Chapter 7
The next few days were filled with more news of engagements of students, some were happy with the decision and others were not. Malfoy ventured over to the Gryffindor table more often being welcomed by Ginny and Harry and sometimes even Ron, most of the other students at the table ignored him.
Secretly Blaise and Draco were planning a weekend trip as a surprise for Hermione, and Ginny was helping her friend with other arrangements like what to wear on her wedding day and how she should do her hair.
In their common room one night, Hermione was laying on the couch reading as Draco absentmindedly rubbed her back.
"Are you going to invite your mother?" Draco was taken aback by the sudden question.
"I guess I will, if that's alright. Are you going to invite your parents?" He asked in return.
"I'm not sure yet, I don't want them there if your mother isn't going to be there though. That wouldn't be very fair." Marking her page Hermione set the book down. "I know you wrote to my parents last week." She said. "They mentioned it in their letter, saying how kind it was for you to initiate things with them by introducing yourself. They told me what it said." She smiled. "I think it was sweet."
Draco draped his arm around the girl's small shoulders after setting his book down on the table. "You know, when I was growing up I wasn't allowed off the Manor grounds." He stared into the fire. "Not even to go next door. The only time I ever left was with my parents and even then I only went to other Manors and sat while they talked business with their collegues or to get school supplies. I know you and your friends have seen my father take me to Knockturn Alley." He took a deep breath. "While I was cooped up in the Manor, even though I had an entire wing of it to myself, I was bored and the only company I had was one of the elves named Flopsy. She was my best friend when I was younger." Malfoy didn't move much after he finished talking, almost as if he was waiting for any reaction from beside him, but none came.
"Why did you tell me that?" Hermione wondered, her voice full of emotion.
He finally turned his body to face hers. "Flopsy once told me: you need to offer something up of yourself before asking anything in return. I figure that we can get to know each other on a more emotional level if I started telling you some secrets."
Hermione started picking at her finger nails. "When I was younger my mother told me that I was going to have a little brother but a few months later they got into a car accident and she lost the baby. My parents started to fight, at first they wouldn't fight in front of me but eventually that's what happened. Mum always took it out on dad; dad got pissed off and would go to the pub and stay out for the night." Hermione felt the man across from her holding her hands. "I came home from school early one day to find my father with another woman, but he doesn't know that I saw him. My mum knows she just doesn't do anything about it and because of it she started drinking to ease the pain. I love my parents, but I can't deal with that any longer." A tear finally rolled down her cheek, but Hermione took a deep breath. "And I'm not going to let it affect my marriage, no matter what happens."
For the second time, Draco sat there and held Hermione in silence for awhile. But eventually he had to break the silence. "Let's talk about something happy now," He offered. "How about we throw ourselves an engagement party!"
"I don't think it would be a very large party," She responded. "I mean there are Blaise, Pansy, Ginny, Ron, Harry, maybe some others from Gryffindor, and any others that you would want there."
"What if we just invited all the engaged couples, that way it would be a big party for everyone." The pair sat there with smiles on their faces.
"Let's do it!" Pulling out a piece of parchment Hermione wrote down who to invite, food (and she emphasized paying the elves to do it), and what to do about music. Draco said he would take care of the drinks and invitations. "Now, where would it be, the room of requirement maybe?" Hermione suggested.
"What if we just did it here, I mean the room is big enough. We can transfigure something into a long food table and move the rest of the furniture to the side for space to dance and talk, obviously we would lock our bedroom since I know how Pansy can be when she starts drinking, and maybe I can send away for one of those music makers they have in Diagon Alley." Hermione looked over, confused at the music maker idea. "It's this magical ball that floats in the air and you tell it what kind of event you're having like a wedding or party or even funeral, and it plays music accordingly."
"That sounds great, that way no one has to worry about bringing music or finding the right songs." Hermione leaned over and kissed him. "I knew I started liking you for some reason."
"Now let's plan something else." Draco said pulling out a copy of the newspaper. "Like where we would want to live after school. I mean, there are tons of places we could go."
"I think where we go kind of depends on what we want to do after school." She said. "Like I want to join the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures after I leave here."
Malfoy sat there pondering. "I've always thought about becoming a Professor here at Hogwarts, I could apprentice with Snape in potions after this year."
"So, the first place I think we should look is Hogsmeade. We can look at houses during trips to the village and that way I can floo to the Ministry and you can be close to the school grounds." Proud of herself for thinking that up she took the newspaper and flipped to the Hogsmeade section on available housing. "Now all we need to do is ask for a tour and a price if we like it enough."
"Our children are going to be brilliant." Draco said smiling.
