Disclaimer: I do not in any way own Harry Potter and co. All rights belong to J. and the publishers.
Lestrange Manor
By: Jodelle
"You must do the things you think you cannot do."
-Eleanor Roosevelt
Hermione Granger fearfully gazed at her new appearance brushing out her now pin straight red hair. Her green eyes narrowed as she asked herself was there anything more she could do to look even more unlike herself. She heard Rubin throw open the door to her bedroom and she finally caught sight of him too.
Rubin who had always been a fair haired child now had raven black hair but she thought with a satisfied nodd his face still held his best feature which was his silver blue eyes. He now had a less delicate nose, thick eyebrows, and thin lips. Rubin was wearing a deep purple colored hoodie that had a celtic symbol on the front, black pants with half a dozen pockets on each leg, and shoes that were black with purple laces to match his hoodie.
He nudged past his mother to stare into the mirror mimicing her attention to detail by crinkling his brow, narrowing his eyes, and leaning in for a better look. He turned to his mother and grinned. "Knife said I did a good job! I almost ran-d out of ideas but nope I didn't once Knife helped me brainstorm."
Hermione sighed leaning forward to grab a hairbrush which she pulled through Rubins' messy hair. He had made his hair fall in tight ringlets that looked shiny as though he'd used some hair gel. He cried out, "No mommy my hair doesn't need to be brushed! I'm going for the messy rolled out of bed look!" Rubin said jerking away from Hermione and leaving the room.
Hermione shook his head. How many three nearly four year olds knew anything about style. Tonks or as Rubin called her Knife as a butchering of the name Nymphandora was always teaching him these things so he could learn how to manipulate his appearance by all means using language, hairstyles, piercings, tatoos and the occasional mimic of others to meet his ends.
Rubin had probably run off to get breakfast she thought ot herself smelling the sweet smell of breakfast smoothies that they had every Thursday morning. He loved to make smoothies as it was one of the only things besides cereal and toast that she let him make for breakfast. She was almost to the kitchen when she heard the doorbell ring in it's low deep sounding chime. Turning away from the kitched she raced to the front door.
Standing out on the front porch was a a boy with dark Italian looks who was heavily shouldering a large duffle bag. He blinked up at Hermione looking nervous. Letting go of the strap he let his back fall to the ground and held out a small hand. Hermione stood there bewildered by such good manners in one so young as Rubin happily darted past her. He took the boys' hand, said nice to meet you, and pumped his arm up & down enthusiastically before gesturing for the boy to follow him inside.
The boy who turned out to be Basil appeared stunned by the warm reception that Rubin met him with. Within five minutes he was wearing comfy houseshoes he'd borrowed from Rubin, had been offered countless bits of food and drink, while also allowed to use the sparkling guestbathroom which was pristine as nobody was ever in there, to freshen up.
Basil looked calculatingly at Rubin as if wondering if he had some alterior motive for being so nice but soon realized that Rubin was just overexercising his manners because he was excited to make yet another friend. Basil knealt by his duffle bag and pulled out what appeared to be a sword which grew as he pulled it from the bag (Think Mary Poppins' Bag!). After extracting several large bags from the duffle bag he turned to Rubin and gestured for him to come sit by him.
"Okay! That's everything," Basil said nodding his head, "I didn't worry about the sizes because they're spelled to adjust to fit your body." Rubin sat down crosslegged across from him and was promptly handed what appeared to be a mask of sorts. The fencing mask had black metal mesh that covered the face along with thick white fabric that covered the neck and some of the back of the head. Rubin slipped it over his head and felt the mask adjusting to his face just as Basil had said it would. He looked through the mesh and grinned a grin nobody but him could see. It was an ambitious grin that unknown to him his father often wore that said he had plans that might very well also be mischevious.
Then Basil tossed a ball of white fabic to Rubin who unfolded it to see it was a coat. Looking to Basil he gave him a questioning look asking 'is this all'. Basil reached into his bag and handed him a list that that was next to an illustrated picture. There was the fencing mask on the persons' head (check), the fencing jacket wrapped over the upper body(check), and then all that was left was the sword called a foil and the glove. As Basil extracted the sword from his duffle he did it almost lovingly while simply tossing the glove as one would any random glove in Rubins' direction.
Ten minutes later Rubin was dressed up in all the fencing garb. Hermione commented quietly trying not to laugh that it was ironic how much effort he'd put into his look only to have to change clothes. Rubin stuck out his tongue before striking a pose with his sword. The sword wasn't what most people would imagine a sword to be. It was pretty much a thin piece of metal shaped like a round wire not some giant stand still so I can decapitate you with my sword type sword.
The doorbell rang again while the two boys did a mock fight Rubin doing what one sees in movies while Basil used more finess to not slash Rubin to ribbons but rather to stab him. Distracted Hermione was the one to get to the door first. Hermione looked through the peep hole on the door ever cautious before opening the door to Ollie and Emilee. Ollie saluted Hermione with his sword before walking past her all grins. Emilee stayed back looking Hermione over.
"That you Hermione?"
"Yes," Hermione said figiting under the scrutiny of Emilees' stare. "I hope this is a good disguise."
Emilee nodded reaching down to squeeze Hermiones' hands trying to comfort the paranoid creature Hermione had become. "I wouldn't recognize you at all even if a stared at you for a full hour."
Smiling faintly Hermione led Emilee into the house. On the coffee table the boys were sitting around was salad dressing and random veggies placed next to a cup of coffee. It was a wonder that the boys were not dueling one another Hermione thought until she noticed Pearl making her way out of the room levitating the swords above her head. Grinning she turned to look at Emilee who wore a knowing smile, "I have to do much the same to keep Ollie from playing swords all day long when not doing lessons."
After the boys finished their snack Hermione led them to the fireplace. Taking down the bowl filled with floo powder that sat beside her parent urns Hermione let each of their group take a handful before gesturing the boys forward. Basil looked at Rubin and Ollie to make sure they were listening before stepping forward saying loudly, "McKnights' Fencing Academy." Disappearing from sight the other boys went forward echoing Basils words. Ollie had always sidealong apparated with his mother and Rubin had never been to the Academy at all so the found themselves copying Basil who being a year older than them was rather independent therefore used to traveling without holding someones hand.
The flames flashed green as the floo system swallowed them whole only to spit themselves out in the front room of the McKnight Fencing Academy. Before she could take in anything she noticed a man standing infront of them and almost screamed aloud.
Draco Malfoy stared at them with a bored expression on his face. Only when he started to speak did she react latching on to Rubins' wrist in a death grip and was about to make a run for it when Emilee kicked her discreetly making her lose her terrified look. Draco raised a brow at the strange display before asking Basil, "Will Blaise be here soon Basil? I have business with him that needs to be discussed." Basil nodded but was met with no reaction. Remembering his manners he replied, "Yes, Mr. Malfoy. He'll be here at a quarter til nine."
"Good. Merlin knows he'd show up earlier than hoped. Bloody perfectionist." Draco scoffed turning away from their small group. Emilee quickly took over telling the boys to go on ahead and that they'd catch up before dragging Hermione into the restroom.
When they were in a stall and a silencing spell was in place Emilee looked worriedly at Hermione before taking a deep breath and spill out the words, "I'm so sorry! I knew he sometimes likes to show up at these events but I had no clue he'd show up on your first day. I know I'm a terrible friend for putting you on the spot like that but know that it wasn't intentional."
Hermione nodded prompting Emilee to go on.
"He has a strange fascination with young children. Some purebloods have a hard time having children you see so he likes to come to childrens lessons and events to look wistfully at other peoples children. It's not so much creepy as sad."
Hermione looked alarmed. "He knows about Rubin. I take it he's been looking for me."
Emilee looked guilty. "I'd hoped that he could be part of Rubins' life even if you don't want him pulling you back into our old world. He'll be devastated that he couldn't interact with Rubin but seeing him grow up in any way might lessen the blow of not seeing Rubin in his early years."Emilee hesitated before continuing. "I mean think of hearing Rubins' first words it could be just as great a thing to him to see Rubin woop someone at fencing, play the piano at a recital, and see him twirl around some beauty at the debutant ball. Please just consider letting your son at least see his father even if it's from a distance."
Hermione paused before answering, "I'm not mad just a little uneasy feeling right now. I know your envious of me when it comes down to who we got as the fathers of our sons. Mine might be a good influence to some extent while Antonin is simply a monster. If Draco isn't a threat I should let Rubin be around him...the truth is Dracos' friends are the only threats I see."
Hermione looked down at her hands tears dripping down her face. "Draco helped me get out of Azkaban. He said that no Malfoy should be made to feel inferior even if they were a halfblood and especially not if they were his son. He knew I was pregnant which was why he freed me."
Emilee nodded and continued the tale for her. "Voldemort didn't care how his plans were carried through just so long as he got what he wanted. I mean treating Muggleborn women like breeders just so there would be a greater number of magical halfblood children in future years was just sick. It stripped away our dignity but he couldn't have cared less."
Hermione wiped her eyes before meeting Emilees' conserned gaze. "I was lucky though seeing as I got Draco. He was gentle and respected me enough to turn the lights off to spare me the humiliation. I thought he hated me but he was so kind under the cercumstances."
"It wasn't until this breeding law was passed that I realized how much trouble some of the pureblood families had having children. Some people like the Weasleys could have oodles of children while the Malfoys and of course Dolohov couldn't. I mean so some purebloods could marry purebloods under the law due to how fertile their partners were while others had to settle for having halfbloods and muggleborns as brides."
Hermione nodded mutely looking at the stalls door furtively. "Regardless of semi trusting Draco I don't feel comfortable leaving his with Rubin unattended."
Emilee made a nose in her throat that seemed an agreement and they left.
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-Jodelle
Okay, it's a little short but I'm on Spring break which interupts classes so I can update more often during this week.
I'm really humbled by the fact I've gotten more reviews per chapter in this story than I got even in my longest story the Mute Mutt. I also noticed that some of you read not just one but several of my stories...I guess you all must have me on author alert which is really nice. So far twenty-four reviews translates into a lot of thankyous from me...here's a shoutout. Oh. And look under my profile for pictures of the boys & Emilee & Hermione & well everybody. The link is titled Lestrange Manor. All the good pictures are closer to the bottom of the page the link brings you to so don't get discouraged.
Thanks to: (Reviews)
jillianunleashed-ch.1
Lea1286-ch.1, ch.2, ch.3
red24ly-ch.1
Crazy-Cullen-ch.1
cytprincess-ch.1
Zagreb-girl-ch.1
Rose-ch.1
BabyDark-ch.2
caseyjarryn-ch.2, ch.3
Heidi191976-ch.2,ch.3
My-Edward-1992-ch.2
seriana14-ch.3
mysticpammy-ch.3
scarlet witch extreme-ch.3
kept in my heart-ch.3
BellaCullen2312-ch.3
jessirose85-ch.3