Chapter four
Hermione was fully awake when the morning came. She was also very hungry, for how long had she been without food? Just then she heard a faint knocking on the door and a little creature with long ears and big, blue eyes peeked through the door opening.
'A Malfoy family without slaves is just like a book without pages.' She thought grimly.
The little house elf crept in on his toes so as not to disturb her. Hermione found that a bit amusing since she obviously didn't do anything important. The little creature bowed low and stayed so for an uncomfortably long time.
"Ehm… you may stand." Hermione said and tried to sound friendly.
The elf straightened up as if her every word was to be obeyed without questioning.
"Master has sent Riel to ask miss if miss wishes anything, master thought that miss might be hungry." The elf said and lowered his gaze so that it wouldn't meet Hermione's by mistake.
"I would love some food, Riel." She said sincerely: "But I wonder if it would be possible for me to eat in the kitchen? I need to stretch my legs a bit and some company would be lovely too."
The elf seemed astonished at her question. He blinked, twice. Hermione didn't think he'd been expecting that question at all.
"Miss would be welcome to eat in the great hall if miss wishes… it's not appropriate for a witch to eat in the kitchen."
"I that case I would need my clothes. I don't think your master would approve if I were to eat my dinner in the great hall dressed in only this nightgown." Hermione said slowly. There would be no point in trying to persuade the elf in this question, he only followed the rules.
"Riel is very sorry miss." The elf said with a grave expression on his face and looked down at his hands: "Miss Clothes had to be cut from miss body, you cannot wear them."
Hermione stared at the elf. Had she been hurt that badly? For how long had she really been unconscious? And who had taken care of her?
The elf winched under her stare and when she noticed she immediately took her eyes of him. It definitely wasn't his fault that she had been injured or that her clothes had been destroyed. Was it really anybody's fault?
"Riel will ask master what Riel should do." The elf said and his voice seemed to apologise for his very existence.
"Don't worry Riel; I'll wait for you to return." Hermione said and watched as the Elf disappeared with a soft 'pop'.
She rubbed her brow. She still couldn't grasp what she'd been through. She still couldn't believe that she had left her two children. It pained her enormously to know that they might not exist in the future.
Could Ron look after them when she was gone? Would he be able to? He always worked so much and only came home in time to kiss them good night. But did Ron really exist in the future? How much had she changed when she went back in time?
She was startled by the sound of the returning house elf. He approached her with a bundle of dark blue fabric in his thin arms.
"Master said that miss could have this dress, master said that the blue colour would match your b-beautiful brown hair."
'A Malfoy that gives a servant a dress, with compliments to her hair?' She thought and raised her left eyebrow a bit: 'Well it seems like there is hope for the world yet.'
"That was very thoughtful of him." She said with a smile.
"Riel will help miss to dress if she needs help, master said that miss would probably still be in pain and master did not want miss to overstrain herself." The elf said and gave her the dress.
Hermione was surprised at how soft the fabric was; it almost felt like silk and nothing like the rough woollen material she had expected. She winced in pain as she got up from the bed, her every muscle was sore and she could feel the jabbing pain of her broken rib.
'It's a miracle that I'm still alive.' She reflected and allowed Riel to help her out of the nightgown.
She gasped when she saw how battered her body was; she had wounds on her hips and on her arms. Her whole body was covered in bruises.
"Master says that miss will be fine now that miss is up and walking. Master will give miss a potion that removes the bruises." Riel told her reassuringly and helped her to put on the long silken stockings.
"It seems as though I owe your master more than my life." Hermione said and smiled.
When Hermione was fully dressed Riel offered her a mirror so that she could see the result. Hermione was grateful when she noted that at least her face wasn't so badly bruised, she had a small swelling under her right eye and a bruise on her chin but nothing more. The blue dress was beautiful and it covered all of her bruises, except from those on her hands.
"Miss looks lovely in that dress." Riel the house elf said and smiled a little: "But master also required that miss wear these."
The little creature snapped with his fingers and a pair of black slippers appeared in his hands. He smiled and helped her put them on.
"Thank you Riel, now I won't have to get cold."
"Miss should thank master." The elf replied: "Now let me take miss downstairs. Riel has prepared food for miss and Riel's master."
Hermione nodded and followed the house elf through the door. She grimaced when it became obvious that she still limped a bit, she wouldn't really be able to do an impressing entrance.
Malfoy manor was very impressive. Every wall was covered with portraits that whispered and pointed as she and Riel passed them by. She noted that the door to Lucius Malfoy's chamber still was closed. He was probably too weak to join their dinner. She found that very relieving.
Riel helped her down the stairs as she found them very difficult to get by.
She was astonished by the wonderful architecture and the tasteful, though very old fashioned, decoration and she was even more amazed when she and Riel entered the great hall. The room was oak panelled and had a red marble floor. Four huge windows, draped with green velvet curtains, gave a splendid view over a wonderful garden in its winter slumber. Two fireplaces spread their warmth throughout the room and several paintings decorated the walls. A huge oak table stood in the middle of the room and two green armchairs were placed in front of one of the fireplaces. The roof was high above them; it was white and from it hung a huge, enchanting crystal chandelier.
"Sit down miss, master will be here in a while and Riel will serve your dinner." The house elf said and offered her a seat at the table.
She nodded and sat down. The chair was comfortable and she allowed herself to fall back against its back support. No sooner had she done that when a familiar voice said:
"I hope the dress was to your liking?"
"Yes thank you Mr. Malfoy, it was very lovely." She answered and turned around to look at the man.
He was dressed in knee-length breeches with a matching short-waisted doublet that was slitted across the chest with sleeves slitted to the elbow. He wore a white shirt collar that had a high stand and fall on his shoulders and Hermione noted that it was trimmed with scallops of lace. He wore cream colored cuffed boots with butterfly-shaped spurs, and his long, blond hair flowed freely over his shoulders.
He smiled apologetically towards her; something she thought looked strange in a face that resembled Lucius Malfoy's face so much. "I am sorry, I haven't introduced myself properly yet. My name is Philip Malfoy, lord of Wiltshire."
She didn't know what to say, this man didn't behave as she had expected, and if he hadn't looked so much like Lucius she would not have believed that he was a Malfoy.
"I'm honored." Was the only thing that she could come up with.
"I am truly sorry that I gave you the cold shoulder the other day, I was merely curious about the two of you. But I understand now that you and your master aren't very close to each other and it was unfair of me to ask you questions that you evidently couldn't answer." He said and Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing, a pure-blooded Malfoy apologized to her.
"It's quite alright…" She said and looked down at her hands: "How is he doing?"
"I haven't talked to him yet, but Riel gave him breakfast and lunch today and he ate with a good appetite. I'm going to visit him after our dinner, you are welcome to join me if you'd like."
"Yes, I would like that, thank you." She murmured and was thankful when Riel arrived with their food; this Malfoy was a bit disturbing somehow. She had expected him to be cruel and loathing just like Lucius but when he turned out to be the opposite she didn't really know how to handle him.
The food that Riel served was magnificent; pink and tender lamb meat with herbs with a side of tasty root vegetable stew. For drinks they were served a rich, red wine. Hermione couldn't complain; Riel was a very good cook.
"You look troubled my dear." Philip Malfoy noticed.
And without thinking Hermione let the thing that troubled her most slip, "I… I just miss them."
"Did you lose someone?"
"My family…" She whispered: "My two little children… and my husband… they're gone."
"Dear me!" Philip shouted, clearly outraged: "What kind of monsters can kill children?"
"You would be surprised if I told you how ordinary some monsters can be." She answered and felt a pang of guilt.
'Very ordinary…'
"I'd rather not talk about it Mr. Malfoy." She said and felt how tears of weakness fell from her eyes: "It hurts too much."
"I understand my dear, you must forgive me, I live a very isolated life and the cruelty of the outside world does shock me sometimes."
"I and my master were the only ones that made it. He was almost dying when I found him, they had broken his wand in two so he took my wand and said that he would bring us somewhere safe… but… he was badly injured and he fainted and couldn't… I thought we were going to die." She lied and stared stubbornly down on her plate.
"How awful!" Philip Malfoy burst out, Hermione could tell from the way he acted that he had bought her lie.
"Yes." She whispered, "Do you know what became of my wand…? Did it break?"
"Oh! No, your wand made it, a fine piece of work, that." He said and smiled: "Would you like to have it now?"
She nodded and felt very relieved.
"Riel!" Her host called and in the blink of an eye the little elf stood before them, bowing so deep that his long nose touched the floor.
"Yes my master?"
"Will you be a good elf and fetch the girl her wand?"
The lord of the manor gave her a smile as the creature disappeared, how could he be a Malfoy?
"While Riel is away, will you do me the honour of letting me escort you upstairs? I'm sure you must be tired and anxious to meet your master."
She stared at him, why couldn't men in her time speak like that?
"I would be delighted." She responded: "But there is really no need… I mean… I'm just a servant and you're…"
"What nonsense." Philip smiled and got up to offer her his arm: "My father was a cruel man that was above everything else. He beat my mother and he accidentally killed my brother, the house elves were so terrified of him that they almost refused to assist him when he asked. When he died I made a promise to treat everyone with respect."
"That's admirable." She smiled and allowed him to lead her out of the great hall and up to the second floor, he almost had do carry her up the stairs.
When they reached Lucius door she stopped and turned to face him.
"Would you mind if I went in first? I need to talk to him in private." She asked pleadingly.
"Of course, call to me when you're done talking." He answered and gave her a dazzling smile.
'God, he is handsome…'
"Thank you." She said and smiled thankfully.
He opened the door for her and she went inside, when the door closed behind her a not so welcome voice greeted her.
"Good day servant." Drawled Lucius Malfoy from his bed, Hermione noticed that he had succeeded in sitting up.
"Bastard." She replied.
"Language mudblood." He sneered and gave her an icy stare: "What do you want?"
"I came to remind you of our agreement. The lord of the manor is coming to see you and I don't want you to fuck things up." She hissed: "Because if you do I'll make you live to regret it."
"My, my, my… the little mudblood has grown herself a pair of teeth." He chuckled.
A cold shiver went down her spine when she saw his cruel expression. Memories from the war came to mind; that awful night in Malfoy manor when Bellatrix nearly killed her. He was a murderer, a cold-blooded killer and he hated her. How could she count on him keeping their secret?
"Don't worry mudblood." He purred: "I will keep to your story; after all, you've put yourself at my mercy… Now, enlighten me, what have you told our host?"
"I-…" She started but he'd had knocked her off balance, what did he mean exactly?
"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" He mocked.
"I've told him that we were attacked by bandits. I lost my husband and my two children. You can come up with your own story about your own losses; I haven't said anything about that to our host. You will have to come up with a believable story about how you are related to this man and you'll also have to tell him where we come from."
"Quite a lot you've put upon your masters shoulder, servant." He said and rubbed his chin: "Who is our host?"
"His name is Philip Malfoy." She answered: "And he is quite a gentleman."
He stared at her for a while; she could've sworn that he'd gone paler. Was it fear she saw in his eyes?
"Philip…" He said with hesitation: "I've heard of him, he's the one that eventually married a…"
Some kind of realization dawned upon him and left his jaw hanging.
"What?" She asked, curious about his reaction.
"Do not interrupt people when they are speaking mudblood." He hissed.
She closed her mouth and ignored the pain his outburst caused her.
'Why does he hate me so?' She wondered.
"You can let our host come in." Lucius sneered.