Winds of Desire

An Almost Lethal Interrogation

A few weeks since Hermione and Draco's fight passes and Draco awakes in the morning with a start. His mum looks down at him with her dark eyes at his bedside in a glare. "Draco, we need to talk, now!" She tells him.

"What about?" He wonders, sitting up in his bed to look at her. There's panic in her eyes as her pupils are huge as if she is scared. Narcissa has never came into his room like this unless he has granted her permission.

"We have visitors and they are concerned and want to speak with you. Don't worry I won't let them hurt you, son. Come downstairs at once, please before they come up here," demands Narcissa of him.

"They?" Draco asks with a frown, he can only guess who they mean. But aren't they all in Azkaban? No... It can't be who he thinks it is.

Nervousness fills Draco's stomach at what is waiting for him downstairs. How can he not be scared? This is what he has feared ever since he has started being interested in Hermione. His mum is not one to stop people from coming into the household, no matter who they are.

How did they escape? Am I the reason? Draco wonders to himself.

Draco sends his mum out so he can get dressed and then walks down the stairs to meet her in the drawing room. To his horror he sees some of the old Death Eaters he recognizes staring at him from the long black table where they had their last meeting with Voldemort.

The lights are dimmed and there are only about ten of them to his fortune, he fears the whole lot has broken out just to come torment him about Hermione; luckily that is not the case. The ones who were captured and sent to Azkaban that had been in hiding after recently breaking out are all sitting in front of him. His father is not one of them.

The Carrows are the closest to the seat in which he is signaled over to sit in, siblings Amycus and Alecto. Alecto Carrow's husband had died in the wizarding war so he is not present. Blaise Zabini with his father sits near the end of the table and another whom he doesn't recognize sits by his mum, he looks a little like Dolohov but he can't be sure. This feels like a horrible flash back of Draco's old life, like a night mare. All ten of them stare seriously into Draco's eyes as his heart palpitates but he feels very confident and knows he can't let them break him.

Alecto Carrow speaks first, standing up on her ugly black heels and walking toward him, reminding Draco of his late sister Bellatrix. "We are happy to see you again Draco, we recently broke out of Azkaban. I am quite sure they don't even know yet except for the few guards that discovered it because of Amycus' lovely memory charm. I expect the most of the rest of us will break out soon and there are so many of us that the guards probably won't miss our presence. We are here because we are a concerned family and have been wondering if it is true you are dating a mudblood?"

Draco looks her dead in the eyes which are a threatening black. "Yes, it is true," Draco asserts, glaring right back at her without any sense of fear even though his stomach is in knots.

"Isn't she Potter's best friend and was to be married to that blood traitor Weasley?" Her brother, Amycus asks in disgust two seats away from Draco.

"She is no longer is involved with Ronald Weasley and not even much with Harry Potter," Draco answers them in a threatening voice.

"That's not what I saw!" Grunts Blaise Zabini, smirking at him.

"Shut up Blaise, what you said is rubbish! Don't even speak to me for you have betrayed our friendship!" Draco spits to his ex- best friend in anger. Blaise's father glared at Draco threateningly.

"Is she really pregnant with your child? And the child will be half-blood?" Alecto asks in disgust, pacing back and forth near Draco's seat as if she will pounce on him any moment.

"Yes, the baby is my child. We slept together and she is my girlfriend so nothing is wrong with that. There's also nothing wrong with my child being half-blood!" Draco says rolling his eyes. "Didn't this end in the past with the war?" Draco snarls at the group, getting up and slamming his chair into the table.

"You are not a traitor, Draco Malfoy!" Blaise's father shouts at Draco. "You are Lucius's son, and he will be very disappointed in you for this!"

"I guess I am a traitor. I am not leaving the one I love because of this stupid and old, useless rubbish you lot still have going on. Voldemort's dead, the war's over! Get that through your ruddy thick heads, he isn't here to protect you and you can't do anything or you will be put back into Azkaban! I am dating a muggle-born get over the facts of it and piss off! And screw my father and the worthless man he is!" With that Draco walks out of the drawing room and out the front door, apparating before anyone can stop him.

When he is gone, the Carrows and Dolohov put down their wands, which they were about to use to kill Draco out of anger. Narcissa gasps and yells at them. "Not my son! He doesn't mean it, I assure you! Please believe me, he hasn't been right since Lucius has been incarcerated and this phase of his will pass."

"Lucius will want to hear about this at once," Dolohov hisses at Narcissa.

"My son can love who he likes if she ends up being the one he loves. Draco is his own person and I never had that choice but I am letting him!" Narcissa screams back at them.

"Yes, but he is not a part of us anymore. Draco must be killed, or banned," Alecto tells her with a hand on Narcissa's shoulder. "We certainly don't want to kill Draco, we care for him as though we are all family despite our master being dead."

"Well, Alecto, he isn't a part of this anymore anyway. The war has changed him greatly for I have never seen such change in my son as I have in the past two years," Narcissa tells them, her eyes filling with tears.

"Enough! He will not be a Death Eater any longer if we ever get our lot going again, especially if he has a half-blood child and a mudblood of a girlfriend! We do not want to hear the unnecessary details, Narcissa, spare us!" Dolohov yells with venom in the words he speaks. "Your son is a disgrace to our kind like your cousin Sirius was and your sister Andromeda still is! Apparently it runs in the family!"

_______

Draco knocks on Ginny and Harry Potter's door, still trembling from the anger the Death Eaters provoked into him. Harry answers, looking to Draco in shock as his face is as white as the curtains in the sitting room. "Malfoy, are you here to see Hermione? Are you okay?"

"Yes, but Potter, I want you to know that the Death Eaters are attempting to be at large again. I was put on trial today just for being with Hermione. They are non-threatening and weak, but are still there. Apparently they broke out of Azkaban again!" Draco states to Harry breathlessly, not believing he just turned the people he used to call family in and it didn't bother him a bit.

Harry blinks and just stares at Draco. "Erm, thanks mate for the information. I will report it once I get back to work, do you know who they are?"

Draco pauses, thinking, he didn't even really pay attention to the faces. "The Carrows, that's all I remember, and the Zabinis, Dolohov, they are the only ones I recognized."

Did Potter just call me mate? Draco thinks to himself as Harry invites him to sit on the sitting room's couch as he goes to fetch Hermione.

Draco notices by the smell that Ginny is cooking pot-roast and vegetables for them for lunch and it smells amazing.

Hermione walks out of her bedroom with sweat pants and a loose t-shirt on. Her belly bulging out more than ever as Draco has not seen her since their fight as he wanted to give her space.

"Hi Draco, what brings you here?" She asks walking toward him, not smiling even though she is hiding that she is happy to see him.

"Hey Hermione, we need to talk," Draco tells her, standing up to hug her but she rejects him.

"Okay," Hermione agrees, barely looking at him. The couple walks onto the front porch, funny this was where she always ends up talking, and they sit down on the rocking bench.

"Hermione I love you, and it doesn't matter what Blaise thinks or the rest of the ex-Death Eaters. I can care less, I am done with them, and I have been since the war. It just took today to realize it for sure. I am so sorry I haven't talked to you in the past month."

"Its fine, but I am just happy you didn't get into trouble and I hope that you really have changed. And what do you mean? Are they out of Azkaban?" Hermione asks, her eyes fill with worry.

"I am changed for good, I swear. And yes, they are out of Azkaban, some of them just about ten. They came and interrogated me this morning. I got up and left and the Carrows and Dolohov stried to kill me but my mum screamed at them as I was leaving. They were too late anyway because I apparated after telling them Voldemort's gone and to basically grow up," Draco tells Hermione, feeling a bit proud of himself. Before, he never would have stood up to some of Voldemort's most loyal followers such as the Carrows and Dolohov. But Voldemort is dead, what does he have to worry about?

"Well, I am proud of you, you aren't just saying you've changed," Hermione praises, she then gives him a quick kiss and smiles, truly happy to be with him again.

"I was asked to join the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office the same day we took a break, Arthur Weasley asked me," Hermione tells Draco with a shrug.

"Excellent! Are you going to take it?" He wonders, knowing this would bring more money for the baby even though he is rich as it is.

"Erm I am not so sure. I may get really tired because I help the Aurors out too and I will only get bigger. I may just wait until after we have the baby. Or maybe I will finish my half-way done Auror training and just be an Auror after the baby's born," Hermione tells him, looking down at her growing bigger by the day belly and placing her hands around it.

Draco looks down at it too. "Wow, I still can't believe that's my baby in there," gushes Draco with a smile.

"Next week we will get to find out if it's a boy or girl, I already think I know what the baby is though. I keep dreaming it's a girl," Hermione giggles. They hear a sharp crack not far from them in the middle of Hermione's sentence.

"I am so happy for you guys," Drawls a deep voice in an obviously mocking way. Ron Weasley steps onto the porch, eyeing Malfoy as he does.

"What are you doing here Malfoy?" Ron asks with narrowing eyes.

"He's my boyfriend, Ron. Did you forget?" Hermione sneers.

"No, not hardly. Oh and I am sorry for kissing you a few weeks ago. That must have been a mistake if you guys are back together and you kissed me back!" Ron says snidely to Hermione, glancing at Malfoy and then walking in the house fighting the urge to throw a curse at Malfoy.

"Did you really kiss him?" Draco asks in a low, angry tone, his gray eyes darkening in jealousy.

"He kissed me, but then I told him to go away! He's so immature for bringing that up, it was nothing," says Hermione desperately, she can't take Draco being mad at her again.

He surprisingly isn't mad. "I was un-necessarily mean to you that day and you were hurt and not thinking straight. Especially because he heard we went on a break and came here to try and get you back. Of course, do you expect any more from him?"

Hermione nodded and then leans in to kiss him. "Thanks for not being mad, because I really was not thinking clearly the day he kissed me. I thought you were going back into your old ways and that made me terrified."

Draco hugs her to him, "Never. I am staying the new man I am, and I will care for you and my child in the right way. I will never be anything like my father. I will never question it again after this morning, besides I think they'll ban me anyway."

"Draco, you were never like your father and never will be," Hermione whispers in his ear and then kisses it.

Ron watches from inside through the window. "Damnit, I was for sure that would work."

"What?" Asks Harry questionably.

"I told Hermione I am sorry I kissed her, and that ferret git isn't even mad at her!"

"Did you really kiss her?" Harry asked.

Ron nods and smiled. "That day we went out by the pond after her and Draco went on a break, yes."

"Oh Ronald! Way to mess with her mind!" Ginny scolds him, stomping her foot in anger.

"Sorry, I meant the kiss Ginny. She did kiss me back, I wasn't lying," Ron admits, frowning and going away from the window to start getting food.

"She's pregnant and hormonal and you just mess with her like she's a dog or something!" Ginny yells at him.

"Maybe he is not such a bad guy-" Ron whispers to Harry who just joined him at the buffet line, ignoring his sister's comment.

Harry shrugs. "Just be friends with her again already! Just friends!"

"That's how it's going to have to be, but I can't stop loving her," Ron says miserably, looking at Hermione again who is smiling up at Draco happily. "I want that back," He mumbles as he watches still.

"That's life sometimes, Ron. Do you think my life turned out how I expected it? You are with Lavender, try and remember that and try and make it happen. Though not in your office at work, because you both are about to be suspended for that nonsense by the other Auror members!"

Ron laughs. "Whatever mate, I have to try to make it somehow."

"Well that doesn't mean you have to 'try and make it' in my Auror office!" laughs Harry.

"Well, then we might have another person pregnant, won't we?" jokes Ginny. Ron just glares at her.
_________

Hermione grabs Draco's hand and leads him inside to the food line making it obvious that she is not bothered by Ron's comment outside. Ron is trying his best to ignore her now as well.

"You should bring Lavender over sometime," Hermione tells Ron mockingly as he passes her to go to the table. He gives her a deathly glare and sits next to Ginny and James.

"Enough about her, Harry and Hermione! I don't want to speak of her right now!" Ron yells at them.

"But Weasley, you have the guts to kiss my girlfriend? Why don't you want to talk about her? Don't you owe some kind of apology to her for kissing another man's woman?" Draco snarls.

Ron stands up and pokes his wand into Draco's cheek. Harry is too fast and pushes Ron away. "Quit! Or I will have you suspended from work again!"

"Fine, but this damn git deserves it! He seems to forget she was my fiancée first, when she hated him!" Ron bellows, hating the fact that Harry is his boss right now.

"Shut up Weasleby! You screwed that up, didn't you?" Draco provokes back.

Ron lunges for Draco but Harry got the best of him again.

"Ron, Malfoy, STOP!" Harry yells at the both of them.

"Fine!" Ron screams back. Draco just rolls his eyes and takes a bite of roast.

The group finishes their dinner and Ron is trying to leave right after his last bite following saying bye to Ginny and Harry and glaring at Hermione and Draco. But Harry insists they leave to the Ministry at once to sort out finding the Death Eaters that broke out of Azkaban again and Ron agrees to go.

_______

The only reason why Harry isn't worried is because they have no one to answer to anymore now that Voldemort is gone and therefore is not too much of a threat. But they need to take care of this as soon as possible before more Death Eaters escape.

Hermione doesn't care Ron rudely left without a word to her. She is hacked off with him for mentioning the kiss in front of Draco. He has no right to do that, especially if he is with Lavender Brown again and courting her right in front of Hermione's face. She feels that the little friendship that they had built again was torn down when they kissed and tonight when Ron faced Draco again.

The table is silent most of the rest of dinner until Ginny decides to strike up a conversation about the Death Eaters who were at Draco's that morning. Draco tells the girls the whole story, and Ginny is impressed.

"You said that in front of them for Hermione? To Alecto and Amycus Carrow?" Ginny asks him in awe, remembering the two lethal Death Eaters from her sixth year in Hogwarts.

"Yes, I did because I will not let them control my love life too, the war is over," Draco states seriously as Hermione beams at him.

"Malfoy, that's impressive! Hermione, you must have caught a good one," Ginny laughs, winking at her best friend.

Draco smiles at Ginny's praise of him half-heartedly, but what is mostly on his mind is that his father might be coming home soon if Potter doesn't stop the break-out. If Lucius comes out of Azkaban, he will probably kill Draco himself.

"It will be okay, Harry will catch them. Don't worry he always does as he is the best Auror they have ever had," Hermione says about her best friend, noticing her boyfriend's worried face and wanting to reassure him.

Draco sure hopes so. But he has never been on Potter's side before so he doesn't know what to expect. He never imagined himself being on his father's side again though, he knows that much. But he has a terrible feeling he will have to make that choice again soon... If he has a choice.