The Contract (Hermoine/Voldemort story)

Chapter 20

Time went by quickly when you had a newborn infant to take care of. And sometimes it felt like she had two. Voldemort became cranky when he didn't get to sleep, but he wouldn't let Hermione take the baby and sleep in the guestroom. When she asked why, he just muttered something about a cold bed.

When she didn't take care of her cranky boys, she was either in the library or in the Discipline Room. The other Death Eaters always left her alone. When she was in the library, Reya could sneak in and they would talk for a couple of hours. Reya even took her on a shopping trip in the wizarding of Paris. They had a very pleasant time and the other woman made Hermione buy some sexy nighties and underwear. Voldemort allowed her wear underwear again… at least those he found "tasteful". They had argued about it and when she told him that she was still bleeding from the delivery and would be bleeding until her vagina was healed, he allowed her to wear knickers. Apparently, he wasn't fond of blood in the bed.

Another thing they were constantly arguing about was the name of their son. Voldemort wanted to name him after Salazar Slytherin. Hermione put her foot down (on his foot) and told him that she would never call her son Salazar. So it would probably be the baby's middle name.

At the beginning of March, the weather became warmer and sunnier. Hermione was declared completely recovered by a new healer and wanted to celebrate it. She decided to take Besch and her unnamed son for a trip to Diagon Alley. In several books, she had run across the same reference and she didn't know what the book was about. She decided to take some money out from hers and Voldemort's account and try to find it.

She put a glamour over herself, hid Besch under her robe and Apparated. When she entered the Alley, no one looked at her twice. If they did, they only looked at her son. Excellent.

It had been a long time since she was out on her own. She walked slowly and looked at everything in the windows. A new children's store named iThe little wizard/iwas open and Hermione decided that it couldn't hurt to look. The boy didn't have any toys at all. He was very contained with just Besch, however, Hermione felt like she could at least buy him some new more colourful clothes. For some reason, Voldemort only bought black.

When she was done buying clothes, she went straight to the book shop and asked for the books; iEvolutionary discoveries; Agriculture – the birth of wizards?, Neolithic pottery/i and iPrehistoric Magic/i. It was the last one she had found most references too. but the other two had seemed very interesting as well.

The owner of the book store could give her the first book and suggested she should try to find the other two in an antique store. Hermione thanked him for the information and went to the only antique store in Diagon Alley. It was a small shop filled with narrow passages between the shelves. Hermione had been there many times before; she liked the smell of old books. It was quite dim in the store and it took some time before her eyes adjusted. When they did, she went straight to the historical section.

"Excuse me…," someone behind her said.

Hermione jumped and quickly walked out from the very slim passage to let the other person enter. She was very surprised when she saw that the person was Minerva McGonagall. She looked like always with a long midnight blue robe and her hair held in a tight bun near her neck. She was holding a couple of books in her arms.

"Professor," she said with a smile.

McGonagall looked at her with a frown. "Sorry, do I know you?"

"Oh, right…" Hermione had forgotten about the glamour. She waved her wand and it faded.

McGonagall's eyes widened. "Miss Granger?"

Hermione smiled sadly. "It's Mrs Riddle now."

McGonagall sighed. "Yes, of course. I presume that is your son?"