The Necromancer's Bride

Hermione studied the sooty streets of the village at the edge of the woods from behind her hiding place. If one looked in her direction all they would see would be a pile of scrap metal, behind which was hidden a young woman... thin and malnourished, her once luscious brown hair that hung almost to her waist had been snipped to her shoulders and her once vibrant walnut skin now a dull brown from the lack of food and clean water.

The Order had been defeated, Hermione had just barely managed to flee when Voldemort's forces grew in power. She didn't know who was alive and who wasn't, had no way of getting touch with anyone and had no strength for magic. Everything was being monitored by Voldemort's forces, she had tried to steal an ancient radio but had almost gotten caught.

Since the Dark side had won anyone deemed unfit was being hunted to the ground, she knew they were looking for her. Her best bet was to stay low to the ground, let them believe she was dead. But unfortunately hiding in a tiny abandoned hut in the wilds of the Yorkshire moors wasn't ideal for her companion.

Right before everything had gone to shit Hermione had been grabbed by Remus Lupin and handed a sleeping Teddy before being told in a desperate voice to keep him safe... that was just after Hermione saw her mentor and former teacher falling to the ground under a killing spell.

Hermione barely recalled getting out of Hogwarts, her oldest memory of that night...waking up with a squalling baby Teddy clutched to her chest and her hands and legs slashed and bloody.

Merlin...she was so hungry, she had been sneaking out at night to try and find food for herself and baby, they had managed to survive thus far...just the two of them for nearly six months. But she could feel the weight of her luck running out.

Hermione wasn't normally a fatalist but today she could feel a certain chill in the air.

Hermione had put a charm on herself and her little charge, thankfully little Teddy was secured to her back in a little cloth pouch... fast asleep. As dangerous as it was having him outside, she couldn't leave a six-month-old baby by himself in an abandoned hut... especially without heat or a proper bed.

But Hermione was feeling apprehensive, for it being a Saturday the small village of Cumbria was silent... she normally counted on a crowd to be able to slip into her invisible glamour and take whatever food she could. In fact she and Teddy relied on Saturday market days so much because it was their only source of food.

Stripped of her abilities to do magic Hermione Granger was as resourceful as she could be but being on the run, starved and beaten down she was in a painful dilemma. Many nights when little Teddy wouldn't stop crying she would curl up into a foetal ball...sobbing and asking for redemption from this painful life.

The grey skies warned her that soon an icy rain would begin. She had no time, even though her instincts were buzzing on high alert she was so hungry that she had to get some food.

Her heart was palpitating, something was very wrong...her senses chanted 'get out-get out-get-out' but she was so hungry...so damn hungry... she had only eaten a stale bun since yesterday.

"We've been looking for ya...ya stinkin' mudblood cunt." Came a harsh voice suddenly. Her body flew into fight or flight mode but she knew, she knew her glamour was barely holding... he couldn't be sure it was her.

Hermione felt the cold, stinking breath of the Tracker on the back of her neck.

No...no it couldn't be, she had run all the way to the wilds of Yorkshire. Surely, they couldn't have caught her here. She had been careful, no accidental magic, no contact with anyone she knew for the past two years. She had done everything in her power to stay hidden and alive.

"Ya deaf bitch. I'm sayin' summat." She could smell his rancid body, the dirty smell of sweat and unwashed man.

She didn't have the strength to run and she knew that this Tracker wasn't working alone.

Hermione turned slowly, hoping to brazen it out...her heart continued to chant painfully behind her ribs...danger...danger.

Adopting the thick local accent, she bent her head.

"I'm the wrong lass, ye ain't looking for me. I've a sister...a sister who lives here." She added for emphasis.

"Move..fuck...move you fucking moron." She heard an alarmingly familiar voice behind the Tracker. A voice she had once heard in the halls of Hogwarts...now almost two years ago.

She hadn't really paid attention to that voice, refusing to think of the reasons why but she knew who it belonged to.

Blaise Zabini...

No!

She thought, tamping that down immediately because that would mean it was over. For her and little Teddy.

But sure enough like he was riding in on the cape of death himself came Blaise Zabini... dark and as handsome as the devil himself. Hopefully that wasn't an indication of what was to come in her future for being unable to fulfil the last wish of someone who had died protecting her.

She was in a word...absolutely fucked.

"Miss. Granger..." smiled the grim reaper, "I believe we have been looking for you."

...