FIC: "Sanctuary" for the HP Beholder Community Recipient: The hp_beholder Community Author/Artist: ??? Title: Sanctuary Rating: PG Pairings: Millicent/Hermione, past Millicent/Viktor Krum Word Count: ~1900 Medium: Text Warnings/Content Information (Highlight to View): *domestic violence*. Summary: Millicent really thought she had found a daddy for her unborn daughter. Unfortunately she was wrong. Author’s/Artist’s Notes: This was supposed to be a fluffy thing with banter and wit. Instead suddenly Hermione shouldered her way in and Viktor decided to be a stupid ass-hole. Sorry.
“Good morning Miss Bulstrode,” a cheery voice reeled Millicent up from the depths of slumber.
“Mrnn,” she mumbled and winched her eyes open. The space in bed next to her was empty and instead of cuddling, the occupant stood beside her bed holding a tray from which the enticing smells of tea and toast rose.
“No eggs?”
“No eggs. Don’t want the little one to rebel.” Her companion set down the tray and held up a large pillow.
Millicent nodded and laid a hand on her belly.
“She’s not awake yet.”
“She will be soon enough. Try and sit up.”
-----
Millicent backed away from the wizard and without further thought she grabbed her necklace and cried out “Help! Sanctuary!”
The port-key deposited her on a bed in a non-descript room. While she was catching her breath and looked around in the bland room, an elf popped in.
“Miss needs to relax. Help is arriving soon. The alert for the safe-house has gone out. Does Miss need a healer too?”
“I don’t know, sorry. I wasn’t even sure these still worked. I’m sorry, I…” Millicent still had the pendant in her hand.
“Miss is safe now. Miss needs to relax, panic is not good for the baby, Miss”
“Yes.” She let out a ragged breath. “Thank you”
“Miss is welcome. Just lie down now, and a healer will be here soon.”
Millicent let herself sink onto the bed. Her heart was slowing down and as she tried to relax, her eyes began to water.
The door opened but she could not find the energy to open her eyes to see who was coming in. She felt diagnostic spells wash over her.
“Winky,” she heard a familiar voice say, “tell Tracey Davis to come as soon as she can free up time, but be sure to tell her it’s nothing life-threatening.”
She heard the elf pop out and then the voice addressed her.
“Millicent? Can you tell me what happened? Millie?”
-----
“Tracey flooed,” her love said after Millie had taken her first bite of the toast. “She’d like you to come in today after you know. This close to the date, she’d rather check up on you one time to often instead of not enough.”
“Tracey is a busybody,” said Millie. “I’m fine and so’s the passenger. Who incidentally just woke up and kicked my bladder. Help me up?”
A few tedious minutes later she was happily under her covers again and finishing her breakfast.
“I’ll be so glad, when all is done, the trial over and the passenger is out,” she said. She took her lover’s hand and kissed it softly. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the way you pamper me, but I really want to be up and about again.”
-----
“He hit me and I couldn’t think of anything but getting out and I remembered the pendant and I prayed it would still work.” Millicent started breathing fast again and buried her face in the pillow to calm down again.
“Millie,” a gentle hand touched her shoulder. “You can relax. Nothing’s going to happen here. It’s over and you’re safe. You’re safe.”
She kept her face hidden in the pillow until she could breathe calmly again. Then she turned around and looked up into the face of Hermione Granger.
“I’m sorry. I should have been stronger. But it was so unexpected.”
“Can you tell me what happened, while we wait for Tracey to take a look at you?”
“I was at home, with Viktor and we were celebrating his catch on saturday…”
“Viktor?” Hermione interrupted. “Krum? Viktor Krum?”
Millicent took a deep breath. “Yes. He was at the hotel in summer with his team on training camp, we have a full regulation pitch a bit out and a whole medical and spa suite. We have a few quidditch teams that come regularly for their summer retreats and a whole lot of wanna-bes for quidditch camps where they ‚train like the pros‘. It’s good business. So Viktor was there and we got to know each other and seemed to click. He didn’t mind me being taller than him.”
“The baby is his?”
“No,” said Millicent and her face shuttered.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t..”
“It’s alright. It’s not his and that’s why he…”
“Viktor did this?”
Millie just nodded.
-----
“So vhen will the little vitch be coming out?” said Viktor. He had his large hand on her belly and was stroking it softly.
“January, if she keeps to the schedule. I’m glad the really awkward time will be in fall and winter. Pansy had her son in August and she said being that pregnant in summer was hell.”
“It will be all good, lyubim. If the little one comes the right time, I vill be there. Ve vill still be having christmas break.”
Millicent just smiled. It had been a long day and being pampered by her boyfriend was just what she needed.
She played with the hair on Viktor’s chest.
“I wonder if she will be,” she said.
“Vill be vhat?” said Viktor.
“A witch.” she laid her hand atop Viktor’s on her belly.
Viktor frowned. “Vhy vouldn’t she be?”
Millicent smiled. “Because her dad’s a muggle”
-----
“A muggle?” Hermione raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah. Originally it was after the battle. We were all exhausted and I couldn’t go to sleep again and I was just so fucking glad to be alive. So I stole on of the brooms, snuck out and flew to Glasgow.”
“From Hogwarts? In the night? Ar you mad?”
“Hey, I’m great on a broom. I could have been a team beater, if Malfoy hadn’t been on the team and reserved the spots for his boys.”
“So you went to Glasgow?”
“Once I got there, I hid the broom , got a few peeks at what the girls were wearing, transfigured my stuff and went dancing. I was just so fired up, when that guy hit on me, I took him up on it and spent the night. It was great. Not the sex itself, but having sex, being alive, being out of Hogwarts. For the first time in a year I felt free. And so I did it again.”
Millicent looked down and cupped the bulge.
“I kept at it. After all was over I had to take over the hotel, because my father was on his way to Azkaban and my mother is incapable of doing anything without father spelling it out. So every weekend after the hotel was closed, I’d apparate to Glasgow and hit the clubs and the guys.”
Hermione nodded. “I can somewhat understand that. I was happy to get out of England for a while after it all. But Viktor didn’t?”
“No,” said Millicent.
-----
“A muggle?” Viktor pulled his hand away as if he had been burned. “Its father is a muggle? You had sex vith a muggle?”
Millicent sat up. “Calm down, Viktor. It was before I met you. And it was just to blow of steam. I’ve been only with you since we met.” She reached out to him to calm him down.
“I’m not vorried about that. But you will giff the child up for adoption.”
“What?” Millicent looked at Viktor.
“Are you out of your mind? I’m not giving up my daughter.”
“But you must see. It’s not good for a muggle child to grow up vith vizards. It vill be unhappy if it can’t do magic. It’s better to give it up and send it to the muggles.”
Millicent stood up.
“If you think I will give my daughter up, you are sorely mistaken Mr. Krum. She is my daughter, no matter who her biological father is. I had hoped you would be her dad, but now I see I made a mistake.”
“You made a mistake when you let yourself get fucked by muggles. And I made a mistake when I thought you were a nice vitch I could get to love.”
“Get out of my house, Mr. Krum. Now.”
-----
“And then?” Hermione’s voice was soft as she held a sobbing Millicent.
“We screamed at each other and then he came at me and he hit me. I don’t even think he wanted to, and it’s all my fault,”
“Stop right there, Millie. Being hit is never your fault. Never.” Hermione took Millicent in her arms and held her.
At that moment there was a soft knock at the door.
“Millie, are you up for Tracey to have a look at you? She will need to document your injuries for the trial.”
“Trial?” Millicent looked up.
“Do you want Viktor to get away with it? To do it to another witch who doesn’t conform to whatever his sick standards are?”
Millicent closed her eyes. She went still for a moment then squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. “No. Call Tracey in.”
“Good. I will meanwhile call with the DMLE to send someone to your flat to check it.” Hermione got up and opened the door. She murmured something Millicent couldn’t quite hear to Tracey and left the room.
-----
Millicent had finally managed to get dressed. This close to the date every movement was tedious and the stress after the incident hadn’t helped. The last six weeks she had been on almost complete bed rest. If it hadn’t been for Hermione, she didn’t know what she would have done. Thank Merlin it was the off-season, so the hotel wasn’t demanding much of her time.
She sometimes wondered how Hermione and she went so quickly from acquaintances to not quite lovers. But she really didn’t want to look that gift horse to deeply into the mouth. She’d never thought she would swing that way, nor had Hermione ever given any signs of that kind. And yet.
She asked Hermione about Ron once, after a nice dinner with both Ron and Harry. “Oh, I love Ron,” said Hermione then. “He and Harry are my best friends and we’ve been through hell and back together. And we did give it a try, but we’re just not entirely right for each other. I do enjoy a good argument, but with Ron? We both know each others sorest spots and the way we go at each other when we do? Not a good idea for a couple.”
They came together gradually and at the same time incredibly quickly. After she was given the all-clear at the safe-house and could return home, Hermione helped her move in again, eradicate all traces of Viktor and even slept over the first night, to keep nightmares at bay. After that she was an almost daily visitor, helping her with the hotel and giving her updates on the case against Viktor, until Millicent was sent to bed rest. Then Hermione just moved in and after a few days moved from her guest room to the bedroom. Hermione held her hand during the visits with the healer. She went with her to the classes the mid-wife had prescribed. She held her during the crying jags she had after testifying. It turned out Viktor had a violent temper and once her case had come out in public, three other witches came forth and testified against him. Today after the public part of the trial that ordeal would be over.
And hopefully she would have her daughter out within the next few days too, so they could both figure out the rest. They’d have time enough after that. If it went according to Millicent, a lifetime.