A Wedding and a Funeral

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: JK owns HP; Always

There's a rapping noise. Why is there a rapping noise?

I sit up in the unfamiliar bed that I now realize is the one in the guest room closest to my bedroom suite. At the sound of the door opening I look over to see my mother entering the room.

This probably isn't good. I didn't tell her that I was bringing Granger here. Now that she knows I slept in the guest bedroom she will want to know why I didn't sleep in my own room last night; if she doesn't already.

"Oh, good. You're awake." She says as she magically pulls the drapes back to let the morning sunlight in.

It's too bright and I scrunch my eyes closed to try and get away from it. "God's mother, a little warning please!"

"Tilly told me the most interesting story this morning and I was just coming to see if it was true or not." She has a coy smile. "I can see now that it was."

That damn house elf probably came to bring me my morning tea and saw Granger there instead. "How much do you know?" I sigh. I never could keep anything from her.

"Hermione Granger is apparently sleeping in your room while you obviously slept here." She says calmly. "What is she doing here Draco?"

"It's complicated." I answer simply, though know that won't be a good enough answer for my mother.

"She has just been married, very publicly I might add; so complicated better turn to nothing real fast. I mean what were you thinking letting her stay the night Draco?" She scolds me. "What must her husband be thinking right now over the fact that she never came home last night? This better be work related or for the love of Merlin I will br-"

"Mother!" I finally end her ranting.

When that finally stops her tirade, I continue on. "Hermione and Charlie are having some problems already. Bad problems. I gave her a place to stay last night until she feels up to confronting him. That's all. I was just trying to be a good coworker."

"Problems?" She looks intrigued. "What kind of problems."

"That, mother dearest, is Hermione's business to tell. Not mine." I throw the comforter off my body and finally stand so I can begin getting ready. "Perhaps you can interrogate her during afternoon tea. I told her she could stay here until she decides what to do about her marriage."

"You did what?" My mother asks, though surprisingly she doesn't seem upset about it.

"I'm letting her stay here. I'll have Tilly set this room up for her for the remainder of her stay. It's just that after what I heard yesterday there was no way I was going to make her go back home to that bastard and she was also too distraught for me to make her move rooms." I say starting to get angry all over again. "Hence her sleeping in my bed while I slept in here. I'm not completely heartless."

"Okay." My mother says looking unsurprised and emotionless. "Just make sure her being here stays out of the paper. It would be just like Rita Skeeter to try and turn this into some affair scandal."

I know my mother is right: That's exactly what Rita Skeeter would do. And something like that is exactly what could ruin all the hard work my mother has put into the untarnishing of the Malfoy name.

"I'll do my best, but I'm already late for work." I nod as I head toward the bathroom to freshen up for the day. "Hermione will not be joining me so feel free to keep her company until I get back."

She narrows her eyes at me and it makes me realize that I've just used her first name twice in the last few minutes instead of using her last. Shit! That probably looked suspicious. Hopefully that didn't just clue my mother in on my true feelings toward the girl in the room across the hall.

"Sure." She answers after a small pause. "I'd rather her stay here than have the pair of you arrive to the office together. Can you imagine the backlash we would face if that were to happen?"

"Yes, mother. I can." I roll my eyes. It seems all she cares about anymore is our image to the public. "I won't let anyone know she's staying with us. Now can you please leave so I can get ready?"

"Yes." She says, coy smile back in place. "I just wanted to make sure you knew what you were doing, but it seems I have nothing to worry about."

She makes her way to the door curtly. "See you this evening Draco."

And by that she means she wants to talk again when I return. There will be no dalliances under her roof and she's going to make sure both of my feet are no where near crossing the line.

I sigh before getting into the shower. I wish I could take the rest of the week off, but I know how bad it will look if both Hermione and I are absent the next two days and I'll need to cover her meetings as well as mine so we don't get backed up. I'll just have to lie and say I got an owl from Hermione and let Hannah know she's out the rest of the week.

xxxxxxxxx

I knock on my own bedroom door. It's a weird feeling not to be able to just go in, but I don't want to get slapped if she's indecent and I barge in unannounced. Oh who am I kidding, it would be worth the punch in the face to get a peek of her perky tits; but she probably doesn't need me ogling her added to her list of things to worry about, hence the reason why I'm rapping at my own door.

She opens the door a crack, I'm guessing to make sure it's only me. My pride swells a little at the thought of being the only person she wants to see right now.

"Yes?" She asks looking me over, most likely because I'm in only a bathrobe, but I like to think she's checking me out a little too.

"I came to get some of my clothes Granger." I decide to flirt with her a little since she's soon to be single anyway. "Unless you'd like me to spend the day in the nude?"

Her eyes widen to the size of saucers at my suggestion. "Um, no. You can come in." She says regaining composure quickly and opening the door a bit wider.

"Your loss." I joke as I strut into my room. "Kidding Granger, kidding." I add at the 'you'd be dead if looks could kill' look she's now giving me. "I also wanted to check on you before I head into the office."

"You mean before we head into the office?" She asks accusingly, arms crossed.

Adorable. Especially in that button up shirt of mine that sits higher up on her thighs than she probably realizes.

"No." I counter, noticing the purple marks on the inside of her thighs. It makes me angry all over again, but I keep firm. "Before I head in. By myself."

"Like hell you are!" She yells at my back as I enter my closet without shutting the door behind me

She can't see me from where she stands, but I like giving her the opportunity to come spy on me if she chooses to peek around the door. In fact, I hope she does.

"Granger!" I stand firm as I drop the robe to the floor. I hope she's peeking. "You are not leaving this house unless it is to warn your in-laws about what your husband did to you right before we go to the Auror office to report him. And right now I need to head into our department to take care of both of our meetings for the day as well as let Hannah know you won't be in the rest of the week."

"So what?" She sounds aggravated. "I'm just suppose to stay here in your house, wearing nothing but your shirt and fiddling my thumbs all day?"

Oh gods, is she really wearing nothing under that shirt of mine? Yeah I'm definitely going to be picturing that image in my head the rest of the day.

"No! I have clients I have to take care of." She continues. "I can't just hide out because something horrible happened in my personal life."

"I know, that's why I'm going in at all." I explain as I pull my boxers up my legs. Seems she missed her chance to see me in the buff. "If you remember, I was the one who took care of all your cases while you were away for three weeks. I think I can handle them another few days as well."

"I know you can, but that's not the point." I hear her stomp a foot. "I've already missed enough work due to my lousy honeymoon. How's it going to look if I only work one and half days the week I return?"

"Well not great if you're a no call no show." I say as I emerge from my closet in my usual pristine black tailored robes. "I'll just lie and tell everyone that you've caught a nasty bug while in Paris and you're still fighting it off. And that the reason you owled me is because I was the only one in the office who knew all your cases since I was already covering them for you."

She opens her mouth as if to continue to argue, but then she pauses. After a few seconds she closes her mouth again and looks at me a bit softer. "Oh." She says looking surprised. "That actually might work."

"Yeah, yeah Granger." I scoff. "You aren't the only one capable of coming up with a good plan. Now you've spent the past decade taking care of everyone else, why don't you let someone else return the favor for a change. You've had something horrific happen to you, and no one is going to think less of you for taking a little time off to recover."

She lets out one long sigh. "You're right."

You're damn right I am.

Don't worry, I don't actually say that out loud. But I am thinking it and I do grin right at her.

"Thank you." I'm still grinning. "Now there's one for the books though. I'm going to have to write it in my calendar that Hermione Granger actually admitted I was right about something."

I see her trying not to grin, but she isn't very successful and the corners of her lips twitch at my comment.

"Yeah, well. Don't get used to it." She says.

I laugh and decide I want to touch her. I know I'm about to make her uncomfortable, but that just excites me even more.

As I walk over to her, her eyes widen and she takes a few steps back.

"What are you doing?" She asks as she inadvertently ends up with her back against the dresser by the time I reach her.

I firmly grasp her left hand and left it up while I give her a large smirk. "Checking on your finger to make sure it healed properly."

I see her blush, but she doesn't try and rip her hand away. I feel my smirk grow as I finally decide to look her hand over.

Her ring finger has officially regrown to the proper size; which means the operation was a success. There isn't even much of a scar, so If it wasn't for the fact that the new finger is a slightly lighter shade then the rest of her hand you wouldn't be able to tell I had done anything to her at all.

"Looks good." I say, rubbing my finger over the line where her new flesh meets the old. I glance up a little to her wrist and notice its still black and blue from how rough Charlie must have been with her the past few weeks. It makes me sad to think someone who supposedly loved her could do something like that.

She slowly pulls her hand away, looking uncomfortable. I love getting a reaction out of her, no matter what kind it is, and the butterflies in my stomach go into overdrive.

"Yeah, you did a good job." She says. "It looks and feels as good as new. I doubt anyone will notice a difference."

"Oooh, that's two for the calendar." I tease her, unable to help myself. "I was both right about something and did a good job all in one day!"

"Funny." She says unamused. "Now you got your clothes and checked in on me; you can leave now."

"One more thing actually." I decide to warn her. "My mother may know that your here."

She raises an eyebrow at me. "May?"

"Okay so my mother definitely knows that your here. She's expecting you for afternoon tea."

"Good to know." She doesn't seem annoyed at the idea of spending time with my mother. Another good sign. "That'll keep me from going out of my mind with boredom at least."

I hate having to leave her here, but I'm already late and there's nothing more to talk about this morning; so I dig my wand out of my pocket in preparation for apparating away. "I'll have Tilly bring you breakfast and show you to the library if you'd like." I hope that the library will make her not ever want to leave Malfoy Manor. It's one of the largest rooms in the house and it hosts several one of a kind editions of rare books. Maybe it'll make her want to stay after her divorce is finalized.

"Tilly?" She asks curiously.

Shit. Maybe the library won't be enough to make her want to stay after all.

"One of our house elves." I answer; knowing full well how she's going to react to that information.

Hermione rolls her eyes and scoffs. "Should have guessed."

"I know you probably think that she's abused based on what you know about my fathers old elf Dobby, but Tilly and her brother Trumble are very well loved." I say trying to convince her that I'm nothing like my father was. "My mother and I think of them both as family.

"I'm sure they are." She says in a tone that doesn't match her words. "They're still practically slaves though."

"Well we don't pay them if that's what you mean, but they don't want money anyway." I stand firm by what I say; but I do hope I can convince her that my mother and I care about them like family. "They were a gift from my father to my mother when she became pregnant with me. They easily could have been separated from each other, but he purchased both of them."

"Purchased?" She crosses her arms and turns her nose up in disgust. "If that doesn't say slavery I don't know what does."

She's infuriating when it comes to her love for magical creatures, but I guess that's part of what made me love her in the first place.

"At least they got to stay together." I argue. "Do you think if my father hadn't bought them both they would have been able to stay together? Because I can tell you right now the answer would have been no."

Hermione huffs and rolls her eyes again; this time more out of anger than humor though. "You're already late for the office and I don't really want to get into house elf rights right now."

"Fine by me." I shrug, knowing she's right about me needing to get to the office sooner rather than later.

As I prepare to apparate again, she holds up her hand as if trying to stop me. "Wait." She says with another small huff.

I like the idea of her not wanting me to go, so I lower my wand for the second time. "Yes."

"Well." She looks embarrassed. "It's just that..." She sighs and looks down at her feet. "I don't want to wear those awful clothes Charlie made me wear yesterday again."

Made her wear? I guess her robes and the clothes she's been wearing underneath them this week make a lot more sense now.

"Made you wear?" I ask to clarify. "Why on earth would he make you wear those atrocious robes?"

She keeps looking at her feet , but I notice her jaw tighten a bit. "Because they kept my body well covered and would have been off putting to other men."

"Oh." I nod in understanding. "His paranoia was rearing it's ugly head I assume."

She worries her bottom lip and I can tell she wants to cry, but she won't let herself in front of me. "Yeah but I really don't want to talk about that right now." She looks up at me. "Do you have any clothes I can wear or not?"

I can't help myself, I hate the tension so to lighten the mood I'm going to harass her a little. Hopefully she'll take it as innocent and not as hostile. "I'll take it you don't mean more of my night shirts that show off those perky nipples of yours?"

I really am a bastard aren't I?

Her face turns red from what I can only guess is a mixture of both embarrassment and anger, and she crosses her arms over her chest to hide he outline of her nipples from my view.

"What?" I ask feigning innocence. "They were pointing straight at me. Was I not suppose to notice them?"

"Pig!" She screeches at me. "Nevermind! I'll just transfigure something for myself out of the drapes."

I snort and head back into my closet. "Cool it Granger, I think I have something."

I hear her tapping her foot against the hardwood floor as I levitate a box from the top shelf. As mad as she is, I can't help but think that it was worth it. I love seeing the fire in her eyes when I annoy her, and what's in this box is bound to rile her up even more.

I exit the closet again, box in hand and i place it on the bed. "You can wear, use, or transfigure whatever you want from in here."

She approaches the bed slowly, looking weary of both me and the box; her arms are still crossed over her breasts showing me that she obviously doesn't trust me.

"What are these and where did they come from?" She asks as she uses one hand to rummage through the contents of fabric and shoes.

"Leftovers." I smirk.

She raises an eyebrow at me as a particularly skimpy nighty hangs off her pointer finger. "Leftovers from what?"

"Ex-girlfriends." I grin at her. "One-night stands. You know, anything women have left behind over the years."

"Ugh." She says looking disgusted. "Thanks, I guess." She adds sarcastically.

You might think that I'd prefer to hide my sexual history from her, but no. I actually like the idea of her knowing how active I am in the sack and now she's bound to be thinking about me having sex.

"You're welcome." I smirk as I raise my wand again. I figure her thinking about me and sex is a good way to leave her for the day.

"Enjoy that box Granger!" I bid her as I apparate to the office.