Hermione spent the next few days in her room, only coming out for meals and when her presence was absolutely necessary. Narcissa told everyone that she was tired, but the truth was that she was panicking.

As Draco had predicted, Lucius was not happy when his mother informed him of his brother's promise to come visit.

"Mother, what the hell were you thinking? Whatever it was, it won't do any good because I said all that I have to say to him a long time ago. I will not have him in this house, do you hear me?"

Then, he grabbed the wine bottle from the table and took a large swig. Taking the bottle with him, he left the table for some deep, secret part of the house.

The silence that followed this outburst was absolute. While everyone stared at each other, the two teenagers pushed away their plates and headed to Draco's room for some prepping.

"So, what happened to make your father hate your uncle so much?"

Hermione watched as Draco moved around the room, picking things up off the floor and putting them in their proper places. She was amazed, because she'd thought house-elves did all the cleaning around here.

After he threw a sock in a drawer, he looked up at her and shrugged.

"Some things Father tells no one, and whenever Mother or I try and get something out of Grandmother, she just shrugs the question off."

She nodded, and began picking at a loose stitch in the comforter on Draco's bed.

"What are they like?"

"Who?"

Hermione frowned. "Your cousin and uncle!"

"Oh." He dropped a pile of schoolbooks where they had been on the floor and sat next to her on the bed, racking his brain for a proper description.

"I like Uncle Arion, actually. He's not like Father at all. He's a bit nicer, and wasn't as popular at Hogwarts. Fallon, I don't like. He finds means to put a bit of bragging into every sentence he speaks. He isn't at Hogwarts because his father let him travel the world, and when he got that offer to play quidditch for Scotland, well-"

He stopped and cleared his throat. "Fallon's a bit older then me, and hasn't yet found anyone. His parents were told the same thing mine were: that time is getting short. But the girls he finds himself attracted to are, how can I say this? Not our kind."

Hermione nodded. "You mean that he brought home muggles and mudbloods."

Draco shook his head. "No, I mean they really aren't our kind. I think he's brought home three vampires and two werewolves to date."

Hermione looked at him, stunned. "Really?"

Draco nodded glumly. "Yes."

"He must be really charming."

But at that point, Draco no longer felt like talking and left the room, shutting the door behind him.

Hermione sat in the room, alone. She really wondered about these new relatives. Fallon sounded interesting and he couldn't be half as bad as Draco had made him out to be.

Silent was the only word that could explain the final day before there would be two more people in Malfoy Manor.

Lucius was still sulking and Narcissa was trying to make it so that he was reasonably civil and sober before his brother and nephew arrived. Draco wasn't in the best of spirits either and talked only to Hermione, taking care to avoid the hallway that contained his grandparents' bedroom door. Hermione asked Narcissa why Draco had been cleaning his room and she told her that he tended to do things like that when he was nervous or stressed because he needed to do something with his hands.

That night, no one slept at all. Instead, they sat in the parlor watching the clock, counting the hours until the dreaded arrival, much like guests at a badly planned New Year's party who are waiting for midnight so they can go home.

A knock at the door around one in the morning startled everyone. When Narcissa went to answer it, Hermione followed, expecting to see a man, or a boy a little older then herself. Instead, when Narcissa opened the door, there was an elf on the other side dressed in a lacy pillowcase and holding a little trumpet, which it promptly began to blow as soon as it was certain that Narcissa and Hermione were paying sufficient attention.

The noise brought everyone else to the door and then the elf looked behind him and fell forward as he was pushed from behind.

"Master Arion and Master Fallon," it said weakly, as Hermione watched, horrified.

"The scourge of the house of Malfoy," muttered Lucius under his breath. Unfortunately, his mother heard him and dragged him off to the nearest private space to read him the riot act.

Everyone turned their attention back to the front door and before another word could be spoken, a tall man with dark hair flew through the front door. As soon as he was fully inside, Narcissa ushered him to the biggest chair in the parlor next to the fireplace, and his mother left Lucius and came running happily to greet him.

Draco went with everyone else, and Hermione was left by herself.

She walked into the kitchen and waited to be called so she could make an entrance and when Narcissa told her to come in, it was impossible to miss the look of awed surprise on Arion's face. She favored him with a glance for a moment, then trained her eyes to the couch where Draco sat, looking incredibly grumpy, next to a very good looking boy with his father's long black hair and a pair of frost-blue eyes.

When she saw that Arion was looking at her questioningly, Narcissa suddenly snapped back to life.

"Arion, Fallon, this is Daphne, Draco's fiancée."

Fallon smiled charmingly and mock-punched Draco in the shoulder.

"You're lucky. I thought she was a welcoming present for me."

Hermione bit her tongue to keep the sharp retort in her mouth. It seemed that Draco was right about something for once: Fallon was full of charm, there was no doubt, but it was the wrong kind.

Both she and Draco only had to stay civil for another twenty minutes or so. Soon afterwards, Narcissa got a house-elf to show Fallon and Arion to their rooms, and everyone else decided that it would be a good time to go to bed.

After Hermione had finished getting on her pajamas and dressing gown, and was preparing to get into bed and read her copy of Hogwarts: A Continued History, she heard a knock at her door. To her great surprise, it was Fallon on the other side.

"How did you find my room?"

"I asked Aunt Narcissa."

"What do you want?"

He gave her a look that made her shiver.

"Are you happy here?"

She hadn't expected the question.

"I'm all right, I guess."

Fallon's mouth formed a grim line.

"Well, if you ever aren't," he reached into a bag at his side and pulled out, of all things, a white rose and placed it delicately at the end of her bed. Then, he gazed at her one last time and left the room without a word. Hermione went over to have a look at the white rose and noticed that it had no thorns and paper wrapped around the stem. On the paper were written the words I am worthy of you.