Author's Note: This chapter is slightly shorter, and isn't as… tight, I'd say, as the last one? But it has much needed time passing in it, and the introduction of Harry! Yay! Also, writing movement is hard, which is annoying. I've also reached the end of my queue in terms of writing chapters, so there's going to be a longer gap between this upload and the last one. Sorry :(
(L/N)
Hermione spun in faster and faster circles in the rain, arms flung as wide as possible, head tilted up to feel the droplets on her face.
This would be hell on her hair, probably, and make it even more difficult to keep under control but that wasn't her concern at the moment.
Eight years had changed the somewhat frightened two year old child who had been first brought to Malfoy manor into a rapidly growing ten year old girl, all limbs and frizzed out hair. She was barefoot, wearing muggle trousers and a too-small dress for a shirt. Narcissa watched her from beneath the shelter of the back entrance, hoping that the warming charm she'd placed on the child was still laughing.
She was laughing, some mild accidental magic causing the rain to shimmer in colors technically impossible considering how overcast the day was.
Eight years old and still sometimes Narcissa couldn't help but wonder how Hermione's muggle family was doing, if they had had more children, if they were alright.
If it had been Draco who was taken- Narcissa pulled her robes tighter around herself- there was a chill, still, considering the weather.
Draco was safe, inside, most likely still putting together and taking apart one of the intricate but nonsensical machines his uncle Rudolphus had brought him for his most recent birthday.
"Hermione, it's time to go in!" she called, and the girl stopped, turning to face her, the magic suddenly dissipating. She was smiling.
"Coming!" she called back, and she ran to underneath the roof, doing her best to shake the rain off. Smiling, Narcissa cast a drying spell on her, though Hermione's hair still puffed out impressively, distracting the girl when some strands fell into her face.
They entered the manor house, Hermione insistently blowing on the curls going down into her eyes to try and get them to go somewhere else.
It was September- one more year until the time would come for the Malfoys to send both the children off to Hogwarts. Dumbledore had insisted, the old man wording his "or else..." as a polite inquiry into the health of their son.
What else was Narcissa meant to do? She did not even know Hermione's original last name- she was Hermione Malfoy, now, as good as little sister to Draco. They had even only stopped sharing rooms when they were seven, when arguments over toys had begun creating more than metaphorical explosions. There was no way for her, or her husband, to return the girl and Hermione did not seem to remember her original parents.
"Mama?" the girl in question asked, pulling Narcissa out of her thoughts, "Do you think Draco will let me play with the Contraption?"
"Most likely- you were able to fix it faster than him last time, so maybe if he's stuck."
Hermione gave her mother a brilliant smile and ran off to find her brother.
(L/N)
"Have you revealed the origin of the girl to anyone else?" the auror asked. He had a name, Lucius knew, but by this time the magical law enforcement officials who came to check up on him had all blurred together. In any case, there was no real point in him learning the man's name- the odds of Lucius being told a real name were slim at best.
Lucius shook his head. "No," he said, "why would we? Most assume she is some distant relation whose parents have passed," he added, "and have learned that we do not answer questions.
He took a moment to check his Occlumency shields- it was unlikely for the auror, an older looking black man, to have any skill in Legilimency, but it was better to check now than be surprised later- as he answered this question. It was a lie, though only slightly. He had told Rudolphus and some of the other rebel lords his daughter's origin.
At first it had been to perhaps find Hermione's birth parents and maybe at least check up on them, see how they were faring. He had wanted to know for himself how much what was a good thing for Narcissa and him had hurt this unknown couple. But then he had told them because they, as his family and as his former compatriots, did not deserve to have any secrets kept from them, especially of this nature.
Any sort of mental protection turned out to be unnecessary. Lucius could feel no sign of any mental probing, meaning that if it turned out the auror had any mental abilities (unlikely), they were of a caliber that his shields could not guard against. This was probably not the case, considering he had not yet been clapped in irons or stupefied yet.
The auror only nodded, and did his best to give Lucius a probing look. It failed.
Eventually the man left with about as much information as the Ministry had before the check up.
He could not let Hermione and Draco know of this visit- it was Hermione's birthday. Today of all days, he couldn't do that.
(L/N)
Lucius watched Draco carefully demonstrating the current settings of the Contraption to Hermione, his now long silver hair tied back to be out of the way. The Contraption, a gift from Narcissa's brother-in-law, was a complicated mechanism that apparently was meant to demonstrate how various mechanical bits and pieces, both magical and mundane, fit together.
Though Weasley had not told the him or Narcissa Hermione's birthday the night she dropped the girl off, some weeks before their ward's third birthday Narcissa had received an owl from Dumbledore on the subject. Her tenth birthday had occured and passed some months ago, Yule as well and the time left before both children turned eleven was far too quickly running out.
Originally Narcissa had intended to send them both to Durmstrang- if everything went wrong again the children would be safe and far inland on the Continent. But Dumbledore had objected, and so both children would attend Hogwarts along with the much diminished population of magical children in the British Isles.
There was nothing else to do but accept it and hope that both would be safe, or as safe as they well could be.
Lucius had done the math and the two children would be in the same year as one of the Weasley boys, as well as the child of two of Dumbledore's strongest adherents, the Potters. The consequences of Tom's panicked attempts to stop their prophesied destruction of his forces had gone poorly, but perhaps- the silver haired man pulled himself out of his thoughts of the past and future, and focused again on the children playing in front of him.
There was little point to spending too much time worrying- already he and Narcissa had lost many hours of sleep discussing these matters at night, getting all their fears out then in order to stay happy seeming in front of the children.
There was no way for Lucius to know whether or not Hermione remembered her birth parents, and she did not know how tenuous her position as the second child of the Malfoy family truly was. All he could do was hope that he was a good enough father to make up for her lack of her original one, even though he could not, and did not intend to, truly replace him.
"Father, help us," Draco said. Both the children were glaring at the Contraption. Whatever setting they had put it on having proven much too hard, but neither child had called on Dobby or Mitz for help.
Lucius moved so that he was sitting by them, and peered at the thing. "I fear," he said, "that I have no idea what this "Contraption"," they both giggled, "is meant to be doing."
"Well, we're trying to get this," Hermione pointed to a small metallic sphere. It glinted dully in the light of the room, "to move here," she pointed to a step-like part, which connected through a long rounded piece of metal to another part, "in order to set off all these other steps, and push the ball back to the front to start it up again."
An interesting puzzle, definitely, and Lucius may just have seen this sort of thing before when building things with Rudolphus when he'd had spare time in his later years at Hogwarts. Looking at the Contraption more closely, he noticed that two parts that connected the hole where the sphere was obviously meant to be dropped and the step that started the chain reaction itself were out of alignment. Instead of telling the children outright, he made a big show of looking confused, and asked for help looking over that specific bit.
The noises of triumph as they got it working made Lucius grin. Even if he was running out of time, there was still time left, and that would have to be enough.
(L/N)
Encountering Molly Weasley in Diagon Alley by Madam Malkin's, the August before Draco and Hermione would be going off for their first years at Hogwarts, was the first time Narcissa had seen the Weasley matriarch since the night she had unceremoniously handed Hermione to her. They moved in different circles, generally, and though both of their husbands worked in the Ministry there was little reason for their respective worlds to intersect.
Molly evidently recognized who Hermione was- there were no other children that Narcissa would have had a reason to bring to the Alley along with Draco, and looked as though she wished to comment.
One of her many redheaded children, probably Ronald as he was still short and rather young looking, about the same age as Draco and Hermione, ran up to her before she could say anything to Narcissa and tugged on her sleeve.
"Fred and George told me they make you fight a troll for sorting," the boy said plaintively. Molly sighed and walked off after her son.
Before her own children could ask her questions she wasn't sure she could answer, Narcissa pressed on to the Owl Emporium- she intended to buy both Hermione and Draco their own birds, so that they would not have to use the school hours to send letters home.
"Who was that?" Hermione asked, "the boy, I mean, I know that that was Mrs. Weasley."
"That was Ronald," Narcissa answered as they made their way across Diagon Alley, "her youngest, I believe. He will be in your year at Hogwarts."
"Huh," her daughter eventually said, before returning to the task of making her way towards the shop.
Narcissa did her best not to breath a sigh of relief at the fact that Hermione didn't add any special significance to Molly Weasley, nor did she seem to remember the woman who had first given her to the Malfoys.
It had now been nearly nine years since the night Lucius had walked into the house behind the scowling red-headed woman, carrying a girl who in Narcissa's mind was now as much her child as the one she had given birth to. And yet she could not shake the guilt at the pain Hermione's muggle parents must have felt at the loss of their child, even though she knew that neither she nor her husband had much choice in taking her on.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts as the three of them arrived at their destination, and Narcissa smiled as Draco pushed his way excitedly into the cramped environment of the Owl Emporium and Hermione followed him a few steps behind, a little more cautiously than her older brother but still obviously interested in all the birds.
Standing just off the entrance to the store, in order to not block in and outgoing foot traffic, Narcissa looked over the store. The last time she had been in the dingy shop had been, well, a long time before, before she had married Lucius, even. Nothing much in it had changed, there were more exotic birds than she remembered but other than that it was the same, down to the smell.
She watched as Draco excitedly chatted with one of the service people, even as Hermione immediately went to the small bookshelf containing a couple battered books that most likely were on the care and feeding of owls, considering their location.
Molly Weasley, having definitely gone in a different direction, was nowhere to be found. Good. It was too early in the day for Hermione to be dealing with anti-muggleborn prejudice, especially since no one but Molly and whoever had taken the girl would even know her status as such.
The obvious difference in skin color between Hermione and every other Malfoy was not something easily explainable, but despite their status as a part of the rebel nobility the Malfoys still commanded enough power that most people did not question it, at least not in front of the Malfoys themselves.
(L/N)
The wall between platforms nine and ten at King's Cross looked ordinary enough. It was brick, red, ordinary. The trains came and went as trains did, with lots of noise and the shouting of people getting on and off.
A girl of average height and a boy who was slightly taller than normal looked at the wall, both a bit nervous. "You sure this will work?" Hermione asked Draco, regarding the wall with open suspicion. Their parents had given them basic instructions and then vanished.
Draco looked around to see if anyone was close and leaned close to his sister, whispering, "Uncle Rodolphus explained to me that the wall is an illusioned short-distance portal, we're going to be fine."
Hermione nodded. "That makes sense," she whispered back. The two children grabbed their carts, Draco's owl hooting nervously in her cage and Hermione's sitting sedately in his. They then accelerated as they moved towards the wall. Hermione did her best not to blink but try as she might, her eyes closed for a second as she reached what should be solid brick. She opened them and blinked again, trying to clear her vision before realizing that in fact, what she assumed was some sort of flaw in her vision was just steam that filled the entire platform.
Draco and Hermione looked at each other as the train, an ancient looking scarlet steam engine with "Hogwarts Express" written across the front, pulled into the station with a loud whistle. The door opened, and students of all ages began streaming on.
"Should we just... go on?" Draco asked, talking a bit louder than he usually did, in order to be heard over the people crowding on the platform. Hermione nodded.
"Probably," she said.
The two eleven year olds looked at each other, before Hermione firmly grabbed Draco's hand. "We are sitting together," she said.
Draco grinned, before asking "How are we going to carry our stuff on?"
Hermione sighed, and dropped Draco's hand. "Follow me," she said. Both carrying their trunks, they made their way with the other students into the train, immediately trying to find an empty compartment. This turned out to be more difficult than they thought it would be, older students having apparently arrived early to snag the better seats.
Draco eventually found what appeared at first to be an empty compartment, but when Hermione pushed the doors open she saw a small, black-haired boy sitting in a corner by the window, looking out. Without really thinking about it, Hermione grabbed Draco's hand and pulled him into the compartment, shutting the doors behind them.
The two Malfoy children sat on the seat across from the boy, and the three children sat in a not quite uncomfortable silence.
"Hello," Hermione eventually said. Draco turned in his seat to stare at her, and the black-haired boy looked up. "What?" she asks, "I don't like quiet."
"Hello," he said.
Hermione elbowed Draco. He glared at her. After a few seconds of sullen silence she prodded him again and he sighed, before turning to stare out the window of the compartment. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Harry Black," the boy said.
The name was familiar to Hermione, but only barely. She knew the Black family, and her Aunt Bellatrix would talk sometimes about her cousins, so she assumed Harry was one of those cousins. Wizarding Britain, especially the circles she moved in, was not exactly a very big world but she did not think she had ever met Harry in person.
Draco did not appear to be responding, still staring pointedly out the window, so Hermione decided to introduce the two of them for him. "I'm Hermione Malfoy, and this is Draco. Ignore him, he doesn't like strangers."
"Would he be more comfortable if I left?" he asked, and she stared at him.
"That's not what I'm asking," she said. "I'm saying I'm going to talk to you and you can just ignore him if he continues to be a moldy flobberworm."
"Oh," Harry said. "What do you want to talk about?"
Hermione was silent for about a second, before asking, "Have you ever read Hogwarts a History?"
Draco rolling his eyes was almost audible. "Not again," he said. Turning to Harry for the first time, he said, "she's obsessed with that book." After speaking, he realized he'd actually talked and he turned to glare at Hermione. "You're still a stranger," he said. "But you seem okay, I think."
Harry grinned nervously. "I haven't had a chance to read it, yet, preparation for school was a bit hectic," he said, replying to Hermione. "I might read it later though."
"You should," Hermione says. "I definitely didn't want to figure out the vanishing step by accident."
"I actually heard of that! Sirius tells me about his Hogwarts days a lot, and they mentioned it. Though they also said it might have moved," he said.
Hermione shrugged, "I'll trust the book," she said.
Just then, the three children heard a long, final whistle and Hermione felt the train begin to move.
To her surprise, Harry grinned, and seemed to vibrate with excitement at the sound. "I can't wait to start," he said, "magic school, you know?"
Hermione shrugged, "That's not so strange, you're not muggleborn, are you?" she asked.
"Oh, no, I'm not, I've just heard so much about Hogwarts," he said. Draco scowled at the both of them.
"There's no problem with that, Hermione we have the same dad," he said. Realizing what she'd said Hermione shifted awkwardly.
Silence. Harry opened his mouth, apparently hesitating, and said, "one of the people who raised me is a werewolf, and so I spent a lot of time in the muggle world, hiding."
"Oh," Draco said. "Huh."
Hermione glanced at him, and decided not to chime in with what exactly their parents had been doing as they grew. "We- even if you were muggleborn, we wouldn't mind," Hermione said, and Draco nodded.
What would have definitely been an incredibly awkward conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the woman with the food cart. Draco happily bought an absurd number of pumpkin pasties while Hermione bought some chocolate frogs. Harry bought multiples of each type, grinning. "I haven't had any magical candies in a year," he said, opening the packet of a chocolate frog.
The frog jumped out and onto the floor, and Hermione let out a startled laugh as Harry trapped it using his foot as he pulled the card out of the packaging. "Oh, Dumbledore," he said, looking at the benevolent looking photo of the Headmaster.
"I actually don't have him yet!" Draco said, and Harry stared at him.
"Really? He's one of the most common," he said, handing the card to Draco.
Draco shrugged, taking the card. "Defeated Gellert Grindelwald, worked with Nicolas Flamel," he read aloud from it. He then placed it image up on his leg as he went to open another frog packet. The photo of Dumbledore smiled benignly at Hermione, who without really thinking about it reached over to flip the card face down.
"Do you think Chocolate Frog card images can understand us?" she asked.
"No, I don't think so," Harry said. "I don't know if paintings really do either.
"Well they can talk at least," she said. "Do you know what house you'll be sorted into?" she asked Harry.
He shook his lapsed into a more comfortable silence, carefully making their way through Harry's candies. This was nice, Hermione considered. Maybe Harry would even be their friend.
Please review! (Seriously though, this author at least basically runs on hot chocolate, reviews and exhaustion. It's fun! :P)
