A/N: Sorry for the delay in the update! I've been trying to get it posted as soon as possible. Thank you for being patient, and for those that asked, I don't plan on going on hiatus.
Chapter 9: Malfoy Manor
"I don't think I can do this." Hermione said.
"I thought you were in Gryffindor? You're supposed to be brave and courageous." Malfoy said. "That room hasn't been used since it happened. My parents are so guilty about what happened to you in there, as well as me."
The two of them were currently stood outside the beautiful Malfoy Manor in the middle of Wiltshire. They'd been walking to the door when Hermione had paused.
"What if they don't like me?"
"Granger, you already had brunch with them once and you've spent the day shopping and pampering with my mother. They wouldn't have invited you if they didn't like you."
It was at that moment that the door opened to show Lucius Malfoy. "You're more than welcome to stand outside the door all day but if you're continuously going to decide whether you want to come in or not, quite loudly may I add, I would prefer it if you came inside before your mother has a panic on whether Miss Granger here has forgiven her for what happened in this house."
"No, no, I have forgiven her. There was nothing she, or any of you, could have done. It wasn't her fault." Now Hermione felt guilty.
"So I take it you're going to come in?"
"Yes, sorry." Hermione looked for reassurance from Malfoy. She wasn't used to being civil with Lucius Malfoy. That was just weird.
They entered the hallway of the manor which was exquisitely decorated, the room was bright and had natural colouring, similar to Malfoy's house. Maybe Narcissa had decorated there as well. Hermione followed the two Malfoy's through to a small dining room with a table full of amazing food. How on earth does this family remain in good shape?
Narcissa stood up from where she was sat at the table sipping her tea and reading the Daily Prophet She beamed when she saw them. "Hermione!" She exclaimed, pulling her in for a hug. "How are you? You look wonderful!"
"Thank you, and I'm very well. And you?" Hermione replied, pulling away from Narcissa.
"I'm very well dear, and very happy that you kept on top of your hair and make up."
"Well I didn't want to let Paolo's good work go to waste." Hermione smiled, following Narcissa to the table.
"Yes, hello to you too mother. I'm great, thank you for asking." Malfoy said, his voice dripping in sarcasm.
"Sorry dear." Narcissa brushed it off and continued to talk to Hermione.
"Get used to it, I've had to." Lucius said to his son.
"How was last night?" Narcissa asked the two of them once Draco and Lucius had sat down.
"It was good until we bumped into Ginny when we were leaving." Hermione replied.
"I'm fed up with that family." Hermione heard Lucius mutter.
"What did she say?" Narcissa asked.
"Just that I need to get my priorities sorted and talking about my apparent poor choice in friends, you know the usual." Hermione laughed.
"At least it hasn't got you down."
"I'm just not bothered anymore really."
"Did you have a good time at The Bluebell though?"
"I think Hermione had a good time." Draco chipped in. "Became best friends with Pansy. Then she was constantly giggling with her and Tracey about something. No one understood what they were going on about half the night." At least he hadn't mentioned him pretending to be her girlfriend to Ginny.
"Well at least you were having fun Hermione; I imagine you didn't have much of that with Mr Weasley."
"No, I certainly didn't." Hermione laughed.
"So what are your plans for the rest of the day?" Narcissa asked.
"We're going to the cinema." Draco began.
"He didn't know what one was so I thought I'd show him." Hermione said, what on earth were they going to think about her taking their son to a muggle cinema?
"How exciting!" That apparently. Narcissa continued. "What film are you going to see?"
"How is it that you know more about muggle cinemas than I do?" Draco questioned his mother.
"I read about these things Draco."
"Where?" Draco asked, surprised. "What do you read?"
"I've got a few things on muggle things, you can borrow them if you want." Narcissa smiled at her son.
"Erm, I think I'm alright." Draco said.
"They're very interesting, you could learn a lot."
"She tried to get me to read them as well." Lucius said. "Look how well that turned out."
"I thought you read them Lucius."
"Well you thought wrong I'm afraid."
"Well you should read them, I'm sure at some point they'll come in useful."
"I'll definitely read them then." Lucius said, then turned to his son and whispered "I'm never going to read them." Narcissa heard regardless. Just imagine Lucius Malfoy reading a book on muggle things. The hilarity.
"What time are you going to the cinema anyway?"
"This evening."
"How I miss being young, going to the movies, bowling, eating pizza."
"When in God's name did you go to the movies or bowling?" Lucius asked incredulously.
"Well I didn't exactly, but I could have. I read about youngsters always doing it in another muggle book. What fun they must have. You should go bowling as well!"
"Maybe when there's a whole group of us going..." Hermione suggested.
"Aren't we a bit old for that now?" Draco asked. He actually knew what bowling was, thanks to Blaise explaining it to him once.
Lucius said "yes" at the exact same time Narcissa exclaimed "No!"
"I think we'll go with fathers vote on this one." Draco said as Hermione laughed at his parents.
"Hermione you'll have to take us to the movies at some point, maybe we can all go and see a rom-com." Narcissa said, sweetly.
"A rom-com?" Draco asked, puzzled.
"A romantic comedy" Hermione answered.
"Women." Lucius muttered, shaking his head.
"I'm sure you'd enjoy it!" Narcissa said.
"I'm washing my hair that day." Lucius said dryly.
After they'd finished eating, Narcissa turned to Hermione. "Would you like to take a walk with me in the grounds? Afterwards, I promise that Draco will take you to look at the library, it's not as extent as Hogwarts but..."
"I would love to." Hermione replied, smiling.
Once Narcissa and Hermione had left, Lucius turned to his son. "So you haven't spoken to Miss Granger about the marriage then?"
"No I haven't." Draco said. "How do you expect me to do it? Over dinner? I can't just say 'Hermione pass me the salt please, oh by the way, want to get married because it could do us both some favours"
"Well you don't have to do it whilst asking for the salt."
"Oh, so the pepper? No, I'm just waiting for the right time."
"Well do it soon before someone else does, this is Hermione Granger, and plenty of men will be after her. Especially when they hear of her split from the Weasley boy."
"Fine, I'll do it soon." Draco said. "And it is really weird to hear you trying to persuade me to marry Hermione Granger. I thought you hated her with a passion?"
"I hate everyone with a passion, don't take it so personally." Lucius responded.
"You have a beautiful garden Mrs Malfoy." Hermione said fondly. "In fact I don't think I could call it a garden, it's more of a masterpiece."
"Thank you Hermione, I've spent a lot of time on it." Narcissa said. "I hope you can visit more often."
"I will; it's really nice here." There was an array of colourful flowers in the manor grounds with long stretches of lawn where she could just imagine Malfoy playing Quidditch when he was a little boy. There were multiple benches dotted around which would be her perfect location to sit and read a book in the summer months. It truly was a magnificent garden.
"It's a bit quiet though with just myself and Lucius living here, Draco only visits occasionally, and that's normally when I force him into it." Narcissa said sadly.
"He's a busy man, and now that I've moved in I'm probably keeping him more occupied than he likes to be. I bet he can't wait for me to move out." Hermione said light-heartedly.
"Don't be silly." Narcissa smiled and turned to face Hermione. "You'll do good things for him, I just know it. He's a very different man from when he was younger, but I know you will change him even more." Hermione was speechless, although that didn't matter because Narcissa soon changed the subject. "This house just needs a family to occupy it, with little Malfoy children running around, it would be perfect."
"Running? They'll be flying around. No doubt when he has kids, he'll be teaching them to fly a broomstick before their first steps." The two women laughed.
"That's very true, do you fly Hermione?"
"Not really no, to be honest with you, I'm a bit scared of falling."
"I imagine your children will be very intelligent." Narcissa said, eyes glistening.
"I hope so." Hermione laughed. "But I wouldn't want them to have my fear of flying."
"Them? So you want more than one child? I'm glad, Draco didn't really have many people to turn to when he was younger. Only the others whenever they could come round, but most of the time it was just him and the house elves. I vaguely remember him playing wizards chess for about a week straight with Dobby. Dobby was his favourite house elf, mine too, I was always fond of that elf. I wonder where he is now."
"Narcissa... Dobby is... Dobby died in the war." Hermione was gobsmacked that she didn't already know.
"What, how?" Narcissa exclaimed.
"When he saved us from Bellatrix, here, she threw her knife as we were apparating away and it, well, it hit him." Hermione replied sadly, tears forming in her eyes.
"Bellatrix. I hate being associated with her. I'm so sorry for what she did to you Hermione, especially under my own roof, right in front of me and my family."
"It's okay; honestly, it's completely in the past and forgotten. You couldn't have done anything. You and your family would have been killed so I completely understand."
"She used it on me. The curse. The Dark Lord had used it on Draco for not completing his task of killing Professor Dumbledore. I tried to stop him, naturally, and my own sister used it on me. Draco was furiously sickened afterwards. Mad for me trying to stop the Dark Lord and getting myself tortured, he was incredibly upset after. I am so proud of him for not going through with it and killing Dumbledore. He told me beforehand that he didn't want to, that he couldn't. I was relieved that the Dark Lord hadn't managed to get under his skin and force him. Then of course Draco didn't kill the headmaster. He was seen as a coward, but he's the bravest man I know. He took the cruciatus curse for his family multiple times, how is that being a coward?"
"People are just too naive to see it." Hermione agreed. The pair sat down on one of the benches overlooking a pond filled with patterned fish and ducks.
"He had to allow the death eaters into Hogwarts. The Dark Lord told him that if he didn't then he would kill Draco as well as Lucius and I. I know he didn't do it for himself, he did it for myself and his father."
"He's very lucky to have a mother like you."
"Thank you Hermione, you don't realize how much that means to me."
"I do. I wish I still had my mother. She would've loved this garden." Hermione looked away from Narcissa, trying to hide the tears in her eyes, but she'd already seen.
Narcissa clasped her hand in her own. "I'm very sorry for what happened to your parents. The worst part of it for them was probably them knowing that they were going to be leaving you. There is nothing more special than a mother and daughter relationship. Boys will never talk to you. So if you ever need to talk about anything Hermione, my door is always open."
"Thank you." Hermione attempted a smile.
"I'm glad you know how much Draco has tried to change." Narcissa said after a few moments of comfortable silence. "No one else wants to notice."
"They will." Hermione reassured. "In time, they'll realize."
"You sound so sure."
"I am. He was doing the right thing."
"Other than what happened to you Hermione, if only it were in a different way, I'm glad Draco found you. Imagine that, Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger living together. After a while I'm sure you'll find yourself thinking of Draco as a friend, and he is really quite protective of his friends."
"Well I suppose we'll have to learn to deal with each other now that we're living together."
"That you will."
Just then, the sun began to creep out from behind the clouds, glowing on the two women. Hermione heard footsteps approaching and looked up to see Malfoy walking towards them.
"I was wondering where you two had gone." He said, coming to stand in front of them. "What are you talking about?"
"You." Narcissa said simply.
"I hope it was all good things."
"The best." Narcissa smiled.
"Obviously." He laughed, jokingly. "Well Granger, shall we head to the library? I'm surprised you haven't burst with excitement at the prospect of more books."
"Draco don't call Hermione by her surname. Call her Hermione." Narcissa reprimanded.
"Sorry. Hermione, shall we head to the library?"
"Yes, thank you." Hermione stood up with the elder witch following. The three of them walked back to the manor and Draco then led Hermione up the stairs to the library. Malfoy opened a set of double doors and she followed him through. She was in awe. He'd said it wasn't like the Hogwarts library. It was certainly close enough.
There were rows and rows of mahogany bookshelves filled to the brim of old and new books, all in alphabetical order. She imagined that some of these books were first editions, one-off editions and some that couldn't even be found in the restricted section of Hogwarts. It was like heaven. In the middle of the room there were two loveseats facing each other with a coffee table in between and two window seats along the far wall. If Hermione lived here, she'd never leave this room.
"Wow." It was the only thing Hermione could even think to say.
"I thought you'd like it." Malfoy smiled.
"Why did you ever move out? When you could stay and have this library." She said, causing him to laugh.
"I can't live with my parents forever."
"I would have made an exception for this."
"Well you are Hermione Granger, biggest bookworm I know."
"I hate it when you put it like that." She said, smiling anyway.
"Sorry, but it's true."
"I'm a fan of books, what can I say?"
"I used to think I was into books, and then I met you." Malfoy said, moving towards one of the window seats. Hermione followed him and sat down next to him, looking out the window.
"This is perfect. I can just imagine lying here reading a book on a cold day, with a big jumper and some hot chocolate." She smiled.
"Remind me to bring you back to do just that on a day that you're not dragging me to the cinema."
"I'm not dragging you."
"Oh, because Draco Malfoy would really go to a cinema by himself." He said.
"Whatever, you'll love it."
After looking at the books once more they left the library and went to say goodbye to his parents.
"Hermione please make sure you come back and visit soon." Narcissa said. "And we'll have to go for tea next week."
"I'll be sure to come back Narcissa."
"I'm sure there is also a book or two calling your name, and you can borrow them anytime." The elder witch smiled.
"Of course, thank you." Hermione laughed.
"Have you got everything from the shopping trip?"
"Yes I think so. Thank you for looking after it for me."
"Not a problem dear, well you two best be off. I don't want you to miss your film." Narcissa pulled Hermione in for a hug, kissing both cheeks, and then doing the same to Draco.
"Thank you for the brunch Mr and Mrs Malfoy." Hermione said.
"It's okay, we'll see you next Sunday."
As Hermione and Malfoy were walking up the drive to the apparation point, Draco turned to her. "I think you're my mother's new best friend."
"I'm fine with that." Hermione chuckled. "Your mother is a lovely woman, you're lucky to have her."
"Yeah I am." He smiled.
A/N: Please review. I will do the next chapter as quickly as possible and I hope you liked this one!
