Chapter 3
"You must get dressed." The elf was telling her. "Dinner is in half an hour."
"I'm not going." She said sitting in the room she had woken up in this morning. Astoria's room.
"Master will not be pleased." The elf said, obviously not looking forward to informing the master of her decision.
"Well, he can just get over it." She said, then felt bad for the elf. "Tell him I have a headache and have retired."
The elf bowed and popped away. She certainly wasn't going to have dinner with him. This whole situation was just ridiculous and she needed to think.
The elf eventually came back with some food, which she wasn't all that interested in. She did feel quite drained. Which she figured was normal after seeing ones body in the morgue.
What did this mean, she wondered to herself. Eventually she concluded that this must be Astoria's body. So where was Astoria?
Her thoughts were running around in circles. She didn't even hear him come in the room.
"You are expected to be at dinner, Astoria." He said coldly.
"I'm not feeling well." She said.
"I don't care. If you're bleeding to death, you will still come down to dinner." Draco said. "You will do your part as my wife and you will do it well. Tomorrow night, we are going to the Parkinsons and you will go and be a dutiful wife." He said while walking around the room.
"I'm not your wife." She said. "There has been some kind of mix up. I'm Hermione Granger. I don't know what happened."
"Well, Astoria." He stressed. "I don't care if you think your Genghis Khan, you are not getting out of your duties."
He walked into the bathroom, then returned and strode towards here. He took hold of her hand and shoved her wedding band on, then another ring with some kind of milky opal on it.
"You may not take these off." He ordered harsely. "The doctor said you were suffering from delusions. They will pass, in the meantime, you will behave yourself."
"Or what?" Hermione challenged getting annoyed with his heavy handedness.
"Or I am going to make your life hell." He said sharply and grabbed her chin and held it tightly.
Hermione struggled again the hold.
"Marrying into this family means more than shopping and parties. It comes with duties. I thought you understood that." He said coldly. "If you haven't understood that so far, you will learn so now."
Hermione was starting to get a twinge of worry, but he released her and turned towards the door.
"I think you need to stay at home tomorrow." He said.
"I have things to do." She shouted.
"Not if I tell you to stay at home." He said. "Duty remember."
Duty isn't bending to your whims, she wanted to shout after him, but she didn't want to extend this conversation. He was going to make her life hell was he, somehow she thought that Astoria already was in hell. Poor Astoria.
His visit had made her angry. The wedding band sat around her finger like burning ring of coal. She took it off and threw it into a corner of the room. Like she would ever be married to him.
Anger made her hungry and she demolished the cooling dinner. Ones the anger subsided, her body practically shut down.
Hermione had all manners of weird dreams, and woke with a start in the morning. She had no idea where she was and it took her a few moments to remember her shocking circumstances. And the conversation with Draco last night.
He didn't believe her when she said she was Hermione Granger. He thought, the doctor told him, that she was delusional. However much she argued, he would still believe she was delusional because of a knock on her head.
Maybe she could convince him, tell him things only Hermione Granger would know, but as she considered it, she didn't know him well enough. What was she going to say, he was a prat beyond comparison. But that was common knowledge, as was pretty much everything she knew about him. They just didn't share that kind of history.
She did with Harry, but Harry would be suspicious. He would assume that Astoria had done legimency on her, pulled out her memories to use against him. Sometimes magic just got in the way. She would have to think of a way to get people to believe her.
A pop told her the elf was there.
"Mistress must get ready for breakfast." The elf said quietly.
Hermione rolled her eyes, but she had a pretty strong suspicion that Draco would come up to give her one of his little pep talks if she didn't come down. She decided it was just easier to go down. She wasn't going to challenge like a petulant child. Until she figured out what was going on and how to get out of it, she would just go along with the routine.
She wanted to not comply when the elf handed her the wedding band, but she took it and put it on. Someone is going to pay for this, she told herself.
Draco didn't look as she entered, as he kept on reading the paper. Unfortunately there were two sets of papers. Hermione could have cursed out loud. Who else would have been at breakfast at Malfoy Manor.
Oh, just the man who tried to kill her, then watched over her torture in one of the rooms here somewhere. Hermione felt the uncomfortable, clammy feeling of a cold sweat coming on. But she took her plate and scooped some eggs from the buffet serving table.
As she sat down, Narcissa Malfoy swept into the room. Once Narcissa was settled, her and Lucius started co-ordinating their day. Actually it was mostly Narcissa who talked, Lucius would affirm along the way.
"And what have you planned today Astoria?" The other woman asked.
"Astoria is staying at home for a while." Draco answered for her. "She needs to recover from her fall the other day."
Hermione bristled at having him speak for her.
"That is a wonderful idea." Narcissa said. "Some peace and quiet will give you some time to reflect."
Reflect on what, Hermione wanted to ask, but it would have been rude. With that, the conversation moved onto recent gossip. Again, it was Narcissa that was talking and it didn't seem to matter that no one else was participating.
Apparently a Mrs. Marchmand had been left practically penniless after her husband had died with massive amounts of debt. The poor woman only had her family property left. A measly London town house and a tiny property is Italy. Wasn't it shocking. And poor Robilliards had lost another baby.
Lucius excused himself and Draco soon followed. Hermione was left in the room with Narcissa Malfoy and an awkward silence followed. After a few minutes of silence, Hermione excused herself and left.
Hermione was going to do what she always did when stuck in a bad situation, she researched. The Malfoy library was legendary. She'd always thought she'd never get a chance to see it, but now it was there and waiting for her and it was huge. Hermione gasped as she walked into the large room, covered with books from ceiling to floor.
She started to lightly peruse the shelves. It would take her years to go through the library. There were lots of titles she didn't know from what she could see. Titles that would have been restricted in the Hogwarts library. The ministry had gone through Malfoy Manor many times after the war finished, but Hermione was pretty sure that the Malfoys had objectionable material elsewhere. Books that were probably illegal. Books all about doing horrible things to other people.
Hermione wasn't interested in the Dark Arts, in the end it was just about doing awful things to other people. It had none of the beauty and joy that magic contained. It was just ugly.
She searched for most of the day, but couldn't find anything about her predicament. There were a few spells about allowing people to see and move other people's bodies, like a variant of the Imperio curse. But it was always a cast spell. The Imperio curse, no matter its variant, didn't happen by accident. And it certainly wasn't done by someone outside of their own body.
Hermione massaged her temples. The sun was starting to set outside and she had a pretty significant tension headache, plus an empty belly as she worked straight through lunch.
She groaned as she remembered the dinner she was having with the Parkinsons. She had to go be a 'dutiful wife' as Draco had called. Draco's dutiful wife, which was somewhere between being ludicrous to being downright revolting.
The elf was waiting impatiently when she got back to her room. Hermione picked a dress, but the elf distress only increased with her selection. In the end, she let the elf choose a dress, which was black and silver. It fit her perfectly, showed off Astoria's curves while not being slutty. It was still something that had no place whatsoever in Hermione's closet.
Hermione hated it, it made her feel exposed. The elf made her sit down while it brushed her hair. Hermione lack of interest seemed to give the else free rein, but she stopped it when it tried to apply make up. And she stopped it again as it tried to adorn her with jewellery. There was only so far she would go with playing along.
"You must mistress." The elf whined. "It will reflect badly on the master."
Hermione was annoyed, but let it. She could imagine that a lack of jewellery in the pureblood world might mean something, where showing off ones wealth was expected. She thought it was shallow and pathetic, but she was now at the centre of shallow and pathetic. Welcome to Shallowville, she said to herself.
Actually, she looked stunning. Astoria looked stunning. She could see why Draco had married her. Draco would be attracted to that sort of thing. All Hermione remembered of Astoria was that she was kind of thick. They weren't in the same year, but Astoria was not the kind of girl one would see in the library. Maybe not thick as much, grossly disinterested academically might have been closer to the truth.
Few of the elite pureblood girls applied themselves academically, why would they, they were only going to marry anyway. Their only purpose in life was to be someone's wife. The thought made Hermione want to throw up. It was so much better being a half blood, or even a muggleborn. As much as they looked down on her, she had all the choices in the world.
Although it had only got her a dead end job and alone in a one bedroom flat. Sometimes she wondered if things would have gone better for her if she had been a half blood. The prejudice against her kind was still deep rooted and pervasive.
The idea that she was going into the elitist pureblood society tonight was kind of funny. Someone they would never accept into their mist. And she would be escorted there by the biggest elitist of them all, Draco effin Malfoy.
"Mistress must go now." The elf said. It almost shooed her out of the room.
They were all waiting in the hall. Hermione still got an adrenalin rush every time she was Lucius Malfoy. Her subconscious still treated him like an enemy.
They all looked very smart. Just a little bit fancier than their standard smart dress. She guessed they had all sorts of nuances on smartness. This was not ball smartness, just a level less. Draco did look good in dress robes. He always had. It was something Hermione had grudgingly admitted over the years.
"We are ready to go." Lucius said when she joined the group. Narcissa took his arm and he apparated, leaving just her and Draco.
"Now behave." He said.
"I'm not a child." Hermione said back and he took her arm and side along apparated them. Hermione didn't know if it was the apparation or the company that made her want to throw up.
When they got to the other side, they were at the Parkinsons'. The whole house was lit up with candles giving it a golden glow. There was music and the constant drone of conversation. Hermione stepped away, but Draco grabbed her hip and pulled her back.
"Dutiful wife." He warned darkly.
She suffered through the whole evening at Draco's side. His hand was burning her lower back throughout the evening, making her feel extremely uncomfortable. She had actually never been this close to Malfoy before. Draco talked to an endless number of people. He was charming, well spoken and even funny in a very dry way. It was almost fascinating watching a toned down version of the strip the walls highly focused wit that she typically got from him.
His charm would completely disappear when there was no one there to see it, and he would revert back to his cold harsh self, until a new audience appeared. Hermione spend the evening focusing on the finger foods that was being passed around.
Sometimes she would see Pansy sending evil looks at her across the room. Hermione would think that Pansy had realised there was a mudblood at her parents' party, but Draco still kept in hand on her back like a tether. Draco wouldn't touch her for a second if he actually thought she was anything other than his deluded wife.
Or if he had set this all up, somehow, why? It didn't even make sense that he would want to drag a mudblood around a party. If this was some kind of ploy involving exposing her in front of all his peers, he would have done it by now. Unless this was a practical joke on him. And where the hell was Astoria?