One: Widow's Weeds
Lady Hermione
Three months without a word from the battlefield about where my husband was, or what the enemy was doing. I have long had premonitions that my husband would perish on the battlefield. One of the Princes, or Potters most likely. But at this time, we were at war with the Princes over who had the right to whose lands.
A knock sounded on my chamber door, and my principal lady in waiting Lady Pansy Parkinson opened it. My father in law, Lord Lucius Malfoy rushed in, dressed as if he just came in from the battlefield.
"Follow, my lady," He said brusquely. "Draco has been asking for you."
I put on my cloak over my night shift, and the sound of Lord Malfoy's armor was the only sound as I struggled to keep up with his longer strides down the corridors. I thought at first that he would be taking me to my husband's rooms, but we were headed to the healers instead.
He paused outside the door before going in, and faced me. "I must warn you. His injuries are...well, they are very gruesome, and not for the eyes of ladies."
I swallowed back the fast pounding in my heart, "I care not. He is my husband, I need to see him," I said firmly.
A look of respect flashed in his blue eyes, "As you wish. Just be warned as to the blood."
"Consider me warned."
Lord Malfoy stood aside, and I turned the door handle. Draco was being attended to by a team of healers, and they were trying like mad to staunch the bleeding from multiple arrow his across his body. He still had his armor on, and his once handsome face was bloody and filthy with gore.
I approached Draco, and fought back my tears. He couldn't die! He just couldn't! What would become of me and Delia, our daughter? I knew the laws, of course; if I had to remarry, I couldn't bring in any previous children to the new marriage. I would hate to send my four year old daughter to a convent never to see her again.
I took his armored, gloved hand, and his eyes opened.
"Her...mi...one," He stammered.
"Yes, darling?"
He tried to smile, but it came out as a grimace, "Live...For...Me...P-Please."
I couldn't contain my tears any more. "Draco, no. Please hold on...I need you. Delia needs you."
He weakly lifted his hand to stroke my cheek. "My...brave lady...I...Will...Love...you always...But live...for me...Promise me...Her...Mione."
Tears streamed my face as my heart broke in half. "I promise."
"Thank...You...I...Love..." Draco mouthed the word 'you,' but on his exhale he let it out, and I watched the life leave his gray eyes. His body shuddered, and that was when I began screaming. I clutched on to my husband's body for all it was worth, but I was being pulled off of him.
I must have blacked out, or a spell was put on me to black out, but the next thing I knew was that I was in my chambers, and I had to hear a month later that my four year old daughter was carted off to a convent in East Anglia, and I was not even given the courtesy of saying goodbye to her. It would be a year before I was even sane enough to come out of my mourning period, but when I did, I was put back on the marriage market as an honorable widow of considerable means, and I had no say whatsoever in that decision as well...
