With you in my Arms

73. At 12 noon, not 12 midnight.

iwillneverbeyours - this chapter is for you!

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Kingsley Shaklebolt sat in his office and wondered for the umpteens time who the young man was whom he had earlier collected from the Leaky Cauldron. This strange lad had been able to see the entrance which meant he was a wizard. Then again he had no wand, no idea about wizarding culture and seemed to think he was going to be offered a job in the Auror Office. Though there was no recollection he could muster as to who it had been that had given him the letter. A nasty suspicion had been lingering in the back of the Minister's mind the whole morning.

It didn't really add up, but then again it did, in a very warped around the corner kind of way. If he assumed for a moment Lucius Malfoy had met the unsuspecting wizard and had somehow managed to convince him to come to Britain, this evil bastard of a Death Eater would have made sure his victim didn't remember anything. Which only left the question, what exactly had been done to him and how easy would it be to restore him to his own self again.

He sighed. For some strange reason the world had been turned into one big adventure playground for the wicked and deranged since last July. Wouldn't it be nice to have a normal week for a change? He couldn't remember when he last had a normal week.

There was a knock on his door.

"Come in."

It was Henri Shaw.

"Henri." Kingsley motioned him to come closer and take a seat.

There was a long stretch of silence.

"What has happened?"

The head of the Auror Office had suddenly a very guarded expression on his face.

"What?" a silent frown was the answer.

"He's gone."

It took a moment before the head of the British wizarding community realised who was gone.

"Do I want to know what happened?"

"Depends."

"On what?"

"If we assume that our least favourite guest of the Azkaban hospitality is behind this, Merlin only knows whom he was send after."

The expressions flicking over the dark features of his boss told Henri Shaw that he might as well explain what they already had been able to establish before their guest went AWOL.

"Wilson was able to determine that the lad has magical blood. His father or mother must have been witch or wizard, but his abilities are so weak that he would have never been admitted to Beaubaton. Even Dumbledore would have been having a hard time to admit him to Hogwarts and he allowed some rather unusual pupils over the years."

A concerned frown was the only comment.

"His magical background allowed him into our society, but due to his lack of knowledge he stuck out like the proverbial sore thumb. I'm not sure, if Lucius was counting on exactly this fact, if he had been hoping or maybe even planning for us to bring his latest victim into the Ministry which would enable him to do whatever he has been instructed to do."

The concerned frown was joined by a creased forehead.

"I don't know how that lad managed to get out from under Wilson's watchful eye, but he did. I've alerted every single auror and there is a warrant out for his arrest. The Department for Magical Law Enforcement has been informed on the quiet and I've instructed Mulligan to make sure he doesn't let his witch out off his sight."

"What about young Malfoy and his bride? Do you have anybody assigned to their protection?"

"Potter is going to owl them with an invite to lunch. They're supposed to come in and collect him."

Kingsley didn't say the words that would have conveyed his surprise. His expression made it clear what he thought.

"This way I can put a trace on them without having to bother explaining it to any of the three."

"What does Potter think, why he's asking them for lunch then?"

"I've told him that he'll be the one to have an eye on them until we have established that our fugitive isn't still lurking in the Ministry."

"Bit lame, isn't it? Didn't he question it?"

"Potter is concerned enough as it is for his friend. That girl and the emotional attachment he has to her will always be his weak spot."

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"Draco! Harry said, we're to meet him at 12 noon, not 12 midnight."

Hermione stood in the entrance hall of their Edinburgh home and was waiting for her husband to finally deem himself presentable enough to go and meet her friend for lunch.

Moments later the wizard she was waiting for came strolling down the stairs. A big smirk on his face. She frowned. There couldn't be any good reason for him to smirk in this way. He only ever wore this particular... her thoughts went off course as he slowly pulled her flash against his body, wrapping his arms around her.

"You love to wait for me, my little witch." he breathed into her ear, feeling her shiver.

"I like to be punctual as well."

He bit the soft skin of her neck. Which was rewarded with a stifled moan just as he had hoped. Inhaling her scent he let himself drift off to past moments when she had allowed him to hold and cherish her. The whole affair with Blaise and Ginny had been a rather heavy reminded as to how lucky he was being able to hold the girl he loved right in this moment. How easily could she have dismissed him and his overfull heart all those months ago. How easily could she have broken his heart. How easily could his future have been devoid of his mother, his beloved witch and the son he was so looking forward to finally be able to cradle in his arms.

Soft lips barely touching his cheek made him look at the girl before him. She smiled, but there was a big question mark in her big, brown eyes. He sighed. These eyes would be his undoing, every time.

"A Knut for your thoughts?"

He kissed her forehead before answering.

"I've just been thinking about how lucky I am to have you here by my side" his voice was soft but filled with emotions, "You could have chosen not to trust me and let me standing."

They both knew that neither of them would have found the happiness they had discovered with each other, if events had taken a different course. Hermione kissed him lightly.

"But I did chose to see what..., " she hesitated. Should she say that she had been prepared to hex him with the worst spells she knew, if he had done anything she didn't want him to do? Or that she had been somehow fascinated by the fact of him coming after her at all. She would have never expected him to do that.

His lips brushed hers. "You were wanting to know, if the jerk you knew could hold it together long enough for a conversation without slipping back into his spiteful ways maybe."

Her eyebrows rose. "I wouldn't have thought of you as a jerk."

His eyebrows followed suit. "You wouldn't have?"

"No. By then you were just some guy that I had to contend with for one more night before never having to see him ever again."

His eyes scanned her face. She would have gone of into a happy life whereas he would have had to come to terms with the fact that the girls wanting anything to do with him in the future would only be interested in his money or standing in society. Not one of them would have been interested in him as a person. He had done too much damage with his choices in the past. It might not have been Azkaban for him, but what would have been called his life wouldn't have been that much better.

Draco pulled her tight and buried his face into her hair.

Hermione was wondering, if he would ever be able to just live his life with her without reminding himself of what might have been. But maybe he was able to be as gentle, caring and loving only because he had realised what he might have otherwise been facing. She reckoned that it would have been a life of prowling the bars and hooking up with a cheap girl every day of the week. Though it wouldn't have provided him with what he was really looking for, somebody who looked over his past, somebody interested in him as a person not just the embodiment of riches and power, somebody who truly loved him.

"Wasn't it you, my delicious one, who was on about us being late and who is now unable to tear herself away from my body and the pleasures it..."

She slapped his arm, laughing.

"You exploit me being in love with you, that's..."

His mouth covered hers before she could finish the sentence.