Chapter three! Draco arrives at the Grangers house! Hope you enjoy!

Grangers House wasn't at all what Draco imagined. He thought something more along the lines of a small shack, like that big oaf, what do they call him? Hagrid? But when they stood at the edge of their lawn, gazing up, he realised it was reasonably average, and he wondered what it would be like to grow up in a house where you couldn't hide away from your family. Then he wondered if Granger ever had to hide.

"Well we have reached our destination, I shall assist you inside, then i'll be on my way!" The Ministry man said in a cheerful tone.

He started after the man, but was pulled back by Hermione. She put her hand on his arm sympatheticaly. "Draco, I really am sorry- I wasn't aware of how it happened,"

"Don't worry over it." He said as he shoved past her. He heard her sigh, and a few seconds later she reappeared in the doorway behind him. "Draco!" He looked up to see a woman, Grangers mother he supposed, standing before him. She wore a welcoming face, and had brown bushy hair just like Hermione. A man stood behind her, arms crossed as he leaned against a nearby wall, he surveyed him through rectangular glasses. "So this is the famous son of Narcissa and Lucious, greatest condolences, they were great people, your parents." He studied Draco for a moment longer before saying, "you look just like your father when he was your age."

"Er, Thanks. Pleased to meet you." Draco said, he wasn't sure what he should be doing, he'd detested their daughter for the past six years, they'd called eachother names each chance they got, and now he was meeting her parents, his godparents, and he is expected to live with them!

"Oh! Havent we been rude! Come on in!" Mrs. Granger said, "My names Dorothy and this is Ted, my husband, and of course you've already met my daughter. Hermione, why don't you show him around? Me and Ted will bring your trunk up to your new bedroom." She put her hand to Dracos cheek then and looked down at him. "I am so sorry for your loss, Draco. I do hope you realise they were good people, just mixed up in something rotten."

Draco just nodded, he knew if he'd tried for an answer, he'd only end up with tears, and thats not who he was. Draco Malfoy should never cry.

Mrs. Granger left the room, he watched her as she walked up a flight of stairs, her husband trailing along behind her, managing to lift Dracos heavy trunk.

When they were no longer in sight, Draco whipped around to face Granger. "I can't bloody believe this! Its a trick! I bet Potter and Weasley had something to do with this... When I get my hands on those rotten gits I'm going to..." Draco plotted.

"This isn't a trick! I assure you, I would never allow you in my house if it weren't required by the Ministry." Granger replied.

"I cant believe I'm expected to share a house with a couple of mudbloods..." Draco murmured.

Hermione ingnored this. She stepped around him out of the door way, making sure to keep as much room apart from them as possible, and made her way down the narrow hallway. "Well, I'm expected to give you a tour," She said without looking back, "don't just stand there like an idiot, come along."

Draco, unsure of what else he could do, followed her down the hallway. He ended up standing in what he guessed was a very small kitchen. He had never actually been in a kitchen before, his family had always had house elves to prepare their dinner, and Draco really had no reason to go in there. It's not as if he wanted to spend his afternoons hanging around with the creatures who clean their toilets.

"This is our kitchen, where we make our own food, we don't enslave poor creatures to do our work for us." She said in a snotty tone. "You'll encounter a bit of a change here, seeing as were not to use magic."

Draco choked. "No magic?" He thought that must have been a joke! Draco was a wizard, a pureblood, and he was expected to ditch the idea of magic like it was just an old pair of sneakers! "Your parents do understand you are a witch, don't they?"

"Of course they do, but they are very strict about magic and using quick fixes, they insist on manual work while I'm home, and they expect the same from you now." Hermione said matter-of-factly, he could have sworn he saw her grinning, she must have known it would torture him not to use magic.

"Lets move on," She walked off to the left, and entered a room with a small wooden table with four chairs placed around it. The room had been painted with warm colours, a small chandelier hung from the ceiling above the center of the table. Curtains hung from a fair sized window on the far side wall. "This, is our dining room." She walked through another open door to a fairly large room that could only be their drawing room.

It was small, compared to the one at Dracos house, but he couldn't escape the feeling of instant comfort. The couches were placed in the middle of the room, facing a great stone fireplace, two bookshelves lined the wall around it, but the thing that startled Draco where the imense amount of family photographs on the walls.

The were large picture frames and small ones, some with grey frames and some with black, but the one thing that stood out the most was how happy the three of them seemed in each photo. It wasn't that "Smile! Your pictures being taken!" sort of happy, their smiles were sincere. Real.

He walked over to a picture on the far wall, the three Grangers stood with their backs to an enourmous boat. Hermione stood in the middle, her fathers arm lay across her shoudlers while her hand was laced tightly in her mothers. Draco couldn't help but think back to his childhood, when all he wished for was the comfort of his family. Instead he got a big house and a family who very rarely spoke to eachother.

"That was last summer, my parents said we were going to my aunts house, but they took me on that boat instead, it was a suprise for my birthday." Hermione said, her voice was gentle. Draco hadn't even realised she was watching him. "You all look really happy." He wasnt sure what made him do it, but he turned to Hermione and smiled at her, just slightly. Draco could tell he had shocked her. Her brows furrowed as if trying to work something out, but after a moment he saw the corner of her mouth turn upwards.

Her parents came down the stairs then, Mrs. Granger spoke, "Your room is ready Draco." He crossed the living room and made his way up the stairs behind Mrs. Granger, leaving Hermione looking utterly perplexed in the drawing room.