Most Unusual
Just A Penniless Writer
Disclaimer: Not mine. Neither of them.
Eleventh Chapter: Of Names
There was something they weren't telling him. He could see it in the happy little grin, the confident little smirk. There was an air about his father that practically screamed 'I've still got it!'
He simply had to know. So it was that, despite how much he enjoyed Hermione's company even if she did send him looks that promised all sorts of retribution, he finally cornered his parents alone as he escorted them to their guest chambers.
"Tell me."
"What?" his mother asked with a light blush.
"You have news of some kind. Tell me or I'll ask the Headmaster to allow me to stay with you tonight."
"That doesn't sound so bad…"
"Oh, it will be."
Whether it was his threat or the glance sent at his mother by his father that usually meant certain plans depended on Tony's removal from their bedroom, Tony knew not. Of course, he cared not either so it was all well in the end when he got his way, regardless of the reasons.
"Well, you see Tony…in a few months…come summer barring any major jumps in Time…you'll be a brother!"
There was a quiet pause as Tony processed that information. A brother…which meant his mother was pregnant…which meant there would be another person around…which meant his parents would have to split their love…which meant they didn't love him anymore. Yes, that sounded reasonable.
"But…but…Why? Why do you want to replace me? Am I not good enough? Why?" he mumbled as his eyes filled with tears most unfitting a Slytherin.
"O, honey, we aren't replacing you! We'll still love you just as much as before. It's just we'll have new love for this new baby…" Sarah tried to explain even as she thought about her own feelings when she had first heard of Toby.
"Antonius," Jareth said with an air that demanded attention be paid to him…like usual. "You are not being replaced. You are simply receiving more responsibility because we trust that you are capable. Ordinary children find a new sibling as a threat, but you are not an ordinary child. You, my son, are heir to the throne of the Goblin Kingdom. I expect more from you, including loving your brother or sister and knowing better than to assume that we will stop loving you."
Tony felt suitably abashed, though he suspected his father didn't know much of this predicament considering the King was an only child. Looking to his mother for verification, she nodded with a serious smile even as she opened her arms, inviting him for an embrace.
That was all it took for him. Enveloped in his mother's arms as his father affectionately ruffled his hair, he feared nothing.
By the time Draco finally stumbled into his bed that night, he was more than exhausted. The dizziness from the bloody exploding crystal was content to linger. Falling from his broom, even at such a small distance, had hurt. Not to mention, his punishment for loosing had been hours of decapitating newts. Unfortunately, it was a terribly messy business and the knife kept slipping, cutting his fingers instead.
However, as exhausted as he was, he still had the capacity to be angry. He could have possibly been enraged, but that would have required a bit more effort and so angry he stayed.
Who could have done it? Who was responsible for the crystal? Surely it was a bit too advanced for Potter or the Weasel. After all, he had not been concentrating on them lately, so there really was no need for such an attack, unless it was done to guarantee the win in Quidditch. But no, Gryffindors were an odd lot that seemed to like winning fairly if only so they could boast louder. But if not them, who?
The kid, maybe? No, it couldn't be. If Potter and the Weasel were incapable of such a stunt, then the kid was even less so. Unless…the Mudblood helped him. AH! That made perfect sense! After all, she had been sitting with his family at dinner and he'd heard that she had even sat in the High Box with them and his own parents. Ho! How his father must have loved that, sharing the stands with Muggles and Mudbloods.
So, Granger had forgiven the brat, was it? Well, he'd show them. No one messed with a Malfoy, Nobody!
"My Lady!"
She ignored it. After all, there surely couldn't be a house elf behind her saying such things.
"My Lady!"
It was all in her imagination. The house elves were frightened of her so it was most impossible.
"My Lady! Miss Granger! Please speak to Dobby!"
Surely, she was delusional. Though Dobby was not scared of her, he had never taken to calling her 'My Lady.'
"Yes, Dobby?" she said politely, firmly convinced that she had not just woken up and taken a bath, but was still entrenched in dreamland.
"Master Tony tells Dobby to bring Miss Granger to breakfast!"
"I'm sorry, but I am not interested," she responded, inwardly seething at the boy's presumption.
"But…but Dobby must! Dobby must obey his Master!" the elf pleaded even as he dared to take hold of her robe.
"Master? Dobby, why do you call him 'Master'?"
"Because he is, Miss Granger. Dobby must obey young Master!"
Now that was curious. So curious, in fact, that she allowed the elf to lead her to the private guest room as she pondered this bit of information. It wasn't until the door opened to admit her that she realized she was accepting the invitation.
"Hermione!"
"Tony," she responded coolly, her anger at him rising. Looking behind the First Year, she saw the his strange parents, sitting quite regally at a table that had most obviously been set up for the sole purpose of breakfast.
"Please excuse the late invitation. Tony really wanted you to eat with us," Sarah explained with a smile.
"Come. Join us. The food is quite adequate," Jareth added.
Taking inventory of the pair's content smiles, relaxed yet confident poses, and overall glow, she guessed they had not kept the unfamiliar location from interfering in their intimate affairs. The knowledge was more than slightly disconcerting.
She was about to answer, perhaps weaving in a backhanded comment regarding their good nature this morning, when she noticed something.
Dobby, the freest amongst the house-elves, was groveling on the floor.
"Dobby?"
"Heh…don't mind him," Tony said rather ineffectually as he tried to pry the elf from the floor.
"Dobby!" he whispered loud enough for Hermione to hear. "I thought we already went over this!"
"Young Master is right! Please forgive Dobby!" And without further preamble, the ugly little creature began to bang its head upon the stone floor, producing a most painful sound.
It took a good five minutes for Dobby to be stopped and sent from the room. During that time, Hermione took note of the behavior of everyone present. For Muggles, Sarah and Jareth were surprisingly not amazed at the oddities of the castle. And what exactly were the family's ties to the elves?
"Now that that has been dealt with," Jareth said with all the air of his supposed royalty. "Let us start the meal."
She smiled, nodded, and took her seat, most surprised and suspicious when Tony pulled her chair out for her.
The meal was excellent, a wide selection of pastries with fresh orange juice, and Sarah filled the silence with stories about her brother, Toby.
"And then your uncle said, 'You mean that really happened?'"
Jareth laughed heartily while Sarah and Tony giggled relentlessly. Hermione smiled, more at the picture of a loving family than the story of Toby's Night on the Town.
"Do you have any siblings, Hermione?" Sarah asked once her laughter had died down.
"No. I am an only child."
"Oh." A pause. "Tony is going to have a sibling."
Oh.
"You are expecting?" she asked with the required smile though she was a bit shocked that these strangers would keep involving her in their personal lives.
"Yes," Sarah replied with undeniable happiness.
"That's great! When are you due?"
"The end of June. But we are already thinking of names."
"Really…"
"Oh yes. I was thinking Ferdinand for a boy and Rosamund for a girl."
"No daughter of mine will ever be named something so preposterous," Jareth stated stonily. Hermione cast a worried glance between the two.
"What's so wrong with Rosamund?"
"Rosamund, taken from Latin for "pure rose". Pure? You might as well name her Innocent. We both know no daughter of ours will ever be anything other than devious. No child of ours will ever be anything other than sneaky."
"I suppose. What would you choose?"
"Is it not obvious? Ariadne."
"Ariadne? Never!"
"Why ever not?" he demanded.
"Do you really want to name our daughter after a woman who was abandoned by the man she loved?"
"I care not for the trifle romance. I am more interested in the…problem solving skills related."
"I don't like it."
"Pity, because it will be the name."
"Never!"
This continued with Hermione watching with wide eyes before Tony snuck around the table and whispered into her ear.
"Let's get out of here. This could take a while."
"Are they always like that?" she asked pointedly after they managed to escape the guest quarters without Sarah or Jareth noticing.
"Yes. Especially over such small things. I heard that my mother left my father for three months when he demanded to name me after his grandfather."
"What was so wrong with that?"
"My great grandfather was named Neoptolemus."
"Wow. That's worse than Hermione."
He paused, and she stopped with him. He turned to her with a puzzled smile.
"I just realized something. Neoptolemus was the son of Achilles."
"Yes."
"He was killed by Orestes when he married the daughter of Menelaus and Helen…"
"Who was named Hermione…"
"Strange…Were you named after her?"
"A woman who betrayed her husband and encouraged her lover to murder other people? No. My name was taken from Shakespeare."
"O. Yes, that is much better."
"I thought so too."
She wasn't quite sure how, but a silent truce had apparently been called between them. She could only wonder what that meant.
In another part of the castle, Harry woke up sensing that something was wrong.
