Disclaimer- im getting good at remembering! THIS IS PROPERTY OF JKR. DONT SUE ME.
Hermione began to walk across the icy expanse of snow, mitten-covered hands tucked into her arms, scarf caught underneath, head ducked low. She realized due to a prickly feeling in the corners of her eyes unwanted tears were about to make an entrance. Her walk turned brisk, she didn't want to cry, crying over this was silly. She had made it a good distance away from the house, although she could still see pools of orange light reflected on the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that there was a sharp wind to give her a cover for this action, even though it would only be an excuse for herself. Crying over this was nonsensical. The tears started to recede, and she continued walking. Then she slipped and fell over backwards onto the ice-glazed snow. And the tears came.
She had only been sitting on the ice, legs splayed, hands resting between them, tears pouring down her face for a moment before a semi-concerned silky voice spoke behind her.
"Are you crying, Ms. Granger? Well we can't have that now." Lucius Malfoy came up on her right, black cloak billowing out as he crouched down. "Give me your hands."
Hermione placed her mittened hands into his gloved ones, allowing herself to be helped up, hiccupping. She made the effort to wipe away the tears, and in doing so, caught the light of the house. Abandoning all hope, she sobbed, turning back to Lucius. However, she wasn't quite expecting him to pull her to his shoulder, gently wrapping his arms around her. She sobbed twice more, one on top of the other, and pulled back some. "I'm getting-hiccup your shirt wet."
Lucius closed his eyes. "That's alright, but you must do something about those tears. They shall certainly freeze to your face." He pulled a white handkerchief from somewhere, and held it to her.
Probably the only white he has on him. Hermione thought, her mind making small sundry observations, as a depressed, detached mind often does. She gently traced the tract of tears on each cheek, smelling…something, she had no idea what it was. Not cologne, just…something on the handkerchief. Reigning in a quivering lip, Hermione gave the merely damp square back to him. "Thank you, Lucius." She attempted a red faced smile, to which his lips turned up at the corners and he bowed slightly.
"Would you like to go inside? I know that you really would rather not, but there is quite a crowd in there, and it is undeniably freezing out here." Hermione nodded. They continued on in silence. "Where are you staying?"
"I was staying here. But now…I was planning on asking Harry and Ginny if I could maybe stay with them…but, I don't know. They are still, I think, getting used to living together, you know? They just got married…well, not just, it WAS four months ago, but still."
"Why don't you stay at the manor? With Draco and I?" Lucius said, looking at her sideways, trying to see her face while walking, blond hair falling forwards a bit.
Hermione looked a bit stunned, but kept walking. "Oh, well, Lucius, um, I don't really know, could you let me think about it?" She looked at him and smiled a little. The redness in her eyes had gone down, and the stuffiness and blotchy face could be attributed to the cold. They approached the house, and stopped.
"Of course. Shall we?" He held his arm out to the door. She smiled again, bigger this time, and ducked her head. He followed her into the burrow.
Draco hadn't noticed his father leave. He watched Lucius follow Hermione inside from his armchair. He had witnessed Ron breaking their relationship off, and he also knew that Ron was now at the top of several people's hit lists. He slunk lower in his seat, smirking to himself. This should prove to be interesting.
Mrs. Weasley walked up to Hermione. "Dear, there you are. Come back into the sitting room, I've just put out some more of that cheese you so like."
"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley."
The matronly woman gave her a pitying smile before turning to Lucius. "Why, Lucius, I didn't see you had left!"
He smiled. "I merely stepped outside for a moment. It was getting a bit too stuffy for me." He excused himself with a nod of his head and went to sit near Draco.
"Hello, father."
"So, judging from your self-satisfied smirk and the fact you rarely call me that any longer, I can guess YOU have guessed a few things."
"I have no idea what you are talking about." Draco responded. He didn't want to embarrass either himself or his father by coming to the wrong- or right- conclusion. That just wasn't the way the father and son did things.
Lucius smirked briefly at his son. "Well, in any case, what has been happening here? Your entertainment of choice being Ronald Weasley, tell me what you have seen so far to bring such contentment to your face."
"Well," Draco said, "I have seen several nasty looks, and I find it very amusing to watch everyone ignore him. The only death threats, however, have been from his family." Lucius raised his eyebrows. "That's immediate and extended." his father's face relaxed. "I honestly don't know why, though. Well, I suppose it's because she is who she is, and they don't like to see Hermione get hurt. But everyone has been expecting it for awhile now."
"Indeed they have. Have you talked to him this evening?"
Draco grinned. "Only once. A few whispered words, a rather nasty smile, and I returned here." he caught the look his father was giving him. "No death threat! Just...something to make him uncomfortable."
"You have no idea how proud I am." Lucius drawled. "What else has happened?"
"Well, Hermione left, so nothing on that end. Pretty uneventful, just another get together. But now-" Draco sat up in his chair, craning to see around through the doorway and out of the parlor. "I do believe the damsel of the hour is headed this way."
Lucius turned away from his son to hear a loud stream of babble follow a distraught Hermione in. She was wide eyed and holding her fingertips to her forehead. Spotting the Malfoys, she looked slightly relieved and darted over to a chair next to them.
"A bit frazzled, Hermione?" Draco said.
She exhaled. "A little pity is alright, but this is a bit much. I've gotten so many offers from food to residence to a shoulder to cry on, I have no idea what to do."
Lucius smiled at her. "And all you want to do is not think about it."
"Exactly." She smiled tiredly. "Do you think I could take you up on your offer? You two are the only people who can handle this sanely."
Draco looked up, his face classically disinterested. He could only assume that his father had asked Hermione to stay with them.
Lucius shot Draco a glance before saying "Of course."
Draco entered smoothly with "Absolutely. If you don't want to see another person ever again, the manor is big enough, yet people are still at hand if you need them."
She flashed them a relieved smile. "Thank you, so much. If you'll excuse me?"
The blonds nodded, and she left the room.
END CHAPTER ONE!
Whew, okay, Review! Please! Let me know if i should continue, burn it, take a photograph and put it in a gallery, ANYTHING! just one "Yes Please!" and on with the show! Sorry about grammatical errors, i think i got most of it, but i have no idea. Apostrophes hate me, and i suck at paragraph spacing/indents.
OH! feedback, yes, i love feedback, its very delicious. If you were confused about anything, there will probably be answers next chapter (if you review for one...) because, come ON she's living with them now, so...yeah. Okay, i talk a lot, sorry! i also am really back at review reviews, so sorry if i shoot you one and its not up to par. OKAY thanks for reading my story, review (once more) and have a lovely day!
