A/N 1:

Happy 1 Year Anniversary To Me!
To celebrate, here is chapter one of my newest story; Lucius-Hermione-Draco!

All the thanks to Lunamionny for her being my alpha, beta, and Brit picker for this story. Her stories are amazing if you're looking for something to read.

"Hermione, you're dying," Nikki spoke plainly. Hermione had asked her healer to not sugar coat her diagnosis, but bloody hell. She could have coated it a little bit.

"How soon?" Hermione asked. She hadn't been sure which of her thousands of questions to ask first, but had decided knowing how long she had was a good place to start. Pulling a pen and notepad from her bag, she started to take notes.

"I can't give you an exact timeframe, but I think about three to six months at the most," Nikki replied. There was no pity on Nikki's face as she delivered the news, and Hermione was glad of it.

"Is there anything I can do?" If there was the slightest chance she could fight for her life, she was going to.

"Not that I know of. But if you find out what kind of curse was on the blade, maybe that would give us a direction to go in." Handing Hermione a piece of parchment, she spoke again. "Here is everything we found from your scan, in case you want to look at it."

Hermione stood, tucking her pen, notebook and paper in her bag. "Thank you, Nikki. I'll let you know if I find anything."

"Please do. Even if you aren't able to work out the curse, I'd like to see you in a month to see how you are doing and what our next steps are."

Apparating to a quiet alley off the King's Road, Hermione got her bearings before taking off towards the townhouse at the end of a nearby street. She had left St. Mungo's two hours ago. After going home and crying to the point of vomiting, she'd washed her face and decided she wasn't going to take her news lying down. She was a fighter and the hell if she wasn't going to find a way to fight this.

Slowly making her way up the steps at the front of the house, she knocked on the door. Almost instantly, a small elf appeared and gestured for her to enter.

"Hello, Miss Herms," she squeaked.

"Hello, Dibby. Is Ms Black home today?" Hermione asked.

"Hermione? Well, isn't this a surprise," Narcissa Black said as she walked into the entrance hall and greeted her.

"Hello, Narcissa."

"What can I do for you today?"

Narcissa had become good friends with Harry after she'd lied to save his life. As a result, Hermione and Narcissa had found themselves sharing many Sunday roasts together over the almost two years since the war had ended. Happy to have escaped death and imprisonment, Narcissa had wasted no time in divorcing Lucius, whom she had only married because her parents arranged it, and moving into an expensive townhouse in Chelsea. She'd told him she wanted to be free to spend her life with someone she loved, and hoped Lucius would find the same thing. She was currently dating a wealthy wizard from France named Phillipe. Even though they had spent time together, the two women weren't exactly friends, and Hermione had never visited her unannounced, or without Harry.

"I need your help. It has to do with my tourture at the Manor," Hermione stated matter-of-factly. She watched Narcissa tense at her words, but there was no point in beating around the bush when she only had a limited time to live.

"Of course. Dibby, please bring tea into the sitting room." Waving her forward, Narcissa led Hermione into a room off the hall. "Please, have a seat. I'll help you in any way I can."

"Thank you," Hermione said as she sat down. "As you know, Bellatrix carved into my arm when she was torturing me." Narcissa nodded for her to continue. "Well, I have never been able to get the wound to heal. It still opens and bleeds every few days. And, over the last few weeks, I've been getting sick. Fainting spells, vomiting, hair falling out, as well as a few other symptoms."

"Oh my dear girl." Narcissa pressed her hand to her chest as she listened. Dibby had brought in a tea service but it sat untouched between them.

"I went to St. Mungo's today and met with a few healers before finally talking to one that specializes in cursed wounds. After doing some tests, she has determined that the wound on my arm was done with a cursed blade and it's slowly killing me. I have already tried taking potions to alleviate the symptoms I mentioned, but nothing is helping. The healer told me that nothing will work. It's slowly eating away at my magical core. The healer has only given me a few months to live."

"Hermione, I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say. You said you need my help, but I'm not sure how to help you."

"I was wondering if you had any idea what kind of curse Bellatrix would have used on the blade, or any books in which she would have learnt of such dark magic? I'm hoping that if I find the curse, it can be neutralised."

"I'm not positive what curse she would have used," Narcissa replied, looking pensive. "Most likely it's a Black family curse, or a variant of it. If I had the blade, I might be able to help you, but Bella… lost it."

"I have it." Hermione reached into her beaded bag and pulled out a plastic box that contained the knife. "If you remember, she threw it at us when we escaped the Manor. It struck and killed your old house-elf, Dobby, and I kept it."

"If you leave it with me, I'll get to work on it right away. I may have to ask Harry if I can use the library at Grimmauld Place. I believe the Black family grimoires are still there. I also have a few boxes of Bella's things that I can look through. I'll send Dibby to you as soon as I have some answers."

"Thank you, Narcissa." Hermione felt a ray of hope, even though she knew it was potentially dangerous to do so. "I haven't told Harry yet. I need to go to see him next. I'll let him know you'll be contacting him."

The two women rose and moved towards the fireplace. As Hermione went to grab a handful of Floo powder, Narcissa stopped her. .

"We will find a way for you to fight this, Hermione."

"Thank you for agreeing to help me," Hermione said, before throwing the powder into the fireplace and calling out her destination.

"Hermione! What are you doing here?" Harry yelped as Hermione stepped through the Floo.

He jumped off the sofa, where he had been laying on top of the new Mrs Potter and kissing her rather enthusiastically..

"Hello, Harry. Hi, Pansy. Sorry to Floo in without warning," Hermione replied.

The unlikely pair had returned from their honeymoon the day before. They had started dating about a year and a half ago, when Narcissa had set them up. She'd claimed that, even though Pansy had been a blood fanatic who'd been willing to hand Harry over to Voldemort, the girl had changed since the war. Pansy had spent the summer after the Battle of Hogwarts with her cousin in Milan, who was obsessed with Muggle fashion and had shown the Pureblood witch how great Muggles could be.

Harry had only agreed to the date because he respected Narcissa and hadn't wanted to offend her. He had been pleasantly surprised by Pansy, finding her cutting wit hilarious – when it wasn't directed at him – and, before the night had ended, had asked for a second date. He had finally found someone that didn't care that he was 'The Boy Who Lived' or how much money he had. She had told him she was rich enough for the both of them.

Harry and Ginny had broken up before Ginny had returned to Hogwarts for her final year. When talking to Hermione before breaking things off with Ginny, Harry had confessed that he had obsessed over his love for Ginny during their time on the run. He'd placed her on such a high pedestal during those lonely nights that, when they'd reconnected, he was no longer in love with the real Ginny, but the one he had created in his mind. While he still cared deeply for the girl and wanted her friendship, he couldn't fall back in love with the real her. Ginny, heartbroken but determined, had returned to Hogwarts before starting a professional Quidditch career as a Chaser for the Holyhead Harpies.

"You know you're always welcome here," Harry said as he walked towards her and gave her a hug.

"It would be nice if you Apparated and knocked next time, Granger," Pansy huffed, smoothing her hair down as she sat up.

"Pansy, you know Hermione is welcome to come over anyway she wants." Harry turned to his wife.

"Well, then it's not our fault if she comes in while we're mid-snog, is it?" She glared at her husband.

"It's not like I haven't Flooed in to much worse than you two kissing," Hermione said. "At least I didn't have to see Harry's naked arse this time." That was an image Hermione would happily have lived the rest of her life without seeing.

"Not that you aren't welcome Granger, but what are you doing here?" Pansy asked. The two girls were actually friends, but Pansy still never called Hermione by her first name. It had taken Hermione a few months to get used to Pansy's brash way of speaking.

"I actually need to talk to you two about something serious," Hermione said, taking a seat on the armchair across from them. She proceeded to fill them in on what she had learned from the healers and the diagnosis she had been given.

Harry sat looking at her with his mouth open and tears in his eyes. Hermione had debated whether she should even tell him her terrible news; he had already lost so many loved ones in his short life. But there was no way she was going to have the strength to make it through the rest of her months alive without her best friend knowing the truth.

When Hermione had finished, there was an awful, stunned silence. Pansy was the first to break it. "So, what do we do? How do we fight this?"

"I just left Narcissa's. She's going to examine the blade and see if she can find out more about the curse so we can see if there's anything I can do," Hermione said.

"How did she get the knife? I thought it was destroyed after we buried Dobby," Harry asked.

"I took it from Shell Cottage. I don't know why exactly. I have carried it with me in my bag since," Hermione admitted.

"We'll fight this Hermione. Whatever you need from us, it's yours." Harry stood, crouched by her and wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm not going to hug you, but whatever I can do for you." Pansy had also risen from the sofa and patted her awkwardly on the back.

"Thank you. Thank you, both. Narcissa said she might come around to borrow some books from the old Black library." Hermione yawned. She had been losing her stamina little by little over the last few months and frequently had to take a nap around midday. "I need to go and lie down. I'll keep you updated."

"Okay," Harry said. "Have you told Ron yet?"

"Not yet. I'll do it this week though," Hermione replied. She wasn't sure she had the strength to tell Ron. They had remained friends after their failed relationship, a relationship which had lasted exactly three days. She loved him, but he was so emotional and she wasn't sure she could handle his reaction to her news. Now that he was a professional Quidditch player like Ginny, he was away from home a lot so she didn't see him as often as she would like. "Hopefully Narcissa will have some news for me before I talk to him."

Waving goodbye, she stepped into the fireplace and called out her home.

A/N 2:

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