wasn't trying to stop it, just seemed resigned."
"So we stepped in."
"We stopped Ron."
"Took a few hits for it too." George shakes out his arm, where Hadrian can see the beginning of a bruise.
"We took her here, we didn't trust anyone at Hogwarts." Fred continues.
"And we knew you would help."
"We promise we had no idea what Ron was doing, what our family was doing to you." Fred says, finishing their tale with an earnest plea.
"I'll believe you." Hadrian says, "Just because I know you wouldn't have stood by if you knew what was happening to Hermione. And you brought her here, so thank you."
"Of course." Fred says.
"Someone mind telling me what happened? And who the redheads and the fainting girl are." Grindelwald asks, appearing in the doorway.
"Um, what are you wearing?" George asks, laughter evident in his voice.
"And who are you?" Fred asks.
"Gellert Grindelwald. And it was the only clothes I could find." He shrugs his shoulders, which are covered with pale pink fleece.
"That's my mother's spare dressing gown." Draco says in a strangled voice, staring at Grindelwald, who is wearing a pale pink, fluffy, slightly tight robe.
"It's all I could find. And I was promised clothes." Grindelwald shrugs again.
"Is everything okay?" Tom calls, walking towards them. He stops when he sees one of the most feared Dark Wizards in a pink dressing gown. "Yep, not questioning that." He mutters. "I'm guessing your friends are staying the night Hadrian?" He sticks his head around the door frame to look into the crowded room.
Hadrian quickly looks at the twins for confirmation, then turns back to his father, "Yes please, father."
"Not here they aren't." Snape mutters.
Tom laughs at his mate, "I'll have two rooms prepared, and I'll tell the house elves to get some food for you."
"Thank you." The twins say in unison, slightly surprised at the Dark Lord being shot check and welcoming.
"It's no problem. Hadrian will show you to the dining hall, we'd better clear out before Severus gets mad." Tom turns to Grindelwald, "Will you come with me? I'll get you some better clothes, and then we can talk strategy."
"Okay." Grindelwald follows Tom. Everyone else follows Hadrian to the dining room, leaving a broken Hermione to heal under the caring gaze of the professor that has gained a reputation for not caring.

A/N: The song is Must Have Been The Wind by Alec Benjamin because the person realises the domestic violence occurring above him and tries to stop it/get the person to talk to him when she is claiming it isn't happening, which is pretty (not completely) similar to what the twins did.