The Proposal

[Lissandra Sylvania]

Hermione's friends ... and Draco's friends.

---

Chapter 7

As the time drew closer to dinnertime she became more and more nervous the next day. How would her friends react seeing that she really was married to Draco? How were Draco’s friends and what did they think of him marrying her?


She checked her look in the mirror for the twentieth time since she had changed for dinner. It wasn’t going to be anything formal, but she still wanted to wear at least a clean shirt and skirt. The person she saw in the mirror looked completely different from the person she had seen in her own mirror a month ago, her cheeks had gotten a new natural colour and she looked, well...happy.

Her hair was the same bushy mess as always but with a little effort she had gotten it to sit almost nice and the smile upon her face was natural and made her look as close to pretty as she ever thought she would.


From the kitchen she could smell the delicious dinner she had prepared along with Dinny. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Dinny to make a nice dinner, she just liked to be a part of it and it allowed her to have a little chat with Dinny about how living in the Malfoy manor was seen from the perspective of a houseelf. According to Dinny it was almost a life in luxury.


The guests had been invited to seven o’clock, but already at five to seven did the doorbell ring for the first time.


Hermione ran to the door thinking that it had to be one of Draco’s friends because neither Harry nor Ginny had ever been early, there was just too much for them to do before getting out of the door.


With one last look in the mirror assuring her that her hair looked exactly like it had done two minutes before when she last checked it, she opened the door.

Standing just outside was a man of about her age, maybe a little older with dark almost black hair, unusual blue eyes and an instant smile upon his pleasant face. She figured it had to be Jonathan, Draco’s friend.


“Hello,” she said, “Come on in.”


He stepped in as if he belonged there and took of his light coat and gave it to Dinny, who had appeared the moment she had opened the door with precisely that intention.


“Here you go Dinny,” he said as the little elf smiled at him and acknowledged him by saying Master Jonathan. When that matter was settled the two of them stood opposite one another studying the other person.


She was reassured of her first hand impression; Jonathan seemed like a pleasant person with a good sense of humour and a powerful personal magnetism. There was something irresistibly arrogant about the way he kept his back straight, she figured it had to be his chin or jaw-line that gave her that impression because it definitively wasn’t his smile, which was very warm.


“I’m Hermione,” she finally introduced herself feeling that she had to say something instead of just stare at him.


“Jonathan Green,” he shook her hand with a firm grip, “So you are Draco’s wife... interesting.”


She smiled nervously; she didn’t know what Draco had told his friend about her. Then she decided she better reply him.


“You approve of his choice?” she asked slightly flirtatious and led him into the living room, which was yet another elegant room of the Malfoy Manor decorated with white and silver.


He walked around her, examining her looks.


“Yeah, you look intelligent, I like that,” he said with a grin and she smiled at him.


Just then Draco entered the room. He looked very distinguished with a book in one hand and a serious expression on his face. That expression was replaced by a smirk when he saw his friend standing there.


“Hands of mate,” Draco said and shook Jonathans hand brotherly.


“I was just looking,” the dark-haired man said with a smirk. What Draco replied she didn’t hear because at the same moment the doorbell rang again and she went out to open.

This time it was Ginny, the famous Thomas and Harry all nicely dressed and Ginny with a big bouquet of pink roses in one hand.


“For the hostess,” she said smiling and Hermione made a gesture inviting them inside.

They all shook hands and Ginny introduced her to Thomas who was looking very average, but very nice. Even if I hadn’t known he was a doctor that would have been my first guess, Hermione though as she saw him properly. He had that air of trustworthiness and calm that most healers had. Thomas explained that it was lucky she had chosen exactly this day for her little come together, because it was the first night in two weeks where both him and Ginny was off work at the same time.


She guided them into the living room to meet Draco and Jonathan.

She could easily see that Harry didn’t like Draco, but that he tried to keep an open mind because he didn’t know how his former enemy had changed over the last seven years. There was nothing but politeness between the two of them and Ginny went as far as to compliment Draco on his beautiful house, a compliment which Draco accepted gracefully furthermore he said that he was glad they were able to be there that night.


Hermione felt pleased that they all at least tried to get along and make it a pleasant evening. She couldn’t help but smile when she saw how awkward Draco felt as he offered the guests to mix a drink for them, he clearly wasn’t used to being the host, but he did very well. And when she left to open the door for the last guest of the evening she noticed him standing engaged in a conversation with Thomas about the private hospital where the latter worked while Ginny and Harry small-talked with Jonathan.


Elizabeth was quite a surprise. Hermione didn’t know exactly what she had imagined Elizabeth would look like, but she definitively hadn’t imagined this beautiful naturally blonde girl with grey eyes and exquisite taste in clothing. If I try to look up ‘elegance’ in the dictionary, I’m sure it’ll show me a picture of her, she thought as she stared at the beauty before her. There was also something powerful about her air and Hermione instantly knew Eliza was aristocracy.


Elizabeth gave Dinny her coat and extended her hand.


Hermione introduced herself.


“I’m Hermione, Draco’s wife.”


Elizabeth smiled and said with a funny face: “I’m Elizabeth, Draco’s girlfriend.”

If Elizabeth had expected her to be surprised, then Hermione was going to disappoint her badly. Draco hadn’t said anything about having a girlfriend, but Hermione had had the feeling that there was someone special to him. She didn’t mind. And Elizabeth seemed like an intelligent person who didn’t play games or was after his money, so Hermione approved of his choice of partner, not that she had anything to say in the matter.


“Oh well, I was convinced he had one so it’s not that big a surprise,” Hermione said studying the other woman who seemed to do the same.


“So you are okay with Draco and me?” Elizabeth asked and Hermione thought that very descent of her.


“Yes I am. Are you okay with Draco and me?” she then asked. Elizabeth looked like a powerful enemy in case she suddenly began to feel jealous and decided to eliminate Hermione. The other witch nodded confidently.


“He told me his reasons for marrying already before he proposed to you,” she explained sounding very reasonable. Hermione figured that Eliza’s relationship with Draco had been going on for a long time and had given Elizabeth the confidence in their alliance so she didn’t feel threatened by Hermione.


“I’m glad he did, our marriage means nothing to your relationship so...” she let that last sentence hang in midair for a moment waiting to see if Elizabeth had anything to say to it, apparently she didn’t and the two witches walked into the living room together.


Afterwards she was a little surprised of how easily it had gone with the two of them.
It could have been a lot worse.




At the dinner table the conversation went naturally Ginny asked about the wedding and Hermione explained a few details to her, Jonathan seemed interested in Harry’s auror training and the two were engaged in a very deep conversation about it all the way throughout the first course.


It felt good to have her friends around again and she was glad they could see that she was happy and comfy in her new position. She knew they had been a bit worried even though they hadn’t said anything to her, but now the had the opportunity to see with their own eyes that she was perfectly happy with her new living arrangements.


She probably shouldn’t tell them about Elizabeth right away though. She laughed to herself thinking about what Ginny would say if she knew that Draco’s girlfriends was sitting right next to Draco’s wife talking peacefully in Draco and Hermione’s living room.


“Why are you laughing?” Jonathan asked her with a wide smile from across the small table sitting between the two armchairs where they were seated.


“Oh not from any particular reason,” she said and winked at him making a discreet gesture towards Elizabeth. He nodded grinning, he understood why.


“It is a little strange huh?” he asked and leaned in to hear her better.


“Don’t know what my friends would say if they knew, I was just trying to imagine that,” she explained making a face.


“Well you people take the expression ‘The one and only’ a bit to serious I might say.”


She didn’t quite understand what he meant with ‘you people’ and she asked him to explain.


“If I’m not mistaken,” he carefully said and pointed at Harry who was currently talking to Ginny and Thomas, “That is Harry Potter and that is Ginevra Weasley.” She nodded most people knew them for their part in the destroying of Voldemort.


“You are Gryffindors, taking honour and chivalry very seriously.”

Again she nodded, he was right.


“And I take it you were in Slytherin?” she asked as politely as possible, she was still very loyal to her house, even after graduating the competition between Gryffindor and Slytherin still remained though to a less extent than when they were all gathered inside the walls of Hogwarts.


He laughed at her: “As a matter of fact I wasn’t.”

That surprised her a lot even though she had no memory of him being there when she was in school but on the other hand, she had no idea how old he was, and he could’ve been graduating in her early years at the school.


“You weren’t?”


“No. To tell you the truth I didn’t even go to Hogwarts,” he leaned even more so the rest of the party was unable to hear him, “I went to Rosings Academy”.


“What is Rosings?” she asked, never had she heard of it before and she had read all about the magical institutions in Europe and even read about some of the bigger ones world wide.


“Exactly!” he grinned and she smiled back.


“So was it a good school?” she asked before realising that she was actually flirting unrestrainedly with this man, he seemed to like it!

She was surprised with herself, she had never been the flirtatious type or the kind of girl to talk easily to boys she didn’t know, of course Harry and Ron had been different, she had known them since infancy and they shared a special bond. Her relationship with boys was mostly like the one between siblings nothing sexual.

Maybe it was because men always seemed to think she wasn’t interested in a relationship just because she didn’t come on to them right away.


“Rosings was a perfectly good school, but not very known and not very prestigious.”


“Did you like it there?” she then asked trying to find something to say. Now she had found a liking in flirting with him and acknowledged the fact that she actually was, she found it difficult to come up with something to say. It was much easier to just flirt unknowingly.


“That depends on what you mean with the word ‘like’.”

Now she became shy all of a sudden but Jonathan seemed to find that amusing.


“I got kicked out during my fifth year there.”


“Really?!” he certainly wasn’t like any other guy she had ever talked with, kicked out of school, you almost had to murder your headmaster to be expelled!


“You shocked?” he asked grinning.


She ignored the question and asked a new one instead; what he had done to get kicked out?


He didn’t seem like he wanted to answer the question because he started to talk about his fat, old headmistress instead. She had been very prejudiced and had hated him almost from the moment he entered the school because he had started his first day off with telling her that he thought she was a fat old cow and he would take pleasure in breaking every single school rule. And so he had done. Every rule from the one regarding not running in the hallways all the way up to some of the bigger crimes like breaking the strict dress-code by walking around the school completely naked except from a tie, staying in the girls rooms at night, harass teachers and get into massive fights and battles by wand, ending in him hurting one of his friends so much that a two week hospital stay was required.


“Why on earth did you do all that?” she asked him acting as Hermione as always.


With a melodramatic gesture he said: “I was a misunderstood teenager in distress desperately trying to catch the attention of my parents and in serious need of love.”


She hmf’ed at him and mumbled something that sounded like ‘more in need of a serious spanking’. He heard her comment without trouble, but he wasn’t offended and laughed widely.


“You are quite right!”




All in all it was a successful evening and everybody seemed to have a good time. Ginny and Thomas both left a little early since they had to work shifts the next morning and not long after Harry also returned to home, the auror training took a lot of his energy and he needed to be well rested when he got up in the mornings. Then Eliza and Draco left to have a little privacy in Draco’s personal room and left Hermione and Jonathan alone in the living room with each other as the only company. That caused an awkward silence and Jonathan was just about to get up and go home when Hermione finally found the courage to say a few word to him.


“It’s okay if you stay a while longer.”


He hesitated a bit but then sat down again awaiting her next move, the room suddenly felt smaller even though there logically had to be more space now the rest of the party had left.


“Ehm...Hmm...Do you wanna see the library?” she asked in lack of better comments and afterwards slapped herself mentally repeatedly for asking such a stupid question. Of course he already knew what the library looked like, he was Draco’s friend and had been at the Manor many times before she came into the picture. He couldn’t have avoided seeing it somewhere along the way. How could she ask such a stupid question?


“By the pained expression on your face I can tell that you have by now found out that I have already visited the library several times, but I would gladly escort you there if you would feel better in your natural environment,” he said and made her even more confused, but somehow she got up and followed him down the hall. He was right she thought; I would feel better in my natural environment.

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

Ma TOTALLY armastan seda lugu!
Ja ma juba tahaks, et Hermione ja Jonathan käima hakkaksid, mitte Hermione Dracoga ...
Ja ma mõtlesin, et kuidas Draco ja ta girlfriend nii sarnased said olla - mõlemad blondid juuksed ja hallid silmad.
Aga hea, uut![/color]

[Lissandra Sylvania]

A very special birthdayparty with very special guests.

---

Chapter 8

None of them came down until late next morning, they had both been up past their usual bedtime and it was a weekend so they didn’t have work. Hermione had enjoyed the luxury of just lying in her bed for an hour not having to do anything or even get up.

She had been thinking about the night before and a little about Jonathan, well a lot about Jonathan. Actually she had by the time she got up been thinking so much about him that she firstly felt like a teenager again and secondly was wondering if it was possible for one’s brain to overheat because of excessive thinking. She was twenty-three years old for crying out loud! She should be way past the years of teenage crushes.


“You and Jon surely seemed to hit it off,” was Draco’s first comment, as she came into the kitchen and with that he completely ruined the good effect of a cold bath she had just taken to kick a curtain person out of her head.


“I could say the same about you and Eliza,” she sat down opposite him and unfolded the newspaper. He looked kind of guiltily at her.


“Yeah about that, would you’ve liked me to tell you first?”

She thought it very considerate of him to ask her but she shook his head and said: “That would have been to state the obvious.”


“Is it that clear?” he sounded surprised, but well it was difficult to see oneself as others saw one.


“Crystal,” she said distant minded already focusing on the article she was reading leaving Draco with a puzzled look on his pale face.


This was a very typical conversation for the two of them, none of them were very chatty so this was how most meals went and besides meals they didn’t really meet, the manor was quite large so there wasn’t much room for them to bump into each other during the day. Hermione spent every spare minute at the library exploring and reading, she loved it there it was so peaceful and she always knew she was among companions.




The next Tuesday Hermione left the office early to go shopping in Diagon Alley, she hadn’t really gotten to use any of her new money yet and she wanted to try what it was like to walk around not having to consider if the dress was too expensive for her and really just be able to buy things because she felt like it and not because it was necessary.

She had never been a very impulsive buyer and the whole shopping experience hadn’t been her thing, but now she was willing to try.

When she left though the guest entrance and came up into the fresh air she felt happy. It was a beautiful day with sunshine and only a light breeze perfect to shop in. In Diagon Alley there were a lot of people who obviously had had the same idea as she had and witches and wizards were all over. She decided to start with an ice cream.

With the cone in her hand she sat down on a bench and watched the scenery before her. She found it amusing to look at all the stressful mothers who were trying to control their kids at the same time as they handled several parcels and some also an owl or toad. Once in a while she saw people she knew from work and from school and at a time she was sure she saw Eliza walk down the street with another young witch by her side, presumably a sister judging by the distinct resemblance.


She finished her ice cream and wondered where to start her shopping. Well she could always start in Flourish and Blotts. As the bell rung and she stepped into the bookshop she felt the familiar atmosphere and immediately relaxed. She knew bookshops and felt confident in them since she was used to spending a lot of time there.

She waved at Blotts, the shop-owner who was currently standing behind the counter. The two of them knew each other quite well because of her many visits throughout the last couple of years where she had been living in London.

For a while she randomly strolled up and down the shelves just to see if she found anything new and interesting. She only found a couple of antique travelling novels written by a Noelle Niwitch. As she came to the counter to pay, Blotts congratulated her on her marriage and she stared at him in surprise.


“How did you know?” she asked and took her wallet from her purse. Now it was Blotts turn to act surprised: “Hermione, most of the wizarding community knows, Malfoy is a known family, besides it was in the Dialy Prophet.”

Once again she had underestimated the power of the Malfoy name.


“I should have known that...” she mumbled to herself and placed a few galleons on the counter for the books.


“I hear that there is a great library at the Malfoy Manor?” Blotts said curiously.


She nodded: “The biggest in Britain as a matter of fact. Two stories high and filled to the brim with valuable books.”


Soon they were as so often before engaged in a conversation about books. That was one of the things she liked about books, even though there was about fifty years between the two of them they could forget that completely when talking about books. When it came to books age didn’t matter and as long as you had a few intelligent words to say most book-people would let you in without questions.

She told Blotts about the collection of early middle-age poetry she had found in a distant corner of the large library and he offered to come out to the Manor and have a look at it sometime. He had not only a professional, but also a personal interest in antique books and this was a chance of a lifetime if he could get to visit the Malfoy library with its famous collection, and before she left the store they had agreed on a date where he would come see the collection.


She was just looking through some dresses in The Witch and the Wardrobe when she bumped into Jonathan. The Witch and the Wardrobe was a fancy store with a lot of red and pink everywhere and it was only woman’s clothes so it surprised her to see him there.


“What are you doing here?” was her first question as he came into hearing range.


“Just trying to find a gift for Liz, it’s her birthday on Monday,” he answered with his usual smile all over his face. He seemed to smile every time she saw him...


“Oh,” came the reply, “Well...what are you getting her?”

She couldn’t imagine what he could give the beautiful woman that she didn’t already posses.


“I have no idea!” he winked, “Just looking around for inspiration. I’ll probably end up giving her the same as the past two years...”


“And that would be?”


He looked really embarrassed and his cheeks turned slightly pink as he answered: “A twin set.”


She laughed.


“To me Eliza didn’t seem like the person who wears a twin-set.”


He leaned in and stood closer to her. She figured that at least his body language showed that he liked her.


“She doesn’t. I could have sworn I once saw her houseelf Maurie in one of the sets I gave her.”


Hermione laughed again, why did she keep laughing in his company? It wasn’t like he was that funny, she just didn’t seem to be able to help it.


“Do you want me to help you find a proper gift to her?” Hermione politely asked only slightly considering the fact that she was going out of her way to be with him a little longer.


“YES! Thank you, you’re my saviour!” he immediately said and was almost about to hug her in gratitude, “and you are sure it wont get in the way of your own shopping?”


She shook her head, said she had just been looking around anyway.




During the weekend Draco had politely asked her if she would attend to Eliza’s birthday party with him as his wife. She of course answered him that she would love to. Well she would have said that no matter what.


She was curious to see the rest of his friends, now she had been so surprised about Eliza and Jonathan.


“I understand if you would rather stay home,” he almost gently said to her from the other side of the sofa in the library, “I know it’s a kinda strange situation with Eliza being my official girlfriend and you being my wife...”


She just shook her head she knew that both Elizabeth and herself was okay with the situation, so it didn’t really matter.


Suddenly the man across her started laughing. It was a strange noise that she hadn’t often heard before, he rarely laughed out loud only smirked or sometimes smiled. It was somehow a pleasant sound to hear especially because she had only heard it a few times before.


“What is so funny?” she asked.


He barely had breath enough to be able to speak but between cries of laughed he finally managed to say: “I’m asking my wife to my girlfriends birthday!”




The party was one of those where everybody knew everybody, but Draco tried really hard to introduce her to his friends and she knew Jonathan, who was more than willing to follow her around and small-talk with the wizards present.


It was held in an elegant restaurant somewhere in the back streets of London, and Hermione suspected that it was a all-wizard restaurant judging my the moving pictures and the clearly magical atmosphere.


It was a little dark inside and there was a lot of dark furniture, she didn’t feel completely safe in that company, but with Jonathan by her side she managed to be polite towards all the ex-Death Eaters, she was surrounded by. She could just see that they weren’t all good wizards by the way they moved around in small cliques and talked low-voiced with one another. They were also all dressed in black, long-sleeved robes that would cover their dark marks.


Even though it was a birthday party the atmosphere was somewhat sombre and she thought it probably wasn’t here that the whole party would erupt in Happy Birthday any minute.


After making a round to say hallo to everyone she and Draco pulled back into a discreet corner.


“These are your friends?” she asked almost hostile, but not loud enough for anybody to hear. He put his hand over her mouth so she couldn’t speak and pushed her further back into the shadows.


“You have to watch what you say in this company,” he said hoarsely and looked intensely into her eyes making sure she understood every word.


“They could easily kill you and the rest of the room wouldn’t even flinch.”

She began to be a bit scared. Of course she had faced dark wizards before and even fought a couple of them but she had always had someone she trusted near her, it had never been a single-mission. Now she stood as probably the only ‘good’ person in a room full of Death Eaters.


“You just make sure to stay close to Jon or me all the time okay?”

She nodded and he removed this hand again.


“But if all these people want nothing but a chance to kill me why am I here?” she whispered, she knew it wasn’t the most diplomatic thing to ask but she had to know.


“You are my wife. And I don’t want my ... society... to think you are a weakling they can just play with,” he tried to explain.


“I still don’t understand,” she whispered back and held tight onto his hand, so tight that his wedding ring cut into her delicate flesh, but she needed the protection that the closeness would give her.


“I brought you because that shows that you aren’t afraid of them.”


She slowly shook her head. She was.


“You have some explaining to do when we get home...”


For the first time since she met Draco again she began to wonder what had happened in his life during those years since Hogwarts. What exactly had he been up to?


She knew only little of his actions since he hadn’t been in the frontline during the war, at least not anywhere near Ron, Harry and her.




Eliza liked the present Hermione and Jonathan had bought her and thanked them almost warmly for the kind thoughts.


“And I who was expecting a twin set,” she smiled to the two of them as they were standing at the gift table. The birthday child, or rather woman was wearing a long classy black dress, which complemented her pale skin and blonde hair to perfection. The dress had clung to Eliza’s every curve without being slutty and the single light pink rose tied to her shoulder only made it even more suitable for her.


Hermione almost felt a little boring compared to Elizabeth in her quite plain dark blue frock, but on the other hand she always felt boring compared to classic beauties.


“I had a little help picking out your gift this year,” Jonathan answered and winked at Hermione.


Again she noticed how Jonathan seemed extremely cheerful compared to the rest of the party. He was joking with her and flashing his dazzling smile when all the other wizards just stood anonymously talking to each other.

She couldn’t really decide if he fit in perfectly as everyone’s little brother or he just didn’t know them that well and didn’t care if he was the odd one out. He reminded her a little of the stories she had heard of Harry’s godfather Sirius when he had been young.


“Thank you Hermione, that was very sweet of you,” the hostess gracefully replied and bowed her head.


“You’re welcome.”


“And now,” Jonathan said, “You can admit that you hated the twin-sets and gave them to your houseelves!”


Eliza kept her face straight as she answered: “I loved your gifts.”


“Ha!” Jonathan replied sarcastically, “cut it out; you thought they were hideous and so they were!”


“This is what happens when people know you too well,” Hermione said to Eliza who smiled back and nodded in agreement.


“Jon and I have known each other since we were born.”


“You did?” Hermione asked to make the other woman tell more.


“Yes, Jon’s family were our closest neighbours. Our parents adored each other,” Eliza continued and rolled her eyes, “Jon and I just strongly disliked each other, but now I have learned to love him like a brother, sometimes a very annoying one who gives lousy gifts, but still a brother.”


“Yeah I love you too Liz,” Jonathan said with a smirk.


“I know you do,” she answered looking completely neutral even though Jonathan had just very subtly and probably out of old habit insulted her.




The evening slowly went by and Hermione survived the strange glances and disapproving of her company as she handled Amanda’s behaviour at work, by ignoring what she didn’t wish to see and setting up a professional, neutral face. It worked quite well for her and she hoped the wizards didn’t notice her constant bodyguard Jonathan, who kept near her all though the evening always with a smile and a witty comment to spare especially for her. It warmed her heart the way she knew that at least two people cared for her, Jonathan and Draco.


If it hadn’t been for them she probably would have escaped as soon as possible from the horrible people present. They weren’t nice, not even towards each other and she nowhere near understood their ‘humour’ if it even deserved to be called so.


The only sort of entertainment offered was a wizard’s duel between a low witch with completely white skin, black hair and a possessed look in her wild eyes and an middle-aged man with yellow teeth and a look like a vampire. During the ten minutes the duel lasted the two of them threw out more nasty curses than she had heard during her seven years at Hogwarts and that included the Weasley Bothers inventive tricks and the Marauders creative curses.


It ended when the little witch had to be carried out from the party on a stretcher and transported to St. Mungos.


On the way out she managed to say a few words even though she had a broken nose and a sprained wrist: “I’ll get you next time Humpfrey!”

The vampire looking man just laughed at her while the rest of the party smiled wickedly.


Hermione felt clearly that she didn’t belong there at all.

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

HEAHEAHEAHEAHEAHEA!
Mulle hakkab järjest rohkem Jonathan meeldima.
UUT![/color]

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Kuna see on Draco ja Hermi fic, siis enesestmõistetav et lõpus jäävad nemad siiski kokku. Ja mulle Jonathan ei meeldi - kuidagi kahtlane tüüp. aga päris hea, et hermi sellisesse seltskonda sattud..hahaha surmasööjate paraad nah. Ja tõesti ajas mind ka naerma see lause “I’m asking my wife to my girlfriends birthday!” ;D ;D

[Lana Marye Allen]

irw. see oli tõesti hea
Aga uut siis !

[Lissandra Sylvania]

Chapter 9

“Care to explain exactly what you have been doing for the past five years?” Hermione asked almost before they had opened their own front door and taken off their coats.


She had spent half the night wondering what on earth her husband was doing with that lot and why he was still on friendly terms with them. Who were ‘them’ anyway?


“In the library if you please?” Draco suggested and led her into the large room.


With a flick of his wand he lit the fire in the fireplace and summoned a tray with tea and cookies to the table. She sighted loudly before settling into one of the soft chairs in front of the burning fire. It seemed calming to be staring into the quiet flames licking the wood with orange tongues of heat.


They gave her peace in her mind for a while and she didn’t notice Draco pulling up a chair to sit beside her. His face was unreadable.


He cleared his throat to make her look at him and she did. He looked as handsome as ever in the faint light of the fire and a few candles around them, his blonde hair shone like gold and his eyes seemed like deep lakes, deep enough for her to drown in.


“What is it that you want to know?” he asked softly.


She shook her head, now she had the chance she barely knew where to begin.


“Who were those people?” she ended up asking with a haunted expression in her brown eyes.


Draco breathed in deeply: “They are the remaining Death Eaters and their offspring plus a few loose connections. Mostly British pureblood aristocracy.”

She nodded, that much she had figured out herself, but she needed to hear it from him. Only he knew the whole truth.


“And what does that make you?” she ventured asking, but not without a curtain shakiness in her voice. They looked each other in the eyes intensely for several minutes. She doubted he would answer and somehow she wasn’t even sure she wanted to know.


A little piece of the conversation she had had with Ginny just before she got married popped into her head again:

“So you don’t think he is a Death Eater?” Ginny had asked

Hermione had shaken her head, she hadn’t known whether Draco was still into that kind of thing but she had had the feeling he wasn’t.

“I don’t know Gin... I simply don’t know,” she had ended up answering, “But even if he is it wouldn’t affect me that much, it’s not like we are deeply connected or anything.”


It was only two months ago she had said those words, but already now she knew she had been wrong. She couldn’t go on being with this man without knowing who he really was, what he had done. But back when she first spoke them she had been convinced that it didn’t matter at all because they were only married out of convenience. She had been completely wrong, no matter how convenient their marriage was there were also feelings involved even if it was only feelings of mutual respect and friendship.

Without breaking the deep silence between them Draco slowly rolled up his left sleeve exposing his arm. She stared at it blankly for a minute, didn’t know what to say and removed her glance to look at the clock. It was long past twelve. Then she looked back at the Dark mark on his arm and answered her own question: “A Death Eater.”


She couldn’t see what he felt, if only he hadn’t been so unreadable. Was he sorry she knew? Was she sorry she knew? Inside her head it was just one big mess at the moment, so she just kept asking more questions and figured she would sort it all out later.


“Are they your friends?”


He shrugged his shoulder.


“It’s complicated...”


Her expression became pained she wanted an explanation so badly; she needed to figure him out, to know what those horrible personas were to him.


“Explain it to me!” she demanded and made him look into her eyes.


“They are acquaintances who the Malfoy family has been associated with since my fathers young days. All Death Eaters and all aware of my history as a such.”


His words came out slowly as if he had to search his brain to find the right ones. This was clearly not something he was used to talking about, but apparently he felt like he owed it to his wife to at least try. When he had mentioned his father an expression came upon his face as had he tasted something foul, a look of pure disgust.


“They have all watched me fail my task, but I know too much for them to kick me out of their society. Like it is said; keep your friends close and your enemies closer.”


“So what about Eliza and Jonathan?” Hermione also wanted to know. After all they had been at the party so they had to be Death Eaters like Draco and the rest of the lot. But could she really believe that Jonathan the sweet, fun, intelligent man could be evil? And beautiful Elizabeth?


Hermione thought that Eliza had to be a Death Eater too since she was the one giving the party and therefore the one deciding which guests to invite, how could she not be one of them? Logically she had to be, but still Hermione couldn’t believe she was, the other woman simply seemed to clean to be a such.


“Eliza,” Draco started. He seemed to be having trouble finding the words.


“Eliza is the daughter of one of the most powerful evil wizards of our time. If people called my father Voldemort’s right hand, Eliza’s would be his left.”

Draco went quiet again but she noticed that he hadn’t actually answered her question about whether Eliza was a Death Eater.


“But Eliza was very young when the war was raging, only fourteen and much too young to serve the cause… she never received her dark mark.”

Hermione didn’t know if she should feel relieved or not. Even though her husband hadn’t said anything she had the feeling that Eliza would have gotten the mark had she only been a couple of years older. But the history of the pureblood aristocracy was far from simple and she didn’t know if it was common for the daughters of powerful wizards to become like their fathers or if they were just supposed to be pretty trophy wives for other powerful dark wizards. How did these things work?


She would rather spend her time wondering about the details of aristocratic life than ask the thing she truly wanted to know; what about Jonathan? She was afraid he would turn out to be dark just like Eliza had. She scolded herself for being so naïve and was surprised that she had been. How could she still believe in the general goodness of other people after fighting almost a year in a war where no one could be trusted? And even the people she thought she could trust had in some cases turned out to be evil. But she had to know now.


“And Jonathan?” she dreaded the answer more than she would have imagined, but it wasn’t an option not to ask.


“Jonathan is my best friend,” he simply said looking even more mysterious than ever as he sat in the shadows of the library. “I don’t have many friends and I don’t easily let people into my confidence. He is the one I’ve got.”

He also seemed to be avoiding the question and she sensed it was because he didn’t want to tell her the answer. Only when her glance became more and more begging did he speak up, but she could see he didn’t want to.


“He is also a Death Eater,” as soon as the words came out he seemed to regret saying them. Softly she started crying. She hadn’t been aware that it meant so much to her, that Jonathan meant so much to her. But now that she knew the truth it hurt her more than she could possibly imagine. More than it had when Draco had revealed himself a Death Eater just a few minutes before and Draco was after all her husband, with him it just hadn’t come as such a surprise. Jonathan seemed so good! Like a fun young man…


She had thought she finally could release herself from the war and it’s aftermath and now she found herself wrapped even more into it all. Could Voldemort never let her go? It had been seven years and she had been so convinced she was over the whole thing and now she was almost drowning in it again, it was all just too much to handle.


She hadn’t realised that Draco had gotten up from his chair, but suddenly she found him kneeling on the floor in front of her holding her hand tightly.


“He is a Death Eater, he has the dark mark tattooed on his arm, but he was never a devoted dark wizard.”


Draco tried to comfort her, but it didn’t seem to help her much she still cried like someone had just turned on a water tap and didn’t know how to turn it off again.


“Jon was nineteen when he got it and he was under heavy pressure from his entire family to accept the offer of becoming one of Voldemorts trusted men. They saw him as a failure because he was kicked out of school and spent all his time fooling around with young ladies and doing all sorts of dangerous stuff, and they almost forced him to finally do something to make him worth their respect. So he did it.”


It didn’t make her cry less, but somehow at least she could understand his actions and maybe try to forgive him for being what he was.


“And I in my young stupidity and infatuation with the dark arts followed.”

He wasn’t crying but there was a deep intensity in his eyes that burned with the passion of the young man he could have been if he hadn’t made all the wrong choices for all the wrong reasons. She couldn’t resist putting her hand on his cheek in a loving gesture. Maybe she did love him? At least she
understood part of him.


“I paid a price for my stupidity, but it’s a long story and you seem tired,” he said getting up; her hand fell down her side.


“I think it’s better if you tell me the whole story now,” she said in a low voice and he turned around to look at her again. Slowly he seated himself again.

She had stopped crying when he started talking.


He told her what he had been up to from the day he fled Hogwarts along with Snape after trying – and failing – to kill Dumbledore. They had been on the run for a couple of weeks before ministerial wizards captured Draco and had put him in Azkaban where he had remained for two years until his lawyer finally managed to get him out paying a big amount of galleons to the Ministry of Magic. He shouldn’t have been placed there because he was so young, but the ministry apparently saw him as a great danger to the wizard society and bended the rules so they could keep Draco captured even against their own laws. It had taken a lot of time and a bit of blackmail towards the minister of magic to get him out, but finally after two years his lawyer succeeded.

After getting out he stayed at the manor as much as possible dreading other people and mostly dreading his own memories and the nightmares that often plagued him. The dementors of Azkaban were hard to escape even when out of their reach. It was first when he met Elizabeth half a year later through Jonathan that he started to get out a little again and regained his usual confidence. She had been very young, but they had both felt a clear attraction and soon after they were an item. Going out in society again also meant that he had to see all the former Death Eaters and remain relatively loyal to them.

Those years in Azkaban had matured him more than he had ever thought possible, it had been a rough experience and it had changed him, possibly to the better.


All this was told in an impersonal voice as if he tried to distance himself of his past mistakes, but it was his life and he had to claim to it. It was to late to undo the past and the past was what determined who he was. He had to share it with her, owed it to her.


“I’m glad you told me,” she finally said after they had been quiet for a while when he was finished telling his story. He nodded almost invisibly.

She couldn’t tell if he was sorry he told her, his face was unreadable as always.


“Maybe I’m glad I did,” he said and abruptly left the library leaving her alone with the flames and her many thoughts.




Hermione didn’t see him next morning before she left for work. They had been up for quite long the evening before and she though he probably wanted to sleep in so she didn’t wake him up. In the kitchen she ate a quick breakfast and left a note besides his plate explaining that she had gone to work. She felt a deeper connection to her husband now that she knew the whole story and because of that new connection she felt obligated to tell him where she was going and show him that she trusted him.


She had to trust him even though he was a Death Eater. Surprisingly she found that she actually did trust him. He had been nice to her and he had trusted her enough to tell her what he had been doing. Seven years is a long time and a person could change many times in seven years she decided.

It again made her wonder what the war had done to her after so quickly deciding that a Death Eater as a husband wasn’t a problem at all.


Had she lost faith in the goodness of man or had she lost faith in evil being really evil? She knew there was more to people than what was shown on the outside and evil wasn’t just evil, it was more detailed than that. Everybody had relations and even the meanest men in the world could have a family somewhere that loved them and would miss them when they were gone.


Why couldn’t the world just be like when she was seven years old and sitting on her father’s lab listening to fairytales? In the fairytales the prince was always good and the witch was always evil, it was as simple as that and no ethics had to be considered, no laws, no ministerial wizards…it was just good versus evil in that ancient old battle that good always won in the books, but never in reality. Even with Voldemort dead could they really say they had won the war with so many loses?
Could they consider it a victory when the Weasleys had lost two sons?


If the world had only been black and white things would have been so much easier.

There would have been no Elizabeths, daughters of pure evil but still sweet and beautiful.

There would have been no Jonathans forced to choose a life as a dark wizard because of a stupid mark on his arm that his family wanted him to have.

No Draco’s with complicated pasts and complicated presents.

And no Hermione’s caught in the middle of all this mess.


But there was one part of her weird life she could change and she was determined to do that immediately.

[Liz-Miia Parker]

:)mmm.

next.

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

UUT, ma tahan teada, mida ta oma elus muudab!

[Lissandra Sylvania]

Chapter 10

Amanda was sitting at her desk doing paperwork when she arrived at the office. Now that Hermione had finally made up her mind she didn’t waste any time but went straight to Amanda.


“I’m quitting,” she said calmly and watched Amanda’s face turn red and surprised.


“But you can’t quit now! We’re in the middle of our Easter count. We need you to write the rapports!” she shrieked holding her pen so thigh that it broke in two.


“Yeah because you’d never dream of doing those yourself would you?” Hermione asked coldly.


Amanda’s normal tan was fading to an unhealthy looking pale yellow, as she stared speechlessly at the young woman before her that she just a couple of months before had been able to bully into doing whatever she wanted.


“Then what are you going to do now?” Amanda asked after taking a minute to calm herself down.


“No that it is any of your business but I’m thinking of opening a library someday,” Hermione answered with a dreamy look in her eyes.


This was an idea she had always had in the back of her head, but never had the finances to live out. Ever since she first leaned the magic of reading when she was five years old and visiting her grandparents on the countryside and her grandfather had shown her his private library filled to the brim with books he had collected through the years on his visits to various places and on his trips to London. He had let her take some of the books down from their shelves and read out pieces and bits for her before teaching her the alphabet. Before she went home that summer she had leaned all the letters and could read easy sentences without trouble.


After that she had always had a special love of books, a love that not many others understood, a world of her own.


“Good luck,” the comment was dripping with sarcasm, but Hermione did hear it, she was lost in her own dreams and the glimpse of dark hair she had just seen pass by her window.


Before Amanda could say anything more Hermione was already out in the hallway with long steps striding towards the tall figure she could see heading down the hall.


She restrained herself and tried hard not to shout down the hall after him, but instead walk slowly and calmly until she caught up with him.


She couldn’t.
She was just too happy, too glad to be rid of her pointless job and in too good a mood to be restrained and adult.


She broke into a run.


She snuck up behind Jonathan and placed her hands over his eyes.


“Guess who,” she laughed feeling extremely childish.


“Well judging by the softness of the hands it aint my second cousin Ingolf,” Jonathan smirked.


“Nope, it’s not. Guess again!”


“Liz would never do something like this,” he mumbled as much to himself as to amuse Hermione, “and neither would my mother. Trixie from last night?”


“You’re awful,” she flirted, “but wrong again.”

He held up his hands and covered hers with them.


“Whoever you are beautiful stranger, you do have nice hands,” he flirted back.


“Do you give up?” she laughed.


“I never give up,” he said and in one quick movement turned around and captured her in a soft hug.


“Besides; I knew it was you from the beginning!”


His smile was a wide as hers, and she could smell his faint cologne standing so close to him. As always there was a glint of warmness in his blue eyes.

She had always considered blue eyes rather cold, but now she had gotten to know Jonathan that had changed radically, he had proved her wrong even though she didn’t like to admit it.


“What are you doing inhere?” she asked and tried to ignore the fact that he hadn’t let go of her waist yet.


“Just checking in on my best friends wife…” he winked, “Nah I had an appointment with the minister of the sports department. I thought it was about time I got myself a real job and so I was here for an interview.”


She hadn’t actually known much of what he was doing for a living before now, but it didn’t surprise her much that he applied for a job in the sports section; Draco and him had spent several hours discussing quidditch when he had last visited and she assumed it was just a boy-thing to be obsessed with sports. She herself had never taken much interest in it besides the school quidditch matches and even then she had mostly seen them because of Ron and Harry, who both played on the Gryffindorr team.


“Did you get it?” she asked politely as the two of them started to walk aimlessly down the hall.


“Yup,” he answered with a boy-ish smile.


“We should celebrate!” she exclaimed, the dark conversation she had had with Draco had temporarily disappeared. There was room for nothing but complete happiness in her at the moment.


“I’ll buy you lunch if it’s okay with Amanda that you leave the office?” he offered. He knew a little about Amanda from one of their previous conversations and knew how strict she could be sometimes.


“Well…I don’t think Amanda’s going to be a problem any longer,” Hermione casually replied, but she couldn’t hide the satisfied smile that still played upon her lips.


“You didn’t!” he almost yelled and hugged her again.


She was a little surprised by this sudden display of emotions and physical contact; he normally wasn’t the type who needed to be very close, but for all the galleons in the world she couldn’t say that she didn’t like it.


“Well, now we definitively need to celebrate!” he said and the two of them headed towards the door together.




First four hours later when Jonathan dropped her off at Malfoy Manor after having lunch and ice cream in Diagon Alley did she think about how the two of them had acted towards each other on the hallway in the ministry and what someone passing by would have thought about their relationship.
She just hoped that Amanda hadn’t been around, because she would surely go out and spread rumour instantly if she thought she saw something interesting.


Amanda loved gossip almost more than she enjoyed being a bossy annoying person with a tendency to hear irritating music on the radio. She didn’t want the rumour that she was cheating on Draco to spread in the ministry and that could easily happen if Amanda found out how she truly felt about Jonathan.


Even though it had been several hours she still felt the rush of happiness from when she told Amanda that she was quitting, she was happy about that decision and she knew her friends would think she had done the right thing.

She though she had, that job had never done her any good and would never do so even if she had continued to work there for thirty years there was no future in it.


She was looking forward to telling Draco, but somehow she felt that he wouldn’t be very surprised that she had done it. He knew how she felt about that job.


“Draco?!” she called after checking the drawing room and kitchen without finding him there. It was a little pointless calling his name in a house this size, but sometimes she forgot that she wasn’t back in her broom-closet-size apartment. He wouldn’t be able to hear her if she called from the hall and he was sitting in the library or somewhere on the other side of the house.


“Dinny?”


The houseelf appeared immediately.


“Do you know where Draco is?” she asked knowing it was a huge luxury to call the houseelf instead of looking for him herself but, it was just so easy getting used to having Dinny around and to have someone to help out all the time.


“Master is in his room,” Dinny answered with a hint of a curtsey that Hermione had yet to convince the elf she didn’t need to perform.


“Thank you. And how is dinner coming along?”

She asked already on her way up the stairs with her bag in one hand.


“It is to be very delicious Mrs. Malfoy,” the elf stated and disappeared. At least Dinny felt free to run the house as she wished and Hermione figured she had probably disturbed the elf in the middle of something important. With a mental note to remember not to disturb the elf while cooking, which seemed to be the elf’s favourite job she preceded up the staircase.

She was used to stairs from her old place and the liked the subtle grandness of the central staircase.




With a quiet knock on the doorframe she entered Draco’s bedroom. It wasn’t a place she came very often since they weren’t intimately involved they had no reason to stay in each others bedrooms, but the few times she was in there it always surprised her how a room could reflect the personality of the person living in it as much as this room reflected his.


It was a large partly circular room in the eastern part of the manor with a view over the forest, which was about to burst out in a cascade of green leaves in the early spring. The windowsills were wide which made it possible to sit in the window on the large soft green pillows laid there for the purpose. The bed was large with light green linen and placed as far away from the door as possible to maintain the privacy of the room. Just inside the door there was a soft chaise long and a fireplace where the fire was burning heating the room to a comfortable temperature and spread a dim light that bathed the room in strange shadows, but made it seem nice and safe.

There weren’t much furniture in the room, but somehow it felt like Draco’s existence filled out the room more than any piece of furniture could possibly have done. The room didn’t need a couch or a desk to be furnished, the books which were spread on every surface of the room and the fact that Draco was in it, was enough and no one who ever stepped into it would feel like something was missing if it wasn’t exactly because Draco had just left.

It was beginning to darken outside and shadows that the merry fire couldn’t chase away filled the room.


Draco sat still in the window and looked out. He didn’t move as she entered, seemed to be in his own world.


He was as beautiful as always in the dim light. His hair seemed more golden than blonde and his skin lost its silver undertone when he sat there, the silver-grey eyes seemed black and bottomless.

He was unreadable.


He was the beautiful prince from the fairy tales who saved the princess from the dragon and didn’t stay to marry her and get half the kingdom, but rode into the sunset on his white horse to perfect to be true, to perfect to belong truly to anyone than the tale of time.


She knew her thoughts were crazy, but she also knew they were true. He didn’t belong to anyone he was the type of man that nobody could own.

He was nobody’s man.


Not hers.


Not even Elizabeth’s.


Earlier she had thought it was because he only belonged to himself because he was just a selfish brat with no more brain-cells than a cow, but now she knew that he had plenty of brain-cells and he knew exactly how to use them.

He was more intelligent than most people she knew.


Quietly she tiptoed across the floor and sat down in the window beside him with out ruining the silence.

They could talk later.

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Indeed....so next !

[Lissandra Sylvania]

A green dress and Easter dinner with the parents

Chapter 11

As they got closer to Easter Hermione’s parents called her on her cell phone, which she always carried with her in case they wanted to reach her, and invited them home for Easter dinner.


“We have given you both time to settle and now we are curious to see this Draco fellow,” Hermione’s father said to her when they spoke.


“I’ll see if we have any plans for Easter and call you back,” she replied, but her father wouldn’t let her go before she had a yes or a no, he had gotten strict orders from Jane, Hermione’s mother not to let her off before she had a date.


She ran down the stairs from her room to the first floor in order to find Draco, he was probably either in his study or in the library she told her father, who was still on the phone.


“So he reads?” her father knew more than anyone how much she loved to read herself, “Well there’s a match if I ever heard of one.”


“Yes he reads quite a lot,” she answered as she reached the bottom of the staircase and began crossing the hall, “We have the biggest private library in Britain if I haven’t told you already.”


“You have. Several times,” her father replied in a dry voice, “But that doesn’t necessarily mean that he uses it now does it?”

Her steps echoed through the hall, but instantly became quiet as she stepped into the drawing room because of the thick carpet on the floor.


“He uses it just as much as I do.”


“Not that I don’t enjoy speaking to my daughter, but have you found him soon?”


“I can hear you have never been to Malfoy Manor,” she replied dryly as she ran in zigzag around the chairs and coffee table.


“I’m here now, just a sec,” she said, as she finally reached to study and entered holding a hand over the phone.


“Draco, my parents ask if we can come by for dinner Easter Sunday?” she said and studied his face as he lifted his head from the papers he was just revising sitting behind the large desk in the early Victorian decorated study.

He nodded slowly and said in his pleasant, calm voice; “That would be nice.”

Then he returned to his papers.


“He says it’s fine with dinner on Sunday,” she told her father as she exited the room.


“Okay your mother and I will be looking forward to seeing you both. And put on some nice clothes okay honey? No dreadful brown potato sacks this time…” at the last family dinner she had just worn some of her normal clothes that she used in the office and she had never heard the end of it.


“You sound just like Draco.”


“I’m beginning to like that guy!” her father said and she laughed.




“I feel strange,” Draco said as the two of them walked down Fair Alley towards Hermione’s parents house and the home where she grew up. It was a straight muggle neighbourhood with square well-kept lawns and square houses. Everything looked almost painfully normal, not a single strand of grass pointed the other was than the rest of the lawn, the flowerbeds very carefully kept and the flowers matched each other in a strict pattern.


“Did you really grow up here?” he seemed like he couldn’t believe that people actually lived there in those almost doll-like houses.


“Yes I did, in that white house down at the end,” she pointed at a nice looking house with a white fence and wide patio in front, a red mailbox stood by the driveway which were laid with grey stones and flowerbeds at the sides.


“It’s nothing like the house I imagined you living in,” he said matter-of-factly.

She was a little curious since he was a closed person he didn’t speak that much of what he imagined, and he hadn’t really known her that well before he suddenly came into her life again, so she had no idea what he thought of her background.


She asked him what kind of house he had pictured her in.


“A library!” he said with a smirk. She laughed and pushed him in the side making him loose balance for a moment.


“You didn’t!” she exclaimed holding on to his arm to steady him again.


“Honestly I did.”


He shook his head and looked disapprovingly at the little red brick-house at their left, which had several ugly gnomes with mushrooms on their heads in the front yard.


He didn’t exactly look right among the square houses and garden gnomes, but he had made an effort to look handsome to meet her parents, and of course he did in his black clothes. It wasn’t really muggle clothes, but not wizard’s clothes either.


Because her father had asked her to she was wearing a dress for the occasion, a light green silky dress that Jonathan had given her just the day before as a ‘thank you’ for helping him buy a gift for Eliza. She had said several times that he hadn’t needed to do that and that she couldn’t accept it since it had to be quite expensive. And besides that she had nowhere to wear it, but he hadn’t listened to anything she said and insisted that she kept it.


She still doubted whether she should have accepted it, but there was no way she could make him take it back even though she had tried her hardest. Then Draco had walked into the room and she had expected him to agree with her, and tell Jonathan that she couldn’t take it, but yet again he surprised her and told her to keep it.


She had mumbled a few well-chosen words of the stupidity of men, and then just accepted the fact that she had no choice but to keep the dress.


“We’re here!” she said cheerfully as they reached the end of Fair Alley and the white fence around her childhood home.

Just as she was about to press her finger against the doorbell the door opened and revealed her mother standing there with a floral pattern apron and a big smile upon her face.


“Welcome!” she smiled and stepped aside inviting them in, “Greg is just taking the roast out of the oven.”

Inside everything was a neat as on the outside, Hermione’s mother had always kept her house nice and clean and it remained that way after Hermione moved out. Draco looked around curiously, but seemingly found everything to be proper and pretty. Even if he did find something he didn’t like it was impossible to see on his face.


“It smells delicious,” he complimented making Jane blush just as he intended.


“We’re having roast beef tonight, one of Hermione’s favourites…” Jane explained as they followed her to the kitchen where Hermione’s father was standing cutting the roast in thin slices.


“Well it looks fantastic so I can understand if she likes it.”

The small talk continued while Hermione helped put the food on the table in the living room. Everything looked exactly like before she moved out six years ago and it felt good to be home again, she hadn’t visited much when she was living in London and working at the ministry causing her to grow apart from her parents, but the minute she stepped into her old house she was Hermione Granger the Nerdy Bookworm again. And she liked it that way, never would she give up her books even if it meant that she could have been a lot more popular than she was. They were her friends.


“Honey?”


Without noticing it she had drifted of into her own world standing in front of a wall covered in family pictures in the living room. She turned around and saw her mother stand behind her with a small knowing smile upon her lips.


“We’re starting to eat now.”




They all ate in peace. Draco was relatively friendly and seemed to be able to talk with especially Greg. She was glad that he liked her parents, she could see that he did by the way he talked to them. If he spoke with someone he didn’t like there was an almost undetectable difference in the way his voice sounded and the language he used. He was too old and experienced to show hostility openly, but she knew him well enough to be able to hear that difference no matter how little it was. It’s incredible how much you learn about a person when you like with them, Hermione thought to herself with half a smile in her brown eyes.


But there was no sign of that little difference when he spoke to Greg about quidditch explaining how the game went, and how much it took it play it well. Men and sports!


Hermione and her mother spoke of some of the neighbours that Hermione knew, and Jane wanted to hear about the manor. Hermione had no difficulties telling about the Manor, she loved it and had quickly come to see it as her home. Even though she hadn’t lived there for very long she had a hard time imagining herself living anywhere else.


“Mother you’ll love it. It is simply the most fantastic place to live. Firstly it’s huge but it’s so beautifully decorated, and the library! I’ve never seen anything like it!”


“I can imagine you spend a great deal of time there.”


“We both do.” And then she threw herself into a longer speech about all the goods of Malfoy Manor and how she enjoyed living there ending with: “I never want to leave the place.” Then she pushed Draco lightly on the shoulder and added: “If we ever divorce, Draco will have to move out because I’m not leaving!”


They all laughed at that, except Hermione.


“I’m serious, you’re stuck with me forever Draco.”


He just smiled at her and said, “That’s okay, I have my ways.”


She shrugged: “Not sure I want to know what those are…”




“You seem happy,” Jane said as she stood with her daughter in the kitchen doing the dishes after the party was finished eating the meal.


From the living room the two women could hear the voices of their husbands and how Greg was trying to explain the rules of soccer to Draco. He had a hard time getting how it all was down on earth when flying made sports so much more fun.


“I am mum, I really am,” Hermione replied with a happy sigh and stopped drying the plate she was holding for a moment.


“And you’re in love,” her mother said, it wasn’t a question, “and not with him.”


How do mothers know these things? Hermione found herself wondering again, she had asked herself the same question many years ago when she was madly in love with Ron. She had looked herself in the mirror and couldn’t see anything. Was it just some sixth sense of mothers that immediately kicked in when their daughters fell in love?


“You’re right,” she could just as well admit it; it was impossible to keep those things hidden from Jane anyway. Besides why lie when there was nothing wrong with being in love.

Well nothing besides the fact that she was already married.


“Do you want to talk about it?” Jane asked very politely, but Hermione knew her mother was going crazy with curiosity. Jane wouldn’t press the matter though if she said that she didn’t want to talk about it.


“I don’t think I should, if I get started I might never stop talking about him again,” Hermione blushed heavily while admitting this, “He bought me this dress…”


Jane looked at it more carefully, it really was a beautiful dress and it fit Hermione’s figure very well compared to her usual ‘potato sacks’.


“He must know you quite well then…” Jane said calmly and left the kitchen.


She though of her mother’s words, Jonathan did know her pretty well. Out of all the pretty dresses in the store he had bought her the one that fitted her figure the most, and the one she fell instantly in love with.

He always seemed to know what would make her laugh, and he was generally pleasant to be with. But he was also a former Death Eater with the dark mark tattooed on his arm that was something he could never wash of no matter how good he became. He could disguise it with spells, make it not matter because he acted good, but it would never take away his past or the choices he made in it.


It was just that he had the special talent to make everything seem funny at the same time, as he knew how to be serious which was a rare gift she thought.

She sat on the kitchen table on her favourite spot just beside the stove and in front of the window thinking for a while. This was where she usually sat when she was at home and in the kitchen not cooking. Her mother used to tell her to get down and that they had chairs for sitting on, but she liked it there and that particular spot had a very fine view over the road outside and the front yard.


This was a place she had spent many nights with a book or with her father talking.


If I went away would you go with me? The sound of the radio gently disturbed her train of thoughts but only to create a new one. If Jonathan went away, would she go away with him? Would she be willing to leave Malfoy Manor and her newfound happiness, did she really love him that much?

But he wasn’t going away, she didn’t have to face that decision, still she couldn’t help wondering if she would…


“’Mione?” Draco had entered the kitchen and was standing just beside her with a hand on her shoulder. She smiled inside as she heard her former nickname, but didn’t object to being called by it.

She looked at him and none of them spoke for a while, he just kept standing right beside her looking in the same direction as she did out the kitchen window.


“You used to sit here often?” he then asked softly and barely loud enough for her to hear it. She nodded: “It’s a great place if you need to think.”

He smirked she could hear it in his voice even though she couldn’t really see him very well.


“In the kitchen?”


“Yeah Ferret, in the kitchen!” she smirked back at him she couldn’t let him win all the time.


“You just had to bring up the ferret thing didn’t you mudblood?” she didn’t feel offended by the insult as much as she once would have, he didn’t mean any harm with it now.


“It just has such a nice ring to it, doesn’t it ferret,” she said and winked at him, and even though he technically couldn’t see it she had the idea that he knew she did it anyway.


“You are one very strange nerd Mrs. Malfoy,” he finished of their conversation and she laughed as the two of them went into the living room to her parents again.

[Lana Marye Allen]

Ferret

UUT!

[Liz-Miia Parker]

Ha! - tglt ma tahaks actioni..kole igav on. Mhh, midagi põnevat võiks juhtuda hahahhaaa.

[Hanna Mia Sunrose]

Ma hakkasin tegelikult mõtlema, et kui Eliza ja Draco tahavad abielluda, et nagu kas siis Hermione ja Draco peavad lahutama?
Ja siis miks nad tegelikult seda juba teinud ei ole, sest raha on Dracol ju käes juba .. kuigi see võidakse ilmselt veel ära võtta.
Aga igatahes, uut![/color]