Miss Granger: A Forced Pair Part III


Xavier attempted to lead them on a slow and stately tour of Lavigne Hall, however, the portraits were trying unsuccessfully to be subtle about following them and gawking at the young woman who would be the next Lady Lavigne.

When their whisperings grew to nuisance levels Xavier paused in the hall and addressed them in good-humored exasperation. "All right, all right, to the gallery with the entire lot of you and we'll do a proper introduction all at once so that I may be able to conduct the rest of my tour in peace."

Hermione's hand flew to her mouth to hide the smile and she bit back the giggle threatening to come out. Harry didn't even try and chuckled audibly behind them. Xavier turned to the three other living people in the hall and smirked before saying to Hermione, "Needless to say, I think the portraits are excited to meet you, Hermione."

He offered her his arm once again and they made their way to the large gallery at the end of the hall.

He paused at the wide double doors and politely gestured to Harry and Ginny to go on inside. Then he turned to Hermione and said, "I tend to be a fairly straightforward and rather pragmatic person, Hermione, something that I hope will serve us well in the short betrothal we are allowed. I want us to both feel free to speak plainly to one another and not walk on tenterhooks and worry about inadvertently offending each other."

"I am the same way," Hermione admitted, "and I agree with you. It will be hard to get to know one another if we're constantly worried about saying the wrong thing."

"Exactly. So on that note I must say something."

Hermione's eyebrow raised in curiosity, "What is it?"

"Just that you never have to hide your smile or your laughter, even if I am the one you are laughing at. I'm known to have a fairly good sense of humor, especially of the self-deprecating kind, and…," he trailed off and swallowed a bit nervously.

"And?" she asked.

"And… well… you have a very lovely smile that I find myself rather looking forward to seeing," he stammered out a bit nervously.

Xavier was not the only one a bit nervous. Hermione dropped her eyes and blushed a little. There was no sense of guile in Xavier's compliment, nothing Slytherin about it at all, she felt that he genuinely meant what he said. Very few people, well, men, in her life ever used words like lovely or pretty when they complimented her, it generally that she was clever and smart, not that she minded those kinds of compliments, but it was rather nice to hear compliments about her appearance every now and again. She took a breath before looking back up and meeting his eyes again. She smiled widely and replied, "Thank you. And I will try to remember that."

It was a smile Xavier returned happily. This was all going so much better than he could have ever imagined. How he got so lucky to be paired with this particular witch he just didn't know, but he thought that he must have done something particularly right in his life for the fates to reward him so.


The gallery was an enormous room. The floor was white marble and the walls, molding, woodwork, and ceiling were all painted a gentle white, all to better see the and appreciate the fine art collected in the room. There were comfortable chairs and padded benches placed strategically around the well-lit room. Statues of all shapes and sizes littered the room on pedestals and the walls were heavily occupied by fine paintings, both magical and Muggle alike- paintings Lavigne Hall's portrait residents from the entire manor were crowding into all around the room.

Xavier lead Hermione to the center of the room, smiling at the awestruck expression on his guests' faces as they looked around the space. Harry and Ginny were in a corner of the gallery, both captivated by a large marble statue that was an entire Quidditch pitch in miniature carved out of a single block of granite.

Hermione, meanwhile, looked around, her eyes trying to see everything. She took it all in and turned to Xavier with a the awe shining on her face. "This is so beautiful."

Xavier glanced around at the art and replied, "I am quite proud of this collection and I always enjoy spending time in this room."

"I can see why, it would be quite easy to lose track of time in here, there is so much to see."

They slowly made their way around the room and met back up with Harry and Ginny.

Ginny grinned at Xavier. "It's like a whole museum in here."

"Did you collect all of this?" Harry asked.

A raspy voice thick with a French accent answered Harry from one of the portraits before Xavier could get out a word. "Yes, he did, and a fine job he did, too." The pride evident in her voice.

They all turned to the portrait of a regal elderly witch that the voice had come from.

"Hello, Grandmother," Xavier said warmly.

"Xavier. I believe you promised us proper introduction to your guests."

"Indeed I did, Grandmother," Xavier replied to her before looking around to all the paintings and saying, "Everyone, may I have your attention?"

It took a long moment but finally all the portraits were still and quiet, but practically quivering in expectation. Xavier gestured towards Harry and Ginny and said warmly, "May I present Mister Harry Potter and his fiancée Miss Ginevra Weasley.

Harry heard his name run like wildfire through the portraits. A moment later a rousing round of applause sprang from them directed at Harry. As it died down Harry addressed them all. "Thank you, but honestly, it wasn't just me, I had a lot of help."

A particularly severe looking old man in a plain black frock coat, muttered loudly, "Nice to see some humbleness from the young, especially from one whose deeds are of a caliber beyond measure."

Harry gave the portrait a tic of his head and replied, "Thank you, I try, sir."

The man nodded once to Harry but said nothing further.

One young red-headed witch painted wearing an elegant silk court gown from somewhere in the 1800s was bouncing excitedly in a portrait near Ginny's shoulder. "Another ginger!" she said excitedly to Ginny.

Ginny smiled and stepped closer to the portrait. "Hello."

"I love your dress, Miss Weasley. Is it the latest fashion from Paris?" The young painted witch asked gleefully looking for connection to the outside world.

"I don't know if it came from Paris but it is a current style," Ginny replied pleasantly.

The young painted witch went a dither and was rattling on about her trips to Paris to build her trousseau when Xavier's grandmother interrupted. "Brigitte, you can talk about dresses later. Now shush, child," she said then turned to her grandson and continued, "Xavier, while we are certainly pleased to meet Mr. Potter and Miss Weasley, you know it is your bride-to-be of whom we are most curious."

Xavier smiled at his grandmother. "Of course, Grandmother. Everyone," he started and placed his warm hand on the small of Hermione's back, rather pleased when she neither flinched or pulled away from his rather forward action, before continuing, "I'd like to introduce Miss Hermione Granger, who is soon to be the mistress of this house as the next Lady Lavigne. I trust you all will make her feel welcome."

The din in the room was deafening as all the portraits started speaking at once, each of them wanting Hermione's attention. Her head was whipping around, attempting to at least make eye contact with them all, an impossible task that Xavier rescued her from.

Xavier clapped his hands sharply to get their attention and the noise receded as they quieted. Addressing the portraits once again Xavier said, "You will all have plenty of time to get to know Miss Granger in the future. Now I aim to continue our tour of the manor and I would sincerely appreciate being able to do so in peace. Understood?"

There was grumbling but the portraits acquiesced to his request and they started shuffling off to their own portraits throughout the manor.

Chuckling, Xavier turned to Hermione. "I do love them all but sometimes I have to be stern with them else you wouldn't be able to hear yourself think."

Hermione grinned. "At least they aren't shouting obscenities at everyone like the portraits at Grimmauld Place."

"Grimmauld Place? Isn't that in the Black family?" Xavier asked as he held out his arm to restart their tour, a little flicker of something akin to satisfaction when Hermione immediately took it without hesitation and began telling him all about Grimmauld Place as the four of them exited the gallery.


Hermione could see Xavier's energy waning as their tour went on. She thought he might be being rather stubborn about wanting to finish the tour, but she didn't want him to completely exhaust himself in doing so.

Softly she said, for his ears only, "Draco told me about your heart. We've been walking a long time, do you need to rest?"

Xavier kept his eyes straight ahead and took a slow breath in, his intended a very perceptive witch, indeed. However, there was genuine concern in her voice, not coddling or pushiness, just concern for his well-being. The last time a woman had truly displayed that for him had been his own mother. His first wife had coddled him to the point of nausea and through the years since the revelation of her deception, he had come to believe that she had done so in the hope that he would die sooner rather than later. There had been a few other women after her that had desired to become Lady Lavigne, none of them as seemingly accepting of his condition as Hermione. But none of that was what he heard in Hermione's voice, so he let go of his ever present irritation with his body and turned his head towards her and nodded.

"The stubborn part of me wants to say no, but the reality is that I am getting tired."

"It's a huge house, we don't have to do it all in one day, Xavier," she replied with a gentle smile.

It was the first time she had said his name and the way she said it in her soft voice sent a shiver of something warm up his spine.

He leaned his head a bit closer to hers and whispered, "I'm starting to think that I am the luckiest of wizards to have been paired with you."

He saw the blush stain her cheeks but before she could reply he said louder for everyone, "Shall we go dive into Nette's pastries?"

Harry answered, "Works for me."

Ginny said teasingly, "Harry has a bit of sweet tooth, never stand between him and a treacle tart."

Everyone chuckled and with that they headed towards the solarium and the vast spread of food that Nette had prepared for their tea.


tbc...

Author Notes: Hi everyone! I just wanted to take a moment to first, and most importantly, thank everyone who has been following this story (and especially to express my gratitude for all the lovely comments and kudos!). Xavier has quickly become my favorite among all the OCs I've written through the years and it makes me genuinely happy that others really like him as well. Second, this work was started for NaNoWriMo 2018 and I'm pleased to say that I finished off the month of November with this reaching 64k words. Not all of that is in a direct line from the beginning of the story, however, and is why more hasn't been posted as of yet. My squirrel of a muse was most thoroughly distracted by the shiny that is Lumione in the second half of the story and I have written some absolutely wonderful sections that I can't wait to catch up to so I can share them with you all. Thanks again for all the support!

-CJ aka WritinginCT

Oh, and for anyone wondering, I used both Colin Firth's version of Mr. Darcy and Michael Fassbender's version of Mr. Rochester as visual inspiration for Xavier. I envision Xavier to look more like a slightly older Fassbender but his mannerisms and carriage to be more of Firth's. A strange amalgam to be sure but they were my inspiration.

The gallery was inspired by a blend of Christchurch Mansion in the UK and the Wadsworth Atheneum here in my home state of Connecticut in the US. I recently visited Wadsworth and the experience was almost overwhelming to be surrounded by so much beautiful art and I projected my feelings onto Hermione. It was brought to my attention that my gallery scene was reminiscent of the gallery scene from the 2005 film version of Pride and Prejudice. I've only seen that film once back in 2005 as I prefer the Firth/Ehle mini-series and only have vague memories of the scene in question so any similarity was completely unintentional on my part or else I would have annotated it. -CJ