Draco's time was up too, the time by which he'd set himself to go looking for his father if he had't returned. His father had actually returned much earlier in a rage, checking his information again to ensure he had the right address. When his father descended into his special basement to collect something he now needed, Draco was able to quickly copy the mudblood's address.
It was now long past time Draco thought his father should have returned, Pansy had been repeatedly on the floo asking if there was any news so Draco knew his father wasn't at the Parkinsons either. Stepping outside the manor wards, Draco held his wand out to summon the Knight Bus. Reading out the address to the conductor, he was then bounced and shaken the length and breadth of Britain before arriving at his destination.
Finding the wards wasn't difficult, they wouldn't let Draco past. He walked around the perimeter of the wards until Draco discovered what his father had returned home for - wardstones. Passing through the gap, Draco cautiously approached the house. Wand now clutched in his hand, Draco made his way through the doors that had so recently been blasted off their hinges.
The house was silent and dark, and Draco didn't know how to switch the lights on. There was also a rank smell permeating the air that had Draco feeling nauseous. After coming all this way, Draco felt he was left with no other option - casting the lumos spell he began his search of the house.
It didn't take Draco long to discover the source of the disgusting smell, their fathers' dead bodies. Pansy's father appeared to have been ritually gutted, before having his throat cut. There seemed to be Parkinson blood and guts everywhere, and this easily accounted for the atrocious smell. It was his own father's body though that commanded Draco's attention.
The sticking charm that normally fixed his father's mask in place must have ended, the mask had slipped half off and allowed Draco to see the terror on his father's face. There were pools of blood from multiple wounds he'd sustained but there was no doubt what had killed his father, the hilt of a knife protruding from Lucius Malfoy's throat was pretty conclusive evidence.
That something so mundane could end his seemingly indestructible father's life was a catastrophic trauma to Draco. That trauma triggered an accidental magic release which blew out every window in the ground floor of the Grangers' home - before Draco sank to his knees on the bloody floor and cried over his loss.
That amount of magic being performed in a muggle-born's home raised an alarm with the ministry's under-age magical detectors, and saw a magical-reversal squad dispatched to investigate. Discovering wards on a muggle home, and then that those wards had been illegally breached, had them sending for auror back-up before proceeding any further. It didn't take the combined force long to find the scene of carnage which had converted a kitchen into a charnel house, a scene which would rock the Ministry to its very foundations.
....
Emma was slowly emerging from a deep dark place, a place she'd last visited nearly fifteen years ago - only that one wasn't induced by a magical potion to save her from suffering indescribable pain. A gentle lullaby was being hummed as someone fussed with her hair, a kiss on her forehead and then her hand being held helped Emma piece together who this someone was without having to open her eyes. Emma's eyes were still closed, and her voice was certainly a little scratchy after all her tortured screaming, but she did her best to speak.
"I came out of my coma to that same tune, your Nana was singing it to my baby - holding you in her arms. I loved and hated that woman at the same time. I loved that she was there for you when I couldn't be, and hated the irrational feeling that she stole my baby away from me. She effortlessly bonded with you in a way that I was never able to do. After the surgery I needed, this was my one and only chance to be a mother - something I was desperately looking forward to - and that I failed miserably at."
Still holding her mother's hand, Hermione managed to attract Poppy's attention. "Mum, stay still and stop talking until Poppy can check you over. Once she gets some pain potion into you, you'll be able to sit up and have some tea..."
"I'd kill for a cappuccino! Where's your father? How is he? Where are we?"
Shaking her head at the obstinate woman who was her mother, Hermione knew from experience she wasn't going to win this one. "Ok, let's just forget about not talking. Dad has gone for a little look around with Harry, they've been here with you all night. I've told Harry you're awake and both he and dad are heading here now. Here is actually our new house in Italy, so that cappuccino shouldn't be a problem - once Poppy says it's ok for you to have one."
After completing her scans, Poppy asked Hermione to help with sitting her mother up. Emma was still in a lot of pain from every part of her body, and she couldn't have managed that simple manoeuvre without help. Poppy then poured a pain relief potion into her mouth, and the faces Emma made actually put the beginnings of a smile on Hermione's. They would get through this, as a family.
"Oh my goodness, that is without doubt the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted. Please tell me I can have that cappuccino now?"
"If this cappuccino can make that taste better, I might want one too."
"It's a type of coffee, Poppy..." Hermione was saved from further explanation as a tray with three wide coffee cups containing the frothy drink, along with a plate of amaretti biscuits, appeared on the bedside cabinet.
While Hermione held the cup for her mother to drink, smiling at the sprinkled chocolate in the shape of π on top, Poppy sampled her own - pronouncing it to be wonderful.
Her dad and Harry didn't exactly run into the makeshift infirmary but it was close. Watching as his daughter helped her mother drink brought a lump to Dan's throat, this was the closest he'd seen them in years.
"How are you feeling?"
"Like I laid down in front of a fleet of double-decker busses, and they all ran over me at the same time. Poppy, your medicine certainly tastes disgusting but I can already feel it working. Daniel, how are you - and what happened? That man did something with his wand and all I remember after that is pain, until I woke up here."
"Hermione and Harry came to rescue us. That bastard was busy boasting what he was going to do to us when these two just appeared behind him. They'll never threaten anyone ever again."
.....
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