1 August, 2026

Six days later, after a rough session of sex, rather than recovering and hopping off to the shower as usual, the Intendant stares at the too-white ceiling far above their heads for a long time in silence. Rose remains still next to him and waits, nervous as to this new behaviour.

Starving herself for several days didn't stop her illness, and when no flu-like symptoms appeared over the intervening days to corroborate disease as the likely candidate... well, she knows what that means. The question remains: who is the father of the child she now carries? Is it her ex-lover or Draco? That thought has driven her fair mad all day.

She's sure the house-elf has told her Master by now about the bouts of morning sickness, and she believes this is the reason for her captor's current brooding. How will he react? Will he kill her now, or worse, give her back to Scorpius?

He gets up, crosses the room, unconcerned for his nudity, and reaches into the inner pocket of his robe where he keeps his wand. He withdraws it and turns it over in his hand, contemplating his inner demons.

This is it, then. He is summoning the nerve to kill her. Her heart slows, her mind accepts, and her courage flares.

Rose gets to her feet beside the bed, refusing to face her death like a coward. She lifts her chin as he approaches, wand aimed at her. He does not immediately strike, however. There is a profound pause instead as they stare at one another - she with forced bravado, he with calculation.

"You're not her," he tells her, his silver grey eyes glimmering with frustration. "You don't smell like her. You don't taste like I remember her tasting. You don't even feel like her when I'm inside you. I know you're not your mother." His wand slightly trembles before her face. "But... I can't help but wish you were."

Rose's fire fades at the sound of regret in his words.

"I tried to pretend you were, but there's no replacing her," he murmurs. "Not ever."

His wand arm drops.

Shocked, Rose can only stand stock-still, her mind not comprehending his motivation.

Before she can think to take advantage of his loss in concentration, he has turned and put his wand back into the inner pocket of his robes, and is dressing. "You're to eat everything the elf brings you from now," he instructs her, his voice returning to the cold, commanding tone it always wears before and after their sex sessions. As he slips his trousers up over his naked hips, and zips up, he looks at her. "I won't have my child denied its life by your stubbornness."

His child? How can he be sure it's his?

As if reading her thoughts, he gives her a flat, grim smile. "The same day you were brought here to the Manor, my son was rendered impotent by a spell I doubt he even felt was cast upon him. It happened at the same moment that you were being Silenced." He chuckles, and it is a dark, mocking sound."Pardon my amusement, but the irony of that should not be lost upon you when I tell you the spell was done verbal-less and wandless - the two things my son was so worried you capable of, Rose. In the moment he took away your ability to leave him, he lost the ability to have you in the way he wanted." Staring off into the distance, he smirks, and it is a bitter, biting thing. "'There will be no Malfoy half-breed spawn in the world.' That's what he said. Bet he didn't expect this, though. Not from me. The bastard."

His words are like angry bees in her ears. Anger fires through her veins. If only she had a voice, she would be screaming at him for putting her in this position. She didn't want to be pregnant again, especially not by a Malfoy! Curling her hands into fists, she glares at him, angry tears this time wavering in her eyes. He watches her even as he slips the rest of his clothing back into place, but there is no counter to the spitting hatred in her expression. He remains as icy as ever, as emotionless as a serpent.

"Despise me all you want," he tells her, "but you will not destroy the life within you. Not like you did with my son's child. My elf will ensure it. Of that, you can be certain."

With that, he turns and leaves.

The table lamp she throws at him in a fit of rage hits the closed door and shatters, but he is gone by then. It is too late to do him any damage.

X~~~~~X

15 August, 2026

Two weeks later, Scorpius finds out where she's been taken and all hell breaks loose.

Rose knows this only because Draco rushes into her room very early one morning, when it is still dark outside, and in his hands he has a travelling cloak for her. He commands her get up and get dressed as quickly as possible, requiring his elf to aid in her getting ready. He then instructs his servant to hold Scorpius off for as long as she can give them, but not to kill him. Of course, this means the little creature will die, for Rose knows her ex-lover is unforgiving, and has no regard for the welfare of house-elves.

"Stay close to me," he warns her as he grabs her wrist and tugs her towards the door. "He's so angry that he just may murder you now. I'll do what I can to protect you."

She wants to ask where he is taking her as he drags her from his room to one across the hall, but the Silencing Charm still prevents her from making any verbal noises. The Muffling Charm he casts on their feet keeps their footsteps from being heard as well.

Hidden behind a bookshelf in this side room is a staircase leading down. She and Draco hurry down it as the shelf slides back into place behind them. Down they go for at least two stories until they come to a door. Tapping out a pattern on the stones to the left of the wall opens the portal. They scurry out and into the side yard, closest to the tree line, running all out through the open space between to reach the safety of cover.

Rose's hearts pounds in fear and in excitement. Fear because of Scorpius possibly tracking them, excitement because she is finally free of that blasted Manor and after months, can feel the wind once more upon her face.

The Intendant guides them with wand at the ready and with a sure foot through the woods, despite the fact that only the moon illuminates their path, as he risks no spell for light. Through the filter of the trees, his platinum hair is like a beacon, and she worries it will give them away if they are being followed. She has heard nothing behind them, but that means little when dealing with Death Eaters, she knows.

They travel this way for a good twenty minutes before reaching the edge of the trees and coming to a meadow. Draco's steps slow, then stop. Rose glances around his dark, towering form to see what has waylaid them. Even in the moonlight, she would know her mother's form anywhere. The woman's soft voice confirms her identity.

"I came as you instructed, Malfoy. Now, where is she?"

Draco turns his body and stares down at Rose. In the dim light from above, his eyes are cast in shadow.

"The special fertility potion you took would have guaranteed a male child, so when he's ten years old, give this to my son for me," he bids her, handing her a piece of parchment that has been rolled and bespelled. "Tell him I'm sorry... for all of it."

Surprised by the tenderness in his tone, she glances up again. His face is so much softer in the dawn. In the lines that crease his eyes - the only physical evidence of his middle age - Draco Malfoy's ice cracks for the first time. There is regret and an acceptance of death in the tremulous smile he gives her.

A rustle in the grass signals her mother stepping closer. "Let her go, Draco. I'll do the trade. Just let her go, please."

The wizard steps back from Rose, but retains a hold on her wrist. "Come closer, Granger. Give me your hand."

Squaring her shoulders, her expression set with fire and determination, Hermione Granger-Weasley does as requested. Her hand shakes as she holds it out for Malfoy to take.

In a smooth move, Draco releases Rose, and tugs her mother into his arms. He drags her body into his and gives her a melting, desperate kiss filled with passionate need. Her mother does not respond, remaining passive in his embrace. As he pulls back, he smirks down at the witch he has now captured. "I've missed doing that to you," he admits in a voice laced with amusement and sexual arousal. It is a tone Rose has never heard him utter before.

Her mother is clearly flustered, but it doesn't prevent her anger. She steps back and slaps Draco hard across the face. "You gave up the right to have me like this when you made your choice that day in the Astronomy Tower. You made your bed, now lie in it, Draco."

There is a story here that Rose doesn't know, but its pieces are beginning to build the picture up: her mother and this man - her captor, rapist, and the father of her baby - had once had an affair. One that, for Draco Malfoy at least, had not ended, despite the years and being on opposite ends of a war. She suspects it is the reason he saved Rose from his son's abuse and took her to his bed instead.

"I know you're not your mother. But... I can't help but wish you were."

"You're right, as usual," he answers her mother's accusation. His eyes soften. "You're been right about it all."

Rose's mum's face takes on a look of pain. "It's not too late, Draco. We could use your help." She holds out her hand to him. "I'll ask you one more time: will you please come with me?"

He seems torn, but his arm lifts.

The tingle of Anti-Apparition wards going up all around them suddenly rolls over Rose's senses, making her shiver.

"Yes, take her hand, father. Take the side of the Mudbloods and their bastard children. Your bastard child."

All three of them whirl around. There, deeper into the shadowy woods, leaning against a tree with casual indifference stands Scorpius.

"Granger, take her and go," the Intendant murmurs, raising his wand arm in a defensive posture.

"Too late for that. You felt the wards," her mum firmly states, raising her wand as well. "We fight this one together."

Draco tsks. "Always have to play the brave fucking Gryffindor, just like Potter."

"I am that brave fucking Gryffindor," her mother quips, stepping up to his side. "Or, had you forgotten?"

The Intendant chuckles, but the sound is short-lived as his entire demeanour becomes deadly serious the second Scorpius takes a step in their direction. His arm straightens and his wand points right at his son. "You're outmatched and outclassed, Scor. Let us go. No one needs to die here today."

The man Rose had once given her heart to boldly continues forward, unconcerned by the wands pointed at him. "Ah, now see, that's where you're wrong, dad."

As if his words are a special signal prepared in advance, Death Eaters and Snatchers Apparate into the glen in streams of smoky, black ink trails, surrounding them. They materialize with their wands pointed at Rose, Draco, and her mother, who step back-to-back against the threat.

Scorpius saunters into the ring of bodies, a cruel smirk painting his lips. "You know the penalty for blood-traitors, don't you father?"

Draco nods, as cool and controlled as ever, despite the odds now stacked against them. "Skinned alive. Then, decapitated." His voice is almost bland as he pronounces the sentence that awaits him if he is taken prisoner in this fight.

"Head on a pike in Hogwarts' Main Hall for all to see," his son confirms in an almost cheerful tone. "All for our great Lord's pleasure."

Rose feels something shaped like a metal key pressed into her palm. "Grab your mother's hand," the wizard at her side instructs in a voice soft enough that only she can hear. Without a pause, she does as he requests.

"You would really do that to me?" he asks his son, his wand arm still unerringly pointed at the younger wizard.

"In a heartbeat," Scorpius confirms, his eyes flat, merciless.

The lack of pause before he responds is the final splintering of Rose's heart. There truly is nothing left of Scorpius to salvage. His humanity is gone. She stares at him, this man who she once loved with every ounce of her soul, and for the first time, she cries not for herself, but for him.

"You're making a mistake," Draco warns him. "What you think you're fighting for is a lie, son. You're being played. You have been for the last six months. You're wrong about trusting your new Master, just as you were wrong about not trusting Rose."

Scorpius snarls. "You know nothing of it!"

His father laughs with dark disdain. "Don't I? If anyone in this world knows exactly what my father is capable of, it's me. I was once where you are: believing the lies. It drove me from the person I wanted most in the world, too. I've spent twenty-five years regretting that decision, and everything that came after it. You don't want to know what that feels like. There's enough blood on your hands as it is."

There is a pause as the son considers his words.

"Did you like fucking my whore, father?"

From her peripheral vision, Rose watches the blond wizard at her side go stiff with guilt. Behind her, she hears her mother's stifled sob as she understands the unspoken answer.

"You took Rose from me, you bloody hypocrite, and you've stuffed her with your issue," Scorpius seethes. "You did it to spite me! You knew I wanted her to bear my children!"

Draco is quiet in the face of his son's rage.

"Your elf's pea-sized brain had so much information inside," her ex-lover taunts. "She showed me all her lovely memories of you bending my slave over your couch and the edge of your bed. I enjoyed the show watching her sick up all over your bathroom floor. Oh, and she showed me you using her to find my little slave's mother with a note to bring her here." He tapped his wand against his thigh. "You've become sloppy, old man. You should have erased the elf's memories or killed her to keep your secrets."

In the dawning sunrise, Draco Malfoy's hair shines like spun white-gold as he shakes his head. "You don't see it, do you? I tried to save you, Scorpius," he argues. "You've been walking a dark path for months, and I wanted to save you from it. I took her away from you because I thought it would give you time to cool down. I thought you'd regret what you'd done to her once your initial anger had passed... but you didn't. I knew that night we sat up drinking and talking that it was too late to save you. Something inside of you is broken, son. There's no regret in you, no compassion, no mercy. You are the perfect Seneschal for the Dark Lord's cause - a soulless soldier who enjoys inflicting pain on others. I knew that night it was too late. So, I did what I had to. I kept her safe from you... and I gave myself a second chance."

Rose turns her head and stares at the man who has fathered her child, and realizes now why he has been so desperate for so many weeks to couple with her every day - enough to take potions to guarantee he can sustain an erection even in the face of his disinterest: he wants another son, to replace the one he knows is lost to him.

Guilt and shame once more creep up Rose's cheeks. It is not her fault what has happened to her, but she is humiliated to learn she has been nothing more than a means to an end.

Her mother's fingers squeeze hers, and she glimpses through tear-beaded lashes that her mum is signalling her to be ready. She has a plan.

Until this moment, the circle of Death Eaters and Snatchers have been strangely quiet, voyeurs to this family drama unfolding before them like some sort of freak entertainment. Now, there is a restless shifting, as if the story is taking too long for them and they want a resolution fast. "Kill 'em, already," someone calls out, his thick accent outing him as an East Londoner. "We ain't got all day." There is mumble assent from the group, with a nod here and there for good measure.

"No killing," Scorpius gleefully tells them all. "I want the women - both of them. As for my father... I think I'd like to see just how much pain he can take before his sentence as a blood-traitor commences."

Rose is terrified, as she senses now is the moment for them to act or lose the chance.

Trusting her mother, she gives her life up into the woman's hands once more, obeying her without thought when the woman hisses at her to "get down". She drops to her knees in the tall grass, maintaining a grip on both her mother's hand and the key Draco Malfoy has given her as the first spells are fired.

A Bubble Protego Shield thwarts the first volley from the enemy and gives them the precious seconds they need for Draco to fire a series of Killing Curses off, while her mum simultaneously works on destroying the anti-Apparition wards around them. They begin to fall, the magic crackling through the air like static electricity.

There is a screamed curse from the circle of dark wizards, and a grunt from Draco as he is hit with a spell that gives off a purple light. "Portus," he casts, turning and firing his wand at the metal key in Rose's hand.

A queer feeling behind her navel of being hooked and pulled away takes hold of her, and Rose grips her mum's hand tighter as she is teleported away. She has never travelled by Portkey before, but she does know from her mother's teachings as a child that unlike Apparition, a Portkey jump will be completely untraceable by those they've left behind.

Where they will end up, and where they will then go from there is anyone's guess.

TO BE CONCLUDED...

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

No chapter preview so I don't give anything away, as the next chapter is the last - and the big reveal.

Please review this chapter!

.

Also, go now and SIGN UP FOR THE DRAMIONELOVE VALENTINE'S FIC & ART FEST NOW! Sign-ups close 16 December, 2012 (dramionelove . livejournal . com)