DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN HARRY POTTER!!

Normal Life Doesn't Exist

Chapter 16

It was Poker night. Poker nights were a regular thing at the Death Eater headquarters but few people only actually got to play with Tom. That particular night, it was Tom and the Malfoys. Hermione lounged on a chaise behind the round table and read a book leisurely, smiling at their banter and blushing whenever they brought her up in conversation. Their ménage a cinq had been going on for several weeks and they were all completely at ease with sharing her amongst themselves. It wasn't always sex. Sometimes she walked through the gardens with Abraxas, or star-gazed with Draco, or had lunch with Lucius. True, she spent most of her time with Tom and the girls, but the Malfoys understood that family came first.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake! Hermione?" Tom called over his shoulder.

"What?"

"Will you shuffle the deck for us, love? We don't trust each other."

"What makes me so trustworthy?" She grinned, getting up and accepting the deck of cards from Draco.

"Love, we trust you. Otherwise you wouldn't be anywhere near my cock." Abraxas joked, touching her arse as she walked round the table, shuffling calmly.

"Anyway!" She cleared her throat. "What's this about finding the Order's hideout?"

"They moved after they escaped. Good sense, I suppose. They knew we knew where they were. Going back would've been an easy meal." Tom explained, sipping his whiskey.

"Have you had any clues to their new whereabouts?"

"Snape was made Secret Keeper." Lucius said glumly. "Just like Dumbledore. He's onto Severus, he must be. Otherwise he'd never do it. He knows that when you're a Secret Keeper, you can't reveal the location under any circumstances. Snape can't tell us where they are and they know it."

Hermione hummed thoughtfully, still shuffling. "Is there any loophole whatsoever with Secret-Keeping?"

"We're looking into it. Snape's offered to tell us anyway, despite his life being the cost." Abraxas explained, tidying his pile of Galleons.

"Snape, always the self-sacrificing bastard." Draco mused, downing the last of his brandy.

"Hmmm...Secret-Keeping...Death..." Hermione muttered, walking round the table, still shuffling whilst her lovers followed her with their eyes.

"What are you on to, love?" Tom asked, leaning his back against the chair as she passed him.

"With Secret-Keeping a location, you take an Unbreakable Vow to never reveal the location in question. Is it that you can't directly reveal the location, or you mustn't let anyone know?" She asked no one in particular.

"I love it when you talk technical." Draco winked at her.

She glared. "Shut up."

"You can't directly say." Tom said.

"So we could ask him questions and he could give us signs about if we're right or wrong(?)"

"We could try. I'd like to test the theory first; I can't afford to lose my Potions Master due to not checking first."

"Okay, then. Tomorrow, get a lower ranker to take a Vow and then we'll try it out. Whose play?" She asked, dealing the cards.

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The following night, Hermione and the girls were in the bathroom. Her children were in the bath, washing each other while Hermione sat on the counter reading them a story. She found that reading to them stimulated them into washing each other because she paused at the exciting parts and wouldn't continue until she saw that they were washing thoroughly. That night, they'd chosen 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.

"...but she could not even get her head through the doorway." She read in her best voice as Merope lathered Jane's arms using a soft sponge. "'And even if I could get my head through', thought poor Alice, 'it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish-'"

Someone knocked on the main door. Hermione paused in interest and smiled to herself when she heard Abraxas' voice speak with Tom quietly.

"What about the test on the Vow?" there was a moments silence, a shuffle of parchment and then Tom sighed contentedly. "As long as he never directly answered and used the signals we appointed he answered all the questions...Okay, tell Snape that we're going to go ahead with it on Monday at noon."

"Yes, milord." There was another little hush and then Tom laughed softly, said something like, 'go on' and then footsteps approached the bathroom. There was a little knock and when Hermione permitted him to enter, Abraxas opened the door and smiled when he saw the woman he...Loved? Did he love her? He loved her in their seventh year but that had been nearly sixty years previous and he didn't know if he was allowed to love her.

"Hello, Hermione."

"Hello, Abraxas." She greeted softly.

He looked to the bathtub and smiled gently at the girls. "Hello, children."

"Hello, Mr Malfoy." They chorused. Merope wasn't that keen on any of the Malfoy men because they spent so much time with Mummy and therefore she couldn't spend as much time with her or her twin. But Jane liked Abraxas and Draco - Lucius was too snooty - because she thought their hair was pretty.

"Mummy's reading us a story, Mr Malfoy." Jane declared happily.

"Ahh, what is she reading?" Hermione held up the book. "Oh, I like that story." In truth, he'd never heard of it as it was a muggle story.

"Will you read with us, Mr Malfoy?"

"I suppose I could, if mummy doesn't mind." Hermione shrugged and handed Abraxas the book, pointing to where they were on the page. "...'Alice led the way, and the whole party swam to the shore.'" He closed the book with finality. "Well, that's chapter two!"

"Go on, go on!" The girls cried happily.

"Not tonight, girls, bedtime." Hermione announced. She pulled the plug out of the bath and heaved Merope out of the tub. "Abraxas, if you could get Jane."

He was instantly nervous. Reading to little girls is one thing but getting them out of the bath, drying them off, dressing them and putting them to bed is another. But he did it anyway. He quickly wrapped a towel around the girl and carried her into the main room. Tom watched him with an amused but knowing look as Abraxas pulled on Jane's pyjama top backwards. He corrected it when the girl pointed it out and managed to get her in the right clothes in a few minutes. Hermione smiled at him as she dressed Merope and put her in bed. Jane followed a moment later.

Tom leant against the archway of the little off-room. "Abraxas, we have an Inner Circle meeting."

"Of course." He kissed Hermione's cheek and the men left.

"Mummy?"

"Yes?"

"Who's that?" Jane pointed to the window.

The face of Harry Potter looked into the room.