Chapter 10 – The dance

It had been a few days since my breakdown at Granger's place. Any time a memory took hold I would remember her starring up at me with her big brown eyes, telling me that she forgave me and that I had suffered enough. Instead of feeling guilt and shame eat at me I would feel my spirit lighten and smile. I was in the hallway, quickly skimming a file when her words came back to me again.

"Look at the cat who ate the canary." Fletcher said.

"What?" I asked.

He waved his hand dismissively, "Something my mother would say. I was just commenting on that sly grin you had on your face. I never thought I'd see the day when Draco Malfoy would be grinning to himself at work." Fletcher beamed at me, "Tell Granger I say hi when you see her next." Before I could reply Fletcher patted my shoulder and walked off. I scowled and walked in to see my patient.

That night after work I found a letter on my windowsill. I sighed, expecting it to be from Mother. Instead it was from Granger. She was inviting me to go with her as her guest to some ministry function. 'I thought we could both use a fun night out – Hermione.' My heart lifted, she was inviting me to go somewhere with her. Strictly as a friend of course, but I was excited. Then my stomach plummeted, I would have to tell Mother. If she found out from someone else there would be hell to pay.

I quickly wrote back to Granger, informing her that I would attend. And then used the floo to go to the manor. I popped out into the entry way, "Mother!" I called. "Mother I need to speak with you!" I heard nothing in reply. Concerned I began searching the manor. When I didn't find her on the first floor I went out to the gardens. The sun was setting and I found her painting under her cherry tree.

"Mother, there you are. I was getting worried when I couldn't find you."

She looked at me confused, "I don't remember inviting you over."

Stung, I said, "Since when do I need an invitation?"

She coolly replied, "Since when do you come here without one?"

That stung too, "Mother, I wanted to talk to you. Tell you something actually."

That grabbed her attention. She put down her paints and took stock of my appearance. "What is it, Draco?"

Nervous about how she would respond I decided to start with the dinner, "Well as you might know I had dinner at the Potter's a few weeks ago." Her eye brows shot up. I guess she didn't know, "They were thanking me for helping treat their son after a fall." Her lips thinned, "It was no big deal. I swear. But I've sort of been talking off and on with their group whenever I bump into them. Um, Granger actually asked me to accompany her to a ministry event this weekend."

I watched my Mother nervously as she picked up her paints and began painting again. "Mother?" I asked.

"Thank you of informing me of your relationship Draco. You have fulfilled your obligation and may now leave."

"Mother." I said, hurt by her dismissal, "I'm not in a relationship with her. She asked me as a friend. I could never date Hermione."

"Oh? And why is that?" She asked as she corrected an error on her canvas.

"Well- I-"

When I couldn't come up with a logical reason Mother turned to look at me, "Draco, as it was so rudely pointed out to me there are no pure blooded women left in all of England that you fancy. So if you wish to date Miss Granger then go ahead. Nothing I could say would have stopped you from doing as you feel. You've never listened to me, not since you were 16 years old."

She didn't betray any emotion but I knew Mother was feeling hurt. I knew she was referring to my moving out as well. She did everything she could to keep me here, "I'm sorry Mother. It's just… too much has happened in this house. You know I was suffocating here."

She sighed, "Yes. The same place where you'd taken your first baby steps was suddenly your prison. But there has been nothing stopping you from inviting me to your place. And not once since I moved you in have you even offered to pretend to cook me dinner."

It had never occurred to me that she would want to come to my apartment. I felt a terrible son, "Come for dinner."

"Draco I do not need your pity. I am perfectly alright on my own, as I have been for a very long time now."

I sighed, "Mother I do not pity you. I miss you. Please come have dinner with me. It can be Friday before the function, and I'll even let you pick my outfit. We won't talk about who I'll marry and when I'm going to sire an heir. It'll be just like when I was young and we just enjoyed being in each other's company."

She stared at me. Whatever she saw she must have agreed with because she nodded and said, "I will be there at 5."

The week at work flew by. Before I knew it, it was 4 on Friday and Fletcher stopped me, "Draco shouldn't you be gone already?"

Seeing the time I cursed and hurried off so I could clean myself up before Mother arrived. She hated the smell of the hospital. I had only just finished pouring two glasses of wine when Mother came through the floo. Hearing the commotion I grabbed the glasses and headed into the living room to see Mother magically removing ashes from her robes. "Good evening, I poured some of the wine that you like." She nodded and took her glass.

She looked around and frowned, "Everything looks exactly the same in here. Draco you've lived here for two years and you haven't so much as put up a picture!"

I scowled, "You're the one that decorated it.?"

She looked at me with exasperation, "Yes I decorated it but I expected it to be different now. I thought you'd have hung up pictures with friends or added your own decorations over time. I decorated it so that when you added to it, it would be homey but still tasteful. This doesn't even feel like you live here."

I shrugged and took a sip of wine, "I spend most of my time at work. I mostly just sleep here."

She looked sadly at me, "And all this time I had thought your work excuses were just you trying to get away from me."

I was shocked, "Why would I try to get away from you?"

She took a sip of her wine before answering, "I thought you were mad at me. For what happened to you during the war. For not stopping your Father when he took his life."

Her words felt like a slap, "Mother, no. None of that is your fault. Father's decisions were his own." The oven timer went off, "I made your favorite, let's go eat."

She nodded and allowed me to escort her to the kitchen. The rest of the meal went well, Mother and I ate in comfortable silence for the most part. Occasionally she would tell me stories about her paintings, or gatherings with her friends. I would tell her stories about my patients that I knew she would find funny. At the end of the meal she called a house elf to clean up and took me into the living room to show me the robes she had brought.

As I was running my hand over the material she told me that it had been my father's favorite dress robes. Startled I looked up at her and she smiled.

She placed her hand on my cheek and said, "You look more and more like Lucius every time I see you."

I was touched, "Thank you Mother."

She then proclaimed that she had to leave for an appointment, but if I had any problems with the robes to let her know. With a brief hug and a promise to have dinner together every Friday night she left.

I went into my master suite and put the robes on, they fit perfectly. I should have known Mother would have had them tailored to me. I remembered the last time I'd seen Father wear this. It had been for some function Mother had put on at the manor. I think I was 15 at the time and Father had seen me eyeing his robes. He smiled at me and ruffled my hair and told me that someday when I was master of the manor I'd get robes just like these. Neither of us would have guessed it would only have been a few short years until that would come to pass. Feeling a little saddened by my past I left for the ministry function.

I arrived and was shown to my table. Hermione was already there. She looked beautiful with her hair curled and pulled to the side. And her lavender dress cut in exactly the right places to be incredibly suggestive. I was so shocked by her appearance that it took me a moment to notice how uncomfortable she looked as some man leaned close to her. She looked relieved when she saw me.

"Draco! How dare you keep me waiting for you! I've been dying to dance since I got here, let's go!" With that she jumped up, grabbed my hand and led me to the dance floor.

I smirked at her as I put my hands on her waist, "Well you certainly didn't need much saving did you?"

"I'm sorry?" She questioned.

"You should be," I said, knowing that wasn't how she'd meant it, "I was all prepared to be your Knight in shining armor, and then I ended up as your puppet!" I faked a wounded look, "I mean imagine, a woman asking a man to dance. The shame of it will follow me forever."

She giggled, "Oh yes, we certainly wouldn't want to injure that ego of yours."

I huffed, "Well I was going to tell you how unfair it is for you to look this beautiful. But as we're trying not to inflate each other's egos I suppose I'll just have to keep that thought to myself."

She blushed, "Oh, well. It would have been a lovely thought. Thank you Draco."

I nodded at her and pulled her slightly closer to me. I looked around the room. There were many couples on the floor dancing with us. Most of the people were at their tables or lingering at the bar. There appeared to be a silent auction going on against one wall. The room itself was nice. The gold painted walls went well with the crystal chandelier that Hermione and I were dancing under. My favorite part was the ceiling. It was enchanted so we could see the stars.

Hermione looked up too, "Aren't the stars beautiful? I could watch them all night."

I looked back down and I couldn't help but feel the same way about her, "Yes." I agreed.

The band played a song I recognized and I began waltzing Hermione around the floor. She had clearly never been taught how to dance, so I went slowly and would whisper what to do next in her ear. We were having so much fun I didn't even notice people beginning to stare at us. Nor did I notice my mother watching us from the bar.

Before much time had passed a speaker stopped the band and asked everyone to take their seats. He went through the usually speeches, pointing out the auction and making sure to mention the big ticket donation of box seats at the England Quidditch pitch. I rolled my eyes, I'm sure Mother had already bought the usual seats. He did get around to mentioning the reason for the event, which was apparently to help raise funds for people too disfigured from the war to work. I decided I would discretely give a donation later. The speaker was finished and the band roared back to life. The waiters were circling with trays again and people were moving out onto the dance floor.

I frowned in thought, "Why isn't the rest of the golden trio here?"

Hermione sighed, "We get invited to so many events. So unless it's something we really want to go to we take turns. Usually all three of us do come to this one, but James has a cold so Harry's at home and Ron had to work late so he cancelled last minute."

"So I'm spared having an auror follow me home then?" I asked.

Hermione nearly choked on her drink, "How did you hear about that?"

I laughed at her expression, "I was awake when Ginny dropped James off remember."

She groaned, "Okay, so maybe I didn't tell Harry and Ron that I invited you here. Just as a precaution."

That caught my attention. She didn't want her friends to know she was with me? "And here I thought Potter would be fine with me after I saved his sons life."

Hermione laughed loudly and then covered her mouth. Once people's eyes moved off of her she leaned back over to me. "You looked at a bruise, I hardly think that qualifies as saving a life."

I was about to reply when I saw Mother walking over. Trying to hid my surprise I leaned away from Granger and stood to pull a chair out for Mother.

Granger looked startled, "Mrs. Malfoy, it's a pleasure to see you again."

Mother sat and I went back to my seat, "Yes Mother, I can't believe you didn't tell me you'd be here tonight."

Mother smiled at me, "Well I thought it would be nice to surprise you dear. And it's a pleasure to see you again as well Miss. Granger."

Hermione nodded and took a large sip of her drink. I was a little concerned at her behaviour. "Well Mother, I certainly am surprised. I was just wondering how large a donation to make but since you're here I trust I can leave that to you?"

She nodded, "Of course."

Hermione excused herself to the washroom. I watched her leave, something was wrong with her. She was walking too quickly and kept her head down.

Mother watched me watch Granger, "You should go after her."

I started, "What?"

She sighed, "Hermione Granger fleeing after being with both of us together? It doesn't look good Draco. Go after her."

I rolled my eyes but stood up, "Yes because appearances are everything aren't they." And then I went after Hermione. I found her two hallways over from where the washrooms were. She was sitting down and looked like she was focusing on her breathing.

I sat down next to her and held her hand. She grabbed my hand with a lot more strength than I thought she was capable of. Wondering if you could sprain a hand I whispered to her to focus on her breathing and to think about something else. I began describing a painting across from us. Her breathing evened out as I spoke and eventually her grip on my hand loosened.

"Thank you." She whispered, tired from the exertion.

"How long have you been having panic attacks for?" I asked quietly.

She shook her head, "First."

I nodded, "Well you probably aren't the first person to get panicked by the sight of my mother."

She laughed but it sounded wrong, too breathy for her. "I'm sorry, I must have upset her. I just, I saw her and I was already hot and maybe I've had a little too much to drink or something. I don't know, but I just could hear Bellatrix cackling in my head and I felt like I was in two places at once or something."

She looked at me, and her eyes begged me to understand. I stood up, "Come on, let me take you home."

She nodded and held out her hand. As I helped her up she swayed a little and I pulled her against to keep her from falling. All of a sudden I had forgotten what I had been doing. Her eyes were lidded as she looked up at me, and I could feel every curve of her against me as I held her. All I could think was that I wanted to kiss her. I brushed my thumb over her cheek and she leaned into my palm. I closed my eyes to lean in and kiss her, and then I heard a door bang.

Startled back into my senses I jumped back from her. Looking around I supposed the door I had heard was down a different hallway. Hermione was blinking, looking a little confused. I desperately wanted to close the short distance between us and kiss her until her toes curled. Clearing my throat I offered her my arm and escorted her back to the main room. Mother was still sitting at the table, waiting for us to come back.

I steered us over to her, "Mother. I'm sorry our visit had to be cut short tonight. However, Miss Granger is feeling unwell and I am going to escort her home."

Mother stood to shake Hermione's hand, "I am sorry that we didn't get to talk more. If you'd like to at the next function, you are more than welcome to come speak with me to make up for tonight's short chat."

Hermione nodded, "I'll keep that in mind."

I didn't like how quite Hermione's voice sounded, "I really should get her home safe. I'll see you next Friday Mother." I briefly hugged her and then steered Hermione to the jackets. I put my robe around her and apparated us to her apartment. I sat her down on her couch and started lifting her eye lids. She smacked my hands away.

"I don't need a check-up. I'm just tired Draco. I had a long day at work and I'd really just like to go to bed."

"Oh," I sounded disappointed, "Alright, I'll see myself out."

"Wait, Draco." She grabbed my hand. I had already stopped by then, "I had a good time tonight." She stood up beside me, "Thank you for being my guest." She kissed me on the cheek.

Unsure of how to respond I gave her hand a squeeze, "Thank you for inviting me tonight." I really enjoyed dancing with you." I ran my fingers through her hair, "Please send me an owl in the morning to let me know if you're okay."

When she nodded I stared at her lips, sighed and then left.