"You hussy!" Carina shrieked as she stood in the hallway of Hermione's bungalow, pointing her finger accusingly at her friend and housemate, who was stood in the front door looking thoroughly un-amused and wearing last night's clothes. "Coffee my arse!"
"Are you quite done Carina?" Hermione asked in a clipped tone, but unable to hide the grin that was pulling at her lips, and gave up all together. Carina laughed, linking her arm through her housemates before pulling her towards the kitchen.
"Make me the stuff that makes the next day not hurt so much!" Carina instructed, hopping up onto the kitchen table and watching as Hermione gathered together her equipment and ingredients, and setting to work. Within minutes she had a steaming cauldron and the kettle on the go. "So, how did it go? Did he woo you?"
"I was well and truly woo'd." Hermione replied smiling like a girl with a school crush once more. "He did good, really good. A private terrace dinner in a fancy restaurant, champagne, a menu so expensive the prices weren't listed, fresh strawberries for desert. He knows how to treat a girl."
"And?" Carina asked, looking for more information. She wasn't even trying to hide it, she wanted to know. Hermione had been a godsend to her, giving her a home and teaching her things every day, what she needed now was to know Hermione was happy.
"I think we're officially going out," Hermione told Carina with a giggle. "It seems a bit childish to call him my boyfriend though."
"Well, is he your boyfriend?" Carina asked, smiling from ear to ear.
"Yeah, he is."
Squealing, Carina leapt from the table and towards her friend hugging her tightly. She was excited for her friend, they'd spoken about their love lives when Carina had first moved in, a girly get to know each other, with hot chocolate and a chick flick they never actually watched. She knew that Hermione and Ron had dated but it came to nothing, and since then Hermione had seen no one. A confident, intelligent, handsome man was exactly what Hermione needed.
"And you, how was your night?" Hermione asked as she pulled away and poured some of the bubbling liquid from the cauldron into a mug, before handing it to Carina.
"Good, Ginny is such a laugh, I managed to have a quickie snog with Michael," Carina replied, hiding her grin behind her mug as Hermione resolutely focused on making the tea. "Your friends, Ron and Harry are a bit boring."
Laughing Hermione stirred the teabag around the mugs before reaching for the sugar, a thoughtful look on her face.
"It probably seems like that, we just did a lot before our time, I'll get around to telling you the full story one day," Hermione mused, wondering really if their years at Hogwarts had inadvertently aged them. "Just don't let that put you off them, to this day they are two of my best friends, I don't think I'd be here today without them."
"Well then, I guess I owe them too."
"It's a Saturday, so what are we gonna do?" Carina asked as they sat in the garden under the summer sun, fresh drinks in their hands.
"I should get to work, I have a case to settle-"
"You're telling me," Carina joked, but there was no smile on Hermione's face, Carina frowned, She consider for a moment not saying anything, but how long could that go on? "When can I know the truth… I've tried not to… I mean, I don't know if I want to know…"
"I don't know, I'll work out with Rufus how to do this, and push towards the answer, I'm sorry Carina, but that's all I can give you."
Unsettled, Hermione wandered into her office, apparently news travelled fast, and her date night with Rufus had gotten out. A few were brave enough to ask if she were mad to accept, other whispered behind their papers to each other, in both cases she would only smile politely before walking away. Idle gossip was not something Hermione was accustomed to, she'd never really engaged in it at Hogwarts, nor been the brunt of it – until now. Her office provided a nice sanctuary away from the whispering and the looks, but only for a moment, before she noticed a large bouquet of flowers on her desk, with pinks and purples oranges and reds. They were beautiful. She reached for the card attached to the vase and smiled.
My office, 9am sharp.
Of course he was direct and to the point, if even in such a manner. Placing her handbag she looked at her wrist watch, she only had a few minutes to be there so she turned her back on the flowers and made her way to Rufus' office.
"Morning Granger," Rufus stated, getting to his feet as Hermione walked into his office, he strode towards her, stopping directly before her. He grinned for a moment before pushing a stray strand of her curly hair behind her ear. "I feel we need to come to a final conclusion about what to do with your Malfoy case by the end of the day."
"I agree," Hermione stated, smiling at her boss and boyfriend. "I'd like to get Carina in today for a formal interview, I gave her the weekend to consider what she would like to do, from there, I'd like to inform her of her heritage by the end of the day, if you would like to inform the Malfoys of that I'd be grateful-"
"She's been living with you Hermione, so I know you're attached to the girl, are you going to tell her?" Rufus asked, there was the tone in his voice that meant he was asking something without directly saying it. He wanted to know how much of their sordid past she would tell Carina.
"They are her family, whether I like it or not, thus it is not for me to influence her opinion of them, though how she'll forgive them for abandoning her in the first place I do not know."
His hand reached and cupped her cheek, his thumb caressing the soft skin found there.
"You're as hard as bricks aren't you Granger, I'll have to break down those walls," Rufus murmured, his eyes softer than she had ever seen them before as he looked at her. "Get inside your head."
"Perhaps."
They were sitting in a Hermione's office, looking awkwardly at each other, the last time it had been like this, it had been their first meeting. Neither knew exactly what to say to the other, nor the possible outcomes. Instead the two women sat there silently, letting the tension stretch between them.
"So," Hermione said finally, not sure how to follow it up, but letting her mouth keep the flow going. "Have you decided on what you want to do?"
That was a question and a half, Carina thought to herself as she leant back in her chair, wondering how to answer. It should be a simple Yes or No, but it wasn't it was just so much more than that. There was no right answer, that much she knew, because how did you correctly answer the question what do you want to do about possibly meeting the parents that just didn't want you. In truth she wasn't really exactly sure what had happened, no one had really told her. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear it one way or another. If it was a lack of choice maybe they would be worth forgiving, but what if they really did just not want her. She wanted to believe that they did, because being raised in an orphanage is no joke, but there she was scared to find out the truth.
"Tell me what you know, and I will tell you what I want to do."
"She's beautiful… I look like her," Carina whispered as she looked at the photo Hermione had given her, it was of a couple with matching white blonde hair, the man looked severe and almost angry, she was clearly the submissive in the relationship, bowing to him. But she looked like the woman, had they been the same age they could easily have been mistake for twins. "That's my mum then, this woman, what did you say her name was?"
"Narcissa-"
"Narcissa?" Carina asked, her face pulled into a bewildered looked, she'd never heard a name like it before, it was definitely not a normal name, but then again she was hardly in a normal place. "And him, is he my dad?"
"Yes, Lucius, Lucius Malfoy."
"Oh shit, they've both got weird names, I was the first Carina they had in the orphanage but seriously, Narcissa and Lucius Malfoy, Christ on a bike."
Hermione smiled to herself, at least Carina was seeing the humour in the situation – something she found unsurprising. Growing up as she had, Carina learnt quickly to keep her emotions to herself, that much Hermione had gathered about her housemate.
"So what happened?" Carina asked, finally looking up from the photo, searching Hermione's face for answers. There was such innocence in her blue eyes that Hermione desperately wanted to lie to her, to protect her, but she couldn't.
"It's complicated, but I'll explain as best I can, then you can decide what you want to do."
"As you know there was a war, it all centred around one thing. Blood. Blood purity to be specific. I'm a muggleborn, I have muggle parents and grandparents, those that have fully magic parents and family are considered purebloods. The Malfoy family are a pureblooded family. In the war, there grew the opinion that those that were not of pureblood were not worthy of magic, things begun to spiral very quickly out of control, Harry was in the centre of it, with me and Ron."
"Now, the Malfoys sided with the other side, they too believed in blood purity. It was not uncommon a hundred years ago to abandon unwanted children – children who could hinder the view of a family being truly pureblooded. Often they were born as what we call squibs, children without magic. For most families this isn't a problem, but for those that consider blood so important it is a great shame on the family."
"When you were born the war was coming to a head, people were dying, betraying one another, everyone was terrified. Your mother had until then not produced an heir, but you and your brother were born. A boy to continue the name, and you. You are the younger of you and your twin brother, Draco, that his name Draco. Children can't control their magic like we do as we grow older, Draco was older, the male heir, when magic happened your parents just assumed it had to be him. Fearing the possibility that you were a squib, you see Narcissa has a squib in her family, they decided against having you."
"Given how far in the group of what we call the Deatheaters, it would have been a cause for ridicule and possible suspicion for you to have stayed with them; I dare say your life would have been in danger. You were apparently weak as a child; they had no reason to suspect you were magical over their much healthier son… Evidently they made a mistake."
"A mistake?" Carina almost laughed, that was the biggest understatement that she'd ever heard, growing up in an orphanage hadn't been easy, and unlike most the other kids it wasn't like she'd been taken away from her parents because they mistreated her – hers just didn't want her. But they wanted her brother.
"Carina… I'm sorry…"
"Officially who am I?"
"Carina Elle Malfoy, twin sister of Draco Lucius Malfoy, Daughter of Narcissa Katarina and Lucius Abraxas Malfoy."
"Carina Malfoy."